Asked by a Twitter follower if Matchbox Twenty’s forthcoming album “Where the Light Goes” features bonus tracks, band co-founder Paul Doucette replied, “No. But really the record is a bonus, so yes 12.” Fans may have chuckled, but the multi-instrumentalist wasn’t kidding. In his mind, future recordings with the Grammy-nominated group were not in the cards.
“Before this record, I didn’t think we’d ever make new music again,” Doucette tells Variety ahead of the album’s May 26 release. “I had grieved it and moved on. Rob [Thomas] was doing his thing and I didn’t want to wait anymore. Then I started film and TV [composing] — I started at the bottom, clawed my way up and liked it, so didn’t want to give that up.”
“Your dreams at 20 don’t have to be your dreams at 50,” continues Doucette, a composer on Apple TV’s “For All Mankind.” “I thought, ‘We can always go out and play, but if we never make another record, it’s okay. We had a great run.’ I had written us off.”
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Throw in Kyle Cook’s solo ventures and brief departure from the group and Thomas’ hesitations around losing the autonomy of his solo career (releasing “Chip Tooth Smile” in 2019, a Christmas album in 2021 and co-writing songs with artists including Carlos Santana and Conrad Sewell) and the band could have simply continued touring with hits like “Push,” “3AM” and “Long Day.”
But as their anthemic album opener, “Friends,” notes, “There’s a rhythm to the way life goes,” and for Thomas (vocals), Cook (guitar, vocals, keys), Doucette (guitar, drums, keys, background vocals) and Brian “Pookie” Yale (bass), that meant finding their way back to the studio — even if it takes 11 years.
Initially planning several new songs for tour, a full album — their fifth full-length for Atlantic Records –naturally culminated from three postponements, antsy fans and a pile-up of tracks.
“Once songs develop color and personality, it’ like, ‘Hey, this is who we are now,’” says Thomas. “Then we can build on that because part of the journey’s figuring out what our individual parts sound like when they’re together again — and do we still like it? Luckily, we did.”
Dreary pandemic themes were out as the group, whose “Slow Dreams Tour” commences May 16, recorded their first new music since 2012’s “North.” Instead, intended optimism and joy is exactly what Doucette felt producing the jubilant horn-fueled opening of triumphant “Friends.”
While lyrics like “All my friends are here” are itching to be performed live amid long-awaited reunions with fans and crew, Thomas initially dismissed the challenging track. However, Doucette defiantly persevered.
“It was about the joy it brought me when I came up with that opening,” says Doucette, who produced the album alongside Cook and Gregg Wattenberg. “It made me so happy because it reminded me of T’Pau. I went, ‘I can’t ever give up on this song,’ so kept going and going.”
Featuring vocals from Doucette and Wattenberg’s children, the track was almost as arduous as “One Hit Love,” which Doucette started then relinquished to the too-hard basket. Thomas, Wattenberg, a choir and poignant strings arrangement helped rescue the stirring slow-tempo.
“It was like slaying a dragon,” confesses Doucette. “But what’s great about Greg Wattenberg is he’ll push, push and keep pushing, even when Rob and I go, ‘We’ve got it.’”
It was Wattenberg who suggested singer-songwriter Amanda Shires duet with Thomas on the cheerful “No Other Love.” Cook, who released solo effort “Wolves” in 2019, meanwhile, takes center stage in soulful, self-penned “I Know Better.”
But it’s punchy tunes like “Don’t Get Me Wrong” and the title track which encapsulate the DNA of Matchbox Twenty, perfected after 30 years of music-making. Sounding like it was plucked from an ‘80s movie, rock-fuelled “Where the Light Goes” reflects the unwavering influences the era left on the band. Sure to command concert-goers to their feet, the feel-good track’s finishing touch was Doucette’s drumming.
“[Drummer] Gunnar [Olsen] played phenomenally, but there was something that didn’t feel like Matchbox Twenty,” says Doucette. “It’s tiny things like where I lay the snare against Rob’s voice or the way Kyle or Pookie play, which is the sound of Matchbox.”
“If people imagined the next phase of Matchbox Twenty, they would imagine that song,” adds Thomas. “It needed Paul playing drums to add the last ingredient.”
The core ingredients of all four band members were key to Matchbox Twenty’s return. Yet, just like Doucette, Cook once wrote off further music-making with the group. The father-of-two exited in 2016, citing a communication breakdown.
Thomas reflects on the conflict as a “non-event” given that the band weren’t working together at the time and made amends in time for 2017’s “A Brief History of Everything” tour.
“It’s funny because had you not brought that up, I’d forgotten,” adds Doucette. “We’ve all had that period [of doubts]. Kyle was maybe more public and went further with it.”
“We joke about that,” says Thomas. “It’s like, ‘Dude, we found out on Twitter!’”
In regaining Cook, Matchbox reaped his musician partner and “new band member” Tina Dawn, who sings back-up on songs including energetic single, “Wild Dogs (Running in a Slow Dream),” which features a music video directed by Jay Sprogell.
And while the foursome still faces tense moments — like the band’s first album meeting ending in a fight — they swiftly move on.
“It doesn’t escalate the way it used to,” says Thomas. “There were definitely periods where I’d do something with Paul and Gregg and Kyle’s initial response wasn’t favorable, but because we weren’t all in there fighting, he would live with it for two days then call back saying, ‘I see where that was going now.’ Or I’d tell Paul, ‘That’s not a bridge,’ then days later, I’m saying, ‘That’s a perfect bridge.’ There’s something to be said about living with something to really see how you feel about it.”
Adds Doucette: “There’s a love between us that’s eternal and the only time that’s hard is when we’re creating. With four people trying to make something, it’s tough, but for this record that was less so, maybe because we made it in chunks.”
Working virtually on songs before recording batches in New York helped accommodate the individual commitments and passions which have tugged the musicians in different directions. Today, they acknowledge their priorities largely lie outside Matchbox Twenty, with Doucette recounting how sending his child to college recently sharpened his focus.
“I realized how little of their life was spent around Matchbox Twenty,” says Doucette. “It’s like, ‘Here’s the most important thing — being a father — and here’s how little Matchbox [has featured in that].’ Matchbox isn’t unimportant and I’ll be in Matchbox until I die, but that put it into perspective.”
“In our twenties, it was like being in an army family for our families,” adds Thomas. “Everything was in service of Matchbox Twenty. If we had to leave, we never questioned it. Years went by and we gave everything because it meant everything to us. As you get older, you have other gardens to tend to and Matchbox Twenty becomes far from the only important thing, so it’s easier to imagine letting go.”
“The thing about where we are now is it feels like where we should be,” Thomas continues. “There was a moment making this record where I went, ‘This is the exact record I’m supposed to be making and these are the people I’m supposed to be making it with.’ Not because we swore we’d keep the band together, but because our lives converged again in a natural way that felt like this is where we’re supposed to be.”
