It is difficult to imagine Bruce Springsteen without Clarence Clemons, Simon without Garfunkel, Mick without Keith. These musical pairings have led to some of the greatest rock and roll music of all time. Dave Matthews and the lead guitarist in his band, Tim Reynolds, continue this tradition with their rich collaborative history. The two met while living in Charlottesville, Virginia and have played together under a number of monickers including Dave and Tim and Dave Matthews and Friends for several decades.
In addition to playing as a part of arguably the most consistently successful contemporary rock band, Reynolds has also enjoyed a successful solo career, both playing acoustically and as a founding member of TR3 (Tim Reynolds Trio). Founded in the mid-80s but resurrected with a different lineup in 2007, TR3 just released a live album, From Space And Beyond, of songs recorded at three different shows in 2009. Known for blending multiple styles including funk, jazz, rock, and blues, Reynolds is a virtuosic guitar player who artfully balances his roles as both front man in TR3 and lead guitarist in DMB. Glide spoke to Reynolds this summer about his history with DMB and the latest TR3 album.
What was it like performing at the Dave Matthews Band Caravan in Atlantic City in front of thousands of fans devoted to the music you all play?
It’s awesome! It’s great to be able to play and also to get music from others. The kind of exchange of going to see The Flaming Lips, which I really love, to Warren Haynes and Thievery Corporation. It’s great to have all that happen in the span of doing multiple gigs as well, cause that weekend I did six gigs over the course of the day. I did a TR3 show and a Dave and Tim show and then a DMB show and that night another TR3 show. The last day there was just one gig but it was a busy weekend for me. It was great just to receive music too. I love The Flaming Lips and it’s great to get a big dose of that.
What role do you and the other musicians in the Dave Matthews Band play in contributing to the band’s compositions?
Different albums, the way it kind of comes about is different. Most of the time Dave comes up with a seed to the song or a whole song and we learn it. When it comes to the studio, a producer will listen to it and make suggestions and then we’ll follow through and re-do the song and get it to a working arrangement. I think a lot of the songs on the last album kind of started as little jams that they recorded. I wasn’t even there for that, but they recorded a bunch of these tunes and played them for the producer and he picked out several to work from. When I came into that project, we started recording in Seattle, everybody sat around and talked about the music, and we played it a little different and we played on it and recorded it some more. Then we went back to New Orleans and worked on it a little more, so sometimes the process- it gets drawn out a little bit. It kind of works so you each have a way to look at it over time and think about it some more. Sometimes you play music and it comes right now, different recordings come about different ways depending on the situations.
Do you ever come up with these seeds of ideas or is it mostly Dave who writes them?
I mostly come up with the little guitar parts that you hear. After we record the basic parts, we’ll come back and do an overdub session with the producer and we’ll say “Oh do that.” That’ll be an idea and then I guess grab it in some color terms and textural terms and work on a part and then “Oh that’s it!” Sometimes it just takes time to do that, but that’s what’s good about having time in the studio to kind of draw out the process and really get the best of what you can with the time. Thats the classic approach to making an album. 
How has playing in the Dave Matthews Band changed you as a guitarist and songwriter?
I don’t know if its changed that much cause I started out in junior high school writing songs, but working with producers and seeing the process, just learning from that, learning how to approach things from a producer’s standpoint. Going back to earlier things I worked on in the 80s with more progressive ideas, reinstitute those things, where a song has different sections. It’s almost song by song. Some songs come out and its one rhythm or one riff and thats all it needs or sometimes you work on a couple ideas to get a piece that moves- different sections have different feels, you kind of have to put that together.
What is it like to play in such a large ensemble as the Dave Matthews Band?
We definitely do a lot of rehearsing so you can almost intuit those bits. You play together and try to listen to whatever everybody else is doing. The more people you have in a band, the less you need to play. You figure out what’s going to fit with all the other stuff going on.
What was the impetus for bringing TR3 back together?
I wasn’t really willing to bring back TR3 per say. The earlier incarnation was in the 80’s with the guys I was friends with in the 80’s. We were in a band called Cosmology and TR3 came out of that band’s rhythm section. It was kind of an organic process of learning Bob Marley songs and James Brown. We started a local band in Charlottesville and after a few years formed that incarnation of the band. We had some different personalities and so many musicians to work with. Sometimes you’d book a gig and the drummer couldn’t make it and you’d get someone else. TR3 back in the day- I could have two different drummers that I could work with and mostly one bass player at a time, but if one guy moved out of town, I could get another guy.
