Thursday, September 19, 2002
Northern Express
Tim Reynolds brings a touch of Dave Mathews Band mystique
By Rick Coates
"Music is not just for entertainment," said Tim Reynolds. "It is created to help us focus on what is great, good and inspirational. Music should make us think, and sometimes even challenge our thinking."
Reynolds is a master guitarist, composer and pusher of the musical envelope as well as a longtime collaborator with Dave Mathews. Reynolds is currently on a solo tour to promote his new CD "Chaos View," due in stores just days before his September 21 show at the Loading Dock in Traverse City.
Performing on stage with the Dave Mathews Band, and appearing on several of Mathews' CDs has propelled Reynolds to a gothic status in the industry especially among guitar players. Yet despite all of his work with Dave Mathews he was never officially a member of the band.
"I have people ask me if I quit or if I was fired," said Reynolds. "I was never in the Dave Mathews band. Since I appear on several of his CDs and toured with him people assumed that I was in his band, but I have always had my own band and the fact is Dave and myself collaborated together."
ECONOMIC FREEDOM
With the Dave Mathews Band being one of the top bands of the '90s, that partnership has afforded Reynolds economic freedom to pursue his other musical interests. He and Mathews remain friends and neither musician is ruling out future work together.
"I made a lot of money working with Dave and that certainly has put me in a position to work on projects of interest to me," said Reynolds. "I wouldn't rule out collaborating with anyone as long as we had common visions. Right now my focus is on music and multi-media."
Reynolds will offer a visual onslaught of computer-generated imagery, animation and video footage all projected on a screen behind him. His outspoken politics and some of the social issues confronting society today will all be reflected in the music and visuals of the evening. Reynolds deals with militarism, mind control and propaganda throughout his show.
"I have always been interested in the visual with the music since seeing some bands experiment with it in the 1970s," said Reynolds. "Pink Floyd and Peter Gabriel did it and some others but I think the expense of it prohibited a lot of bands from doing it."
Despite the expense of adding the visual aspect to his shows Reynolds believes that it is a necessary component for the audience to fully experience his music.
"Having the colors, the visual really gives my instrumental music grounding," said Reynolds. "It gives the audience another way to connect to the music."
INDEPENDENT SPIRIT
Reynolds enjoys his independent approach. He recently moved from Charlottesville, Virginia to New Mexico and refuses to sign a major label deal.
"I have always been independent and won't sign a label deal. It is obvious to me that once you sign you have to come up with a singular thing that is your signature," said Reynolds. "I am just too neurotic to stick with one thing. Record companies create a reference point for you and want expand within that reference point."
His approach is one of a musical explorer. Reynolds is not interested in duplicating what he accomplished yesterday but is rather interested in seeking what is still to be discovered.
"Sometimes during my solo shows people yell for some of the songs I did with Dave Mathews and I think, do I want to break down and be like someone that just gives in to what the fans want?" said Reynolds. "It's not that I don't want to make people happy but if that is the only reason I am doing it then it isn't coming from me. For me I refuse to become homogenized, so my shows are a reflection of me."
Reynolds wants people to understand that his "Chaos View" Tour is where he is at musically and how he sees the world around him. Previous solo tours were acoustic and with the exception of three songs his current tour is electric.
"If you like my acoustic stuff then you should like this," said Reynolds. "I have just put an electric bent to my music. If you only like acoustic music then you shouldn¹t come. I don't want to discourage people from attending but come prepared for a broader interpretation of my music."
BROAD MINDED
Reynolds suggests a broader approach when seeking out music to listen to in general.
"The thing I learned when I first got into music is that most of the good stuff you have to go out and find. There is the stuff (commercial) that everybody buys and it isn't bad stuff but there is more out there," said Reynolds. "There is the stuff under the radar and I like being considered apart of that. When I was young it was that under the radar stuff that was cool."
Despite overall slow sales of CDs and concerts industry wide during the past year Reynolds believes that music is in a very healthy state.
"The business is one aspect of it of all of this and that may be struggling but the bottom line is there is a lot of great music being made right now," said Reynolds. "Music that couldn't have been made 20 years ago, but because of advances in technology people are doing things with instruments that I thought was humanly impossible."
Reynolds' solo show is just that without other musicians and features his mind-bending techniques, drum programming, sequencing and sampling. Utilizing keyboards and midi-technology he plays and sings with his virtual band and is able to improvise and jam on the fly. His music is brooding, hard rocking with a new-jazz, classical and industrial sound to it.
Canadian multi-media artist Peter Prince will open the concert with an acoustic set and visuals of his paintings as well his video work.
Advanced tickets are available at the Loading Dock for $15 and are suggested as Reynolds has a following that travels the country to see him perform and every show on the current tour has sold out. For further information of the mind-expanding evening call (231) 941-4422.
FROM:Northern Express Sept 19-25 Vol 12 No 38 written by Rick Coates.
Thanx to Northern Express and Rick for the story and a text copy to post on the message board.