Scott Mathews
Encyclopedia
.
Scott Mathews is a multi-platinum selling music producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and entrepreneur.
with Elvin Bishop
and other San Francisco luminaries. When Mathews was sixteen, he took a leave from school to record at the Record Plant studio in Los Angeles for three weeks with his hometown band, which included Steve Perry
, (who went on to become the lead singer of Journey
). Mathews found the world of professional recording to be life-changing but Perry never finished his vocals and the project was subsequently abandoned. A major recording did get made during this time when, Stevie Wonder
used Mathews' drums to write and record his song "Superstition
". After being inspired by this experience and the encouragement of The Bee Gees, Barry White
, Steven Stills, and some studio musicians, Mathews realized being a member of a band was not his calling and turned his attention to studio work.
in 1973. Nagle had been a recording artist on Warner Bros. Records
and had a cult following of mostly musicians and music critics. The two of them built a small basement demo studio and began writing songs and recording demos that were 'blueprints' for how the actual records were to sound. These recordings caught the ear of Jack Nitzsche
and Mathews played many different instruments on the multiple Academy Award winning film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
. Nitzsche brought more projects his way and in 1976, Mathews wrote songs, performed several instruments and sang on the double platinum Barbra Streisand
record, Streisand Superman
as well as playing drums and dobro on Glen Campbell
's # 1 Southern Nights
album.
Producer David Rubinson was responsible for making many of the records that Mathews was inspired by and in 1976 Rubinson contacted Mathews, thus beginning a collaboration that went on to make hits for a long list of artists including; Labelle
, The Pointer Sisters and (one of Mathews' all-time favorites), Bobby Womack
. Rubinson took Mathews under his wing, paid him a salary with royalties and kept him busy performing on many of the best San Francisco based projects of the era. Mathews joined a band Rubinson produced and managed, The Hoodoo Rhythm Devils because he was drawn to the music and band members but also because touring was not part of the deal.
Fresh from their success on Cuckoo's Nest, Mathews and Nagle worked on several more films providing music and sound design. Nagle had worked on The Exorcist
prior to meeting Mathews and in 1977, Exorcist director, William Friedkin
signed the duo to do work on his next film, Sorcerer
, which Friedkin considers his finest film but was overshadowed by the box office success of Star Wars
.
Following that, Mathews flew to Abbey Road Studios
and recorded a Sammy Hagar
record called Red. Hagar wanted Mathews to perform a drum solo on the title song but Mathews initially refused claiming the public had already suffered enough self-indulgent drum solos. Mathews eventually agreed because Hagar's producer mentioned Paul McCartney
convinced Ringo Starr
to perform his only solo in the very same room a few years previous and The Beatles
record, Abbey Road, seemed to work out fine. Upon his return back in the United States, Mathews produced one of his heroes, Roy Orbison
for a national TV commercial then worked with Orbison's Sun Records
label mate, Johnny Cash
, on a bigger campaign.
Mathews and Nagle continued to write songs that sold in the millions for other artists and were encouraged by A&M Records
with a generous sum of money to turn their partnership into a 'band' project. As a result, The Dūrocs (named after a breed of pig with extremely large ears and testicles) were formed - but in reality it was still just another name for the duo. The Dūrocs ended up signing with Capitol Records
in 1978 and released an album in 1979 that received five stars in Rolling Stone
magazine and spawned some European hits including a cover of the Gene Pitney
classic "It Hurts To Be In Love". They helped form a video department at the label and made two videos that were released for promotion of the record. Sadly, the videos predated MTV
by several months coining the duo's motto of being 'ahead of the times, always on budget, and behind the beat.' After their A&R director left the label, Capitol's new director of A&R told Mathews and Nagle the 'band' should tour and then return to the studio for 'more of a jazz sound.' Sensing the party was over, Mathews and Nagle headed back to San Francisco and parted with Capitol.
Carl Wilson
had been paying close attention to Mathews after hearing the Dūrocs record and connecting to his aesthetic. He shared the record with Brian Wilson
and other members of The Beach Boys
and soon Mathews found himself in the studio as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist with one of his all-time favorite and inspirational bands. Mathews was honored with an offer to join the band, but turned it down because of his active career in production, his distaste for touring, and his stance that no one could ever replace Dennis Wilson
. Carl Wilson and Mathews remained very close personal friends and wrote and recorded songs together outside of The Beach Boys.
Later in the year, Mathews and Nagle set up camp in London at AIR Studios (owned by George Martin
) to produce a project for EMI Records
featuring Warren Peace
, a longtime songwriter and vocalist with David Bowie
. In addition to producing, Mathews played all the instruments and sang the background vocals on the recordings.
's 1983 breakthrough, Riding With the King
(the title song of which was based on a dream Mathews had while producing Hiatt and sold three million units in 2001 when B. B. King
and Eric Clapton
covered it). Around this time, Mathews recorded a project with Gary Brooker
called Lead Me to Water collaborating with Eric Clapton
, George Harrison
and Phil Collins
.
Mathews and Nagle worked on the film Cat People
in 1982. Their sound design for the film ended up being used on the soundtrack recording featuring David Bowie
and Stevie Ray Vaughan
that spawned a surprise hit single.
In 1983, Nagle and Mathews aided in production of Paul Kantner
's Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra
. The project featured Grace Slick
and many members of Jefferson Airplane
and Jefferson Starship
. Legend has it, Paul Kantner threw his drink at the President of RCA for not agreeing to a promotion plan involving giving away Kantners' car (and RCA buying Kantner a new one). The record was not promoted and remains a relatively unheard production piece by Mathews and Nagle with vocals by The Turtles
, otherwise known as Flo & Eddie
.
During the mid 1980s Nagle (also a ceramic artist) began to turn more of his attention to his career in art while Mathews was in demand as a producer, writer, singer, and instrumentalist. One of Scott's production highlights of this period was an Elvis Costello
gem called Sweetwater featuring Jerry Garcia
, Nick Lowe
, Sammy Hagar
, Bob Weir
and members of Elvis Presley
's TCB Band
.
