Scott Mathews

This article is about the American record producer/musician/composer/executive/entrepreneur. For the British musician, see Scott Matthews. For the Australian musician, see Scott Matthew.

Scott Mathews
Scott Mathews Inside TikiTown
Born	(1955-07-25)July 25, 1955 Sacramento, California, United States
Occupation(s)	Music Producer, Composer, Multi-Instrumentalist, Vocalist, Executive, Entrepreneur and Consultant
Spouse	Kolleen Mathews
Children	son, Wilson and daughter, Ava
Website	WWW.SCOTTMATHEWS.COM

Scott Mathews Outside TikiTown

Scott Mathews (born July 25, 1955 in Sacramento, California) is a multi-platinum selling music producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, executive and entrepreneur.

Early Days

At the age of seven, Mathews began buying and studying records and by nine, he began writing songs, singing and playing a variety of different instruments and spent several years playing in various bands. Being self-taught, he credits Tower Records (his second home) and Contemporary hit radio (top 40) as his inspiration and teachers.

His reputation growing, Mathews was asked to perform at the Fillmore in San Francisco with Elvin Bishop and other San Francisco luminaries. Following the show, phone calls came in from Bishop and Boz Scaggs inquiring about Mathews' availability but his mother had to inform them he was still in High School.

In 1972, when Mathews was seventeen, he took a leave from high school to record at the Record Plant studio in Los Angeles with his band, Ice, which included Steve Perry, (who went on to become the lead singer of Journey after following Mathews to the Bay Area years later). Mathews found the world of professional recording to be life-changing but Perry never finished his vocals and the project was subsequently abandoned. A masterpiece LP did get made in the same room when at night, Stevie Wonder heard some Ice recordings, liked the way the drums sounded and subsequently played Mathews' drums to record tracks for his opus "Talking Book" LP. After being inspired by this experience and the encouragement of Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Barry White, Stephen Stills, and some legendary studio musicians, Mathews realized being a member of a band was not his calling and turned his attention to studio work which meant getting out of Sacramento as soon as possible.

The 1970s

Recordings caught the ear of Jack Nitzsche and Mathews played many different instruments on the multiple Academy Award winning film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Nitzsche introduced Mathews to prominent artists in Los Angeles and as a result, in 1976, Mathews wrote songs, performed several instruments and sang on the five times platinum Barbra Streisand record, Streisand Superman. Streisand even asked Mathews and Ron Nagle if she could co-write with them and the result was the song, 'Don't Believe What You Read'.

On more than one occasion, Jack Nitzsche would rent a whole studio full of different instruments for Mathews to play for a film or record project. Other times, he would book Mathews and Ry Cooder as the two guitarists on a project naming them his new 'Keith and Brian' - a reference to Keith Richards and Brian Jones, when he was the arranger (and according to Stones manager/producer, Andrew Loog Oldham, 'the glue' on all The Rolling Stones recordings from the '60s and into the '70s. Once, a tipsy Mick Jagger called the studio during a Nitzsche produced session and Mathews answered the phone, thus convincing Jagger to come over and join the session. Mathews didn't tell Nitszche about the call and all of the sudden Mick walked in and the session turned into a late night jam.

Fresh from their success on Cuckoo's Nest, Mathews and Nagle worked on several more films providing music and sound design. Nagle had worked on The Exorcist prior to meeting Mathews and in 1977, Exorcist director, William Friedkin signed the duo to do work on his next film, Sorcerer, which Friedkin considers his finest film but was overshadowed by the box office success of Star Wars. Another recording artist seeking Mathews that year was Glen Campbell to whom Scott and Jimmy Webb recommended an obscure Allen Toussaint song called, Southern Nights. Mathews ended up playing drums and dobro on Campbell's final # 1 the Southern Nights album. Southern Nights was the most-played jukebox song of 1977.

Following Campbell's Capitol Records sessions, Mathews flew to Abbey Road Studios and recorded a Sammy Hagar record called Red, also released on Capitol. Hagar wanted Mathews to perform a drum solo on the title song but Mathews initially refused claiming the public had already suffered enough self-indulgent drum solos. Mathews eventually agreed because Hagar's producer mentioned Paul McCartney convinced Ringo Starr to perform his only solo in the very same room a few years previous and The Beatles record, Abbey Road, seemed to work out fine.

Carl Wilson had been paying close attention to Mathews after hearing the Dūrocs record and connecting to his aesthetic. He shared the record with Brian Wilson and other members of The Beach Boys and soon Mathews found himself in the studio as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist with one of his all-time favorite and inspirational bands. Mathews was honored with an offer to join the band, but turned it down because of his active career in production, his distaste for touring, and his stance that no one could ever replace Dennis Wilson. Carl Wilson and Mathews remained very close personal friends and wrote and recorded songs together outside of The Beach Boys. Later in the year, Mathews and Nagle set up camp in London at AIR Studios (owned by George Martin) to produce a project for EMI Records featuring Warren Peace, a longtime songwriter and vocalist with David Bowie. In addition to producing, Mathews played all the instruments and sang the background vocals on the recordings.

