Matthew Stevens, how are you doing today? Excellent. How are you, Dale? I'm very good. Where are you coming to us from? I'm in a tiny little town between Providence and Boston called Sharon, Massachusetts that I've been living in for the past four years now. Okay. Did you attended Berkeley as well, way back when? I did. I was there for three years, 2001 to 2004. Okay. Awesome. That's such a great area and I love that whole area around there is really lovely Boston, of course, is great. A little chilly in the wintertime, but... Indeed. This one especially. Yeah, exactly. So you're a very busy guy. You have a new single out, Who Does She Hope to Be, which came out February 13th. We have a new album coming out on May 8th, which is self-titled Matthew Stevens. You're a Grammy Award-winning guitarist, also a great producer, very well-known producer and session guitarist. So tell me about the new single and the new album. I know also you have a lot of guests on this album too. Yeah. The new single, Who Does She Hope to Be is off of a fantastic record by Sonny Chirac called Ask the Ages that I believe it's from 1991 or 1992 and was produced by Bill Lazwell. It's a great lineup. It's Sonny with Pharaoh Sanders, Sharnet Moffitt and Elvin Jones. It was a record that was brought to my attention by an incredible drummer from Houston, Texas named Jamiro Williams. He had a band called Arimage that was busy 15 years ago, which worked a lot. We used to play that song. It was just something that I connected to immediately and looked forward to playing every night. It's a really musically transcendent record. It felt like it was the perfect song that was a cover in terms of how it fit into the rest of the stuff that I was writing. It felt like it just seamlessly fit into this stuff that I was finding myself arriving at for this record. It features Jeff Parker, Sonny Layers, a bunch of guitars on this record. There are multiple parts. Jeff is somebody who I've always admired and I've known for quite some time. It felt like a natural fit to invite to play. Then of course, Terry Lynn Carrington's playing drums. It feels fantastic. It sounds really beautiful to me. If I dare say so myself, it's just so fun to listen to them all play. It's so wonderful to hear everybody. I was really pleased with it. I was checking it out the last couple of days. What I love about the style and the way that you put this together is it sounds very organic. It's not heavily produced. It sounds like you're in maybe a small club listening. Is that a style that you gravitate to? Is that something that you personally like? Yeah, I think so. For this album in particular, it was my first record in five years. I had left New York after being there for the better part of 20 years. I moved to Boston to start teaching at Berkeley. I went through a divorce. I met my now wife, Sarah, a couple of years after that. In the midst of all that, I think that you can't help but reexamine every element of yourself. Re-evaluating life, reevaluate not only music, but just everything. Yeah, everything. For me, it's really the best thing we can do as musicians and artists is to continue to do the work to be ourselves, which is not an easy thing to do. I think that through this album, it's my best attempt so far at presenting my taste and my perspective. I think where that is now is very much in line with what you're saying. It feels intimate and in the moment and in community with the musicians and something that's happening in real time. That record was by and large, there was a couple of people who did a couple of things remotely, but by and large, there were 10 plus people coming in and out of the studio in LA for three days and it was all done live. Not overly produced at all. I was just talking to the engineer earlier. I was asking, what do we use on that? He's like, well, it's really nothing. It's this Neve console that was built for a radio station in Austria in the late 70s and a lot of things going through the Fairchild and a nice mic closet. That's really it. Yeah. You feel that. Actually, people don't realize that it's pretty rare to get every musician in the room these days. It's not that even on jazz albums where you think that they're all sitting there together. They're not necessarily. It's definitely, do you find that there's a very different feel when you're able to look across the room at the drummer, look across the room at everybody and just really bond? Is that something that you really strive for? Absolutely. I think that working during the pandemic really solidified that for me where I was happy to have the time to practice and to spend focused on music, but I really was not motivated to do a lot of remote recording. It wasn't exciting to me. It made me kind of clue into the fact that so much about what I love in what we do is the being with other people part. There's nothing like being in the room with other people for me and that kind of mutual striving towards just all throwing our hat in and trying to sort of come up with something and create something that is greater than the individuals in the room. There's nothing else like that. I think that. Yeah, it's their communication. It's the vibe. It kind of arrives when you have some of the old Miles albums where you can hear him calling solos in the actual as a recording. That's right. That's right. I absolutely love that because it's so far