So Much To Say: Dave Matthews Band, 20 Years On The Road
Exclusive interview with author Nikki Van Noy and a review of her biography surrounding the bond between DMB and their fans
***Three Stars
By Laura Fairchild
Hollywood, CA (Gosh!Radio) 2012/8/9 “The band played some very emotional shows at the end of their 2008 tour, immediately on the heels of saxophonist and founding member LeRoi Moore’s sudden death,” says author Nikki Van Noy. “I happened to be at those shows and even as a long-time fan I was floored by the emotion of it all. Seeing the impact LeRoi’s passing had on everyone (including myself) and how it propelled everyone to reminisce made me realize that there was really no one better to tell the story of DMB than their fans.”
Van Noy wrote So Much to Say: Dave Matthews Band, 20 Years on the Road to help bridge the gap between DMB and their devoted fans. Anyone who appreciates music culture will appreciate this book for the insight it gives into DMB’s rise from the culture of taping and sharing of live performances. Van Noy takes readers on an insightful journey into the fan culture from the beginnings of live DMB shows in Charlottsville, VA to their explosive success and the evolution of the band after the tragic loss of saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Van Noy provides a comprehensive biography of the band and gives reasons for their success.
The passion the fans have for the Dave Matthews Band, also known as DMB, extends beyond just the music. It’s a culture. Van Noy discovered DMB about six years ago. She became an instant fan, and started collecting remarkable stories from fans.
“When I went to start writing the book, I was kind of shocked to realize how much information I’d stockpiled over the years,” says Van Noy. In a lot of ways, I’ve been researching this book since 1996, when I first became a fan by going to shows, being immersed in the fan community, trading tapes, and hanging out in the online forums. There was really no one better to tell the story of DMB than their fans.”
Dave Matthews Band
“While writing So Much To Say, I traveled around to a bunch of shows and conducted tons of interviews with fans, journalists, other musicians who knew DMB “way back when,” as well as Stefan Lessard, DMB’s bassist,” says Van Noy. “I also sorted through hundreds of story submissions and photos that came through the web site I set up for this book.”
“I went to Italy to check out some shows and observe the Italian fan base in winter 2010,” says Van Noy. “After the band played in Padova, Italy, my friend and I traveled to Venice to hang out for a couple of days. By that point, we were delirious and punchy from an almost complete lack of sleep and running from one part of the country to another in less than a week’s time. After a couple glasses of wine with dinner, we decided to buy a couple Capri-Sun-like boxes of wine and take them with us to wander around Venice. In that state (boxes of wine in hand and a spare in our pockets), we ran into Dave Matthews as we were walking over a tiny little bridge in Venice. I didn’t even notice him, but my friend did. We ended up talking to Dave in a piazza in for several minutes. The whole thing was surreal, partly because of the location, partly because it was so unexpected and random, and partly because of our general state of delirium and wine consumption.”
This is Van Noy’s first book. She’s already started working on her second which will chronicle the pop group New Kids on the Block.
Van Noy was born in Sacramento, CA and currently lives in Boston, MA
So Much To Say: Dave Matthews Band, 20 Years on the Road by Nikki Van Noy
Paperback: 240 pages, Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (June 7, 2011)
Language: English, ISBN: 9781439182734 $15.99
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