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“He would probably look at my guitar playing and think, ‘You’re a moron!’”: Dave Matthews on his attempt at imitating Robert Fripp’s style
“I was just trying to imitate him, and I was also ignorant. So it was a combination of those two things.”
Image: Jean Baptiste Lacroix / Getty Images / Howard Stern Show
Dave Matthews has opened up his (failed) attempts at imitating the unique guitar playing style of King Crimson mastermind Robert Fripp.
Speaking to Howard Stern in a new interview, Matthews shares how the prog legend’s “spread out” fingering techniques have informed his own music, saying: “[Fripp] would probably look at my guitar playing and think, ‘You’re a moron,’ but he has this weird tuning where he plays in a really formal way [with his hands spread out].”
“Like with the song, Warehouse, it makes a sound, and you can make these patterns up and just sort of repeat the patterns. There’s probably an easier way to play it [where you’re less spread out across the fretboard] but it’s satisfying.”
Referencing his 1995 single Satellite, Matthews says: “I was just trying to imitate him, and I was also ignorant. So it was a combination of those two things.”
“I was trying to play what he was playing by looking rather than listening, like ‘What is he doing?’ So I tried and it didn’t sound anything like what he was doing, but it was nice.”
In other news, Fripp recently wrapped up the UK leg of his Sunday Lunch tour with his wife Toyah Willcox. Discussing the range of reactions to the pair’s musical shenanigans, Fripp told Guitar World: “There are two extreme responses to my part in Sunday Lunch. The first is, ‘This is below him: Robert is King Crimson and a serious guitarist,’ which I say is horseshit!”
“Fundamentally, I’m a working player,” said the maestro. “When we engage with any of the music on Sunday Lunch, it is always with respect. We’re not taking the piss, playing silly rock riffs. That is a preposterous suggestion. I work hard to honour the original player or players on the famous recordings.”
“The other extreme response is ‘Fripp can’t play rock and roll!’ which is the more accurate out of the two perspectives. When we’re doing songs by players like Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page or Ritchie Blackmore, I have to think these are classic players that need attention to detail.”