Flyer Profile: Matt Jones
Back in the early 2000′s (that’s weird to say), there was a band in Fayetteville called the Thomas Grey Band. I worked as a bartender at Powerhouse Seafood, and they played there a lot. It seemed like they played everywhere a lot.
They broke up in 2004, and lead singer/songwriter of the band Matt Jones began his solo career.
Then, it seemed like he was everywhere.
Matt was kind of a fixture of the Fayetteville music scene for several years, until he moved to Los Angeles last year to concentrate on his music.
He’ll be back in town this weekend to play a set of old Motown tunes at George’s, called the Matt Jones Soul Review.
We got in touch with Matt, and he was nice enough to answer some questions for us.
FF: What have you been listening to lately?
Matt Jones: I’ve been listening to Kings Of Leon’s Only By The Night pretty heavily since it was released. I love space on a record and every song has enough space for me to really surround myself with the music. I’ve also been listening to Motown records again, not only to refresh myself for the Evening Of Soul show coming up, but it’s always been my musical rock to turn to for inspiration.
FF: You’ve been in several bands around town. What are some that Fayetteville folks may have heard?
MJ: I’ve been playing Dickson for almost ten years now so it’s really hard to tell when somebody might have first seen me or would know my music. The most successful outing of the bands past would be The Thomas Grey Band. It was a lot of fun playing with those guys every night and, as a credit to the caliber of players I was surrounded with, they led us to a couple NAMA and OMA wins. I only started playing as a solo artist in 2004.
FF: You’ve been in Los Angeles for a while, correct? What have you been up to out there?
MJ: I’ve been living in L.A. for about 9 months now. It’s been both the most traumatic and most gratifying experiences of my life. I’m now in a place where I can solely focus on writing and recording my first full length album, at my own pace, in a world class studio, all without having to walk more than 20 feet to work. It’s a dream job.
FF: What are some Fayetteville bands that you’ve stayed in contact with that you admire?
MJ: The music community in Fayetteville is incredibly healthy. Musicians in Fayetteville, in my experience, honestly respect and care for each other tremendously. The closest relationship musically that I have is probably with Benjamin Del Shreve and the guys in his band. Though we’re all different stylistically, there’s not only a deep appreciation and desire for each other’s music but also a true friendship there. He’s someone that I love to talk shop with but at the end of the day I’ve got his back and he’s got mine.
FF: Tell me a little bit about your show at George’s on Friday. You’re doing a Mo-town set?
We’re billing it as An Evening Of Soul. It’s really an extension of who I feel I am as an artist and performer. These songs are the songs of my childhood and to this day keep me inspired to create. This will be the third outing for this set and it just keeps getting better and better. We’ve added some new songs to the list and this time around we will showcase individual members of the band more than we have before. It’s an exciting, fun atmosphere.
FF: How annoying is it that you’re from Fayetteville, and you share a name with one of the most famous quarterbacks in Arkansas Football history?
MJ: I really don’t find it annoying at all. It’s humorous at times but for the most part, it doesn’t come up. That’s not to say it was that way when I first started playing out.
FF: When you’ve been away from Fayetteville for a while, what’s the first restaurant you want to visit when you come back to town?
MJ: The first three restaurants I went to when I came back home were La Huerta, Common Grounds, and The Venetian Inn in Tontitown. Definitely favorites of mine.
FF: How many records do you have out now, and where can we find one?
MJ: Truly, I don’t have any records out right now. I have an EP that I recorded in 2004 and subsequently re-released in 2006 with some new songs on it that you can find on iTunes and CDBaby. But so much has gone on in my musical education and growth that I feel that collection of work no longer represents me as a songwriter. When I finish the album I’m currently recording I’ll probably go as far as removing that album from physical and digital shelves if only to give a better picture of my music.
FF: What’s next for you? Any touring or recording plans?
MJ: There’s always “what’s next” plans running through my head but I’m trying to really focus myself on the task of creating beautiful music and making the best record I possibly can. After I have that completed, I’m just as curious to find out what will happen.
Click below to hear Matt Jones version of “God is a Dancer” by Benjamin Del Schreve
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Comments
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CasadelRio
November 4, 2009
Wwowwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!! (WARNING: This is an opinion and if you don’t like it then you can post a reply. This is a democracy) When I heard the original song by Benjamin del Shreve I thought it was the worst song I would ever hear……Oh but now. Now I am happy to know that someone could make that song even worse. And I mean a lot worse. First of all, you can’t cover a local band that is not at all famous and shouldn’t be famous. Second, you turned a 90′s pop-alternative into a 90′s praise and worship song…..I can’t even believe it. I want to bash my head through a window. This is a sad day for music. Nay! A sad day for sounds in general. In a world where this song is good, the deaf are king.