The 1980s

In 1980, Nagle and Mathews built their studio (The Pig Pen) on the top of a hill in San Francisco with a panoramic view of the city and continued producing music for films and other artists, including John Hiatt's 1983 breakthrough, Riding With the King (the title song of which was based on a dream Mathews had while producing Hiatt and sold three million units in 2001 when B. B. King and Eric Clapton covered it). Around this time, Mathews recorded a project with Gary Brooker called Lead Me to Water collaborating with Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Phil Collins.

Mathews and Nagle worked on the film Cat People in 1982. Their sound design for the film ended up being used on the soundtrack recording featuring David Bowie and Stevie Ray Vaughan that spawned a surprise hit single.

In 1983, Nagle and Mathews aided in production of Paul Kantner's Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra. The project featured Grace Slick and many members of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship. According to RCA Records, Paul Kantner threw his drink at the President of the label for not agreeing to a promotion plan involving giving away Kantners' car (and RCA buying Kantner a new one). The record was not promoted and remains a relatively unheard production piece by Mathews and Nagle with vocals by The Turtles, otherwise known as Flo & Eddie.

During the mid 1980s Nagle (also a ceramic artist) began to turn more of his attention to his career in art while Mathews was in demand as a producer, writer, singer, and instrumentalist. One of Scott's production highlights of this period was an Elvis Costello gem called Sweetwater featuring Jerry Garcia, Nick Lowe, Sammy Hagar, Bob Weir and members of Elvis Presley's TCB Band.

Mathews was still sporadically recording with The Beach Boys but was frustrated to see them becoming a 'human jukebox' of hits when one of the all-time greatest accomplishments in recorded music, Pet Sounds, was made by them but had never been performed live in its entirety. Mathews wanted to bring new credibility and well-deserved worldwide acclaim to the band by presenting a live version of Pet Sounds'. Mathews put together a comprehensive outline as musical director and drafted an agreement for the principals involved. All but one member agreed immediately to the plan but without the remaining vote in, the project went gone but not forgotten.

Mathews received a platinum record for the original Pet Sounds record when the band resolved some lawsuits with their label - a kind gift given to principals and management. Brian Wilson eventually formed with his own band and performed the world tour of Pet Sounds that Mathews had proposed.

Finishing out the 1980s, Mathews began working closely with Todd Rundgren (a mutual friend through The Tubes - a band that had recorded Mathews' songs) on a series of recordings that led to two albums and a world tour. Mathews enjoyed the chance to record and then get out of the studio and tour with Rundgren whom he greatly admired and called 'the male Carole King' due to Rundgren's ballads from his early days. During this time Scott was asked by Ringo Starr to join Rundgren, Joe Walsh, Jack Bruce, and other rockers as a guest in his All-Starr Band and began the first of many opportunities to play drums while Ringo was up front singing. Being a friend and sometimes musical collaborator, Huey Lewis also had Mathews sit in as a 'special guest' on percussion and vocals with Huey Lewis and the News on sporadic occasions including on a tour of Japan.

The 1990s

The 1990s began with another hit record -- Dave Edmunds recorded a song Mathews co-wrote, "Closer to the Flame" and it became the title song to a huge seller around the world. In 1990, Mathews introduced alt-country fave Chuck Prophet as Mathews produced, engineered and performed on the first release called Brother Aldo. In 1991, Mathews produced, engineered and performed with John Wesley Harding on {{Why We Fight]] Sire Records and PettLevels, they also contributed to Just Say Roe, a pro-choice recording project with Madonna, David Byrne and many others.

Throughout the whirlwind of studio activities in the 1990s, Scott recorded sessions with many iconic artists including Keith Richards, Van Morrison, John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray and even Tiny Tim. He also found his way out of the studio to play more live gigs with pal, Ringo Starr during Bay Area and Los Angeles performances in 1993 and 1999 with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.

In 1993 Mathews, along with friend and San Francisco Chronicle senior rock critic, Joel Selvin discovered the King of the Surf Guitar, Dick Dale was living on a remote ranch in 29 Palms, California and rarely picked up his guitar. The two coaxed the reluctant guitarist to come to San Francisco and try some recording and the result was Tribal Thunder, a record that earned its way to #1 on the College Radio charts and Rolling Stone awarded it an excellent '4 Star' review. With Dale's major comeback underway, Quentin Tarantino used Misirlou in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction and Mathews went on to produce more LPs with Dale, 'Unknown Territory' (1994) and 'Calling Up Spirits' (1996).

