Dave Matthews talks about Farm Aid, Charlottesville and the next DMB album

[cpxc.]

Story from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/music...s/201709110142

[axelrod]

already posted in the album thread + 2018 thread

[Hilly]

Originally Posted by axelrod

already posted in the album thread + 2018 thread

And people probably don't visit those frequently. If you feel you've already read and discussed a topic in another thread, it's easy to just move on.

This will help people see that there's a new article, without dealing with 18 pages of venue war talk or debate about whether or not people should request tickets to shows they're not going to.

[cpxc.]

Dave Matthews didn’t play the inaugural Farm Aid in 1985. In fact, he was just graduating from high school in his native Johannesburg, South Africa, when that concert took place, and he was nearly a decade away from being on the musical map.

But it didn’t take long after the Dave Matthews Band got signed to a major label out of Charlottesville, Va., for him to get involved. The DMB released its RCA debut, “Under the Table and Dreaming,” in September 1994, just a month after making its H.O.R.D.E. Festival debut, and spent the next year building its fanbase as road warriors (Pittsburghers may remember the DMB opening for Rusted Root at the Palumbo Center that October).

Within a year of that release, the DMB was big enough to be added to the 10th anniversary of Farm Aid and returned, higher up on the bill, in 1997 and 1999. In 2001, 18 days after the tragedy of 9/11, Farm Aid decided to forge ahead with its concert, and during that Sept. 29 show, Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp welcomed Mr. Matthews as the newest member of the Farm Aid board.

Since then, he hasn’t missed a Farm Aid, playing each show solo or with his friend and side guitarist Tim Reynolds. He comes to the 32nd annual concert on Saturday at the KeyBank Pavilion well rested, having taken a rare summer off from touring with the Dave Matthews Band.

Once again, he will be with Mr. Reynolds, but a week later, on Sept. 24, the DMB will reconvene at the University of Virginia’s Scott Stadium for the free star-studded A Concert for Charlottesville, designed to promote unity and healing after the violent protests there on Aug. 11-12 and collect funds for victims, first responders, and social justice organizations.

On Sunday night, Mr. Matthews talked about the concerts and when we might see a long-awaited follow-up to the DMB’s 2012 album, “Away from the World.”

-------

So, you turned 50 earlier this year. What was that like for you?

I don’t know. It seems pretty good. I’m grumpier, but I don’t know if that’s 50 or my general … maybe it’s just the world. Maybe a combination of turning 50 and the state of the world. I don’t know that it doesn’t help being grumpy. I remember hearing some tripper guy talking about why he thought the planet was going to die relatively soon — I mean, in the next hundred years or so — but he was quite chipper. And the interviewer said “Why do you sound so happy when you’re talking about all this heartbreakingly depressing stuff?” and he says, “Well, my sadness won’t help anything.” So, I can’t really blame my general shortness on the state of the world, probably just the state of me.

Well, Willie’s 84, so …

And he’s still not grumpy! He may be slightly more grumpy, but I don’t think so. My friend just saw a show of his and said it was great.

Always is. So you took a rare summer off from the DMB. How was it?

It was great. I worked a bit earlier in the year with Tim. We did some stuff in Europe and a few shows in the States here, and a show in Mexico, so we had some fun. It’s a lighter craft to move around. I just felt like last year was 25 years and I should...maybe that’s why I’m grumpy — I didn’t go out on the road with the band this summer. I don’t think so. I had a great summer full of ups and downs, and I had more time with my family, which was really special. It was beautiful and I enjoyed it thoroughly, so hopefully I have some extra Wheaties in me when I take the larger ship on the road again.

You’ve normally done Farm Aid solo, rather than making it a DMB thing. Why is that?

