Photos by Rodrigo Simas
Dave Matthews Band’s low ender reflects on his three decades in the group, his evolved view on writing, and his new approach to old material
Since age 16, Stefan Lessard has been the low-end anchor of the Dave Matthews Band through ten albums, continuous tours, decades of musical evolutions, stylistic shifts, lineup changes, and undeniable success. Now, on the cusp of turning 50, Lessard is experiencing a new sense of freedom in his craft by breaking away from the constraints of writing for the parts and feeling boxed in to riffs, by embracing improvisation and taking risks onstage. In reflecting on his career, he came to understand that his early days in the band were highly calculated, which led to his playing getting stifled.
“What I’ve realized is that a lot of the old things we were doing, between the guitar riffs that I had to play alongside the fills and parts that were already placed inside the music, didn’t leave much space for deviation from the bass standpoint. Carter [Beauford, drummer] and I were totally locked in on all of it, but there wasn’t much room for me beyond that to explore. I’ve realized that we don’t have to stay locked into all of those structures and all of those formats from the ’90s. Of course we play the riffs and parts that everyone knows, but we’ve loosened up and have all this space for improvisation, which makes me appreciate our older material in a way that I’ve never been able to before. It feels like every song has new life now.”
This mentality shift is evident on DMB’s 2023 album, Walk Around the Moon, where Lessard finds a balance between spacious grooves that serve the song and high-impact moments where he bursts out melodically in a style that he refers to as “swimming.” His bass-forward playing on early DMB hits like “Crush,” “Stay”, “Rapunzel,” and “Best of What’s Around” isn’t lost on the new material, but he reserves letting loose for for select spots, and his maturation favors subtlety and nuance over overtly flashy and technically indulgent parts. He even busts out an upright bass, the instrument he first started on, for “The Ocean and the Butterfly,” to provide a rich backdrop on one of the album’s more beautiful compositions.
When it comes to DMB’s live shows, however, his subtlety is replaced with ambitious risk-taking and stepping into uncharted territory. Leaving song parts open-ended — even on beloved classic hits — Lessard and the band’s reenergized lineup of Matthews, Beauford, guitarist Tim Reynolds, keyboardist Buddy Strong, saxophonist Jeff Coffin, and trumpeter Rashawn Ross, love taking their audience on a journey where not even they know the destination. Ditching the confined riff sequences and structured framework has given Lessard a new lease on his bass playing, where he challenges himself each night both rhythmically and melodically. As he will confirm, if you’re going to last in a band for 30 years, keeping it exciting and fulfilling is essential.
What was the writing process like for Walk Around the Moon?
Summertime of 2020, I was in Idaho with my family at Lake Ponderay pulling my kids on the boat and living my best summer that I could. Out of the blue, Dave called and asked me to fly to Charlottesville [Virginia] and get in the studio. I thought he was in Seattle, so I asked if we could do it in a few months [laughs]. I just wanted more family BBQs. We planned it for September, and I learned that he and Carter had been already working in the studio. I went out and by that point, Buddy and Tim had already done their parts for a lot of the songs. That whole time I had been getting tracks emailed from our engineer, so I was working on them at home. Then I would send them back out hoping they’d say, This sounds great — no need to come out. But they still sent for me, so when I got out there, I already had a feel for the arrangements and moods and ideas, so it was pretty easy to lay down tracks. I finished it all in four days. I brought out about seven basses, and it was an optimal working situation for myself, because I hate wasting time. Often when everyone is trying to do stuff together, there’s a lot of downtime. That’s amazing and fun, too — to do it together and make this art — but I love digging in and letting it flow. It was just me and the engineer and Dave would pop in, but he let us do our work.
Your playing in the C section of “The Only Thing” is reminiscent of your early work in its movement.
I was feeling really confident in those sessions because I was writing and tracking with just the engineer, so I’d just rip it, and then we’d start subtracting. On that tune it was originally super melodic and busy through both passes, and then we switched it and did just the root notes on the first time, and then I went for it on the second time and did that swimming thing up the neck. I go to the higher register to match the vocals, and it’s one of my favorite parts. I think I used my ’57 P-Bass, which I used on a lot of the songs. That bass is magic; it just fills up the mid-section so much. I don’t play it live because it gets lost in the mix.
