Since departing from his landmark band Phish in 2000, Trey Anastasio has embarked on a solo career that has been anything but predictable. He first joined teams with Les Claypool (of Primus) and Stewart Copeland (of Police) to form Oysterhead. After one album and a short tour, Oysterhead became defunct, but Anastasio decided not to call it quits yet. He quickly formed a new band of talented musicians and released a self-titled album in May. Currently on tour, Trey Anastasio takes a moment out of his busy schedule to be interviewed on the phone.
Cavalier Daily: Two things that made Phish unique were its sense of humor and long jam sessions. What elements of Phish remain in your current music and what distinguishes it?
Trey Anastasio: The elements that remain would be the tendency towards humor and jams -- it's just inherent in my personality. But it's really different from the ground up. It has a unique, fluid rhythm section -- it's big, heavy, multi-layered music.
CD: After Phish, you formed the band Oysterhead with Les Claypool and Stewart Copeland. What was it like playing with Claypool and Copeland in a trio setting?
TA: Loud. It was great. When we went into the barn, we just chose to play together and started writing. That's what you hear on the album. And good bus conversations -- I can't wait to see those guys again.
CD: What things were you able to accomplish creatively in Oysterhead that you couldn't in Phish?
TA: One thing, co-writing lyrics and setting up in a room is how the songs came together, which we don't do frequently with Phish. I have that relationship much more with Tom and Les. That would be the main difference, but it's hard to compare anything to Phish at that point in time. When I came into Oysterhead, I had 18 years with Phish. Phish has history -- we've been friends since 18, and it's like blood brothers. There'll never be anything like that. Everything runs so deep with Phish -- it's deeper than family. We've been back together this week and although it's been two years, it feels like five minutes have passed. You can compare the style, but you can't compare the history.
CD: What inspired you to go from the trio setting of Oysterhead to your current horns-based band?
TA: Well, the band I'm touring with, I had the idea for a long time. I did "Surrender the Air," which is close to the lineup of this band. That album is almost entirely improvised. I saw King Sunny in Burlington in the 1980s, and I had an idea for a large band based on the model of King Sunny -- a dance band with deep rhythms. I wanted a hint of the large band with a swing band concept, but with a deeper harmonic element than what you hear in popular music today. I like content, and there was a lot of Phish music with content, but you can hear it better with brass instruments.
I first contacted the bass player and built the band gradually. Since the summer tour, I've added new stuff, learning more about Brazilian music and learning different styles. I'm learning more about African music, Brazilian music and composition, and I'm putting it all in a rock jam band. It's just starting to get there, I think. The beauty of the swing bands is that if you went to see these bands with a date and if the groove was great, you could dance.
But if you listen to those arrangements, there's something that's art in it. That's basically what I'm trying to do -- lots of guitar and stuff. That's the difference with Oysterhead and Phish -- I've been planning this a long time. If you trace it to 1993, you can see it formed with "Surrender" and the trio tour.
CD: What things are you able to accomplish in your current band that you couldn't in Phish or Oysterhead, or vice versa?
TA: I didn't have as many voices [in Phish] and now I have a lot more colors. One difference is the five-piece horn section. With Phish, you're limited to organ, piano or drum pieces. With this band, all the horn players double or triple, so you could do an arrangement with the flute and then the muted trombone and a sax. That's the main difference -- voices.
CD: With your live performances, people often have the impression that the jam sessions are purely improvisation. However, the jams fit together in a coherent manner that seems rehearsed. Are the jam sessions improv or rehearsed ahead of time?
TA: Dude, definitely improv. The parts that are improved with my band have hand signals and are pretty much wide open. You might hear it if something happens in the improv, like the last tour with my band we added a flute solo and it worked. Sometimes it's just a discovery in improv that fits, which might make it seem rehearsed.
CD: When you begin a live performance, do you have an idea of what songs you'll play ahead of time?
TA: I don't have a song list, because I can't gauge what the night's going to feel like, but I might have a few songs in mind. That's pretty much it. That could be out of laziness because it's too much work -- it's just easier to look out in the audience and decide then.
CD: What musicians have had the biggest influence on you, and how are those influences played out in your music?
TA: At this point, it's just so many, it's all the people that I've listened to. I'm a music fanatic and I wouldn't know where to begin. Last night I played with Spearhead, and I talked with Michael backstage and I liked the spirit of his music. It changes everyday. It's hard for me to pick someone above the rest of the pile. More and more I see the path of music as one and everybody contributes to it.
CD: If you could play with any band or artist in history, who would it be and why?
TA: Bob Marley, because he was the most important musician of the modern era -- I think that 500 years from now he'll be considered one of the persons that people look at. He was the biggest spiritual being I've heard who did it in music. I'd put him in the same gang as Ghandi.
CD: As a final question, what albums are you currently listening to?
TA: Right now, I'm listening to Brian Eno's "Another Green World" and "One Night Stand" by the Sauter-finegan Orchestra, 1967. That's a great album if you want to hear a beautiful swing band. Also, I'm listening to the Talking Heads "'77."
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