Is it important to get into the studio after a long stretch on the road to get those ideas recorded that may have revealed themselves on stage?

Absolutely. Just get it out there, get it documented, and then arrange around the form we created. We had a little help from our engineers Manny Sanchez and Greg Majors, who is someone I worked with regularly on editing not only this band but my own music. He helps with editing and is really great to work with, total ninja on the Pro Tools software, so it makes it a lot faster and easier.

You’ve got to have someone who is very capable with the technology so you don’t have to worry too much about that but I think the whole idea with this one was to get the skeletons of the forms and then create a little feeling in it. You don’t have to overthink it and then everyone will overdub little things here and there as we go along and really bring out the nuances.

How would you characterize the musical direction of these songs based on what you have so far? Similar Skin proved to be a decisive rock record and Death By Stereo was more compact and concise. Is there a thread between these new tunes?

I lean towards progressive rock on this one. A little more classic progressive a la Rush, King Crimson and then some songs are a little more Beatles-esque or Todd Rundgren. It’s not necessarily poppy, maybe there’s a couple songs that are a little more contemporary. I don’t throw around too many names because people will be like, “Oh it sounds like this. It’s going to sound like that.” We don’t really know yet.

I can tell you it’s definitely more rock, a little less of the dancier grooves but it’s definitely fun and danceable but it’s progressive in nature and I like that the most. It’s more interesting to me.

Bringing New Year’s back to Chicago after a few years away must be nostalgic in a lot of respects.

I think that everyone would agree with that it’s nice to come back and see where we are now and where we were then with the memories of playing in the same venues that we were quite a few years ago. It’s a reminder that this thing just keeps growing and it’s really great. We’re very happy to come and go with our home crowd. We’ve missed them very much and we’re looking forward to raging with them.

The memories from past Chicago runs are almost endless. What jumps into your head when you think about it?

Some of the guests we’ve played with—Buddy Guy, that was interesting. Or Taj Mahal. And remembering some of the conversations, it’s really another thing that we’re thankful for, being able to have that opportunity. We’ve had a lot of great interesting artists play with us from Tortoise to Prefuse 73 to Los Lobos and it’s been incredible that we’ve had such a variety of different acts come and play with us. It’s been amazing looking back at what we were able to do and what kind of shows we were able to throw at that time.

Looking ahead, what does 2017 hold for Umphrey’s McGee?

We’re a very consistent band from year to year. We usually tour in the same areas consistency, maybe just a few changes here and there. Maybe some changes in festival plays. We’re going to definitely see when our new record will come out. Again, I don’t know any of that information. All we do is tour frequently from the beginning of the year until about May and then we continue to work through the festival season and then maybe lighter touring in the fall.

I think what’s more important is that we continue to evolve and play interestingly enough to get people back. We don’t want to get into a stalemate situation or an autopilot we always want to mix it up. Our fans don’t let us get into autopilot anyway, so we’re grateful for that.

Speaking of continuing to evolve, how would you assess the band’s evolution this year?

I feel like some of us have really gotten back to the basics of working on our craft individually and listening to the shows, the recordings, and getting back to that again, which we used to do pretty regularly. I think there have been years where we just don’t have the time. But we’ve been able to listen back and reflect on what we did in past shows in recent time and just improve on things. Our communication level is getting better and better. We’re able to communicate with respect to each other’s thoughts and ideas and not be too selfish in any way. We’re trying to work this out diplomatically and as a team and that’s something that’s important. So it’s maturing, I guess, if you want to call it that.

The recording sound, the production quality is getting better and better thanks to our engineer Chris Mitchell who is like a mad scientist with the recordings and he’s always looking for new sounds, new microphones, new concepts. We have a great marketing team of people always looking for new ways to engage with the fans in our social media ideas. It’s continuing to grow and be fun and that’s what I thought about this year. I think our merch has gotten better. Out shirts are cooler.

One final question—Sharon Jones sat in with the band this year in Augusta, GA. What do you remember about your time with her?

She was such a nice, happy and positive person. She seemed like a very strong person, was very sharp and focused. It was just very surprising to me to hear this news. It just goes to show how precious life really is. She was just a remarkable talent. She had a strong voice and I know she was iconic in certain genres and I could just tell regardless of knowing any of the history of her music when you meet her in person she’s a class act and was really cool. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed meeting her and my warmest regards and sincere condolences go to her family and friends.

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