Photo by Jeremy Gordon
Joe Russo has been the Grand Master of Drumming for so long now that one could easily forget how many different projects he juggles, how well he plays within each of those acts, and how seriously he takes his craft. Then again, Russo’s down to earth humility, easy humor, and studied wisdom make it simple to remember just how good he is behind his kit, whether it’s on a stint with Furthur, which, of course, features the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, his time with Bustle in Your Hedgerow, a spectacular Led Zeppelin-inspired band, a new quartet called Rumble Dogs, or, his aptly titled quartet.
The formidably-talented drummer also spends time behind his kit with Shpongle, a downtempo/psybient band, an ingenious mixture of psychedelic and ambient textures, which plays two dates with Russo, at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom on October 28, and across the country at Oakland, California’s Fox Theatre on October 29. Russo is rightfully proud of his time with the influential Simon Posford-fronted band, as he is with Furthur, which begins another leg of their successful 2011 tour campaign in Manchester, New Hampshire on November 3. What is both awe-inspiring and miraculous is how many other projects the musician juggles betwixt these two triumphant totems.
Jambands.com got a chance to sit down with Russo as he celebrated a personal milestone, just days before heading out on his honeymoon after a September wedding. The artist is both a fine observer of his many projects, as well as being a deeply-committed musician. Whereas some less-gifted drummers may be willing to pound and thrash away, Russo is much more astute at how to listen, feel the vibe within any particular moment, and play as close to the heart as one can be. And that heart is big and exploratory as one can sense in this relaxed and informative conversation with the man behind the kit.
RR: How were the shows in California on the last dates of the recent Furthur tour, specifically at L.A.’s Greek Theatre, and then the stand in Monterey?
JR: They were awesome. Both of them were fantastic. I really, really enjoyed L.A. That venue is incredible; it’s a cool spot. The shows ended up being really great, we had a good time, and the weather held out for us. Again, in Monterey, kind of a total throwback crazy vibe, which was really cool. I know the crew wasn’t very excited to load in there, but other than that, the vibe was awesome. It is a really cool venue and a really fun place to end that tour, for sure.
RR: I imagine it is a difficult place to get in and out of…
JR: (laughter) Yeah, not really built for today’s production needs, but it was cool. Everybody had an awesome time. All my friends that I spoke with that were in the crowd said that it was such an enjoyable venue to go to a show at—security was super chill, everybody was having a lot of fun, and there were no hassles, so it was a nice way for them to end the tour, as well.
RR: Being in the Grateful Dead backyard, do you feel there is some sort of special vibe that takes place at that venue?
JR: I think so. That hometown connection to these guys and this band always makes those shows more special.
RR: Overall, how did you feel that whole leg went?
JR: It was good. It was definitely a lot of shows in that little window of time. I think it was 15 shows in 18 days. We were playing a lot. I personally felt the altitude this time at Red Rocks more than I ever have in my life any time being in Colorado. But, other than that, I think it was a great tour. The band definitely is flying on all cylinders, which is really exciting, to come in cold as we did on this tour and, right out of the gates, start playing some really great shows. I really enjoyed the Eugene [Oregon] shows. Those were super fun. If we had one more day off in that run, I think it would have made a huge difference. (laughter) It was a really really fun tour. We all had a good time.
RR: You’ve got another stretch run on the next leg in November.
JR: Yeah, that’s going to be cool. I am leaving for my honeymoon in two days, then I come back and go right into rehearsals with Shpongle, and we do a couple of dates, and then, I go from that back into another Furthur tour.
RR: Being recently married, it must be amazing to have all of these life events happening at the same time.
JR: (laughs) Yeah, it’s a little crazy. It’s awesome, though. We got married three weeks ago yesterday. Having the schedule of a working musician, I don’t have a lot of options, so…my wife just got home.
RR: Perfect timing!
JR: (laughs) Yeah. I had to leave for that tour after we got married, which was kind of crazy, but she got to come out to Red Rocks, so that was awesome right in the middle of that. Now, we finally get to do our honeymoon. It’s a bit of a hectic schedule from last month through December, but it will be awesome.
RR: Let’s talk about some of your recent projects. You recently played with your old buddy, Erik Deutsch, from Fat Mama, in a new band called Rumble Dogs.
