Yonder Mountain String Band will close 2010 with performances at St. Louis, MO’s The Pageant on December 30 and 31. The group’s New Year’s Eve celebration will feature three sets of music, including a set of fan requests. The four members of Yonder— Jeff Austin (mandolin), Ben Kaufmann (bass), Dave Johnston (banjo) and Adam Aijala (guitar) recently spoke with Jambands.com about their decision to play New Year’s Eve outside Colorado, their future recording plans and how a drum head signed by Jon Fishman brought Phish to the Four Mile Canyon Benefit.
Can you talk about the setlist idea you guys are going to be using on New Years?
Jeff: We’re always paying attention to online forums, be they our forum on our website or Facebook or Phantasy Tour or any of those fan public forums. We went out in October and did the longest tour we’ve done in years, and by the time you’ve done 28 or 30 days on the road you’re ready to get some ideas. It’s always cool to kind of turn to those forums and see people’s suggestions, “Oh hey, in Columbia, MO why don’t you guys play this,” and you look and you go “Holy, man we haven’t played that song in like four years.” We played a song we hadn’t played in 900 shows or some ridiculous amount of time. So it’s something that we’ve always paid attention to. We thought we’d make it a little more formal.
Years ago, there was a place in Colorado called State Ridge and we used to do a weekend there. And the Sunday show was always an afternoon and one year we put up a piece of cardboard by the bar and told people to write their song suggestions on it. We brought the cardboard up on stage and just picked the show off the cardboard. So we thought we’d put up a piece of digital cardboard and people are suggesting some cool-ass shit. And not just tunes of ours that we either don’t play often or haven’t played in a while, but people are putting segues together, people are putting crazy cover suggestions up there, and stuff like that. We opened it up and said each and everything. The weirder and more far out the better. That’s the way we like it.
What are some of the weirder suggestions you’ve received thus far?
Ben: “Bust a Move” by Young MC.
That’s awesome.
Ben: It is awesome. I don’t want to say we’re going to do it, because it’s going to be a surprise, but we’re gonna do it. I think we would just slay that tune. We’d put our own spin on it, you know? But we wouldn’t do it as a joke. I promise, if we do it it’s going to be for real. With Jeff rappin’ it and singin’ it, I would pay money to see that show. If we do it we’re going to nail it.
Why did you guys choose St. Louis for New Year’s Eve? Why leave Colorado?
Ben: Colorado has gotten a little bit inundated with bands in the scene. You know, the bands we read about in your magazine, the bands we see on tour and at festivals, a lot of those bands are coming to Colorado. I mean, it makes sense, it’s central, a lot of people come and spend time out here. But I would say between Widespread Panic, STS9 and a bunch of other bands that maybe draw less but are drawing from the same scene. It was time to take a year off and go back—the only other place we’d ever played New Years was St. Louis and the last time we did it was 9 years ago. And St. Louis is central to the Midwest and all those cities out there. It made sense to give Colorado a year off. Because, to be honest with you, the idea of competing within the music business is the same reason I hate music competition, because competition and music just don’t go together. And it sort of felt like that to me, that’s what it was like in Denver, we have to compete with every band. Widespread Panic and down the line. I think we all just said the idea of competition in music just didn’t feel right.
Can you guys talk about what you have planned for 2011?
Ben: A new record. And we are starting to lay the groundwork for international performances. Probably we’ll ramp up with this new record—we’ll put together an EP of stuff that we want. [We’re planning to go] everywhere from Australia to New Zealand to Japan, we’re really thinking big with this. And so, we’ll produce something new for them to hear and also bring them up to speed on what we’ve done in the past and also start playing festivals over there and then following it back up with our own performances. I think that having toured the states for 12 years, it’s probably time to do something a little different, if for no other reason than our own sake to get outside the box and do something new.
Jeff: I was just thinking that we’re undergoing a lot of changes behind the scenes with the Yonder organization, and that’s going to be exciting to go about business in a new way with a new outlook. We’re going to work really hard next year at a lot of different things. I’m looking forward to doing that Harvest Festival again in upstate Arkansas.
