I’m not sure there are many listeners out there that hear Dave Matthews and think “oh, he’s definitely influenced by Robert Fripp.” But here we are, talking about exactly that.
In a recent interview with Howard Stern, Matthews discussed how the King Crimson legend’s super unique style of playing actually influenced his own riff-writing. Especially some of the older stuff.
“[Fripp] would probably look at my guitar playing and think, ‘You’re a moron,'” said Matthews. “But he has this weird tuning where he plays in a really formal way [with his hands spread out].
“Like with the song, Warehouse, it makes a sound, and you can make these patterns up and just sort of repeat the patterns. There’s probably an easier way to play it [where you’re less spread out across the fretboard] but it’s satisfying.”
Matthews specifically cited his 1995 track “Satellite” as an example, noting that he didn’t do the best job imitating Fripp’s wide intervallic jumps. Still, it’s a pretty cool riff.
“I was just trying to imitate him, and I was also ignorant. So it was a combination of those two things,” he said. “I was trying to play what he was playing by looking rather than listening, like ‘What is he doing?’ So I tried and it didn’t sound anything like what he was doing, but it was nice.”