Urk
November 4, 2009
@casadelrio
I actually think local bands covering each other’s songs is a great idea. I have no opinion in this case, haven’t listened to the song, might sometime. but as a general practice–why does a song have to be ‘famous” or nationally distributed to be valuable? I really think that the opposite is true, that local songs sometimes speak to local circumstances best, and that the playing of them by local artists helps create a strong local song culture.
Don’t let the fame machine tell you what’s good and what’s bad.
local jew critic
November 4, 2009
im gonna one up you’s two, if you cover a song, any song, famous or not, you’re just saying that you can’t creatively come up with anything original on your own, and thats just kinda sad, people who cover songs dont paint pictures they trace them and say “this is what it looks like when i do it”, which nobody cares what something that is already something else looks like, cause its most likely just going to look like a version of the original product. that being said, if you are going to cover a song, you might as well cover a local band’s song, cause it’s innevitably going to sound horrible anyhow. god is a dancer makes no since at all, its just another jason mraz dashboard confessional hook, that doesnt have to make since because the audience its directed doesnt understand when things make since.
CasadelRio
November 4, 2009
BACK @ Urk
Urk, I know you must like music because you are obviously reading about it and researching local bands. This is great. I condone your efforts. However, Benjamin del Shreve is a local lady that many people around here are trying to cling on to in hopes that they might catch some left over fame as if it were dripping from his stinky brow. And you read way too much into the comment about the song being famous. I agree with the fact that you shouldn’t cover a song because it’s famous. What I was implying was that most people cover songs because they are catchy tunes that everyone has heard, that way people are like, “Wow, this band is great, I love this song”. But in all actuality, you should never cover a song unless someone is holding a gun to your head and even in these rare occasions, it would be better to take the bullet than to cover a bad song, and in fact, make it worse. I hope this clears up the cover song/famous statement.
David Franks
November 4, 2009
CasadelRio–
Do you know who first sang “Strange Fruit”? Do you know who made it famous?
Convince me that Ella Fitzgerald or Rosemary Clooney or Frank Sinatra did bad covers.
Not all covers are bad.
local jew critic
November 4, 2009
new rule. people that are already famous for being original and awesome are allowed to cover songs. this rule will be called all along the watch tower rule of thumb. for every hit that you write on your own gives you the right to cover any song you want, and here is the twist, you can only cover it if you do a completely different reindition of it, ex. t.v. on the radio’s cover of mr.grieves by the pixies. now that there are some boundaries to the good bad and fair side of covering another song, lets all have dinner sometime. this does not mean that i condone bad music, which, by the way, there definitely is bad music, its not just an opinion, its scientifically proven that bands such as “BDS” do infact produce bad music, and thats because bad music is just another product of a heavy ego.
yrfuneralmytrial
November 4, 2009
Wow, I don’t even like BDS (personally or musically) but jesus… the gutless grief he gets on here is plain goofy. They work it 80′s LA metal style and yeah, it’s pretty gross. But, all the negative attention sounds like “no one’s paying attention to me” indie rock whining. And to be totally honest, there’s good reason why the local indie/underground scene hasn’t rejuvinated itself. A majority of the bands are undeveloped, throwaway summer projects with no staying power, musical statement or fanbase. If anyone was really setting things on fire, shows would go beyond house party existence (no knock on house shows). Re covers, there’s plenty of good reasons to cover another artist’s song. The only bad one I can thing of is doing a cover band for money (ala Ultra Suede etc…). That’s plain music whorin’. Not cool. Buy a jukebox or rent a DJ. Otherwise, covering songs shows influences, pays tribute and helps new songwriters figure out how a song is written. This is all just my opinion. If you don’t like it, chances are I wouldn’t like you anyway. Smiles.
David Franks
November 4, 2009
local jew critic–
I was going to ignore your rule on the principle that your rules don’t apply to other people’s conversations, but I realize that I should have addressed my comment to you as well.
Instead, I’ll ignore it because Rosemary Clooney never wrote a song, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra never wrote a great one, and “Billie’s Blues” by Billie Holiday entitled her to do only one cover.
By the way: are you a critic who is Jewish, or do you merely criticize Jews? Or both?
five by five
November 4, 2009
warning!!! the following is not a slam on any local band or musical genre; my tastes are diverse enough to appreciate (AND $UPPORT) talent, guts, and effort no matter what instruments or wardrobe the artists employ.