In 1995, Mathews joined a small group of producers and engineers brought together by Jermaine Jackson to mix surround sound versions of the Thriller record by Michael Jackson originally produced by Quincy Jones. Mathews worked on the single Thriller with directions from Michael Jackson to "make the sound feel like you are on a roller coaster". These experimental mixes have thus far remained unreleased.

While writing and recording with Booker T. Jones in 1996 at the Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, Mathews met engineer Tom Luekens who was working full-time for Jones. When the project was done, Luekens contacted Mathews and let him know he was a free agent and from that moment on Luekens has been Mathews' chief engineer.

In 1997, Scott collaborated with Huey Lewis on songs for the film Wag the Dog and produced the project in Mathews' recording studio in Marin County thus adding to the Mark Knopfler composed mini-soundtrack. Lewis introduced Mathews to Oscar winning film director Barry Levinson as "one of those rare, genuinely prodigious musicians who is too talented to limit himself to actually being a member of one group or recording project." The film was nominated for two Academy Awards. In 1998, Mathews' corporation Hit or Myth Productions purchased a split-level house on the edge of San Francisco Bay with views from every room and established a new private recording studio, TikiTown. Stocked with many musical instruments and the creature comforts of a nice home, it soon became a destination for artists from all over the world. Van Morrison immediately became a familiar face and even installed a gym for his use while working at TikiTown. Well after purchasing the house, Mathews found out that the future TikiTown was the home of a member or two of Journey when they were in their heyday.

In 1999, the Durocs contributed to the tribute album for Moby Grape co-founder, Skip Spence, who was terminally ill with cancer. The album, More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album (Birdman, 1999), contained cover versions of the songs from Spence's only solo album, Oar (Columbia, 1969).

The 2000s

In 2000, Mathews began dedicating himself almost exclusively to new, emerging artists at Hit or Myth Productions while devoting a lot of time to family and travel. TikiTown was the site of roughly ten different production projects per year - ranging from singles to double albums.

In 2005, Mathews began producing a series of Operettas for contemporary Opera composer, Mark Northcross using a select group of performers from the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera. The first piece was recorded at TikiTown but the subsequent selections were recorded at Skywalker Ranch because the size of the orchestra and number of vocalists needed outgrew the size of the studio. The latest piece was recorded in 2011.

In 2007, at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California, Brian Wilson performed the final live presentation of Pet Sounds. On this historical occasion, Wilson invited Mathews and Al Jardine onstage to sing the all-time classic.

In addition, Mathews's musical and personal involvement with Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson made Mathews instrumental (along with Bug Music) in bringing together the two forces in order to finish the final masterpiece originally scheduled as 'Smile' to fruition (after it had been left undone for nearly four decades). Mathews accompanied Van Dyke Parks for the first performance of Wilson's Smile in Los Angeles at the Disney Center, and received a Gold Record for the sales of the newly recorded 'Smile (Brian Wilson album)' from the U.K.

The 2010s

As of 2011, Mathews is still writing songs with Ron Nagle and working on recording projects due for future release, featuring Nagle as the artist and Mathews as the producer.

On April 16, 2011, The Beach Boys released a 7" vinyl with the A side being "Don’t Fight The Sea" (co-produced by Mathews) and the B side being "Friends" (a cappella), with 100% of the proceeds going to benefit the Red Cross and the Japanese disaster relief effort. The single will be packaged in a white sleeve and the first 1,000 pressed will be on white vinyl with a red label to replicate the Japanese flag.

In December of 1211, Mathews signed on as Executive Producer with Hong Kong based, Far West Entertainment, a Dreamworks like company with departments for music, television and film. In less than two months following the signing, Blush, a Pan Asian girl group Mathews produced went to #1 on the Billboard dance tracks for two weeks. This unprecedented feat marks the first time in history an Asian band has hit even the top 40, let alone #1 on the Billboard charts. As a result of this early stage success, Quincy Jones has joined Far West as another Executive Producer and Ryan Seacrest is involved with co-producing on the television side.

On May 22, 2012, after nearly a year in negotiations with Capitol Records, Real Gone Music released the original Durocs record on CD and downloads. Along with the original LP are eight previously unheard Durocs 'bone-us' tracks, all recorded shortly after the Capitol release. The reviews have been incredible and it seems the world is finally ready for the Durocs albeit thirty-three years later.

While still working with established, iconic artists, these days Mathews is dedicated to producing primarily emerging artists his A&R wing at Hit or Myth Productions discover from all over the world. He feels talent discovery and development is the most broken component to today's music industry and spends much of his time working on a better model. Mathews' recent projects at TikiTown include new artists from England, Australia, Ukraine, France, Austria, New Zealand, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Hong Kong and America. Equally as passionate about the possibilities tech plays in music as the music itself, if Mathews isn't in the recording studio, he is likely to be found in the Silicone Valley working with other entrepreneurs and companies to help shape the future of the music industry. He is involved in early stage start up think tanks as well as an expert consultant to high tech music/media companies and venture capitalists.