removed from like pop recording where everything's clean and everything's, you know, so that really speaks to the heart of the music and the soul of the music. Who are some of your early influences? I mean, I have guides and I think you probably were influenced by, but you tell me who are you listening to as a young guitar player? Love to hear. Well, John McLaughlin was like the obvious guy. So, I mean, you know, I started playing like so many people started playing the guitar because I wanted to play the music that I loved, which was like Nirvana and Soundgarden and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The first song I ever learned was Smells Like Teen Spirit and, you know. And that would be surprising to some jazz fans. But you know, music for me, and I think you sound like you're the same way. Music is music. If it hits me, if it inspires me, I don't care what the title of it is. Absolutely. I think those things are by and large just constructs to categorize and sell records. Exactly. So, I mean, for me, it was the music that was woven into the culture that I was excited by and participating in as a young person. My dad was totally crazy for Jimmy Hendrix and lots of, you know, and a lot of, and like, you know, Albert Lee and Freddie King and Albert James and all that stuff. And so, I was way into that stuff. And then, you know, and then I grew up in Toronto and there was this great history of jazz guitar playing in Toronto. Amazing, amazing musicians. Amazing musicians in Toronto. And so, I sort of got in high school, I got interested in improvising. And I, you know, I'd already had some years into the guitar. And so, I wasn't going to, I was pretty committed to playing guitar. I wasn't interested in switching instruments. And so, it was like, oh, you want to learn to sort of improvise in this world of music? Hey, you can go see Ed Bickert play on any given night of the week or something. And it was like, and so, or Lauren Lofsky or Rob Pilch, you know, and there were all these great musicians around. And, you know, he was, he of course had passed away by the time I was around. But Lenny Bro did there for a long time. And I've often wondered if Lenny Bro's influence sort of permeates the Toronto scene of guitar playing. I wonder if him and Ed were friends. I don't know, they have this way of playing that's really remnant. It's sort of a DNA thing where it's just kind of, you can't almost kind of help be influenced by great musicians. That's right. And so, I was really influenced by those guys. And and then, of course, of course, like, Pat, Bill Frizzell, Schofield were inescapable. Grant Green was somebody that I really loved and connected to early on and that I learned a lot from transcribing because it was like, it felt like this unbelievably direct and really heartfelt and sincere and clear way of playing harmony in a way that felt like a great entry point to playing like. Right. Not just random, a bunch of notes. Something, that means something. That's super perfect. Yes. And so, and it was, it felt like a way into playing through more involved chord changes and stuff. And so, yeah, those people definitely John McLaughlin, absolutely. And, and yeah, I mean, Jim Hall was another one. And I think that, I don't know how you feel, but for me, there are fewer, there seem to be fewer jazz guitarists who really left like an indelible mark on the music as a whole. Then there are, say, saxophone players or drummers or piano players. And so, and so everybody. Yeah, there's the West Montgomery. There's a handful of guys. I mean, even I go back, why went to Musicians Institute when Howard Roberts was still there, which is actually, it's kind of a funny story, but I remember that was, there was a lot of rock guys that went to that school. And I remember Howard Roberts explaining chords and explaining music theory. And these guys are just looking real like, I have no, and he was such a genius guy. Like, it was, you know, but there are, yeah, there's only a handful you think of, you think of, well, I also, I love guys like Larry Carlton. You know, all the, all those, that era of guys, that's, you know, and also Scotty Henderson, all the modern guys. So I, again, like I kind of listened to everything about, talk about finding your voice, because that that's, it's kind of hits on what you, what you just said, finding your own voice on guitar, which is a challenge, because there's a lot of guitar players, there's a lot of guys that play a lot of quick notes. But it's, for me, it's really about playing the right notes. Yeah. Talk about finding your voice and how you found, because you definitely have a style that's very specific. Well, I think it's something that's like always evolving, you know, and, and it's, it certainly doesn't feel like something that's fixed. And I think that like, it's, it's something that I've had to, to, to think about and think about articulating in a different way, especially since I've become a teacher as well at Berkeley. And, and, you know, it's a question that you get asked a lot by aspiring young musicians. And, and I think the, the best way that I know how to talk about it is that I think that when I hear people who I've, who sound like really like, like really identifiable to me, I think of them as, as artists who, who just are really good at clearly conveying what they like in music, like what's important to them, what