Re: Podcast: The Lillywhite Sessions, with Steve Lillywhite (Part 2) - Records & Riff
Ill throw a take out there on all of this as a whole. dave is a songwriter and a performer, his joy comes from performing his material. i think all these years of consistant touring proves that his ultimate joy being in this business is just getting out there and making music with his pals and performing it for us fans. i dont think dave matthews is the type of artist who is sitting around during his time off listening to his studio releases. studio albums are really for fans to sit around listening to and for a record label to make money. in the beginning when you are trying to "break" your band and its all new and exciting, the studio and making a great record is of the utmost importance. not only to the band but to the label that signed you. alot is hinging on a solid album, song quality and recording quality. but once you have reached a certain level in your career, for somebody like dave matthews, how important to him personally is it to have this masterpeice of a recording? he has accomplished everything he could have ever wanted to accomplish and has more money than he knows what to do with, still has a loyal following that drives his summer tours. at this point, the only people that a really solid and successful album is benefitting is a label that only cares about making money. at some point in all of this, i believe the time and effort it takes when making a record and all that goes into it definitely doesnt rate very high up on his list of things to do when he is not playing shows. fans still get new music, but its on the road and on recordings that they allow the fans to capture, and on releases the band puts out. so he probably doesnt feel like hes cheating the fans out of anything. all these so called scrapped studio sessions we hear about, are they really scrapped? or is it just that dave as the musician is perfectly content with just recording something well enough that the basic premise is on tape, he can register it with the publisher so nobody can steal his ideas, it doesnt take very long to do and he can wash his hands of it. then whatever these songs are gonna turn into will happen at the show, or some he just puts the idea down and moves on from it and it never sees the light of day in a live setting. cause who benefits the most at this point from these recordings. the label does. i think some devil is a fantastic album and he was excited to make that record because it was something that was his. his name, not the band, his record, so he gave it the energy. i dont know his contract but if he has to make records as part of a contract i can see him saying okay, putting in a block of time, and if he gets any negative or push back about what hes doing from a label, he just loses interest and it dies. kinda like, okay you guys wanted an album, here it is, oh you dont like this or that, you need a single...well just screw it i tried. i mean hes not starving at this point. he isnt sitting there at home craving a dave matthews record that is perfect and mixed amazing and has overdubs and took fifty takes. i just dont think he cares anymore about that. big whiskey he might have felt he owed it to roi to get those last recordings out there in a good sounding way but everything that has happened since btcs with the exception of big whiskey and his solo record just kinda proves making quality studio records just isnt his focus. just get the new ideas down to copyright and move forward. just my take on all of this. that warehouse disc he did with carter i think is totally up his alley. one day, not alot of effort, record it, and if the label likes it put it out, if not then fuck it. i think all this new material is the same way. hey record label, here it is, i tried to put some time into recording this stuff for you the way you want it. you dont like it or need a single? well fuck it i tried, sorry you dont like it, but i have no interest in spending my off time tweeking this for you. at some point its gotta become more like a business to him then just writing music and he just doesnt care or need to care about the business end of it any longer. hes rich. i think thats the easy explanation that makes the most sense in trying to understand the last 20 years.
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Coronas, Tequila Shots, The Grill, and DMB on shuffle.
Last edited by ScottCavBBQ; 06-11-2022 at 09:06 PM.
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