Tim Talks: WDS Interviews Tim Reynolds about Radiance, TR3, DMB, and More
by Joe Leverone
The past year was a unique year for Dave Matthews Band. The addition of Tim Reynolds not only in the studio, but as a touring member added not only a new sound to the band, but an irreplaceable presence.
I was both nervous and excited to talk to a man that has had so much influence with the band that I love. Tim and I conversed for about 45 minutes about his new album, his recent tour with TR3 and touring with DMB. We also touched on his favorite books, his thoughts on Barack Obama, whether or not he actually is an alien and of course,
Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King.
Tim is an easy man to talk to. He says some things that are unique to himself, but he is both intelligent and gifted individual; his explanation about how humans came to be only confirms this fact.
What struck me most about Tim, is how happy he is with his lifestyle, and his love for music. The tone in his voice confirmed that he is having the time of his life with TR3, and his comments about his studio work with DMB made me feel that the new album will truly be special.
We've made a complete recording of the interview available for download and a complete transcription follows:
Tim Reynolds: Hello.
Weekly Davespeak: Hey, is this Tim?
TR: Yeah.
WDS: Hey Tim, this is Joe Leverone. How are you?
TR: Good. How are you doing man?
WDS: I'm doing great, thanks. I was hoping to ask you a few questions about your new album, your tour with TR3, and the work that you've been doing with Dave Matthews Band.
TR: Yeah.
WDS: This is for a DMB site called Weekly Davespeak. It's one of the biggest Dave Matthews sites on the web. I'd like to take you through a few different topic sections regarding your recent tour with TR3, your new album, and your work with DMB. Is that OK?
TR: Yeah.
WDS: So Tim, where are you right now?
TR: I'm in the Outer Banks in North Carolina.
WDS: How's the weather down there?
TR: It's pretty cold and wet today, but it's been really nice for a couple of days, and then for a couple of days it was cold and wet, but that's how the winters are here, ya know. I mean, generally they're pretty mild but sometimes you get some cold weather. But I'm just chillen up in the house, 'cause I'm still just chillen after my six weeks of being on the road, and three weeks of being in the studio, and, I don't even know. I left here January 5th, and I just got back.
WDS: You're on break after a decently sized tour with TR3, and you have a show tomorrow night in the Outer Banks, correct?
TR: Yeah
WDS: What do you enjoy most about being on the road with TR3?
TR: Well, you know, just that it's my band, it's our band as it were, and it's really great to be out with the band. I mean, I grew up mostly playing in bands. In Charlottesville I had kinda of an earlier version of TR3 that was just like, you know., for many years kind of just like a lifeline to music and writing, as well as all of the other gigs I did there, because there was a lot of things going on, but that was really what I was in to.
So I'm just physced to have a new, really kick ass version of TR3 that's really great players for the songs. You know, it's just great. I did a lot of solo gigs for years, acoustic, I kinda was in that mode for a while, and I still plan to do some of that, you know, but right now, I'm just kind of working the TR3 as much as I can when I'm home. Its just been really diligent.
I mean, we just learned another song the other day, even after we just got off of this tour, 'cause I'm only home for so long, and then we kind of just make use of our time. The rest of the time, they have off to do other things. But I just enjoy it immensely, I can't even describe it, I mean it's like the soul of what I do, ya know.
WDS: So you just had a new album come out, Radiance. How do you feel that the Radiance songs are transferring to the live stage?
TR: Oh, really well. We essentially just recorded live in the studio, with very little ornamentation, just a little. I've recorded a lot of different records with TR3, and solo records, and after trying things out like the last record I did on my own, I really took a lot of time, and did a lot of production on one of the CD's, you know, and just took it to that level.
It was good to just know when to step back from trying to produce something too deeply, and just when it sounds good, leave it sorta. You know, just having the experience of doing octave overdubs, and it sounds really cool, too, I mean it's a great thing to do, there's an art to doing that, but there's also an art to saying "ya know, that's done."
It's really hearkening back to classic rock and power trios. The era of that when it wasn't so much how much you can add. The way Led Zeppelin put out very big sounding records, but there wasn't a whole lot of extra stuff, especially on there earlier ones. Just the power of that, getting the right part and the right sound and there it is. It's like "wow, okay," you don't need a whole lot of extra stuff. And then there's some songs, where there's some ways of production that are fun to do as well, too.
