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David John-Russell Matthews is a South African, now naturalized American, Grammy-winning lead vocalist and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band. He has also worked as a solo artist, and with other musicians such as Tim Reynolds and Trey Anastasio. An occasional actor, he has also appeared in three feature films.
Dave is the third of four children born to John and Val Matthews. At age two, Dave's family migrated to Yorktown Heights in Westchester County, New York, where his father, a physicist, started working for IBM.
In 1974, the family again moved to Cambridge, England for a year before returning to New York—where his father died from lung cancer in 1977. Nevin Martell argues that his father's death may be an impetus for his "carpe diem" lyrics. The family moved back to South Africa in 1980.
After graduating from St. Stithians College high school, he faced a requirement by the South African government to put in two years of compulsory military service. Coming from a devoutly Quaker family, military service was not an option.
Dave would move to Charlottesville, Virginia, a town Dave's family had lived in before he was born. It was in Charlottesville that he became part of the local music community. Pursuing various interests, Matthews tried his hand on stage, acting in various local productions. While enthusiastic for music, and a popular bartender at a local watering hole called Miller's, Matthews was intimidated by the quality of the local musicians and largely shied away from performing publicly. But local star (and future collaborator) Tim Reynolds finally goaded Matthews to join him on stage one night, and Matthews stunned the audience with his performance. This eventually led to his first professional musical gig at a modern dance performance by the Miki Liszt Dance Company, singing "Sensitive Feelings," composed by John D'earth and Dawn Thompson. In 1990 he hatched the idea to form his own band.
In 1994, Dave's older sister, Anne, who lived in South Africa, was murdered by her husband who subsequently committed suicide on or around January 27, 1994 - an event that has had a drastic effect on Dave's outlook on life. Immediately following her death, Dave was forced to return to the United States due to unbreakable professional obligations. On January 29, 1994, he performed with Tim Reynolds at Wetlands in New York where he dedicated that performance "to her memory". His later album "Under the Table and Dreaming" would be dedicated to her. Anne is survived by her two children who, upon Anne's death, traveled to America, where Dave and his younger sister Jane took responsibility for their upbringing. They continue to raise them to this day.
Formation of Dave Matthews Band
Matthews had originally envisioned someone else singing his songs but instead decided to use his own vocals. Yet after writing his first few songs, including "The Song that Jane Likes" and "Recently", he began to consider starting his own band. Matthews formed The Dave Matthews Band in early 1991 with Boyd Tinsley, LeRoi Moore, Carter Beauford, Stefan Lessard, and Peter Griesar (who left the band a short time later) while he was working as a bartender at Miller's in Charlottesville. The band's first show was on April 20, 1991, at the Earth Day Festival in Charlottesville, Virginia.
They began booking gigs on local stages even though they did not have a name. They considered "Dumela", a South African word for hello, but no real enthusiasm was ever felt. They dropped the idea. It is reported that someone from the band telephoned a place where they were booked and said to "just write Dave Matthews and a band will show up." The person receiving the call wrote "band" after the name, and consequently it stuck.
Originally receiving his musical training on piano, Dave Matthews took the acquired knowledge with his musical skills and transferred them over to the guitar. He helped DMB manager Coran Capshaw found ATO Records in 2000, and he remains one of the principals of that label. Matthews sang on the track "Sing Along" on Blue Man Group's second album The Complex in 2003. Later that year he released a solo album, "Some Devil", which went platinum; its single, "Gravedigger", won a Grammy Award in 2004. To support the album, Matthews toured with a group of musicians (most of whom performed on "Some Devil") under the name Dave Matthews & Friends. This side project of Matthews continues to be active when DMB is on hiatus.
Since 2001, Matthews has been one of the directors of Farm Aid along with Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young. Matthews owns 542 hectares (1,340 acres) of farmland near Scottsville, Virginia named Maple Hill Farm, where he grows organic vegetables, flowers, and herbs through a community-supported agriculture program. Close to the farm, Matthews maintains the 1.6 hectare (4 acre) Blenheim Vineyards which utilizes gravity flow and other gentle winemaking techniques.
Fans of Dave Matthews have always had a strong respect for his privacy. All members of the Dave Matthews Band have enjoyed relatively private lives given their celebrity status. Matthews married his long time girlfriend, Ashley Harper, a naturopathic doctor, on August 10, 2000. The couple have twin daughters, Stella Busina and Grace Anne, born on August 15, 2001, and a son, August Oliver, born on June 19, 2007, at their home in Seattle, Washington.
Matthews has both personally and with his band mates been very active in giving back. Matthews has performed several benefit concerts for music education, Hurricane Katrina victims and most recently victims of the Virginia Tech shooting. At that concert, on September 6, 2007, they were joined by John Mayer, Phil Vassar, and Nas. The whole concert lasted 6 hours and more than 52,000 people attended. The Bama Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band is administered by the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation. "Established in 1999, the Bama Works Fund supports charitable programs in the Charlottesville area. Grants are limited to the City of Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson and Orange. Grants may also be made nationally and internationally, but proposals from organizations beyond the Charlottesville area are considered by invitation only."
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