Producer Helps Dave Matthews Band With a Sonic Surprise

Like many Dave Matthews Band fans, the guy in line for beer at a concert in Hartford, Conn., last summer was deeply plugged into the grapevine about what was going on with the group, and he was chatting in detail about the contents and nature of its upcoming album.

“I said, ‘Really?’ ” says the man who was standing next to him--the band’s A&R; representative, RCA Records Senior Vice President Bruce Flohr. “Then I said, ‘Well, let me introduce you to Glen Ballard, who is about to start producing the next record.’ ”

It turns out the album the fan had heard about, the fourth Matthews album recorded with producer Steve Lillywhite, had been scrapped, and Ballard, who’s overseen hit albums by Alanis Morissette, Aerosmith and No Doubt, had just been brought in to start fresh.

If the fan was surprised at that news, wait until he hears the new album.

“I think there will be surprise,” says Matthews. “But pleasant surprise.”

The fact is, “Everyday,” due in stores Feb. 27, presents a very different DMB than the one fans have become used to. Where Lillywhite is, in Flohr’s words, an “environment producer” who maximized the band’s flowing, jamming vibe, Ballard takes a hands-on approach. He came on board as a full collaborator, insisting the band abandon its Charlotte, Va., home base to record in L.A., co-writing all the new songs with Matthews, writing formal arrangements for the members to play and performing keyboard parts throughout the sessions himself.

The results, as heard in five songs that Ballard played at the Hollywood studio where the album was made, could well cause some jaws to drop. While distinct DMB traits remain, in place of the easygoing, semi-acoustic shuffle is electric crunch, sharply focused writing and a broadened sonic palette.

“I Did It” mixes hard-hitting rock with a gleeful chorus. “Space Between” has a soaring melody at times recalling Peter Gabriel. “If I Had It All” is ruminative, but with bite and a wide sonic scope. And “Mother Father” has a Latin undercurrent, with Carlos Santana adding distinctive guitar touches.

Lisa Worden, music director of KROQ-FM (106.7), a hard-edged station that hasn’t fully embraced Matthews before, is excited about what she’s heard.

“I don’t know if it will appeal to the 16-year-old guy who’s a Limp Bizkit fan,” she says. “But it will work for us for the mid-20s listeners very well.”

It’s not like the old formula was a flop. With Lillywhite, Matthews and crew became a remarkably consistent record-selling success--two of its albums have sold more than 4 million copies in the U.S.--and ranked yearly among the biggest concert attractions. But after recording what was supposed to be the next album with him in the spring, the band felt it had been treading water and turned in uninspired performances.

“I love Steve as a human being and couldn’t have more respect for him as a professional,” Matthews says. “Without him we wouldn’t be where we are. But we needed to be challenged in a different way.”

Lillywhite could not be reached for comment.

As for potential feelings among fans that Ballard may have imposed himself on the music, Matthews is sanguine.

“I don’t care if people say that, because it’s not true,” Matthews says. “It’s more of our personality on the record than I could have hoped for--parts of each of us that I don’t even think we were aware we could put into music. A lot of humor, a lot of laughter.”

In fact, both Matthews and Ballard say that the worst thing about making the album was finishing it.

“I just want to keep going with them,” Ballard says. “If we could start another album right now, I’d love nothing more.”

STILL THE KING?: Don’t expect Michael Jackson to abdicate his throne.

“He feels he is the King of Pop, is the greatest entertainer ever and wants to prove to the world once more that he still is the best,” says Rodney Jerkins, the hot young producer Jackson tapped to oversee most of the songs being recorded for his first collection of new material since 1995’s “HIStory: Past, Present and Future Book 1.”

Jerkins, 23, was just a toddler when Jackson--who will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in March--did rule the pop world in the early ‘80s. He’s idolized the singer for virtually his whole life, which both gave him confidence in his knowledge of the star’s art but also made working with him a daunting prospect.

“The pressure--it’s hard, because someone like me who’s a producer who studied Michael Jackson and loved everything he’s done, if my stuff doesn’t stand up to the things on ‘Thriller’ or ‘Off the Wall,’ it won’t make it on the album,” Jerkins says. “We have to focus on the fact that we’re in 2000 and music changes every four or five years, and Michael wants to be the one to change it again.”

Jerkins, who’s had hits with Brandy, Jennifer Lopez and Destiny’s Child, was charged with most of the up-tempo songs, with David Foster overseeing most of the ballads and R. Kelly working on a ballad as well. Epic Records hasn’t announced a release date, and while there’s been speculation about a spring release, it seems more likely to come out later in the year.