So you’re planning another Harvest Festival?
Jeff: Yeah, we’re planning it already. We’ve already got a lot of ideas and the groundwork has been laid. It’s off and running. We’re excited to see that grow. It’s the 10th year of the Northwest String Summit and that’s just crazy that 10 years has gone by. It’s why we all look terrible, because the decade has eaten us alive. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Horning’s Hideout, that’s where that is. And so, between that and getting to return to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival for another year and Red Rocks again and all those things, it’s really stacking up to be a really cool year. You know, you get to a decade as a band, which we did two years ago, and you kind of go “Oh wow, look where we’re at!” And now [we’ve been playing for] 12 years so now it’s like the energy is revving up again and [while] we never gave up, it’s a reinvestment in what this band means to us and to our fans.
You mentioned that you’re working on a new studio album…
Jeff: We just spent the early part of this week working on it. Actually yesterday and the day before.
Are you planning to bring in drums on this album as you guys have done with the past two albums?
Jeff: I think what we’re going to do is listen to the song and have it tell us what it needs. If it feels like it needs drums we’re not going to hesitate. We’re not going to force anything. I never felt like we forced anything with the last couple records, when drums were added it felt pretty natural to me. If the song calls for it then, yeah, we’ll add it. And the cool thing is, we were talking about working with our buddy Jon Fishman, we know this great group of drummers between him and Pete Thomas who worked on the last couple studio records with us. You know we have Rob Koritz who plays with Dark Star Orchestra—we have this great group of friends who are all incredible drummers. And the thought with this record is that we get to work with different people and different ideas and different producers and different drummers to try and get the best out of everybody, which will in turn bring the best out of us.
Ben: In the studio the last two days the songs we recorded didn’t have any drums. And, in my opinion, I don’t think that those songs need drums at all. That’s four in the can that just feature the traditional Yonder Mountain lineup.
So it’s an organic process where the songs kind of grow into themselves?
Adam: Absolutely. That’s the thing about taking your time when doing a record is that you let stuff sit and then you listen to it and you might have an idea that you weren’t even thinking of when you were recording it the last time. We would like to have it released in the next six months, but all the same we already have four potential songs.
Has using drums changed your approach when you play live?
Adam: No I don’t think so, because they’ve all been played without drums and then we’ve decided to add them later. In the live setting, and when recording, it definitely gives it a different sound when you add drums. It changes the way I play rhythm, to some extent as well. You can be a little bit freer when you have those skins bangin’.
Ben: As a bass player, once we get the drums added in I have to readjust 75 per cent of what I do to fit in. You know, watching his bass drum pedal. It’s a different mentality and technique, I find. And then when we don’t have the drums I have a lot more space to sort of occupy, more real estate. It’s fun. But just for shits and giggles I’d love to get to play with drummers more often. Not even in a live setting, just jamming.
Do you find when you play with a drummer like Jon Fishman, who is essentially a jazz drummer, that it creates a challenge for you being more of a bluegrass musician? What’s it like playing with these drummers who each bring their own style to the songs?
Ben: Growing up I always played in bands with drummers. Just to speak specifically about Fishman, the guy is such a talent and he’s so familiar with playing in an improvisational style, and listening, and all of that which comes from the spirit of Phish’s music that we just sort of naturally listen to each other, and everybody does. We just naturally fall into place and very naturally find the areas which we should be playing—which real estate we should occupy. And so with someone like Fishman you don’t even have to think about it. We go into the gig with such trust in everything he’s going to do. That’s the case with all the drummers we play with.
Jeff, you recently had lasik [eye surgery]. Has that helped your performance ability at all? Has there been any change on stage?
Jeff: Yeah! When we toured in October I experimented with contacts for that month just to see how I liked it. I keep hearing from everybody “Oh man, it was so great to see you pushing your glasses up.” I can’t tell you what a huge monstrous pain in my ass it was to try every second I was on that stage to keep those glasses on my face. I am a world class sweating master, and when you’re sweating like that trying to keep glasses on your face while you’re thinking of 400 other things is really rough. I can’t wait. And contacts were just put on earth to torture human beings.
