I got to see so much incredible music this weekend, but for numerous reasons, I would have to say this was easily one of my highlights. John Waite (of The Babys & Bad English) collaborated on a new record with Kyle Cook (of Matchbox 20) and came by our room to do a session for SoundDiego.com and KPRi.
The backstory for this session is that we were waiting around on Saturday and didn't have too many sessions lined up for the day and our Stevie Nicks interview wasn't gonna happen after all. Not sure if it was the label, band manager, or the organizers of Sunset Sessions, but someone asked if the crew wanted to do a session with John Waite, and of course the team couldn't say no but there was the issue of getting a signed release for the music (a policy from which NBC Universal does not stray). That may or may not happen, but we did the session anyway. Afterward, Kyle and I talked about "fair use" and YouTube, and whether artists/labels/copyright owners should be restricting their video uploads. He seemed to just want the material posted. "It's all free promotion."
Believe me, I was trying to play it cool... I've been a (closet) fan of Matchbox 20 since their first record, and after the session was even more in awe of the music greatness shared by both Kyle Cook and John Waite. Some of the women from the station were telling me how people would lose their shit over John ("Missing You" charted #1 in 1984. I was 7), and though it's more than 25 years later, he's incredibly charming and has a ton of sex appeal that it's hard not to swoon just a little bit. During the evening/appetizer session, Kyle came over to my table and hung out until he had to get backstage. He even bought me a beer. What a rad dude. Incidentally, he told me that the first time Matchbox 20 ever played San Diego, they played to about 12 people at a punk rock club (he couldn't remember if it was the Casbah) and that the crowd stood there, arms crossed, talking through the whole set. He said it was horrible, but also a great humbling reality check. We also talked about the new Matchbox record, which he thinks they'll start recording in June, release around Christmas, and tour on in 2012. (I suggested some secret Casbah warmup shows, of course. Redemption.) He also told me he's producing and starting a label in Nashville, so I dropped some names, going to bat for SD. I told him how the single they played, "If You Ever Get Lonely", matched sentiment with Josh Damigo's "LA Is Not My Home", like they could almost be a plea and response to each other. Maybe he'll check it out.
I'll post some of their live performance footage later, but in the meantime, here are the two songs we recorded in Studio i. The first is "If You Ever Get Lonely" which is on the new record, Rough and Tumble, that comes out on February 22. The second is "Missing You", which really needs no introduction, but I will tell you an insane factoid: this song has more than 6 MILLION radio spins. I don't know if you know how crazy that is, but that is definitely holy shit territory. Thanks to both John and Kyle for letting us shoot this, even if this is the only place it will actually be used.