But this time around I just felt like I wanted to represent the band the way we sound live, ya know, the way we sound live. That's kinda just how it's rollin', ya know. So we're able to just play those songs live. We're actually learning some other songs from the past that actually have much more production in the studio, and realizing that we can pull this off live too, we just have to figure out how to do it. We're having fun discovering what we can do with the band, ya know, and it's just really fun.
WDS: Do you feel that Mick and Dan are picking up on the older versions of TR3 songs well?
TR: Oh totally! TR3 in the past, we've had some great musicians, like funk and jazz drummers, and this version is more like a rock band, even though we can play jazz and funk too, that's what we do, our music covers a lot of ground. It's really solid in the rock/soul category, and I'm really happy about that. At least since I've been working with drum machines and learning drums, it's kind of a continuous thing.
I'm not a frustrated drummer, and I'm not a practicing drummer, but I really feel the drums, and I always have. It's great to have the drums really focused and concise, and really good for the songs. Some songs you don't need the drum soloing over the songs, you just need a really great beat and a really great sound, and that's just the mojo of rock and roll sometimes.
And then there's other songs where you want more interplay, and so I think we're getting a lot of both of that thing going. I'm really happy with the way it's going live. The great thing about playing live with a band that really has a symbiotic essence to itself, is that every gig kind of makes you play everything different.
There's a way that you have a song, and it has it's structure and it's parts, but there's a lot of nuances that every audience brings, especially when they're listening, or when they're into it; it just makes you play different, you just can't wait until the next gig, even if you feel it's kind of just like a dive. You realize that some of the most divey rooms are some of the best music rooms because you realize because it's kinda of like alchemy, you pick this place where people just want to go here music.
It may be during the day time, a little stinky, so you get a low vibe, but you get it full of people, and they're happy about the music, so it lifts the place up for an experience for everybody. Of course, sometimes you play a place that's a dive and it is a dive, but it's all about variety. It just makes the music different every night, every night it's just a great thing.
Even if you're tired from being on the road, by the time you start playing, all of that goes away, and you're ready to go because people are into it, and you want to be into it for them, ya know.
WDS: Tell me about when you were writing Radiance, was there a particular concept behind the album, or a particular person or event that influenced its formation?
TR: Well, not necessarily, other than we felt that it was just time to make another TR3 record. The writing was kind of all over the place in a way. We did some songs that I played with TR3 in the 80's but they never really made it onto a CD or a cassette that was released.
We played a song or two from an older record just to revisit that, and then we had some new songs, some of them I had demos of from when I lived in New Mexico, and was just kind of messin'. I did a lot of recording out there, we learned some songs that I did on demos there. We learned a song in the studio called Wild Country by Chris Whitely.
I didn't really know that we would record it, but I thought we should give it a go, it's a great song, so we just spent one day learning that. The writing, like I said, took place over many years, so the album is like a collective of a lot of years of experience, and just being ready to go. We did it in like a week, all the songs and the mixing, and that's also to credit Rob Evans, who is the engineer, and helped us to produce it in a sense of "that's a good take, lets keep that, lets move onto the next thing.
Sometimes you can get in the studio and over analyze something that's not the biggest deal, but everyone knew there from the experience "yeah that's good lets go onto the next thing" instead of lingering on something and going into anal mode or whatever. So I guess that's a long answer to a short question.
WDS: Could you expand on how Chris Whitely ultimately influenced your work in the studio, on not just Radiance, but your other TR3 albums?
TR: In the earlier years of TR3 I wasn't really aware of him. I've been listening to his music for a little over 10 years now, and what I get from him is what one gets from the old blues masters like Robert Johnson, and it's a lot about the singing really, as much, if not more than about the guitar.
In this case, having seen him once I was just like "wow what a great singer." It's the same thing with the old blues guys, they're just teaching me how to sing more soulfully. And that's just like learning how to play guitar, you realize that you never finished until you die.