That’s a great term you used, “swimming,” to describe your playing up and down the neck, like on “Rapunzel” and “The Stone.” Do you always play more initially, and then subtract while you develop your parts?
I do tend to play more when I write and then subtract with each take. I really enjoy a groove-first, almost minimalist mindset now. That’s interesting you mentioned those two songs, because during the “Rapunzel” and Before These Crowded Streets years, Dave and I were very much into the idea that we play parts. Dave is still really big on that. He can improvise on guitar, but he likes parts, and he likes to improvise mainly with his singing over those parts. Around the time of that album, I was writing parts that I thought Dave would like to play. The beginning part of “Rapunzel” that’s in five is a part that I wrote. When Dave and I started playing it together, it sounded cool and we went with it. And in “The Stone,” Dave had written the main part, and we decided to lock up on the first section, and it went from there. I do swim around in the chorus of that song, but it’s still me playing a part. I wasn’t really hearing melodies back then; I was sticking to the rhythms and the grooves and the parts I had to play.
Your phrasing on the chorus of “The Stone” moves in such a unique way.
That rhythm is the way Carter counts 6/8. He counts it 1, 2, 3, 4-5-6. At the end he has a specific cadence, and I follow along with him. He plays it on his ride cymbal in a way you can feel. But if I deviate from that, I totally lose the one [laughs]. It took a while to get down, but once you get down another player’s intention, then you can relate to it. But for a long time I was just holding on for dear life.
Did you instantly know that “The Ocean and the Butterfly” needed upright bass?
When I first listened to it, I laid down some uke bass on it. We were in Charlottesville, and I didn’t have an upright there with me, so I borrowed one from a guy in town. I hadn’t been playing upright all that much, but we got that one and it was just the perfect sound for that tune. It actually inspired me to get back into upright. I recently got a 1910 German bass, and I love it. I’ve been playing along with Hal Leonard jazz [instructional material] getting my chops back up. I’m giving myself a decade — when I turn 60, I want to be playing some gigs at the Blue Note.
You started on upright. How natural is it when you pick it up back up?
Unfortunately, my muscle memory for upright goes up to only about my first two years of learning how to play it. But I know enough about technique and what I need to work on, and it just takes hours of putting that work into it. I always feel guilty when I don’t get around to playing it enough. But when I’m off the road, I spend a lot of time playing it, and lately I’ve been playing classical pieces on it, and jazz. It’s such a freeing thing to play changes that you see for the first time. I love following along with jazz chords, because it’s so outside the world of what I’ve been doing for so long. But upright was how I started out playing music, and it’s always nice to reconnect to that.
That’s a great groove you laid down on “Monsters.”
That song has such a simple movement, with almost a blues feel, that makes it really fun to play. Talk about freedom — there’s nothing set there, and I don’t have to do anything super flashy or technical. It’s all about the feeling and the mood. The top part of the verses is such a fun little melody to play. I’d pick that moment over a crazy bass solo any day. It just does something to me that gives me chills. I love playing that song; when I see that on the set, I get excited.
What made you decide to use a Moog Taurus for “Madman’s Eyes”?
That was really fun to break on that song. I used it for those hits in the beginning to make it bigger. And Buddy hits that on his low keys, too. It’s so fun playing that live, because it has a very “Don’t Drink the Water” vibe that really shakes everything. The movement of that song is really different and fun. We play it a lot live.
You’ve been all over the place with trying new gear recently from Music Man basses to Darkglass amps, and a lot in between. What is your current setup?
I’ve been using Darkglass amps and I love their cabs, but I don’t really get to experience their grandness and power because I’m in my in-ears [monitors]. I use Shure in-ears, which have six drivers for better bass response, but I still keep my amp volume fairly low for the stage balance. But I just love Darkglass. I use their preamps, which are basically what you hear out front. I went to a Tool show and I saw Justin [Chancellor] miking up his amps, and I sent pictures of it to our sound guys and asked what they thought about using the sound out of my cabs. They were pretty adamant that it wouldn’t make much difference or sound as good. I guess different strokes for different folks. I’m always striving to get the best quality of sound. I trust our sound guy with what he wants it to sound like for the bigger picture of the music. I try to make his job easy.
