Dave Matthews Band fiddler Boyd Tinsley has spent a good chunk of his recent off season promoting his new independent movie Faces In The Mirror. The film has been in the works for nearly four years. While in the studio with Dave Mathews Band recording Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King in 2008, Tinsley would meet another group of musicians at night to record another set of music for the film. Instead of a big budget release, Tinsley used DMB’s original grassroots tactics to bring his labor of love to fans across the country.
While at home in Virginia, Tinsley explained to Jambands.com and Relix how he created his film, why he is touring Faces In The Mirror across the U.S. in small pop-up settings and why you may hear “True Reflections” live sometime soon.
I know that you wrote the music for Faces In The Mirror first and then decided to put a script to it. Can you describe what that process was like?
It was almost like the inspiration for this movie. I started thinking about the character, I knew the actor that I wanted to get, so I started to think about the actor and what I wanted him to have in common with the character that we were going to create around him. The thing that he had in common with his character was the death of his father. The main thing for me was I wanted to bring realism to the movie and I wanted it to come from the heart and I didn’t want him to just act. I wanted everything from this movie to come from the heart and one of the reasons why we did the music first is that when when the musicians got in the room I had them play from the heart, from their own experiences and sort of create the rest of the story.
Everyone just got in there and opened up. I had the environment look like a late night from the ‘30s- low lighting, candles and incense. I was just trying to create a vibe where everybody felt safe because you have to open up your heart. Magic came out and most of the music that you hear in the movie just happened in the moment. So we had the music and then there was this period of about a week, a month or so or maybe more when everybody listened to it. That’s all that happened. The director listened to it, the screenwriter listened to it, the actors. Everybody listened just to get the vibe and the mood of the movie.
The music really was the thing that drove everything we did around the movie and even to the end of the movie and the editing process, it was really the music that dictated the way that the movie moved. We didn’t take the movie then write the music to it; we took the music and we put the movie around it. It was like a dance. Aaron [Farrington] and I, we edited it a lot of times, kind of like a dance, sometimes he led and sometimes I led. [Laughs.] It was cool. It was probably one of the best working relationships with anyone I’ve ever had. We worked for two years, including editing.
You started writing the music in 2009, right?
In 2008, when DMB was in the studio for Big Whiskey in Seattle, I would spend noon to midnight there, then I would go to another studio from like midnight to 6 am and play with another group of musicians, Maktub, who are from Seattle and also Shawn Smith of Brad. It was like five or six hours a day but the thing about it was every moment [there was] music going on. Even when we took breaks, somebody would go into the studio and start playing the piano, the drums or the bass, so there are pieces where people didn’t even realize that they were being recorded because everybody was so excited about it that they just wanted to play. There was a gospel tune on the album that I sing but that was one of those things that came from Shawn Smith who came into the studio room on a break, started playing on the piano and the drummer happened to go in. It stated off as just a drum and piano just jamming in between takes with the band and it developed into a full song. It was fun. Everybody was so excited about this.
Was it very different than your experiences with DMB? The recording process, the creative process, working with other musicians or were there a lot of similarities?
There were similarities. For me, from the way I approach it, I like to take an idea and develop it. Dave [Matthews] always says to me “BT will never play the same thing twice,” which is pretty much true because I always like to create a story every time I play. That’s pretty much the approach that we took, even with the movie, was to start with the premise of the father dying and the son coming back, knowing that there was some thing there, but really not knowing the complete story until we went to the process of making the movie. The music was really also in a way some of what we did in DMB. We sort of just got in there and started playing. [When] we did Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King, we all got into the studio and did the exact same thing. Dave would come and sort of just started playing and then before you know it, everybody would jump in and we would start developing a song. It could have been anybody. Fonzy [Stefan Lessard] might start, Carter [Beauford] might stat. There was never any like, “ok guys, this is what we’re going to do.” It was really communication through music.
There are a lot of really great songs. Between the movie and the GrooGrux album, there’s really a lot of great music.
I guess it was just a really creative time because I was sort of taking stuff from both sessions, from one session to the other, and they were both great sessions. This movie really opened me up creatively as a musician. The way that I play now is very different from the way that I played before the movie. It’s just really opened me up. I played stuff that I never played before. I was just like, “Wow! Where did that come from?” It’s because I’m more open. I think the movie gave me more courage to just sort of open up and not go back to what I’ve always known, but actually have the courage to go places where my heart says to go.
Do you think that music on Away from the World is a result of that?
Absolutely. On Away from the World, stuff came out that I had never played. On “Drunken Soldier,” there’s this violin part that I play kind of like early in that tune and that actually is the very first time that I play that line, the one that’s on the recording. It was one of those cases where I just completely let go and this melody just came out.
And it’s a really beautiful song.
Thank you very much, man. But honestly I would not have been able to do what I did unless I had done this movie because it’s a matter of trust [and] it’s a matter of belief. The belief first started when I had the inspiration to do this movie, I believed in it; it was such a huge feeling. It took three years, but throughout that time, I believed [and] other people believed because we saw amazing things happen, like songs just be created and we just saw magical things happen when we were shooting and editing the movie. So every step along the way, we had something to say [like] “Ok, keep going. This is coming together.”
Brad and Boyd at the Relix office
The order that you [originally] created and played the music, is that the same order that’s in the film or was it really broken up after you had the collection of music?
We actually recorded twice as much music if not more than [what’s] in the movie, so we had a lot to choose from. I mostly let Aaron, the director, choose the music. There was some music that he had chosen that we ended up changing later on, but I let him decide for the most part. I think he did a great job with that.
