Interview: Billy Kelly

Billy Kelly often signs his e-mails and newsletters, "Billy Kelly, Actual Person."  I think it's just a jibe at the tendency for impersonal and robotic e-mails, but if the robots' e-mails and newsletters were as amusing and perceptive as Kelly's, then I for one would welcome our new robot overlords.

Kelly's fourth album for kids, AGAIN!!!, is a deft blend of the sincere and absurd ("sinburd?" "abscere?"), a great kindie treat.  Kelly recently responded to some questions via e-mail.  Read on for his views on when something is too over the top, the purpose of cover songs, and the relative importance of kids music to wrapping the George Washington bridge in cellophane.

Also: you can stream an unreleased track from Kelly below.  One with a ROBOT MIX.  (Maybe I shouldn't actually believe him when Kelly says he's an actual person, hm?)

Zooglobble: What are your earliest musical memories?

Billy Kelly: I remember taking a wicked sax solo in the delivery room a few minutes after I was born, but for the life of me I cannot remember what song we were playing. Great groove; that much I recall!

Exactly how many different musical projects are you a part of?

It's hard to say exactly, but it's certainly at least 3 musical projects, and perhaps as many as 3.25. In addition to recording and performing for kids & families with "Billy Kelly & The Blahblahblahs", I play banjo and sing in an alt-country band called "Earl Pickens & Family". I also play guitar and sing in a roots-rock/Americana band called The Sweetbriars. I have reason to believe my left leg is in an all-leg band called "LëG" but as yet I cannot prove this. Anyway, that's where the .25 I alluded to comes from.

What made you decide to write (and record) music for families?

My brain.

When you're writing songs for families, how do you balance your sense of humor and earnestness in choosing what to record?  Do you ever write a song and think, "that's way too ironic [or earnest] for my audience?"

This is a constant debate for me. I like the spot I claimed for myself in the kindie universe with my first album Thank You For Joining The Happy Club — as kind of an absurdist musical Seinfeld for kids. The "Seinfeld for kids" thing was mentioned in one of the first reviews that came in for Happy Club, but I had already been alluding to Seinfeld while we were recording. I kept telling people in the studio that my album was going to be "Jerry Seinfeld, not Jerry Lewis." So I was glad to see that my intention came across to others that way when the reviews came in.

The drawback to the whole "I am completely absurd and I have no sincere sentiment to impart" thing, as I found out, is that unsuspecting audiences don't know what to make of you. People were bringing their kids out to hear a nice family show, but they often ended up scratching their heads wondering what was going on. Happy Club had some moments of sincerity on it, but I really started running with the absurdist football in my live shows. ("Absurdist Football" is a great name for a band btw.) 

I went in 100% on the absurd vibe for my second disc, but ultimately felt that it wasn't entirely me when I played the songs live. I had cut the sentimental stuff from the live set entirely I was performing AT people more than I was performing FOR them. It was an interesting experiment, but not personally rewarding — 10-minute-long live versions of "The Ballad of Johnny Box" notwithstanding.

My third album The Family Garden swung heavily towards sincerity, and since then I've been more comfortable allowing that side of me to show through in my songs. The new disc is the first one I've done where I feel that sincerity and absurdism are given their due in parts more or less proportionate to my personality. I enjoy relaying the odd thoughts that occur to me in song, but I really do want to connect with the kids & parents on a personal level.

Have you ever recorded something and thought, "no, that's too over the top, even for me?" -- after all you wrote a rockin' song in honor of bonsai, an ode to butter, and an epic song in honor of a box, so that bar, if it exists, seems somewhat high.

Often it goes the other way, where I decide a song isn't weird enough. I only recall rejecting a song for being TOO weird one time. There was a song I recorded for AGAIN!!! called "Might it Be Love?", but it took some strange turns in the studio that rendered it unusable. We recorded the backing tracks in a key that was too high for me to sing in my normal voice so I tried singing it an octave lower. My voice ended up sounding like the robot from "Lost In Space" so we started adding these totally incongruous outer space sounds to the track. Laser beams, explosions, "DESTROY THE HUMAN!" voiceovers and stuff like that. It made sense to me because I was watching the music video in my head — space commander and his brilliant female assistant, who is secretly in love with him, explore a hostile alien robot world — but I realized to people who lacked access to the TV screen in my brain it was just total weirdness. I ended up dropping the track from the album because it was too over the top, as you said.

Here's "Might It Be Love" — perfectly preserved at the exact moment when I abandoned it...

