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Matthew Sweet started out making music in his hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska. Moving to Athens for college, he fell in with the vibrant music scene there, playing with Oh-OK and The Buzz of Delight. After scoring a record deal with Columbia (and then with A&M), Sweet released a pair of albums (1986’s Inside<\/i> and 1989’s Earth)<\/i>, neither of which caught on with the record-buying public.<\/p>\n
But everything changed with the making of 1991’s Girlfriend<\/i>. Rightly considered a landmark album of its era, Girlfriend<\/i> effectively combined the many dimensions of Sweet’s songwriting \u2013 with elements of power pop, classic rock, psychedelia, country and western and punk \u2013 into a seamless whole. Aided in his pursuits by a top-notch musician ensemble that included Robert Quine (Richard Hell and the Voidoids), Richard Lloyd (Television), Lloyd Cole, and others, Sweet also brought to the sessions his best songwriting yet. Tracks like \u201cI’ve Been Waiting,\u201d \u201cEvangeline\u201d and \u201cI Wanted to Tell You\u201d helped define the Matthew Sweet sound.<\/p>\n
Sweet’s career took off in the wake of Girlfriend<\/i>, and \u2013 relocating to New York City and then to Los Angeles \u2013 he would go on to release a string of high-quality albums. But as tastes changed \u2013 grunge was taking hold in the commercial marketplace just as the ear candy of Girlfriend<\/i> hit the airwaves \u2013 Sweet settled into a kind of cult status. Despite the irresistible charms of his songwriting, playing and arrangements, Matthew Sweet would not enjoy widespread commercial success once the 1990s ended.<\/p>\n
Thankfully for his ardent fans, he has remained busy, touring and recording new material. In 2013 he left L.A., returning to his home state and settling in Omaha. After a lengthy gestation, his twelfth solo album (not counting three all-covers collaborative albums he’s made with Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs), Tomorrow Forever<\/i> was released June 16. The product of a successful Kickstarter campaign, Tomorrow Forever<\/i> was created and released without the involvement of a traditional record company.<\/p>\n
For people who insist upon classifying an artist’s music into a single genre, Sweet’s catalog is potentially frustrating. Over the years, various critics have neatly defined every one of Sweet’s albums with a genre label. By their measure, 100% Fun<\/i> from 1995 is alt-rock, Blue Sky on Mars<\/i> (1997) is new wave, and 1999’s In Reverse<\/i> is psychedelic. It’s enough to confuse \u2013 and potentially ward off \u2013 someone unfamiliar with his music.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that probably some of it is from me doing so many interviews about albums over the years,\u201d Sweet says. When interviewers ask, \u201cWhat\u2019s up with this album?\u201d he says that he might respond, \u201c’It\u2019s more psychedelic.’ So I sort of feed into that.\u201d But his music doesn’t veer all over the stylistic map, like, say Neil Young or Todd Rundgren. \u201cWhen you are one person, you can\u2019t really not<\/i> be yourself,\u201d he chuckles.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all feels pretty connected to me,\u201d Sweet says, \u201cbut I\u2019m also very close to it. I [make music] that comes naturally to me; that probably comes from stuff I liked on other people\u2019s records.\u201d That said, Sweet is proud of the fact that his music draws from a wide array of influences. \u201cThere\u2019s sort of a blues\/rock thing, but there\u2019s some country. There\u2019s some very punky kind of stuff, there\u2019s power pop. I love backwards stuff, so that’s where psychedelic comes from … partly, at least.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, Sweet is largely unconcerned about how people describe his music. \u201cI’m not worried about what they are going to say,\u201d he admits. \u201cI’m just glad they care.\u201d<\/p>\n
For past albums projects, Sweet would often write as many as thirty songs, recording demos for each. Then he’d begin the process of winnowing the selections down to an album’s worth of songs, and record them properly. And though he originally planned to streamline his working methods for Tomorrow Forever<\/i>, in the end Sweet amassed a large cache of finished studio material. \u201cI really tried to be extra ambitious about getting good stuff, so I ended up doing three album-length batches of songs,\u201d he says. He spent the better part of last fall and winter selecting the songs for the album. And while the Kickstarter campaign promoted a disc of demos as one of the available premiums for those helping fund the project, things worked out a bit differently in the end. \u201cSince I didn’t really make a lot of notable demos, that\u2019s going to become an album of outtakes,\u201d Sweet says.<\/p>\n
Because he came of age in the DIY era, Sweet is comfortable with the notion of working without the support of a major record company, with its in-house promotion people and high-end recording studios. \u201cI probably wouldn\u2019t be a musician if I hadn\u2019t had multitrack cassette players in my bedroom,\u201d he says. \u201cIn a weird way, it’s back to that now.\u201d<\/p>\n
There’s a freedom that comes with not being on a major label, Sweet believes. In the old days, he often felt an implicit \u2013 if not direct \u2013 pressure. He says the clear message was, \u201c’Why can\u2019t you be a thing that will sell?’ And even if you are doing well, it was like, ‘Why can\u2019t you be a thing that will sell even better<\/i>?’\u201d That frustrated Sweet, who says that he wouldn’t have known how to make music that was more commercial in any event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat feeling is gone now,\u201d he says. \u201cI really like doing music as much as I ever liked doing it. I must sort of like being independent,\u201d he says with a chuckle. Referring again to his past \u2013 he calls it his \u201ccareer\u201d \u2013 he says, \u201cI used to say, ‘I\u2019m going to make my record at home,’ and I never did it. But now the future has come to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n