You just need to keep learning how to play more notes, or less notes, or how to make one note sing. And everyday is a new thing. It's the same thing with the voice. I guess Chris Whitley is just a great songwriter. He's just the whole package. It almost more so what I was doing more solo gigs, when I really studied what he did. That song that we recorded is just a great song, I've always loved that song. It's kind of different than the rest of the songs we do.
I don't want to say that it's country rock, but it's in that direction a little bit because we did it. But when he did it, he did it by himself, on an acoustic, and a little faster than we did it. When we recorded it, we were going for a real classic rock kind of mode, and it just kind of worked out. I was really happy about that song. It's really about the song writing and the singing, with the guitar playing to kind of make the whole package.
Back in the 80's and early 90's, not when I was still learning guitar, but when I was really into learning solo acoustic, and in the 80's when it was more like the crazy shredding of the 80's, I kind of got bored with the guitar player albums when it was kind of just about how fast you can play, or how much you can play, because I really like something that just moves me with the song, like Pete Gabriel and Led Zeppelin, things that really have a lot of soul, before the guitar.
Of course I'm known for my guitar playing, but maybe that's because I'm really into what the guitar can do as an emotive instrument to create emotion and tell a story that's beyond words. So that's one of the things I get from Chris Whitely, it's really about the power of each of his songs, and the way he presents them very minimalistically in a way. I just love his work.
WDS: Tim, later this month you're going to be heading to Ohio to do a workshop at the Fur Peace Ranch. What do you hope to accomplish while you're there? What's you main goal?
TR: Oh, really just for these kids and these people that want to check out my approach to the acoustic guitar which is kind of not based on a singular style, it's kind of on a song by song technique. I've just been doing that for a long time, ya know. Basically it's a real learning experience for me.
I used to teach a lot when I lived in Charlottesville, and it's always kind of a learning experience, and I know it sounds paradoxical, but teaching somebody music brings out the subject, and then you look at it, and exchange it with somebody else, and sometimes, you just see it in more detail, and learn something new from that inner reaction.
I used to have these students that we so good, I would have to figure out what do I have to teach this guy the next time, he's already all over me. I guess the biggest challenge for me is forumulating a program. Essentially, I'm just going to pick a bunch of songs, and play them, and start saying "okay do you have a question?" We can go through the technique of each song because it's all really different.
I don't really have a basic technique that I base my style on, it's all about songs. I don't really have a Chet Atkins style or classical, it's a little of all of that. And each song has a different story, and I'm really going to try to teach that as opposed to a certain kind of finger style technique. My point of view is to approach is song by song. If this song has that technique, then there's a reason to learn it.
As a songwriter that's kind of how I've always rolled, even though as a solo acoustic guitarist, there is the technical aspect, but to me, even before I recorded my solo acoustic record, I didn't really think I was Joe great guitar player that was going to make some great technique record. It was really "well I like this song let me make a thing out of it" and I'll record that, and that makes me feel good, ya know. It kind of comes from that, and the rest is kind of the side effect from it.
WDS: So this is going to be your last solo acoustic performance for quite a while, right?
TR: At least to the present schedule that's been layed out before me. But I'm really physced to do it. Like I said, since the beginning of last year, I've been doing the TR3 thing, and really kind of getting that rolling, instead of doing a lot of acoustic gigs, I've been taking a break from that. But I really feel close to that acoustic thing even if I'm not laying it out, because this is a lot different music, I don't do the same songs with the band, maybe a few as a segway between songs, because I just like the variety of what you can do with the band, and all the kind of stuff. But yeah I guess it kind of is the last gig for a while.
It's a very spontaneous world - another gig could pop up here or there, you know. I may go down to the coffee shop at the end of my street, and just play because I want to. Not even saying that I am who I am; just go in there with shades on and sit in the corner [laughs].
WDS: You mentioned recording Radience, and free-flowing feel to it, when you were recording it. There wasn't much you were aiming for other than putting out a great album, which you did by the way.
TR: Right. I mean when you go in you have the idea of, here's these songs we're gonna do, lets try and knock 'em out. It's kind of like, kind of just old school rock 'n roll. You know, going in and just making an album with some great songs as opposed to a concept album, or whatever. The music kind of explains itself. Some albums that I've always liked kind of take you on a journey.
