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Historically, speaking to the crowd was always David Murphy’s job. For most of this year, that kind of audience interaction was notably absent from your shows. Then last week, Zach addressed the crowd twice in one show. Was there any thing specific that inspired that?

ZV: For the longest time for the summer we—I think we said this a couple of times—but we wanted the music to just speak for itself. We didn’t feel as though we needed to address the crowd vocally because we all address the crowd in our different ways while we’re on stage, when we end a show, when we leave for set break or whatever. We’re all addressing the crowd. But verbally, in particular, it just wasn’t natural. So it just felt natural. That’s why it happened.

JL: That time, we just felt like we wanted to say “thank you” and acknowledge their presence. It was something that felt right, something that felt right for now. Maybe that’ll change later.

David Phipps: During the summer, when we had a lot of time to prepare for every single show, as opposed to five or six shows a week, we prepared some sounds, samples and recorded stuff in the studio and used vocal transformers to affect our own voices. So the crowd-addressing that happened over the summer actually was our voices, but with effects in the studio. I thought it was pretty cool. We were able to address the crowd, but in a new way. So maybe we’ll be doing more of that in the future. We’re just kind of feeling out the bare minimum of what feels appropriate, and not thanking the crowd doesn’t necessarily feel appropriate. Maybe I’ll do it next time. (Everyone laughs).

We’re still figuring it out. We’re trying to do it creatively and not take the crowd for granted, but also not compromise our art with insincerity.

Now that you guys are on the road with a slightly different lineup, is there anything about tour life that has changed? Are their any new pre-show rituals, stuff like that?

HB: I would say, pretty much all day we’re talking about music. We’ll do soundcheck and then go backstage and just pick our instruments back up to keep working on that night’s show. It’s just constantly music. After the show, on the bus, when we wake up—it’s just heightened right now. We’re all so amped to play. We’re just thinking and talking about what we want to do and how. It’s awesome.

DP: Something that Alana has done is help with our rehearsal ethic and work ethic. Coming from a college education in music, and with plenty of road legs and performances under her belt, she’s helped me not take our craft for granted. She’s inspired us to all play and rehearse as much as possible, to really dig into our craft. You can hear it in all of our playing, especially Hunter, and where we’re able to go with that inspired rehearsal ethic. It’s good for us.

I know that this is a difficult question, but people want to know, is there anything more that you can tell us about the reasons behind David Murphy’s departure?

DP: The statement we posted on our website is pretty accurate to this day. I really don’t know how much more would be appropriate to share beyond the public statement we already made.

Alana, what was behind the decision to bring out the upright bass for the Axe the Cables sets?

AR: I’ve always played upright bass. I went to college thinking I wanted to play in an orchestra and ended up getting my degree in jazz. So upright bass is just a big part of who I am as a musician. I think it was something that we were al excited about when I walked into the band, that at some point I would bring out the upright bass somehow. Then we made the decision to the to do three sets at Red Rocks and an Axed set just seemed like the obvious thing to do. It’s just something I’ve always done. A lot of the work I did in Nashville was road work or session work that revolved around playing upright bass and electric bass, so it’s a super natural thing for me.

Now that STS9 is going through something of a regeneration, is there any chance you’ll be bringing back your old Regeneration festival?

ZV: Oh, good question!

HB: We’d love to, we would. We’ll see. If it’s a possibility, we’ll do it.

You guys announced a New Year’s run in Denver that, as of now, is scheduled for December 31, January 2 and January 3. I’ve heard some rumors that there is something, perhaps a more intimate show, scheduled for the 1st. Is there any truth to this?

HB: There could be some truth to some rumors.

ZV: There could be truth to that.

AR: Anything you want it to be, really. (Laughs)

DP: Yeah, we want to play. So…

HB: We will be playing. It’s in the works right now, but we want it to be something special. We’re trying to see what we can manifest.

Is there anything else you guys would like to say?

DP: If there’s anything that we’d like to add, it’s that we truly wish David Murphy the best and hope that he’s happy. If anyone deserves to be happy, it’s him. We truly wish him the best.

HB: We’d also like to thank our good friend Eric Pirritt—EP.

ZV: He’s been our rock, and just helped us through this whole year of transition. So thanks to him for always being there for us, we want to shout him out. We’d also love to shout out our crew—Saxton Waller, who is the LD, Ryan Knutson, our front of house production manager. Our tour manager Matt Brown. Everyone. The loyalty and the support from our team—it makes us feel incredibly blessed to have all these people around us that support us. We couldn’t do this without these people.

HB: Making music is what has gotten us through an incredibly tough year, so yeah. We wouldn’t be here without them.

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