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

Mathews played with Elvin Bishop at the age of fifteen.

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.

Mathews played drums and dobro on Campbell's final # 1 the Southern Nights album. Southern Nights was the most-played jukebox song of 1977.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

Joel Selvin is on record stating, "Scott Mathews is the funniest, smartest, hippest, most talented musician I know."

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 September 2011, Mathews joined the President's Council of the J. David Gladstone Institutes, the world's foremost stem cell research center.

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