Photo by Kelsey Winterkorn
Jambands.com sits down with Umphrey’s McGee keyboardist Joel Cummins just a week away from the commencement of another summer tour for a band which is working on its second decade together. And this particular summer carries with it much to celebrate. After releasing one of their best albums, Mantis in January 2009, Umphrey’s helmed the successful S2 improvisation series last fall—essentially, an evening of pure improvisation—and brought that to a higher level with their first UMBowl this past April—four sets, or quarters, of improvisation based mainly on fan submissions. Chicago’s finest will close the evening at Red Rocks on July 3 after Galactic and the Wailers play, which is all part of their first headlining summer tour in the band’s history.
Indeed, there is much to talk about as we sit down with Cummins for a lengthy discussion on the state of Umphrey’s in 2010 and beyond. On a personal front, the keyboardist has another fine reason to be quite happy these days; although, one would be hard-pressed to find a more amiable and entertaining gentleman as Cummins discusses the band in candid fashion while noting how his personal life is carefully balanced with an active music life. “It has been very eventful since the last time we talked,” said Cummins. “Dasha and I got married four weeks ago in Jamaica. We had two of our favorite bands play there for us. We had the Uglysuit, the music we fell in love to, and they even played during the ceremony. Brendan and Jake played a little bit at the reception, and the New Mastersounds played, too. It was a rager. Since then, we just went down to Bonnaroo.”
RR: How was the Bonnaroo experience for you this year?
JC: Without Widespread, Phish, or something like that, it was definitely more of an indie rock crowd than it’s been in the past. I got in on Thursday night, and saw a couple of bands. But on Friday, from 11 in the morning to the point when we left at 7 o’clock at night, we were literally slammed from the beginning to the end with media stuff, and doing some studio recording. I honestly really didn’t get to hear too much music. But, it was great to be there and, of course, be up there playing. We had a 90-minute set on the Which Stage, and I had the pleasure of being in the sun for that. I tried to balance out my tan the rest of the weekend. (laughter) But, no—it was really great. I think probably more than any other Bonnaroo in the past—we definitely had our few thousand diehards that were down there up in front—but, definitely a lot of new ears, which is a great thing to be able to do and play for new people at a festival.
RR: And Brock Butler sat in with Umphrey’s again on the Sonic Stage later on.
JC: Yeah, he came up for “Graceland” [Paul Simon]. We’ve done that with him a couple of times, and he always just kills it. He’s great. Love having Brock up. He was hanging out, and around, so we said, “Let’s do it.”
RR: You had a very cool gig right before you went to Tennessee where you and Umphrey’s drummer Kris Myers played at the Chicago Bluesfest Kick-Off Jam.
JC:That was absolutely amazing. It went even better than I hoped. I got the itinerary a couple of days before the event, and I noticed that Otis Taylor was going on right before us. Otis is way up there with me. He’s definitely one of the cooler blues guys. When I first heard his music, and they introduced it as “trance blues,” I was thinking, “Oh, this is such a cool idea!”—staying on one chord, and occasionally having the four-on-the-floor kick drum, but it’s a really groovy, vibe-y performance. Yeah, when I heard he was going to playing there, I asked Vince [Iwinski, Umphrey’s McGee manager], “Can you reach out to his management, and let him know that I would love to sit in with him and play.” He did, and Otis apparently knew who we were a little bit. Last September, when we did Telluride Blues and Brews, he was there, as well, and sat in with Buddy Guy while Jake and Brendan were sitting in with him.
It was really cool to have that connection. He wrote back to Vince and said, “Yeah, we’d love to have Joel play with us.” I showed up a little bit before the show, and he played me a couple of things that he was going to do, and then he said, “Yeah, you know what, I’m probably going to get up there and change it anyway. Just go up there, and I’ll tell you what key we’re in.” He ended up asking Kris to play drums with him, too, so the two of us ended up being part of his backing band for that set. It was just really cool.
For our set, we played with Cathy Richardson, who is now singing with Jefferson Starship. She’s been a Chicago-based, cool rock woman for a while. We did a little tribute to Koko Taylor. I know you remember that a couple years ago, Koko sat in with us on our New Year’s Run, and that was one of her last performances before she passed away, so we thought it would be cool to do a tribute to her. We did her version of the Etta James’ tune “Come to Mama.” Then, we did Jefferson Airplane’s “Uncle Sam’s Blues.” Cathy sang that, and she just killed it, too.
