So this summer makes the 15th anniversary of the Benevento/Russo duo’s first performance.

Really?

Yeah, it was in 2001, the Madonna performance at Wetlands. How did that happen?

Right. Well Joe and I played in this Moroccan place called Tagine in Hell’s Kitch-en. It was me, Joe, a percussionist and a saxophonist. It was B3, drums, percussion and sax. That was in 2001. Then Joe got a gig that Jake Szufnarowski gave him every week night at the Knitting Factory, after doing those Tagine gigs. The gig paid 100 bucks, so Joe’s like, “Why don’t you being your organ down, we’ll duo, we’ll each get 50 bucks.” At the time, somehow, that was like grocery money for the whole week, which is crazy to think about. That’s how the duo started, and somehow between Tagine and the Knitting Factory residency, that like Madonna thing came up. That was the first time we did the two of us. Man, I would love to hear a recording of that. I have no idea where that is. It was filmed for something—there were cameras all around us.

You guys knew each other in New Jersey, earlier in life, when did you reconnect?

Joe and I grew up together. We learned Rush tunes and Led Zeppelin together in like seventh or eighth grade, then we split up and went to different high schools. He came to visit me at Berklee, because he was thinking about going there, but I think he saw the dorm rooms and was like, “No way.” He just wanted to perform and tour and live out in Colorado and do that thing, I guess. Then I didn’t see him for a while, graduated from college, and moved to New York. I was on line in front of Tonic to see Medeski Martin and Wood, and I drank a bunch of beers before so I was itching to go to the bathroom, and I ran across the street to this bar to use the bathroom, and they were like, “The bathroom is in the back.” I went in the back, and there was band playing. Russo was there playing with all of my friends from Berklee. I was like, “Oh my god! I haven’t seen Joe—and that’s my friend Peter. What?” I saw Joe and was like, “Dude! You’re playing with all my friends from Berklee!” Then I got his number, and we reconnected. It’s kind of funny.

Speaking of random encounters, you met God Street Wine’s Aaron Maxwell through your daughter’s school. How’d that happen?

I don’t know what Aaron’s story is, but he moved up to Woodstock. He got a job as a music teacher, teaching at the Woodstock Day School, where our kids go. Someone was like, “Oh, that’s Aaron. He’s from God Street Wine. So of course I had to go up and meet him. I was like, “Hey, when I was in high school I had your tape.” It was like the Dead, Phish and God Street Wine, those were the three big bands you heard a lot about in my high school in New Jersey. Then we ended up connecting and playing a bunch of benefits and a bunch of little gigs in Wood-stock. He’s a great singer and an amazing guitar player. He can do the Django [Reinhardt] thing really well. He is one talented mutha fucka.

Does stuff like that happen a lot up there, meeting random musicians who are down to jam?

Yeah, because if you see musicians up there and they’re home, they’re home. They’re not on tour. So they’re like, “Yo man, let’s have dinner and hang out.” It’s really fun. So Aaron and I have played at the house a bunch, Tracy Bonham has come over and we’ve recorded a bunch. It’s amazing up there. There’s a lot of space to do whatever it is you want. A lot of people have their own little studios too, their own little separate house to record in.

I wanted to ask you about future of some of your projects. I know you’re busy, but have there been any talks about other projects like the Beneven-to/Russo starting back up?

No. Whenever we do JRAD tour, we’re always talking about how we’re gonna try to pull it off. We come so close to booking a gig and, in the end, I’ll write to him and be like, “I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like the right thing. Should we wait?” It’s like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, when the guy’s like, “You can’t put the pussy on a pedestal.” You can’t put the Duo on the pedestal. We haven’t been able to find the right time. The duo is like wrapped up in an action figure box that we haven’t been able to open up yet. I’m very focused on my own band and recording and touring. There’s a certain about of investment you do, realistically, to make a record. So I wanna really try to promote that, before I start abandoning things I’ve been work-ing on and focus on something else. I just want to focus on this project right now, and then there is the JRAD stuff, which has taken up a lot of calendar time, too. We were talking about all the other things, the sit-ins, The Arcs, the studio stuff, other things that also come into play. So it’s hard to throw it in there, but yes, we do want to do it. I said, “Joe. Why don’t you come up to Fred Short, and we’ll record and rehearse? Let’s make a record and tour a new record.” Instead of going out and doing a one off. Like I said, the duo is on the pedestal. We’re probably overthinking it. We could have done a Brooklyn Bowl show by now, but we haven’t.