I like a lot of metal records, and there more about the journey of [inaudible], you know, that kind of journey, where it's all kind of the same thing. There's different ways to present that. But you know, it's also like classic albums like Zeppelin, or Peter Gabriel, or Radiohead. They take you on a journey. The TR3 record is kind of like a journey through the TR3 music of the past and more modern, almost metal kind of things. Also, a little bit about rootsy - a little bit of rootsy music kind of coming in.
Kind of like a more historical approach, like, I may not mean scholastic, like hey, we're playing this classic blues song. But how that soul of that music can kind of seep into it. There's a couple songs that are almost bluesy, and then there's one that's kind of like a New Orleans groove. It's just bringing the soul of that out. When I was young, I went from playing electric, rock, and a little bit of blues right into fusion, and then all into every thing else - world music, jazz, acoustic.
I really felt like I never really had gotten deeper into the blues, so a couple years ago, I just kind of went on a study of my own choosing, and checked out old acoustic; the original shit. This was when I was still doing a lot of acoustic gigs. It was really a great lesson in playing less and meaning more as it were. Especially the vocals, like Robert Johnson singing just kills me. I love the way he does these vibrations, ghost notes and shit. When I studied that, and then I heard Chris Whitley, I was like, "wow!" I mean, he's taken it to a whole different thing.
He doesn't any blues songs at all. He plays his own thing, but it's bringing that mojo into it. So, the new TR3 is kind of like working some of that mojo to the music. It's not really very complex music; most of the songs. It's almost ridiculously simple, but that's what I've always liked about James Brown and stuff. He would do a song with two chords, but he would lay into one groove so bad ass, and then he'd go, "take it to the bridge!" Then he'd just go one more chord. It would seem like the biggest moment. I'm trying to capture some of that shit.
WDS: How would you explain the contrast between the way you recorded Radience, and the way you recorded with DMB with their studio sessions in New Orleans?
TR: I guess the contrast; the first contrast that's probably the most stark and obvious is just the amount of people involved. With the TR3 record, we had 3 people in the band, an engineer, and an assistant engineer - maybe a friend or two. That was the whole - that was it. We're in a country, just chillin'. In DMB's scene, there's obviously more people in the band. There's just a lot more people, and a lot more - I guess more detail in sense. You have a producer and an engineer.
They kind of bounce off of each other and the artist - Dave. I guess because there's more variables, I don't want to say the word complex, because people may have a negative connotation with complex. But there's just a lot more stuff going on with different instruments. It takes a little longer, especially when there are new songs, and a lot of its being written in the studio, as well as songs that we came prepared to play.
It's a bigger production in the sense that there's catering. I guess it's like going from doing an indie project, to a major label project, because that's literally what it is. So, I've always, personally, always keep a foot in the indie door by doing solo gigs. I'm really comfortable in both zones, having just done a lot of each. I've been doing the DMB records when they first started with RCA in '94, '95, '96. Then the last one I did with DMB was '98, and then I did the one with Dave, Some Devil in 2003.
I'm just familiar with both approaches. They're both totally cool. I've learned a lot from doing those records with DMB too; watching the producers - it's always an educational work, working with any producer, just like the last time working with Rob Cavallo. That's been an education with just how far you can go with all the different amps.
He's a guitar player, so he's uses unlimited amps and guitars. That was the first time I ever went deep into different amps. When I go into the studio with TR3, I had my little Marshal and my Fender amp. I just worked with those. When I did my other record, I did a lot more with different guitars and amps, but I've just never been in a situation where you can have unlimited resource in that area.
It's different in a way, but it's similar in the fact that you're just trying to record something that sounds good. There's just more people involved in a bigger project like that for sure.
WDS: You've mentioned in other interviews that the new DMB album has kind of a special, and different feel to it. Many fans consider the last album you worked on, Before These Crowded Streets, to have a special and different feel to it as well. How woud you compare this new album to Before These Crowded Streets?
TR: Well, I guess it's similar in the fact that its really multi-faceted. But I think the difference is the production, and the producer. Obviously the producer on Before These Crowded Streets, Steve Lillywhite is a god among producers, for sure, no doubt.
