JPG: What’s nice about this album is the way you worked with the other artists and collaborated in real time. That brings me to one of the other tracks, as far as song selection, “Too High” with Moon Taxi. I watched the video, which showed the collaboration in the studio with the band, especially with Trevor Terndrup who played his ukulele during the recording.

JS: I love working like that in the studio where everyone’s throwing ideas out on the table. Trevor, I mean, gosh, what a gifted singer he is. His voice just stops you in your tracks, and he loves the ukulele, and he’s got that groove that I really like. Being able to work with him in the studio, that was really cool because I mean, honestly, I think this was the first time on a record where I played ukulele with someone else playing ukulele and them singing. It was because Trevor played ukulele.  Also Michael McDonald played the baritone ukulele on “Go Now” (cover of the Moody Blues). That was a lot of fun.

And it’s weird because I don’t know why I’ve never really done that before. I’ve never recorded that because, obviously, I’ve played live with people and we’ve done that but there’s a neat chemistry when there’s two different people playing the ukulele. Playing different ukuleles at the same time, there’s a different blend. It’s got a whole new energy because I’m so used to doing things like how I did “A Day in the Life” (with Jon Anderson) where I arranged two or the Jimmy Buffett tune (“Come Monday”) and I arranged two or three different ukulele parts and then the person will sing over it. But when you have two people playing and strumming and feeding off of each other that rhythm and the sound of the different instruments creates a wonderful energy together.

JPG: I imagine it may take you a second or two to get used to because you’re like, “What’s that other sound? Oh, it’s him playing rather than just me.”

JS: Yeah. Playing with Michael McDonald though, man, that was a little intimidating because when he first played “Go Now,” he was playing it by himself and showing me how he feels it, and he was just playing it and singing it. And I just told him, “Michael, you should just play this one solo because it sounds so good.” It was funny because he was showing me how he plays it and he didn’t want to play the ukulele on the track. I said, “Michael, you’ve got to play the ukulele.” He’s so good because he’s got the groove and he plays some beautiful voicings. I guess it comes from he’s so musical.

JPG: Back to “Too High. What’s nice about the track is you still have the meat of the melody but it works in the stripped-down version. In that same manner “A Day in the Life,” and its arrangement, works very well. When I saw you were collaborating with Jon Anderson on that Beatles’ cover, I was like, “Is that the Jon Anderson of Yes fame?”

JS: It was so special because I never imagined hearing that iconic voice singing over a ukulele. The cool thing about it is when you listen to it, it is that sound that he had with Yes, and it just blew me away. I always loved his stuff with Yes but one of the things that really struck me was he did an album with this Japanese composer named Kitaro. It’s an album called “Dream” featuring Jon Anderson, and I loved hearing him like that in a completely different context. So, that’s what inspired…well, I shouldn’t say inspired the idea, because, first of all, Jon Anderson plays the ukulele.

JPG: Oh, really?

JS: When he called me and said, “Yeah, let’s do “A Day in the Life.”” He said he’s always wanted to record that. My first thought, of course, was, “Oh, my goodness,” because Jeff Beck’s “A Day in the Life,” that’s my all-time favorite Beatles cover.

Anyway, he said, “I’ll send you a little demo of me playing.” So, he sent me this video and I wasn’t expecting…I opened up the video and it’s him strumming the ukulele and singing “A Day in the Life.” I was like, “Oh man, this is awesome!” because I didn’t know he played. I guess he wanted to surprise me. He said he does it sometimes when he plays shows. He’ll take out the ukulele and he’ll just start strumming, and he’ll sing something over it. I was like, “That is so cool.” To hear him on that was just stunning.