Mathews was still sporadically recording with The Beach Boys
but was frustrated to see them becoming a 'human jukebox' of hits when one of the all-time greatest accomplishments in recorded music, Pet Sounds
, was made by them but had never been performed live in its entirety. Mathews wanted to bring new credibility and well-deserved worldwide acclaim to the band by presenting a live version of Pet Sounds. Mathews put together a comprehensive outline as musical director and drafted an agreement for the principals involved. All but one member agreed immediately to the plan but without the remaining vote in, the project went gone but not forgotten.
Mathews received a platinum record for the original Pet Sounds record when the band resolved some lawsuits with their label - a kind gift given to principals and management. Brian Wilson
eventually formed with his own band and did a world tour of Pet Sounds.
Finishing out the 1980s, Mathews began working with Todd Rundgren
(a mutual friend through The Tubes
- a band that had recorded Mathews' songs) on a series of recordings that led to two albums and a world tour. Mathews enjoyed the chance to record and then get out of the studio and tour with Rundgren whom he greatly admired and called 'the male Carole King
' due to Rundgren's ballads from his early days. During this time Scott was asked by Ringo Starr
to join Rundgren, Joe Walsh
, Jack Bruce
, and other rockers as a guest in his All-Starr Band
.
recorded a song Mathews co-wrote, "Closer to the Flame" and it became a huge seller around the world. In 1990, Mathews produced, engineered and performed on the first release by Chuck Prophet
called Brother Aldo. In 1991, Mathews produced, engineered and performed with John Wesley Harding
for Sire Records
, they also contributed to Just Say Roe, a pro-choice recording project with Madonna
, David Byrne
and many others.
Throughout the whirlwind of studio activities in the 1990s, Scott recorded with many iconic artists including Keith Richards
, Van Morrison
, John Lee Hooker
, Bonnie Raitt
, Robert Cray
and even Tiny Tim
.
In 1993 Mathews, along with friend and San Francisco Chronicle senior rock critic, Joel Selvin
discovered the King of the Surf Guitar
, Dick Dale
was living on a remote ranch in 29 Palms, CA and rarely picked up his guitar. The two coaxed the reluctant guitarist to come to San Francisco and try some recording and the result was Tribal Thunder
, a record that earned it's way to #1 on the College Radio charts and Rolling Stone awarded it an excellent '4 Star' review. With Dale's major comeback underway, Quentin Tarantino
used Misirlou
in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction
and Mathews went on to produce more LPs with Dale, 'Unknown Territory' (1994) and 'Calling Up Spirits' (1996).
While writing and recording with Booker T. Jones
in 1996 at the Plant Studios in Sausalito, Mathews met engineer Tom Luekens who was working full-time for Jones. When the project was done, Luekens contacted Mathews and let him know he was a free agent and from that moment on Luekens has been Mathews' chief engineer.
In 1997, Scott collaborated with Huey Lewis
on songs for the film Wag the Dog
in Scott's new studio in Marin County. Many other projects were recorded at this location but it was short lived, as Mathews felt it lacked the comfort, natural light, 'vibe' and sonic value of the original Pig Pen studio that Mathews had been striving for.
In 1998, Mathews' corporation Hit or Myth Productions purchased a split-level house on the edge of San Francisco Bay with views from every room and established a new private recording studio, TikiTown. Stocked with many musical instruments and the creature comforts of a nice home, it soon became a destination for artists from all over the world. Van Morrison
immediately became a familiar face and even installed a gym for his use while working at TikiTown. Recently, Mathews found out that TikiTown was the home of a member of Journey
when they were in their heyday.
In 1999, the Durocs contributed to the tribute album for Moby Grape
co-founder, Skip Spence
, who was terminally ill with cancer. The album, More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album (Birdman, 1999), contained cover versions of the songs from Spence's only solo album, Oar
(Columbia, 1969).
In 2005, Mathews began producing a series of Operettas for contemporary Opera composer, Mark Northcross using a select group of performers from the San Francisco Symphony
and San Francisco Opera
. The first piece was recorded at TikiTown but the subsequent selections were recorded at Skywalker Ranch
because the size of the orchestra and number of vocalists needed outgrew the size of the studio. The latest piece was recorded in 2011.
In 2007, at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, CA, Brian Wilson performed the final live presentation of Pet Sounds
. On this historical occasion, Wilson invited Mathews and Al Jardine
onstage to sing the all-time classic.
In addition, Mathews's musical and personal involvement with Van Dyke Parks
and Brian Wilson made Mathews instrumental (along with Bug Music) in bringing together the two forces in order to finish the final masterpiece originally scheduled as 'Smile (The Beach Boys album)
' to fruition (after it had been left undone for nearly four decades).
Mathews accompanied Van Dyke Parks for the first performance of Smile in Los Angeles at the Disney Center, and received a Gold Record for the sales of the newly recorded 'Smile (The Brian Wilson album)' from the U.K.
and working on recording projects due for future release, featuring Nagle as the artist and Mathews as the producer.
On April 16, 2011, The Beach Boys
are releasing a 7” vinyl with the A side being “Don’t Fight The Sea” (co-produced by Mathews) and the B side being “Friends” (acapella), with 100% of the proceeds going to benefit the Red Cross and the Japanese disaster relief effort. The single will be packaged in a white sleeve and the first 1,000 pressed will be on white vinyl with a red label to replicate the Japanese flag.
While still working with older, iconic artists, these days Mathews is dedicated to producing primarily emerging artists he discovers from all over the world. He feels talent discovery and development is the most broken component to today's music industry.
Mathews' recent projects at TikiTown include new artists from England, Australia, Ukraine, France, Austria, New Zealand, Canada, Iceland, Japan and America.
winning projects.
The Durocs LP on Capitol Records won the 'Best New Artist' award at the BAMMIES (aka the California Music Awards).
Mathews has been profiled in Rolling Stone
, Mojo
, Billboard
, Guitar Player
, Electronic Musician
, Time
magazine and the New York Times. In Rolling Stone magazine, Ben Fong-Torres
referred to Mathews as a 'wunderkind,' and San Francisco Chronicle
Senior Music Critic, Joel Selvin
is on record stating, "Scott Mathews is the funniest, smartest, hippest, most talented musician I know."