Having worked with a different producer who's also a musician and guitar player; that takes it to a whole different level of detail. So, it's just different, but very expansive. I haven't very much of the finished project because I've been going in and out - I've been on the road. But I think it's going to be really detailed, and the fact that there's two horns now, really gives it a bigger - in the horn area - much more production from that end.
I think some of the songs are gonna be even a surprise for people because it's true rock 'n roll, as well as all the other horns and everything. It's going to be a bigger; just more of everything. Great songs, really kick ass songs. People are just gonna go, "yeah!". There's really classic rock shit in a way, but very modern because I think Rob Cavallo is a really up to date, modern producer.
Steve Lilywhite was to, but now that's eleven years in the past. So, now we have this production. But I'd also like to say that Steve Lillywhite's production on the new U2 record is just stellar, as always. It's just fucking, just great. For somebody that we've heard for so many years do all their stuff, to hear a fresh version of them is great to.
I think that's also from the fact that [someone] and Daniel Lanois co-wrote the album, so it's some of their mojo seepin' into the U2 sound too, which is great. It's just really fresh. Anyway, I didn't mean to go onto another subject.
WDS: We've seen pictures of you in the studio playing sitar. [Ed. Note:
View photo of Tim with Sitar] You've said in past interviews that becoming poor has had a profound impact on your playing, and that's when you picked up the sitar. Why are you picking it up now? Was it planned?
TR: Well, it was basically one night, we were looking for - you know when you're searching for different textures in songs, you kind of go onto experimental tangents, as it were. So, the first thing was that Dave has an electric sitar, so we tried out that on a song, and for some reason, that instrument wasn't setup to make its best sound that night. So, we're in New Orleans where a million musicians live. Late night, one night, somebody put into a call to somebody's friend that had a sitar.
The next thing I know, I'm on the phone talking about what key the song is in; could he bring in the sitar the next day? So, the last day I was there, I can't remember, it's like a blur of all the places I've been in the last couple months. But anyway, the last day I was in New Orleans before I flew back for a day, I did some sitar work.
I don't really know that it's going to be on the final project. I think it was more of an experiment to see what can be done with this one song that we were working on with it. When I went back and worked on that song again, I didn't really notice any sitar on it.
So I don't know if that was just a of the moment experiment, or if that'll show up at all. When you work on a record like that, there's definitely times when you do a lot of something, that's kind of like somebody's idea, and then you do it, and they have a better idea later. So, that doesn't necessarily make cut, as it were. But, anyway, for me personally, I had a great experience playing sitar. I hadn't played one for well over ten years, and just for me personally, I had a great moment of just feeling how great it is to be playing sitar.
I really have an affinity for it. I don't know how well I played it that day, having not played it for a while. But, I felt into, big time. It makes me want to get one and sit around and play it. They're kind of hard instruments to mic and amplify becasue they're kind of quiet, and there's no place to; you could put a mic close to it - that's how you do it in the studio.
But, in the live situation, they're really hard. I've seen people do it, but it's just an awesome instrument. I mean, I guess for some people, two or three songs in a row of sitar, and they go, "ok, next." I could just listen to it forever. I mean, that day, I was joking about dropping everything in my life, and just sit here and play this for the rest of my life. You know, that's how cool it is.
WDS: I'd like to switch gears with you just for a second. Last summer was a very busy summer for DMB. What did you take out of touring with them for the whole summer, and what do you look forward to with them this spring?
TR: I guess just more of the same. Fun travels, and playing for a lot of people. For me, it was just the first time that I had ever toured that much in a row. For many years, especially when I lived in New Mexico, I kind of arranged my life to be very comfortable in terms of going out for a couple weeks and being home for more.
A year or so before I moved out here, a year or so before I did that, my whole schedule sort of picked up, and I was just kind of playing more anyway. It was just the energy of playing a whole lot more, and getting used to that. Anytime you're on the road a lot, it can be tiring. You just have to make sure you get enough sleep so it doesn't catch up with you.
WDS: Has life on a bus changed from since you were younger to now?