Recording Awards and honors

Scott Mathews has earned awards including gold and platinum albums with artists such as; Bonnie Raitt, Brian Wilson, Keith Richards, Van Morrison, Barbra Streisand, John Lee Hooker, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, The Beach Boys and others. Grammy Award projects include, 'Riding with the King' (B.B. King, Eric Clapton), 'Twenty' Robert Cray, 'I'm in the Mood for Love' Bonnie Raitt, 'The Healer' (John Lee Hooker), 'Mr. Lucky' (John Lee Hooker) and others.

The Durocs LP on Capitol Records won the 'Best New Artist' award at the BAMMIES (aka the California Music Awards).

Mathews has been profiled in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Billboard, Guitar Player, Electronic Musician, Time magazine and the New York Times. In Rolling Stone magazine, Ben Fong-Torres referred to Mathews as a 'wunderkind,' and San Francisco Chronicle Senior Music Critic, Joel Selvin is on record stating, "Scott Mathews is the funniest, smartest, hippest, most talented musician I know."

Teaching, speaking and writing

Mathews has taught classes at San Francisco State University on songwriting, the music industry and music production and has lectured and or given commencement speeches at UCLA, UC Berkeley, The Musicians Institute in Hollywood, Mills College, Ex’pression Center for New Media, and Foothill College. Mathews is a frequent guest speaker at SXSW, the SanFran MusicTech Summit, and the West Coast Songwriters Association Conference among others.

Film projects

In 1976 Mathews performed many different musical instruments on the Jack Nitzsche score for the multiple Academy Award winning film, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. As an actor, Mathews starred as Fluke Starbucker in the Star Wars parody Hardware Wars from 1977.

In 1977, Mathews and Ron Nagle produced sound design and effects with Exorcist director, William Friedkin for the movie, Sorcerer.

In 1982, Mathews and Ron Nagle produced sound design, effects and source music for the film, Cat People. In 1998, Mathews produced and wrote songs with Huey Lewis for the film, Wag the Dog for director Barry Levinson. In 2010, Mathews served as co-musical supervisor and music producer on a documentary film with called Hollywood Don't Surf! with two-time Academy Award-nominated director Greg MacGillivray on the subject of surfing and surf culture as seen through the lens of Hollywood. Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, John Milius, Quentin Tarantino, and others join a cast of A-list participants.

Personal life

In 1991, Mathews married former model Mary Ezzell, children: Thomas Wilson, born in 1993, and Ava Grace, born in 1996. His primary residence is on Mt. Tamalpais in Mill Valley, Marin County, California.

In September 2011, Mathews joined the President's Council of the J. David Gladstone Institutes, the world's foremost stem cell research center. In October, 2012 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Shinya Yamamaka, a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes. For several years, Mathews was the Musical Director for benefit concerts for Thunder Road, a youth-oriented alcohol and drug rehabilitation center. Mathews is a supporter of H.E.A.R., an organization dedicated to educating and protecting musicians' hearing. Off and on, Mathews serves as Musical Director for the Mill Valley Film Festival where projects have involved bringing together, The Wrecking Crew for their final live performance ever as well as directing a gospel show featuring The Blind Boys of Alabama and Taj Mahal. In October, 2012, Mathews served as musical director, MC, drummer and vocalist for a celebration for the Mill Valley Film Festival featuring an all-star line up including Elvis Costello in tribute to The Last Great Record Store, a documentary that Mathews appears in along with Bonnie Raitt, BB King, Ry Cooder, Bettye Levette, Sammy Hagar, Jerry Garcia and a host of other major artists.

Bibliography

• BAM Magazine, 1980
• Scullatti, Gene - The Catalog of COOL, Warner Books 1982
• Elliott, Brad - Surf's Up, The Beach Boys On Record 1961–1981, Pierian Press 1982
• Stebbins, Jon - The Real Beach Boy, ECW Press
• Rolling Stone (10/28/93, p. 81)
• Selvin, Joel - Various articles in the San Francisco Chronicle, 1975–2003.
• Bessler, Ian - Songwriter's Market, Writer's Digest Books, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
• Bowie, David - Moonage Daydream, 2003
• Selvin, Joel - "Smartass: The Music Journalism of Joel Selvin: California Rock and Roll", SLG Books, 2010
• Hagar, Sammy - "Red", Harper Collins 2011
• Beard, David - www.examiner.com, April 7, 2011
• Billboard magazine, February 23, 2012