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On this crisp spring afternoon outside the
Berkeley
Community Theater, there's no mistaking the preparations for the ritual
called the Big Rock Show. Roadies are unloading a truckful of gear
through the closely guarded stage door, and teen- and college-age
fans—some of whom have traveled from several states away—are milling
around, hoping for a glance, an autograph, or a photo op with the Big
Rock Star known as Dave Matthews.
The show tonight marks the end of Matthews' and
Reynolds' latest acoustic tour, following the release of their double
CD Live at Luther College, recorded in 1996. With
two acoustic guitars and Matthews' alternately wailing/whispering
voice, this duo brings to life the knotty, intense songs that have made
the Dave Matthews Band such a compelling and surprising force in
contemporary rock.
As Matthews and Reynolds grab guitars and sit down
with
me to talk and play music, it's immediately clear that despite their
surface differences, these are very close friends and partners in
crime. Reynolds has played on all the DMB albums and frequently joins
the band on stage, in addition to pursuing his own projects in
freewheeling solo guitar improv, rock, and funk. In conversation,
Reynolds and Matthews feed off each other's kinetic energy and quick
humor (sly and urbane one moment, locker-room adolescent the next), and
when Matthews starts playing something on guitar, Reynolds locks in
with him in a microbeat.
I've heard that you two met when Tim was
playing in a bar in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Dave was the
bartender. Is that a true story?
MATTHEWS
Mmm, sort of. I think we met before I started working at Millers. We
lived in the same town, and I love watching music, and Tim was one of
the Charlottesville musicians—
REYNOLDS
—posers.
MATTHEWS
Posers. I just loved Tim's playing, so then we just got to know each
other. The cool thing was that people like Tim had [the trio] TR3, he
was doing his solo thing, he was playing jazz gigs, he had tons of
gigs. All the musicians were sort of wrapped up together. Carter
[Beauford], who's with [the Matthews Band] on drums, played in Secrets
and Tim was playing in Secrets, and they probably crossed paths in a
lot of different situations. And two of the guys who sat in on this
last album [Before These Crowded Streets] were also
old friends of ours from Charlottesville—Greg Howard [Chapman Stick]
and John D'earth [string arrangements].
Tim, were you playing free-improv
acoustic
guitar at that time?
REYNOLDS
At that point I was probably doing electric, but that evolved. I did
that gig for over ten years. It started out solo electric guitar with
effects, and somewhere I started playing sitar and did that for a long
time, and then I started playing acoustic.
MATTHEWS
Monday night at Millers . . . I remember coming in, it was electric for
a while, and then all of a sudden violin, and then all of a sudden
cello, and then sitar. And then he'd even play drums for a while—it was
cool.
REYNOLDS
I learned to play a lot of instruments on this gig. And that kind of
led to the acoustic guitar as encompassing all the earlier stuff. I got
way into that with the effects.
MATTHEWS
And then he'd play a lot of Eastern-sounding scales and weird drums on
the guitar.
Tim, did you play more acoustic or
electric on
the early band albums?
REYNOLDS
A lot of acoustic. I'd spend about two months playing acoustic and
three days playing electric.
MATTHEWS
It was us sitting next to each other, strumming madly. It was so much
fun.
REYNOLDS
We sat in the studio just like this [moves chair right in front of
Matthews] with a glass thing [between us], and that's how we did the
whole first record. The band was all on the second floor.
MATTHEWS
And then they'd inevitably turn his acoustic guitar way up and mine way
down! That's [producer Steve] Lillywhite—I'm not saying whether he was
right or wrong, but he'd say [affects British accent], "OK, let's turn
David down and Timmy up" [laughs]. I love how with the last album, he
said, "David, you don't really feature on this album at all, but don't
tell anyone." We'd learn it, we'd all play, and then he'd turn me down.
Were you playing the same parts?
REYNOLDS
On the first album we played the same part and then doubled it—like
four acoustic guitars playing the same thing.
MATTHEWS
And it made it sound really huge.
REYNOLDS
I would just overdub a little bit. I did more electric overdubs as the
albums went on.
MATTHEWS
The last one has a lot more production. We still recorded the rhythm
section live—guitar, bass, and drums—but then much more stuff went on
top. Oh, put Stick there, piano . . . it doesn't matter if they're not
in the band. We had a lot of other people. And Tim taped his face up
and played lots of electric overdubs [laughs].
Dave, have you always played exclusively
acoustic?
MATTHEWS
I never really played electric. Sometimes when I pick one up, I'm
surprised. It's amazing how suddenly you're just like [makes wailing
rock lead sounds]. Yeah, I know what that feels like now! And then I
put it down, and I just sit back down with an acoustic.
