You mention Reed’s contribution. Looking back, what led you to ask him to join the band and what was that decision-making process like?

Ben left really abruptly. He talked about it and when he was supposed to leave was a few months later than when he actually did. One day he just said, “I can’t do it anymore.” So we basically had a month to get it together because you book tours months in advance, so we had a whole year pretty much scheduled.

The first phone call was to Reed. When I was thinking about bass players, I wanted to play with the best bass player I know so I can learn. I thought why not bring in somebody who’s really, really badass and the thinking was that it would elevate everybody else, challenge everybody and bring us to a different place. I also wanted somebody who was a really good improviser because that’s also a large part of what we do. I know it’s a lot different from the wildly experimental music that Reed was making with Jacob Fred but in spirit it’s the same sort of idea.

So we called him. I didn’t really expect much but he answered the call and said he’d do it. I think Jacob Fred had scaled back a lot and was only doing 40 shows that year. So it was kind of a moment when he was looking for something too and it just worked out perfect. Synchronicity.

How would you describe the group’s evolution since that point?

I think we’re situated better than we’ve ever been. The band is tighter, more focused and bigger-sounding than we’ve ever been. It’s still celebration and still fun but I think it’s more meaningful. We take our time a little bit more with the jams and sort of cut off the fat- I’ve been trying to introduce more space into my playing. We’re also just gelling, everybody’s listening to each other. We’ve been living together and traveling together for about three years so you start to move together and really entwine instinctively and that stuff takes time. I think we sounded great immediately with Reed in the band but to really move together takes time. It takes a couple years and it takes patience and I think we’re starting to get there. The first version of Tea Leaf Green with Ben [Chambers] took five, six years until we started having anything resembling what we thought was our own unique voice.

I’ve noticed that Ben has sat in with you since his departure, so I imagine you’re in some form of communication with him. Is he making music these days?

Ben’s sat in a few times. When we play San Francisco he’ll pop over. He’s living in Oakland and has a family going and we still keep in touch and it’s fun to have him come out and hang and play. I think he’s just enjoying a nice quiet family life. I don’t know if he’s playing a lot right now.

You also mentioned that you all live together?

Trevor and Reed and I do. I’ve been living with Trevor for eight years which is intense. We all live in the house that’s been the band house forever. We even played in the living room back in the day. So we’re all in there except Scotty who’s in Oakland with his wife. Trevor’s got a piano in his room and you can hear that going every day, all day long pretty much. [Laughs]

Trevor seems like a prolific songwriter which certainly makes sense if he’s at it all day. In terms of Trevor or any of you bringing new material to Tea Leaf Green, are there some songs presented to the band that for one reason or another just don’t seem to fit, that might be more suitable for another setting and how does that typically shake out?

We’ll have rehearsal or sound check and he’ll say, “Check this out” and we’ll play along. More than not his songs click and it’s also a collective thing and everybody tries to honor everybody’s songs that they want to play. The band has never been about anything really other than everybody enabling each other. We’re enablers for each other’s creative spirit.

Can you talk a bit about how your songwriting has developed over the years

Initially I wrote more instrumentally and then I’d come up with a few taglines to sing. But when I first started writing stuff I was much more interested in writing instrumental pieces probably because I didn’t want to commit a bunch of words to memory (laughs). Now I try to write a little bit more autobiographically and I try to express whatever’s going on in my life. I feel that I can’t be the only one that’s experienced it.

In terms of songcraft, what influences jump out at you these days?

I’ve always been attracted to humor and satire in music, so Frank Zappa is a big influence in that arena because I think that’s important and serious. Satire is serious to me. I try to let everything influence me I don’t try to cut off anything that would potentially be inspiring.

On what instrument will you typically compose?

For me it all starts for me on the acoustic. I don’t write songs on the electric guitar. If it works as stripped down and bare a possible then you can have no problem building on it. A lot of the songs on Looking West were in the Coffee Bean Brown repertoire and graduated to the electric.

So some originals you’ll introduce to the acoustic side of the band?

Totally. A lot of stuff starts there and then at some point we might try them electric and they’ll get huge. “Drink of Streams,” “Jackson Hole” were Coffee Bean Brown debuts. I think a lot of songs on the record had their birth in Coffee Bean Brown.

Last question. You mentioned that you had recorded 30 songs, including some newer ones. Do you have any plans yet for the more recent material?

We’re working on the next record already. We started on it a couple months ago. The songs are all from the period with Reed in the band, so it really represents who we are now. It could potentially be two records, we have enough for two. I mean we have enough in the archives for four or five. Or we might just take the best of it. It would be fun to release a double record though, I think.

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