I’m not sure. The first time, we did it as a band in the mid-’90s, but I think it’s a very personal thing for me because I feel like I’m very connected, I mean, we’re all, whether we like it or not, are connected to farming. But I think I feel to my bones very connected to farm land and farming and I work with farmers on a personal level, so I think for that reason I feel connected in a way. Although I know all the guys in my band eat healthy and they tend to like organic and support that as well, I think I have a personal connection to it. It wasn’t a larger decision other than it’s my passion that drives me to be part of it. That’s why Tim and I have, or I have done it myself, over the years.

And you’ve all kept your passion for it. I’m guessing you’ve seen the tangible results of your efforts with Farm Aid?

I think it amplifies a conversation that I think is necessary in the world on multiple levels. I think we as caretakers of the planet, our obligation is not only not to poison it but to care for it in a way that allows it to be healthy and keeps us healthy. What Farm Aid does is keep that conversation amplified on one level. There are many outlets, many places to talk about it, but I can say the opinions [at Farm Aid] tend toward a more sustainable version of farming, a more localized version of farming, a less toxic version of farming. And the historical great example of that is family farms, and the birthplace of Farm Aid was to try and save the family farmers, and today it continues, but also there’s the idea to promote new family farmers, which is a sustainable type of farming where you nurture your land so you can produce quality food to have a healthy marketplace. That’s where we should be thinking.

In truth, the food system is controlled by a small number of corporations, but when you think that there are millions of farmers, there’s a lot of voices that aren’t being heard, and most of those farmers are people who are working on smaller tracts of land and are caring for it the best they can. What Farm Aid is doing promoting the localized farming techniques that care for the land. If you want to cut corners and save money, you can maybe save money for a while and make more food for less money, but the result in the end is that you destroy the soil and the environment and produce lower quality food, and we really shouldn’t be thinking like that. We should be thinking of a healthier population and a healthier planet, and that starts right in the soil and with the farmers. Most farmers want a healthy farm and healthy food. It’s when farms are controlled by people who live in cities and are interested primarily by profits that we lose that sort of central element to what makes farmers.

I want to ask you about this other concert you have coming up as well, because when the whole Charlottesville thing was happening, I thought of you, and then I saw your statement. I wanted to ask you what it was like watching that happen in a place you called home for so long.

There was a smaller gathering of KKK people earlier in the summer, and they have to ship people in to get this to happen. What happened again is that they brought people into a place. Charlottesville has its challenging history. We can look at the past in Virginia or the Southern states of America or look at the history of the United States of America and know that we have a lot of stuff we haven’t dealt with and we need to deal with more.

The residual cultural elements of the enslaving of African Americans and the brutal treatment of Native Americans that we haven’t dealt with in our history — and we don’t tell the story accurately in our schools — that’s something we have to work on. But something that struck me when I moved to Charlottesville 30 years ago is that it’s a town that is powerfully moving in the direction that his country should be moving and the world should be moving. It’s a very thoughtful town, it’s a very open-minded town, and it’s full of conversations and new ideas. It has a lot of musicians and a lot of writers and a lot of big thinkers. There’s a lot of innovation there. And certainly not this sort of hateful backpedaling of organizations like the KKK and groups like the Nazis and white nationalists. Nothing about Charlottesville made me think of those people, so to have them choose Charlottesville as the place they would bring their ugly message is very disappointing.

But there is the statue there, and Charlottesville had decided they didn’t want the statue anymore. Maybe there were a few people in Charlottesville who disagreed, but, overwhelmingly, people said we don’t want this monument here. I wouldn't mind if that statue went into a museum and they said, “This is Robert E. Lee, he led the South,” because that would be an appropriate place for a statue like that. But when you have to go walk past it... It’s not as if there is another monument to all the slaves who were in Virginia — there is no monument to that, so why would we have one of Robert E. Lee without that conversation carrying on?

