It’s been a wild ride for The Infamous Stringdusters. In the span of three days in late January, the quintet won their first Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album (they shared the award with fellow nominee Rhonda Vincent & The Rage) and also launched their new label Tape Time Records. Calling from his home on Long Island, guitarist Andy Falco is still beaming from the unexpected win, but he also admits it’s nice to be off the road, at least for a little while.
“We live a few blocks away from the bay so it’s nice. I love the ocean, the water, the culture surrounded with that.” he says, also noting the importance of being somewhere “you can get a decent bagel and a decent slice of pizza.”
Fresh off his Grammy win, Falco chatted about the excitement of winning, Tape Time’s newest act Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, and what could possibly be next for a band on such a winning streak.
I’m going to ask you the question that everybody’s asking you right now: How does it feel to win a Grammy?
It feels unbelievable. First of all, the other nominees are all incredible and they’re all friends. And, honestly, I was just shocked that we shared the win with Rhonda Vincent & The Rage.
It’s so hard to describe the feeling when you hear the name of your album being called in that moment. You work as a musician all your life and we’ve been a band for so long. You’re out there making music and you’re not doing it for the reasons of accolades or anything like that, but it’s amazing when you get something like [a Grammy]. You start to look back in a way. It just feels incredible.
So you found out in the moment, at the ceremony? They didn’t tell you ahead of time?
No. We walked through the red carpet thing and I was like, “Let me just grab a drink or something.” [Laughs.] I went to the bar and they were like, “No, no, no, they stopped serving alcohol and they only have water.” And it’s like, “Oh god, OK.”
They do about 70 some-odd awards during the day ceremony and I think ours was in the 40’s. 46 or 47, something like that. And you’re watching all this in this room with all of these super-talented people who’ve accomplished so much in their careers. People who are heroes and people who we look up to. So to be in the presence of all that is really humbling and is remarkable to see.
Did you get to rub elbows with or see any artists that you really admired?
I got to shake Taj Mahal’s hand, which I was psyched about.
It was right after we won because he was right backstage there. He was sittin’ down and we were walking by him. He had just performed with Keb’ Mo’. They did a great tune.
I saw some good friends that years ago I worked with at Sony Studios in New York, a few of the engineers who actually won Grammys too, for various things in classical or whatever, which was cool.
But yeah, you know, it’s kind of one of those things where there are people that you recognize, but sometimes I just try to keep it low key. I don’t wanna bother anybody, but I’ll still sit there and be in awe. But, I had to shake Taj Mahal’s hand. He’s a big influence and hero of mine.
What were those moments like, leading up to when you knew your category was next? Were you kind of shooting anxious looks back and forth with the guys in the band?
I think we got really quiet. My fiancée was sitting to my left and she said she could feel all the seats bouncing up and down because all of our legs were kind of bouncing. [Laughs.] That nervous sort of energy.
It’s like, no matter how cool you try to be about it, in those few moments right before–I don’t know, to me there’s no way to be able to keep that in.
After you guys got your award in the daytime, I guess it was all fun after that? You guys stuck around for the telecast and just enjoyed yourself?
You grab your award and then you go back and you kind of do some of the things that you do. You do some pictures. And then yeah, we got our seats and we watched the show. Me and my fiancée stayed for the entire telecast. It was really incredible. I’ve been listening to the Kendrick Lamar record [DAMN.] for the past couple of days because hip-hop has never really been my thing, but he did that opening performance and it was mind blowing. It’s a masterpiece you know? I ordered it on vinyl because we were like, “We gotta have this on vinyl.”
I just think his message and a lot of that music that he’s doing is just incredible. It’s positive, it’s upbeat and I think that it’s really a masterpiece.
It seems like the whole experience was a whirlwind.
What was starting to make me almost emotional was a lot of our peers doing posts online, and getting texts from a lot of people. That sort of outpouring of support and people congratulating you. For me, personally, you almost try to put it out of your mind, but when people start reaching out to you, you start to realize, “Wow this is something special.” It almost makes me tear up thinking about it. You know, ‘cause we do work really hard and it is something that means a lot really deep down.
You also have this new label the band just created, Tape Time Records. Was that an idea that was kind of brewing for a while?
The idea stems from the fact that with our corner of the music world there’s very few places for albums to live. The way that music is being made these days and records are being made, it felt like putting together a label that could almost be a community, similar to the way that it works in the live scene. There’s this culture there, people coming to shows and like-minded bands. The idea was, why not try and do that with recorded music and try to come together with other bands that are coming up and create a space for this music to live? And, also, a place of course for us to put our music through. Something that we can be a little bit more hands on in.
It all happened sort of fast and we all just thought, “Yeah!” So, the first release is Horseshoes & Hand Grenades who are really good friends of ours and just a great band. They are doing a bunch of shows; we’ve done a lot of shows with them. And they had their record ready to go and we thought, “Well, it’s Tape Time. Let’s do it!” And they were all about it.
I know you just toured together, but how did Horseshoes & Hand pop-up on your radar initially?
Maybe a few years ago they did some opening thing for us. They were just great guys, a really cool band and just have a unique thing and we just all hit it off. Over the years running into each other at shows or coming on tour with us, you just kind of build these relationships. It seems like in the business you end up sort of migrating to like-minded people, people who love making music.
I think the common denominator in all of it is people who just absolutely love to make music and are crazy enough to do thing that we do: jump out on the road. And you have to sacrifice a lot and be away from your family, but you do that for the love of the music. And they’re the same way. They’re out there and they’re hustling and they’re working really hard and they’re making really great music and evolving.
I think somewhere in there was a Tape Time mission statement: People who love to make music and are crazy enough to jump out on the road.
[Laughs.] That’s right!
The one other thing I wanted to ask about was your most recent release, the Undercover Vol. 2 EP. What I think is so interesting about your cover EPs is that they reveal all the different types of music that you guys listen to. You have The Cure, My Morning Jacket and then Daft Punk, all on one release. Do you guys seek out that type of diversity or do you just follow your ear?
For ourselves and for our fans we enjoy throwing covers into our setlist, mixed with our tunes. Just trying to do our own versions and interpret songs. It’s a way for us to put a different variable on each show. Make each show unique.
So then it became a series of EPs. But with this one, there were songs that weren’t necessarily in the show yet, that we hadn’t played. It became like a, “Hey, you know what song I’ve always wanted to do?” For me it was The Cure song [“Just Like Heaven.”] Like, ‘Hey, I always thought this would make a cool bluegrass song. Let’s try that.”
That’s kind of how it went for everybody. And I think it sort of gives you glimpses into the types of stuff that we listen to. As individuals and collectively we do have a diverse sort of listening, we’re into all kinds of music.
W*ith all the commotion going on in your lives right now, does it feel kind of like a watershed moment for The Infamous Stringdusters? What’s next?*
I think what’s next is we’re going to keep pushing forward. We love going out on the road and playing live shows. We’re in the show-and-tell phase of the next record where we are starting to work on and collect new songs, but all the while being out on the road and trying to get together with the fans have a good time.
We’ve just been loving life, out on the road and making music together. It’s always fun for us. We love each other very much and we love making music together. That’s the “A) No. 1” most important thing. And as long as we’re doing that, we’re happy.