What about your ever-expanding bass collection?
I play my Custom Z Dingwall 6-string, which is a beast and I love it. I worked with Sheldon Dingwall on that one, and they did such a great job. I put a string extender on it so the low B goes down to a low A. But I’ve had some issues with my wrists from playing it too much from where I play on the bass. I do a lot of work down low, so I like it for certain songs where I’m right in the middle of the bass — but when I have to stick down low, like on “Don’t Drink the Water,” it can hurt my wrist. That’s when I put my Music Man 5-string back on, and it’s all better. I’ve been playing my black sparkle Music Man StingRay 4-string a ton, and I’m really loving that bass right now. There’s something about it that makes it one of the most familiar basses to me. I got a Music Man for the first time when I decided that I wanted to start working on my slap technique; I watched videos of Louis Johnson and figured a StingRay is what you play to get that kind of vibe going. I never expected that it would turn into my main axe years and years down the line. I love the humbuckers on it; it’s super clean and I never get interference on it. It’s such a workhorse.
I still use my Modulus fretless when I can, because it’s such a beautiful bass and I love it. I started bringing back out my Warwick Dolphin bass for the first time in forever; I broke it out for “Typical Situation,” which is an old song of ours, and it just felt so good. It was a really nostalgic feeling playing that, so I’m going to bust it out more for our older songs from here on out. That growling tone is really easy to get with that bass, and I love it. I used it so much for the early DMB sound, and I’m definitely wanting it back at this point. I actually bought that bass from the music shop my dad was working in, Hines Music in Charlottesville, which is the same place Dave bought his first Ovation from, so that should give you an idea of how long I’ve had it.
I was using a Fodera a lot last year and I like it, but I felt like the Music Man was similar to that in tone, and I wanted to make it easier for my sound guys by not changing up so much. That’s why I love the studio — I can bring like ten basses and just pick and choose from them.
You’ve been a band for 33 years now, an accomplishment in itself. What do you think keeps Dave Matthews Band so relevant and popular?
That’s a good question, and sometimes I question that myself. I was surprised to see the outpouring of love and support for our new record. I know the hardcore fans will come and see us, and I have trust in the numbers of our fans who will come to the shows, but I didn’t expect it to be as in the spotlight as it was. It’s amazing how many young people are at shows. We’re lucky to have a vocalist and bandleader who is really good about writing lyrics that could be about any time. A lot of our older songs are still relevant because young people can still relate to them. These songs hopefully make people feel something no matter how old you are or what generation you’re from. Props to Dave for that. The other side is that the music we inject into the songs comes from the same place, which is a very loving place. We feel that there’s something very special about it, and we take that very seriously.
DMB has gone through a number of lineup changes over the years. How good does this ensemble feel to you?
It’s exciting. Everyone’s attitude is great, and I’m not saying anything about the past with that. There’s just this lightness onstage that feels so comfortable and so good. We’re all excited to see what everyone is going to do. Even when we’re tired after touring for so long, there’s something about the camaraderie of this lineup that lifts each other up. Dave, Carter, and myself are obviously close and have been playing together forever and are still making music honestly. And then these guys who came along with Buddy, Jeff, Rashawn, and Tim, add so much to it. There’s no drama, everyone has great energy, and everyone puts so much heart into it onstage. We’re not a band that is required to be as perfect as possible. We kind of lean into mistakes and the risk-taking in order to see what we can still do. We did it the other night: It started to rain, and Dave turned around and asked if we should play “JTR,” and I said I didn’t remember it and Carter didn’t either, but we just went with it. And the other guys had never played it before, but we still busted it out and it was great. I love taking those risks, and I think people like to hear that. The audience likes it when we get gritty — and getting gritty means losing your footing for a second here and there. You can be solid and be okay with stumbling if you trip a little bit. –BM
Hear Him On
Dave Matthews Band, Walk Around the Moon [2023]
Follow Stefan: Here
For more on DMB: Click Here