And other projects—Garage A Tois or Surprise Me Mr. Davis?

Garage A Trois there’s no plans. That was a great band to be in, I gotta say playing with Skerik and Stanton [Moore] and Mike D [Dillon]. Those guys are genius, they’re so smart. They’re really intense, and the music’s really visceral and energetic. There is no time to space out and float around on the keyboards. Skerik look at me and be like, “Dude, we’re playing now. You have to jump around and sweat and play that bass line really heavy. Let’s go.” He’s an intense dude, and I like that about that band, because it’s just like rock power.

Then, Surprise Me Mr. Davis. I go so far back with Brad and Andrew [Barr]. We’ve known each other since Berklee. I’ve known them since ’95. Davis could be this thing that happens later. I don’t know. I love that band, and I love Brad and Andrew and Nathan [Moore] and Mark [Friedman]. All that music is so good. It’s unfortunate that we haven’t done more shows. But it’s the same thing with the duo. The Barr Brothers are super busy, Mark Friedman is busy with Ryan Montbleau, Nathan is busy with his own thing, I’m busy with my own thing. So it’s hard to get everyone together. But man, what a band. I have to say, Surprise Me Mr. Davis is top shelf for me. I love those guys.

Do you think that’s the top group you’ve been in?

The reason why it’d be the top group I’ve been in is just the history that we have together. Also, the music is so great. Nathan is such a great storyteller and singer. So is Brad. It could be like a Wilco kind of group—like great new rock band with kind of classic, timeless songs. I just get to do like rock band piano or organ. I’m not like a leader in that band or anything, much like JRAD. I’m just laying down the organ parts, whatever needs to be done in that department. But I love playing with those guys, man. I wish more Davis would have happened.

Does it have to be something you all plan out months in advance since every-one is so busy?

Yeah. We did a Davis show at High Sierra, and we didn’t have any time to re-hearse. We met an hour, two hours before our gig and kind of ran over stuff in the trailer, green room at High Sierra and had one of the best gigs we ever had. It’s just a juggling act. It’s hard. Realistically, Relix is probably the only magazine that knows who Surprise Me Mr. Davis is. Nobody knows about that band. We don’t really get giant offers to play rooms because nobody knows us.

Anything you have coming up or anything about the album that you’ve been dying to say to people?

I guess—I’ve normally gone into the studio and recorded, but this record I did all in my house. It was good to steer the ship and do all the driving and commit to all the sounds myself without anybody being like, “I don’t know about that.”

This time I recorded everything in my house. I used the tape machine to balance a lot of tracks and really committed to the sounds of everything. I needed to make that record with Richard Swift to have the confidence to do it myself the next time around, because Swift had a very humble set up in his place, much like mine. Couple of great mics, some good EQs and you’re good. I’ve gone into so many studios and it’s like, the shape of the room is acoustically sound and the lights don’t buzz, the amps are all regulated. Everything works great. You’re in this la-boratory kind of room. So it was nice to know I can do it. I actually had some help from Kenny Siegal who owns Old Soul Studios in the Catskills, which is where a lot of people have made their records. Ratatat shacked up there and made all their records.

Kenny came over and was like my training wheels, just to make sure I was doing it right. “You just wanna make sure that things aren’t out of phase. You wanna make sure you get a good drum sound.” He helped me out a lot, but for the most part I did it all on myself. I wasn’t relying on anyone to tell me how it should go. If any-thing, if Kenny said something about how it should go, I was like “No” [laughs].

Are you excited going forward to keep doing things on your own?

Absolutely. I’m excited to learn more about my room. As you’re recording and capturing music, you’re also learning about stuff—preamps and mics and amps and how far away things should be. It’s a constant experiment. It’s a whole other art form that I’ve been learning—like signing. It’s another instrument that I’m learning about.

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