So you’re committed to a future for Star Kitchen?
The four of us said we’re all here. For the next month and a half, I have a lot of other shows (than Star Kitchen) coming up. It makes it harder to get super deep. But we’ll continue. We just had so much fun with the first run. James Casey and Robert Randolph came out. In Brooklyn, Eric Krasno pretty much played the whole show. It was a moment when we could say we’re starting to get our own direction. Someone described it by saying it wasn’t like the songs were being covered, but instead as if they were being remixed live.
Will it be only covers or are you writing original material?
We have been writing, and even played some of the original stuff we’ve written in the middle of our classic renditions of other songs- like two or three instrumental sections- without notating them or telling anybody. I hope that we come up with an album’s worth of material, and find a way to get into the studio and record this stuff.
I’ve heard so many positive reviews of the Disco Biscuits run of Fall shows; Las Vegas; Albany. What does that do for the momentums of the Biscuits and Star Kitchen?
The Biscuits are my number-one priority. Always. Everything else I do is always done with the intention that it’s going to help me grow into a more well-versed bass player, songwriter, and producer. I’ll hopefully take those skills back and make the Biscuits a better band. I try not to listen to what everyone says because if I listen to everyone tell me how great these shows are, then I have to listen to somebody when they tell me they hate it. I have to rise above the chatter. What I hear is a band that is playing at a level we haven’t achieved, I don’t want to say in a really long time, but it’s just getting better. It feels like the trajectory of the music has gone in the right direction. It slowed down just enough to have the breathing room to hear what’s happening. We’ve addressed a couple of issues, like sound, so that we are hearing each other as clearly as possible. So, what happens in Vegas on the third night, or Albany on the second night, just felt magical. That’s what you’re chasing after. I feel like we’ve had two “the one” shows in the last three. Those two were above and beyond; moments of explosive energy that took me and the band by surprise.
Do you like the immediacy of fan reviews? Comments are posting on streaming sites as the show is happening.
In terms of technology, there’s something to be said about us being onstage in Frisco, Colorado and a fan who happens to be taking a semester in South Korea being able to dial the show up and watch in real-time. There’s a connectivity that is special and unique and important. To have people all over the world follow along with what we’re doing, in real-time, is great.
What about a new Disco Biscuits album? Any plans?
I really hope so. I have a handful of music that’s got to get recorded one way or the other; whether the Biscuits record it or I do it as a solo album, it remains to be seen. Jon (Gutwillig) has a slew of songs. We played some newer songs (live) I was playing in Electron. We played “Champions,” which is one of my newer songs. They’ve been really well received. It’s way overdue. We’ve starved our fans for new music to the point where it was an easy sell. They were so pleased anything new was happening.
Is it not always an easy sell?
The process of bringing out new music is never easy for a band. A lot of songs fans love now, ten years earlier came out of a hard process for us. Fans’ opinions are accessible to us in a way they didn’t used to be. We needed to learn the new technology (of social media) back in 2008. Like, “What do you mean you hate our new music?” I wasn’t prepared for that in-your-face criticism. But now we’ve been through that cycle and we’re used to it. If you’re following your heart and doing it for the right reasons the rest of the stuff doesn’t really matter.
As for playing live, you have four consecutive shows at The Fillmore in Philadelphia to end the year, and a three-show stretch at the Capitol Theatre the next month. Clearly, the band has embraced the multi-night runs in major markets.
The hardest part of the job is packing up, getting into a bus, sleeping in a coffin-like bunk, waking up not really sure where you are, hoping there is a bathroom nearby. Maybe, if you’re lucky, a night in a hotel. There are fun and glamorous parts of being in a band and there are parts that after 25 years start to wear on your psyche. So, we’ve tailored the playing experience to something that makes sense for us. We’ve taken out the one part that wears us down and takes the excitement away out of the process. When you’re worn down, that comes through onstage.
So multi-night runs are here to stay?
We’ve cracked the code: set-up once; break-down once. The crew’s job is a quarter of the amount (of what it used to be). Being a touring musician or crew is not healthy for your mental well-being. Study after study after study says the touring lifestyle eventually breaks you down. We want to play great shows, doing what we do best. For the Biscuits this is the way for us to hit those peaks.
No Comments comments associated with this post