Do you think there’s an album on the horizon?

There better be, right? I don’t know about it now, but definitely singles. We already went into the studio and we recorded one song from the new jack swing era that we thought would flip over really well into a funk tune. And we identified about four or five other songs that we think are super melodic with great changes and great beats that we want to try to record. So we might start with an EP of covers. We were inspired by boyband funk flip. But when we say “boyband,” we mean Bell Biv DeVoe. New Edition is a boyband also. I’m talking less about NSYNC and Backstreet Boys than I am about Jackson 5 and Bell Biv DeVoe.

You’ve got some Boyz II Men in there?

Hell yeah, definitely Boyz II Men and Tony! Toni! Toné! A lot of those dudes live in and around our area and hopefully will come in and put their rubber stamp on it. I’m hoping to get at some point, one of the people who originally made the songs to come into the studio and sing on it. That would be a dream. And that’s not to speak of our television show that we have. We want to do Star Kitchen as a cooking show where we would bring in a musical star and a guest chef, cook the musical star’s favorite dish, while Star Kitchen is the house band. We’re thinking about getting 12 minute webisodes where it’s six minutes of cooking with music, and then six minutes where it’s musical collaboration.

Through all of this new musical exploration, do you find yourself rediscovering parts of Philly or finding new musical avenues you didn’t explore previously?

Definitely just going down the rabbit hole of Philly soul music and getting into Jill Scott. There’s so much of it. So much of the stuff that The Roots were doing at the beginning of their career, we were doing the same thing in the jam world; the scenes were concurrently growing out of Philly, but in totally organic ways.

I’m circling back around and listening to all this incredible music that was being produced at the same time that we were producing. There is a deep, rich, cultural base of music out of Philly that goes all the way back to Gamble and Huff and the Philly soul scene.

Turning to Camp Bisco, you are returning once again to Montage Mountain. At this point, does that venue feel like home?

Well this is our fourth year in there and it definitely does feel like home. We’re starting to inch up on where we’ve been at Montage Mountain for almost as long as any other venue. Every venue has its pros and its cons so you have to look at the whole entire thing and try to figure out: do the pros outweigh the cons? We found that it’s really easy to run a festival there when you have the infrastructure of the stages, and the waterpark makes it so fun. It’s pretty hard to argue. It’s such an incredible experience.

And looking at the lineup this year, who are you excited about?

Super excited that Orchard Lounge is back, first and foremost. I feel like that was an essential move on our part. I’m really excited for Naughty Professor, that’s a good one. Kidswaste, I met them the other day at Electric Forest outside of the hotel. Bluetech is another one that I really like. I’m like I’m a big fan of Bluetech.

I love having Lespecial with us at any time, I really do like those guys and think they do a great job. Love TAUK, love Sunsquabi, we’ve had those guys before. I’m really excited that we got Ghostface Killah.

I don’t want to leave certain people out. We get Papadosio and Space Jesus all the time who are obviously friends, I’m psyched to see those guys. Same with Lettuce, but it’s not the first time that it’s happened. DJ Jazzy Jeff, huge Philadelphia legend. 12th Planet is an act that turned into a big part of Camp Bisco, he’s a big part of the family

Super psyched to have Tipper back, of course. Really excited to have Bonobo on the lineup with the live bands. And then, obviously, Lotus and Bassnectar; these are our people. These are our close friends. So it’s really great to be able to bring them back, and be in control this year.

I’m also psyched that the Desert Dwellers are here, they’re doing two sets with my wife’s yoga class.

You and your wife are very involved with all of the health and wellness activities at Camp Bisco like yoga and a 5K run. What inspired you to get involved in that?

We felt like it was something that was missing from Camp Bisco. We go to other festivals and these things exist. And people would say to us, “Oh, people at Camp Bisco don’t want to do yoga, people at Camp Bisco don’t want to run a 5K, they’re there to party.” But we felt like that’s not how it should be approached.