The falsetto voice was going to be sung by a female vocalist. There was also a wedding-march theme at the end, which you can sort of hear on the guitar in this mix. I had a narrated introduction planned — something along the lines of "When we last joined our heroes, Captain Strong-Good and his brilliant copilot, Lieutenant Dr. Smartz, they had safely landed on planet XPL-MNOJ-7. But DANGER loomed outside their spacecraft as they prepared to explore the hostile, alien world..." and so on. They escape on their spaceship at the end. Too much, even for me. Also: Why?

To be fair, while all of this was going on, my "Ode to Butter" song was called "Theme from Butter! The Musical" and I was considering recording it with the local high school musical theater department. So there was a lot of "idea down-sizing" going on at that point.

What's your criteria for picking cover songs ("Don't Worry 'Bout the Government," "Mr. Blue Sky")?  What song would you have given your right (or left) arm to have written?

I like well known "grown up" songs that blend in perfectly on a children's album. Not the obvious ones like "Yellow Submarine" or "Octopus's Garden" but the songs that people don't realize are kids music in disguise. "Our House" by Madness, "Rock Lobster" by B52's, "Mr. Blue Sky" by ELO etc. I enjoy the shift in perception that takes place when you present these songs to an audience of kids and adults. Adults hear this song that they know so well, and suddenly find it cast in a different light while the kids, who have probably never even heard the song before, are accepting it at face value... He DOES see the clouds that move across the sky! He DOES see the wind that moves the clouds away! Of course he does.

In turn, I like how placing these songs in a new context alongside my original songs challenges the listener to think of what I do as more than generic "kids music." If that Talking Heads song blends in well, then all the other songs benefit by association. 

Like most musical artists, I find cover songs useful but I have a strict rule about only playing covers that are very well known. I don't do obscure B-sides or unreleased tracks. The cover songs are there to re-capture people's attention and to prop up my own songs by showing them hanging out in good company. Plus I like to put my own spin on cover songs — changing them in a way that makes them mine.

Are you an artist who also makes music, a musician who also makes art?  Or just a Renaissance man generally?

"Renaissance Man" is too often substituted for "jack of all trades, master of none", but in this case the substitution is apropos. Life is short and I want to try as many different things as I can, so "Jack of all trades etc." is fine with me. I'm always turning my attention to some new project but this, and coffee, is what keeps me going. This is why I have a manager — I need someone to remind me of things I've started in earnest that deserve to be completed. Otherwise I'd be on a new project every week.

As to the whole artist/musician thing, I went to art school (Cooper Union, NYC) and I thought of myself as a visual artist for the first 25 years or so of my life. My 'visual arts' brain was rewired to serve as a musical brain at some point, but I still consider what I do to be Art, capital A. I believe that if you create something with the goal of making the world a better or even simply a more interesting place then it qualifies as Art. I'm proud to be creating art for family-consumption and I think it's as valid and important as painting a portrait or choreographing a ballet or wrapping the George Washington bridge in cellophane.

What's next for Billy Kelly, Actual Person?

I have a bunch of music videos I want to make and I've been writing a collection of songs about trees for an album to be called, you guessed it, Trees. "Bonsai" (from my new CD) was yanked from Trees because I just couldn't wait to get that particular song out into the world. My plan is to keep writing the Trees album, rehearse the heck out of it with my band and maybe head up to Dean Jones' "No Parking Studio" for a few days and record it there.

Lots of shows on the road are being planned as well. Really the best part of the job — visiting new places, seeing new sights, meeting new people and trying to make them smile, dance and laugh.

I also have plans to type a period at the end of this sentence and send these interview answers to you.

Photo credit: BK with guitar, Johnny Box photos by Amy Hsu Lin.

Interview: Aaron Nigel Smith

Aaron Nigel Smith features a lot of guest stars on his album Welcome to the Village -- Dan Zanes, Laurie Berkner, Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, Lucky Diaz -- but the guest artists featured most prominently are the kids of his One World Chorus, a multi-national choral group.

Smith chatted with us earlier this month about his experiences growing up at a choral boarding school, his long route back to kids' choral groups, and the benefits of singing in groups, not to mention his future plans (hint: Bob Marley has something to do with it.)

Zooglobble:What was your first musical memory?

Aaron Nigel Smith: I think it was my elementary school music class with Mrs. Gibson.  We played the xylophones; she was using the Orff/Kodaly method.  I really enjoyed that above and beyond the rest of school.  It opened me up.

