Dave Matthews’ recent announcement that his hugely popular group would take off all of 2011 seemed like an ominous sign to some of his fans.
But Matthews says the fact that he and his band mates – drummer Carter Beauford, violin player Boyd Tinsley and bassist Stefan Lessard – will go their separate ways next year is actually a sign of how positive things have become within the Dave Matthews Band.
Matthews, speaking to a group of music writers to promote his group’s recent headlining show at the Bonnaroo Music Festival, said taking off 2011 might seem “counterintuitive,” but taking any of the past three or four years off would certainly not have felt right either.
“Now I can say I’m taking a break and I have every intention of coming back to these same people [in the band],” Matthews said. “That’s my plan ... to come back to these same people and reconvene, just having taken a little time to stare at the stars and stare at our kids.
“[Now] I can come back with this group of people that I’ve played with for 20 years and have something more, you know,” he said. “And that’s been really my whole goal ... because I feel so strong about the band at the moment that I think it can withstand a year of not working.”
Clearly, the Dave Matthews Band has seen some recent trying times, beginning about three years ago when the group nearly broke up.
“I think it was a really rough few years,” Matthews said. “I think we sort of ... the small things started to drive us crazy about each other and we stopped talking. ... And then a year or so before, we started ‘Big Whiskey' [the 2009 CD 'Big Whiskey and the GrooGroux King'], especially Carter and [saxophonist] LeRoi [Moore] and I sort of had this kind of, I guess, confrontation, kind of explosion. But the result was that we wanted to stay together and that we love each other and that we can acknowledge that we don’t ... we’re not exactly the same and that we’re part of a puzzle and not the same piece of it.”
Facing up to their differences as people and recognizing what they each contribute gave the group members an opening to rediscover their chemistry.
“When we finally sort of let go of our [obstinance] and our frustration, it kind of gave ... it was this great relief,” Matthews said. “When you’re in a situation that has a certain unspoken tension inside of it and you release that, it really is a rebirth and that, I think, is what happened to the band.”
Of course, the band’s emotions hit rock-bottom a short time later when, on June 30, 2008, Moore was in a serous all-terrain vehicle accident in Charlottesville, Va. Initially expected to make a full recovery, Moore, 46, instead died Aug. 19 to complications from his injuries.
It was a heavy loss for Moore’s band mates, but Matthews said it actually became a positive force within the group.
“In a strange way, I think as a result of that [earlier] rebirth, his death brought us even closer together. Or [it] at least inspired us to move forward honoring him as a unit rather than running away from his death and from each other, which is, I think, certainly [what] some people might even still think would have been a fine response.”
Now a four-piece group, the Dave Matthews Band responded by completing one of the strongest albums of its career. “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King,” which was dedicated to Moore, topped the Billboard magazine album chart and was nominated for two Grammy awards.
“I feel good about all my records,” Matthews said. “But ... just at this point in our career, this far down, I’m truly proud of the concise and clear way that ‘Big Whiskey’ came out and I think it’s a testament to that healthy response from a very difficult situation.”
A few “Big Whiskey” songs could well ring out at Aaron's Amphitheatre at Lakewood, as the Dave Matthews Band does what it has done most every year since forming in 1991 in Charlottesville – a summer tour.
The fact that the band has such a large and loyal following was part of the reason Matthews announced the 2011 hiatus this spring.
“I wanted to give everyone a long head’s up,” he said. “I certainly feel an obligation to the people that have supported the uniqueness of the band’s career and have made it essentially what it is. ... It would be in a way, I guess, ungrateful to not say anything.”
--Last Word Features
Dave Matthews Band
7 p.m. July 27. $40.50-$75. Aaron's Amphitheatre at Lakewood, 2002 Lakewood Way, Atlanta. 404-443-5000. www.livenation.com .
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