One of the things that I’ve always really liked about Rusted Root is that most of the players constantly try to learn new styles and instruments. What new styles and instruments have the members learned since last summer?
There has to be 20 songs we’ve played, just throwing them out on the table and messing with them, which is a world record for us. One of the things that happened is that we’ve really opened up the forum for any member to bring in a song. Up until now, it’s been mostly Mike’s material, which turned into a really high pressure situation for him because he was responsible for so much. And so one of the things we talked about to help make this work better and help everyone else feel fulfilled is to open wide open and allow the songs to dictate what we do and not one configuration that we’ve done for years, not limit ourselves to any one thing, which is how we started. That’s how our sound developed. We decided not to be any one certain but just let the music dictate what we became. Leave it in the hands of the music because the music knows best. As a result, there’s just this tremendous influx of new material. Some of it is fantastic. Some of it needs more development. Most of it, we’ve only played once or twice. As far as styles go, it sounds different because there’s different people singing, but it sounds like us. It’s just a different extension of us. It’s really exciting.
Any new instruments? I remember the last time I talked to Liz, she was learning the violin.
There’s always different drums. I’ve got some new West African drums. My drumset is including a lot hand drums. In rehearsals, I’ve been playing some bass and Patrick’s been playing electric guitar.
That growth that I mentioned is what made Rusted Root go from being an acoustic duo with Mike and Liz to a very eclectic, tribal-sounding band. Comment on how that growth not only is rooted in musical awareness but also political, environmental and spiritual awareness.
When we started, we were all around 20, 21, around that age. Just out of college. Liz was just in college. I think she was 19 when we started. So we were all spring chickens. Not that we know so much now, but we knew a whole lot less then. One of the things we did from the get go was benefits. Anyone’s and everyone’s benefits. Our first three years, we must have done 50 or 60 different causes and attracted the kind of people who were into different political things. We did benefits for El Salvador, the rainforest, Clean Water Action, just zillions of benefits. Those folks that were coming to those different rallies and different things were our early base of fans based in colleges. Those folks typically have very good networking skills so they started spreading the word about what we were doing. So our circle would start to get bigger from Pittsburgh to the surrounding three states.
That kind of awareness of things that are happening in the world correlates — to me anyway — with spiritual stuff and trying to get to know ourselves better. What are we doing? Why are we here? Questions that you constantly ask yourself in college especially at that age. What’s my purpose here? How can I make better my own thing and better the world at the same time? Some of it was innocently naive, thinking what you’re doing is saving the world. That’s a highly naive thing to think. Out of that whole experience, coming to the awareness that the first thing that you need to do if you want to help the world is try to fix what’s wrong about yourself. Everyone’s got their own bunch of baggage. To get into that kind of stuff and figure out what it is that makes you tick, what makes you do what you do. That process in and of itself, in my opinion, is a lifetime process, continually figuring that out and hopefully progressing.
The beautiful thing about Rusted Root is that you have a forum to turn folks onto what you’ve found out. You go to your website and there’s paths to everything from yoga and shamanism to Sierra Club and Milrapa Fund. Somebody who didn’t have a clue, might look at that and say, ‘Ah, these guys are a bunch of hippies.’ But someone who is maybe not so aware of spiritual means but is interested could really get something out of it, more than just your music.
That’s what we try to do. But coming into the self-awareness thing, we try not to come off as preachy. Nobody wants to be preached at. But instead, working under the assumption that every human being is going at their own pace. Some are at the point where they’re ready to be introduced to new things and so they’ve started to look for them. Some folks would look at us and say, ‘Oh, look at these self-righteous hippies’ and automatically put us in a box and whatever. Not having any judgment on either kind of person because everyone’s where they are and that’s perfect. Wherever you are is perfect and you’re going to figure it out at your own pace. For those folks who are starting to look around, especially the younger folks but not limited to them, we start to put little things like that out there, whether it’s a quote on the website or link to another website or whether it’s in an interview like this, talking like we’re talking, and just kind of using it as a forum to subconsciously introduce things. We put them out there for someone to go, ‘You know, I heard about that. I thought that might be interesting and now he’s saying this. You know, I really like his drumming so I’m going to go look at this. Because he’s into it, maybe I’ll be into it. Maybe it’s not all a crock. Here’s somebody I look up to that’s into this.’ And maybe just by virtue of my actions or anyone’s actions, you teach somebody.
I can sit here and blow all kinds of smoke up your ass and say all these really cool things, but at the end of the day, people will watch what you do over and over again, and that’s how they learn. That’s how little kids learn. They listen to their parents, they look at what you do and they do what you do. That’s always the biggest reinforcement. So the bottom line is consistency whether we’re doing it as a group or I’m doing it as a person.
What was the best thing about the Pittsburgh reunion show?
The nicest moment for me was at the very end of the show, I had this impulse to go up to the front of the stage with everybody. I gathered everybody up at the front and said to them, ‘Let’s take a bow together. We’ve never done this before.’ So we all put our arms around each other and took a bow. I almost broke down in tears. It was an emotionally touching thing, like, ‘Here we are again. They’re putting us back together for some reason. Let’s give it another shot.’ All these things were going through my head in a matter of a second. Looking at all the people’s faces and just seeing the happiness. It was like, ‘Wow, you’re going to try again, and we support you.’ All of our friends and families were there and longtime fans who had traveled that we recognized. It just felt very satisfying. If we never played again after that day, I’d still feel great about that because that moment was beautiful. Those are the kind of moments that in 10 years, you’ll think back and go, ‘Wow, that was a moment.’
What plans do you have as far as recording together, especially with this Mama Tongue record coming up?
My work with that is finished. We’re going to make a record for Island/Def Jam. Right now, we’re in the process of throwing stuff on the table and seeing what we all have. It’s turning out that there’s a wealth of material. We’re not going to have any shortage of that. That’s the first step. We’re taking it slowly and trying to make sure we do each step well and not neglect anything. We’re also talking a lot, sitting around and talking, reacquainting, being friends again. That’s at the heart of where the good juju is in music. The music is a direct reflection of your relationships with everybody. If you are able to get on a much deeper level in a conversation, it reflects back in the music. We’re trying to make that base, that core of what we are strong and healthy like it should be.
As far as future promotional efforts, when we do a record, every record is full tilt. We’re going to go out and tour and do all the stuff. We’re going to try it out and see how it goes. And if it goes great, then wonderful, and if it doesn’t, then no harm done.
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