And at age 11, you went to study music away from home?

Yes, at the American Boychoir School.  I was at Camp Albermarle, a summer camp, and while there they picked a few kids to audition.  I passed the audition, and soon I was at the school.

It was an incredibly life-changing experience.  From day one, people knew that you wanted to be a musician.  There was choir practice several hours a day on top of class.  We toured every state, we went to Europe, we sang with people like Jessye Norman -- it was incredibly high-quality.

What did you want to do as a musician?

I wanted to be a singer, specifically a classical singer doing light opera, oratorio, choral music, that was my main thought, anyway.

And so what was the path from that career to children's musician?

I went to Interlochen, the music camp, which is where I met my wife.  I attended the Manhattan School of Music and performed with the Albert McNeil Choral Singers.  I toured internationally, I was touring rigorously.  But with with kids, it was a little rough -- literally the day after the birth of our first son Zion, I had to fly to Japan for two weeks.  I did it, because that's what I had to do to earn money for our family, but it was heart-wrenching.

The first hour I spent teaching music was another life-defining moment for me.  I went into the class and immediately threw out the plan I had -- I spent time with the kids with honesty and integrity, I improvised.

That was ten or eleven years ago now.  It's great to see families engaged together.

What was the inspiration for the One World Children's Chorus?

That's really coming full circle for me.  I had been exploring ideas for working with a non-profit.  And I'd been touring and working with my children's music program FUNdamentals.

The choir started in California as the Palisades Choir, but if you're familiar with that area, you know that there's not much need for outreach in that area.  When we decided to move from Los Angeles to Oregon, we expanded that vision to Oregon, then to New York City with some kids I'd been working with there for a few years, and then to Nairobi, Kenya.

We started working with the Cura Orphanage there.  We were able to send proceeds to the orphanage.  And I wanted to have these groups of children singing together.

Do you have particular memories from the sessions?

With Los Angeles, it's the memory of the inception of the recording in my home studio, with my sons, goofing around.  In New York, it was the opportunity to collaborate with Antonio Dangerfield, who was my high school roommate and now works with the Achievement First Academy.

As for Kenya, I'd never been there before.  I'd see the state the kids were existing in, then see them sing with such joy -- they had joy in their eyes as they sang together, even though they had no shoes and were singing in a mud hut.

And in Portland, I finally feel at home.  There's been such openness and kindness -- help with with recording, appearances on TV, and parents jumping with enthusiasm.  We had auditions yesterday and the day before and had 50 kids.

What do you see as the benefits of choral singing for kids?

Well, the voice is a pure instrument, it's inside us.  Beyond that, we all come out of preschool together, but by the time you hit fourth or fifth grade people can be tool cool for someone.  Choir has you standing next to someone, blending your voices together.  Those values of cooperation are useful.  Not even 20% of these kids will become musicians, but they'll learn you can accomplish a lot if you sing together.

There aren't many opportunities to have kids sing together, particularly outside of a church setting -- what advice do you have for getting a group together?

Well, to start off with, just sing with your kids -- it's OK!  We spend so much time telling then not to sing, right?  It doesn't have to be from a hymnal, of course -- sing Bob Marley, the Beatles, general sing-along.

Once kids start singing, they want to sing together, to write music.  And there are so many audiences if you want to perform in front of audiences -- schools, nursing homes.

Singing is coming back into vogue now with Glee and American Idol and the rest (not that I'd push Idol and those shows).  That shows cool high school singing.

What's next for you?

I'm excited about the next season with One World.  We've picked out our next location -- in February we're going to Jamaica.  We're going to be working at Bob Marley's elementary school.  There's also a possibility of working in Haiti in 2013.  That's a little more unstable, and we're trying to find the right partner.

Our next CD is going to be a holiday CD, and we're also doing a holiday concert.

Finally, we're going to put on a children's music festival here in Lake Oswego in the Portland area -- we have a year to pull it off.

Photo credits: Dove Rudman (ANS), Melissa Heinonin (OWC Portland), Michael Kilmurray (Cura school)

Interview: Greg Attonito & Shanti Wintergate (Play Date)

It was only last year that one-time Skankin' Pickle member Mike Park released his foray into kids music, the album SMILE.