JR: It was a kind of a thrown-together project with myself, Erik Deutsch, Andy Hess, and Scott Metzger. All of us have talked about trying to do something. As friends, we all live around New York, so it’s always that classic thing, “Oh, man, we should do this, we should do this,” and, in the end, no one gets around to actually doing it. I guess Erik and I were on a gig somewhere, and we started chatting it up more, and finally, actually made it happen. It was so much fun—a really cool group of musicians, very pocket-driven. Any time you play with Andy Hess and Scott Metzger, they just have such a great groove and rhythm thing happening. It was definitely such a treat for all of us to get together and do it. We did a Big Joe Turner cover and a lot of other songs. It was definitely a pocket-driven thing, and not like a lot of crazy solos—more like a groove hang. But, yeah, it was super fun, and we are definitely going to do some more shows with that because we had such a good time. It felt like a band. We did one little rehearsal and got some material together, and it definitely felt like it could have some legs to it, so we’re probably start looking to book some stuff early next year around New York and elsewhere and who knows? Add another project to the fire because we all don’t have enough. (laughs)
RR: No, I guess you don’t. I love the variety of material that was played at that show in September, and if you were going to play a Dead tune, you played a somewhat obscure one at that, which I really respect, “New Speedway Boogie.”
JR: Yeah, that was awesome because Andy suggested that we do it. He had done the stuff with the Rhythm Devils and I had my involvement with Furthur, so we thought it would be a fun thing to do something different. We did it in this almost soul…we straightened it out and this was all Andy’s call and it was awesome…kind of done like that song, “If You Want Me to Stay,” and it also had this really great pocket, so it was almost like just touching upon the song enough to know it’s the song without it being the song. (laughter) I remember Hess turning to me at one point: “Nobody’s fuckin’ doing this. ” It was just really cool to take an attempt at trying something that is completely different from something. Obviously, that band has been covered by every single person out there, so it was fun to take a different adaptation of a song, that both of us had played with actual members of the Dead, and have it sound absolutely nothing like anything that had, most likely, been done to the treatment before. It was really fun, and I love playing with Andy. He’s a wonderful guy, and like a monster monster player, as are all of those guys. Yeah, it’s a total pleasure, and I’m definitely looking forward to doing more with those dudes.
RR: I wanted to ask you about the Joe Russo Quartet, which also includes Jonathan Goldberger, Todd Sickafoose, and Frantz Loriot. You played with them as recently as last year. Any chance of gigs in the future, or was that a one-off type of thing?
JR: It was kind of one-off. Goldberger, Sickafoose, Deutsch and I are like the rotating cats always talking about doing things together, so I’m sure there will be something again. Unfortunately, it’s always named after me for a lack of a better name.
RR: It’s very catchy.
JR: (laughter) The classic quartet, or whatever the hell it’s called. But, yeah, I’m sure we will. Todd is living back in the Bay Area again, so it’s a little bit more difficult than when he was living here, but we’ll definitely definitely do some more stuff. I can’t wait to play with those guys, again, too. Goldberger and Sickafoose are two of the most brilliant musicians I’ve ever met, so it’s a treat to have those guys be the core of that situation, and I can almost just sit back and listen to what the hell they’re doing just by themselves. It’s such a treat, so I’m sure we’ll do some more of that in the future.
RR: Timing, again, is the key issue in your life.
JR: (laughs) Yeah, totally. Timing is interesting, yeah.
RR: Let’s talk about the timing of your work with Shpongle. Obviously, you go far back with that group and with Simon Posford, specifically. When you do a short stint with Shpongle, like you are doing on October 28 and 29, how do you get back into the mindset of that type of music when you are juggling so many different acts?
JR: We usually all get together as a group. When we did the [Camp] Bisco thing this past summer, we did one day of rehearsal as a group. However, my friend, Jon Shaw, who is now the bass player when we do dates in the States with Shpongle (an amazing bass player, and he’s also the bass player for the band, Wolf!—a trio with Scott Metzger, Jon Shaw, and Taylor Floreth on drums—great band)—and I got together a bunch leading up to that—five or six days—just running the show front to back and playing along to the click track and the digital files of the show. This time, however, the honeymoon is getting a little bit (laughs) in the way of that. I was actually just listening to Shpongle before I called you to try switching the brain back without having to listen too much on my honeymoon because I think I get home, and the next day is the full band rehearsal. This time may be a little bit different, but, also, as I’ve done the show a number of times now, it’s way more adrenalized than it was definitely the first couple.
