Photo by Chris Paul
Last month we presented a feature interview with Mike Gordon that focused on his latest studio recording, Moss. Now he is out on the road supporting the release with his current group, which features Scott Murawski, Todd Isler, Tom Cleary, Craig Myers. On Thursday afternoon before the group’s performance at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula, Montana, Sam Martin checked in with Gordon for some questions about his current tour.
SM: So with seven shows down, from moe.down to the Mossery to the free show in SF, how do you think the tour is going so far?
MG: I think it’s going great. Usually it takes a few gigs for us to relax into it. Sometimes the first couple of gigs are loud and aggressive and trying too hard. And this time that didn’t happen. For some reason we got right into the more relaxed, kind of playful side. It was cool to know we could play right out of the gate like that. So yeah it’s feeling well.
It’s kind of daunting not having too much practice time. Usually I’d want more time to review some of my own songs myself and that kind of thing. But with Phish Tour so close, I did some preparation on Phish Tour and we had some days of practice up in Vermont in between. It ended up being that we knew the material well enough and it’s been some fun stuff and I’ve been having a really great time. There’s always little challenges and things to tweak and things to work on during the soundchecks. But the feeling has been really good.
One thing, I used to not listen to the shows at all, to anything that I did live. And I’ve changed and now I kind of want to listen and see if I’ve learned anything. So I still haven’t been dedicating time to it but I’ve been stumbling into the back lounge where every night a couple of the band members listen to a recording that was made. That’s been interesting and I’ve really been liking that experience in a different way than what I’ve been liking onstage. On stage feels like a modern day Little Feat or something with the funkiness and the tightness and a dancing sort of sound where in the back lounge it sounds more dark, maybe because the lights are off, (laughs), where it sounds more Jimi Hendrix not exactly but that kinda dark John McLaughlin sound and both of those would be a stretch, but just that vibe of going on a long musical journey. It’s dark (laughs). It probably has to do with the fact that listening while I’m playing requires a certain level of consciousness I guess and sitting there in the back lounge I can go straight to my subconscious and listen as an observer rather than a player. And so maybe I’m seeing the longer arc of the songs and jams rather than the changes within them, so it’s kind of interesting.
It’s cool too looking to see even if the song is new or obscure and a lot of the material is obscure for new fans in a lot of ways. So they might sit there deadpan at the beginning of the song, but I’ve been really liking this band’s ability to elevate and find whatever the soul of the song is and kinda let it rage by the middle or the end. Even if it’s a simple or melodic song or whatever kind of song it is sort of say, “Well this is just the starting point” and really just see how much energy and soul the song has to offer. As a band we don’t get as much time together as I would like. One guy is a school professor and a couple people play more jazz than rock.
SM: Going back to the Green Sparrow release, you’ve been touring with the same line-up. I assume that contributes to you guys gelling quicker?
MG: I definitely think so and that was one of the goals. I really wanted to invest myself with first having more of my own material but then sticking with the same people so the chemistry would grow. Obviously I know what it’s like to grow some chemistry after 27 years, but to do that outside of Phish and have a different chemistry grow and have it happen like with Grateful Dead members where I’ve seen them play with their new bands after 10 or 15 years and you start to see some deep, deeper telepathy going on. Even though it’s not the band you grow up with in your adolescence it still happens. So yeah I’m sensing that, it’s pretty cool, it’s a whole group of different challenges but that’s what I love about it.
SM: So why play a smaller market like Missoula, and can you elaborate on who decides tour destinations because every other show for the most part is in a larger market?
MG: I think we wanted to keep it interesting and fresh and not always play the same places and kind of places and or come back to an area and not play the same city exactly. Not that we’ve been here before, but there are only so many directions that the bus can take us too. You make a certain trajectory, but with that said, it’s sort of interesting and off the beaten path places that we’re looking for…
SM: More obscure venues?
MG: I believe we (Phish) played Bozeman, MT in 94 [Editor’s note: 11/18/94].
