Widespread Panic made its Wanee Festival debut at last year’s event. The band will return to Wanee in 2011, as the fest kicks off on April 14 in Live Oak, Florida. Last month just prior to the band’s Austin City Limits taping, drummer Todd Nance took some time for the following conversation that begins with his thoughts on Wanee. From there he discusses Panic’s 2012 plans, his Romper Stompers group, why Panic didn’t play “Nights in White Satin” for nearly 25 years and a bit more.
This is your second year at Wanee. How does it compare to the other festivals where you’ve performed?
Wanee is a very cool festival. I went last year, I thought it was really cool, laid back. It was a really fun experience. We look forward to going back this year.
What about it did you particularly enjoy?
I like the way its just laid back – its not gigantic, it’s really cool. It’s a nice time of the year when it’s not miserable, so muggy and all that stuff. It’s a nice laid back event.
Let’s move on to your 25th anniversary. Is there more news on your documentary?
We started working on some stuff. The last timed we filmed was Halloween. And I have to be honest with you, I haven’t heard anything recently—we’ve just been getting ready for the tour. Tomorrow we leave to go to Austin where we’re taping Austin City Limits. It’s the third time on the show, and we’re very happy to be back. Then our spring tour sets off in April, and we’re getting ready for that. So we’re getting ready to hit the road.
How long are you guys going to be on the road for this year?
We’ll do three tours this year—spring, summer and fall—each tour is about five to seven weeks.
So are those rumors of Widespread going on hiatus not true for this year?
Not this year, but next year we’re talking about taking some time off.
If you guys take a break, do you think you’ll get more into [your side project] Romper Stompers?
Probably so. Matter of fact, once I get off this phone call I’m going to go practice with those guys. (laughs)
When are you guys coming up north? I’d like to see that show.
Well, you know, next year may be a good time for that. You know, it has morphed itself into more of just a rock and roll band. We started off with kids songs—or songs that we thought of when we were kids—but it’s kinda grown into a rock and roll band with a bunch of grown juvenile’s.
Are you still playing kids songs?
Well, not really. We play songs based on a kid’s perspective. The idea was to write songs that kids would like. Not so much A-B-C songs but songs about your treehouse and songs about not liking to eat broccoli. But now it’s kinda turned into just a rock and roll band. We’re all real happy with the music and that’s why we keep doing it, but I don’t see us going to a pre-school to play. The one thing we did do is try to find something to support some kind of children’s charity or awareness. We figured that’s how we would continue the children vibe going and give assistance. This weekend we will give some money to a family, and we did a show in Colorado for a child disability. I guess that’s more of the child angle that we’re taking now.
What other charities are you involved in? I noticed you guys are very much into children’s charities.
The one we’re most proud of is the Tunes for Tots, which is basically trying to fund music programs. We buy instruments and that’s been real successful. I’m the most proud of that one, because school band did a lot for me. It’s kind of nice to give back to that.
Congratulations on being recognized by the Georgia General Assembly in February. What was that experience like?
It was wild. It’s really controlled chaos but, when we first walked in, the governor’s wife kinda checked us out to make sure they were going to let us into the place [laughs]. She was a nice lady, and we went in and then met the governor. Then we went into the General Assembly and they read the document. J.B., Sunny and myself performed a song. It was real cool—and kind of surreal.
When they told you that you were being honored, were you notified through a formal letter?
Well, some lobbyists got behind it—go figure. They were Panic fans and it’s something that the state does for musicians and actors. I guess they thought we deserved it and got it pushed through. Yeah, it was pretty cool.
Just a few more questions…How do you pick your set lists for your shows these days?
It’s done by committee and we basically have a master list of all the songs we currently play. The most we try to repeat is one song a week, so we try to keep it fresh and keep the shows as varied as possibly. Basically it’s like a pitching rotation for a baseball team. The songs that become available to be played— that will fit—we put them in. We try keep not repeating too many songs because people like to come see us over and over, so we try to give them some sort of variety.
I’m sure a song that wasn’t on the list slips in from time to time though?
Yeah, Halloween is really good for that because we pick songs that we used to like as kids. Or always wanted to play, so we’ll get those together. Or, have something special to the audience.
Speaking of songs that fall into the rotation, I hear there is a bit of a backstory to “Nights in White Satin,” which you played on your 25th anniversary?
Yeah, there’s a bit of a backstory with that. (laughs) Before we had enough of our own songs to play, that was one of the songs in our repertoire. Michael Rothchild—who signed us up for our first record deal with Landside records—he was one of those beautiful people in the world —a really a great guy giving us a shot and everything, but he had one request – not for us to ever play that song again. We figured 25 years was long enough. We wanted to play one of the songs we played 25 years ago, and that happened to be one of them. And, actually, we played it on the same site. It used to be a bar and now it’s the Civic Center. But yeah, our anniversary show was played at the same place our first show was, so it was very cool.
