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| .: APRIL - MAY 2005 | |
But he is about to put out his first solo album (Something To Be comes out on Atlantic Records April 19) and it is a step away from his work in matchbox, incorporating shades of dance music and funk into his already diverse palette of rock and pop. Long-time friend Matt Serletic, the producer on all three previous matchbox records and now the chairman and CEO of Virgin Records, helmed the project, which also finds Thomas collaborating with the likes of guitarists Mike Campbell (of Tom Petty's Hearbreakers) and John Mayer, as well as Dr. Dre bass player Mike Elizondo. Something To Be's first single, 'Lonely No More', is climbing charts. Look for touring this spring. Q: So why a solo record? Why not another matchbox twenty record? That would have been the safer option. We kinda felt that, too, which is why we didn't want to do it. We feel like the whole record-making process had become pretty safe for us. Because we had no other outside influences we didn't feel like if we got back together to make another record that it would be that special. And we [felt] like we were right at that stage in our career when we would be the most in danger of just repeating ourselves. Q: Were there any hurt feelings in the band when you announced that you would be doing this album? Since we started the last record, More Than You Think You Are, this has kind of been the plan. [Drummer] Paul [Doucette] and I and [guitarist] Kyle [Cook] have all had these ideas that we wanted to do, people that we've wanted to work with, musicians that we wanted to play with. We've been each other's biggest supporters in all of these projects. I beat up Paul until he finally sent me a copy of his record so I could listen to it, and I love it. So I think that helps that we're all kind of really rooting for each other. Q: How do you think matchbox fans will respond to these songs? It's great, technology now. You can go and sneak on your message board and see what people are saying. It was pretty interesting. Like the day the single came out there were just some people that were f**kin' freaked! I saw the word 'sell-out' more than once. 'Oh my God, you guys have heard one piece of one song!' Q: While researching this article, I noticed that the biggest reaction so far has been to your new buzz cut. Isn't that funny? It's a sort of f**king scandal. The hair scandal. Q: What do you have to say to those fans who miss your curls? That's so funny, man. You know what the funniest part about it is, too? I swear to God, I was walking down the street with my wife, and it was hot as s**t in New York so I went to Eckerd's and I bought a shaver and I shaved my head. And then I was like, well, this is convenient. I like this. I don't have to ever look in the mirror and I know exactly what I look like. Okay, I'm down with this. And it's so great because the record comes out and it's like this calculated marketing move. 'He's changing the hair and changing the image'. Like, okay, whatever! Q: You collaborated with a lot of talented musicians on this record. Does that push you to do better yourself? Yeah. You know Paul even called me once and [we] basically had this long conversation about how much fun we were having without each other. And that was one of the things: we realized that we're more self-conscious around each other than anyone else. It's hard to be cool amongst people that you've played with for a decade. You're a little more reserved and you're not as quick to give your opinion, and that's a weird thing. We're much more comfortable around strangers! So you wind up having to take the ball and run with it. And you feel pretty good about it and you're like, well, s**t, I would have never taken point on that. If it was in the band, we would have all just sat around trying to out-nice each other, you know what I mean? 'What do you want to do?' 'No, what do you want to do?' 'I don't know, do you not like it? Why don't you like it?' And then somewhere in the middle of it it becomes this 'well, f**k you, man!' 'Well, f**k you!' Q: Sounds like a marriage. Yeah, exactly. It's like a rocky marriage. Q: Was there any one song or album that decided you on wanting to become a songwriter yourself, where you thought, 'I can do this'?
For me, there's a record by Willy Nelson called Greatest Hits And Some That Will Be. And it was more the opposite, though. It was kind of like, okay, I'm going to start a journey now that's never going to get me there. I'm never going to write 'Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground' and I'm never going to write 'Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain', but I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to f**king do that.
