Rob Thomas on how Matchbox 20 found that 'certain DNA' again on 1st new album in 11 years

By the time Rob Thomas hit the road in 2017 on a tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of Matchbox Twenty, he was feeling pretty comfortable with the idea that they’d never make another album.

It had been five years since “North” and he was getting used to the idea of just touring on the hits.

“In 2012, our plan was that we weren't gonna make records anymore,” he says. “We were gonna just every few years tour and maybe put out a song or two. That was kind of the business model.”

Thomas had his solo work to keep him busy. Drummer Paul Doucette was scoring films. Guitarist Kyle Cook was a year out from releasing his first solo album.

No one needed Matchbox Twenty in their lives as a creative outlet.

“That just seemed like where we were in our career,” Thomas says with an audible shrug.

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Then COVID-19 happened, causing them to postpone all their Matchbox Twenty touring plans for 2020 and again in 2021 and 2022.

“In 2022, people went out again, but we weren't ready,” Thomas says.

“We had some people with some health issues, and we didn't feel safe enough yet. That’s when we decided we have all these fans, we're fortunate that they've been holding onto tickets, they're still waiting. Maybe when we come out, it shouldn't just be a nostalgia tour.”

That’s why they're releasing “Where the Light Goes,” their first album in 11 years, to give the fans “something to listen to.”

The decision to step away from the creative process was based on the feeling that they weren’t invested enough in making Matchbox Twenty records anymore.

“And we didn't want to do something that we weren't 1,000% invested in,” Thomas recalls.

“But I think we just misjudged the bandwidth that we had to give to this situation. And once we did get back together and realized how much we enjoy working together and how much it was something we all wanted, it was an easy decision.”

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'There's a genuine love that we have for each other,' Rob Thomas says

Working on this album was a positive experience for everyone in Matchbox Twenty, with absence having made the heart grow fonder.

“There's a genuine love that we have for each other,” Thomas says. “We're an easy laugh and we genuinely care about each other. I think that goes a long way.”

Thomas calls Doucette his “best friend in the world,” more than three decades into a friendship that started in Tabitha’s Secret, a band that also featured future Matchbox Twenty bassist Brian Yale. Doucette is Matchbox Twenty’s other primary songwriter, often collaborating with Thomas.

“We have probably only had, like, one personal fight that didn't involve scheduling or musical differences or something like that,” Thomas says of Doucette. “I mean, don't get me wrong. I think that fight lasted a year and a half. But then we patched it up.”

In addition to his solo records, Thomas found success outside of Matchbox Twenty as the songwriter behind Santana’s Grammy-winning, multiplatinum comeback single, “Smooth,” which spent 12 weeks at No. 1 and featured Thomas on lead vocals.

“It’s a credit to Paul that in 30 years, I've never recorded or sung other people's songs — other than doing a cover — except for Paul,” he says. “We always joke. I'm like, 'Dude, this song is so good. And you know what's great? Everybody's gonna think I wrote it.'”

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'There's just a certain DNA when we all get together'

For Thomas, the writing is constant and he never really thinks of it in terms of writing solo songs or Matchbox Twenty songs. They’re all just songs.

“If it's time for a Matchbox record, that just means I'll play some of the stuff that I've been writing that I think the guys might like, and if they like it, we do it,” Thomas says. “And if they don't, we don't.”

It’s what his bandmates add to what he writes that makes it sound like Matchbox Twenty. The title track to "Where the Light Goes," for instance.

“I gave it to Paul as just a little demo,” Thomas says. “So Paul redid it in a reimagined way, then sent it to Kyle, who put some guitars on it and reimagined it a little more his way. And when it got back to me, I was like, '(Expletive), this sounds like Matchbox Twenty now!' There's just a certain DNA when we all get together.”

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Having more than one creative outlet for his songs has definitely had an impact on his writing.

“Everything you do — every experience you have — expands what a blank page could be, right?” Thomas says.

“When you start off, you've had limited experiences and you're kind of writing about love and loss, but it's mostly speculation because you're young and you haven't really loved or lost anything. Then you start to get older and you have things in your life that really matter to you and things you want to hold onto.”

It also helps, Thomas says, to have people you want to impress.

“That drives you to do a little better,” he says. “Like, when we get together with Matchbox, we want to do something that makes the other guys go, '(Expletive) yeah!' Wanting to impress your friends starts on the playground and just never goes away.”

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How Matchbox 20 arrived at the reflective tone of 'Where the Light Goes'

There’s a reflective tone to many of the more compelling songs on “Where the Light Goes,” which Thomas sees as a natural outgrowth of that aging process.

“When you're younger and you’re writing songs about aging, it's like a disease,” he says. “It's like the Stones saying, 'What a drag it is getting old,' right?

"Then, as you get older, you realize what a privilege it is to be able to get older. We've had friends that didn't get to have that. And we think about them all the time. So we write about aging with a reverence now, a feeling of accomplishment. I think that's a really big change between guys in their 20s and guys in their 50s writing music.”

As to whether they had any goals going into the session, Thomas says, “We go into every situation and tell ourselves 'You're in the greatest pop-rock band in the world,' right? So now go make that record.”

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It’s easier now that they’re not swinging for Hot 100 fences

“There are certain expectations as far as success in this modern age that we don't have on ourselves, and no one has on us,” Thomas says.

“Like, there's a certain kind of hit we're never gonna make and we're never expected to make and it's not our job to make. It's a certain muscle of pop that we don't have and we don't have to worry about.”

That allowed them to focus on making the kind of record they would want the world’s greatest pop-rock band to make.

“We could just write music that really appealed to us while having the conversation we wanted to have and not feel like, 'Well, we've got to find those hits,’” Thomas says. “And I think there's a freedom in that feeling of, 'Thank God that's not our job anymore.'”

That used to be their job, of course, when they were launching their career with “Yourself or Someone Like You,” the 12-times platinum debut that hit the streets in 1996.

“That's where you get the currency to spend later in life if you're lucky enough to find that moment where what you're doing is culturally relevant in the national conversation, or the international conversation,” Thomas says.

“Then maybe one day what you're doing isn't a part of that conversation. But you've already amassed a diligent group of initiated people that want to see what you're doing.”

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He still likes singing breakthrough singles “Push” and “3AM."

“I'm OK if I never heard those songs ever again,” he says. “But I'm OK with playing them every night.

"Like, there's a living, breathing energy we're sharing with everybody through these songs that have just kind of been around in their life for 27 years. There's no other way for us to look at it other than it's like a member of your family. It doesn't matter whether you like their politics or their conversation at dinner, they're in the (expletive) family."

His bandmates are like family, too. They did grow older together, after all.

“I mean, we're not all a bunch of sloppy drunk messes now,” Thomas says. “That's pretty good. We're grown men. We have families out here.”

Each member travels on his own bus these days.

“But like right now, we're parked in some parking lot somewhere at a hotel with all our buses kind of lined up texting each other," Thomas says with a laugh. "'Hey, what are you guys doing? You guys want to get something to eat?' It's very civilized out here.’"

Matchbox Twenty

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 31.

Where: Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix.

Admission: $30 and up.

Details: 602-254-7200, livenation.com.

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rob Thomas goes deep on new Matchbox 20 songs and album ahead of tour