And now he's got a whole kids music label, Fun Fun Records.  One of the two debut releases from the label is Imagination from the band Play Date.  The band consists of husband-and-wife team Greg Attonito (of punk band The Bouncing Souls) and Shanti Wintergate.  They dipped their toes in creating art for kids with the publication some years back of the book I Went for a Walk.  They took some time last month from their summer touring schedule to talk about laying down under pianos, positive energy, and Imagination's inspiration.

Zooglobble: What are your first musical memories?

 

Greg Attonito: Listening to my Mom playing piano at our house. I would lay down on the floor under the piano keyboard at my Mom's feet and feel the sounds of the piano. I really loved that... and sometimes singing along when my Grandmother would play piano and sing at her house. 

Shanti Wintergate: I've been surrounded by music since I was in the womb.  My musician parents have always been performing and playing music throughout my life, so it's hard to pinpoint a specific moment...it was just always there.  Our whole family was always singing and harmonizing together as long as I can remember.  My brother and I used to lay down by the side of our pool and sing the same note into the water. We would watch the water move and listen to the reverberations and echoes of our voices. We would sometimes do this for hours. 

 

When did you decide you wanted to be a professional musician?

 

I thought it might be possible when I was in high school learning our favorite punk rock songs with friends.  We played shows in our hometown and talked about rock 'n' roll dreams.  Miraculously we made them come true.  It has been an amazing adventure. I have learned so much through the experience of making music with those same high school friends over the course of 23 years.  I'm excited to be bringing all I've learned from being in a rock band into making music for kids.

 

The idea first occurred to me, when I started learning how to play guitar to accompany lyrics and melodies I had always written.  There was a freedom in being a self-contained musical creator.  I was asked to perform one of my songs in a local summer music festival, which I did and I've been hooked ever since.

 

When did you first start thinking about recording an album of family music?  Was it around the time of publication of I Went For a Walk or was it later than that?

 

We had talked about it a bit before that. I think the first time might have been when we played for our nephew's 2nd grade class.. That was the initial spark. We continued talking about it during and after the "I Went For A Walk" tours but we were so busy with pre-existing projects there wasn't time for it. 

 

What was your guiding philosophy in writing the songs for the album?

Our main focus was creating music that parents would enjoy as much as the kids and to infuse some positivity and fun into the world.  We were also really careful about the energy we put into the entire creative process.  We wanted it to feel effortless, and naturally uplifting so we committed to only working on this project when we were in the right frame of mind.  We found that usually just working on this music in and of itself put us in a great mood so it wasn't really a problem.  I know this might sound silly but, our hope is that anyone listening to the record will feel like they had a blast hanging out with us singing songs and getting silly for forty-five minutes or so..... and maybe even feel a little more loved and cared about through the experience.  :)

What has surprised you (positively or negatively) as you wrote/recorded/started to promote and tour the album?

 

I was surprised at how much fun we had recording the record.  I knew it would be fun but it was way more fun than I expected!

I can't think of anything negative, but there have been lots of positives.  I also had a feeling we were going to have fun creating this music, but I hadn't expected the fun to be so contagious.   It seems everyone who has been around or part of the recording process has been influenced positively by the experience.... it's just too fun to resist!  Writing and recording this record, I allowed myself to explore musical boundaries that I didn't even know I had.  We also played all the instruments on this record except drums, so there has been a great satisfaction in that.

 

What's your impression of other music being recorded for kids -- any favorites, or have you tended to stay away?  Has that impression changed at all over time or as you've been recording/finishing the album?

I have just recently had my ears open to the world of kids music so I don't know many of the artists.  I like They Might Be Giants.  Their kids music is really good.  Our friend Kepi's new kids record is great, too. It's called Kepi For Kids and it will also be coming out on Fun Fun Records.

In the past I think it was a little more challenging to find music for kids that wasn't too "dumbed down" and obviously "children's music"... but it seems like today it's becoming easier to find good music for kids. MORE musicians are putting MORE effort into making quality music for kids.  It's so important!!  The music that kids are exposed to early on influence their musical tastes as they grow and there's plenty of evidence of music influencing emotional and mental states.  The importance of music in child development is finally gaining some well deserved ground.  Kids need a wholesome diet for their EARS as well as their BODIES!  

How much touring do you plan to do as Play Date? What have your experiences been playing for kids thus far as compared to playing in the Bouncing Souls or as a duo?

We just did a show last week in Montreal that was a blast! It was the first year the PouzzaFest hosted a kids stage at their big rock festival.  They did a great job and a lot of families came out and had a great time. 

