Dave Matthews on New Album 'Come Tomorrow,' How His Music As Evolved & More

Over the last 25+ years, Dave Matthews Band has been writing and releasing music, and touring all over to see their very loyal fanbase. This year, the band has returned with their new album, Come Tomorrow, their first in six years since 2012's Away from the World.

Come Tomorrow includes 14 new songs, many of which the band has played for fans live during their recent shows. DMB is currently out on their extensive headlining summer tour, which kicked off on May 18th in The Woodlands, Texas, and includes two nights in West Palm Beach and Denver, a trio of shows on Labor Day weekend at The Gorge in George, Washington, then wrapping up at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on September 10th.

iHeartRadio recently caught up with Dave Matthews during an exclusive interview and he talked about Come Tomorrow,  how his music has evolved, his fans, performing during his live shows, and so much more. Read on below.

Tell us about your new album Come Tomorrow?

"I think it's a good record. You don't call it records anymore, except I do, because I'm old timey. And, I think it's good. Nobody listens to records from the beginning to the end, but if you do, it's good from the beginning to the end. There's some noisy stuff on it. It's all about love. It's a love of the future, it's love a of hope, it's a love of family, it's a love of the planet, it's a love of lust, it's a love of attraction. It's a lot of loves on it. But it comes from love, because some of the songs are really sad. [There are] songs about loss as well, and about death, but that's all love too. It's all love."

How do you think that this album is different from your previous albums?

"It's louder, it's softer. I don't know if I've finished an album and feel, in me, so good about it. In a weird way, I know that people will say, ' I like when you were 50 pounds lighter. I like when you were a kid and you shaved, you shaved your sideburns.' I don't think I've felt this right about an album, just because I feel like I did something. I finished a lot of things. I finished something, that's what it is. It's like it feels right in here."

Dave Matthews Band - 'Come Again'

This album, is Dave Matthews Band's ninth album. If you look back on all those previous albums, and then you think about this new one, what comes to mind?

"It's a long time since I made my first album. The whole world has changed since I made my first album. I mean, it's the same, it's more trouble than it was then. My kids exist now. They didn't when I made my first record. This album is about my kids a lot, it's about my family a lot, and this album is different because I'm looking at the world differently. I'm older than I was before, so I think when I turned 50, which was a little while ago, I'm not still 50, but when I turned 50, I started to give less of a f*** about everything, and in a weird way, more of a ... about everything. I started not to be a ... but to be more like, 'Oh, that's what you think. Okay, that's good, but I don't give a ... what you think.' And I think that helped me, because I turned 50 and I thought to my self, 'what the ...' you know? 'What do I gotta do?' So, that's how I feel. That's how this record is different."

Tell us about the summer tour?

"We're gonna play some new songs, and then we'll play old songs, because you can't just play new songs, because then it would start getting boring, because you kinda change it all the time. Because it's a relief, you know? So, to be able to have a lot of songs to choose from. There can't be as many exploding things because we don't know where we're gonna be on stage, because we're inconsistent about the sets we write. So, if there were any pyrotechnics, it might kill us, because we don't have dance steps other than the ones that happen automatically, however."

I'm excited. We haven't played as a band ... well, we played a couple shows here and there, but we haven't been on tour for a little while, because Tim and I ... I took last year, took some time to attack this record a little bit, as well, and to attack my brain. So it'll be nice to see everybody. Although we still see each other, it's just, we haven't driven around the world together for a while. It'll be nice to see everybody. I think we'll make some noise. My drummer will lead the parade because he's a beast, so, that'll happen."

Dave Matthews

Your fans are so dedicated and they are ones that keep coming out to these shows year after year.

"We only have like 35,000 fans, and they just go to every show."

So, when you think about your fans like that, what goes into touring and putting together a tour like this?

"We have a lot of people that come to work for us tend to stay. So, road managers, the light people, the sound guys, they're all the same people. I think more than half our crew have been with us for more than 20 years, and the other half have been with us for more than 10. Every once in a while there's a new person, because we've got a good situation. [We] take care of everybody. So, on that level, we've learned how to behave and I think what we've been lucky, with our relationship with our fans, we're lucky that we have people that appreciate the fact that every show is different, and we give everything we can to them. I think we do our best, we work our hardest every night, and it's not easy.

Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes it's hard, which is a weird thing to say, what's hard about singing? Because sometimes it's hard to just and try to deliver. So, sometimes it's like digging ditches, which it should be. It is work, it's honest work, and our fans, I think, appreciate it, because not that banking isn't real work, but it's not that. It's more like digging a ditch than it is like running a hedged fund, in my opinion. I realize I'm very lucky, but I still work my ass off. I don't phone it in. I'm trying hard, I'm trying to deliver it. And, so, I think that comes from a lot from our fans, too, and the good fortune that we've had having people who like us.

Hopefully we meet new people too, because that's part of it, because, you know, keep it alive. I think something our fans [know is] you won't find anyone else like us. We're weird. We don't look that weird, we're a little weird. We're surprising. A lot of times you're like, 'What is going on up there? What are they doing?' If you don't like it, you don't have to come back."

Dave Matthews 2018

Photos: Rachel Kaplan


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