For the screenings that you’re doing, you’re hosting these popup shows and playing with different musicians. Was that the approach that you wanted to take originally and how have the show evolved?
It was something that I’ve wanted to do for years, since like the late ‘90s, which was to make a movie and do it on my own. It’s like the dream came true. It came true in its own way, sort of unexpectedly. This tour, I decided to do this in the beginning of January, so I told the guys, “Oh yeah, we’re going to do a tour in February,” but it was just lhe time. That’s one of the things that I learned, you try to jump on something at the [right] time.
When you’re really feeling it.
Yeah, and that’s what it was. “We have to do it now, in February.” We did that and it’s just like the movie, everything fell into place. We’ve had some great events. They’ve all been really different and interesting. [We had] a Hollywood screening, last night in Miami we had a South Beach screening projected onto the side of a building. No matter where we are, the atmosphere is of love and it’s also something about this movie that sort of opens people up and brings people together. We played at these bars and people have been drinking all night but nobody gets unruly, there’s never any trouble. Not only that, we show the movie, people watch the movie and we do a question and answer. The other thing, people have been at the bar drinking for a couple of hours and here we are. People are still down to do a question and answer and they have good questions to ask. After that we bring up a band, they play and I come in and play some songs with them and after that is the gathering part of this.
Basically I go and meet everybody there and I give people hugs who want hugs, I sign autographs, take pictures, we joke around. It’s really cool, it’s like the barrier between me and the fans has never been more down, ever. I just feel comfortable in the midst of the fans. It’s really great. In a lot of ways they have really opened up my heart. It’s so much about love. It’s made me a more loving person. It’s made me re-look at my life, how I treat other people and how I do things. It’s been the same for everybody. This whole thing has been a very healing thing for a lot of people. One lady hadn’t been out of her house in four years, she had both physical and mental problems, and she came up to me in tears and said, “I’m so glad.” It was like a healing thing for her to be there. This whole experience has been so near for so many people. When I started this movie, I didn’t know why I was doing it. I just knew that I had to make the movie. I had no idea why. Now I’m starting to understand.
It’s been a really beautiful thing. It’s been hard and I’ve worked everyday [on it] for about five or six years with the band. I’ve never had more satisfaction and joy ever in my life. I’m fortunate and I’m glad that I followed my heart.
It’s great to hear someone like you because with the popularity of DMB, I can’t imagine you would have this kind of interaction with the fans like you’re able to [have] on the road now with the film.
No, not at all, so that’s why it’s really cool because honestly the last time I’ve been this close to fans was like in the very beginning.
After that we’ve sort of become part of this bubble where you’re taken here, you’re taken there but you’re always taken past the fans. Sometimes we stop on the way to hotels, we shake hands but this is more—I’m hugging people for minutes and I’m talking to them. It’s never been a burden, it’s something that I enjoy because not only have I given out thousands of hugs, we did gatherings in the winter tour without the movie being screened where we would just meet people. The thing you have to look at is that I’ve gotten thousands of hugs. It touches me. It transforms my heart. I’ve learned that love is probably the most powerful gift that we have, if we use it.
That’s very cool to hear you say that. So I also wanted to ask a little about DMB because you’re getting ready for the summer tour and [New Orleans] Jazz Fest. The last time you guys played Jazz Fest was a few years ago. Do you have any memories from those shows? Paul Simon was there and he came out with you guys, I think in 2001.
Yeah, and I think somebody else did. Jazz Fest is cool because everybody is there.
Lenny Kravitz played with you guys one year.
Lenny Kravitz did come out. You’re absolutely right. I think for “Watchtower.” It’s really great. There are so many people, it’s just such a great vibe and it’s great when gifted musicians sit in with each other and that kind of thing because that’s something that you don’t really get the chance to do. That’s one of those environments that I’m looking forward to. New Orleans has definitely played a big role in DMB. We recorded a lot of Big Whiskey down there. We’ve spent a lot of time down there and we did what we could to help out after [Hurricane] Katrina with the musicians’ village down there. I’m looking forward to going back.
Speaking of DMB, when can we expect to hear your song “True Reflections” again [the song was last played in 2001]?
We’ve been talking about that with some Twitter followers since the summer. It’s funny because I had a guitarist in Chicago, and we went to the ‘Bean’ in Chicago, a mirror-reflective bean, and we played in front of it without a permit. We were doing an acoustic guitar version of “True Reflections.” We got half way through it then the cops came and busted it. [Laughs.] We talked about it—Dave talked about doing it last summer—but our focus was really learning every song from the album, Away from the World. Hopefully, this summer I can talk Dave [into doing it]. I went back and listened to a recording of it and I said, “Oh wow! I love this song!”
It was nice to hear you sing, too. It is one of the only songs you sing lead on with Dave Matthews Band
Thank you. I’m excited to bring it back. It will probably happen this summer.
I also noticed that you brought back the acoustic violin in the last few years.
I love it and that’s another thing that I had forgotten. I started out in this band with an acoustic then I switched to electric because back in the day there wasn’t really a pickup that could handle a rock band, but now the pickups are amazing, so my acoustic sounds better than any electric that I’ve ever had because of the pickup that I have. I love it! I feel so much more connected to acoustic.
How have Jeff [Coffin] and Rashawn [Ross] influenced Dave Matthews Band’s current sound?
Jeff and Rashawn members of the band [now] and really great musicians. Rashawn has been playing and touring with us for a few years and Jeff is truly professional. He learned every song in the DMB catalog.
It’s really a great time for this band and we are doing things every night that we’ve never done before, and having a lot of fun. Every show is different, full of energy and it really feels like the old days, man.