The one really funny and notable part—and I was kind of waiting for this to happen—was that Wednesday night, the night of the benefit, was the same night the ’hawks [Chicago Blackhawks] won the [Stanley Cup] championship. Literally ten seconds (laughs) after we walked off after the last note from Otis Taylor, the bar erupted into a crazy frenzy. I was waiting for it to happen during the first verse of something, so I could think, “Oh, man—we really hit our stride there.” (laughter) It was really a cool event, and the turnout was great, and I think they raised a lot of money for a good cause, which is exactly what we were trying to do. [Author’s Note: event proceeds benefited the Chicago Chapter of the Recording Academy programming, local artists, and music industry professionals.]
RR: What were the initial preparations like for the UMBowl, four quarters of improvisation based on specific themes, mainly based on ideas from the audience? And what were your impressions during the event, and afterwards?
JC: We spent so much time coming up with the concept for this even to the point that when we announced it, and we put it on sale, we were still wondering: how is this going to go? Are the fans really going to be into this? We thought they were, but you just never really know. Of course, we put it on sale, and it sold out in ten minutes or something. We said, “O.K. We did it. People are coming now, and now, the pressure’s on.”
A lot of the ideas that we came up with, on the front end, was really fun to be quite honest. The fans chose a lot of the ones that we thought they would like—different variations on songs, whether it’s a new version of something, or a couple of old songs that we hadn’t played in a long time that we knew we’d have to revisit and rework. That whole process of doing that, and having the fan’s vote—we went into it, and, of course, we were a little nervous about how it was going to go, but, at the same time, I knew that at least for two of those quarters, we had picked things that were the most popular things that people wanted to hear. So, we had a pretty good idea that they were going to like it. (laughs)
The second quarter, which was the S2 one, was probably the most harrowing. [Author’s Note: begun in the fall of 2009, S2 stands for the Stew Art Series, and it features Umphrey’s McGee completely improvising an entire set via fan-based suggestions, generally coming through on text messages to sound caresser Kevin Browning, who then reviews, selects, and sends to the band on stage, viewing the idea via mobile projector.] Our Mozes platform that we were going to use that day didn’t end up working out, and we had to revert back to the ones we used for the S2s. We were going to use a platform where Kevin could just directly entire phrases, and they would go up because we anticipated that, with that many people there, it would be hard to do a point-and-click thing—they would just be coming in too fast. We had to abandon that platform on the last day because there were some technical issues with it that we couldn’t get resolved.
So, after going back to the regular S2 platform, a point-and-click thing, as a result, we lost some of the control of the moderator being able to select things. He was trying to pick things, but when he was clicking on it, what was showing up was completely different. (laughter) There were a few that got up there that he would have never picked, and he thought, “I can’t believe these got up there.” Some were more successful than others. A couple of the ones that I remember actually working out O.K. that we were like “oh, man, we couldn’t believe that happened right away”—I think it was one of the last ones, “Titties and Beer” [Frank Zappa]. (laughter) He said, “I would never choose that.” Here we are at the end of this, and that’s up there, but Brendan and Jake were able to come up with some lyrical stuff that was absolutely hilarious.
Another one [Browning] said he would have never chosen was “Bathtub Gin & Juice.” That’s one that that our fans have really…I feel like they’ve gotten a lot better at knowing the S2 things that will work, and even though that was something Kevin wouldn’t have picked, everyone absolutely loved that one, everyone knew it, and so that was pretty cool.
The fourth quarter, of course, was where it was the live voting, and we gave people a “choose your own adventure” with only a couple of stops through the set. I thought that one was really fun. It was fun to see things develop right before our eyes as it was happening. By the end of it, at the end of the fourth quarter, we walked off the stage, and Kris is just leaning against the wall, and said, “Oh my God—I’m done. I’m so glad it’s over.” We said, “Yeah—we still have an encore.” (laughter) “NOOOO!” But he was a real trooper, and got back out there and killed it one more time.
