Photo by Dean Budnick

Leading off of that, are you starting to look towards your next solo album? What are some of the more experimental elements that are creeping into the song writing?

I definitely want to make a new album. We have more than two albums worth of material now. I would just rather not rush it. I’m probably talking about it too much, these things are so small. I felt like working on some ideas [with the band] would be a next logical step and then the next album. I’ve been digging this new sound and I wanted to experiment with it, and Scott agreed and we just kept going, so I definitely want to make another album. I don’t see how we could possibly fit all of this material onto one album. One of the main reasons [we have so much material] is that I turned 50 and this is what I want to be doing with most of my time—writing and recording.

There is such a long list of influences. I love the album A Different Ship [by Here We Go Magic], which is actually produced by Nigel Godrich. They have another album that just came out and I like it how it mixes some acoustic sounds with some of those palpating synthetic sounds. I really like that juxtaposition and Luke’s voice.

Johnny turned me on to The Books. They’re a duo from southern Vermont. They have two spoons that they invented that cover and clap against holes in a box. You can hear songs made up of instruments that they invented like that, so that’s just one example. There is some really obscure stuff that I probably wouldn’t even remember the name of. There is just such a wide variety of stuff. That was maybe one of the more mainstream ways to get some recommendations. It was just coming in on all different directions—interesting rhythms and interesting sounds. I like stuff that is kind of bare, with not too much going on to get in the way of the vocals so that what is there sounds unique.

How do you feel your singing voice has evolved over the last few years? When we spoke a few years ago, around the release of Moss, you mentioned that you were listening to some female signers for inspiration and you recently told Relix that Steve Lillywhite gave you some advice about your voice around the time of Joy. Do you feel yourself growing as a lead vocalist?

It’s been a little bit of a quest. I have learned so much. There are some things that a lot of vocal coaches have in common. They all have exercises to make you loosen up your throat. Then there are the places where they sort of depart from each other.

Right now I’m working with Linda Balliro, whose mentor was Seth Riggs. He was the vocal coach for Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder. It’s a certain process called speech level singing which predates Seth Riggs. He was sort of the lever on it. He worked with Michael Jackson and he would work for two hours a day when he was on tour. I’ve seen him a few times and Linda has his methods down and we Skype.

I’m only getting technical because it’s interesting to me. They call it the mix when you mix the ranges. Falsetto is a no-no, instead when you go up high they want you to use the texture from your chest weight. When you go low, they like you to use the resonance of your head voice and they sort of divide it up. There’s two pitches so there’s three parts to the range and it’s tricky around the bridge. None of the vocal coaches want you to go up high and strain. It’s a lot to go up higher and have it sound and be part of what you can creatively do while you’re singing, so I really enjoy lead singers that can do that and not have it sound light and fluttery.

One time Trey got to Phish band practice and he said, “I’ve been listening to the radio and even in the grocery store, if I hear a certain high note in a pop song I take out my little pitch adaptor and I check to see what that high note is. It’s always around A Flat.” I talked to my vocal coach and he said you should always stay as low as you’re talking. He’s got a very agile voice. We were taking Phish songs that were an octave and a half too low and wielding them up. It was really great to see what happens with singing particularly low and stretching out the range.

A lot of it is that technical stuff, but of course what I enjoy about a great singer is that they are telling a story. The last two vocal coaches were really into the holistic—getting into telling stories with lyrics and words and notes and not letting the technical mumbo jumbo get in the way. It’s just fascinating to me. It’s so fun and it feels so good to be able to let loose and ad lib a little bit. There are times when I know I am having a ton of fun singing where for so many years I really just played a lot of bass notes and sang every once in a while. It’s an ongoing world of experimentation for me more than anything.

Your last album was largely a collaboration with Scott. How has that working relationship changed and evolved, especially in terms of your own approach as a songwriter? Are you writing by yourself these days or mostly working with Scott?

I really enjoy the collaboration with Scott. I’m not opposed to other collaborations someday. Scott and I had a week together working nights a couple of weeks ago. It’s just such fun for us. I think that whatever you are spending long hours on and whatever you feel is fun is what you are going to be committed to.

We are having so much fun together, just laughing. It doesn’t mean we are looking for silly ideas because usually we aren’t. It shows our personality and that we both have the same values. It’s a healthy relationship because we communicate well. We have differences but we’ll express them. We don’t always think in the same way—that would be boring. We are quicker because we know how we work together. Instead of taking two years to put together a bunch of songs it only took one year, and we wanted to keep going.

There are parts of songwriting that just work well when you’re alone. I’ll spend weekdays just going at it. When we’re at home in Massachusetts or Vermont, we’ll have these long Skype calls once a week and we get into that groove and I really enjoy it. There is something beneficial about Skype because you are both looking at each other or the same screen of lyrics and you’re focused. It’s not that I need to work with Scott, but I really want to. I like sharing the process. I like sharing the groove when we hit something that just feels good.

Sometimes I speak like that about artists in general because I don’t want to take credit for some incredible revelation on how to create art when I realize everyone is trying stuff. I think people make albums or whatever they are making to try to one-up themselves or at least to overcome challenges that were presented by the results of the previous one. I really love Overstep. It strikes me as being rootsy. I wanted it to rock. I’d like to experiment with writing and sounds and rhythm. I didn’t want to settle for something that sounds like we have heard it before. That is an exaggeration, because of course we have our influences and everything sounds like something else. What I mean is that there is always something really good in there. It’s us trying to be fresh and trying to interest our own ears with fresh sounds inside out and outside in.

There are sounds in the background where I’m banging on the dryer machine and there are microphones inside. We’re really trying to experiment. I haven’t listened to it in a while. We mixed it with the idea of paring things down. I also really love repetition. I like stuff with beats that go over and over again. I don’t really listen to a lot of pop music, but I really enjoy that. A lot of what I like about the Here We Go Magic stuff is that it’s a lot of textures and rhythms that flow in and out. I wouldn’t call that spare, but I would call it textural or palpitating. That’s the other end of the spectrum. Rather than carving the sound way up, there are so many ways to go. We just sort of follow our muses. Scott and I have been doing it together and we have enjoyed it. And why not do it together if you enjoy it?

You turned 50 a few months ago. Do you have any new goals now that you’ve reached that milestone?

I think I’m seeing the body as a temple. They say it should be treated with respect, the same as the mind and the soul and the heart. I’m spending as much time as possible with my family. Tessa just turned seven, which is huge. She’s such a great part of my life. I feel like after turning 50, my life is more focused and centered than ever before. All of the songwriting is my outlet, and if it wasn’t, it might be something else. But that’s what I want to do and these other things are for enjoying life and getting in shape—and that is what the whole package is.

It’s surrendering to and letting nature take over. In life, there is a little more watching your breath. There is a mantra….respecting the muse, respecting Mother Nature. That’s already in the body and in the soul doing its thing and it’s letting that be taught to come out and center me.

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