We may do some dates this fall in Southern California. We intend to submit for more festivals with kids stages for next year and we are exchanging ideas right now about setting up a package tour with all of the artists releasing kids music on Fun Fun Records... so that is what is in the works at the moment. 

I have really enjoyed the new experience of playing for the kids in a more family friendly environment. The shows are earlier in the day..HAHA! It's broadening my musical horizons and challenging me to be more free with music in writing and performing.

 

What's next for you (kid-wise or otherwise)?

The Bouncing Souls released a new record on June 12th so I will be on tour in the U.S. all summer supporting that.  Play Date's record is coming out on October 9th.  We are really looking forward to getting the new Play Date record out in the world and supporting its release.  It's going to be really fun to see how it impacts the world.

 

Photo credit: Mike McLaughlin

Interview: Ulises Bella (Ozomatli)

For more than 15 years, the Los Angeles-based band Ozomatli have been mixing musical styles from around the globe (LA is the globe writ small), moving people's feet while sometimes addressing some pretty serious topics.  Now, with their latest album OzoKidz, out this week on iTunes and out everywhere else late September, they're bringing their mashup of styles to some younger fans.  I talked last week with saxophonist and keyboardist Ulises ("Uli") Bella (sitting, center, with the uke) about OzoKidz's origins, the difference in structuring their live gigs, and the old Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard.  (And, for a limited time -- i.e., Monday -- pick up a free download of the song "Trees" from the new album at the widget at the bottom of the page.)

Zooglobble: What are your first musical memories?

Ulises Bella: I think... my dad was a classical violinist -- he didn't make it into the Paris Conservatory, but he loved classical music.  So Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi, those artists.  But also my mom's poppy Mexican music and Spanish music, which my dad likes.  They encouraged setting up my own stereo system.

I remember my dad driving me to Tower Records to buy the new Blondie album.

The famous one with the actual tower?

Yeah, the one on Sunset.  It was quite a trek, about 40-50 minutes drive.  In fact, they had their annex with the classical music section right across the street, so I'd go into the main one and my dad would go to the annex and I'd meet him there afterwards.

You had done some kid-friendly things before this, songs for PBS and the Happy Feet Two videogame, but how did you fall into this album in particular?

There are some songs of ours that resonated with young kids.  "My kids love 'Chango,' gets so energetic in the car," fans would tell us.  We'd do outreach, and some songs just resonated with the kids.

Then Mario Calire, our drummer, just threw it out there -- "have you ever thought about a kids music album?"  Among Mexican Americans, there's this well-loved musician, Cri-Cri, who's this super-iconic Mexican children's artist.  We wanted to make that sort of album, specifically for kids, but for parents, too.

Did you have specific goals in mind when writing the songs for the album?

We did a lot of brainstorming -- should it be themed?  Like "animals" -- everybody writes a song about a different animal.  But in the end it ended up being an eclectic collection, lots of energy, always dacing.  Some of the songs are educational - "Trees," "Germs" -- and some celebratory.  We ended up being ourselves.

Did recording it have a different feel from recording an "adult" album?

Totally.  We try to focus on our audience, and tried to remember the energy of childhood.  Adults have to be intoxicated or really let their walls down.  We'd have kids in there with us with the percussion -- they brought a light energy to the room.  There were different subjects, too, more lighthearted as opposed to Ozomatli, which deals with more global issues, heavier subjects.  It really was like kids play.

What are the differences between playing live for adults and for kids?

Again, it's about presentation and the energy level.  A regular Ozomatli set is 90 minutes long and features a lot of solos.  The OzoKidz shows are a lot more concise, have a lot more energy.  We involve the kids in every song, as opposed to the adult shows.

Do you like playing 45 minutes as opposed to 90 minutes?

A little bit?  Sometimes I'm just getting warmed up and then I have to come offstage!? [Laughs.]

Are you willing to mix in kids tunes in your adult shows?

That's actually a hotly debated issue in the band.  We'll play it by ear.  We want to keep the energies separate.  But if one of those songs really penetrates on radio or with an audience, who knows?

What preconceptions about kids music music were changed? Any proven true?

One thing that surprised me was the group of artists that have done this.  Why don't more bands do it?  Might not fit their image, maybe.  We're always down for the kids, it's part of what we do.  We all had mentors growing up who said you can do it too and so we're bringing it to the next generation.  I always think it's cool.

Did anybody think it wasn't cool when word got around you were doing a kids album?

Not one negative response -- they all said, "That's awesome."

What's next for the band?

