You guys are often labeled a "jam" band. What do you think about that?
Yeah, that happens very often. When we first started out, we just looked at it as a Northeast music scene. It stuck with us in the beginning and won't go away.
You don't sound too enthusiastic about it.
Well, it's such an all-encompassing term these days, it's so generic that it doesn't really give you an idea of what a group is about. There are so many kinds of bands out there that are considered jam bands now, it's almost a lost term already because it has been used so much.
It seems as if the new album is trying to distance moe. from that perception.
It's always been our goal as we go into the studio to use it to the fullest. We've known from the beginning that it's extremely difficult to capture the spirit of what we do live in a sterile environment with no audience. So we try to go another way with it: When we're in the studio, that's a whole other tool that we use-a completely different instrument. We always try to get as much out of it as we can. A lot of the songs on this album are definitely shorter than past ones. We kind of built them in a more vertical fashion than linear.
Has the band itself been more into the production process on this one?
Yeah, the personal involvement has been way higher. When we first did the studio, we didn't have the experience and didn't really know what we were doing, and then when we were with Sony it was their money, so they had to put who they felt was a good watchdog producer person so that they felt they got the album they wanted. This time it was just us: The production process, recording process, engineering process, all the ideas were ours. It feels a lot better.
Have you been dissatisfied with past albums?
I don't know if you'd call it not satisfied, but we definitely wanted to get more out of them than we did. When you work on something for so long, you become very nearsighted to it and can't really see it till it's done. And hearing the final product now, we're definitely way happier with this album than previous attempts.
How do you feel about being a mostly guitar-based band in a music scene that as a whole is moving away from the guitar?
It's strange because I've been a drummer and percussionist and bass player as well, and I've always had my issues with that guitar-rock scene. I don't like the idea that pop music has been focused mainly on one instrument for such a long time, but now that it's moving away from it, it definitely changes everything. From my point of view and my instrument, I kind of enjoy it, because it's not something that's gonna hold us back. We have two incredibly inventive and creative guitar sections and then an excellent rhythm section so we're not really at a loss if we need to turn the focus of certain songs to other instruments, the more the better, and it gives us the chance to diversify and really grow.
I heard that you covered Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon for Halloween with Wizard of Oz synced up. Is that true?
This is true.
That's pretty ballsy.
[Laughs] We figured the best way we could pull it off was to show the movie and actually listen to the CD on headphones as we were playing it, to make sure that it was synced up with the flick. It actually came off really good. We got the opportunity to run through it about twice before we actually did it live and we were a little nervous [laughs], but it came out great the night of the show.
Phish does stuff like that for their live shows, but nothing that ambitious. Do you do other stuff like that onstage?
Well, for the bigger shows like Halloween or New Year's, we try to have a theme and represent that theme either in the stage set or costumes or the set list. The 2000 New Year's Eve, we had this whole Armaggedon theme: We played "Hell's Bells," we were all wearing costumes, and the whole set was designed in flames.
I also heard that you added on a keyboard player [Kirk Juhas].
He's played a lot with us on the Northeast shows, plays in a band called Free Beer and Chicken, and he's a really good friend of ours... awesome keyboard player. He's on the album, but he doesn't do the big tours with us right now. He's a great addition to the sound.
What have you been listening to from last year?
I listen to a lot of everything. Chronic 2001 was one of my favorite albums released last year. I'm so busy trying to listen to all the stuff I couldn't afford five years ago that it's tough. As far as music styles go, I generally listen to the heavier veins of music. I grew up listening to Metallica and Slayer, [and I'm a] big speed metal fan. And I'm also a very large jazz fanatic. [I] try to play both sides of the spectrum.
Speaking of Metallica and cheap music, we just heard that Napster is being shut down. What's your take on that?
I have mixed feelings about it as an artist, just because I'd like to see the technology used because I feel that everyone should get the opportunity to hear the music. But there has to be a way for the artist to recoup. The aspect that a lot of people don't understand is that when the artist records an album, they're in debt to the record company. The only way they can repay that debt is through record sales. They can't take the touring money and pay off the album.
But record sales were up this year.
Yeah, which is... weird. I also hate record companies, as an artist. They don't represent as they should, and they don't back the artist the way they should.
Have you guys had trouble with record companies?
When Tin Cans [the band's 1998 album on Sony] was released, there was stuff that we were told was gonna happen. They didn't push it the way we would have liked, didn't get behind the album the way they said they would.
Your live album was on your own record company, though, and that did pretty well.
It's continuing to do pretty well, thank God, and Dither is also released on our own company, with our own distribution.
Do you feel more confident with it under your own label?
It's awesome. It's a great feeling-the record's been getting excellent reviews and selling well already, and it's all us. You can't beat that.
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