Photo Credit: Rodrigo Simas
Recently, Dave Matthews sat down with Sirius XM’s Ari Fink to discuss a wide range of topics while at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. In a conversation that can be streamed on YouTube in separate segments, the musician shared an update on the forthcoming Dave Matthews Band album, their current tour and present-day issues facing U.S. politics.
In a dialogue between Fink and Matthews, the artist unveiled an update on his band’s latest studio endeavor: “I’m really psyched about it, but every time I walk into the studio and we’re listening to mixes, I say, ‘Ooh,’ and then, you know, there’s another little song.”
Fink replied “You’re very focused on the album which we appreciate and we know that these things take time and, you know, are eagerly awaiting the new music whenever it is. I would imagine that that last 1% or the last half percent or maybe even once you get to 99.9% done that last 0.1% of the record must be so impossible.”
Matthews added, “Yeah. That’s the part. It’s sort of, it’s a little bit hard to clean it up and so, you know, it’s not even just like sweeping things together in the sequence and getting the art and all those things are not, you know, necessarily necessary, but I’m because I’m old, I’m attached to the idea of a collection. Maybe the next collection of songs will just be songs we put out on the internet.” He continued, “Or the streaming. I mean, wherever you put it. The whole world is a spider web.”
Then their conversation turned to politics, and Matthews offered his perspective on justifying government decisions through religious belief: “ I do think this is a very serious time. I’m not anti-Christian or anti-religion, but you know, if the way people are talking about Christianity and how this government should be governed by Christian ideals, and that we need to weed out those people that are examples of un-Christian or immoral behavior, that’s very dangerous language and it may seem like it’s coming from a good place, but that language can be exploited and it’s a very dangerous language”
The Senior Director of Music Programming at Sirius XM, Fink, responded, “Absolutely man and when you analyze the language, it’s terrifying truly because we’ve seen this movie before, I mean, throughout history as you mentioned It’s just crazy and I’m so glad that you’re here to chime in on it.”
The conversation continued with Matthews adding some thoughts on the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which formerly granted women in the United State the right to legal and safe abortions. He also touched on gun control in the wake of increased violence, stating: “The beliefs of a few people are being, you know, indulged while the rights of many more people are being taken away, whether it’s the right to feel free from gun violence in a public square or having the right to control your own body, you know, and that’s the part that’s sort of I think the reason that there’s a visceral response is unless you’re in support of those things, your beliefs and your hopes or what you think is right or your liberties are infringed upon, so it has a different stink to it.”
Fink questioned, “Because they call it freedom?” To which Matthews answered, “Well, and when it infringes, that’s the part, you know? It’s the reduction of rights. So these decisions are sort of, for me, seem unique in that way. Usually the decisions have been in the opposite direction whether it’s about, you know, hate crime or whether it’s about liberty or about civil rights or a lot of these decisions that are made sort of increase who’s protected and it wasn’t the case. It’s not the case right now. So hopefully we can get the other arms of government to take action, to protect people from those things. Protect people’s rights.”
The two spoke at greater length about these topics, and the complete conversations can be streamed on Sirius XM’s YouTube channel now or below.
