Have you decided on a potential release date for the album? When can we expect to hear something from the session?

I’m starting to review and mix in February. I don’t want to rush it but I don’t want to take forever to do it. I’m hoping I can get the thing out the door in the late spring early summer. That’s my hope. I have a few labels and distribution possibilities that I’m discussing and negotiating with right now. At this point EO funded this and we’re exploring the different ways that we can move it out there.

I’m also in the process of making a documentary on EO. The 10th anniversary of doing EO brought up the idea to get some interviews with players on their experiences with EO and try to help tell the story of what it is, because a lot of people still don’t know what it is. It’s still kind of amorphous and out there to a lot of people. I’ve had a videographer, he [covered an EO] show in Portland, he did all of Jamcruise and then he came out and he videotaped the whole session and interviewed everybody and videotaped pretty much every moment of the tracking. So that whole piece of it…that’s in the process right now. He’s matching up all our two-track mixes of all the audio with his video right now and that’s another piece of what we’re going to release or do something with. Who knows, maybe that is going to be the most exciting piece that we share with people. You know, just putting the visual on what was going on in the room can be really magical.

So that’s a potential DVD release?

Yeah…maybe a DVD release or an online something. The hard product thing is hard for me to get my brain around. But something like that. We documented it and it all came together very fast. I was in the process of making the EO documentary as this project popped up, and Peter [?] was like “I can’t not be there. This is like the biggest thing you’ve done in a long time.” So we worked it out and everybody agreed that it was ok for him to be there. I’m taking the next couple months off from performing and just working on these two things.

You mentioned that you plan to have the CD ready by spring/summer time. What are the plans for the documentary? When will that be ready?

Ideally I’m hoping that we can release everything in the late spring. I’m not sure how long the process will take from here since I’ve never done this before. I learnt a lot in the tracking process. I mean, I’ve made records before; I’ve just never made an EO record before. So once we get into the mixing I’ll be better able to project when we’re going to release it.

After you take the next few months off you return to the festival circuit for the summer. Do you have plans beyond that? Would you ever consider taking EO on the road for its own tour?

Yeah, I’m booked in a number of festivals already and there’s a whole bunch more popping up. I haven’t really pushed EO as a touring entity. Part of the concept is it works really well at festivals to bring different individuals from bands that are already there. Maybe something will pop up that will make doing some sort of tour more viable. But I’m focusing primarily on festivals and those types of events.

The other piece of what we’re building right now is a projection system to enable the conducting of the audience for large audiences to be a little bit more interactive. So the dry erase board…I can have an iPad that controls a projection system to send out images and words to the audience where a very large audience can see it.

That’s very cool. Now that you’ve laid down some tracks in the studio with these musicians, do you feel you have a more solid lineup that you could potentially rely on for a tour?

Well I would say that to get these musicians for a tour is a real long shot. Everyone is so busy. There’s always the possibility that the timing will match up and I can actually pull together these cats for a show or two. But maybe this will bring the interest for EO to a different level where doing a tour is more viable. There’s no shortage of musicians who are available and interested, it’s just having it fit with everyone’s schedules. But that’s my poison of choice. I’m not looking to form a static lineup that doesn’t change.

I’ve been doing these monthy shows in Portland all fall and I’ve got an incredible group—it’s rotated somewhat—that’s played about five shows together. Who knows, maybe like Blue Man Group we just set up shop and play locally a bunch and bring in the people and grow that way? I’m open to that as well. But I really enjoy doing the festivals and maybe bringing a few people with me, or bringing a core, or maybe just going to the festival and building the orchestra out of the various people that are there. Like Jamcruise is just such a perfect example. It’s just such a magical way to bring a really diverse group of people together. You know to be conducting members of Greensky Bluegrass and members of Cornmeal next to Taylor Hicks from American Idol and Black Nature from Sierra Leone Refugee All-stars was like, “Man, this is magical shit that is happening.” These people aren’t all going to go on tour together but they’re all onstage just pouring out their hearts. The magic is in the moment of them all being together doing it in that unique way. That’s what I’m purveying.

In a sense EO is kind of an artist collective in a similar vein as a band like The Residents. I know Fishman is a big Residents fan…

I’m really inspired by Blue Man, by Stomp, by Cirque de Soleil, by off-Broadway shows that incorporate humor and music and improve and performance. Musically, I come from a jazz, pop and reggae background. I worked with [Ken] Kesey for a number of years in the 90’s with my band Jambay and he was constantly engaging the crowd to interact. He was like, “The audience just wants to be in the band. Make them feel like they’re in the band.” He always felt the Grateful Dead did a really good job of that, to a certain point. So when we worked with Kesey we would give all the audience members instruments and stuff and sometimes it didn’t work at all and I learned a lot from those experiences. [Laughs]. I think that kind of looking at it like a stage show, or also looking at it kind of like a spiritual improvisational ritual is another place where I’m coming from—just trying to get everybody in that same moment as much as possible. The more I can do that the more successful the show is. The album is definitely a departure from that on some level, but creatively and musically with the musicians it seems like an important step to see where I could take it.

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