Matchbox Twenty in Manila for the first time

MANILA, Philippines- For the first time, American rock band Matchbox Twenty will be coming to Manila this November.

The band that was known for their hits “Push,” “Unwell” and “If You’re Gone” is set to tour around the world to promote their fifth album “North.”

Matchbox Twenty is composed by Rob Thomas, Paul Doucette, Kyle Cook and Brian Yale. They've been together for seventeen years now.

Yet, they had a five-year hiatus in the industry as they take their time working on their latest album.

“We approached this record a lot differently,” Rob said in an interview. “Rather than me just writing a bunch of songs, bringing them to the band and then us arranging them together, this was a lot of collaboration.”

Though Robert admits this is not easy for them who all write songs in their own styles, “you have to dare to suck, dare to say something stupid and dare to take things in a wrong direction, and everyone in the room has to follow that and let it go along until it becomes something.

“It's a little nerve-wracking but pretty damn exciting,” he added

Now on their late 30s and 40s, Paul believes that this album will attest how they have developed as musicians and songwriters.

“We really value craft in song writing and craft in record-making. We pursued that maybe a little bit more on this record," he said.

“It was less about being a band that sounds like we're just playing songs we wrote based off riffs and more about developing as a group of songwriters or a group of musicians who are used to working within the context of pop songs. We wanted to pursue that and see how good our craft was now.”

Matchbox Twenty’s Filipino fans would be able to hear them perform live their latest hits like “She’s So Mean,” “Overjoyed,” and “I Will” on November 8, at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.