Smooth Operator

After almost a decade of fronting Matchbox 20, Rob Thomas has taken the plunge to go solo. While the band is on a temporary hiatus, the singer-songwriter has emerged with a new image and a new sound, which he buoyantly tells uk-fusion about

This was the first time as a band we weren’t inspired to go and make a record. Usually we are, usually we get off the tour and we already know the record we wanna make but this time we thought, OK maybe we should take a break and go find that excitement somewhere else and bring that back to the band.

What are you expecting from this album in terms of emulating the success of M20 – certainly in the UK at least?

Here, in a lot of ways, it’s already done better than Matchbox has so I guess I’m already happy (laughs), I can’t really ask for more!  With Matchbox 20 being such an inherently American rock band, I can understand why maybe this record would do better and so far it seems like it has.

I don’t really see the comparison to Justin Timberlake apart from the hair…

Yeah, just ‘cos I shave my head? A lot of people shave their heads.

Can I touch it?

Yeah, touch it! Isn’t it fine? It’s conditioned! I don’t think I look any more like him than I do David Beckham. I guess because I sing and I made a poppy song and then I shaved my head, obviously put together people wanna say Justin Timberlake ‘cos it was the first thing they could jump to but I don’t see it. Don’t get me wrong – I like Justin. I think he’s really talented, he’s a nice guy but I’m fucking 33 years old, you know?!

I noticed you were billed in People’s poll of ‘the most beautiful people’ list a few years ago, what number did you clock in at?

I don’t remember but the next year I wasn’t in it and I haven’t been in it since so I guess I’ve just fucking declined! (laughs loudly) “Hey! You’re beautiful again! Come back, come back! We love you again!” The fact that it’s different people every year goes to show that you can’t put stock in it.

Your solo work is quite poppy. Is that what you were gearing towards by moving away from the rockier sound of M20?
I set out to make a record so that every track sounded different from the next and that it was all about diversity. My first single [‘Lonely No More’] is definitely the poppiest thing I’ve ever written, at least I’ve ever sang on next to maybe ‘Smooth’ [with Carlos Santana] but because that has Carlos and his band, it’s not quite as poppy as rock pop. ‘Lonely No More’ is the poppiest thing I’ve ever done but it’s the only thing on the record that sounds like it and it seemed like a good first single. Even if it doesn’t represent my record well, it represents the distance from a Matchbox record and so people wouldn’t expect the same thing.

Why do you think very little is known about you as a songwriter?

That part of it is kinda OK with me. There’s something really great about the anonymous writer side of what I do and it somehow naturally leaks out. I just finished a song with Big Boi [Outkast] that Mary J Blige is singing for Carlos’ new record and I’m really excited about that.

What was it like to do that?

It was great but I’ve never met him! We did it all with MP3s, sending stuff back and forth, I’d sing on a demo and send it back to him, he’d do a demo and send it back to me so we ended up doing what might be Carlos’ first single off his record.

What’s inspired you on this record in terms of your song writing?

My past only comes up as a by-product of my writing. I’ve never written a song about hitchhiking round the country, I’ve never written a song about sleeping on a park bench. Now I am married and I have a career, I’m trying to find that line between a career and an art, between wanting to make music that I love and music that means something to other people too. My wife wasn’t well during the making of the record and there’s a lot of that on this record.

What do your band mates think of the album?

Um, I don’t know. Paul likes it ‘cos Paul (our drummer) I talk to all the time but none of the other guys have called me! How d’ya like that?

That’s rude.

Isn’t that rude? They’re rude!

You and your wife established Sidewalk Angels Foundation, a non-profit organisation working with smaller charities around America. How does that work and how is it funded?

It’s not funded at all, it’s more like a sieve for donations so that we can funnel out to other organisations or sometimes so that we can use our influences with our connections with certain small organisations that due to their sizes don’t have the benefit of tens and thousands of dollars in marketing for posters and t-shirts. A lot of these small organisations need direct help. My wife actually started the foundation and now that she’s been better, we just started again on the website, we’re putting it back up and having the full force this year so that’s really exciting.

What was kinky the first time?

What does that mean – what was my first kinky thing I ever did? Ohh, umm, let me think…outdoor sex. You know, outdoor sex is pretty kinky the first time you do it, then after that you get the hang of it.

Did you get caught?
Yes, I did – once. I was in Alabama and I was on a mountain top, having sex on a car, like on the hood of the car (this was before I was married obviously!).

That shouldn’t stop you.

Well it should – only with my wife though!

You mean it’s not kinky with your wife?

(excitedly) "Heheheh, that shouldn’t stop you! Hey!!" It was one of those things where I didn’t realise there was a cop. The cop actually drove up, got out of his car and was standing by the car by the time we realised he was there and he was like (clears throat loudly).

How long was he waiting?
I don’t know – that’s a good question! Long enough, that’s for sure!

Did you get arrested or were you given a warning?
No, he was just like “Oh you kids!” It was the night after a show and what made it worse was that everybody in the band was on the bus waiting for me. The sun had come up and we were supposed to have been gone hours ago!

What albums do you rate at the moment?

I love the Kings Of Leon record [Aha Shake Heartbreak]. I wake up in the morning singing it and I can’t stop.

Their mum cuts their hair.

Yeah but can you imagine with a haircut they’d be no fun! I like the White Stripes record [Get Behind Me Satan] and the Coldplay record [X&Y] – all of ‘em, all the White Stripes records, all the Coldplay records! There’s a band called The Sights, they’re really, really good, they remind me a little bit of Kings Of Leon.

I understand you’ll be performing at the Live 8 gig in Philadelphia on 2 July. How did that come about and what are you expecting from it?

I’m not sure how it came about other than I got a phone call and I was really excited to do it. Right now we’re in a place in our country where in my 33 years is the most divided we’ve ever been as a country. A lot of it has to do with the fact that we’re wasting our energy, tax payer’s money and lives when Africa has always been a problem. World debt relief has always been a problem and so we’re in a time where we realise how important it is that to show there is a huge part of America that isn’t guarded by lawyers and wants to be part of a global nation and not just be insulated in our own Americaness.

You can’t hold a nation responsible for money that was paid to them by old regimes that the people never even got that money to begin with but somehow we’re holding that debt over their heads. I think that it’s great that he [Bob Geldof] extended it to beyond London and I think that it’s gonna be a really important day. I hope that it is and I hope the message comes through that the entire world feels like this is kinda on top of our to-do list.

You’ll be playing at London’s Astoria on 22 June…can I come?

Yeah, sure! It’s easy enough – I know the band!

Is there a party afterwards?

Maybe. If there is, you’re in, you’re definitely in. I’ll remember to invite the kinky girl!  Heheheh!

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