Dear Local Musicians: if you plan to participate in an interview on a local forum –without first trading your vest, fedora, and amplifier for overalls, a straw hat, and a fiddle– prepare to be textually assaulted by a handful of hatemongers with overly high opinions of their extremely limited tastes. because it will happen.
burgerboy
November 5, 2009
I agre with 5×5. Trade in the fedora and vest for some overalls. Then I’ll like u better.
In all seriousness, kids in Mena were tight rolling their jeans (unironically) in 1995, two full years after the high-water mark of grunge. (True story, no lie) So it follows that anyone hailing from Mena, Arkansas would be about 10 years behind, both musically and culturally.
They didn’t have MTV, folks. And they were too far from Fort Smith to get any radio stations.
When you factor that in, you’ll no longer hate BDS et al. You’ll feel sorry for them.
burgerboy
November 5, 2009
@local jew critic:
Does this new rule apply to bands covering the background songs played on Chuck Dovish’s Exploring Arkansas segments?
I’m thinking of starting a band…
Urk
November 5, 2009
You know, I used to think that the only legitimate path to truth in a screwed up society was through the absolute purity of individual expression, the thing that wasn’t co-opted or copied, the true song that society couldn’t buy off of you that came from inside. Kind of like LJC.
But then I decided that the whole idea of claiming individual creation, and ownership of a song was just a function of that screwed up society. I mean, how do you own a song by any arrangement more substantial than the mutually agreed upon fiction that everyone will remember YOUR name attached to THIS song, and maybe pay some royalties? How do you “own” a song if anyone else has even heard it, man? Isn’t it just another iteration of hierarchical praxis? isn’t it just another way to separate people?
And then I decided it was silly to make up rules about how people should and shouldn’t play music.
Urk
November 5, 2009
More seriously:
I really don’t have any opinion on these Del Shreve boys. haven’t heard ‘em. You can tell me they’re bad, that’s fine, tell me they’re good, that’s fine. but there are whole traditions of music built on the interpretation of songs written by other people or by unknown authors, and if you try to tell me that’s somehow less “legitimate” than another form of music, then I’m going to have to argue about that. The idea that everybody should only sing ans write their own songs is a creation of music business practices in the early 1960s as much as an expression of artistic vision. it works for some people, it doesn’t for others.
Really, I wish that more of the people who think everybody should write their own songs wrote better songs, that’s all.
yrfuneralmytrial
November 5, 2009
I can think of tons of songs that I initially thought were creative, original works of genius only later to discover they were reworked versions of earlier songs. And often, the earlier “original” song was a reworking itself. Usually an old blues riff or folk progression.
HeyUrk
November 5, 2009
Urk, I take it you don’t play music or at least write your own music. What the local jew critic proclaimed about cover songs being a trace of someone else’s great work is right on. Unless of course we are talking about this cover song which is a cover of a horrible song. Which means we are talking about someone who ate a crappy meal, digested it, and turned into a steaming pile that somehow gets recognition as a noble thing or something that shows how the artist was inspired…BOLOGNA!!! or how it should be spelled BALONEY!!! If you can’t come up with original music, don’t play music. It shouldn’t be about the money or recognition. Music should be about what is inside of you, whether people think it sounds good or not, it is about a personal expression. Not some chumps high school-minded music turned into something even worse. Urk, you obviously don’t hold music as highly as you should. There is a level of self-respect that is lost when you do a cover, whether your sinatra, billie holiday, or any other performer willing to bend over while someone shoves a royalty check up there @ss. Peace and love.
Sardon
November 5, 2009
@HeyUrk. You seem to be a very unpleasant person. I happen to know that the real Urk is a fine musician.
By your reasoning none of us would have ever heard Bach or Beethoven because they couldn’t record their compositions and nobody has the right to cover their music. There are no choirs or even vocal harmony allowed in your Ayn Rand world.
Nailing a cover and making it your own is something that brings satisfaction to musicians and pleasure to an audience (a word you should learn). You better hope I never catch you singing Happy Birthday, or I’ll point out your lack of self-respect. How old are you? Do the doctors expect you to mature to adulthood mentally and emotionally?
HeyUrk
November 5, 2009
Well, well, well, Sardon the hardon. Looks like we got your panties wadded up a little. I’ll tell you what. You keep covering horrible songs. I’ll keep to myself and my lack of originality. I guess I won’t be cool until I start covering crappy songs. Is that what grownups do? Man I wish I was old like you cover band guys. I hope you make it big off of other peoples crappy work. I’m growing and growing and growing………
Urk
November 5, 2009
Actually Heyurk, I do play music, tho I can hardly agree with Sardon’s claim that I’m a “fine musician.” I’m a punk rock and roll hacker at best. All of my Fayetteville bands have played 90-100% originals. When we’ve covered songs it’s been by artists we loved whose work was exciting and fun to play, stuff by the Stooges, Patti Smith, Alex Chilton, the 13th Floor Elevators, Husker Du–stuff that wasn’t recognizable to most audiences as “covers” and certainly wasn’t expected to make us any easy money.
