Has using drums changed your approach when you play live?

Adam: No I don’t think so, because they’ve all been played without drums and then we’ve decided to add them later. In the live setting, and when recording, it definitely gives it a different sound when you add drums. It changes the way I play rhythm, to some extent as well. You can be a little bit freer when you have those skins bangin’.

Ben: As a bass player, once we get the drums added in I have to readjust 75 per cent of what I do to fit in. You know, watching his bass drum pedal. It’s a different mentality and technique, I find. And then when we don’t have the drums I have a lot more space to sort of occupy, more real estate. It’s fun. But just for shits and giggles I’d love to get to play with drummers more often. Not even in a live setting, just jamming.

Do you find when you play with a drummer like Jon Fishman, who is essentially a jazz drummer, that it creates a challenge for you being more of a bluegrass musician? What’s it like playing with these drummers who each bring their own style to the songs?

Ben: Growing up I always played in bands with drummers. Just to speak specifically about Fishman, the guy is such a talent and he’s so familiar with playing in an improvisational style, and listening, and all of that which comes from the spirit of Phish’s music that we just sort of naturally listen to each other, and everybody does. We just naturally fall into place and very naturally find the areas which we should be playing—which real estate we should occupy. And so with someone like Fishman you don’t even have to think about it. We go into the gig with such trust in everything he’s going to do. That’s the case with all the drummers we play with.

Jeff, you recently had lasik [eye surgery]. Has that helped your performance ability at all? Has there been any change on stage?

Jeff: Yeah! When we toured in October I experimented with contacts for that month just to see how I liked it. I keep hearing from everybody “Oh man, it was so great to see you pushing your glasses up.” I can’t tell you what a huge monstrous pain in my ass it was to try every second I was on that stage to keep those glasses on my face. I am a world class sweating master, and when you’re sweating like that trying to keep glasses on your face while you’re thinking of 400 other things is really rough. I can’t wait. And contacts were just put on earth to torture human beings.

Ben had it done years and years ago. I’m just glad I finally went and did it. It was the coolest thing. It was a combination between Alice in Wonderland and the last acid trip you ever took. And then you can see. I’m kind of rejuvenated—I’m on a new kick in my life and it’s getting hooked on good things. I’m pretty excited to be on stage and check out all those things ‘cause I’m a big crowd watcher. I can’t help it. I was diagnosed as ADHD when I was young, so I pay attention to a lot of stuff going on in the crowd, seeing what people are up to. I’m 20/15 at this point so I can basically open doors with my eyeballs. I can change channels on the t.v. with my eyes. But performance-wise, I’m pretty happy to not have to think about “Are these glasses going to fall off my face? I’m going to step backwards and wash them and then I’m screwed.”

Ben: Let’s be honest, Jeff is one of the world’s best head bangers. I mean, when he plays the mandolin he plays the mandolin. Animated, for sure. So we don’t have to worry anymore about drive-by glasses or anything.

What did it feel like to organize your own festival? Can you talk about that experience and how it all came together?

Ben: In both cases with Harvest Fest and with the String Summit, we have a huge degree of input as to who we want. There are two sort of different experiences with the festivals, String Summit, of course, trying to keep it acoustic-based and the nature of the venue is a very intimate experience so it tends to lend itself to different performers and whatnot. Ultimately, it’s like shooting for the stars. The festivals sell themselves in their own ways.

With the Harvest fest, that’s the same place that they do Wakarusa, so that’s multiple stages and a bigger production, for sure. So we get to open up our minds to different kinds of music, you know, more electric music. But you don’t want to make it the same as Wakarusa, they’ve got that down, so we still have the acoustic influence that is very much present. But in that situation, we can take an electric band and invite them to do an acoustic set. Or you can really think outside the box and think “Would our fans like to see Harry Connick Jr.?” I don’t know, that was just off the top of my head. But really thinking outside the box because we have the opportunity to entertain that kind of idea.

Jeff: The thing I like about the idea of Harvest Fest is, for us, as far as putting together our own thing, it’s got such room to grow. We’ve got so many different bands that we can invite from all different areas of the spectrum.

What was it like playing the Four Mile Canyon Benefit and how did the Phish guys become involved?

Ben: It was odd how it started. We were going to do our own benefit at the Boulder Theater and then we got a call from Big Head Todd and the Monsters’ camp. And then a couple of the guys from String Cheese showed interest. Then we got word from the Phish camp, and since they were going to be in town the next day for a three night run, they said “Why don’t you come down to our place and use our stuff?” And basically it turned into something that would have raised a nice amount of money to something where we were able to raise over half a million dollars for people.

Jeff: It went from us saying “Hey, let’s put together this benefit at the Boulder Theater, and then the Big Head Todd guys came in and then a few of the String cheese guys, and then all the String Cheese guys, and then the Salmon guys wanted to be there. We were with Red Light Management and I called our assistant and said maybe we could do an auction where maybe we could get the guys from Phish to sign a guitar or Jon could sign a drum head or Mike could sign a bass, and that was in the afternoon. Then later that night there was an e-mail that went out and it started out asking Trey if he wants to sign a guitar, and now Trey wants to come down and play and he talked to the rest of the guys and they all want to come down and play.

Was it a conscious decision not to have them play as a band or was that something they decided?

Ben: I think that they wanted to do something different. You know, they had three nights coming up where they were going to do the Phish thing. So that acoustic Trey and Mike thing was very cool.

To hear Trey say, very sincerely and very heartfelt, how much they resonate with Colorado and this area…and he said something about it always feeling like a second home to them. You know, it was quite a touching thing. And he had Chris [Kuroda] their lighting engineer light up this entire section of firefighters and workers who had been on the emergency response. So they got to come down and finally get a day off and to see them lit up…the applause for those people must have gone on for five minutes. Once Phish gets involved in something you realize not only how powerful they are in the music business, but having gotten to know them to some degree, just how kind and generous these guys are. It was a beautiful night.

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