A little bit of chaos never killed anyone -- at least, that's the way Matthew Sweet sees it. The power-pop singer/songwriter doesn't seem the least perturbed about his latest go-round with industry flux that left him without a parent record company following the release of 1997's Blue Sky on Mars.

"Our biggest problem with the whole thing all along was just we didn't know when we'd really have it together where there was a label, and I just didn't wanna wait forever," says Sweet. Fortunately he didn't, and Sweet will continue to record for Volcano, now parented by Jive and distributed by BMG. Previously Sweet was part of the now-defunct Zoo Entertainment family.

Today, Sweet is a week or so away from beginning the mixing stage on his seventh, still-untitled record. For the album, the singer is using what he refers to as his "dream team" of producers: Jim Scott (Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chili Peppers), Fred Mahar (10,000 Maniacs, Information Society) and Greg Liesz, a longtime Sweet collaborator. "I started putting together [a list of] all my favorite people for certain things, and kind of put them together as this team," says Sweet.

For the album, Sweet has employed what he deems a Phil Spector-esque method of recording, using large ensembles of musicians in a live setting to create a "raw, primal kind of record." "It's not really slick in a modern record kind of way," he says. "It's not really old fashioned because it's big and fat and kind of direct, but it's been a really fun record to make and I have a good feeling about it."

For five songs -- including a currently untitled nine-minute opus -- up to fifteen musicians gathered in a Los Angeles studio to record at one time. "In terms of the commercial world and singles and everything," Sweet explains, "I kind of thought if I could take songs and somehow record them in a way that was more dramatic than just making them a soft ballad, then maybe those songs would stand a chance of going out and getting heard more." At one time it wasn't uncommon for two drummers, four keyboardists, two bassists and several guitarists to play simultaneously, but Sweet is quick to point out that "you don't really hear the individual instruments that much, instead you get this kind of aura."

One time, the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson came by to listen to a rough mix of the Spector-ish "I Should Never Have Let You Know." "He stayed the whole time, stood up at the end and said, 'I love it. I f---ing love it,' which we thought was great. It was kind of like a golden moment for everybody. It's not often you have a classic, genius legend sit and listen to something you did."

Sweet expects the album will include fourteen songs ("I guess I'm hoping so, because everyone complains to me the last one was too short," he says) and be out some time this fall.

BLAIR R. FISCHER
(June 4, 1999)