TR: Oh, yeah, totally. When I was younger, we moved around a lot, but that was this whole different thing than being on tour all the time, and being in a different city every day. You kind of get, not addicted to it, but even though it can be tiring because you're just traveling a lot, you do kind of get used to being in different places a lot.
It's kind of, I look at like this, and this is kind of a silly, cosmic way to look at it. The earth, to me, is a big thing that's alive. As well as the whole solar system, and the universe. It's just; we're like, the way we look at our bodies, and we have different cells that work to make our arms and our eyes. There's all these different cells.
So, I like at humans and the Earth as little parts of the Earth as a big thing - a big brain. So, my concept of travelling around a lot, beyond the simplicity of our life as being musicians, playing in towns for people, is that we are all part of a giant nerual network of the earth itself. It feels good to be one of the busy ones.
In your brain, you have all these different electrons that send messages all over your brain, and the ones that travel the most seem to play a cool functional aspect of it. So I feel, even in my most tired moments, when you're really tired and you just want to get enough sleep, even under all that, it feels really cool to be part of the busy neural network of the Earth's inner-mojo, as it were.
WDS: You've obviously seen a lot when you've been on tour. Are there any places or people that you've met that really stick out in your mind?
TR: Well, most recently, we played some TR3 gigs in Seattle in Tacoma that were just off the hook. People were just - I mean, they were like clubs. It wasn't this big place full of thousands of people. But it was a club packed with people just rockin'. That just makes the gig light up. The last gig we played was a whole lot of fun in Charlotte.
Then, you know, a couple years ago I went with Dave to Europe, and that was very memorable - all of it; Italy, Amsterdam of course. Seeing all these different places becomes the landscape of your psyche, as a memory of your body, because your brain remembers some stuff.
But your body; each cell actually, with it's chemical reaction to the electricity of your brain is really where your memory is like when you smell something that produces a memory, like your whole body is really a giant memory storage tank, as it were. And so that just kind of fills it up with all that kind of imagery. And I think that's pretty cool.
WDS: That's awesome. So, earlier in the interview you mentioned really liking Peter Gabriel, I think you mentioned Peter Gabriel twice.
TR: Yeah.
WDS: So did you have a lot of input when it came to covers last summer for DMB, such as playing Sledgehammer?
TR: Not really. I think Dave picked that, but I couldn't have been more psyched to play that, or any kind, like the Talking Heads. But yeah, it was fun to uh, I always wondered what the hell that flute part was. So I got to learn that. [does flute impression from Sledgehammer]
WDS: Sounded awesome by the way.
TR: Oh, thanks! Yeah, that was fun to play every night. I mean, I think it's just 'cause Dave is also a big Peter Gabriel fan, you know what I mean? So it just kinda... the natural flow of all of that, so I was psyched to see that. And at first, we were like "God, how are we going to play that?" It's kinda got all these keyboards, and blah blah blah... but you know, we start playing it, and everyone figures out what to do to fill up the space.
You know, I just played the simple keyboard part all the way through the song, and the flute part. The guitar part that the guy does is really simple too, because it's kinda like funk music. And so, it was kinda simple enough to create the illusion of playing the guitar, and the keyboard part, and then the flute part, when the flute part came in.
Everyone else is playing their parts. The base is really the big deal in it, you know [does base impression 'boom boom boom boom'] So everybody, you know, just filled up the space with the horns, and the vocals, and it just...there it is, you know? It's really fun to play that.
WDS: Alright, let's switch topics real quickly from music to, in our last interview, you had a lot to say about politics. In past interviews, you've mentioned that were raised by very conservative parents. Right? Is that correct?
TR: Yeah.
WDS: So, prior to the election, you played a few shows with Dave in support of Barack Obama. How would you explain the contrast in what you believed in when you were younger, and what you believe now?
TR: Oh well, I was raised by conservative parents, but I was never personally conservative. I was very radical, pretty much, I mean when I first moved to Virginia, I kinda was slowly educated a little bit more deeply by people around me that I didn't even know it was happening at the time.
Like, John Derr really kind hit me to some of the contrasts in thinking, but you know, but I've always been pretty... not conservative. At least, in my, especially in the last 20 years. When I was really young, I was just crazy radical in all fronts, and for a little while I didn't really think about the, uh, the paradox of it. I mean, I went into the air force, volunteered, but I was, I couldn't stay in it very long, because I realized as soon as I got there, that it was just so not cool.
