Let’s get into the WOLF! record a little bit. How did it all come together? With all of your busy schedules I imagine finding time was tough.

I think that the tunes were a mixture of coming together slowly and just banging it out. The tunes and the vision came slowly over the course of maybe a year and a half or a year. But the actual recordings we did, I think we recorded and mixed it in the matter of five days, which is super quick by most people’s standards. We did three days in the studio down here in Brooklyn called The Creamery, we did one day up at Marco Benevento’s studio and he engineered and mixed three of the tunes that are on the record. We kept it in the family as much as we could.

And how are these tunes shaping up on stage?

It’s always cool to see how far you can push new stuff off the grid. Now we’ve recorded it and now there’s “the definitive version” down on vinyl. But the beautiful thing about improvising and having freedom, as a musician is that there is no definitive version of anything ever. I guess I’m most looking forward to the direction that some of these songs can go in.

You guys are also having Nicole Atkins out for a couple of shows.

The Nicole gigs will be great. The band really started with the goal in mind of backing singers and it kind’ve became an instrumental thing just by accident. A lot of the first recording sessions that we ever did were backing different singers that we’ve played on a number of records together backing as an artist.

I’ve known Nicole for like a decade now and I’ve always enjoyed doing gigs with her when I could, when schedules lined up. To get the other guys in on it and have her invite us to open the night and back her is pretty cool. I think it’s going to work. It’s a very Jersey strong kind of night.

So just how did the John Mayer sit-in come about at the Brooklyn Bowl?

I don’t think any of us had any idea that he was coming to the Bowl that night, we didn’t know until set break. We were really just hanging until set break when Pete Shapiro was there and he told us so we went upstairs and we were hanging and the idea came up to come and play the set with us and he was game for it so none of us knew that was going to happen until 15 minutes before it happened. He did great, he jumped right in. We can be tough to keep up with. Musically speaking we’re all over the place and it can turn on a dime but he fit right in.

It was interesting to hear him play with Almost Dead considering how much slower Dead & Company can play some of those tunes.

Totally, I mean he’s our age. We’re all pretty much the same age and he was great he was up there right in it.

Being a guitar player yourself, what did you notice about how he approached the music and the different lines and his style?

I always appreciate a guy that you can hear their comfort zone and they really know that it sounds good but the thing that really gets my attention are the people who are willing to step outside of that and go for some stuff that’s maybe a little bit out of their reach. Maybe they’re not going to get it but they’re going to go for it anyway. He certainly put that on display and as a musician that gives you total respect.

Slowly transitioning to Wolf!, Almost Dead substituted Jon Shaw for a few gigs while Dave Dreiwitz reunited with Ween. How do you think he fared in that environment.

He’s great. He takes a totally different approach to the stuff than Dave had. I know Jon grew up a big Deadhead and he really brought that Phil Lesh influence in a huge way. He just jumped right in and I think we did like five nights and we have one more coming up with him and it’s great. Jon Shaw is one of the most musical dudes that I’ve ever met, which is saying something. He can play the perfect part on guitar or piano or bass, he’s just one of those guys you can hand him anything and he can make music out of it.

I interviewed him shortly after getting the call and his honest reaction was that he was just excited Ween was getting back together.

Exactly. He’s also one of the most humble dudes that you’ll ever meet. That’s a good example of that.

Pages:« Previous Page