By the time Rob Thomas hit the road in 2017 for a tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of Matchbox Twenty, he felt quite comfortable with the idea that they would never make another album again.
It had been five years since “North” and he was getting used to the idea of just spinning to their hits.
“In 2012, our plan was to stop making records,” he says. “We were going to tour every few years and maybe release a song or two. It was kind of the business model.
Thomas had his solo job to keep him busy. Drummer Paul Doucette was scoring films. Guitarist Kyle Cook was a year away from releasing his first solo album.
No one needed Matchbox Twenty in their life as a creative outlet.
“That seemed to be where we were in our career,” Thomas says with an audible shrug.
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How COVID-19 put Matchbox Twenty in the studio for their 1st album in 11 years
Then COVID-19 arrived, forcing them to postpone all their Matchbox Twenty tour plans for 2020 and again in 2021 and 2022.
“In 2022, people left, but we weren’t ready,” says Thomas.
“Some people had health issues and we still didn’t feel safe enough. That’s when we decided we had all these fans, we’re lucky they held on to tickets, they’re still waiting. Maybe when we come out it shouldn’t just be a nostalgia tour.
That’s why they’re releasing “Where the Light Goes,” their first album in 11 years, to give fans “something to listen to.”
The decision to walk away from the creative process was based on the feeling that they were no longer sufficiently invested in creating Matchbox Twenty records.
“And we didn’t want to do something that we weren’t 1000% invested in,” Thomas recalls.
“But I think we just misjudged the bandwidth we needed to give to this situation. And once we got back together and realized how much we loved working together and how much it was something we all wanted, the decision was easy.
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“There’s a real love we have for each other,” says Rob Thomas
Working on this album was a positive experience for everyone in Matchbox Twenty, the absence having made the heart grow fonder.
“There’s a real love we have for each other,” Thomas says. “We’re an easy laugh and we really care about each other. I think that goes a long way.
Thomas calls Doucette his “best friend in the world”, more than three decades after a friendship that began with Tabitha’s Secret, a band that also included future Matchbox Twenty bassist Brian Yale. Doucette is the other main songwriter for Matchbox Twenty, often collaborating with Thomas.
“We probably only had one personal fight that didn’t involve schedules or musical differences or anything like that,” Thomas says of Doucette. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. I think that fight lasted a year and a half. But then we patched it up.
In addition to his solo records, Thomas found success outside of Matchbox Twenty as the songwriter behind Santana’s multi-platinum comeback single, “Smooth”, which spent 12 weeks at No. 1 and featured Thomas on lead vocals.
“It’s a credit to Paul that in 30 years I’ve never recorded or sung other people’s songs – other than doing a cover – except for Paul,” he says. “We always joke. I’m like, ‘Man, this song is so good. And you know what’s great? Everyone’s going to think I wrote it.
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“There’s just a certain DNA when we all come together”
For Thomas, the writing is constant and he never really thinks about it in terms of writing solo songs or Matchbox Twenty songs. These are just songs.
“If it’s time for a Matchbox album, that just means I’ll play some of the stuff I’ve written that I think guys might like, and if they like it, we do,” Thomas says. “And if they don’t, we don’t.”
It’s what his bandmates add to what he writes that makes him sound like Matchbox Twenty. The title track of “Where the Light Goes”, for example.
“I gave it to Paul as a little demo,” says Thomas. “So Paul redid it in a reinvented way and then sent it to Kyle, who put guitars on it and reinvented it a bit more in his own way. And when it came back to me, I thought says: ‘(Expletive), it looks like Matchbox Twenty now!’ There’s just a certain DNA when we all come together.
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Having more than one creative outlet for his songs certainly had an impact on his songwriting.
“Everything you do – every experience you have – expands what a blank slate could be, doesn’t it?” said Thomas.
“When you start out you had limited experiences and you kind of write about love and loss but it’s mostly speculation because you’re young and you haven’t really loved or lost what Then you start to get older and you have things in your life that really matter to you and things that you want to hold on to.
It also helps, says Thomas, to have people you want to impress.
“It pushes you to do a little bit better,” he says. “Like, when we get together with Matchbox, we want to do something that makes other guys say, ‘(Expletive) yeah!’ Wanting to impress your friends starts on the playground and never goes away.
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There’s a reflective tone to many of “Where the Light Goes'” most compelling songs, which Thomas sees as a natural consequence of this aging process.
“When you’re younger and you write songs about aging, it’s like a disease,” he says. “It’s like the Stones are saying, ‘What the hell is getting old, right?
“Then as you get older you realize what a privilege it is to be able to grow old. We’ve had friends who didn’t have that. And we think of them all the time. So we write about aging with a bow now, a sense of accomplishment. I think it’s a really big shift between guys in their 20s and guys in their 50s writing music.
As to whether they had any goals before the session, Thomas says, “We look at every situation and say, ‘You’re in the biggest pop-rock band in the world,’ right? So now go make that record.
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“There are certain expectations for success in this modern age that we don’t have on ourselves, and no one has on us,” Thomas says.
“Like, there’s a certain type of hit that we’re never going to do and we’re never supposed to do and it’s not our job to do that. It’s a certain pop muscle that we don’t have and don’t have to worry about.
This allowed them to focus on making the kind of record they would like the biggest pop-rock band in the world to make.
“We could just write music that we really liked and still have the conversation we wanted to have and not be like, ‘Well, we have to find those hits,'” Thomas explains. “And I think there’s a freedom in that feeling of ‘thank God it’s not our job anymore’.”
It was their job, of course, when they launched their career with “Yourself or Someone Like You”, the first 12-time platinum disc released in 1996.
“That’s where you get the money to spend later in life if you’re lucky enough to find that time when what you’re doing is culturally relevant in the national conversation or the international conversation,” Thomas says.
“So maybe one day what you’re doing isn’t part of this conversation.” But you have already assembled a diligent group of initiates who want to see what you are doing.
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He still enjoys singing the breakthrough singles “Push” and “3AM”.
“It’s okay if I never hear those songs again,” he says. “But I’m okay with playing them every night.
“Like, there’s a living, breathing energy that we share with everyone through these songs that have kind of been in their lives for 27 years. There’s no other way for us to see that but it’s like a member of your family. It doesn’t matter if you like their politics or their dinner conversation, they’re part of the (expletive) family.”
His bandmates are also like family. They grew old together, after all.
“I mean, we’re not all a bunch of sloppy drunken mess anymore,” Thomas says. “It’s pretty good. We’re grown men. We have families here.
Each member travels in their own bus these days.
“But like right now, we’re parked in a parking lot somewhere in a hotel with all our buses lined up texting each other,” Thomas laughs. “‘Hey, what are you guys doing? Want to eat something? It’s very civilized here.'”
Box of matches twenty
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 31.
Or: Talking Stick Resort Amphitheater, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix.
Admission: $30 and up.
Details: 602-254-7200, livenation.com.
Contact the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.
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