Rob Thomas - Chip Tooth Smile (2019)

Rob Thomas is one of modern music's most compelling and
commercially successful artists. For 20 years, he has been the
frontman and primary composer for Matchbox Twenty, leading the
quintet to multiplatinum success over the course of four albums
and a string of No. 1 hits that include "Push," "3AM," "Bent,"
"If You're Gone," and "Unwell." Thomas' two solo albums, 2005's
platinum-certified No. 1 album ...Something To Be and 2009's
cradlesong generated the hit singles "Lonely No More," "This is
How A Heart Breaks," "Her Diamonds" and "Someday. Thomas made
history with "...Something to Be" as having the first album by a
male artist from a rock or pop group to debut at No. 1 on the
Billboard 200 since the chart had debuted. With cradlesong he
made history once again as the only male artist with multiple #1
hits at Adult Top 40, tieing Pink with most #1s by a solo artist
in the chart's history.Then there's Thomas' collaborations with
iconic artists like Mick Jagger on the #1 single "Disease",
Willie Nelson, and Santana, the latter resulting in 1999's
"Smooth" -- the Latin-tinged blockbuster that earned Thomas three
Grammy Awards and spent 12 weeks atop Billboard's Hot 100 chart.
It was also named the No. 2 Hot 100 Song of All Time and #1 of
the Rock era. Overall, Thomas has contributed to sales of more
than 80 million records. In 2004, he was the first-ever honoree
of the Songwriters Hall of Fame's prestigious Hal David
Starlight Award, created to recognize a composer in the early
years of his or her career that has already made a lasting
impact. He has won numerous BMI and ASCAP Awards, and has earned
the Songwriter of the Year crown from both Billboard and BMI.
Thomas is also known as an electrifying live performer, drawing
fans of all ages to Matchbox Twenty's concerts as well as to his
solo shows around the globe. "After 20 years, I still get
excited when I go on the road," he says. "The sound of the bus
before it pulls out. The idea of waking up in a new city every
day,not knowing what the day will bring. It's the best part of
what I do. Seeing new faces every night. Sharing the music. It's
what keeps me doing it. It's the greatest job in the world."When
you ask Thomas what accounts for his stratospheric success, his
reply is earnest and thoughtful, just like his music. "Part of me
feels like it's because I am exactly like the people who listen
to my music," he says. "I've never written songs that speak to a
particular group of disenfranchised youth. I'm not super-
political. I just write songs about people and how they relate to
each other. I think that's something that is universal to
everybody. And I think also, over the years, I've learned how to
write a good melody, which is an easy thing to say about myself
because I feel like it's the thing I'm good at. If your car
breaks down and I'm with you, you're screwed. I can't fix your
stereo. I'm not really that good at math. There's nothing else I
do super well except for write songs. But I can say, 'Listen,
this is what I do. I've worked 20 years at it nonstop, 16 hours a
day some days.'"The majority of the tracks on The Great Unknown
were produced by Thomas' longtime producer Matt Serletic but for
this album Rob also chose to work with some outside songwriters,
including Ryan Tedder (first single "Trust You"), Wallpaper's
Ricky Reed ("Absence of Affection"), Cirkut & AG ("I Think We'd
Feel Good Together"), and Shep Goodman and Aaron Accetta ("One
Shot"). Of choosing to collaborate, Thomas says: "I figured, one,
I'd never done it before, which are my favorite words to say, and
two, the writers were people like Ryan Tedder, who is one of the
most prolific songwriters in the world right now.""I also
thought, 'What if I it wasn't about trying to see what I could
pull off alone or prove anything other than trying to make a
great record?'" Thomas adds. "Every time you make a solo record,
there's an element of trying to get something off your chest
because it's just you dealing with yourself. Doing it this way,
when I looked at the blank page, I wasn't looking at the same old
shit. Everything wasn't going to come from the same place."The
result is a collection of songs that range from amped-up pop
("Trust You," "One Shot," "I Think We'd Feel Good Together" and
"Hold on Forever") to quieter, more reflective moments ("The
Great Unknown," and the piano and string-driven ballad
"Pieces"). "If you're one of the five people left in the world
who still listen to an entire record, I want you to be able to
play it from start to finish and there's a ride there," he says.
"There's ups and there's downs. There's a little bit of
everything happening, just like my CD collection. I think because
Matt is such a good producer, he can shift effortlessly between
all these different styles and not think twice about it. I can't
throw him a curve ball that blows him away. I think that gives
the album an even more diverse listening experience all the way
through."Lyrically, Thomas found himself pondering the theme of
bad decisions on The Great Unknown. "It wasn't on purpose," he
says, "but songs like 'Wind It Up,' 'Heaven Help Me,' and 'I
Think We'd Feel Good Together,' are in some way about being right
on the precipice of making a horrible decision and being okay
with it. 'Trust You' is about that friend everyone has, who, no
matter how stable you are, will call you up, you'll go out, and
it'll be four in the morning and you've wound up in some weird
Thai bar playing Russian roulette. You don't know how you got
there, but all of a sudden, you're Frank from It's Always Sunny
in Philadelphia down in the basement with a towel wrapped around
your head."Thomas may be light-hearted about his propensity for
revelry, but when it came time to name the album, he was inspired
by one of its more emotional tracks, "The Great Unknown". "My
wife Marisol has been dealing with a lot of health problems and I
was amazed at how strong and resilient she is," he says. "I
realized that I had written songs about her like, 'Ever The Same'
and 'Her Diamonds' and they almost paint her in a victim light,
and I didn't like that. It was important to me to write a song
that shows how strong she is." When Thomas played Marisol the
song, she suggested it be the album's title. "She said, 'Because
any endeavor you go into is the great unknown. Your motive, your
intention, and your purpose are the only things you can control.
Whatever is going to happen when it's done, you have no hand in.'
It's funny, success is really only 50 percent up to you."Thomas
will take those odds as he gears up to release The Great Unknown,
his third solo album and first in six years. "I think every time
I make a record, the only thing I realize about myself is that
I'm so completely not finished yet," he says. "I haven't gone,
'Well, there you go. You've done it.' I hope to God I never do."

Chip Tooth Smile is the upcoming fourth studio album by American
singer Rob Thomas, scheduled to be released on April 26, 2019,
through Atlantic Records. It is his first album in four years,
following 2015's The Great Unknown, and was preceded by the
single "One Less Day", which reached the top 30 at adult
contemporary radio in the United States. Thomas will tour North
America in support of the album from May 2019.