So, I just felt the presence of the neo-Nazis or the alt-right or whatever you want to call them, I found that upsetting, And then, I was out of the country at the time it happened. Just heartbreaking that these people could bring this kind of discord and hatred into a town that I think is going in the right direction. It doesn’t take a lot of people to make a mess of things. I just think it’s terrible to equate neo-Nazis to anyone who talks about equality, and the idea that there is a superior race of people is the most absurd and despicable idea. It’s primitive and it should be illegal. Free speech is one thing but hate speech is a completely different thing, and I don’t have any patience for it. We have to loudly condemn that intolerance. How can you have an intelligent conversation about something when you have to indulge absolute ignorant stupidity? I do not appreciate that free speech has to include this disgusting, wretched stench.

On another note, Dave fans are going to want to know what the status is of a new Dave Matthews Band record might be. Is there anything to report?

Yeah, actually, before I went on this trip, before all hell broke loose, me and Carter [Beauford, the DMB drummer] were recording some music together. We have a lot of stuff, so my plan is that we’ll put together some music this fall so we can have something out hopefully the beginning of next year. Hopefully, get it finished before that. I think we have some great music and some stuff that Carter and I worked on that’s added to the pile. There’s a lot to choose from. I just hope I choose wisely.

And you’re unusual in that you go out and play this stuff before you record it, unlike some artists who don’t want it on the Internet or on recordings.

Yeah, I don’t know what my problem is. [laughs] I just, yeah, I don’t have a plan, I think that’s my problem.

Dave, thanks for talking to me. The last time we talked was right around that tour with Rusted Root.

Yeah, I love Pittsburgh, by the way. Did I mention that? It’s one of my favorite towns. I’m so glad we’re there for Farm Aid, but also because I love that town. There’s some cool urban farming that’s going on there, and it’s in a state that’s really cool and has been really forward-thinking with organic farming and all that. I think it’s a great place to have it. That city and that state are on the right track when it comes to farming.

And I think there’s a farm right next to that venue.

Oh, for sure there is, and hopefully we’re going to be getting our food from it.

[axelrod]

Originally Posted by Hilly

And people probably don't visit those frequently. If you feel you've already read and discussed a topic in another thread, it's easy to just move on.

This will help people see that there's a new article, without dealing with 18 pages of venue war talk or debate about whether or not people should request tickets to shows they're not going to.

Threads get closed and people get yelled at for exactly this reason all the times on Ants. Only reason I mentioned it

[cpxc.]

I started a thread because the interview is more than just the next album. This is really the first time Dave has discussed C'ville.

[TheLastStop123]

Awesome!!!

[CrashTheStone41]

Craig, stop posting in non-non-DMBc.

Thanks for the info. It was interesting and enlightening.

[TwoStep2888]

good interview

[bmt322]

I enjoyed reading this

[SeanMH]

His views on "free speech" are not exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind... or even the SCOTUS

you cant make speech illegal just because you dont like it...

[chadizzy1]

Originally Posted by SeanMH

His views on "free speech" are not exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind... or even the SCOTUS

you cant make speech illegal just because you dont like it...

I think this is what you're looking for.

[SeanMH]

Originally Posted by chadizzy1

I think this is what you're looking for.

I dont need a safe space...

I voted for him.

[Climb2safety]

Dave fans ftw!

[YankeesDMB41]

I can't take opinions that differ from mine, ftw!

[SmoothD41]

Good interview, thanks for posting.

[chrisjuniper]

Originally Posted by SeanMH

I dont need a safe space...

I voted for him.

You're the man.

[aeroshady]

Originally Posted by SeanMH

His views on "free speech" are not exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind... or even the SCOTUS

you cant make speech illegal just because you dont like it...

Free speech has been abused by these radical idiots that represented themselves in C-Ville. Sorry, but I don't believe that people who wave the flags of armies we have already defeated in war are entitled to "free speech." They are really acting more like traitors than Americans. But, of course as mentioned, this does not belong in this thread.

It was great interview, and I for one am very excited for the next year with the Dave Matthews Band!

I really need to make it to a Farm Aid soon!

[jenhen27]

Let's take this political tangent over here: https://www.antsmarching.org/forum/s...d.php?t=343913