You know, this whole thing, no matter how happy and fun it is, it's all bent on somebody getting killed eventually. And it's just not what I want to be a part of. The rest of my life, just kinda figuring out the true... ramifications of that kind of thinking, and how it is in politics. And I still have problems with mainstream politics. Like you know, I think it's awesome that Obama got in there, I mean what a fucking miracle! But I also think it's still not cool that we're sending and shooting rockets into Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the fact that we still have these wars going on, that are just complete, you know, bullshit really.
I mean, it's all about the empire trying to hang on to its stuff. And, it's not going to last, 'cause all empires go down the tube, but I'm hoping that Obama's smart enough to figure out that, how to make that machine calm itself down, [laughs] out of its, you know we have military bases, 800 military bases all over the world, we don't need all that, and that's kinda dragging us down the road to economic ruin.
I think he's a smart guy, so I'm hoping he'll kinda follow through with some of those, you know like um, Martin Luther King was all about pacifism, and I wish that Obama would take that to its next level, but I know when you come into a thing, like the government, with all of its military apparatus, you can't just change it overnight. You kinda have to play the game, as you get in there, but I'm hoping he'll twist and turn the thing into being a little less military, militaristic, as it were. You know what I mean?
I'm a little disappointed in that, but I also realize that once you get in there, so many things are set into place, you've got Generals, and all these people telling you what to do. I think he's wise not to uh, rock the boat too hard too quick, but I'm hoping he rocks the boat big time, and just takes us back to like a little more peaceful approach to our relations with the rest of the world. And I think in a way, we're going to be forced into that, because of our economy. And I think that's a good thing.
It's really fucked up, but, it may make the government beyond just a President but in a working, you know, rethink how it approaches its relationship with other countries, and learns to be a little more cooperative, as opposed to dominant, you know? So anyway, that's my take on politics right now. I'm from the Noam Chomsky ultra-liberal school as it were. Howard Zen, and all that. Until we're totally a peaceful nation, I won't be satisfied. *laughs*
WDS: Describe a day in the life of Tim Reynolds
TR: Oh God! I won't, that's too personal! I try and sleep as much as I can, but when I'm on the road, I don't!
WDS: Alright!
TR: You know what I do mostly is listen to music. To me, that's the food of the soul, you know? I do all of the other things, and I have a daughter, right now when I'm at home I like... you know it's a different thing on the road and at home you know what I mean? On the road it's kinda like, the pacing of being on the road, you know I get up, drive to the next town, do a soundcheck, eat dinner, play the gig, and then you know, hang out for a little while, and go to sleep, and do the same thing. And that's just... the road.
And no matter what you do, even if, on a DMB tour, it's the same thing, it's just a bigger production of it. You know what I mean? And then when I'm at home, I just try to chill out, but I wind up doing a lot of stuff when I'm at home, because I... I have to catch up with all the stuff that I didn't do because I've been gone, you know, like paying bills or you know, making sure the electricity doesn't get turned off and little things like that, you know and... hanging out with my daughter, who I love dearly, and go out, taking her out on a double date tonight!
You know, just kinda regular guy stuff when I'm at home. And then on the road, it's like that, you know, and the focus is just really when music comes, you know, when you're playing it, and like I've been practicing. Even thought I've been on the road, I came home and started practicing acoustic, because I've got that acoustic gig, and I'm really into... doing that... and... uh... it's probably really boring you know! *laughs*
For most people, because unless you're a musician, the whole thing has been around making the music so the rest of kind of seems mundane. I like to read a lot, you know, I'm a big reader.
WDS: What books have you been reading lately?
TR: Let's see... I finished a bunch of books recently... what did I finish... I finished a book called "Desernt- Voices of Conscience" by Anne Right and Susan Dixon, which is... I actually saw her when we were playing in Colorado Springs, across the street at a coffee shop, the only one that was open, so I went there, and there was all people.
