North is a direction. It's a place. It's a marker of progress -- and an intended destination.
NORTH is also the title of Matchbox Twenty's fourth album, the quartet's first release in five years, its first set of all-new material in a decade, and, perhaps most rewarding, the first album to debut at #1 in the band’s highly decorated career. And like other connotations of the word, the 12-song set represents a determined journey, a carefully considered path that combines earnest melodicism with sly and even snarky fun as well as a new internal world order that has made Matchbox Twenty a tighter and even more collaborative band than ever before in its 17-year career.
"We approached this record a lot differently," attests front man Rob Thomas. "Rather than me just writing a bunch of songs, bringing them to the band and then us arranging them together, this was a lot of collaboration. A lot of the songs we wrote together, especially me and Paul (Doucette) and Kyle (Cook). We needed a little time to figure out how that works, how that dynamic works with three people who are used to writing alone. How do we get in a room and not kill each other?"
Doucette has the answer: "Taking our time was exactly the point. We were like, 'Let's use that to our advantage -- take our time, not feel as much pressure or any pressure and just write a lot of songs and see what kind of record we want to make."
NORTH finds Matchbox Twenty--Rob Thomas, Paul Doucette, Kyle Cook and Brian Yale - honed and fine-tuned, from the roof-raising arena-sized anthem "Put Your Hands Up" to the kinetic beat of new single "Our Song" to the rich craft of "Overjoyed and "Parade." "English Town" and "I Will" are the group at its balladic best, while Thomas thinks "Like Sugar" "sounds almost like a Dr. Dre tracked mixed with our band, really fresh." And then there's "She's So Mean," NORTH's high-energy, harmony-laden lead single which marked the band’s triumphant return with a top 10 charting.
"We're a band that's just always respected craft," explains Doucette. "We really value craft in songwriting and craft in record-making. We pursued that maybe a little bit more on this record. It was less about being a band that sounds like we're just playing songs we wrote based off riffs and more about developing as a group of songwriters or a group of musicians who are used to working within the context of pop songs. We wanted to pursue that and see how good our craft was now, in our late 30s and early 40s, compared to how it was when we were 23."
It was pretty good back then, too, mind you. Formed in Florida, Matchbox Twenty entered the world with a blockbuster -- 1996's YOURSELF OR SOMEONE LIKE YOU. The debut set spawned five hit singles -- "Push," "3 am," "Real World," "Long Day" and "Back 2 Good" and snagged an RIAA Diamond Award certification for U.S. sales exceeding more than 12 million to date. Thomas also raised the band's profile by co-writing and singing on Santana's Grammy Award-winning 1999 smash "Smooth." Matchbox Twenty maintained the momentum with MAD SEASON in 2000 and "MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE in 2002, both of which went multi-platinum and continued to spit out hits such as "Bent," "Unwell," "If You're Gone," "Bright Lights" and "Disease."
But after three albums of hard work and equally hard touring, Matchbox Twenty was ready for a break. Thomas released a pair of Top 5 solo albums which contained several #1 singles, Doucette worked with his band The Break and Repair Method and wrote film music, while Cook led the New Left. The hiatus not only renewed Matchbox Twenty as a band but also seasoned the individual members even further as they came back together for 2007's EXILE ON MAINSTREAM, a greatest hits collection that sported six inspired new tracks which were co-written by the band for the first time ever and included their biggest selling single to date “How Far We’ve Come”.
In addition to more than 30 million records sold worldwide, Matchbox Twenty has also earned countless accolades, including five Grammy nominations, four American Music Award nods, the 2004 People’s Choice Award for “Favorite Musical Group, and they were named “Best New Band” in the 1997 Rolling Stone Readers Poll. What’s more, Rob Thomas has proven one of the most highly decorated artists of recent years, receiving three Grammy Awards, 11 BMI Awards, and two Billboard “Songwriter of the Year” honors for both his chart-topping solo work as well as collaborations with such legends as Santana, Mick Jagger, Willie Nelson and Big Boi. Thomas’ collaboration with Carlos Santana on “Smooth” was also named the #2 Most Popular Song Ever on Billboard’s List of the 100 Most Popular songs behind “The Twist.” He was also named to Billboard’s Top 20 List of Hot 100 Songwriters 2000-2011 at #5 and was the top ranking artist/songwriter on the list.