Ben had it done years and years ago. I’m just glad I finally went and did it. It was the coolest thing. It was a combination between Alice in Wonderland and the last acid trip you ever took. And then you can see. I’m kind of rejuvenated—I’m on a new kick in my life and it’s getting hooked on good things. I’m pretty excited to be on stage and check out all those things ‘cause I’m a big crowd watcher. I can’t help it. I was diagnosed as ADHD when I was young, so I pay attention to a lot of stuff going on in the crowd, seeing what people are up to. I’m 20/15 at this point so I can basically open doors with my eyeballs. I can change channels on the t.v. with my eyes. But performance-wise, I’m pretty happy to not have to think about “Are these glasses going to fall off my face? I’m going to step backwards and wash them and then I’m screwed.”
Ben: Let’s be honest, Jeff is one of the world’s best head bangers. I mean, when he plays the mandolin he plays the mandolin. Animated, for sure. So we don’t have to worry anymore about drive-by glasses or anything.
What did it feel like to organize your own festival? Can you talk about that experience and how it all came together?
Ben: In both cases with Harvest Fest and with the String Summit, we have a huge degree of input as to who we want. There are two sort of different experiences with the festivals, String Summit, of course, trying to keep it acoustic-based and the nature of the venue is a very intimate experience so it tends to lend itself to different performers and whatnot. Ultimately, it’s like shooting for the stars. The festivals sell themselves in their own ways.
With the Harvest fest, that’s the same place that they do Wakarusa, so that’s multiple stages and a bigger production, for sure. So we get to open up our minds to different kinds of music, you know, more electric music. But you don’t want to make it the same as Wakarusa, they’ve got that down, so we still have the acoustic influence that is very much present. But in that situation, we can take an electric band and invite them to do an acoustic set. Or you can really think outside the box and think “Would our fans like to see Harry Connick Jr.?” I don’t know, that was just off the top of my head. But really thinking outside the box because we have the opportunity to entertain that kind of idea.
Jeff: The thing I like about the idea of Harvest Fest is, for us, as far as putting together our own thing, it’s got such room to grow. We’ve got so many different bands that we can invite from all different areas of the spectrum.
What was it like playing the Four Mile Canyon Benefit and how did the Phish guys become involved?
Ben: It was odd how it started. We were going to do our own benefit at the Boulder Theater and then we got a call from Big Head Todd and the Monsters’ camp. And then a couple of the guys from String Cheese showed interest. Then we got word from the Phish camp, and since they were going to be in town the next day for a three night run, they said “Why don’t you come down to our place and use our stuff?” And basically it turned into something that would have raised a nice amount of money to something where we were able to raise over half a million dollars for people.
Jeff: It went from us saying “Hey, let’s put together this benefit at the Boulder Theater, and then the Big Head Todd guys came in and then a few of the String cheese guys, and then all the String Cheese guys, and then the Salmon guys wanted to be there. We were with Red Light Management and I called our assistant and said maybe we could do an auction where maybe we could get the guys from Phish to sign a guitar or Jon could sign a drum head or Mike could sign a bass, and that was in the afternoon. Then later that night there was an e-mail that went out and it started out asking Trey if he wants to sign a guitar, and now Trey wants to come down and play and he talked to the rest of the guys and they all want to come down and play.
Was it a conscious decision not to have them play as a band or was that something they decided?
Ben: I think that they wanted to do something different. You know, they had three nights coming up where they were going to do the Phish thing. So that acoustic Trey and Mike thing was very cool.
To hear Trey say, very sincerely and very heartfelt, how much they resonate with Colorado and this area…and he said something about it always feeling like a second home to them. You know, it was quite a touching thing. And he had Chris [Kuroda] their lighting engineer light up this entire section of firefighters and workers who had been on the emergency response. So they got to come down and finally get a day off and to see them lit up…the applause for those people must have gone on for five minutes. Once Phish gets involved in something you realize not only how powerful they are in the music business, but having gotten to know them to some degree, just how kind and generous these guys are. It was a beautiful night.