I think that’s one of the things that maybe people don’t think about quite as much with our band versus something that is not quite as intense drumwise. Kris is out there just destroying the drums for at least a good portion of the set, right? And, it’s just so exhausting for him on a night to night basis. When we’re on the road, he can’t keep his metabolism up. He loses weight every tour. I think sometimes people will get on us for, you know, our shows not being long enough, or something that could have been different, and a lot of times, it’s like “Listen—we’ve got to make sure we have a drummer tomorrow, and his wings don’t fall off.” (laughs)
I think the inaugural UMBowl was a complete success. The Lincoln Hall venue is just an amazing venue in Chicago. We were thrilled to be able to do it there, and we’ll see where it goes next year. I’m not sure that it’s an event that we keep in Chicago, or it’s going to be an event that we move around.
RR: What are your thoughts about the S2 improvisational idea which evolved into the concept of the UMBowl?
JC: They are a really fun, innovative thing for us to do with the fans. It’s great because it allows us to do something a little more intimate with people who really want to be there. So, when you start with that sort of enthusiasm with 50 people, I think it really sets you up for success. Improvising is one of our favorite things to do, so to be able to do that as kind of an activity with our fans has been…I didn’t even know how to describe it because I think this is the first time something like this has ever happened. But it is really rewarding, and, afterwards, to be able to go out there and do a meet-and-greet with them, and hang out with people—I still haven’t heard one negative comment from people after the event. Everybody really seems to be loving them, so I think we’ll keep doing a few of those for the foreseeable time being.
RR: I was wondering if it would be feasible to do those S2 events at various venues.
JC: The one thing is cell phones have to work so that rules out most House of Blues. The other thing is that they really need to be indoor venues, so that everybody’s able to see the screen. You can’t really do that outside in the afternoon. But, yes, we definitely plan on continuing to do those. We’ve probably done about eight or ten of them so far, and there are a lot of our markets where our fans are that we haven’t come close to, and we haven’t done them yet, so I know that is something that we’ll be looking at as we map out the rest of our tour itinerary for 2010.
RR: Let’s talk about some big events you have coming up in the summer. There is the inaugural Nateva Festival in Oxford, Maine where UM plays on July 2.
JC: I know this will be our third trip to Maine, and it’s absolutely amazing up there whenever we’ve been up there, so I’m sure it’ll be gorgeous. It’s going to be a fairly intimate festival. I think they were only selling five or six thousand tickets, something pretty small, so I think that’s probably good. Obviously, Phish has done some big festivals up there, but you don’t have quite as much as a concentrated fanbase of people up there, as opposed to trying to come in and do something massive. Doing something where you build it up has always been a better business plan for a lot of places.
RR: On July 3, Umphrey’s McGee headlines a bill with Galactic and the Wailers at Red Rocks. That will be quite a flight from Maine to Colorado. However, once you get there, I’m sure there will be some opportunities for incredible collaborations.
JC: Oh, absolutely. We’ve had a couple of calls with the Galactic guys already, and we’re working on something special that we are going to do together. But, yeah—it’s really an amazing thing to know that we’re going to go in there and close the night at Red Rocks. It’s truly a dream come true. I know that there will be a lot of diehard fans there, so I think there will be a ton of improv that night, there will be a sick light show [via longtime Relix and Jambands.com writer and current UM lighting designer Jefferson Waful], and a few surprises, both cover-wise and maybe some originals, as well, that might be a little bit surprising. I just can’t wait. It will be one of the highlights of my life, for sure.
We love the Gothic Theatre, too (in Colorado where Umphrey’s McGee plays on July 4). I think the first time we played it was 2001 opening for Max Creek. Since then, we’ve done a number of headlining shows there. That’s one of those buildings where the energy in there goes through the roof.
RR: It has been a year and a half since Mantis hit in full force. That was the first record which included all new material that had not been previously played on stage. Umphrey’s then developed those songs quite a bit in the live environment. In a prior interview for the site, Brendan Bayliss mentioned the fact that the band had just recorded some new material. Will those songs become part of the new setlists that fans can expect to hear in the next few months?