they're, what they're distilling it down. Yeah. Distilling it down and being like, this is my taste. This is what I care about in music. This is what excites me in music. And so I think that, I think that that's really been my approach, thinking about, like from the perspective as a fan, like, what do I love in, and, and trying to make sure that those are things, the things that I love as a fan of music are things that I, that I did, that are omnipresent in what I put out in my own work. And they're, you know, so I think that that's, that's, that's kind of the, the been, been my process and continues to be my process, you know, and, and because it's, it's, and like I said, it's this, it's this evolving, shifting thing that it doesn't, it's certainly not like, like, something you go and kind of pick out at a store, you know, and go, yeah. It's always changing. It's as it should be, right? That's, as humans, we need to be evolving. You don't want to just play it, put out the same record every year and go, oh, here's another one. It sounds the same as the last one. That's right. You know, that's, that's something that I, that I was talking to Terry Lin about recently where it's like, that's just such an exciting thing when you hear it, as again, as a fan of music and you're following artists that you love and, and they put something out that just, it just feels different than the last thing that they did that just shows some sort of evolution and the continued searching and interest and, and, and striving for pushing out into other corners of, of, that's always, that's, that's, I think that that's like a wonderful thing. And, and, you know, oftentimes just like the most we can ask for from, from anyone, including ourselves, you know. Yeah. And it requires some bravery because it's very easy to sit on the same old thing that you've always done. It takes a lot more bravery to also mix it up with different players, which is something I wanted to talk about. Yeah. Building, building that team around you, you have a lot of great players on this album, but you've also played with a lot of great folks. How inspiring is that for you? And then also building the team, how, how, how, how has it been for you to really focus on that and find, find really interesting players to work with? Well, I think that I feel really, really, really, really lucky to have had a lot of the opportunities that I've, that I've, that I've had and I've learned an enormous amount from, you know, from really everybody that I've, that I've worked with and, and taking different things from different artists, you know, and, and gone, oh, wow, that's a really great way to, to, to think about putting a record together or to think about assembling a group of musicians to, to play your music. And so in terms of my own band, like Eric Dube, who's, who's the drummer on most of this record, is like, he was my college roommate and somebody that is just my, my, one of my oldest and dearest friends who happens to be an unbelievable musician who's played with everybody from, you know, Winton Marcellus to Chris Thiele to Julian Lodge to Piqueta Rivera. He's been, Miguel Zanani's everywhere. And, and, and, and just the amount of, like the, the shorthand that we have and the, the trust that we have in one another and, and the, that shared, that shared taste and perspective is, is something that I really, really value. And I think that it's something that is at different stages of development with different people on the album, you know, but they're all people I know and have worked with them in different capacities. And as you, as you know, it's a small community, you know, and really like everybody's kind of Chris, Chris Crossing and, and, and, and after mingling and, and, as I had a certain level, I don't want to say everybody knows everybody, but that's kind of true in a way at the, at the elite, elite level with jazz pop or really an idiom. And the other thing that you're very well known for is producing. And I know, I think it was the Doc Watson tribute with Dolly Parton, which you guys had a hit with that. Talk about producing, like what, that's a different, obviously a different hat, but it's in the same arena, obviously, as music. How do you approach producing it? And do you, is there a genre-based idea behind that when you come into a project or does it matter? I think probably the opposite. I mean, that, that record in particular, my, the publisher that I work for in Germany called Buddha, my, my rep there is a longtime friend and works with Mitch Greenhill, who, who managed Doc for the majority of his career. And they were doing this centennial tribute. And I had this solo acoustic guitar record called Pittsburgh that, that this, my friend Pierre slipped to Mitch and said, Hey, I think that Matt would be somebody to consider to produce this record. And, and, and Mitch, you know, sort of expressed to me that he was into the idea because I was, I had, I have no, I have nothing in the game in terms of like a bluegrass and country music and old time music. And it was like, Oh, this is not really, you're not really held to that genre, right? In no way. And I wouldn't know how to be if I tried. And so, and so, right, exactly. And, yeah, and he would always joke that the only people who were more like, who were more rigid than, you know, sometimes in the jazz musicians about, well, it's got to be