We thought they were showing a movie, and here's this woman talking about all the voices of the people that defected out of the army, because they, you know, there were all different military branches... And the stories that they had to tell about the horrible shit that's going on in Iraq, like in Vietnam or... people in a war zone, they become so twisted about killing, and become so jaded that they just do horrible shit that they wouldn't do if they were in a human environment. You know?
But it gets kinda crazy, so that book... I've read that. I finished this one by Carl Young, "Psychology of Western Religion"... and... what else did I read? I'm spacing out now. I stashed them all somewhere, but I'm reading a new one that's really cool called "The Measuring the Unmeasurable" which I'll be psyched, it's like studies about different things like meditation, and spirituality, and and I was just reading it, I was telling you about the cells and the memory...
WDS: Yeah
TR: I was just reading about that, in that book...
WDS: It's very complex stuff, I like it.
TR: Yeah.
WDS: It's very interesting. So, we polled our users at Weekly Davespeak, on questions to ask you. And one question that came up, um, I think you'll like. In the 2007 interview you did with us, you talked to a girl named Sarah. You said that you believe that aliens are completely fictional. But, the users at Weekly Davespeak have a different opinion on that. They think that your guitar playing is so inhuman, that you MIGHT be an alien.
TR: Well I don't disagree with that. I feel like I'm from one of the planets that hasn't been charted yet. And, I think that that ultimately, the way the universe was created, or, created itself, we're all from outer space. I think that uh, I read a book last year called "Life" which is about 4 billion years of the life on the planet, right up to humans.
But, all the history of all that, and it's just fucking awesome! And, I think it's, you know, life itself came from like, ast-- comets bringing certain kind of metabolistic uh, carbon-based molecules, that bubble up in water, and somehow the interaction between that and light and heat and God, if you will, the you know, mysterious worker of the universe, kinda created life. And it came from itself, and that way.
But there's also, like, what I do believe is in the multi-dimensional universe, which is a big mystery. Nobody can really explain that. That's like trying to explain dream-land. Other than psychologically so, I definitely feel an affinity for the cosmos, and so you know... If it's not a fact, and it's at least a feeling.
WDS: So, do you know what galaxy you're from?
TR: All of 'em!
WDS: All at one time!
TR: Yeah.
WDS: That's awesome man.
TR: That's a big... and I also say that, I think all of us are from all of them. You know what I mean? I think our conscious is in touch with consciousness itself.
And consciousness is what created the universe, so we're all interrelated in a way that's basically down to quatum physics, because in the modern quantum psychics explanation for the universe, it's like this non-vocality relationships of like, electrons in my body, and electrons on the edge of the universe can communicate instantly.
And they don't know what, they can't figure that out based on Einstein's Theory of Relativity that things can't move faster than light. But that doesn't mean that maybe anything has to move at all, maybe it's already connected, like consciously. So, in a... there you go.
WDS: So Tim, I have one last question for you. And this might be a toughy, if you can't answer it that's fine, but... if you could play one song at one venue, which song would you play, and where would it be?
TR: One song at one venue, what song would it be? Hmm...that is kinda hard. Let me think. Wow. That's kinda like opening up the universe, so to possibilities. One song, one venue... Hmm...
WDS: It doesn't have to be your favorite. Just anything that's on your mind right now.
TR: Right. Uh, I know it sounds funny, but I'm psyched, and it hasn't been done yet, I'm psyched to play this new song we just learned at the Burn Station, cause to me that's just the ultimate step into the future you know? A step into the unknown.
We rehearsed this song the other night, and I'm just psyched to play it. And to me that's the ultimate thing, when you get a new song, and you start working into that, that's always looking into the future as it were, and it also brings the past in too, because it's what you're doing anyway. You know what I mean?
WDS: I'd like to thank you for spending some time with me. The users at Weekly Davespeak, as well as the staff, would want to thank you big time for the past 3 interviews that you've done with us, and we hope to definitely talk to you again in the future.
TR: For sure! Well thank you too man. It was good talking to you.
WDS: Have a good day Tim, and good luck on your show tomorrow night.
TR: Alright, thanks a lot man. Peace bro.
03-29-2009, 09:54 PM
Well, this IS the guy who said he listens to the sounds of the planets for inspiration, right?
Linear Mode