JC: Well, you know, it seems like we are always reacting to the last thing we put out. We had this hugely dense album with all this stuff going on with Mantis, and so, now, I think we’ve gone back to some of the groovier, funkier stuff that I feel is part of our sound. I never want to say that we’ve settled on a certain sound because I think we can accomplish a lot with different sounds pretty much live and in the studio. So we are going back to focusing on raw songs, lots of melodies and grooves, and stuff like that. The three new songs that we’ve been playing—“The Linear,” “Conduit,” and “Booth Love”—all definitely fit that category. We’ve got a couple of other new ones that we’ve been working on in the studio. One is almost done that I think we’re going to release at some point this summer, but we haven’t come to quite a definitive decision about that yet. We’ll definitely be playing it live sooner rather than later. That one is called “Well Wishers,” and I was actually in the studio today for a little while working on that, and doing a little bit of vocal arrangement and some organ parts for that.
It’s cool to get back to that, and especially for summertime. Those are the kind of songs that you want to have that you are playing. With the Mantis stuff, we definitely tried to get those songs in good, live working order. It took us a couple months to really get tight with them, and now, we’re feeling great about them. It’s kind of cool because you don’t have to play Mantis material every night to make sure that we’re still playing it well. (laughs) They just feel like they are part of our normal repertoire now. It’s absolutely good stuff—having the Mantis album songs moving into a more regular rotation. I know that our diehard fans are definitely fans of that because they’ve heard that stuff the most over the last year, and now we’re opening up those songs quite a bit and doing a lot of improvisation. It’s fun to do that—surprise people with songs where they feel like “Oh, I know where this is going,” and out of left field, comes something completely different.
RR: In early 2009, when Mantis was released, there was a concentrated effort to focus on delivering this studio album in a fresh, new way with several innovative web-based ideas, including ways where fans could get bonus material. Now that time has passed. Is it easier for the band these days with less of that pressure to continue to seek some new way to present your studio material?
JC: Oh, for sure. Every album that we put out there, we want it to be our strongest and best album to date. We feel that Mantis —from start to finish—is still our strongest thing that we put out. It’s a great feeling to have that a year and a half down the road, right? (laughs)
But, yeah, at the same time, that doesn’t mean that the next time needs to be even more and bigger than that. The albums that become so-called hit albums now—some of these are only selling 150 to 200,000 albums. To be out there having a number of albums in the 30 to 50,000 sale range is something that I feel like we’ve had some good success with.
Our goal has never really been to have a Top 40 hit. One of those things would be a cool, ancillary thing to happen, but from the get go, we’ve been about building our fanbase from the ground up, and bringing people in and getting them into our sound, and having them discover our catalogue. I think that will always be the focus for us—trying to reach out to our core fanbase first, and make them happy, and then, let them do our work for us, as far as getting our name out there.
RR: I imagine the members of Umphrey’s have always been their own worst critics.
JC: Definitely. Definitely. And it’s funny because I feel like a lot of the things that we are critical about are probably things that a half a percentage of our fanbase notices. (laughter) We want to go out there and we do want to put out our best show every time, and when that doesn’t happen it is frustrating for all of us because we know how good we can be. I know one of the more recent sets that we played, the late night set at Wakarusa (June 5), was one where things were just happening, and falling into place. It was like 8 to 10,000 people, everybody, gettin’ down. We really felt good about that recent performance, and I think a couple of our Summer Camp shows, too, we definitely felt really good about those, too.
So, overall, our consistency level has gone up in 2010 both with the creativity with the setlist and the improvisation. Those are the two things that really keep our core fanbase interested in coming back to see us time after time. We just plan to keep on focusing on those this summer. It’s really exciting because this is our first real summer headlining tour that we’ve ever done. Of course, we have a few festivals here and there that we’re still doing, but, for the most part, these are headlining shows. The biggest thing our fans have asked for is “Can you do a summer tour where we get to hear more than 90 minutes of Umphrey’s McGee?” (laughs) I think every single one of these shows, except for a scant few, we’re either doing a two-hour set and an encore, or we’re still doing two sets. It makes me really happy that we’re able to accomplish that, and get into a number of venues that we wanted to play at, and places where we could have success from a business standpoint, and also, have success with making our fans happy.