We had to do it remotely, which was a bummer, but what I did love about that process was the excitement of what he was going to send. I remember after I sent him the ukulele tracks and he was like, “Alright, let me work on it.” He sent it to me and I downloaded it. This excitement where I was like, “I can’t wait to hear what he did!” I remember listening to it and I didn’t move. I just sat there, listened to the whole thing from beginning to end and I called him back right away. I said, “John, this is amazing. Oh my goodness. Thank you. Thank you so much. ” And he goes, “Oh, did you like that? Okay, good. Alright, let me finish it.” I was like, “Wait. I thought it was done.” He’s like, “Oh no. There’s so many other layers that I want to add to it.” He must have, I don’t know, at least six or seven vocal tracks on there and he did some percussion stuff. When he sent back the final, I was like, “Okay, that’s him. That’s his sound.” Every time I listen to that I still get chills hearing his voice when it comes in.

JPG: Jimmy Buffett joins you on “Come Monday.” It’s always nice to hear him out of that party element because there’s a sense of melancholy and sadness in some of his songs, even “Margaritaville,” that gets missed.

JS: “Come Monday” for me, gosh, this was little over 10 years ago. So Jimmy, Mac McAnally [of the Coral Reefer Band] and I flew to Singapore and we did a show at the Raffles Hotel. That’s where they invented the Singapore Sling. So, it was the three of us and we did a whole acoustic set and we played “Come Monday” that night. That was always one of my favorite experiences playing that with him because it was so intimate. Because it was at the Raffles, it was a real small private thing. There was probably only about 100 people or 150 people that could fit in there. When he played that you could hear a pin drop. It was so beautiful because in his normal concerts when I toured with them, it’s very high energy, that party atmosphere where everyone’s screaming and yelling, even on the ballads. That was so special because it was this intimate moment where everyone was focused on him singing. And that was the instrumentation. It was Mac McAnally on guitar and background vocals, Jimmy on his guitar, and then I played ukulele. And that’s what it is on the album. It’s just the three of us again. So, that was special for me.

”Come Monday” was always one of my favorites of his. It’s such a beautiful melody. And that bridge, the way he goes into the bridge and comes out of the bridge back into the original key. That transition was so brilliant to me. I was like, “How did he come up with that?” Because it goes up a whole step to the bridge and then without you even realizing it, trickles down and you’re back in the original key again for the end of the song. That was so brilliant. Normally, most of this songs that I know, when it modulates up like that, it stays up, right? Or it goes somewhere else. But the way that he kept the characteristic of that entire song and still managed to come back down…I’ve never really heard anything quite like that exact transition before.

He’s such a great storyteller and connector, right? He just knows how to connect with people so well.

JPG: There are 16 tracks on the new album and they all work on their own and offer a nice sense of intimacy…thinking of other Beatles covers — “Something” with Vince Gill and Amy Grant, Jesse Colin Young on “Get Together.” Were there songs you had to cut out due to time limits that may show up on a sequel to Jake & Friends?

JS: There’s tracks that we didn’t use but not any artists. With Lucas Nelson, we were having so much fun in the studio we actually ended up recording four songs. We even recorded one of his dad’s songs, “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” which is so beautiful.

Then, Michael McDonald, we recorded four songs that day and one of them was for his Christmas album. We did “Winter Wonderland” [on Season of Peace – Christmas Collection]. One of them was “Into the Mystic.” So, there were a few of those that, maybe, we can use on a future project. But there were some artists that we were trying to make the recording happen and just couldn’t get it together in time. We’ll probably try to revisit that in the future. One of them was Steve Martin. We were trying to get together in the studio. We had a date set up but something happened and then we weren’t able to align our schedules again. I thought that would’ve been a lot of fun. And gosh, that guy, he’s a great musician.

JPG: He’s a very talented banjo player. Previously, we discussed about you working with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.

JS: I went out on the road with them in 2006. [Saxophonist] Jeff Coffin was with them. We did about six months together, did a whole bunch of festivals and college towns. It was so great but, man, I didn’t sleep much on that tour because I was up every night practicing because the music was so hard and it was so intimidating.

I would stand between Bela and Victor [Wooten] the whole night, and the scariest part was when everyone would do the whole rounds thing and you would go down and trade solos. I had to stand between Bela and Victor every night but I tell you, man, they were so encouraging and so positive. I learned so much on that tour. It was so inspiring. Jeff used to sit up with me in the bus and we would listen to records together. He would turn me on to all kinds of music. Sometimes, I’d be in the back of the bus with Future Man and he’d be sharing all these incredible ideas because he’s so brilliant, right? At the time he was working on a piece that he was composing based on pi and every number corresponded to an interval, and I was like, “Oh my goodness, this is crazy.”