this way and that way, our bluegrass musicians, whether that's, whether that's sure or not, I don't know, but it's, but he would, but we should say it, but it's amazing music. You can't, you know, there's no, there's no, there's no big doubt. No, absolutely. But he would just joke about, about it and say, you know, so having somebody come in that doesn't even know what, what, what rules you're sort of, you know, adhering to or breaking, you know, is, is, could be interesting. And so, yeah, I, I really, like, I approach that not from a genre perspective at all, but rather just kind of going, what are these songs? Like, what is the essence of these, of these songs and, and, and, and boiling it down to its, its, its most base form and, and handing it over to other guitar players and musicians that I know and love and trusting them to reinterpret it and, and, and kind of just, well, oftentimes I was just, I was just there and would maybe suggest we do another take, you know, like I was, I was sometimes. Kind of sometimes it's important as a producer to stay out of the way. Absolutely. And I think that, you know, my, I mean, my approach has really just been that it was kind of something that I realized that, that I was doing. And I think lots of musicians do do without realizing that that's what they're doing when you're just in a session and you're, and you're, you know, you're in a session and you're being asked your opinion about something. And, you know, if, if you're giving your two cents, I mean, you're essentially producing something, you know, you are shaping. Well, and also, also people that are secure musically as a producer, they want to surround themselves with people that are going to bring something more than just playing. That's right. Along with that, as a musician, I mean, I know this personally, you have to know when to shut up. Absolutely. So it's, it's, I mean, you've learned that it's like, it's a give and take and you've got to be really astute and read the room. And, but, but good, good guys, great producers, they bring in the same, a lot of the same folks because they trust their opinion, right? That's right. And so I think that I felt like, oh, well, it's just, it's just, it's just sort of doing something that I've, that I've more or less been doing in different situations, you know, but, you know, now it's, you know, officially or a word or whatever, you know, so yeah, so yeah, it's been, it's something that I really, I really, I really love in, in, I love being in the studio. I love being part of the, the overall, the, the overall end product of something. It's really, it's really amazing. Yeah. And it's, yeah, and it's part of, it's just a connection kind of another part of the finger and the hands of what we do. It's nice to be able to, and it's nice to be able to have the, that kind of input at that level. Yes. And to really, and to really drive a project with the vision. Yeah. And it's, it's all, and it's always a collaboration now, ultimately. Oh my God. Absolutely. Yep. As you said, like a lot of the time, you're just, yeah, it's just more making sure that people can be, you know, hey, when can you make it? You know, and like, what do you want for lunch? Sometimes it's, it's like herding cats. So talk, so are you, are you currently teaching at Berkeley? I am, yeah. Okay, awesome. And that's, I mean, for people, I mean, I guess what most people would know, but Berkeley is one of the top music schools in the world and, and has been for many, many decades. So not only, I mean, obviously you're a great player, you're surrounded by amazing musicians there. And I know some of the guys that teach there. What are some of the things with young students, not only guitar students, but just music students, what are some of the really big points that you try to impart on them musically, but also career wise, what are some, some things that you've learned along the way that, that you always kind of like, okay, I've got to, I've got to let them know these like five points. Yes. I think that the headlines to me tend to be that regardless of what you are interested in, a genre wise or whatever kind of corner of music you want to work in as an, as an instrumentalist or vocalist or any, you know, any, in any capacity that what has to be prioritized is your sound and your feel. And that, and that I can't think of, for me, I have a hard time thinking of any, any musician that I, that I love a kind of across the board that doesn't have those two things, you know, and there are, there are infinite ways to express those things, you know, a great sound and a great feel. There are as many ways to do that as there are people, but, but it's hard for me to think about musicians that I love in any, you know, in any corner of music that, that regardless of what they're playing, that don't have those things and a lot of them, you know, and like, and, and, and aren't able to really clearly deliver that stuff. Yeah. And, and, and we, and you've, I'm sure you've experienced this too. Like a lot of people think, oh, I have to be so good. It's like good, yes, but the feel is often way more important than being the virtuoso player. Absolutely. And you, you see that there's, there's, there's been several bands where the players individually were good players, but they weren't virtuosos, but they created this other entity. Yes. And I mean, it also, but it also, to