Interpreting a song you love, learning how to express your own personality through it, can be a fun part of playing music and you can learn alot from it. That’s what jazz is built on. If it’s not your thing, that’s great. I’m not trying to tell you that you should play covers. Playing original songs as the basis of your band is admirable and ambitious. But it doesn’t mean that you are morally superior to anybody who takes the craft of playing music to heart, and claiming that you are is the height of pretentiousness. Charlie Parker brought more creativity and originality to music than you ever will (I can say this confidently without even having heard you, he was thazt good and that original) and he played other people’s songs.
Heyurk, I don’t think you should start playing covers, but I do think you should grow up and stop dividing the musical world into people who play other people’s songs and people who don’t. it’s just not that meaningful a division.
Urk
November 5, 2009
And, what about this: What if you’re in a band that plays all original songs but you don’t write the songs? by the logic you’re putting forth that means you’re just a talentless leech copying other people’s work, right? Do you really want to push this line that “originality” is the only measure of musical worth to it’s full implications? an you figure out where to draw the line so that you can keep on condemning other people without feeling like a hypocrite?
Look: I’m more interested in going to hear a band play originals than covers myself. but I have lots and lots of respect for people who work hard at the craft of learning and playing songs, especially if they play and perform them them with personality and feeling and an original sound. Cover bands aren’t my thing, but declaring them worthless because they don’t appeal to me is pure elitism.
And, what’s funny is that in my experience the people who stuck hardest to this kind of rigid, Stalinist line of thinking were often people whose original songs or approach to their instruments could have benefited from just a little experience learning and re-interpreting other people’s songs. This isn’t true of everyone or even most people who play all or mostly originals, but it’s often true about the people who spend the most time beating their chests about how original their music is, people whose egos are too precious and fragile to imagine that anyone else’s approach to playing could be just as valid as theirs.
Urk
November 5, 2009
Oh, and a small point of fact: you get royalty checks from having songs you wrote covered, not from covering other people’s songs. so your closing tag line really doesn’t make any sense. At all. But that’s ok, saying that Billie Holiday lost some part of her soul because she didn’t write all of her own songs makes most of the rest of what you’re saying seem pretty smart.
It’s kind of ironic that I’m even having this argument: when I started playing music it was alot harder to get booked anywhere in Fayetteville without a list of recognizable covers, and if you were playing punk rock, (that was what we called it then) forget it. So we did shows in warehouses and houses, we paid noise tickets, got hauled out of parties and into jail for the night, spent our own money trying to get our venues up to code or getting our friends out of jail. We worked our tails off to try to make a scene built around original music.
given how much we put into trying to make the town a better place for original music over a 20-odd year period, it’s kind of a drag to be jumped all over by someone who seems too insecure to imagine that other people’s approaches to playing music might be legitimate too.
yrfuneralmytrial
November 5, 2009
@HeyUrk,
Urk was in one of the single most important bands in Fayetteville’s “original” music history. Pre-Studio 225, pre-JR’s Lightbulb Club, pre-Clunk. In fact, pretty much every rag-tag punk rock n’ roll band that came down the line after was either influenced by them or influenced by some band who was influenced by them. I know I was. I think it’s called the V.U. effect.
local jew critic
November 6, 2009
hey david franks-
im sorry i wasnt raised in an elevator while being put on hold in a phone conversation with a receptionist that never takes you off hold, but i havent waisted too much time trying to find out what frank sinatra’s favorite sandwich was, and where ella fitsgerald liked to take a poop, so forgive me for not liking cover songs, but let me ask you this, how would you feel if you brought your little acoustic guitar or whatever you play down to the local coffee shop and started covering some dave matthews band song that you’ve loved and low and behold, guess who walks through the door, … ITS DAVE!
local jew critic
November 6, 2009
by the way i hope everyone caught the sever sarcasm layed down with the over board “DAVE”, dont worry, i hate dave matthews band, not “dave” just as much as anyone else in their right mind.
David Franks
November 6, 2009
local jew critic–
All that, and you never answered my question.