To call Carpenter earnest would be an understatement. During our conversation, held above Toronto's Hard Rock Cafe on a snowy February afternoon shortly after a well-attended industry showcase, the young Texan talks about his desire "to be a legend" in order to influence the world for the better, the need for a philosophical change in the American government, and what motivates his art. "The state of the world is, I think, the thing that influences my lyrics the most," he says. "Because we're the chosen scribes of generation after generation, and we're supposed to tell the stories and we're supposed to be the healers. So that's kind of what fuels my lyrics is I want to be a healer for the people that are listening." His band's debut album, In Due Time, is a guitar-heavy call for tolerance and positivity in a dark intolerant time. The first single, 'Hollow', is a hooky metal stomp that showcases not only his band's musicianship but also the ability of Carpenter's classically trained voice to go from a whisper to a scream. Creed will be a reference point in future press, not least because that band's guitarist, Mark Tremonti, hooked Submersed up with their wunderkind lead guitarist, Eric Friedman, and co-produced their debut. In Due Time is also available through Wind-up Records, Creed's label. God, always a sticky issue in popular music, is never namechecked in Submersed's music, but He's there. ('Divide The Hate', for example, opens with the lines 'Father, may I be shown/ The man I have inside/ Be shown the way to swallow my pride' but then addresses 'Mother' in a later verse, obscuring any divine attribution.) Carpenter, the band's primary lyricist, admits that spirituality is part of his band's music. He's not trying to hide his faith by avoiding overt religious references in his songs, but he's smart enough to realize that having something worthwhile to say means nothing if you don't have an audience to listen.
"You have to always be careful," Carpenter acknowledges. "I can't get too detailed about how I feel because I don't want to alienate anybody. There's a lot of division in religion. [It's been] thousands of years that people have been fighting over religion."
The Victoria-based 14-year old is already impressing some major figures in the music business and generating impressive airplay for songs off her debut CD, Take Me Home. Interestingly enough, she is sharing space on the latest instalment of the popular Women & Songs series with Krall and Furtado. "That is three from the Island on there," Christine notes with pride. "Maybe it is something in the water here." The track featured on Women & Songs 8 is Evans' debut single, also called 'Take Me Home'. This compelling ballad broke into the Top 30 on Canadian radio, and was named Song of the Year at the Island Music Awards. It showcases Christine's clear, melodic vocals and an introspective songwriting style that has elicited comparisons to Alanis Morissette. Most teen pop tarts record material tailored for them by experienced professional songwriters, but Christine Evans insists on writing all her own songs. "We definitely thought that was important. Even when there's a collaboration, there's an issue with people saying 'oh, she didn't really write them. It was the older person doing it all.' We didn't want that." This is a role she takes seriously, and that is reflected in her subject matter. "I write about the things that people actually feel. You'd be naive to believe that hanging at the beach with your girlfriends or drunken parties are all there is to life." She has set high standards for herself, too. "I don't want people to say 'oh, she's great for 14.' I can't be great for 14. I have to be great to be great, as I am competing against artists who are 20 or 30. I think I still have a lot of growth to do in my writing. I just started writing because that was in me and it was what I needed to do, not that I thought I was any good. When I listen to songs from even a year ago I am just horrified, but I do think my writing is improving quickly." She is also evolving quickly as a performer. "In a lot of ways I'm very introverted, so I love to write as an outlet for that, but I also love to be able to share it with other people. In the beginning I'd play in a café and I was so shy I'd say nothing, just strum away. I'm a bit more confident now." Evans has already made converts of a couple of legends. Folk great Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul & Mary) calls her "a very gifted singer/songwriter with an expressive, beautiful voice and a totally genuine life perspective." Famed arranger/conductor Paul Buckmaster (Elton John, David Bowie) thought enough of Evans' material that he agreed to orchestrate four tracks. "While he was working with me, I checked out his website and all the people he'd worked with. I saw he was on things like my favourite Elton John album, so then it was 'ohmigosh, this is a big deal'."
Also unlike her more superficial pop peers, Christine Evans has long-term career goals. "I focus first on my career lasting. I don't want to just be popular for a year then be totally gone. I want to do this for the rest of my life." |
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Okay, so ROB THOMAS isn't all that new an artist. He's been the frontman for the multi-million selling Florida-based band matchbox twenty (yes, it's in lower-case these days) for over a decade, has won three songwriting Grammys (including one for his hit Carlos Santana collaboration 'Smooth'), and has co-written tracks with the likes of Mick Jagger, Marc Anthony and Willie Nelson.
Want to know about matters to Donald Carpenter, the singer of hard rock band SUBMERSED? Ask him to roll up his sleeves. The tattoos that cover his arms (a habit developed during three years in the army) tell his story: on his left is ink dedicated to his children, his fiancee, and Jesus Christ; on his right are symbols for 'brotherhood' ("which we have in our band 'cause we believe in being tight") and 'sincerity'. "The only way you can make music that truly has an honest effect on people is... to be sincere in your delivery and sincere in your words."
Call it the Vancouver Island Invasion. The region already lays claim to two internationally popular female singer/songwriters, Diana Krall and Nelly Furtado, and you may soon be able to add CHRISTINE EVANS to that list.