With current combined sales of more than 14 million units, he continues to produce music as well as maintaining other active roles inside the ever changing music industry.
on Songwriting, the Music Industry and Music Production and has lectured at UCLA, UC Berkeley, The Musicians Institute in Hollywood, Mills College
, Ex'pression Center for New Media, and Foothill College
.
Mathews is a frequent guest speaker at SXSW, the SanFran MusicTech Summit, and the West Coast Songwriters Association Conference among others.
score for the multiple Academy Award winning film, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
.
As an actor, Mathews starred as Fluke Starbucker in the Star Wars parody Hardware Wars
from 1977, grossing US$1,000,000 as compared to its paltry US$8,000 budget (a much better profit ratio than Star Wars itself). Mathews has never acted since claiming; "I peaked! I'm no longer ready for my close up. Call me one and done but I'm goin' out on top, baby."
In 1977, Mathews and Ron Nagle
produced sound design and effects with Exorcist director, William Friedkin for the movie, Sorcerer
.
In 1982, Mathews and Ron Nagle
produced sound design, effects and source music for the film, Cat People
.
In 1998, Mathews produced and wrote songs with Huey Lewis for the film, Wag the Dog
for director Barry Levinson
.
In 2010, Mathews served as co-musical supervisor and music producer on a documentary film with called Hollywood Don't Surf!
with two-time Academy Award-nominated director Greg MacGillivray
on the subject of surfing and surf culture
as seen through the lens of Hollywood. Steven Spielberg
, Francis Ford Coppola
, John Milius
, Quentin Tarantino
, and others join a cast of A-list participants.
In September, 2011, Mathews joined the President's Counsel of the Gladstone Institute, one of the world's foremost stem cell research centers while also working with Partnerships for Change to organize charity benefit concerts to help impoverished nations around the world.
For several years, Mathews was the Musical Director for benefit concerts for Thunder Road
, a youth-oriented alcohol and drug rehabilitation center.
Mathews is an important contributor to H.E.A.R.
, an organization dedicated to educating and protecting musicians' hearing.
Off and on, Mathews serves as Musical Director for the Mill Valley Film Festival
where projects have involved bringing together the most recorded musicians in history, The Wrecking Crew
for their final live performance ever as well as directing an all-star gospel show featuring The Blind Boys of Alabama
and Taj Mahal
.
Under the heading of 'strictly for fun' outside of the studio, Mathews enjoys getting together with his musical pals and instigating impromptu shows and jams. Recent activities have included people like; Bonnie Raitt
, Chris Isaak
, Sammy Hagar
, Booker T.
, Dwight Yoakam
, Billy Gibbons
, Joe Satriani
, J D Souther, Steve Miller
and Al Jardine
. In 2010, a 'garage band from hell' consisting of; Jimmy Buffett
, Mickey Hart
, Zac Brown, Robbie Krieger, Clint Black
and a long list of other musical pals played at Mathews birthday.
Scott Mathews is a multi-platinum selling music producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and entrepreneur.
Early Days
At the age of nine, Mathews began writing songs, singing and playing a variety of different instruments and for several years played in various bands. By the age of fifteen, Mathews had performed at the FillmoreThe Fillmore
The Fillmore Auditorium is a historic music venue in San Francisco, California, made famous by Bill Graham. Named for its original location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, it lies on the boundary of the Western Addition and the Pacific Heights neighborhoods.In 1968,...
with Elvin Bishop
Elvin Bishop
Elvin Bishop is an American blues and rock and roll musician and guitarist.-Career:Bishop was born in Glendale, California, and grew up on a farm near Elliott, Iowa. His family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was ten years old...
and other San Francisco luminaries. When Mathews was sixteen, he took a leave from school to record at the Record Plant studio in Los Angeles for three weeks with his hometown band, which included Steve Perry
Steve Perry (musician)
Stephen Ray "Steve" Perry is an American singer and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Journey from 1977–1987 and 1995–1998. Perry had a successful solo career throughout the late 1980s and early '90s.Perry's voice has garnered acclaim from musical peers and music...
, (who went on to become the lead singer of Journey
Journey (band)
Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
). Mathews found the world of professional recording to be life-changing but Perry never finished his vocals and the project was subsequently abandoned. A major recording did get made during this time when, Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
used Mathews' drums to write and record his song "Superstition
Superstition (song)
"Superstition" is a popular song written, produced, arranged, and performed by Stevie Wonder for Motown Records in 1972, when Wonder was 22 years old. It was the lead single for Wonder's Talking Book album, and released in many countries. It reached number one in the USA, and number one on the soul...
". After being inspired by this experience and the encouragement of The Bee Gees, Barry White
Barry White
Barry White, born Barry Eugene Carter , was an American composer and singer-songwriter.A five-time Grammy Award-winner known for his distinctive bass voice and romantic image, White's greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring...
, Steven Stills, and some studio musicians, Mathews realized being a member of a band was not his calling and turned his attention to studio work.
The 1970s
Mathews first gained entry into the music business by meeting San Francisco based songwriter Ron NagleRon Nagle
Ron Nagle is an American ceramic sculptor, musician and songwriter.-History:Ron Nagle grew up in San Francisco’s Mission District...
in 1973. Nagle had been a recording artist on Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
and had a cult following of mostly musicians and music critics. The two of them built a small basement demo studio and began writing songs and recording demos that were 'blueprints' for how the actual records were to sound. These recordings caught the ear of Jack Nitzsche
Jack Nitzsche
Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche was an arranger, producer, songwriter, and film score composer. He first came to prominence in the late 1950s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spector, and went on to work with the Rolling Stones, Neil Young and others...
and Mathews played many different instruments on the multiple Academy Award winning film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 American drama film directed by Miloš Forman and based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Ken Kesey....
. Nitzsche brought more projects his way and in 1976, Mathews wrote songs, performed several instruments and sang on the double platinum Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
record, Streisand Superman
Streisand Superman
Streisand Superman is an album released in 1977 by American singer Barbra Streisand.The single "My Heart Belongs to Me" became a hit in 1977, peaking at #4 on the U.S...
as well as playing drums and dobro on Glen Campbell
Glen Campbell
Glen Travis Campbell is an American country music singer, guitarist, television host and occasional actor. He is best known for a series of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for hosting a variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television.During his 50 years in show...
