You mentioned earlier that part of the experience is counseling the players before a given show. Can you like of someone who might have been reluctant or anxious but then went in and absolutely nailed it?

Russell Batiste. This was at Bear Creek a few years ago, I had Porter Batiste and Stoltz as my core band. The Orchestras come together all sorts of ways but sometimes I’ll have a core band and I’ll just build on top. In that case I had trouble getting in touch with Russell and the band and it’s not that he had reluctance with improvisation at all, it was just “Who’s this guy, he’s going to hold up these signs?” So when I sat down with him, literally 10 minutes before the show he was like, “You got the wrong drummer. I don’t want to be told what to do.” But I tried to explain, “I don’t have a grand design on what I want you to play, I want you to have fun and I’m going to be following you as much as you’re going to be following me. I’m just going to be used as a vortex for dynamics and other things.” Then as I was talking further, I explained, “There might be a situation where I give you a signal to keep going and then I break everybody else out, so it’s just you and the sax player.” Then he started to understand what I was talking about and he softened up to me and said he’d try it.

This was just as we were about to go on stage. It was a surreal night because we were in Florida and it was about 31 degrees. But then we got up there and I started conducting and he looked at me, “Oh I get it!” He was so happy and he became the star of the show. He was coming up with background vocals and he was just so into the game. It’s almost like a group Frisbee game and I act as the referee and the coach and the supplier of Frisbees to keep it moving. That was the most dramatic transformation and now whenever I see Russell he just gives me big hugs and he is all love. And he’s one of my heroes and I wanted to do good by him but what a ride…

Adrian Belew did one at Smilefest when Smilefest was at its peak and we had a two hour set in front of 10,000 people and as we were walking on stage he said, “I know you told me what we were going to do and I’ve done every musical thing I can think of but I’ve never been in front of this many people with no idea of what the music is going to sound like.” And then like five minutes into it he gave me this look like, “I got it!” and it was really epic.

I’m sure you’re asked this quote a bit but looking back if you were to close to eyes and think of Everyone Orchestra, what show or series of shows jumps out at you as being particularly satisfying or otherwise memorable?

It’s tough because each of them is so unique and memorable. I did this run of shows maybe five years ago in the Bay Area with Kimock and Chris and Mike from Jambay and Jamie Janover and we had a three piece vocal section and the synchronicity of the band was so tight at the end of the run there was chorus after chorus, singable and hooky and everyone seemed to find their parts fast. I like to discover a change or a progression or a chorus and go away from it but then go back to it, which is what we were doing quite a bit over those four nights.

These sets I did at All Good were the shortest Everyone Orchestra sets I’ve ever done. They were 30 minutes and 35 minutes but there were to a huge audience and they were phenomenal. We did the cycle, it didn’t get cut short.

It sounds like you have a lot on the plate with Everyone Orchestra. To what extent do you find that this conflicts with your role in Hot Buttered Rum, now that you’ve been touring with that band?

I’m not going to be touring with Butter in the fall, I’m taking a break to tour with EO. As the summer was coming along, I was having too many conflicts with Everyone Orchestra which is my baby. Before I joined the band for this last stretch I played with Butter about 10 or 15 times a year and they played in Everyone Orchestra. We have this symbiotic relationship and they asked me to fill in because Zac [Matthews] left. I agreed to do a week of shows and I just stayed on. A year and half later it was like, “Whoa, I’m still here.” It’s a transition. I’ll continue to play with Butter but I won’t be hardcore touring like I have been in the past year and a half.

Dave Brogan from ALO has played a bunch of shows with them and there’s this young guy Lucas Carlton from the band Izabella who’s been playing with them as well. I just became too unavailable for them to fill out their schedule. And I have 2 kids, a family in Portland I did almost 160 shows last year. It’s a little too much right now and I have a film project, a book project and this studio project aside from just playing with EO and it feels like now’s the time to make this all happen.

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