Bustle In Your Hedgerow "Immigrant Song" (5.29.11) Equinunk, PA from Clinton Vadnais
RR: Now when you do a Bustle in Your Hedgerow gig, I would think you’d be able to wake up at 4 in the morning, and just do the show.
JR: We could. We could. We try to get together once before each one that we do. Like if we’re doing tonight at the [Brooklyn] Bowl, we’ll try to get together once, and just dust it off. Again, only because, pretty much, we’ve all got so much other music going through our minds between the shows. Six months will go by and I’ve played a Furthur tour and Shpongle tour and whatever whatever and you almost need to give your brain a chance to fight (laughs)—give it a fighting shot. We get together, dust it off, and play a couple things down, and it’s amazing how—even if the four of us get together for an hour or two before a Bustle run, working through these songs we’ve heard, and we’ve played through them a million times—it just helps to run it once to know we know it. That has always been a big help, just to re-tune the old brain.
RR: I would also think in Furthur rehearsals, there are times when you don’t even cover some of the material. Do you have to recall those tunes from prior tours?
JR: Yeah, you know, we haven’t really rehearsed in quite some time. The coolest thing, my favorite thing about the state of that band right now, is the fact that we can come in and literally just start a tour without seeing each other in months, sometimes, and it just comes. I think that band, specifically, is almost helped by that—the idea of ‘less preparation, the better’, in a sense, in the good way, where we just come and we say, “All right, we know how this song goes,” and, luckily, that song could be completely different than it was last time. I think we just have a really great group mentality now and a way to function as a band to where it’s…yeah, I think it helps that we don’t overrun the stuff. We know how they go, we know where it could go, where it has gone, and I think we just take that and get on stage and have at it. And that is really getting into something that I’m super psyched about with seeing this band doing. It keeps that energy alive.
RR: You have a particular kinship with keyboard players. What is your relationship like with Furthur’s Jeff Chimenti, both personally and musically?
JR: I absolutely love him. He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met in my life. Any time you see him, or any time you going, there’s a big hug coming from Jeff. He floors me when I play. I noticed a bunch on this tour, I’ll just start laughing at the shit he does because he’s so awesome, and that’s such a great thing to have happen while you’re making music. I still think he’s a very…I don’t know, for some reason, whatever connection we have musically, it reminds me a lot of what I have with Marco [Benevento]. And I don’t know if it is through the instrumentation, or how they play their instruments, but I feel like I definitely have a direct conduit to Jeff, and I feel like he and I just find ourselves doing things together out of nowhere and we’ll just both end up on the same idea, and both not be afraid to continue with that idea. I don’t know; I think there’s just a very deep trust that he and I developed musically with each other very quickly, and it’s nice to always have that there. I feel like he’s just a guy that if maybe something isn’t completely jiving on stage, or we’re searching for something, I just listen to Jeff, and I definitely get a large amount of inspiration from Jeff on a nightly basis. I don’t know what the connection is, but I like it.
RR: Shows in the music, too. One of the things I love about improvisational music is that it does force one to lose the ego. With a band like Furthur with all all stars, no one really has that, and I think it is indicative in the music, too. You’re all coming on stage, supporting each other, and you’re listening.
JR: Absolutely. That’s the coolest thing, also. In the end, it is a group piece. What comes off that stage is comprised of every single person on that stage. It’s fun to find the inner workings that could mold things into a certain situation where everybody does grab on to it, and I think Jeff is an incredible leader in that way. He can really take the reins, and do something subtle that has a huge change on the group dynamic on any given moment.
It is definitely a huge attribute to have, and he certainly has it.
RR: And I’m sure Phil and Bob love looking back seeing and hearing you play with your unique skills, too.
JR: Oh, I hope so. I think we’re all having a really good time. As the life of this band continues, the trust factor, which I think is the biggest thing with something like this, also gets bigger and bigger, and then, once that trust is there, the fear goes away. Once the fear goes away, that’s when shit really gets happenin’.
RR: That’s a great way to look at things in all aspects of life. I like that—commitment and trust leads to no fear, no paranoia, and freedom.
JR: Yeah, just the fact of knowing that I truly feel that I can go on stage and pretty much do anything (laughter)…within reason…
RR: A Bonham timpani solo.