's # 1 Southern Nights
Southern Nights
Southern Nights may refer to:*Southern Nights , an album by Glen Campbell*"Southern Nights" , a single from this album*Southern Nights , an album by Allen Toussaint...
album.
Producer David Rubinson was responsible for making many of the records that Mathews was inspired by and in 1976 Rubinson contacted Mathews, thus beginning a collaboration that went on to make hits for a long list of artists including; Labelle
Labelle
Labelle is an American all female singing group who were a popular vocal group of the 1960s and 1970s. The group was formed after the disbanding of two rival girl groups in the Philadelphia/Trenton areas, the Ordettes and the Del-Capris, forming as a new version of the former group, later changing...
, The Pointer Sisters and (one of Mathews' all-time favorites), Bobby Womack
Bobby Womack
Robert Dwayne "Bobby" Womack is an American singer-songwriter and musician. An active recording artist since the early 1960s where he started his career as the lead singer of his family musical group The Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's career has spanned more than 40...
. Rubinson took Mathews under his wing, paid him a salary with royalties and kept him busy performing on many of the best San Francisco based projects of the era. Mathews joined a band Rubinson produced and managed, The Hoodoo Rhythm Devils because he was drawn to the music and band members but also because touring was not part of the deal.
Fresh from their success on Cuckoo's Nest, Mathews and Nagle worked on several more films providing music and sound design. Nagle had worked on The Exorcist
The Exorcist (film)
The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty and based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her...
prior to meeting Mathews and in 1977, Exorcist director, William Friedkin
William Friedkin
William Friedkin is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing The French Connection in 1971 and The Exorcist in 1973; for the former, he won the Academy Award for Best Director...
signed the duo to do work on his next film, Sorcerer
Sorcerer (film)
Sorcerer is a 1977 thriller adventure film, produced and directed by William Friedkin, starring Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal and Amidou. It is the second remake of the 1953 French film Le Salaire de la Peur ....
, which Friedkin considers his finest film but was overshadowed by the box office success of Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
.
Following that, Mathews flew to Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
and recorded a Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar
Sam Roy "Sammy" Hagar , also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Also sings Country Music....
record called Red. Hagar wanted Mathews to perform a drum solo on the title song but Mathews initially refused claiming the public had already suffered enough self-indulgent drum solos. Mathews eventually agreed because Hagar's producer mentioned Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
convinced Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
to perform his only solo in the very same room a few years previous and The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
record, Abbey Road, seemed to work out fine. Upon his return back in the United States, Mathews produced one of his heroes, Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...
for a national TV commercial then worked with Orbison's Sun Records
Sun Records
Sun Records is a record label founded in Memphis, Tennessee, starting operations on March 27, 1952.Founded by Sam Phillips, Sun Records was known for giving notable musicians such as Elvis Presley , Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash...
label mate, Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
, on a bigger campaign.
Mathews and Nagle continued to write songs that sold in the millions for other artists and were encouraged by A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
with a generous sum of money to turn their partnership into a 'band' project. As a result, The Dūrocs (named after a breed of pig with extremely large ears and testicles) were formed - but in reality it was still just another name for the duo. The Dūrocs ended up signing with Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
in 1978 and released an album in 1979 that received five stars in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine and spawned some European hits including a cover of the Gene Pitney
Gene Pitney
Eugene Francis Alan Pitney, known as Gene Pitney , was an American singer-songwriter, musician and sound engineer. Through the mid-1960s, he enjoyed success as a recording artist on both sides of the Atlantic and was among the group of early 1960s American acts who continued to enjoy hits after the...
classic "It Hurts To Be In Love". They helped form a video department at the label and made two videos that were released for promotion of the record. Sadly, the videos predated MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
by several months coining the duo's motto of being 'ahead of the times, always on budget, and behind the beat.' After their A&R director left the label, Capitol's new director of A&R told Mathews and Nagle the 'band' should tour and then return to the studio for 'more of a jazz sound.' Sensing the party was over, Mathews and Nagle headed back to San Francisco and parted with Capitol.
Carl Wilson
Carl Wilson
Carl Dean Wilson was an American rock and roll singer and guitarist, best known as a founding member, lead guitarist and sometime lead vocalist of The Beach Boys...
had been paying close attention to Mathews after hearing the Dūrocs record and connecting to his aesthetic. He shared the record with Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
and other members of The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
and soon Mathews found himself in the studio as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist with one of his all-time favorite and inspirational bands. Mathews was honored with an offer to join the band, but turned it down because of his active career in production, his distaste for touring, and his stance that no one could ever replace Dennis Wilson
Dennis Wilson
Dennis Carl Wilson was an American rock and roll musician best known as a founding member and the drummer of The Beach Boys. He was a member of the group from its formation until his death in 1983...
. Carl Wilson and Mathews remained very close personal friends and wrote and recorded songs together outside of The Beach Boys.
Later in the year, Mathews and Nagle set up camp in London at AIR Studios (owned by George Martin
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
) to produce a project for EMI Records
EMI Records
EMI Records is the flagship record label founded by the EMI company in 1972 and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia label. The EMI label was launched worldwide...
featuring Warren Peace
Warren Peace
Warren Peace is a pseudonym for Geoffrey Alexander MacCormack , an English vocalist, composer and dancer best known for his work with David Bowie in the 1970s.-Musical career:...
, a longtime songwriter and vocalist with David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
. In addition to producing, Mathews played all the instruments and sang the background vocals on the recordings.
The 1980s
In 1980, Nagle and Mathews built their studio (The Pig Pen) on the top of a hill in San Francisco with a panoramic view of the city and continued producing music for films and other artists, including John HiattJohn Hiatt
John Hiatt is an American rock guitarist, pianist, singer, and songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including New Wave, blues and country. Hiatt has been nominated for several Grammy Awards - although he has never won- and has been awarded a variety of other...
's 1983 breakthrough, Riding With the King
Riding with the King
Riding with the King was singer-songwriter John Hiatt's sixth album, released in 1983. It was his second of three albums with Geffen Records. Ron Nagle and Scott Mathews produced side one of the album at The Pen in San Francisco, with Mathews himself playing all instruments and all the...