RR: For the most part, in the best sense of the phrase, Umphrey’s McGee is a fairly well-oiled machine these days. However, the band also welcomes guests from time to time. How much rehearsal is planned for these sit-in appearances? For example, you had Jesse Clayton from the Macpodz sit in on keys on “Slacker” at Summer Camp.
JC: Sit-ins are almost entirely improvised—85% of the time. There might be a time or two where nobody knows a song, and we’ll have ten minutes to work on something backstage, but, yeah—for the greater part of it…for example, I told Jesse, “We’re going to do this jam in G, and you can come up, and we’ll just see what happens.” (laughs) That’s what happens most of the time. Ivan Neville has sat-in with us about six or seven times. He really gets what we’re doing, understands that there’s a lot of eye contact and stuff going on, and he just kills it every time. I love playing with Ivan.
There are some people who come up and it’s more about playing the solo and totally crushing it that way. Ivan can do that, but Ivan can also come up and really get into the groove, and the two of us lock into some stuff on keyboards. It’s nice to have two keyboardists; I have two guitarists all the time. (laughter)
*RR: What’s it like to stand on Wrigley Field and sing the National Anthem? [Author’s Note: On Father’s Day, Sunday, June 20, Joel Cummins, Brendan
Bayliss, Kris Myers, UM manager Vince Iwinski, and ex-UM lighting designer Adam Budney sang before the Chicago Cubs game [Only half the band could attend as bassist Ryan Stasik was sidelined for family reasons, guitarist Jake Cinninger canceled after a flood and a power outage hit his home and percussionist Andy Farag was hit with food poisoning].*
JC: I’ve grown up a Cubs fan my whole life, so, needless to say, these are always a real pleasure for me. It’s cool to be able to get up there. We’re more known for what we create instrumentally with our songs, so to be able to get up there and sing a four-part a cappella version of the National Anthem is always a good, fun challenge for us. A couple of us are really big Cubs fans, so any time we get to do that is a great thing. The fact that it’s during the interleague series, and it’s on Father’s Day is pretty special for us. My mom and my dad are going to be there, too. We get to share the whole thing with them.
That’s one of those things—my parents actually do come to a lot of shows, and they totally get it, and they are really happy for our career. But, being able to see your kid sing at Wrigley Field is probably one of those things that Pops was very proud of. He was hoping I’d make it as a baseball player, but if I have to make it there as a singer, I’ll take that, too.
RR: To cover all bases, literally, you’ve also sung before White Sox games, and have an upcoming National Anthem appearance there in late August.
JC: I’m actually a huge baseball fan, so I’m not afraid to say that while I’m a Cubs fan, and when the Cubs play the Sox, I definitely talk plenty of smack, but, you know, I’m a big baseball fan, and I’ll cheer for Chicago, too. I have no issue with going down to the South Side, and singing there a little bit, too. I think this might be our fifth or sixth time with the Sox. We’ve done some acoustic performances there, and it’s always great. We had our best ever sideshow there. I know we’ve had fireworks and pyro and crazy light shows, but two years ago, when we actually sang for Opening Day, we got the fly-by at the end of the National Anthem, so that was pretty sweet.
RR: On that note, I am going to throw a couple of summer festivals your way where Umphrey’s McGee will be playing. Tell me what you think of each. All Good?
JC: “All Good” is a very good description of that. This is probably our fifth or sixth year doing that one. What a great site. There is one main stage, and you’re playing and looking out at this beautiful natural amphitheatre on top of a mountain. That is always one of those that is always the highlight of the summer for us.
RR: Gathering of the Vibes at the end of July?
JC: I think this is our second time up there, but what a cool lineup this year. They’ve got Furthur and the Rhythm Devils, so you’ve got a lot of the surviving Grateful Dead membership performing up there with us, as well. It’s always good to find a good gig in Connecticut because those are always hard to come by, and Gathering of the Vibes is certainly the best gig we’ve ever done in Connecticut—right on the ocean, so no complaints here.
RR: The reason I asked about those two festivals is that they are prime examples of the improvisational spirit. When you are on stage these days, whom are you listening to, and focusing on? What has changed? How are you maintaining that particular input, the idea of ‘keeping your mind and ears fresh’, after all this time?