HeyUrk
November 7, 2009
Okay guys, let’s not get too aggressive here. Hahaha. I love it. Aren’t you glad I said something? At least I’m giving you guys a way to vent your crappy opinions (which should be heard because this is America damnit). Yeah, people are going to play covers, it happens. Yes, some people might get expired by repeating what someone else has already done. But what I’m trying to say is that those people are caring way too much about what people think about their music. Why can’t you just play whatever comes into your head, and be content with that? If you want to hear someone else’s song, pop the cd in and get down. I’m not saying every cover song is bad. Some covers are better than the original, which is commendable. But if you scroll up, and listen to this devil-cursed version of an already crappy song, you will know why I went off on such a rant. If you like the song above, then you really should jump off something too high live through. I just can’t believe there are people out there that would stand for this kind of crap. Either way, it’s been fun and I’m glad that people care enough to stand up for what they think. Urk, no hard feelings, love you buddy, it’s just nice to duel with someone about a great subject. Are cover songs ok? Love you guys.
Boggy Creek Creature
November 7, 2009
Consider “I Put A Spell On You”
Originating with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, it’s wild and, well, screamy. The sound of tromping around with a shotgun.
But what about Nina Simone’s cover. No one can call it unoriginal, because she took it and made it not only one of the biggest and most famous songs in her collection, but made it sexy. Amazingly sexy. Something that never existed in the original.
So don’t blame cover songs. Blame sh!tty cover musicians.
local jew critic
November 7, 2009
-boggy creek creature
think of a cover song as a bullet, and the artist playing the song as a gun. now do you believe that guns dont kill people, people kill people? cause it sounds like you are full of useless bumper sticker knowledge, sorry, but its true.
local jew critic
November 7, 2009
case in point, if the song is a cover, chances are the person playing it is cover musician. in fact now that i mention it, that is the new term that i am now coining to describe cover bands,they will now be referred to as “free birds”.
local jew critic
November 7, 2009
david franks-
were you serisouly asking me about the whole jew critic explanation thing? cause if you were, thats a beautiful example of someone changing the subject because they know that they are wrong and have already lost the arguement. and that whole “i was just going to ignore you” made you sound incredibly pretentious.
yrfuneralmytrial
November 7, 2009
Well, the votes appear to be all in and accounted for. No one here gives a damn about you Matt Jones. Rock on.
Boggy Creek Creature
November 7, 2009
@Local Jew Critic – if you’re going to be a c@nt, don’t say “sorry”.
David Franks
November 7, 2009
local jew critic–
Although it appears that I continue to feed a troll, I will point out that I addressed the issue at hand (better than you have so far), and then asked you a question. Since my response to the matter of covers was better than yours, and since you still have not answered my question, it is my belief that I have not lost whatever argument you imagine exists here.
As to your final “point”, I am not at all pretentious. I am out-and-out arrogant– and, particularly in this case, rightly so.
skalmt
November 7, 2009
Well speaking from a non-musicians p.o.v., but a music lover and damn near addict..I have been turned on to several great musicians and bands through people doing covers. And no I don’t mean crappy “Dave” covers…what’s wrong with wanting to play songs by the artists that have influenced you? I get that strictly cover bands are the bottom feeders of the music world, but if they have fans that relate to them and enjoy it what’s the big deal? It’s not my bag but to each their own right? Or is does everyone need to check with you first local jew?
HeyUrk
November 8, 2009
@ skalmt……
Oh you, non-musician man. I enjoy a good p.o.v. myself, but I prefer the porno style over yours. Here’s the thing. History shows us that the majority of people are in fact stupid. You can never, ever, EVER, judge what you think is good art or music by what the masses think or believe. If you conform and reshape your style according to what the public ear/eye wants to see and hear, then you are going to be creed, puddle of mud, seether, and an overall detrimental addition to an already degressing music scene. So, when you say, “if they get fans that relate to them and enjoy it, what’s the big deal?”. Well, the big deal is that all those fans are the stupid people I was referring to before. You may argue, “those people need music to listen to as well as the rest of us.” True, Vero, Certo. But, the more musicians we have out there playing cover songs for the crowd, the more stupid people we create as the generations unfold. Take a look at MTV, VH1, or any other mass media music scene. It is an obvious representation of the fact that if you play what the majority of people want to hear, you will be playing a pile of ****.
HeyUrk
November 8, 2009
*As a side note, look how many comments we have gotten out of this great debate. We are mass-debaters. We are awesome. Praise be to freedom of speech, and the right to a bad opinion.
Urk
November 9, 2009
@yerfuneralmytrial, thanks for the kind words. We had our own local “VU effect” from the distraktions and Rex Rootz and the Malls and The Mutiant fish, bands from the Col. smuckers scene…it goes on and on…
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