For bassist Stefan Lessard of the Dave Matthews Band, seeing his latest album Big Whiskey And The Groogrux King earn the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 (with over 400,000 copies being sold) is bittersweet to say the least. His bandmate, saxophonist LeRoi Moore, passed away last August as a result of an ATV accident, but Moore’s creative imprint is still very much present on over 70 percent of the record. Lessard said that his friend’s legacy will continue to live on, and the newly expanded horn section within the band is a result of that influence.
Big Whiskey And The Groogrux King is yet another step in the evolution of
DMB, which
Lessard has been a member of since his mid-teens. Joining the band at 16 years of age, the bassist had to make a quick adjustment to life – namely giving up school. It’s a decision that, given his multiplatinum success, would seem to be the correct path. But as
Lessard explained to Ultimate-Guitar writer
Amy Kelly, he hasn’t completely turned his back on education.
UG: So much has happened since the release of the 2005 album Stand Up, and the music community was saddened by the passing of LeRoi Moore. Had the bulk of Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King been written prior to that event?
Stefan: Most of the music for the record, at least a good 70 percent of it, was written in Seattle and Virginia a year ago from this past March. LeRoi was there for that process. That’s really where the soul of the body of the work is. Out of that, Dave wrote lyrics over four songs. So he had things for four of the tunes going into the summertime. Then with the stuff that happened after LeRoi passed, there are a few songs that kind of came out of those original songs. Lyrically, of course, there is a lot of stuff that happened after LeRoi’s passing. LeRoi was there for the majority of the music that was made.
There seemed to be a longer list of musicians added to the DMB rotation on the new studio album, with guitarist Tim Reynolds and trumpeter Rashawn Ross providing input. Did those fresh perspectives take the band in a completely new creative direction?
What the new direction for us that you probably haven’t heard as much on any of the other records was having a horn section. LeRoi, throughout the live shows, he had Rashawn come out, and he started sort of creating this horn section inside the music of the Dave Matthews Band. What always was sort of a unique aspect of the band was that we had a violinist and horn section kind of parts. Now all of the sudden there was a trumpet and there was a natural horn section sound that was happening. All of the solo horns that you hear, that’s all LeRoi. But then the horn section, that was sort of an extension of LeRoi’s idea. It was where he was leading the band and the sound of what we were trying to do. It was exciting to have, for example, “Shake Me Like A Monkey.” It’s a perfect example of a sound that sounds like us, but with that horn section. LeRoi and Rashawn, we used to call them the “horny horns” because they would just pull out stuff that was spur of the moment. LeRoi had a saying, “It’s one for one.” If you had an idea and it never really worked out, then you could go, “Well, that was one for one.” Having Tim on the record, for me, was almost like going home in a sense. We had Tim play on our first three records. It was exciting to have him there. It all worked great.
"What always was sort of a unique aspect of the band was that we had a violinist and horn section kind of parts."
At the moment, we’re really lucky to have him and that he had time for this summer. He has his own gig. He does his own work. For example, last April we did a show. I believe it might have been Albuquerque. I think afterwards he went and played a club with his other band TR3. I’m just really grateful that he has the time to tour with us this year. As far as I’m concerned, I would love for that time to be made for us every year.
I’d like to rewind the clock back a little bit to when you first joined the band at the age of 16. Obviously they saw something extremely special within your playing ability. How did those events play out?
I had a great music teacher growing up in high school. I had been with him for two years, and we had a very musical family. As far as me being serious about music, I really didn’t get started until I was about 14. So I kind of took the World Music class, and my dad worked for a company that sold instruments. So he brought home a bass guitar one day, and I asked if I could take it to class. My dad showed me a couple of simple scales, and just started playing around with scales. The teacher said, “Hey, that sounds pretty good. Have you ever thought about playing bass seriously?” I said, “No, but I will now!” Fast forward a year later, and I was playing upright and had an upright teacher. I was really big into jazz and starting classical. I got accepted into the youth orchestra as the third tier bassist. So I was really progressing real quick at an early stage. My music teacher, who is also a trumpet player and knew a lot of the musicians in town, knew that Dave was sort of putting together a small group of musicians to form a band. Carter and LeRoi had a rehearsal the day my music teacher suggested that they try a student as a bass player. I think he said that I had a “good pocket.” I started playing with them at the second rehearsal, and that was it. They saw that I was a serious student, and at the time there weren’t too many other bass players around. I had the time to rehearse and I was eager, so it was the perfect fit.
I understand that you had to decide whether to continue on with school or not. Was that a difficult decision for you?
It was hard. I really wanted to go to Berklee or Julliard. I had my eyes set on a really good music school. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of bassists and musicians that I had idolized at the time. What I found was I was able to go to school a year early. When I was 17, I was accepted into VCU on a music scholarship. As I was there, I was driving back and forth from Richmond, Virginia, to Charlottesville, Virginia, almost every single day for rehearsals. So I would be driving back to Richmond at like four in the morning, stay there, and then get up at 6:30 for a 7 o’clock class. Yeah, it was fun at the time. I was like, “This is great. I can keep up.” The head of the jazz department came to me and sort of asked me if I could restrict my extracurricular activities to the campus. They wanted me to put that effort into school ensembles and stuff. Right around the time he asked me to do that, the band had its first big-money gig, which was $1,000 at a roadhouse in Colorado. So it was either travel to Colorado with the band and give up school and the scholarship, or continue with school and give up the band. At the time, I was just fueled by the fact that I was in a band that was popular in my hometown. I couldn’t let go of that. So I picked the band over the school.
