Will you ever release a studio album?
Shields: There’s a lot of action going on with The New Deal right now. We’re going to be able to do things on a larger scale. One thing we’re going to do is record our shows on 24-track so that it sounds really good. We’ll be able to take it into the studio. The performance is live because that’s where we play our best, but the sounds themselves will be studio. They’ll be really clean and precise and won’t sound like a live show. It will be a live performance, but it won’t sound like one.
When do you think that will happen?
Shields: That’ll probably start happening in a month or so, when we start doing some longer tours.
When do you think it will come out?
Shields: It’s tough to say. The process of recording it will be simple. We’ll just step out and play a show, but the process of mixing it, sifting through all the shows and finding the best bits, that’s going to take a while. I wouldn’t see that coming out for a while.
Will that come out on Sound and Light?
Shields: Both the band and the label are in negotiations, the likes of which I really can’t get into. But we’re taking this to the next level with regards to both the band and the record label. We’ll have to move on that in order to get this studio record ready to go. The kind of stuff that we need to do to tour at the level that we want to requires a certain level of cash. W e have that money, but at the same time, we need a steady degree of money coming in. You have to partner up with someone who’s got the dough. That will enable us to do it. That’s what we’re dealing with right now.
Is that negotiation with a label or management?
Shields: It’s both. There’s a lot of label talk going and there’s a lot of manager type stuff going on. We control our entire world. We direct everything that goes on in The New Deal, but the only way that we can work with other people is if there contributors as opposed to overseers. We’ve been dealing with finding people that are more in a contribution mode than a supervisor mode.
You’ve got a show coming up opening for Electron, the techno side project of Disco Biscuits bassist Marc Brownstein that also features Biscuits keyboardist Aron Magner.
Shields: That’ll be great. A lot of what we do is based on personal relationships. There’s a pretty close relationship between me and Marc. I played with him in The Maui Project. Marc is a great guy. He was kind enough to get us in on the show. He totally didn’t need to have us, but he wanted us to be on the show so we’re completely looking forward to doing it. It’s going to be a great time.
Now while Disco Biscuits started out as a jam band that got into techno, you’ve really marketed yourself as a “live progressive breakbeat house” band and not a jam band. But since playing Berkfest last year, the jam band scene has latched onto you like a bear to honey. Comment on how you feel about this and why you decided to play Berkfest again this year.
Shields: We decided to play Berkfest at that time because it was a show. It was our first U.S. show ever. I knew from being familiar with the jam band scene, having played in other bands in the past, I knew in my heart … I hadn’t even heard of The Disco Biscuits. I didn’t know what they were or what they did and didn’t care. I didn’t know. I just knew because we were playing almost completely improvised music that the crowd would be into it. And they were completely into it. They were blown away in fact.
So you’ll approach both markets, the house market and the jam band market.
Shields: Right. We play raves with purely dance kids who get blown way too, who, had you told them that they were going to see a live band, probably wouldn’t have shown up. That’s what we’re trying to change.
That’s fascinating. Comment on that further, how you weave in and out of the jam band and house/breakbeat scenes, drawing and uniting fans from both.
Shields: The New Deal just plays The New Deal. We don’t try to play more house-oriented music or more jam band-oriented music. We go and play the music that we’ve been playing since the beginning. We’ve been improving upon it, of course, and changing things around, but we’ve never stepped onstage and said, ‘You know what? Let’s go for more a dance music set tonight’ because we know if we start second guessing the crowd, we’re just going to end up wrong. So we’re like, ‘Let’s just go out and do what we do. Let’s have the confidence in the kind of music that we play to enable us to just play that style wherever we go.’ We’re trying to create a New Deal personality.
You’re trying to create a new deal.
Shields: Yeah. We’re trying to create a new deal. Exactly. When people think of The New Deal, we don’t want them to think, ‘Oh yeah, The New Deal. That’s a house band’ or ‘that’s a jam band’ or ‘they’re a mix of house and jam.’ We want them to think, ‘Oh yeah, The New Deal. Like ‘They’re the new deal.’ When you think of The Allman Brothers, you don’t have to say they’re a mix of boogie and rock. You know it’s The Allman Brothers’ sound.
The trick would be to get it that well known.
Shields: Exactly and to stick to your guns and play the kind of music that you feel is the way.
What was the jam band you were in?
Shields: I was in a band called One Step Beyond and did a lot of touring with Merl (Saunders). Then a bunch of the guys in the band went on to become Merl’s backing band for, like, three years. I did Phish tours in ’91, ’92 and ’93.
As a fan.
Shields: Yeah. I’m pretty well-versed in Phish. I didn’t stop liking Phish. I just stopped going to see Phish, but I’m fairly well-versed in the intricacies of the jam band world.
At that point, were you into techno music?
Shields: No.
What got you into techno music?
Shields: You know what? I’m not even that into techno. Darren and Dan, they’re pretty into electronic music, but as far as like that style goes, I’m the least educated guy in the band about that. I’m more into pop music and stuff. I’m into techno as well. I own my share of albums and stuff, but I’m definitely not the (techno) guy. To me, it’s about the creation of a song. That’s why the chemistry of the band is so unique because we’re not up there playing strictly dance music. We trying to create songs while we’re on stage. That’s where my strength comes in. I play the riffs and the chords and the harmony and the melody because that’s what I like.
And they’re the machine.
Shields: Exactly. They’re like the groovemeisters.
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Bob Makin is an entertainment writer for Gannett NJ.
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