Tell me about the bond between the four of you.
It’s interesting. We’re definitely a group that is friends. We were friends first, especially Adam and Mike – they’ve known each other for a really long time. It wasn’t like there was something on the table in terms of the band. We all got together and started hanging, became friends and that became the band.
People ask us all the time, “What’s it like to spend that much time with the same people?” It’s a really intense relationship. You’re living with someone, you’re working with someone, you’re really good friends with someone. And then you have the added thing of that, it’s not just that you’re working with someone – you’re working with someone on something that you’re completely 100 percent personally vested in. It’s not just a job, it’s like owning your own business that you poured all of your money and time into. We communicate well and at the end of the day, we value everybody individually.
Can you tell me about your bandmates? Let’s start with Adam.
Adam is the primary writer, and sings lead the most. He’s interesting because it was his idea to have the group and he’s the colonel of the bluegrass thing. None of us were well-versed in bluegrass or had a history in bluegrass before we started the group and he turned me on to a lot of bluegrass. He’s also the guy that works the hardest in acquiring new musical knowledge. He works very hard on theory. It’s aspiring and motivational because it makes you keep up with his progress and level, so you can communicate musically with what he’s got going on.
Joe has been playing violin for so long. The way he learned music is very immediate in terms of his ear. Not only is he a great writer and serves up really cool songs – he’s also the guy that’s like: “We need someone to play this part or play this line or repeat what someone is doing musically.” He can hone in on that really fast. He also switches it up and plays the mandolin.
Mike’s got the electric mandolin rocking, which gives us a different sound. And the attitude that comes with that is that he’s more rock oriented and more into the improvisational side of it and keeping us opened to that. He’s a great business dude and you got to have that in the band too.
What kind of bass do you play?
It’s called an Eminence, It’s not a full upright. It’s a smaller compact body with a lot of tone and feel. To me, in the class of what it is, it’s the best that you could do without it being a full upright. It also has a little bit of an electric tone and still sounds acoustic. Because the body is smaller you can hit certain frequencies harder and it sounds punchy.
You play a number of festivals, what is your approach to those events?
The summer can be good for that because every festival is so different. You do a tour and you play a lot of similar places. With the festivals, they’re different events, different places, different artists and that helps you keep fresh mentally but also provides an opportunity for some collaborations.
What’s next for the band?
We’re playing some new stuff on the road currently. We’ve been writing and figuring out exactly what we’re going to do with all of it. There’s a lot of different options.
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