Let’s talk about the new album, Pizazz, which you guys funded with a Kickstarter campaign. Talk to me a little bit about that experience and the overwhelming support that you guys got in favor of the new record.

Greg: The outpouring of support really took us aback and we were beyond grateful and thankful for the contribution from our fans. It also inspired us to put forth the best album we have yet, and we really poured our souls into it. It’ll be the first album with our new drummer Alex, who’s been crushing it with us for over two years now. It’s about time he’s immortalized onto wax. It’s finished, it’s fantastic, there are some surprises that our fans will be thrilled about. It comes out in the fall, we’re going to announce the date very soon.

Alex: It’s super exciting for all of us. As Greg said, it’s my first time doing a studio album with these guys which is so exciting for me. Luckily, I’ve had some studio experience before in the sense that- it was new being in the studio with them, but it wasn’t totally a new experience. We were able to work with each other on the experiences we’ve had with each other in the studio and on our own in the studio. I’ve had so much fun playing with these guys, it’s been the time of my life. And to be able to put that on an album after two years feels great. I’m super excited for it.

Jeremy: We’re eternally grateful to our fans for helping us make this one, our best album yet. We really really are excited for this.

Greg: Just like playing shows all the time and making albums, we just try to get better by our standards in each thing we do, every time we do it. Hopefully, every show is better than the last, hopefully every album is better than the last. It doesn’t mean that we’re saying we have the best album of all time, but our goal is to just get better every day and do our best to work hard on our own so that we improve. I think that’s all you can ask for in life, is to just try to get better.

The songs on the record, have they been brewing for a while? Where did that material come from?

Greg: The songs that are on the album we have played live before because we feel like the crowd is really a part of our music and the more we play songs for our crowd the more the song will develop and take on a life of its own. So in that respect I think all the songs have the fans’ energy in them. It’s almost a collaborative effort in the studio. When we record we miss seeing our smiling fans’ faces. Since we’ve played some of the songs live, we were able to close our eyes and transport ourselves to [our fans] and get their energetic feedback and try to convey that on the album. If that makes sense.

Alex: One cool thing about the songs, like we touched on earlier, most of our songs are constantly evolving. So some songs on the album we may have started to establish a lot longer than other songs. It’s cool to see how they’ve evolved. And on the other side, it may be cool to see where some of the newer song we’ve recorded may evolve to in the future.

In the studio setting were you all playing together, capturing a live recording? Or was stuff tracked individually?

Greg: We originally recorded everything as a group, all four of us together, like we do live so we could convey that live energy and replicate how we feel onstage. And from there, the studio allows you to fine tune everything and add layers that you couldn’t because as much as I’d like to, I can’t play guitar twice at the same time. But in the studio you can add layers and harmonies and we also invited some guests, and there are some fiery horns on a few of the tracks.

Can you name those guests? Anyone specifically?

Greg: For now I will call them the Double D Horns of Baltimore.

To finish up, what was your first exposure to funk? What made you fall in love with this style of music?

Ben: Growing up my dad put on Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and to me it was old people music, but then I would listen to it more and get down to the grooves and [bassist] Victor Wooten turns out to be one of the more incredible bass players of our time, or ever, and that was what I soaked in at a young age. Feeling the bubbly nature of music writ large is what I like about our approach to funk. And just the moveability of the whole thing. It’s all movement oriented, whether it’s internal or external.

Greg: I started with Stevie Wonder’s clavinet when I grew up in New York, and got a rebirth when Phish was playing Plinko funk in ‘09. I saw them 10 times and that was the best. I thought they played great at the Baker’s Dozen but the Plinko funk of ‘09, or maybe it was 2011 was the best. That is the best period.

Did any of you catch any the Baker’s Dozen shows?

Greg: Yeah, I caught the Lemon show where they did the Radiohead stuff and that was a unique experience to say the least. We had awesome seats for that. And Jeremy caught Boston Cream and the Glazed finale. We also streamed it quite a bit. We’re big Phish fans and we thought they were pretty locked in. Even though they’re not at Lockn’ they were locked in. We’ve got to keep Plinko funk alive!

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