When I moved to the Outer Banks in ‘07, I had been playing solo gigs for about ten years when I lived in New Mexico. A lot of musicians here in this little town. A lot of them I realized I knew people who knew them, so I felt like I knew a lot of musicians already. The first one I met to play with was Dan Martier, who plays drums, and went and heard him play and wound up sitting in that night, getting to know each other. Not long after that Nick, he came over to my house, and we booked a gig just the three of us. When he came over to my house, we talked through what we would play and we had this great gig. Starting after that, we started to rehearse and get things together. At the time, I wasn’t really thinking, “This is the new TR3”, I was just thinking about a trio, a three piece band, we’re gonna rock and do all these things.
We started trying to think of names, but whenever you’re trying to think of a new name without a history, it seems like nothing. As I was thinking about that, my booking agent, who I’ve been working with for twenty years, he booked TR3 back in the day, he said, “Why don’t you just call it TR3?” One reason is that we were actually also learning some old TR3 songs. People were saying, “Hey- can you play some of those old songs?” We already learned some of those, so my booking agent said, “Why don’t you just call it TR3?” And I said, “Well, I guess that’s not a bad idea”. It’s not the same band, but its a name that people will probably remember from my website forever, and it’s what people remember from back in the day. That’s how it became TR3, it’s kind of more after the fact. We had this band, and we couldn’t think of a name, we were playing some old TR3 songs, and that’s kind of how it came about. This band has been together for probably longer than the original TR3. This band has a more solid personnel just from gig to gig- we have the same three guys working for the last four years together so that’s really been a consistent thing.
What about the trio form is so appealing to you as a musician?
There’s just a lot of freedom in it. When I grew up, some of my favorite bands, when I first started listening to music, well there were a lot of different ones, but some of them were trios like Grand Funk and Led Zeppelin- was a power trio but with a singer, Cream. There’s a lot of bands like that, The Melvins, Rage Against the Machine- its four guys but like three musicians. The “power trio” or whatever you want to call it. There’s just a lot of freedom in it – its a format that I’m used to working with. Even in jazz, there are a lot of three pieces, and it’s something I know how to work with.
What inspired you to create a live album after only one studio album with the new TR3?
We just had been playing some gigs- this was recorded back in ’09. The band was solidified at that point and so we decided to record some gigs. We recorded these three gigs so this album is the best of those three gigs. At least half of them are in this place called “Space” in Evanston, IL, which is near Chicago. After having all these recordings, we listened to all the versions of the song, put them together and mixed it, and also, at least up until this year I was on the road pretty constantly too, so it took a while to get it all together. And this year as well, TR3’s been on the road a lot. We’ve been trying to put this out while we were on the road, so it took a while. I’m really psyched. It really sounds good. Now, the band, two years after that recording, we’ve got a lot of new music, so I’m trying to get back into the studio later this year or next year to record some new music. But it’s great to have this live album out cause it really represents the band live.
How did you choose the specific covers? You mentioned you are a Zeppelin fan- is that why you chose two of their songs?
Oh yeah, we just play those songs a lot live. I’ve been playing some of those songs for a long time. That moment of report with the crowd. You play a song that they know and they get you excited to play for them. The love goes both ways. It does anyway but this spices it up. There’s some other covers too. At first I thought that I didn’t want to play that many covers, but it does represent what we’re doing live. We’ve been playing a lot of clubs. Its fun to play things that people recognize and it’s fun to learn new music. We’re constantly learning new covers and trying to write new originals. It’s fun to learn things from both areas of music.
How do you switch gears from being a front man in TR3 to playing with Dave?
Well I just practice basically. I’m pretty neurotic about practicing for each gig. I’ll come home and practice after a gig cause I gotta make sure that I’ve got it together. For me, its just practicing the music and it ranges when I’m on stage. TR3 is three pieces and I’m kinda like the frontman for lack of a better word and in Dave, with Dave Matthews Band, it’s great to be the side man and not have the responsibility of communicating with the audience other than with the guitar, so its really fun to do both things. One is really guitar playing, which I love Dave Matthews playing that part too, but I love in TR3 to get out and jump around and be physical with everything. That’s an ongoing learning curve to do that.
Your guitar sound is continually changing and adapting to the musical situations you are in. How do you keep your sound fresh after playing for so many years?
It keeps it fresh for me playing music of people I’m not familiar with, people that I haven’t been familiar with. The input of that keeps it fresh for me. Watching a video or DVD of someone performing and I’ll go, “Oh-thats really cool” and I can use that for inspiration. Especially the last couple Caravan gigs watching my other favorite bands playing live. It’s always inspiring, however it inspires you either musically or something on stage. Visually, I love watching Wayne from the Flaming Lips talk to the audience and shoot streamers into the audience all night long- it’s just a fun thing.
Tim Reynolds photo by Jeremy Gordon