(the title song of which was based on a dream Mathews had while producing Hiatt and sold three million units in 2001 when B. B. King
B. B. King
Riley B. King , known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter.Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. According to Edward M...
and Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
covered it). Around this time, Mathews recorded a project with Gary Brooker
Gary Brooker
Gary Brooker, MBE, is an English singer, songwriter, pianist and founder of the rock band Procol Harum. Brooker was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours on 14 June 2003, in recognition of his charitable services.-Early life:Brooker was born in...
called Lead Me to Water collaborating with Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
and Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
.
Mathews and Nagle worked on the film Cat People
Cat People
Cat People is a 1942 horror film produced by Val Lewton and directed by Jacques Tourneur. DeWitt Bodeen wrote the original screenplay which was based on Val Lewton's short story The Bagheeta published in 1930. The film stars Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph and Tom Conway.Cat People was...
in 1982. Their sound design for the film ended up being used on the soundtrack recording featuring David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
and Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
that spawned a surprise hit single.
In 1983, Nagle and Mathews aided in production of Paul Kantner
Paul Kantner
Paul Lorin Kantner is an American rock musician, known for co-founding the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane and its spin-off band Jefferson Starship.- Overview :...
's Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra
Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra (album)
-Personnel:*Paul Kantner – vocals, guitars, banjo, glass harmonica, synthesizers on "Circle of Fire", lead guitar on "Underground"*Grace Slick – vocals, piano on "The Mountain Song" and "The Sky Is No Limit"*Jack Casady – bass...
. The project featured Grace Slick
Grace Slick
Grace Slick is an American singer and songwriter, who was one of the lead singers of the rock groups The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, and was a solo artist, for nearly three decades, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s...
and many members of Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
and Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship is an American rock band formed in the early 1970s. The group is a spin-off from the iconic 1960s psychedelic/folk group Jefferson Airplane. The band has undergone several major changes in personnel and genres through the years while retaining the same Jefferson Starship name...
. Legend has it, Paul Kantner threw his drink at the President of RCA for not agreeing to a promotion plan involving giving away Kantners' car (and RCA buying Kantner a new one). The record was not promoted and remains a relatively unheard production piece by Mathews and Nagle with vocals by The Turtles
The Turtles
The Turtles are an American rock group led by vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman. The band became notable for several Top 40 hits beginning with its cover version of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" in 1965...
, otherwise known as Flo & Eddie
Flo & Eddie
Flo & Eddie are a comedic musical duo.The two were the original founding members of the Top 40 rock group the Turtles. After the Turtles dissolved, Volman and Kaylan first joined the Mothers of Invention as "Phlorescent Leech & Eddie"...
.
During the mid 1980s Nagle (also a ceramic artist) began to turn more of his attention to his career in art while Mathews was in demand as a producer, writer, singer, and instrumentalist. One of Scott's production highlights of this period was an Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
gem called Sweetwater featuring Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
, Nick Lowe
Nick Lowe
Nicholas Drain "Nick" Lowe , is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer.A pivotal figure in UK pub rock, punk rock and new wave, Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica...
, Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar
Sam Roy "Sammy" Hagar , also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Also sings Country Music....
, Bob Weir
Bob Weir
Bob Weir is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead...
and members of Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
's TCB Band
TCB Band
The TCB Band was a group of professional musicians who formed the core rhythm section of Elvis Presley’s band from August 1969 until his death in 1977. TCB stands for Taking Care of Business, a personal motto Presley adopted in the early 1970s...
.
Mathews was still sporadically recording with The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
but was frustrated to see them becoming a 'human jukebox' of hits when one of the all-time greatest accomplishments in recorded music, Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band The Beach Boys, released May 16, 1966, on Capitol Records. It has since been recognized as one of the most influential records in the history of popular music and one of the best albums of the 1960s, including songs such as "Wouldn't...
, was made by them but had never been performed live in its entirety. Mathews wanted to bring new credibility and well-deserved worldwide acclaim to the band by presenting a live version of Pet Sounds. Mathews put together a comprehensive outline as musical director and drafted an agreement for the principals involved. All but one member agreed immediately to the plan but without the remaining vote in, the project went gone but not forgotten.
Mathews received a platinum record for the original Pet Sounds record when the band resolved some lawsuits with their label - a kind gift given to principals and management. Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
eventually formed with his own band and did a world tour of Pet Sounds.
Finishing out the 1980s, Mathews began working with Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
(a mutual friend through The Tubes
The Tubes
The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band, whose 1975 debut album included the hit single, "White Punks on Dope". During its first fifteen years or so, the band's live performances combined quasi-pornography with wild satires of media, consumerism, and politics...
- a band that had recorded Mathews' songs) on a series of recordings that led to two albums and a world tour. Mathews enjoyed the chance to record and then get out of the studio and tour with Rundgren whom he greatly admired and called 'the male Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
' due to Rundgren's ballads from his early days. During this time Scott was asked by Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
to join Rundgren, Joe Walsh
Joe Walsh
Joseph Fidler "Joe" Walsh is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has been a member of three commercially successful bands, the James Gang, Barnstorm, and the Eagles, and has experienced notable success as a solo artist and prolific session musician, especially with B.B...
, Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
, and other rockers as a guest in his All-Starr Band
Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band
To date, Ringo Starr has toured with eleven versions of his All-Starr Band where "everybody on stage is a star in their own right." Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band is a concept that was created by producer David Fishof...
.
The 1990s
The 1990s began with another hit record -- Dave EdmundsDave Edmunds
David 'Dave' Edmunds is a Welsh singer, guitarist and record producer. Although he is primarily associated with Pub rock and New Wave, and had numerous hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, his natural leaning has always been towards 1950s style rock and roll.-Early bands:As a teenager Edmunds first...
recorded a song Mathews co-wrote, "Closer to the Flame" and it became a huge seller around the world. In 1990, Mathews produced, engineered and performed on the first release by Chuck Prophet
Chuck Prophet
Chuck Prophet is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. A Californian, Prophet first achieved notice in the American psychedelic/desert rock group Green on Red, with whom he toured and recorded in the 1980s...
called Brother Aldo. In 1991, Mathews produced, engineered and performed with John Wesley Harding
John Wesley Harding
John Wesley Harding may refer to:* John Wesley Harding , a 1967 Bob Dylan album* John Wesley Harding , the title track of this album* John Wesley Harding , English singer...
for Sire Records
Sire Records
Sire Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company. Its early releases as a...