We felt like we should let the culture of Camp Bisco change by changing what’s available to people. If people know that they have to run a 5K at 11 in the morning, they’re not going to stay up until 8 in the morning mindlessly partying. And here’s the thing: The safety of our guests is the number one most important thing to us at Camp Bisco. That is what matters more than “Did the music go over well? Did the books all add up at the end?” Everything that we do at the festival is geared toward trying to make a place where people can feel safe and be safe.

What I learned is that if you put positivity, health and wellness out there as your main priority, and put it out there publicly, then it ends up having a ripple effect into the people who look up to you and the people who are friends with. There’s a chance to inspire people to be their best version of themselves.

Maybe when we were goofing off back when we were 23 or 24, I never thought that we were in the position to lead people by example, but the tide has turned and we started to realize that these little things that you put out to the public, they do have an effect, they do change the scene.

Musically are there any surprises in place for Camp Bisco?

I have the [Bisco] setlist in my hand, and there’s some really cool, unique covers in there. Some that we’ve never played before, some that we’ve played before. There’s definitely some newer Biscuits music, things that have been played once or maybe not yet at all that I’m hoping will be ready by at least Saturday at Camp Bisco.

I have so much music to record. So the second that I get that phone call I’ve got songs to record. I’m willing to do it, but getting us into the studio is a huge process. Jon lives out West, Allen lives in Denver and Aron and I live in Philly. And so planning for all of us to be in the same place together when we’re not at a Biscuits show proves difficult, especially considering Aron and I have six kids between us. We have seven with Allen’s kid. So it’s just a matter of ironing out the logistics.

I actually performed one of my new songs “Tantalize” with Electron at Disc Jam, and Shira, I don’t know if you got to hear it but Shira from Turkuaz sang it.

It was really awesome. And then three days later she called me and was like “I can’t get the song out of my head, it’s really catchy. Maybe we could record it?” And I was like, “I would love to record this song with you on vocals.”

I have a version of it that’s recorded for Electron that doesn’t have vocals, but my first thought was “How dope would this be?” I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone in the organization, but now I’m putting it out to the public.

Like you said before, put it out in the universe and it will happen.

I put it out into the universe. It was really really the best performance of that song that we’ve ever done, because Shira has a slightly better vocal performance talent than me. Slightly. [Laughs.] She crushed it, and I just struggled to get through the song when I play it live.

It’d be really cool if I was able to put together an EP with her doing all of the vocals. Oh my god, what a dream would that be to be able to work with a really, really classically trained vocalist and just be the songwriter. It’s one thing to get on stage and play your song live at the show, but playing the song with her opened my eyes to what the song of missing, which was a strong voice to deliver the message.

And is Holidaze on your radar yet?

Every day. That’s like the joke of it all. All this stuff is going on, and in the back of my brain I’m like Eddie Murphy at the end of Trading Places, laying on the beach saying, “Looking good!” I’m there already.

What about the rumor that the Biscuits will cover a whole album at Holidaze? Is that confirmed?

Well, one of the things that we like to do is just talk a lot of shit online and make people excited about the possibilities even though we might not necessarily be doing it. This is just rogue Brownstein. Me online running my mouth not talking to anyone with the Biscuits. And that’s sometimes how you get things happening. You just say it, and then all of a sudden the idea is out there, people start talking about it, and before you know it, it’s like “Hey, should we do this?”

HeadCount feels more important than ever in the current political climate. What’s next for the organization?

These midterms coming up are monument and now people are starting to finally see how much power you get when one party controls the Senate, how it ripples through into the Supreme Court and then down into everyday life. And I just think that it’s obvious that this is the most important election of our lifetime coming up, and I continue to put it out there and say it over and over again ‘cause I know for every person there is like me, there’s 500 people who are not paying attention. So, I just want to leave you with that. For everybody who’s reading: just go vote. I don’t care who you vote for, what you vote for, you gotta make that decision for yourself. If you’re not politically engaged right now then the rest of your life is going to affected by these decisions that are being made by the people who are in charge.

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