The November issue of Relix features the first major interview with String Cheese Incident since the band reformed earlier this summer. In the feature story, all five members of the band discuss their recent reunion shows, newest material and future plans. The following conversations with Michael Kang and Bill Nershi took place shortly after Horning’s Hideout that were not included in the Relix piece. Kang and Nershi will reunite with their String Cheese Incident bandmates this weekend for Hulaween shows in Hampton, VA on October 29 and 30.
Photo by Charlie Englar
Michael Kang
It seemed like at Horning’s, as with Rothbury, you wore a lot of hats being not only a musician but also an artist embracing all the elements of artistic endeavors. How would you describe your role throughout the process of this whole event?
Seven or eight years ago I started going to Burning Man and I made a lot of connections not only on the musical end but also in the artistic realm. After that we started our non-profit called Our Future Now, and the goal of that is to create environmental messaging using artistic communities that specialize in using recycled materials. More than anything, it was to take a different level of artistic involvement and get messages across. Through that project we became friends with artists that were in our community and we started getting involved in the environmental messaging part of festivals, more or less trying to come up with a different way to engage people and spark an interest.
That made me become more interested in the larger scope of production and how events get pulled off because the music is one part, but then you have the production end. It’s not just about having a really good time—it’s to leave people with some tidbits that they can translate through to their day-to-day lives.
Are you still spending a lot of time working on your non-profit at this point?
The recession really slowed down a lot of the budget that companies had available for green messaging of any kind, and on the other side of that, it’s a really difficult time to raise money. We were trying to find a balance and a way to keep our boat afloat. Then I got involved in a project that became my introduction to green buildings when we bought a piece of property in Santa Cruz that my land partner developed from the ground up. We started with 7 acres, did everything ourselves, and mostly got it all built using recycled materials. It’s a full time project so we’ve been really deeply involved in that. That is one of the most amazing projects because it showed me how much you can actually go into the world using the power of Craigslist and things that people consider junk. We were able to build this really sweet 1800 square-foot house for about 60 grand. It was really eye opening to get involved and try to use as much recycled material as possible.
Shifting back to String Cheese, would you say looking back you ended up playing music more or less than you thought when the band first took this break in 2007?
I stayed involved in music although I had other stuff going on like the non-profit, which took a lot of energy to start. As a band we were involved with the first two years of Rothbury—organizing, getting the crew together, combining all the components together. That was a full time job, but at the same time I was crusing around, playing shows with a bunch of different artists, surfing in Hawaii, just kind of taking a break from it all. I was really glad to take a break from it because I’m not necessarily one of those people who want to be on the road all the time and I really enjoy connecting with the outdoors. I’ve always maintained an interest in different things but at the same time, musically with String Cheese, I’m excited that everybody’s open to a new direction.
When the band took a break, one of the reasons was that people’s musical interests were going in different directions. Were there any styles that you discovered during this time that you want to see String Cheese explore or incorporate?
String Cheese has always been an amalgamation of different people’s musical tastes. The break has been really refreshing because everyone got to do exactly what they wanted to do and now coming back, everyone enjoys the ability to delve into the mélange that String Cheese is musically. We never really wanted to define the direction we were going, we were just always open to whatever someone wanted to bring to the table, and in a lot of ways it’s almost more like that than ever.
From a fan’s perspective would it be accurate to say String Cheese takes a concert and morphs it into an experience making it into a full event?
I think it’s just different and the cool thing is being able to incorporate a larger community of people that are really passionate about what they do and it helps bring their creativity to the table. It makes it more theatre-like in some ways and I think we’ve always really had an open mind to wanting to create that kind of experience and make the music into a greater theatrical presentation—the sky’s kind of the limit. I think jambands are often put into this category of being instrumental bands so it’s nice to push the envelope and it makes it fun for us in a different way. We don’t really care about the money as much; we almost would rather create a big experience.
Musically speaking, do you have any personal highlights from the recent reunion shows, whether it was Red Rocks or Horning’s?
Yeah, something really sticks out with Jason [Hann]. There’s a couple moments when he did some vocals during Red Rocks and just a lot of things he brings to the table that have catapulted the band into a new direction. With his ability as a musician and producer, he’s able to create new stuff. It was also satisfying to see how it all got pulled off because a lot of energy went into this, all the theatrics that went into Hornings, having conference calls every week, so watching the final delivery was really rewarding.
Burning Man was something you and Travis were instrumental in bringing to String Cheese and it seems you are tapped into that world now just on the production artist side. How has that experience helped you translate things into the world of String Cheese?
I am totally in support of what Burning Man represents because I think more than anything it is an amalgamation of people really getting involved in their environment and not having it be just about what happens on the stage. I think the world needs more of that personally, where people are more involved and getting to be a part of all the recreation and production as opposed to rely on others to bring it forth. I like the idea of where it goes with entertainment and community—people like Liquid Fire Mantra. If you notice, over the years people started hula hooping at String Cheese shows and now have cliental and performance. It’s cool to witness how we’ve been a part of this growing culture with so many options going on.
Do you have any plans to go back to the studio once you have enough tunes ready, or do you want to kind of keep it live?