What drew you to playing an acoustic in
the
first place?
MATTHEWS
I think in the first place it was a percussive thing. Also it's lighter
and there are less things you need with it, so when I was younger and
just traveling around, doing a lot of walking, it was always easier to
have an acoustic. So I sort of grew attached to how portable it was.
And when you're 16 and you can play "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens,
[sings] "It's not time to make a change . . ." all of a sudden you're
making out.
It's interesting that you've always
played an
acoustic, because you hardly ever play standard acoustic guitar
open-position chords. Instead, you favor closed positions and
up-the-neck things that are more typical of electric playing. How did
that style evolve?
MATTHEWS
I think one of the biggest inspirations was John D'earth. He's a
trumpet player and a great teacher as well; he did the string
arrangements on the last album. But he once said to me, "Guitarists
always write everything in E or A or D." So I started playing as many
things as I could that were a half step away.
Do you come up with those closed-position
patterns by hunting and pecking?
MATTHEWS
A lot of things that I do come out of trying to find circular motions.
I'll just go around and around with something—unlike Tim. I think one
reason we're complementary is that I can play the same five notes in
the same order for an hour and find it absolutely satisfying. And Tim
can swim around; I don't know if Tim ever repeats himself. So then the
two of us kind of land comfortably together.
One of your signature guitar parts is the
staccato "Satellite" riff, which opens up a lot of possibilities for
Tim to play more sustained or legato types of things. It's not like
playing over a big strum.
REYNOLDS
Yeah, exactly. It's clearly different, especially where there are just
two guitars. With a band you can come up with a really simple part,
because everyone else is laying down a lot of other stuff. But with two
acoustic guitars, you have to be more aware of [the other guitar part].
Tim, do you come up with the guitar
melodies
you play in "Satellite" and other songs when you're jamming?
REYNOLDS
I just come up with it in the studio, and Steve, the producer, says,
"Stick with that." And that becomes the theme. It becomes part of the
song.
MATTHEWS
It really does. And people get excited when they hear that. When the
band is live and Tim is not with us, I don't think people generally
miss things, but people definitely react [when they hear that guitar
line]. With "Crash," when they hear the little signature things that
Timmy does, the pull-offs and stuff, they go "Yaaaah!" It's almost more
familiar than everything else.
REYNOLDS
The [duo] thing is like a band. Because we play with bands, we hear a
lot more in our heads than what we play. The psychic vibe of a band
comes in, and we just lock in like a band.
MATTHEWS
Sometimes I'm amazed by how it locks in, really amazed.
Tim, do you ever feel limited when you're
using
effects with an acoustic guitar?
REYNOLDS
No, it's the opposite. I play so much electric guitar that I get my
ya-yas out with that, and when I'm playing acoustic, I don't ever feel
I need that. I get off on doing both.
I can play acoustic guitar without effects—I
practice
that way, and I've made records without them, but I like to have more
colors. I have lots of records of acoustic guitars, but I don't listen
to them as much as I listen to other records that have a lot more
sounds. But that's just my own taste, and my tastes always change, so
that's only today.
When you're playing with just two
guitars, do
you find that you play more percussively?
MATTHEWS
Yeah. It doesn't come out as much with a band, you know. If I were
using one of these [full-body acoustic] guitars, I don't know if it
would work. I use a Chet Atkins because it's like [makes sharp
sound].
REYNOLDS
It's hard for an acoustic to cut through with all the instruments.
How would you compare the whole
experience of
performing with the band versus the duo?
MATTHEWS
I love playing with the band. I really, really love it. But there are
more personalities, obviously. . . . There's still the joy, there's
still the generosity, but it's more like there's a choreography about
it. You have to be more aware of each other, and there's sometimes the
threat of falling a little too much into habit.
With Tim, though, it's so intimate, it's like
going out
for a candlelit dinner, except we're not eating. And I also feel that
to a certain degree, if I was to suddenly go [makes jibberish
noises], in this environment, Tim would probably laugh. I
don't know if it would be an appropriate thing to do with the band.
There's a certain looseness about when the two of us are playing that's
really beautiful and really different from the band. I feel like this
is real precious, you know. The band, I'm amazed how quiet we can get,
but Tim and I can get [whispers] real quiet.
Excerpted from a longer interview that appears in Acoustic
Guitar
August 1999, #80. That issue
also contains a transcription of "Crash into Me" as well as a sidebar
on Dave Matthews' rhythm guitar style.
Read about Dave Matthew's and Tim Reynolds'
guitars and
gear in the What
They Play
department.
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