Talking about his age, Matthew Sweet likes to quote his late friend and fellow musician Tommy Keene in saying that he’s “pushing 60” — although he won’t hit that mark until October 6.
And they’ve certainly been eventful and impactful years for the Omaha-based singer and songwriter.
Best known for his critically acclaimed 1991 release “Girlfriend,” Sweet has released 18 studio albums, including three “Under the Covers” covers sets with the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs and 2021’s “Catspaws.” His songs have been widely used in movies and on TV shows, and Sweet’s even done a bit of acting in “Terms of Endearment” and “The Drew Carey Show.”
This year finds him returning to the road with a fresh band, joined by another Bangle, Debbi Peterson, on drums. He’s also released an archival concert album, “Live in Grant Park Chicago 1993” and promises he has more new music on the way…
* Sweet returned to live performing earlier this year and says he “was really nervous about it; when you do something forever and you kinda don’t do it for a long time, I kind of just didn’t know what’s gonna come out. I went down to a songwriters festival in Florida in January and I played a couple of sets, like hour-long acoustic things, and that was a huge relief ’cause I could sing and I felt like it’s going to be alright. But then getting out live and really playing electric with the whole band, that made it really come back for me. I felt normal, like I should feel, and it was fun and kind of exciting, so I got over (being nervous) pretty quick.”
* Sweet brought in Peterson to play drums when his longtime band member Ric Menck was unable to tour during the first part of the year. “It’s added this kind of fun factor, a little more seat of our pants, ’cause she just doesn’t know everything from playing it 1,000 times — which is fun and gives a little bit of an edge to things. Debbi’s a really great drummer, and I’ve never played very much with a girl drummer, so it’s fun to look back and have one there for a change.” Sweet does expect Menck to be back in the band for summer dates, however.
* Looking ahead, Sweet says he’s “written a bunch of songs. I’m still writing. I’m gonna keep writing, I think, through this year and I’ll probably record either late in the year, depending on what my other live things are, or at worst probably early next year. I think by the time I’ve got enough (songs) I kind of know intuitively the ones that pop out to me, and those are the things I start recording first.”
* Sweet has been praised for his songwriting craft, but he contends that “people think it’s more cleverly thought-out than it is. I’ve always felt like I got some sort of credit for ingenuity or something that I didn’t really deserve. The best part for me is really just not knowing at all where it’s gonna come from. That’s the fun part of writing songs for me, when you first kind of get it going and you don’t know how it got here and you see where it goes. That’s always what I’ve really liked about it.”
* In addition to music Sweet has with visual art, including drawing, painting and sculpture. “Lately my big thing has been drawing cats. I started drawing these cats and then I started coloring them in with different colored inks and using fountain pens and pencils, learning how to make these pictures myself. I just love doing it, and I just started cranking them out — I’ve probably made 200 of them since last summer, and I started putting them up on my Etsy site. In fact the merch for the tour is made from a drawing that I made from one of my paintings; it’s on our kick drum, T-shirts and stuff.”
Matthew Sweet and Abe Partridge perform Wednesday, March 10 at the Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale. Doors at 7 p.m. 248-544-1991 or themagicbag.com.