SM: Are there any plans to incorporate Mike Gordon shows into the Phish Live download series? So fans can download a show directly after it’s performed?
MG: We have been talking about the desire for it. I don’t know if we would get to the point of where we were providing every one but there has been some talk about making some available sooner. I don’t when or how we will do this, but we will.
SM: Are there any methods that you prefer to handle the social media access to fans for The Mike Gordon shows, as compared to Phish?
MG: That’s another thing too that’s sorta in the talking. Redoing my website so there’s a forum and so it links better with Facebook etc….
SM: Do you personally feel more involved and have more access with your fans while touring with Mike Gordon Band?
MG; I guess the reason I do is because I can talk to them a lot and we don’t bring a security staff with us. And my friends and fans know I want to hear a lot of feedback about how my stuff is going so I can have a kind of road map even though I know things that I want to change as the weeks go on. But I get some good feedback and a lot fans are critical, but with a lot of positive criticism too.
SM: A lot of both…constructive criticism is always welcome?
MG: Yes.
SM: Who decides your set lists? Is it something you do ahead of time? How do you work that out with the band?
MG: I spend some time thinking about it , well, not repeating from the last show or if we played there last year. And to keep it interesting for the band, and to dabble in a different set list, it has to have a flow. As a band leader there is a beginning and ending in mind and then you figure out what the flow would be and in the heat of the moment it comes from watching the people, the fans, whether they’re dancing, standing there or tired, maybe in your subconscious, you know if it’s time for a softer song and then we change the setlist.
SM: And you can do this off the cuff?
MG: Yeah, there were times back with Phish a little bit, when I would open with a song that I felt like playing, but now I leave it up to Trey because he’s become so good at it. But it pays off to think about playing a song on the fly or in advance but to think about what would create a flow, because if it’s too jarring, too many eclectic songs or the songs are too different, then they won’t build, or as soon as it builds it’ll go in a different direction. So you want some consistency but you also want some variety too which is finding a line.
SM: Speaking of Phish do you feel any sense of obligation to play a Phish song during a Mike Gordon show?
MG: Obligation? Um, I guess the feeling is I want everyone to have fun and I really feel like that music is about reaching out between the band members and the audience. I was just thinking about that, how during Phish Tour how there was a lot of reaching out, playing covers and songs that people would know. Not they might know everything, but reaching out in a way that they can participate or there is a melody that on several levels you can reach out. So why not, I figure, because you want to include people and clearly I’m not trying to imitate Phish but put in a couple songs that people know and we can all have fun with. If I did too much it would feel weird.
SM: The “Cities” for instance that you guys cover is a totally different type of “Cities” that Phish performs.
MG: I can say one thing about that, the reason why Phish started playing “Cities”, I think it was 1984 or 1985 when we had Dobbs [Marc Daubert] on percussion, was because I saw Max Creek play it and I liked the version that they had done. So normally I probably wouldn’t pick covers that Phish play but this was my original inspiration for “Cities” and it made sense. And Scott [Murawski] of Max Creek plays it much faster, maybe a little more like the original. But I kinda like it being faster because now I get to play two versions and definitely the tempo is the biggest difference. It’s danceable in a different way.
SM: Wrapping this up, curious did you direct the two Mike Gordon Tour Videos? The Fall Tour video and The Moss video?
MG: I did the train tracks one. The Moss video was Jared Slomoff, you could say I directed it, but there really wasn’t a director. He edited it, complied all the footage, put together a bunch of clips while I was on Phish Tour. It was really Jared, and we had talks about how to change it from earlier versions, originally it was twice as long as it turned out and it still turned out pretty long.
SM: From what I understand, you’ve made yourself pretty accessible on this tour, signing autographs after shows and meeting people. Will this be true tonight in Missoula?
MG: Yeah, yeah! It’s a chance for me to go out and meet people which I like to do. Gather some feedback and get to know some local people and promote the album. So yeah I’ll be available, as I’ve been doing every night pretty much.
