WhatzUp

Matthew Street Band
By Todd Hamm (12/06/01)

Matthew Street Band

Following in the grand tradition of singer-songwriters before him, Matt Hughes, guitarist for Fort Wayne outfit Matthew Street Band, is full of epic-like stories about the band he started two years ago.

Take the one in which he and bandmates Dean Williams, on violin, Pat Luce, vocals, Joe Sirk, bass, Matt Keere, drums, and Dave Ransom, on soprano, alto and tenor sax, financed the recording and production of their first album, After the Storm.

“We ran out of money when we were working on the album,” Hughes says. “So we made a deal with the Monastic Chambers studio owner, Jon Gillespie. He had a room next to the studio that was filled with dirt. He told us he had gotten a quote from a contractor for $15,000 to remove the dirt. But, he told us that if we removed the dirt, he would take it as payment for the rest of the work on the album.”

Hughes adds, “It took us two months to remove all that dirt. We spent probably more than a hundred man hours, but it paid for the CD.”

Hughes says the band is planning for a December release of Storm. The album, with tracks like “Say and Do” and “In a Corner,” among others, spotlight the band’s multi-layered and multi-instrument sound.

Hughes says the band’s music has often been compared to songs by the Dave Matthews Band. He says, however that “it’s got a unique sound to it. It’s a little bit more edgy than what they play. It’s more rock than the Dave Matthews Band.”

Speaking of Dave Matthews, Hughes says the performer is “a big influence on us, but everyone in the band likes something different.” Hughes himself comes from a varied music background that includes stints in a number of bands, including a Christian rock outfit and a swing band.

Hughes, who played in the swing band for three months before it dissolved, said, “Swing music is so hard to play. You’ve got to give swing players serious credit.”

The band’s violinist, Williams, Hughes says, is a nationally known musician who has written symphonies. His role in Matthew Street Band, “adds a little bit of something extra to each song,” Hughes says. “I’ve always liked the sound of a violin. I always thought it was interesting how the violin and sax merged into one sound. You can do so much more when you add in those instruments.”

Hughes says the additions of sax and violin to the traditional guitar-bass-drum-vocal formula of most bands “all comes together in something different and unique.”

After the Storm features 12 of the band’s songs. Hughes wrote all of them. “I write my music and lyrics separately. Everything starts with guitar,” he says. He adds that the other musicians in the band add in their own parts and write their own accompanying music to the guitar and vocals.

Hughes and vocalist Luce, are beginning to team up on the band’s newer songs. “He is a really talented songwriter,” Hughes says. “When I’ve got an idea for something, I can take it to him and he’ll finish it exactly the way I want him to. One song he brought the lyrics to, sang them for me and I had a riff for it almost instantly.”

The band’s songs center on a number of themes, some common, some unique. “They’re all about different things — experiences, girlfriends, almost anything imaginable, I’ve probably written a song about,” Hughes says. The band’s song “Say and Do,” which is popular with crowds at lives shows, is about a relationship, Hughes says. “‘Don’t Believe’ is about a company that I worked for. It was internally corrupt,” he says.

At the band’s live shows, which includes a number of gigs at local coffee houses, feature a mixture of original and cover tunes. Hughes says the band plays some Dave Matthews cover tunes as well as some oldies. “We usually look at what everyone’s influences are and we incorporate them into our covers,” he says.

Hughes named the band Matthew Street Band after seeing a poster for the movie State and Main. “The sign inspired me,” he says. He adds that Matt Sturm, a local acoustic performer and one of Hughes’ good friends, had given him a long lecture “about how it was a sin to name your band after yourself. But I don’t think that its such a bad thing.”

The band’s website, www.matthewstreetband.com, plays off of the street theme by transforming the traditional link bar on the main page into street sign. The street sign theme takes the links and plays off of the street theme further by changing the link names in street names. Viewers have the options to link to “On the RD” “Word on the ST” and “MP3 AVE.” The website, Hughes says, was created for the band by bassist Joe Sirk’s brother, a Purdue student. It contains links to pics, band member’s bios as well as news and song downloads.

Hughes says that now more than ever Matthew Street Band is finally starting to feel about as solid as it’s ever been.

“The group of guys that we have together now is very, very tight,” he says. He admits, though, that it’s taken him plenty of effort and auditions to craft a perfect lineup of musicians. “I’ve gone through more people than I wanted to,” he says, adding that he’s had to audition more than 15 players before finding the right musician for the band’s sound. “It’s hard to find people who are dedicated and talented enough to do what you want.”

The pay-off, however, for perfecting the lineup has been worthwhile, Hughes says. Aside from a steady string of gigs, the band has gotten some interest from record labels. In particular, Hughes says that a scout from Sony records contacted him about the band.

“It was a shock,” Hughes says of his initial reaction from being contact by the scout. “But it’s also very cool,” he adds. “It’s definitely something that could happen.”