Right now, we have no plans, partially because I’m getting ready to have a kid and once we get done with Halloween I think we’re just going to re-calibrate what we want our schedule to be. Even this year when we started doing the schedule we couldn’t really say for sure. We just want to have fun with it, we haven’t really talked about too many plans beyond that just kind of taking it a day at a time.
Photo by Charlie Englar
Bill Nershi
How was Horning’s Hideout, being back and that feeling for everyone?
When we decided that we were going to play these shows, that was on the top of the list because we had a hand in setting up the whole environment of the area and we’ve had good interactions with everyone at Horning’s. It’s really just great. Everybody camps out, stays there all weekend, and that’s what I think creates a whole different vibe because you can come and go when you want to—it’s way more laid back. It’s fun for us too because you never know what you’re going to see from the stage either (laughs). Some people are really wild.
What role did the band members play in creating all the special art installations, performance art, and all the nooks and crannies where you find all these surprises?
The band plays a big part and Madison House, our management, does as well. It’s really a group process and we need to thank our management for dealing with a lot of that too so that we can focus on the music end of it. We do a lot of coordinating with people that are putting the shebang on on Saturday night, determining how the music is going to fit with the show.
Can you tell me a little about rehearsals and how these shows came to be?
When we decided we were going to do the two-weekend run of Red Rocks and then Horning’s Hideout, we knew we had a lot of work cut out for us because we don’t like repeating too many songs. We repeated some, but we tried to keep it minimal so we had to work on 80 songs including some new covers and some new original tunes. We put in a lot of practice—almost two months before the shows. The last half of the practice we moved up to the studio in my house in Nederland. It was really cool to have everybody up at the house playing music because it was much more relaxed than where we normally rehearse.
When String Cheese announced its initial break up in the summer of 2007, the announcement said that you were leaving the band. Did you personally think that the other band members would continue on without you then, or what was sort of the feeling at the time?
I think different people thought different ways about it. I encouraged the band to find somebody else and threw out a few names because I didn’t want to be responsible for the band stopping, I just felt like it was going in a direction that was not what I had imagined for the band. I also think a lot of it was just needing to have a break and that was the only way I could do it. You can’t convince people to play less shows because it’s a group. Everything is a group process and group agreement with the band, and we just had different mindsets. I continued to stay in touch with everybody in String Cheese and I kind of missed it. I missed playing in the band and the level of shows that we did and the great musicianship in the band. So now we’re taking some baby steps and getting back into it and it feels good. I think a lot of people realized things about the band during that time we had off and we had breaks from each other, which I think is necessary after 15 years of playing.
At what point did you feel that you could play with the band again? Was there a defining moment?
It wasn’t anything like an epiphany moment or anything like that. I just continued to be in touch with band members and after being away from it for a while it seemed like it would be fun to play. We needed the right kind of show because we were playing so few that we wanted something that would be special to the fans and to us.
Could you tell me a little about your experience the past few years with some of your side projects like Emmitt-Nershi Band, Honkeytonk Homeslice and new dates with Scott Law?
Right now, the main thing I’m doing is a lot of Emmitt-Nershi Band gigs, that’s the main focus. We have an album that we recorded up at my place in my studio that came out really great. We’re also doing a lot of festivals and some touring. As for Scott, we just have an incredible connection playing guitar together. It just always worked.
What else have you been doing with your time off from the band, in addition to all these side projects?
I’ve been almost as busy since I stopped playing with String Cheese, as I was when I was playing with String Cheese. I do have more downtime and more time with my family, which has been really great. I’m getting outside and riding my bike more—I’m just trying out a little more balance in my life between music, family, and recreation. A musician’s life can get kind of one-dimensional when you’re really busy with music all the time. It’s a great dimension but it’s great to have more than one dimension too.
Keith said that he had been writing some songs and that you guys are maybe hoping to do a new studio album when you have enough songs. Are you writing new songs for String Cheese as well?
I’m still writing and I definitely feel like I want to make another String Cheese album, but, right now we’re just getting back into it and making an album is a big commitment in a lot of ways. I think that if we’re going to continue to play music and do shows we need to keep it fresh, and, you know a new album is the ultimate way to have a lot of fresh material…
Do all the band members plan to focus on their various projects in the coming years even if you do String Cheese gigs as well?
I think people are going to continue with their side projects. I know I’m going to continue with the Emmitt-Nershi Band and play with other people that I think are important to play with, like Scott Law. I think we can balance our side projects with String Cheese because I think what everybody learned playing in their other bands is coming back into String Cheese and adds some really cool sounds to the band. Giving people new perspectives on String Cheese and incorporating different sounds really adds something. It’s also great because we each get our own outlet playing in different musical directions. Travis can’t get mad because we aren’t playing enough electronica, for example. We also tried to figure out how to incorporate the different sounds into a sound that’s a String Cheese sound. We can all contribute.
What does 2011 or the future hold for the band as or now, or you think it will be similar to what happened this year with several big weekend shows?
At this point, we’re taking it one year at a time. We’ve all been real happy with getting back together and playing so we’re going to at least continue at this pace. Beyond that, I don’t know. I was just so psyched that people turned out for the shows and the whole vibe at Red Rocks and Horning’s. The excitement that fans brought in was really inspiring to us and I just want to thank everybody that came out.
