Almost Dead has sort of exploded into this self-powered machine not totally reliant on just the Grateful Dead canon anymore. Did you receive any advice or words of wisdom from the guys about what you were about to jump into?

I think Scott was helping me in terms of making me be aware and keep my head up of what’s going on. That was more the challenge for me, learning kind of how those guys approach some of those tunes. They’ve been at it for a while now and have developed their own amazing arrangements and approaches to things that I wouldn’t have known or wouldn’t come from The Dead actually doing it. That was part of the fun seeing what they were going to do and when they were doing it and how it was going to work. I was always able to cue off of Scott and get my guidance being on the left side of the stage with him over there.

As a fan of the music what was your take away of how the band interprets and regurgitates the song with their style. Dreiwitz called it Jersey punk, which I thought was interesting.

I think there’s definitely an element of that, less so obviously with me in there. I think it was a cool sort of hearkening to The Dead where there was just a no hold barred, anything goes kind of thing, a lot harder hitting at times because Joe is an animal back there. Those guys can kind of do whatever they want so it’s interesting to hear it as a fan but to also be a part of it and take these jams where they’re going to go.

Is there any particular song or jams that you were really into during those first few shows?

Oh man, it was so much material, seventy something songs in five nights and no repeats. It was kind of a blur. They were all really fun shows in their own way. I think Joe did a really great job putting together some really cool sets. It was nice having a love theme set for Higher Ground on Valentine’s Day. There were so many things, it’s hard to pick anything in particular.

Tell me about playing alongside Joe as the bassist. With Almost Dead, it feels like he takes it to another level. Is that something you felt compared to other projects?

Certainly for Almost Dead it’s a whole different animal for him and everybody else. He definitely can ramp it up as much as he wants there and anything goes. There are maybe elements of that when we play with other people, with Cass there’s certainly some jamming going on but I think in that setting where he’s kind of at the helm he can do anything he wants to do. There’s certainly an element of “Hell yeah, let’s see what happens.” It’s great, it’s so fun to be a part of as a bass player. He’s obviously a dream drummer to play with. Now that we’ve had a lot of time playing together I think we really are locked in and can kind of anticipate moves.

What’s your schedule like for the rest of the year, are you going to play some other Almost Dead shows or do you have other things going on?

I’m just seeing what happens, I think there’s one or two that I might end up doing. Dave is working out the balance between Ween and JRAD which is a tough schedule. I’m just here in case he can’t make something work, most of the year I’m going to be back with another artist I play with, Shakey Graves. We have a whole bunch of touring coming up which should be great, all US and Canada.

How did you get connected with Shakey Graves?

The drummer and producer in the band, Chris Boosahda, is an old friend of mine from New York, he now lives down in Austin. We’ve made music together for years and just kept in touch. Shakey started out as a one man thing-suitcase kick drum, then brought in Chris to expand the sound a little bit, have some drums. Then he brought in another guy Patrick O’Connor, great guitar player, also a utility guy. They slowly have been expanding the sound. Chris has always been like, “As soon as we need that bass player we’re going to call you.” It just kind of worked out.

And is there anything in the works with Wolf!

That’s another thing that puts off the schedule a little bit because Scott has been busy and we’re all sort of running around, but whenever we’re all here we do as much Wolf! as we possibly can. It’s been great. Not a tour in particular but putting out the feelers in the local area. We just went out to the River street Jazz Café, The Acoustic up in Bridgeport and we’re out in Long Island tomorrow night. Just kind of spreading it slowly outside the city and mostly just playing in New York, and a record that we’re working on.

What can you tell me about the record?

We kind of try and operate quickly, we’ve been working on it in Brooklyn over at a place called The Creamery Studio. It’s coming together really fast. I think we’re almost at the mixing point now and hopefully we’re just going to fire it right out.

Pages:« Previous Page