We're hooking up with producer Matt Wallace for the next straight-up Ozomatli album.  We're on the road every weekend, doing both adult and kid shows.  Touring Australia, too.  We're really excited to see how people digest the album.

Photo credits: Christian Lantry

Interview: Jack Forman (Recess Monkey)

If Recess Monkey aren't the hardest-working band in kids music, then there's some other band who's figured out how break the 24-hours-in-a-day rule.  The Seattle trio has been cranking out a new studio yearly like clockwork, touring locally and nationally, and coming up with crazy-cool collaborative notions like Kindiependent, the Seattle-area collective of kindie rockers.

Their latest project, the recently released album In Tents, has also spurred a burst of creallaborativity (that's a word I just made up to reflect "collaborative creativity"), as it was the soundtrack for a kid-friendly circus show by Seattle-based troupe Teatro ZinZanni.

Last month bassist Jack Forman took time out during a "dingy, Kafka-esque Seattle morning" (his words, not mine), to talk about the album, the circus, and keeping things fresh when you're so busy).

Zooglobble: What are your childhood memories of the circus?

Jack Forman: I didn't go to the circus a lot.  I did go to the Ringling circus with my grandma in Indiana.  They had real Transformers and Truckosaurus, when I was 7 or 8 years old.  I've been interested in that combination of humor and darkness.

What are your favorite types of circus acts?

Oh, the contortion stuff, acrobatics, gymnasts.  There's this 11-year-old gymnast named Saffi Watson in the ZinZanni show, she's just insane.

Those are some of my favorites.  They're so good you sometimes forget they're just people.  I saw a Cirque du Soleil show recently, and when one of the trampoline gymnasts couldn't nail a landing, it was almost a good thing, because it reminded you just how hard these things are.

Yeah, there's the humanity, too.  It's refreshing to see when they've trained their whole life.

What came first - the album or the show?

The album came first -- we've been thinking about it for a couple years.  We kinda joked about it -- you know, hokey melodies for 3 year-olds, dinosaurs, clowns like you'd see at a teacher supply store.  But then we decided we wanted to steal back the idea from the cheesy preschool store and make it our own.  Give it a rich treatment, work with Dean [Jones, musician/producer].

Four months out from recording, I mentioned it to Korum [Bischoff[, who's a drummer for Johnny Bregar and who also works with Teatro ZinZanni, and before we knew it we spent 6 monhts with them working on a storyline.  Now we're so excited -- it's the coolest live show we've ever done.

So it's awesome live?

It's the first time we've played a record this fully live.  We've focursed on making our show dance-driven.  It's a pretty intense set, fully high-energy, sing-alongable.  Kids never sit and listen.  That's just what works for us. So there are a number of songs we've never played live.  For this show, we play 13 of the 15 songs from In Tents.

"Carousel" is my favorite musically, underscoring the performance.  There are 8 performers with costumes, a ballerina with 10-foot wings.  It's collaborative, complementary.  It's similar in some ways to a Flaming Lips show -- amazing visuals, interactive.  There are some moments where we're part of a larger team.  It's a dream come true.

Are there other favorites from the album?

"House of Cards," we don't do live, but the lyrics are really funny, and was the song most changed by Dean.  It started out as a ragtime song, then became a samba with a crummy Casio loop.  "Bouncy House" is really fun to play live.  You nailed the comparison to "Get Back" in your review -- yeah, even to the guest on keyboards.  (It was Drew's favorite song at some point at least.)

So you're probably the "Hardwest Working Band" in kids music... how do you keep the music and performances fresh?

Well, thank you for the premise of the question, that it's still fresh.  I was really worried a few albums ago (around Aminal House) -- how do you do it if you think it's the best you've done?  And it's been satisfying to detect growth each time.  We're playing more every year, which has helped as we've played new genres and can play new licks we couldn't do a couple years ago.  We've got 75-100 shows 'til the end of the year, but there's time to think about next year.  Maybe a concept record, maybe something more loose.

We really just enjoy each other creatively.

Other things you're doing to help with that?

On the business stuff, I took a year off to be with [my son] Oscar.  I do the booking and other stuff.  It gives Drew and Daron time to have more creative energy.  That's worked, I think.  It's helped to preserve the artistic core of the band.

What's next?

We're playing a lot -- a lot of time on the road with library shows and on the East Coast.  We'll probably add some circus shows. [Note: They're playing a handful of shows in August and September.]  And we're thinking about the new record -- themes, song ideas.

Photo by Kevin Fry