JR: Yeah. Yeah. But have Bob and Phil and everyone else on stage say, “All right, cool, let’s give this a second and see what happens,” instead of it being a thing where it is shut down or just something that doesn’t jive. I truly feel that everyone trusts each other to the point of actually making new music. I feel like we truly are able to expand upon this book that has had so many amazing chapters already, and I think that really does come with the trust, and it changes the energy of the performance. It is really that lack of fear; anything can happen.
I know when I first joined the band, I was always—you know, at least in the back of my mind—thinking, “The Grateful Dead would have done it this way.” And, at this point, this isn’t the Grateful Dead. We luckily have amazing songs and an amazing heritage and amazing parts of that band, but I certainly feel like, at this point, the fear has been removed of hurting some sort of legacy, while removing any sort of negativity of really really trying to do something different. I just feel very encouraged to let the moment take me where it takes me, and sometimes, it’ll end up in a place where maybe the music hasn’t been before—either strange, or different, or whatever. But I’m enjoying myself, I think the rest of the band is enjoying themselves, and the fans out front are enjoying themselves seeing us take a couple of different chances than were taken before, due to who is on stage now. We all have different influences, and it’s been so great to be able to use those influences in this arena.
RR: Another familiar face, perhaps much more familiar, Marco Benevento.
JR: I love that guy. (laughter)
RR: Is it one of those “when you get around to it” situations with the Duo?
JR: Every time he and I see each other, we’re like “Oh, come on, we’ve got to do something,” but we’re both committed to the idea that ‘if and when’, or more likely ‘when’ than ‘if’, when we get back together, we really want it to be something special, and we want to be able to deliver something that can outshine anything that we’ve done in the past, so we’re just taking our time. We definitely want to come back and make an amazing record, and be able to put on an amazing live show, and that is going to take a lot of time and effort. But it’s cool that we’re both on the same page as far as where, you know what, who cares how long it takes? If it takes a year, if it takes four years, if it takes seven years, whatever it is, we’re committed to the idea of making one more awesome record, if not more, but we’re keeping our sights very simple and very pure, but definitely have an absolute intention of doing it again when both our lives allow it.
RR: You were on the second American Babies album, Flawed Logic which came out earlier in 2011, but could not remain in the band due to your various commitments.
JR: Right. Yeah. Had to leave the band, unfortunately, which bums me out. It is such an amazing band. Tommy [Hamilton] is such a great friend, an amazing songwriter, an amazing musician, but he’s got a great band surrounding him. My friend, Dave [Butler] started playing drums for me; he’s a phenomenal drummer and a great guy. I think he has a solid core around him. Whereas, in the earlier days, when it was myself and Metzger, you know, guys who had to hop away for different gigs here and there, it didn’t really give the opportunity for that band to grow in the way it needed to, and I think Tom now has a cast of guys who can really help bring it to that level of truly getting out there. But, as with first record, it was a total pleasure working on the second one. I thought he did an amazing job. Tom definitely took more of a singular role on the second record, more producer, and it’s good. I think he deserves to be the guy who is running the show with that stuff, and I think he did a killer job with the record.
RR: We’ve talked quite a bit about what happens through the end of the year. What about in 2012? What are your sights focused on for next year?
JR: God, I have no idea. (laughter)
RR: That’s a good place to be.
JR: Yeah. I’ve got some Furthur stuff happening. We’re trying to book maybe some out of town Bustle. Maybe go back and hit some of the places we haven’t done in a long
time, like Chicago and San Francisco and have a little bit more fun with that thing. Certainly, Shpongle—we have our two States shows, and I think there is eventually going to be, hopefully, a full-blown U.S. tour, so I would really like to see that happen, as well as still doing some European stuff with them. That is always a treat, too—getting out of the States, and getting to travel with those guys.
RR: Oh, yeah, a different mix with the audiences, too.
JR: Yeah, it’s super fun. After you’ve toured the States for a while, it’s always fun, but it’s really such a treat to tour somewhere that you’ve either never been, or haven’t spent a lot of time in, so that’s something those guys have always been able to do, and it’s just fantastic. Just after the next Furthur run, I leave and go straight to Tel Aviv to do a show with those guys, and I’ve never been there, so I can’t wait to check that out.