me, it also depends on how you define what it is to be a virtuoso and what it is and what, and what technique is like, exactly. Well, it's not to me, it's not, it's not speed necessarily. And, and it's, I mean, it's a, I think technique is someone put it to me really stutely a long time ago, which was it, it's, it's your ability to, to clearly put forth your ideas, you know, and, and, and I, that resonates with me. And I think that, um, yeah, having like great sound production and, and a great feel is, is the highest metric of technique to me, you know. Yeah. And it's all about communication. If you, if you touch somebody's heart, it doesn't matter what you play. That's right. Indeed. Absolutely. And, you know, and I think, um, yeah, so that's certainly, that's certainly it. And I think the thing that a lot of, um, I find a lot of students, um, struggle with, and I, I certainly recall struggling with my, struggling with it myself was like, um, that there's often not like a, this, you know, is not a clear path forward in, in what we do and, and different opportunities coming away. And it's, you know, it's your just job, it's your job to just make the most of them and, and do that and show up as your best self and, and, and it'll roll into the next thing that it rolls into. But, um, it's, it's, I think it can be stressful to not know what's going to be next and what the next right thing to do is, you know, and, and it's, it's just so different than, than, um, than so many, uh, other career paths that are just much more prescribed in terms of sequence of events. Exactly. Yeah. There's, and, you know, be nice to show up on time, you know, be sober, be in the moment. Yeah. It's all, all the, it's like business 101. And people, people have often asked me like, well, how did you keep working for 40 years? Like just be nice, show up, know the music. It's really not hard. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Exactly. You know, um, do you have any live shows coming up or any kind of touring in, in the future? Yes. So right now, um, I'm, I'm touring with Esperanza Spalding. Oh, right. And, and Terry Lynn Carrington. And, and then, uh, once this record comes out, we'll be doing some touring in the, in the fall of October and into the new year. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. And, and I mean, Esperanza just so great. I just love, I love what she does. Absolutely. That's been, that's been a really, important and, um, unbelievable musical collaboration for, for 10 plus years at this point, you know, like, wow. Yeah. And it's fun because acts like that, like you're playing with them, but you also get to watch them every night, which is, I mean, that's, that's, which is, yeah, it's such a privilege to be able to do that. Right. Oh, it's unbelievable. I mean, there's, we've, you know, like we've worked on, I think, six records together of hers and tour to Ton and, you know, and she's, you know, included, included me in, in, in, uh, in some really interesting stuff that like a couple of years ago, we did a record with Milton Nassimento. And we just, we have a record coming out in March, uh, that we, that we, where we, that she produced, where her, a great German named Justin Tyson and I are playing with, uh, uh, Joy Harjo, the, the poet, poet laureate, former poet laureate, and that's a record that's coming out in Smithsonian and I think April or something like, so all kinds of really interesting stuff like that too. Yeah. And, and she's just, you know, she's extremely generous with that, with those sorts of connections. And it's been, it's been, it's been a wonderful, a wonderful thing being in her musical orbit all this time. Yeah. Well, that's a good life. I mean, that's a really good life, right? Yep. Indeed. Can't, can't, cannot complain. No. Awesome. Well, everybody, please check out, um, the new single, which is out now and that's really, it's really fun music. It's on Spotify, but obviously all the other outlets. The new single is Who Does She Hope To Be? That came out on February 13th. Um, lots of great guests, as you mentioned. Um, the new album, the full album, self-titled album, Matthew Stevens, will be out on May 8th. It's on Candid Records, again, with several special guests and, as, that you mentioned some that we haven't probably talked about. Um, but, uh, so we keep those as a secret for now. But, uh, Matthew, thank you for joining me. I, um, I really love what you do. I love that you're keeping a really traditional jazz thing alive, but also expanding on that. And, and it's amazing that I love that somebody with your background and your attitude, who's actually out there doing it in the world is also teaching. I think it's super important to have, have professors that are actually doing it. Thank you for having me, Dale, and for the invitation. I really appreciate it. And, uh, and, um, it's been great to talk to you. Thank you. They like, like, say, have a good day. I'll, I'll, and I'll get the links to everybody and one, once you release and I'll also include all your information, social media, website, all that stuff too, as well. Thanks so much. I hope to, hope to, hope to meet you sometime. Hope to see you again. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I have to, well, I have to get you out to Vegas. That'd be great. Right on. Thanks so much. All right. Great. Have a great day. You too. Bye. Bye. Bye.