, they also contributed to Just Say Roe, a pro-choice recording project with Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, David Byrne
David Byrne
David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...
and many others.
Throughout the whirlwind of studio activities in the 1990s, Scott recorded with many iconic artists including Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
, John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, Robert Cray
Robert Cray
Robert Cray is an American blues guitarist and singer. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he has led his own band, as well as an acclaimed solo career.-Career:...
and even Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim (musician)
Tiny Tim , , born in Manhattan, was an American singer and ukulele player. He was most famous for his rendition of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" sung in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice.-Rise to fame:Born to Lebanese parents in 1932, Khaury displayed musical talent at a very young age...
.
In 1993 Mathews, along with friend and San Francisco Chronicle senior rock critic, Joel Selvin
Joel Selvin
Joel Selvin is a San Francisco-based music critic and author known for his weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle which ran from 1972 to 2009. Selvin has written books covering various aspects of pop music and has interviewed a large number of musical artists...
discovered the King of the Surf Guitar
King of the Surf Guitar
King of the Surf Guitar is the second studio album of surf music by Dick Dale, released in 1963, featuring original and cover songs.-Track listing:#"King of the Surf Guitar"#"The Lonesome Road"#"Kansas City"#"Dick Dale Stomp"#"What I Say"...
, Dick Dale
Dick Dale
Dick Dale is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He experimented with reverberation and made use of custom made Fender amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.-Early life:Dale was born in South Boston, Massachusetts and lived in nearby...
was living on a remote ranch in 29 Palms, CA and rarely picked up his guitar. The two coaxed the reluctant guitarist to come to San Francisco and try some recording and the result was Tribal Thunder
Tribal Thunder
- Track listing :#"Nitro" – 3:19#"The New Victor" – 2:48#"Esperanza" – 3:52#"Shredded Heat" – 2:45#"Trail Of Tears" – 4:52#"Caravan" – 4:47#"The Eliminator" – 2:25#"Speardance" – 5:37...
, a record that earned it's way to #1 on the College Radio charts and Rolling Stone awarded it an excellent '4 Star' review. With Dale's major comeback underway, Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
used Misirlou
Misirlou
Misirlou , is a popular Greek song with popularity in five styles of music: Greek rebetiko, Middle-Eastern belly dancing, Jewish klezmer, American surf rock, and international orchestral easy listening .- History :...
in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction
Pulp fiction
Pulp fiction may refer to:* pulp magazines, short stories presented in a magazine format, printed on cheaply made wood-pulp paper* Pulp Fiction, a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino...
and Mathews went on to produce more LPs with Dale, 'Unknown Territory' (1994) and 'Calling Up Spirits' (1996).
While writing and recording with Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. and the MGs. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime...
in 1996 at the Plant Studios in Sausalito, Mathews met engineer Tom Luekens who was working full-time for Jones. When the project was done, Luekens contacted Mathews and let him know he was a free agent and from that moment on Luekens has been Mathews' chief engineer.
In 1997, Scott collaborated with Huey Lewis
Huey Lewis
Huey Lewis is an American musician, songwriter and occasional actor.Lewis sings lead and plays harmonica for his band Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many of the band's songs...
on songs for the film Wag the Dog
Wag the Dog
Wag the Dog is a 1997 black comedy film starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro, co-starring Anne Heche, Denis Leary and William H. Macy about a Washington spin doctor who, merely days before a presidential election, distracts the electorate from a sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood film producer...
in Scott's new studio in Marin County. Many other projects were recorded at this location but it was short lived, as Mathews felt it lacked the comfort, natural light, 'vibe' and sonic value of the original Pig Pen studio that Mathews had been striving for.
In 1998, Mathews' corporation Hit or Myth Productions purchased a split-level house on the edge of San Francisco Bay with views from every room and established a new private recording studio, TikiTown. Stocked with many musical instruments and the creature comforts of a nice home, it soon became a destination for artists from all over the world. Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
immediately became a familiar face and even installed a gym for his use while working at TikiTown. Recently, Mathews found out that TikiTown was the home of a member of Journey
Journey (band)
Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
when they were in their heyday.
In 1999, the Durocs contributed to the tribute album for Moby Grape
Moby Grape
Moby Grape is an American rock group from the 1960s, known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting and that collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz together with rock and psychedelic music...
co-founder, Skip Spence
Skip Spence
Alexander Lee "Skip" Spence was a Canadian-born musician and singer-songwriter. He was co-founder of Moby Grape, and played guitar with them until 1969. He released one solo album, 1969's Oar, and then largely withdrew from the music industry...
, who was terminally ill with cancer. The album, More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album (Birdman, 1999), contained cover versions of the songs from Spence's only solo album, Oar
Oar
An oar is an implement used for water-borne propulsion. Oars have a flat blade at one end. Oarsmen grasp the oar at the other end. The difference between oars and paddles are that paddles are held by the paddler, and are not connected with the vessel. Oars generally are connected to the vessel by...
(Columbia, 1969).
The 2000s
In 2000, Mathews began dedicating himself almost exclusively to new, emerging artists at Hit or Myth Productions while devoting a lot of time to family and travel. TikiTown was the site of roughly ten different production projects per year - ranging from singles to double albums.In 2005, Mathews began producing a series of Operettas for contemporary Opera composer, Mark Northcross using a select group of performers from the San Francisco Symphony
San Francisco Symphony
The San Francisco Symphony is an orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980, the orchestra has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus are part of the organization...
and San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
. The first piece was recorded at TikiTown but the subsequent selections were recorded at Skywalker Ranch
Skywalker Ranch
Skywalker Ranch is the name of the workplace of film director and producer George Lucas. It is located in a secluded, but open area near Nicasio, California, in Marin County. The ranch is located on Lucas Valley Road, although Lucas is not related to the road's namesake, who was a...
because the size of the orchestra and number of vocalists needed outgrew the size of the studio. The latest piece was recorded in 2011.