JC: Right. Right. That’s a great question. I’ll start off with a bigger picture answer to that, and get a little more microscopic with it. I think the number one thing that we do to stay fresh is to make sure that we don’t play too many shows in a row, or we don’t stay out on the road too long. Inevitably, the first couple shows after a few days off—the improv for those shows are really fresh and really exciting. By the time you get to the fifth day in a row, you have to dig a little bit deeper to find those good ideas to really get that energy up. That’s one of the things that we’ve recognized over the years. To perform our best shows, we really shouldn’t do more than four or five in a row, and we really shouldn’t be out on the road for more than three weekends in a row. Those two things are huge factors in our ability to stay fresh, and to be able to get what’s going on with each other.
On a more microscopic level, we work on all kinds of things. Kris has been like a huge, huge kind of…pushing us to really think about feel with every song, so there are some songs where he’ll say, “O.K., I’m going to really pull this one back—he’ll say this in the talkback right before the song—so really, really fall back on these hits, so we’re all tied together like that.” Sometimes, there will be places where we’re pushing it a little bit more, and we’ll talk about that.
But, I think, for the most part, every single…yeah, you’re right. I’m trying to listen to everything that’s going on, but throughout the night, I’ll be focusing on different things because my role goes back and forth between leading with melodic ideas to supporting melodic ideas that the guitars are doing to being part of the rhythm section with Ryan and locking in with him and Kris. I feel like I float around fulfilling different roles depending on what the song, or the moment, really needs. Yeah, I think that that’s been an important thing for me as I have developed as a musician—to realize that I can have this versatile role with the band, and that’s something that, obviously, is going to work best for creating our sound, and having a nice variety of stuff.
Yeah, the listening is always an important thing for creating. As years have gone by, I have definitely worked on my ear training to the point where if somebody is playing something now, if I know what key it’s in, within one time of hearing it, I can probably play it back for you. Which is nice to be able to do, so you don’t have to sit there and fumble around and try to figure out what the hell’s going on with the rest of the band. (laughs) Hopefully, that has added to some of our confidence as a band—being able to really lock into things quickly, as opposed to having to wait and figure out: “What is he playing?” We try to really focus on that listening, and then, be able to jump in with something creative pretty quickly.
RR: Does that fall in line with how cover songs are selected? How does that process work for the band at this point in time?
JC: Usually, we’ll do that earlier in the day. The reason for that is that most of the time we won’t have played a cover for anytime between three or four months to a year. Those are things that we like to review before we get up to play. I don’t know if it is something a little simpler, but, yeah, we wouldn’t go out there and play King Crimson’s “Red,” without rehearsing it. (laughter) Maybe something like Marshall Tucker Band’s “Can’t You See,” we could go up there and do a nice version of that without having to run it. For the most part, that is something that we’ll look and see what we’ve played in the area, what we’ve played recently, and try to pick something that will be fresh and exciting.
RR: Are there other issues with these shorter runs? You have the lead up to the run, then you go out on the road and play for about three weeks, you come home and decompress, and, then suddenly, you get used to being at home (you’re recently married, too), and you have to start thinking of going out on the road yet again? Or, do you balance both worlds and focus on one or the other when you need to do that?
JC: My wife works in the music business, so there’s really probably less of that back and forth for me than there is for a lot of people. (laughs) For instance, I’m at home right now, but she’s out on the road. (laughter) I don’t know if there really is anything that I would consider a normal pattern of a day. For me, it’s like everything is different. I love to travel, on top of that, and so does she, so there is really a natural flow with my life at this point going back and forth between being on the road and playing shows, and not being on the road.
The big thing for me…(laughs) it’s always a little bit hard. The first day is the hard day when you get back off the road because you’re exhausted, emotionally and physically, and you’re trying to get back in that mode where you can wake up tomorrow and say, “Now, it’s a clean slate, and I can go do whatever it is that I need to do like go into the studio, or work on some music here, or take care of the plumbing at my house.” (laughs) But, yeah, I love being on the road, and I love being out with my guys. Occasionally, I’ll be out, and I’ll be working with Dasha, too, and so I enjoy that part of it, as well. I’m in a really good and healthy place in my life right now where I am doing a lot of things that I want to be focusing my time on. I think that’s the most important thing—no matter what, whenever I’m home, I’m making time for music, and putting aside a couple of hours a day to do some things that are creative with that.
