Let’s switch over to the musical side of things. A number people submitted variations on this question: What music has inspired you over the years? What has changed and evolved and what has remained consistent?

I try to continually evolve musically by listening to different music, so I think that’s something that’s always changed. I do feel like that I try to fall back on the great songwriters. I think for me if I take the time to be a good songwriter it doesn’t matter how many silly little loops I drop in or little frills I put in, it really comes down to the song and the hook.

If you’re about to go off on a 70-mile drive do you have any albums that you’ll return to time and again?

Odelay is always in there. Funnily enough Seal’s first album will be in there. The Beatles, probably the Cars…At the same time I’d throw in Tinariwen, or there’s that killer Ethiopian singer Gigi, she made an album with Herbie [Hancock]. Lately, it would probably be some more international stuff that I’ve been checking out.

Any old school or new school jazz?

I don’t listen to as much jazz as I should. I’ve been trying to listen to more songwriters. I’ve been moving out of jazz.

Another question a lot of people had is whether there is going to be a new Kyle album?

I was just thinking about that today. I have a few songs lined up. The albums come when I have enough songs. Right now I have a few new ones and I probably need another four to make an album.

I have these songs and during the String Cheese break there’s no one to bounce songs off of but now with a little more String Cheese I can bring some new stuff to them, although that means some of my new material gets swallowed up by String Cheese.

But I am really thinking about making another album. Good question, let’s shoot for this year.

In terms of a new String Cheese album, can you talk about that? A lot of people are curious.

I think two things will happen. Probably there will be a straight up live String Cheese Incident album. The Best of Tour, something like we did with Carnival 99. That sort of thing is what we’re gonna go for first.

Then the idea is to release an album that’s going be partially live and partially studio. So taking a lot of tracks, a lot of the jams from the last String Cheese tour and utilizing that as a springboard for new material and a new album. Maybe we will cut up some little pieces and write some lyrics to them and we’ll add some other things on top. Or we’ll send some to a DJ to remix …The idea is to take our live material and use it as the backing track for our new disc.

That’s going to require some measure of work as opposed to everyone bringing in songs.

For me that’s really fun. That’s where it might take away from my solo project as far as a new album. I already have a hard drive at our home where I’ve been taking the tracks to my house and started cutting them up.

Describe String Cheese Incident rehearsals, what’s the ratio of chatting to music? Who’s the one that cracks the whip and gets the music started?

I tend to be the more get down to business guy because that’s the way I treat music. String Cheese rehearsals start about an hour late and then we play for awhile, for awhile being 20 minutes, and then we take a 45-minute break, and then we come back and play ten minutes, and then a 20-minute break. It’s very relaxed. When we actually get closer to the event we get into “Oh shit mode.” Then we put some song combinations together but it’s generally very relaxed.

Do you find that reconnecting a personal level after being separated is nearly as important if not more important than just sitting down and playing?

That’s what everybody tells me. Part of it is just reconnecting as a family and a unit. And that’s part of it too, I understand. I have to remind myself of that.

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