Then, of course, Bela…being able to sit and talk with him…and what I was so blown away with was that guy never put his banjo down. As great as he is, he was always practicing, always working on something, nonstop. That was inspiring because it showed me as hard as you think you’re practicing, there’s always people out there practicing way harder than you.

Then Victor, I’ve always been such a huge fan. In fact, a lot of his thumbing technique inspired a lot of my thumbs. It’s very different because the strings are so much thicker on the uke, but I was so inspired by a lot of his thumb work and his tremolo stuff. He’s so brilliant. He would show me different things that he would do; how he’d strum the bass strings. It’s like, “Wow!” So, I learned so much from that experience, and they’ve all been so supportive. Even after that tour, I got to do a few runs with Victor with the Wooten family tour. Then, I did some other things with Future Man.

JPG: You’re similar to Bela as far as a respect for tradition as well as the desire to step away from tradition and do something different or non-traditional.

JS: He really inspired me in that way, too, because, like you said, always being respectful of tradition but pushing the envelope at the same time. So, you keep one foot in tradition and the other one…but it’s amazing how far his two feet get. (laughs) Chris Thile is another one that I admire so much. He is able to cross over into so many different genres.

JPG: You’re promoting this album now but I’m sure you’re on to the next thing or at least planning it. So, where do you want to take the ukulele next?

JS: I would love to do more work with orchestras, honestly. I haven’t had a lot of opportunities. Back in 2010, I got to premiere this one concerto with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra and then also the Buffalo Philharmonic. That was a great experience. It was about a 33, 34-minute piece, three movements and completely atonal, so very, very much out of my comfort zone.

I really loved that process of learning the piece and the training that went into it. I even needed a music coach that I worked with five days a week.

JPG: You were once described as the Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele. You’re able to go in so many different realms musically and, to our ears, master it. I recently saw the new Spider-Man film last week and there’s that line, “With great power comes great responsibility.” So, you have this great power, talent and humility about your work with the instrument, how does that weigh on you and how do you deal with it?

JS: First of all, thank you for saying all those nice things.  I’m always so in awe of what everyone else is doing that, I think, that’s what always keeps me inspired and keeps me going. Like they say, the grass is always greener, right?. I love listening to other musicians, and hearing other people, and I’m just like, “Man, I wish I could do that. How do I learn to do that?” [Laughs.]

I’ve learned to accept that I’m never going to learn everything I want to learn and I’ll never get there even if I had two or three more lifetimes ahead of me but I’m loving the process. After going through the last couple years, what I realize now through all of this is the most important thing is that human connection and that human element.

Going back on tour recently, playing those shows, we went straight for six-and-a-half weeks before coming home. I’m usually not out that long at one stretch of time. So, there were a lot of epiphanies that happened on the road.

That’s what I realized is the whole point of music, well, for me anyway. The whole point is to feel connected and to connect people, right? And through passion, through love, through music, through art, through all of those things, to feel human, to be human and to bring everybody together.

That’s another thing I realized, too, is because people would always ask me, “Why is live performance so important to you? What is it so much about that that you like it because you can play your ukulele anywhere at any time?” What I love most about it is that when I’m onstage and I’m playing and I’m so in-the-moment and so present not just with myself and with the music but with that whole environment; everyone around me, the venue, the energy, the way everything feels. What makes it even more powerful is when you have a room full of people that are present and in-the-moment with you at the same time.

When you have that many people in a room, all-present and sharing this experience, there’s this incredible intimacy and fulfillment that you get out of it. That’s what I crave. I love being part of that and experiencing that. That’s why after every performance, you feel so good, you feel cleansed. I’ve been to concerts where I’ve experienced that; the same thing that I feel on stage, I feel it in the audience. I really believe it goes both ways.

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