RR: Let’s look at the next year or so. What are some of the things you’ll be working on away from Umphrey’s, and when will the new studio tracks be released?
JC: I’ll start with the second part of that which is the studio stuff for Umphrey’s. We’ve been going in and out of the studio the past eight or nine months putting some stuff down. I think we’ve got probably six or seven songs that are almost done, studio version-wise, and things that we’ve never done studio versions of before. A couple of them are older tunes; a couple of them are newer tunes; some of them are things that people haven’t heard before.
That’s a good question because we’ve discussed putting things out…I mean, doing something in the traditional format where you’re (laughs) stocking stores with lots of product that’s not really that much of a reality anymore. There aren’t even places to do that. The record stores are going away. So, one of the things we’ve been looking at is “how do we want to put this stuff out? Do we want to put these things out in the form of an album? Do we want to do them in a couple of EPs, and release them as, basically, iTunes singles? Do we want to do a subscription service right now?” Right now, I think we are probably leaning towards putting out a couple EPs over the next year. Only because, again, that will allow us to do things the way we want to do them, and we’d also have a few different versions of some of these songs, and different things that we could put out with them that would make sense. That’s definitely something that’s on our radar. Some time in the next couple of weeks, I feel we’ll have a more concrete decision about what we’re going to do with this stuff. We’re almost there.
As far as the other side projects—I’ve been really focusing on OHMphrey [featuring Cummins, Jake Cinninger, and Kris Myers from Umphrey’s McGee, and OHM guitarist Chris Poland, plus bassist Robertino Pagliari], and I’m hoping we’re going to get a couple more Yacht Rock performances. Jake is about to have a baby at the end of August, so we’re really letting him focus on that. It seems like most of the stuff I do, I end up doing with him, so I might be a little bit toned down on the side stuff more than I have in the past couple of years. I’m also going on a honeymoon at the end of the year. We’re going over to Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia, and over to that area, and spend some time with my wife there, later in November.
So, obviously, 2010 is really looking to be an Umphrey’s-centric year, at least from my end. I know that Brendan and Jeff [Austin, as 30db] just put out their album and they did a little tour, but, yeah, we’re all full steam ahead, and putting together our end of the year tour at this point. Actually, we’ve already been working on 2011, and putting some stuff together for that, too. Things are going well for us right now, and we want to keep capitalizing on that.
RR: Speaking of future plans, over Labor Day weekend, in Chicago, Umphrey’s McGee will be headlining the inaugural North Coast Music Festival.
JC: We’ve been trying to find an event, or something that we can do. We’ve obviously been doing New Year’s here in Chicago for a while, and then, we had Summer Camp on Memorial Day weekend, which is essentially an extended Chicago play. So, we’ve been looking. We’ve done a few different things over the summers like Lollapalooza, or the show at Northerly Island, or, back in the day, we’d do shows at the Skyline Stage, so this year, Labor Day weekend is just wide open in the Midwest. There is really no big event, but there’s land here, so these guys talked to us about wanting to put on this event. Had to be a little more electronic-focused, but they really wanted us to bring the rock element of that to it. It’s going to be at Union Park where they do the Pitchfork Festival, and I think one of the things that is really going to make this a huge success is the price point that they’re able to do tickets at, which is $35 for a single day, and $65 for a three-day pass.
Having some of the people that we’re good friends out there—the Disco Biscuits, and Pretty Lights; we know those guys—and, also, to have some really big names like the Chemical Brothers, Moby, and Nas and Damian Marley—being able to share the bill with that, I feel like we’ve got a really strong party lined up, and it’s going to be a blast. It’s really going to be our first proper closing headlining date at a Chicago festival that we’ve ever done, outside of events that we’ve produced ourselves. I think it’s going to be a big hit, and I can’t wait for that one either. It’s going to be great to be back in front of a hometown Chicago crowd in the summer, and be able to give the fans something of value for their money.
RR: In the meantime, it is a little staggering—you’ve got the Wrigley Field gig, Summerfest, Nateva, and Red Rocks all coming up. It’s a fairly good time for you.
JC: (laughs) Yes, it is. I’m looking forward to those gigs. It’s like the anti-Spinal Tap tour. Things are getting better.
