JR: Are you still doing Scott Metzger band?
SM: Yeah, it’s going to continue on a basis of when I can do it and the guys who are available can. It’s not the number one priority for today—just because again, knock on wood, I’ve been so busy working on other people’s stuff and really enjoying doing that.
I am working on putting together a band for the Freaks Ball. I’ve got guys in mind, but I don’t want to drop any names yet. In concept, it’s certainly going to be very much focused on the guitar playing in keeping with the fact that Anders Osborne is on the gig too. I’m really looking forward to that.
JR: RANA is opening for Matisyahu this week, right?
SM: Yes we are.
JR: RANA just won’t die, will it?
SM: You couldn’t get rid of us if you tried.
JR: I love RANA and I say that jokingly because every time you guys play, it seems like it will be the last time. And now you’re opening for Matisyahu at the Music Hall of Williamsburg.
SM: It’s just so fun when we do it. I feel like there have been a bunch of times that we’ve gotten together and it’s been like,” Okay, this is the last one.“ You know the farewell show and then we’re like “Let’s do it again next month!”
JR: At [Neville Brothers tour manager] Pete Costello’s birthday last year at the Mercury, I felt like “this is it.”
SM: Yeah, I think we all thought that too. And then we did another one a couple of months ago at the Brooklyn Bowl and that was really fun. One thing about RANA is that we don’t really have to rehearse. We can just show up—and that Brooklyn Bowl gig was the first gig where we got together for a rehearsal. We got together like three nights before and just ended up hanging out. And then we went up and played a 2 hour set that night.
JR: It sounded like you guys were having a good time.
SM: That’s the thing, it’s a really good time. It’s like a family reunion for us and for the crowd every time that RANA plays.
JR: How did the Matisyahu show come together?
SM: I think it just comes from knowing his band. I’ve met Matis a few times, but his band is a bunch of top notch New York musicians: Rob Marscher and Joe Tomino is playing drums for him and I believe that it was Matis’s management that got in touch to say that the band would like to have us one of the nights of their Festival of Light shows. And they wanted us to be their opener one of those nights and we jut couldn’t be more psyched about it.
JR: Anything else on the schedule for RANA?
SM: It’s show by show.
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