So now you have this arsenal that you can dig into and pull out whatever you want. In terms of your role, were you drumming in the studio or were you strictly conducting?
I was conducting but there was one point on the second day where Fishman was deep in a story telling mode out in the lobby and Marco had to be somewhere at a certain time so I was like “Alright, let’s go back in. We have two hours left so let’s use this time with Marco and make sure we get in there.” Almost everybody was in [the studio] except for Fishman who was talking to somebody, so I jumped on the kit. I think I played kit for about 25 minutes that day and Fishman actually came in and did some “conducting” after a while. His conducting style is much different than mine. [Laughs].
You use some fairly obscure techniques on stage such as making use of cue cards. Were you employing these techniques in the studio or did you have a different approach for that setting?
The only thing that was really different as far as the way I was conducting was just kind of giving it a bit more space without the performance pressure. And the other thing was I had a talkback mic. I’ve never used a talkback mic before. I used it somewhat, but I can’t say I’m 100% comfortable with a talkback mic because I’m not looking for an exact thing from people. When I hold up “victorious outreach” or I hold up “victory” to show people…I go “1…2…3…4…Victory!” I don’t have a specific thing in mind. I just want the musicians to interpret and react and change together. It’s a little bit funny to say something into the microphone versus write it down. My intent isn’t to create strings like they’re puppets. I like the room for interpretation and I’m counting on that. But I did use [the mic] for various things. And we did do some of the more abstract things. You know, with this particular lineup a lot of what I was doing was designating the leader for a solo or for somebody to start something new. Everybody was very forthcoming with coming up with a riff that became a jumping off point for the next thing. So in that sense it’s like I’m directing traffic, of sorts.
Do you try to bring in musicians who have established a rapport with one another to attempt to create a dynamic for the other musicians to vibe off?
A little bit of everything. For my New Year’s gig I collaborated with the band Flowmotion from Seattle. They played their full 90 minute set and then we took a break right before New Year’s and we came back on and the Everyone Orchestra was basically Flowmotion and then we added a vibe player, a trumpet player and a mandolin player and another vocalist. It was kind of like Flowmotion plus. So in that case you have this whole band that has a whole rapport going on and a catalog they can fall back on, and I’m conducting them. Then there’s the gigs where I’m coming in and conducting 11 out of 13 people that I’ve just met that day and the conducting becomes very utilitarian in the sense of just keeping everybody together. That can be a really exciting thing also because it’s so fresh and so new.
So I like having teams but I also like diversity—I’m really mixing and matching. For the studio thing I didn’t have this exact lineup in mind when I was first thinking about recording. I definitely had these people in my mind. I thought these people would be great in the studio just because I know them well. [I know] their personalities, they’re really cool people, they’re great musicians…I think they play well together and with other musicians. It’s just kind of the way it came together. It’s interesting.
Specifically, Fishman, Reed [Mathis] and Marco, they’ve done a tour together as a trio. Fishman first played with Marco in Everyone Orchestra and then later they did a Benevento Trio tour. So when Marco came in there was a lot of immediate chemistry through them. But I like to throw in wildcards—I think it keeps everyone on their toes. So, while in this group there was a lot of familiarity between the musicians, it was definitely a unique mix for everybody.
Did these musicians, many of whom have lots of experience in the studio, bring some of their own improvisational exercises into EO? Specifically musicians like Fishman considering his background in Phish, Al in moe. or Marco and his jazz background.
You know I’ve done some the “Hey” exercises with Fish on stage before. That was just something where basically we’re taking turns leading some ideas and stuff and Fishman was like “Let’s try this thing…” We didn’t do that in the studio but the one that I can say we did similarly is we kind of fine tuned things we were working on and everybody spoke up and said “Why don’t we do that three times?” and “Why don’t we do the second half of that twice?” Everybody has input on that level.
But more it was just kind of like “Alright, Fish start a groove” and I’d just hold everybody out and I’d pick a key and look at Reed, or I’d say “follow Reed” and he would play a new bass line and everybody would be like “what key is that in?” Then we’d go and one by one I’d add people in and we’d grow it that way and try all of the different variable that were there.
Do you plan to bring any of the musicians back for the mixing phase, or is it your project to work on from here on out?
They’ve all basically said, “Do what you will.” A lot of people [said] “Can I just hear all of it?” [Laughs]. So I was kind of like “Alright, I’ll send you the 10 hours worth soon.” But Fishman was like “I won’t become like a peanut gallery on how you mix it or what you do with it. I empower you to do it how you want to do it.” I think everybody, on some level, is available for feedback if it’s necessary.
You know there were some very, incredibly funny humor moments where personally I feel like before I put that on the record I’d want to go “Are you OK with me putting this on the record?” Just because it’s a different thing, it’s pushing the boundaries of what people might think Jeff Coffin is, or what Jen Harswick is or something. We did this jam where I called it “the stories”, or “talking”, and we were doing this crazy musical jam and I’d pick somebody and we’d end it and that person would basically do a little diatribe or tell a story or say something or tell a joke and then we’d go back into the jam. We kind of went around and cycled through everyone talking and it was hilarious. Maybe that’ll translate…I’m not sure if it’s going to translate to the listener or not.
So I’m open to suggestions and what everybody might be thinking but I also think that part of the beauty of it both for doing an EO gig and doing this type of session is that they can just kind of show up and rock it and not have to do other things around it. I think that’s part of the beauty, especially for Fishman who’s really busy. He likes to just show up with his sticks and not have to learn a bunch of tunes and just fuckin’ rock. That was part of my original intent when I created this. You know, I’ve been in bands and the struggle to keep everybody together, and we’re going to go on tour, we’re going to spend all this time…I wanted to create something where it was more like “Here’s a container for a bunch of really good musicians and friends to get together, have a great time doing a show but not have the rest of the baggage about being in band come into play. I still like being in a band and I believe in that and all that stuff, but that was part of my intent. I was coming off playing in Jambay in the 90’s where my world had become basically just about these four people and it was a beautiful thing and I learned so much about my musicality through that experience. But ever since then I’ve been on kind of this expansion trip and that’s where Everyone Orchestra came from.
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