Given the monstrous popularity of the band, it seems like you made the right decision.
I think so. From then on, I was self taught. I didn’t have any teachers. I was on the road. I was learning the songs. My skills became whatever the song needed. That’s where my skill level went. I’ve always wanted to go to school and college, ever since I was in high school. I never lost that urge. Now that I realize that there’s a street credit that I have that schools don’t have. Right now I’m on a real big search for knowledge. I’ve picked up a bunch of my old workbooks and vocation books. I’m putting back myself in school, at least in my head. There are always places to go as a musician.
"I was just fueled by the fact that I was in a band that was popular in my hometown."
I have an elementary basis in that to be honest. A lot of times, when we’re writing songs, Dave would play a chord and look at me. He’d say, “What’s this chord?” He knows what chords he’s playing now. Carter and LeRoi had years of experience under their belt, and I was sort of still at a high school level. The one thing that I realized is that I was traveling around in a van when I was 17, 18, 19. Those are the years that you generally tend to woodshed. You go back to your dorm or you go rehearse with friends. So I never got the style across that I really wanted. That I had to sort of sacrifice. I couldn’t sit in the back of the van with three people with a bass out woodshedding. I did do a lot of listening, and I did a lot of learning on the spot. I did a lot of trial and error. My knowledge is at a point right now where I’m really starting to see the light as far as what theory means to music. Victor Wooten is an incredible inspiration to me as far as technical ability and also how he plays solos. One thing he said recently that I really like and I’ve been living by it recently is that, “There is a lot that makes music. The notes are probably the least important. It’s everything else that gets attached to those notes that makes those notes musical.” Also he said recently that, “Next to a wrong note, there’s always a right note.” If you look at it like that, you’re always a half-step next to a right note. So I’ve been trying to look at that and have that expand the way I think of soloing and my bass lines. Maybe playing some of those wrong notes will help me get to the right notes.
Are you someone who is a stickler for a specific tone and searches until you find the perfect equipment? Or would you say that you tend to focus more of your attention on the playing aspect?
It’s a combination. I have recently put all my knobs to zero and am letting the engineer get the tones of the bass. In the studio this last time, we did some testing of the knobs, and my producer Rob Cavallo decided that it was best to leave those knobs at a zero position. So I’ve been doing that. I used to love reggae bass. You can pump that low end. It gave me a leeway or a margin because when you have so much low end, you feel it. It’s okay if you’re a little bit on the side of the beat because it’s just so heavy. Recently the tone stepped back. What I’ve noticed is that I really like that sound. I’m trying to go for just a real pure sound. I have been using the IK Multimedia Stomp IO, which is pretty awesome. I love it. We use it live. I didn’t use it in the studio, but I use it live. Sometimes a song might call for a funky bass with a wah. I have an old Ampeg amplifier with a Jimi Hendrix wah pedal. It sounds so funky and I love it. Then I go back to my regular amps for the straight-up tones. I like to be modern, but at the same, I like my bass to sound pretty pure. If you have a really great bass, you should be able to make that bass sound insane just using your hands and not manipulating it too much.
Which basses are you using right now?
I have two basses right now that I’m completely in love with. One is the John Hill bass, which is my four-string bass. The other one is my five-string, which is a Ken Smith.
What is it about those two particular basses that drew you to them?
The Ken Smith is a little bit more musical sounding. It has great lows and a really nice sounding tone. I just like the feel of it. I think it feels good in my hands, and I really enjoy playing it. The John Hill bass, it’s a unique bass. It works for more rock sounds. The songs that are a little bit more edgy and modern, it works great. Also it has a great tone to it. Producers have loved it. I just have gotten really great feedback from both of those basses, and they just feel really good in my hands. I used to switch through a bunch of different basses. I want to get to know these basses really well.
"I’m trying to go for just a real pure sound."
Most of the tunes originated from jam sessions that we had back in Charlottesville. Our producer came in and said, “I want you guys to have great jams onstage. I believe in what you do. I want to capture these moments, but I don’t want you to do it for a half-hour or 45 minutes. I might stop you at like 10 minutes. Once I feel that there is something in that jam, I’ll stop you and we’ll move on.” So we just started. Carter started a drum groove, and Dave maybe started playing a little guitar thing. LeRoi might have started something, and I would sort of play along and Carter fell in. It was just sort of a real spontaneous, organic kind of music making with each other. We actually had 20, 25 different small gems. We had an A list and a B list. We went to Seattle and we started working on the A list. We listened to the jams that we recorded, and then we just all sat in a room together with guitars and instruments and took the song aspects of that jam and started thinking about where we could go with it and stuff. A great example is “Why I Am.” That jam was such a cool jam. We had such a great feeling when we started jamming out on that, and we had to make that into a song.
The band is known for its live shows, and I noticed you have a heavy touring schedule coming up. Are you still as excited to go out on the road as you were when you first started?
I am. I’m really enjoying my time onstage right now. I’m loving playing these new songs. It opens up the setlist. I leave for Europe tomorrow, and I’m really excited to get over there and play some music for these different festivals and different countries. That makes me feel excited, and it’s been a great tour so far. I miss LeRoi immensely. The way the band is right now, we’re having a great time. I can only imagine how much greater of a time it would be with him onstage with us. I just sort of get up onstage, and every show is for LeRoi. I just try and put my whole heart into the songs. It’s been a great time so far. Every show feels like a new, exciting adventure.
Interview by Amy Kelly
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