In 2007, at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, CA, Brian Wilson performed the final live presentation of Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band The Beach Boys, released May 16, 1966, on Capitol Records. It has since been recognized as one of the most influential records in the history of popular music and one of the best albums of the 1960s, including songs such as "Wouldn't...
. On this historical occasion, Wilson invited Mathews and Al Jardine
Al Jardine
Alan Charles "Al" Jardine is a founding member of top-selling American music group The Beach Boys, a guitarist and occasional lead vocalist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.-Early life:...
onstage to sing the all-time classic.
In addition, Mathews's musical and personal involvement with Van Dyke Parks
Van Dyke Parks
Van Dyke Parks is an American composer, arranger, producer, musician, singer, author and actor. Parks is perhaps best known for his contributions as a lyricist on the Beach Boys album Smile....
and Brian Wilson made Mathews instrumental (along with Bug Music) in bringing together the two forces in order to finish the final masterpiece originally scheduled as 'Smile (The Beach Boys album)
Smile (The Beach Boys album)
Smile is a previously unreleased album by The Beach Boys recorded throughout 1966 and 1967. The project was intended by its creator Brian Wilson as the follow-up to Pet Sounds, but was never completed in its original form...
' to fruition (after it had been left undone for nearly four decades).
Mathews accompanied Van Dyke Parks for the first performance of Smile in Los Angeles at the Disney Center, and received a Gold Record for the sales of the newly recorded 'Smile (The Brian Wilson album)' from the U.K.
The 2010s
As of 2011, Mathews is still writing songs with Ron NagleRon Nagle
Ron Nagle is an American ceramic sculptor, musician and songwriter.-History:Ron Nagle grew up in San Francisco’s Mission District...
and working on recording projects due for future release, featuring Nagle as the artist and Mathews as the producer.
On April 16, 2011, The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
are releasing a 7” vinyl with the A side being “Don’t Fight The Sea” (co-produced by Mathews) and the B side being “Friends” (acapella), with 100% of the proceeds going to benefit the Red Cross and the Japanese disaster relief effort. The single will be packaged in a white sleeve and the first 1,000 pressed will be on white vinyl with a red label to replicate the Japanese flag.
While still working with older, iconic artists, these days Mathews is dedicated to producing primarily emerging artists he discovers from all over the world. He feels talent discovery and development is the most broken component to today's music industry.
Mathews' recent projects at TikiTown include new artists from England, Australia, Ukraine, France, Austria, New Zealand, Canada, Iceland, Japan and America.
Awards and honors
Mathews has enjoyed sustained success throughout his musical career. His awards include several gold and platinum albums, some Academy Award winning film projects and many Grammy AwardGrammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
winning projects.
The Durocs LP on Capitol Records won the 'Best New Artist' award at the BAMMIES (aka the California Music Awards).
Mathews has been profiled in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
, Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
, Guitar Player
Guitar Player
Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...
, Electronic Musician
Electronic Musician
Electronic Musician is a monthly magazine published by Penton Media featuring articles on synthesizers, music production and electronic musicians....
, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine and the New York Times. In Rolling Stone magazine, Ben Fong-Torres
Ben Fong-Torres
Benjamin Fong-Torres is an American rock journalist, author, and broadcaster best known for his association with Rolling Stone magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle .-Biography:Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, Fong-Torres' father, Ricardo Fong-Torres Benjamin Fong-Torres (方振豪; Cantonese:...
referred to Mathews as a 'wunderkind,' and San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
Senior Music Critic, Joel Selvin
Joel Selvin
Joel Selvin is a San Francisco-based music critic and author known for his weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle which ran from 1972 to 2009. Selvin has written books covering various aspects of pop music and has interviewed a large number of musical artists...
is on record stating, "Scott Mathews is the funniest, smartest, hippest, most talented musician I know."
With current combined sales of more than 14 million units, he continues to produce music as well as maintaining other active roles inside the ever changing music industry.
Teaching and speaking
Mathews has taught classes at San Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
on Songwriting, the Music Industry and Music Production and has lectured at UCLA, UC Berkeley, The Musicians Institute in Hollywood, Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
, Ex'pression Center for New Media, and Foothill College
Foothill College
Foothill College is a community college located in Los Altos Hills, California and is part of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. It was founded on January 15, 1957 by Founding Superintendent and President Dr. Calvin C. Flint.-History:...
.
Mathews is a frequent guest speaker at SXSW, the SanFran MusicTech Summit, and the West Coast Songwriters Association Conference among others.
Film projects
In 1976 Mathews performed many different musical instruments on the Jack NitzscheJack Nitzsche
Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche was an arranger, producer, songwriter, and film score composer. He first came to prominence in the late 1950s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spector, and went on to work with the Rolling Stones, Neil Young and others...
score for the multiple Academy Award winning film, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 American drama film directed by Miloš Forman and based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Ken Kesey....
.
As an actor, Mathews starred as Fluke Starbucker in the Star Wars parody Hardware Wars
Hardware Wars
Hardware Wars is a short film parody of the classic science fiction film Star Wars. The thirteen-minute film, which premiered in theatres only seven months after Star Wars, consisted of little more than inside jokes and visual puns that heavily depended upon audience familiarity with the...
from 1977, grossing US$1,000,000 as compared to its paltry US$8,000 budget (a much better profit ratio than Star Wars itself). Mathews has never acted since claiming; "I peaked! I'm no longer ready for my close up. Call me one and done but I'm goin' out on top, baby."
In 1977, Mathews and Ron Nagle
Ron Nagle
Ron Nagle is an American ceramic sculptor, musician and songwriter.-History:Ron Nagle grew up in San Francisco’s Mission District...
produced sound design and effects with Exorcist director, William Friedkin for the movie, Sorcerer
Sorcerer
-Gaming:* Sorcerer , a 2002 tabletop role playing game made by Ron Edwards* Sorcerer , a 1984 interactive fiction computer game made by Infocom...
.
In 1982, Mathews and Ron Nagle
Ron Nagle
Ron Nagle is an American ceramic sculptor, musician and songwriter.-History:Ron Nagle grew up in San Francisco’s Mission District...
produced sound design, effects and source music for the film, Cat People
Cat People
Cat People is a 1942 horror film produced by Val Lewton and directed by Jacques Tourneur. DeWitt Bodeen wrote the original screenplay which was based on Val Lewton's short story The Bagheeta published in 1930. The film stars Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph and Tom Conway.Cat People was...
