Background
Dave Matthews was born on the 9th of January, 1967 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Son of John and Valerie Matthews.
singer-songwriter, musician and actor
Dave Matthews was born on the 9th of January, 1967 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Son of John and Valerie Matthews.
The Dave Matthews Band Forms
In 1990, Matthews decided to put together a demo tape and approached his favorite jazz musicians to accompany him: sax player Leroi Moore and drummer Carter Beauford. For bass, he signed on Stefan Lessard, a 16-year-old local prodigy. Violinist Boyd Tinsley was recruited just weeks after the band formed. Early local gigs were an immediate success, and the band quickly developed a devoted following. The band's manager, Coran Capshaw, utilized grassroots marketing to move the band to the national stage. The group was known as The Dave Matthews Band.
Commercial Success
The Dave Matthews Band was soon playing at frat houses and beach clubs around the country. People began to make bootlegs of their shows and word of the band spread quickly among the college crowd. In 1994, the band released its major label debut, Under The Table And Dreaming, which went to No. 11 in the Billboard 200. The band's second album, Crash, was released two years later, debuting at No. 2. Though the album didn't receive as much critical praise, the band's follow-up concert sold out New York's Madison Square Garden in three hours.
In October 1997, the band put out an official double-disc live album entitled Live at Red Rocks. Without any marketing or promotion, it debuted at No. 3, providing a high-quality and reasonably priced alternative to illegal live CDs that were beginning to flood the black market.
A New Sound
After taking some time off in 1997, the Dave Matthews Band went back into the studio to record Before These Crowded Streets (1998), which debuted at No. 1. The next album was repeatedly delayed before the band announced, in 2000, that they would be scrapping it and parting ways with producer Steve Lillywhite. Although Matthews felt that the music sounded tired and the band needed fresh input, it was an amicable break-up.
They hired Glen Ballard, who had worked with Alanis Morissette and Aerosmith, a few months later. Their next album, Everyday (2001), lived up to its promise. The following year, Busted Stuff delivered a smoother, jazzier sound and a similarly successful debut. Their 2005 album, Stand Up, topped the Billboard charts in its first week.
Acting Roles
In an unexpected shift, Matthews began to play his hand at acting in 2003. He made his big-screen debut in the Disney film Where the Red Fern Grows, and then followed with Because of Winn-Dixie (2005), co-starring Jeff Daniels and Eva Marie Saint. He also made appearances in the films I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007), You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008) and Just Go with It (2011), all of which starred Adam Sandler in the lead role.
Dave was raised a Quaker, but seems to be an agnostic or an atheist based on interviews.
He's a liberal, a Democrat and he's not afraid to say it.
The idea that we’re somehow centrally important to the planet’s existence is pretty comical – although I’d like us to be. I’d like to think that the eyes of some heavenly body are watching us and saying, ‘Oh, look at my beautiful children.’ But it’s absurd. It’s just our attempt to be more important than a tree.
I use the word “God” in my songs all the time, because I don’t know what the hell is going on. So that’s God – everything I don’t know. But the idea of God as a fatherly figure who looks down on us and worries about how we’re doing or takes sides when we have fights – it’s more irritating than Santa Claus. The world and the universe are far more wonderful if there’s not a puppet master.
Quotations:
I go back to South Africa at least once a year, sometimes twice, and usually for a month. And probably, I'm guessing, I'll spend more time back there as I get older. South Africa gives me a perspective of what's real and what's not real. So I go back to South Africa to both lose myself and gain awareness of myself. Every time I go back, it doesn't take long for me to get caught into a very different thing. A very different sense of myself. It's a melting pot, southern Africa. You find these cultural collisions that result in art and music, and it's pretty amazing.
Good music is good music, and everything else can go to hell.
A guy and a girl can be just friends, but at one point or another, they will fall for each other... maybe temporarily, maybe at the wrong time, maybe too late, or maybe forever.
We just enjoy ourselves and I think the tightness comes from just knowing each other. No two takes in the studio ever sound the same either, when we're in there, so it's sort of the same thing. No two nights repeat themselves too much.
I hope it isn't entirely my songwriting but it may be. We've had a few songs that have done well on the radio but my songs don't 'test' very well when they test markets, so I guess that's what's happened. My songs are like a three-legged dog - you have to get to know them to have any love for them.
He is a deep thinker and focuses on the internal (introvert) he also exhibits signs of being an extrovert demonstrated by his passion, outgoing personality, comedic attitude, artistic talent and zest for life. Matthews is definitely a creative man who has a passion and talent for music and portraying his words in an amazing way. He can be seen as an extrovert when playing with the band because he is extremely outgoing, intense, and full of life. When he performs by himself it is no longer a huge production but instead it is a much deeper and special acoustic evening. Just because it just is Matthews alone on stage does not mean that the show loses any flavor. Any fan knows that a solo Dave Matthews performance is not only full of beautiful music but hilarious stories and constant “Dave talk” that the audience cannot get enough of. He loves to talk to the audience and interact with them; it brings a sense of fulfillment to him when he knows that they are pleased and had a good night of music. Most common topics of his songs: women, drugs, live life to fullest, political messages
[http://personalitypsych2011.wikispaces.com/Dave+Matthews]
He is married, he has two twin daughters and one son.