Life is good for Dave Dreiwitz. It’s early January and he’s staring at the moving ocean as Jam Cruise 14 heads into port in Miami. The bassist is busy, however, as he’s one of the few artists pulling double duty on the ship, performing with both Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and Marco Benevento as a part of the keyboardist’s solo band. While all of that is exciting, and certainly pleasing to Dreiwitz, our conversation quickly shifts to Ween, who will reunite on February 12 at 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, CO. As you’ll see, Dreiwitz can’t wait to get back on stage with his old mates, and offers up a glimpse into his hopes for the future of Ween.
Did you ever think JRAD would become what it is now?
We’re just all dumbfounded by all of it. I think Joe just wanted to play this music in a different way and approach it in a way that he felt was maybe a little more East Coast Jersey style, and we just did it. We couldn’t have planned any of this insanity.
What do you think the attraction is with the band?
It’s first and foremost the songbook. People love Joe and Marco, the Dead family has really embraced Joe. Then years of us all playing together and Bustle and playing with Marco and obviously The Duo—all of those things combined just kind of made a weird alchemy of the right things coming together.
When you commit to a project like that, do you have to get inside Phil Lesh’s headspace?
I just spend hours and hours—I don’t know if people realize how much, and I know that Scott does too—of just learning this music. I saw the Dead and they weren’t my number one band, but I always liked the Dead and I loved what they did. It’s been a major study. Some of it has been the hardest work that I’ve had to do just in terms of learning the music. I’m still working on it, constantly. It’s never-ending, it seems.
I’m amazed at how much Scott sounds like young Weir when he sings.
I know, it’s amazing. I don’t think he knew. All these kind of things were just weird circumstances that we never thought.
You guys have a real power. There’s a real rock and roll edge to what you guys do and the energy enhances the whole song.
That’s our Jersey East Coast edge. Marco, Joe and I are all from the same county in North Jersey. Maybe it has something to do with us all drinking the same water.
Is it bittersweet to be taking a step back from Almost Dead this year?
Yeah. Of course, everybody has booked everything and there isn’t a whole lot of JRAD stuff going on, and there’s not much Ween stuff going on. Of course, it all got booked together and people couldn’t figure things out. I tried to enlighten both management teams with what was going on so that we could try to maybe juggle it all without having conflicts, but unfortunately there are only so many weekends in the year.
Transitioning to Ween, what was the discussion like for the reunion with those guys? Reunions have been a big thing this year. Guns N’ Roses decided to do it, too.
Yeah, that’s funny. I was wondering if we were going to beat them. Now everybody is just waiting for the Talking Heads. I think that’s the one, right? Because everyone else has done it, or is doing it.
I’ve been playing with the Dean Ween Group all through the fall, and he just made a new record. So we’ve been playing, and then we did a tour where we had all the guys from the band except Aaron. We had a great time and it was really fun, there was good music. It was very natural, you know. We had to figure out how to do our thing with the four of us instead, so that was an interesting thing. Maybe that spawned the idea of the reunion. That seems to happen with other groups, where half the group gets together and then the rest of them decide, “Okay, let’s just do this!” So I think that’s what it came down to.
When did the discussion start? How long of a process was it?
It was just one day where we got together for Dean Ween rehearsals and Dean Ween, aka Mickey, just told me, “Aaron’s decided that we should do some playing, and we’re going to do it.” And that was it, it was as simple as that. And it really came down to the two of them working that out. For the rest of us, it wasn’t like we had a band meeting and decided “Let’s do this.” Those guys just needed to figure it out and say yes, that’s all.
Have you started rehearsing?
Because I’ve been so busy with JRAD, there hasn’t really been a whole lot of time. Claude is living in Asheville now, and he’s been working with Mike Dillon. I’m going to do a week long run with Marco this week right after Jam Cruise. And then as soon as I get back, I have about a week off and then we’re going right into rehearsals and start working on it.
How do you anticipate you’ll react getting back into that Ween material?
I think it’s going to be a horrible disaster and total failure [laughs]. No, it’s going to be great. It’s going to be amazing. I’m looking forward to it. Playing in JRAD is great, but I’m playing Phil Lesh’s music. I’m playing music of the Dead. Getting back to Ween, I’m Dave from Ween. I’m not in a cover band. So it’s different. That’s my music, you know. It’s apples and oranges, you can’t really compare how it feels.
You go for something that works. There’s always time for my own little trio where I do my own original music that nobody knows about called Crescent Moon. I barely ever get to do that. I do a couple of little gigs a year, if even. I think I missed this year completely. I guess, as an artist, you want to do something original and you want to do your thing. Playing Zeppelin is great, it’s really fun, and playing the Dead is a real challenge. But playing in Ween, that’s home for me. That’s where I belong.
Are you looking at this as a long term thing?
We’re looking at a long term thing. I think we’re going to see how this year goes and then hopefully we’ll keep this going forever. Maybe we won’t be touring a billion gigs a year, but we’ll do a handful of gigs that will be awesome. It would be great to get back to making new records and stuff, but if we don’t make records with Dean Ween or whatever or with my own stuff, that’s cool too. But I’d love to have Ween always working, at least while we’re all still on the planet.
Do you guys plan on recording new music?
I’m not sure how that’s going to go. I think we’re taking this all with baby steps in terms of just doing a bunch of shows and seeing how everybody feels about it. In my mind, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t last forever and just continue. Even if we don’t make new music or if we do, I’m looking forward to just getting back to playing that music.
Are you going to try to outlast Guns N’ Roses?
They didn’t last very long, did they? Are they going to have Steven Adler? To me, he’s the heart and soul of that whole thing. If they don’t have him, then I don’t know. But if he’s there, I might actually go.
