31 August 2012
Survivors of the grunge rise, fall and
revival, and comeback kings after two hiatuses, Matchbox Twenty have had
their fair share of ups and downs. The Florida quintet saw their debut
album sell fifteen million copies, reach Diamond certification in the US
and clock ten times Platinum in Australia, just one year after forming.
Although the band have since sold 30 million records and
are just under two months away from releasing a fourth LP, their
seventeen years together did not come without several archetypal rock
star epochs and experiences. TMN sat down with drummer/guitarist Paul
Douchette and lead guitarist Kyle Cook to reminisce the peaks and
valleys that lead them to this sunny suite at Sydney’s Intercontinental
hotel.
“There were a couple of moments that got a little dark and
kind of sad,” recalls Cook, 37. “I remember my mum coming to a show at
the height of all the craziness and I’d forgotten that she was even
there because it was like, mayhem. So I end up with this girl back at
the hotel and mum knew where my room was and the door was ajar-and I’m
wasted,” Cook cowers. “And I didn’t even have sex with the girl! My mum
walks in-and I hear this later-she’s like ‘woop’ and this girl is
petting me,” he attempts to fold his long legs into a foetal position,
“like this.”
The band were on the right side of their teenage years when singles like 3 AM and Push
were topping charts on a global scale. “We were on the radio station in
every single station on the planet. We’d go into a town and people just
kind of gave us the key to the city,” says Douchette.
Rewind three years and interestingly, the track most
associate with ‘early Matchbox’ had already been recorded in 1993 for
Rob Thomas and Douchette’s previous band, Tabitha’s Secret. Despite the
track not even seeing a national release, the project did lead to the
pair’s signing with Atlantic Records.
“They weren’t interested [in Tabitha’s Secret], but they
were interested in Rob,” Douchette laughs. “For a while Rob started
getting a lot of offers to go and he thought ‘well you know what, I
think I’m gonna do that’. And they were like ‘well you can bring the
bass player and the drummer.’
“Up until the time where we signed our record deal, I had
no idea I was going to be on the deal, no clue. I thought I was just
going to be Rob’s hired drummer.”
“We’re still employees of Rob,” Cook jokingly admits. “Nothing’s changed.”
While Cook’s slick comment proves he is happily aware of
both the players’ perceived and endowed position, he couldn’t be more
wrong about Thomas’ personal turnaround. “Rob really went off the rails
for a while,” says Douchette, referring to the touring years with Yourself or Someone Like You. “There
was a moment when him and I were flying to the UK and he was really
trashed. I took him aside and said ‘what the fuck?’-He has told me many
times afterward, that that was a pivotal moment where he went ‘okay, I
need to slow down’.”
Cook’s opinion mirrors the thoughts of most, give a young
man the key to every city he performs and a team of ‘yes men’, and
bedlam will ensue. “Quite honestly, us making a gig, a lot of people’s
jobs depended on that,” Cook states. “No body was going to tell you
‘look dude you’re really fucked up,’ everyone was like ‘just grab his
luggage and get him on the plane’.”
It’s fitting that Douchette and Cook are in Australia
without Thomas; throughout their career the band have spent years
waiting in the wings, preparing the band’s next venture while the
frontman fulfils his solo commitments or collaborations. All five
members were in Sydney in 2010 when a plan was hatched for upcoming
album North; Thomas was about to tour his second record Cradlesong,
so the four members prepared around sixty songs in the interim. Over
the next three years, the group would meet at each other’s personal
studios culminating demos and capturing the vibe of each city before
renting a house with a basement studio in Nashville.
“That kind of got out of hand,” grants Douchette. “We were
left to our own devices and we kind of got overwhelmed with the amount
of material and the amount of different ways we could take it.” This was
also the first time Thomas, Douchette and Cook sat down together to
write music. “It was hard for Rob, it was hard for us, at first,”
accepts Douchette. Cook cuts in; “which is understandable. Rob felt like
he was being demoted a little bit.”
“At the end of the day it didn’t really matter,” continues
Douchette. “If Rob wrote all the best songs on the record then it would
be a record of all Rob’s songs… but he’s as attached to the songs that
are the three of us as he is the songs that are just his.”
After calling
in longtime producer Matt Serletic the band spent three months recording
the direction he guided them toward and although the band says first
single She’s So Mean isn’t at all indicative of the record as a
whole, it does pave a more pop rock path. “We talked about [a backlash]
with She’s So Mean,” acknowledges Cook. “We’ve seen it on the Internet
already. There’s going to be people who really love it and then there’s
going to be people that think it’s too poppy. Whatever, it’s how it is.”
Admittedly, a pop direction shouldn’t come as a surprise
to fans who have followed Matchbox Twenty from their embryonic days,
tracks like Real World in 1998 and How Far We’ve Come
in 2007 all have hook and bridge elements that weave through the band’s
grunge genesis. “We’re big fans of pop music,” smiles Douchette. Cook is
more philosophical, North holds a bigger creative slice than
he’s ever offered before; after a five year cessation it’s clear the
band have a lot riding on this new leaning.
“You just never know, the very thing that destroys your
sound could be the very thing that is the identity of new direction or
personality.”
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