Shifting to music, if there was one band that moe. could tour with, who would it be?

VA: That’s a great question. I would go back to Led Zeppelin or something. But in terms of music today, somebody that I think we would gel well with musically, even though we’re not even in the same genre of music, is the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They’re a great band—mainstream as hell—but if you listen to a lot of our tunes, the bass lines and the drum grooves are a lot more like the Chili Peppers than a lot of the other bands that were out there. I’m not saying our songs are like that, but a lot of the bass and drums groove stuff, I think, would be a really good fit.

They keep coming out with new music. I’ve seen them a bunch of times. Even those guys in every interview, the stuff that I read about that, they’re always improvising the shows, it’s not like they play the same thing every night, the same way every night, it’s always jamming. I know that Flea and Chad Smith keep a solid groove beneath those songs.

We’ve done a lot of shows here at the brewery. What do you like about the playing at the brewery and what makes it special?

VA: It’s got a great vibe, and the concert-goers that come to the brewery know what they’re in for. They’re going to get a good rock show, they’re going to drink a lot of beer—in a very fun, and friendly, and family-oriented sort of atmosphere. I really enjoy playing there, because I’m from Utica and I have these family ties and I have some really close ties to the town. With you guys, we’ve had a relationship for, what, about 15 years now at this point? It goes back further—my grandmother even hung out with your grandfather and worked for the brewery at some point, so the relationship goes back a lot further than even me.

The fact that you’re from Utica—one of the things I always say: “All paths lead back to Utica.” One of the things people forget about—Utica gets hammered at times, but when you think of the cool things that are here, and the people that have left to do the cool things that they’ve done, there’s a lot to celebrate in this town and a lot of cool things about Utica.

VA: Absolutely. The history of Utica, for those who don’t know it, is that it used to be a pretty good sized city. Once the industry left, everybody pulled out, but it was a thriving city with great music, great culture. You guys are a testament to that. There are so few cities that have a family owned and operated brewery as big as Saranac. That’s a testament to the city itself and what it stands for and the culture of that city.

We’ve been around 128 years, and to do that you have to evolve with the times. moe. has been around for 26 years. What do you think that has been your special sauce, so to speak, that has made you guys last as a band and continuing to grow as far as audience appeal?

VA: We have evolved musically, both as musicians and as songwriters. We keep writing music that evolves with the times. We’re not innovating new things, we’re not breaking down walls, but it’s not like we need to regurgitate the same stuff. We’re writing new music that sounds new and different.

We still get along together, so we’re able to stand each other, which comes out onstage and makes us able to have fun. I think that is portrayed to the audience. We really enjoy what we do. I think it’s mostly in the music. We still play well, we write well, we still love what we do, so we go out and do it, and I think that’s really what’s needed.

We’ve also never had any drug or alcohol addiction problems. I think that’s part of what keeps us going, and we’ve been friends since we were in college. We all came from the same area—Al [Schnier] lives in Utica, Jim came from Long Island, so there’s a history and a culture that connects us. It’s part of our upbringing that keeps us together. We’re all just very similar guys, we all have similar tastes in music, We write music that goes along with those tastes, and I guess we’re still making music that our fans like. The fact that our fans still like it, it keeps us going.

One of the things that I still enjoy about moe. is that you are a family and, in a sense, working in a family business. One of the things, if you ask me, that I’m most proud of is that we are also a family business and owned by family members. We all still get along and we all pull together to do one thing—that’s make great beer and be a great place to work and also give back to the community. You guys do the same things—get together to make great music and you give back to the community and you’re also all good to each other. I think that’s really cool.

VA: We kind of keep it in the family. Even our sound guy has been with us for the whole time. We don’t have a lot of turnover—there are a lot of bands that they just go on the roadie websites, and they hire roadies to go on the road. We keep the same people, they work with us, it’s a very small, family-oriented. We only have 13 or 14 people, 15 people total, and most of them have been there for 10 years or more.

Of our 150 or 160 employees, we had a guy retire two years ago that was related to 21 people here. I’m fourth generation. We have a bunch of third generations, brothers, sisters, cousins. One of the things I like about that and the same of you guys is that people don’t stay with you if you’re not treating them well, and the family generations don’t keep coming to work for the same company unless it’s been passed down that it’s a pretty good place to work.

VA: Who started the brewery? Your great grandfather?

My great grandfather started it in 1888. He came from Germany in 1878 at the age of 18. He didn’t like the political environment in Germany. He was from a farming family. He had been an apprentice brewer at the Duke of Boden’s brewery in Bodon, Germany, which is still there today. He wanted to do more in America and started the brewery. He helped build hotels in Utica—he owned the first national bank of Utica—and was very successful in his own rank.

VA: That’s pretty awesome. I think my Dad’s parents came over in like 1906-1910 from Italy. They were a little more modest—they didn’t start a brewery or a bank. They’ve been here since the Revolutionary War. We’ll get into that another time.

What would you say is your most memorable moment onstage?

VA: That’s a hard one because God knows how many shows I’ve done. I would say, this goes back a long time, but I came from playing in a Grateful Dead tribute band in bars to moe. Within six or eight months of being in moe., we went on Furthur Festival in 1997 with the remaining members of the Grateful Dead. I played super jams every night with them that summer because I was the one drummer who knew all the songs because I just came out of the Grateful Dead band. Every night was sort of memorable but the most special may have been when we played here in Saratoga where I live now. I grew up just south of Saratoga, and I used to go see a lot of concerts up at SPAC, I saw the Grateful Dead there a couple times.

When we played there and Bob Weir did the whole set with us, that’s probably one of the most memorable things that has ever happened to me, because I went from being in a tribute band to playing up onstage with some of my idols. That was the stage that I saw so many concerts on as a fan, the dream was to be up on that stage, and there I was, with some of the people that I was idolizing. Even though that was almost 20 years ago, it’s still to this day one of the most memorable things.

We also went on tour with Robert Plant; that was pretty awesome. I was a big Led Zeppelin fan. He never played with us but just to hang with him every night—he used to come out and drink beer with us at the gigs; that was pretty awesome too.

What makes for a really great show for you at this point?

VA: We listen to our music, probably, differently than the fans do just because we’re constantly sort of critiquing ourselves, “Did I screw this up?” We hear all of these things that the fans don’t hear, so a really good night is when we’re all gelling, when everything is really easy to play and it sounds good, it feels good. It’s really easy to do, and when we’re on that same page and everybody is really grooving, you can play anything you want and it comes out good and when the crowd knows it. You’re getting this feedback from them as well, everything you do they cheer because everything is just happening.

When we’re all clicking and the fans hear it, they give it back to us by cheering us on and really responding to the things we’re doing onstage, that really makes for a good night.

What happens when a situation onstage isn’t gelling?

VA: There’s not a lot of calling out. It’s usually that if they’re making mistakes, they know it. Calling someone out doesn’t really happen. What are you going to do? Fire them? No. They know they made a mistake, and you tend to just be there for them or try to compensate by covering the mistakes as needed or just don’t worry about it—nobody noticed anyway.

The thing is that the beauty of the jamband scene and the fans is that they love the mistakes. That makes us human. The shows that we do where there’s a big, huge screw-up—we’re human, and the stuff that gets talked about in the chat rooms. People are discussing shows, they’re like, “That was the greatest jam ever. Did you see them gash the end of that song? That was awesome!” So that’s the beauty in forgiveness of these great fans that we have.

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