.
In 1998, Mathews produced and wrote songs with Huey Lewis for the film, Wag the Dog
Wag the Dog
Wag the Dog is a 1997 black comedy film starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro, co-starring Anne Heche, Denis Leary and William H. Macy about a Washington spin doctor who, merely days before a presidential election, distracts the electorate from a sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood film producer...
for director Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:...
.
In 2010, Mathews served as co-musical supervisor and music producer on a documentary film with called Hollywood Don't Surf!
Hollywood Don't Surf!
Hollywood Don't Surf! is a 2011 documentary film that premiered in the 2010 Cannes Film Festival while a work in progress and held its North American premiere at the 2011 Telluride Film Festival, where it was presented to a packed park at the Abel Gance Outdoor theater by actress Daryl Hannah...
with two-time Academy Award-nominated director Greg MacGillivray
Greg MacGillivray
Greg MacGillivray is an American film director and cinematographer. MacGillivray was first nominated for an Academy Award in 1995 for directing The Living Sea , and was nominated in the same category again for Dolphins in 2000.He has initiated the development of three cameras for the IMAX format...
on the subject of surfing and surf culture
Surf culture
Surf culture includes the people, language, fashion and life surrounding the art of surfing.The culture began early in the 20th century, spread quickly during the 1950s and 1960s, and continues to evolve. It affected fashion, music, literature, films, jargon, and more...
as seen through the lens of Hollywood. Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
, Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
, John Milius
John Milius
John Frederick Milius is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures.-Early life:Milius was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Elizabeth and William Styx Milius, who was a shoe manufacturer. Milius attempted to join the Marine Corps in the late 1960s, but was rejected...
, Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
, and others join a cast of A-list participants.
Personal life
In 1991, Mathews married former model Mary Ezzell, children: Thomas Wilson, born in 1993, and Ava Grace, born in 1996. Primary residence is on Mt. Tamalpais in Mill Valley, Marin County, California.In September, 2011, Mathews joined the President's Counsel of the Gladstone Institute, one of the world's foremost stem cell research centers while also working with Partnerships for Change to organize charity benefit concerts to help impoverished nations around the world.
For several years, Mathews was the Musical Director for benefit concerts for Thunder Road
Thunder Road
Thunder Road is the title of a 1958 drama–crime film about running moonshine in the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee in the early 1950s. It was directed by Arthur Ripley and starred Robert Mitchum, who also produced the film, co-wrote the screenplay, and is rumored to have directed much of the...
, a youth-oriented alcohol and drug rehabilitation center.
Mathews is an important contributor to H.E.A.R.
H.E.A.R.
H.E.A.R. is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing hearing loss, mainly from loud rock music. The acronym stands for Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers. It was founded in 1988 by rock musician Kathy Peck and physician Flash Gordon, M.D. after Kathy suffered tinnitus and...
, an organization dedicated to educating and protecting musicians' hearing.
Off and on, Mathews serves as Musical Director for the Mill Valley Film Festival
Mill Valley Film Festival
The Mill Valley Film Festival is an annual, non-competitive film festival presented by the California Film Institute. Known as a filmmakers’ festival, the annual Mill Valley Film Festival offers a non-competitive environment for exhibiting independent and world cinema.Founded in 1978 by MVFF...
where projects have involved bringing together the most recorded musicians in history, The Wrecking Crew
The Wrecking Crew
Wrecking Crew may refer to:In film:*Wrecking Crew , an American film directed by Frank McDonald*The Wrecking Crew , a 1969 film starring Dean Martin and Elke Sommer...
for their final live performance ever as well as directing an all-star gospel show featuring The Blind Boys of Alabama
The Blind Boys of Alabama
The Blind Boys of Alabama are a gospel group from Alabama that first formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind at Talladega, Alabama in 1939. The three main vocalists of the group and their drummer/percussionist are all blind....
and Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...
.
Under the heading of 'strictly for fun' outside of the studio, Mathews enjoys getting together with his musical pals and instigating impromptu shows and jams. Recent activities have included people like; Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, Chris Isaak
Chris Isaak
Christopher Joseph "Chris" Isaak is an American rock musician and occasional actor.-Early life:Isaak was born in Stockton, California, the son of Dorothy , a potato chip factory worker, and Joe Isaak, a forklift driver. Isaak's mother is Italian American, originating from Genoa...
, Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar
Sam Roy "Sammy" Hagar , also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Also sings Country Music....
, Booker T.
Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. and the MGs. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime...
, Dwight Yoakam
Dwight Yoakam
Dwight David Yoakam is an American singer-songwriter, actor and film director, most famous for his pioneering country music...
, Billy Gibbons
Billy Gibbons
William Frederick "Billy" Gibbons is an American musician, actor and car customizer, best known as the guitarist of the Texas blues-rock band ZZ Top. He is also the lead singer and composer for many of the band's songs. Gibbons is known for playing his Gretsch Billy Bo guitar and his famous 1959...
, Joe Satriani
Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...
, J D Souther, Steve Miller
Steve Miller (musician)
Steven H. "Steve" Miller is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter who began his career in blues and blues rock and evolved to a more popular-oriented sound which, from the mid 1970s through the early 1980s, resulted in a series of successful singles and albums.-Early years:Born in Milwaukee,...
and Al Jardine
Al Jardine
Alan Charles "Al" Jardine is a founding member of top-selling American music group The Beach Boys, a guitarist and occasional lead vocalist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.-Early life:...
. In 2010, a 'garage band from hell' consisting of; Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett
James William "Jimmy" Buffett is a singer-songwriter, author, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett's musical hits include "Margaritaville" , and "Come Monday"...
, Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band the Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 to February 1971, and from October 1974 to August 1995...
, Zac Brown, Robbie Krieger, Clint Black
Clint Black
Clint Patrick Black is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist and occasional actor. Signed to RCA Records in 1989, Black made his debut with his Killin' Time album, which produced four straight Number One singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country...
and a long list of other musical pals played at Mathews birthday.