trey interview part 1
Isaac Josephson
FINALLY!
Here is the article I wrote for art+performance magazine based on the
interview I did with Trey last month.
"a+p" stands for art+performance...
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Spring break, 1992 was a landmark time of my life. My cousin
got married. I experienced coed showers at Haverford College. I
lost one of my closest friends, and I saw Phish for the first time.
My cousin married an arrogant lawyer from Queens who is now
50 pounds overweight. As for the showers, I highly recommend
such entities at Northwestern. My friend, a lovely Russian girl I
met in high school youth group, lost her identity to a sorority.
Phish played for roughly 500 people at the Chestnut Cabaret.
I was supposed to go with the Russian girl. However, she had
her heart set on flittering back and forth between the fraternity
parties that evening. So, she gave me a key to her dorm and we
parted ways.
It was a bit odd, going to a show alone in an unfamiliar city. I
got to the venue about 30 minutes before the scheduled start,
sat down on the dance floor and pretended to be very
interested in my $7.00 ticket. I'd been there 5 minutes when I
felt a tap on the shoulder. A girl with what seemed like her
entire head encased in hair wraps introduced herself as "Sky,"
and asked if I would like to join her group of friends.
They were a blissful, grimy and incestuous crew, intrepid travelers
from a commune in Oregon slowly making their way out to visit
Sky's sister at Choate Academy in the hopes that they could persuade
her to follow them on the cannabis and hallucinogen-laced path of
the renegade prep school hippie.
I was happily accepted into this mellow contingent, and we sat down,
cross legged together to wait for the show to begin.
The lights went out and four men wandered on stage. The drummer
was clothed in a worn black and orange sun dress with an
unobtrusive strip of duck tape attached to the side. The guitarist
sported a shaggy hair-do, spectacles with $2.00 frames and a wacky
grin. The bass player would have been right at home in a Lewis
Carroll novel and the keyboardist looked like John McEnroe on
Nitrous.
Then they began to play.And I found myself immersed in an ocean of
the best music I'd ever experienced. I closed my eyes, singling out
each of the instruments in my mind and following their grooves, then
put them all back together into a symphony of emotion. I was a part
of the show. I don't remember much after the first three songs.
Somewhere in the confused haze was a great rendition of "Take the
'A' Train," six cokes and an electrolux vaccuum cleaner.
My next vivid memory was finding myself drooling over a batch of
cheese fries at a Philly steak sandwich shop around the corner from
my friend's dorm. They took what seemed like hours to eat.
Phish is a very personal experience.
Now, three years later Phish plays in stadiums, arenas and pavillions
for well over 10,000 fans at a time. Phishnet, an internet newsgroup
dedicated to discussion of the band, has grown to over 40,000
participants.
Fans began to fall victim to the inevitable contest of one-upping each
other. "I have more tapes..." "I've been to more shows." Sometime
around last October, when a member of the Phishnet announced he
was painting his face green and dedicating his life to the study of
Phishlosophy, I took a step back. I tried to examine what exactly it
was I liked about Phish and how I could continue to experience it.
How could I rediscover that unique feeling under these conditions?
Was it possible for Phish to retain its personal nature on such a large
magnitude? These were questions I have been asking myself since
Phish made the jump from Chicago gigs at the Metro (a venue of
under 1,000) to the Aragon Ballroom, an acoustic nightmare that
holds somewhere in the neighborhood of 7,000 undernourished fans.
Of course, those who recall Nectar's bar back in 1984 probably said
the same thing when Phish moved on to bigger and lesspersonal
venues.
Seven months later I still had not come up with an answer. I tried to
rediscover that feeling through other bands, genres of music, but
none came close.
Then, just before Phish's show at the UIC pavillion, a 14,000 seat
venue, I had a chance to speak with Trey Anastasio, sometimes lead
singer and guitarist of Phish about things from his perspective.We
spoke of music and Spectacle, o fMarvin Gaye and Peter Gabriel He
told me what he thought of the new stuff and the old.
I found some answers to my questions. But sharing them with you
would deprive you of your creativity. Read what Trey had to say and
come to your own conclusions about the unique musical phenomenon
known as Phish.
(a+p) Could you talk about Phish in terms of a concert, where people go to
hear the performance, and in terms of a spectacle, where people go to see the
performance?
(trey) Its a good question because it makes me think. I don't have some
sort of stock answer. It's not like "Where do you hail from."
I guess I don' t really distinguish between the two. I think of the
whole thing as an event.
(a+p) What do people get out of the event?
(trey) Energy. The whole thing is kind of a transfer of energy. Music, to
me is all about energy itself. I think that when I go on stage, I feel a
combination of different feelings - anticipation, exitement. I feel
things start to happen - music, spontaneaty and maybe a little bit of
fear because I don't really know what is going to happen next.
(a+p) Back in the spring tour of 1991, you guys showed an animated video for
"Esther" (a song off of their album, Junta). I was wondering if you'd ever
consider integrating more multimedia like that into your performance?
(trey) That video was shown between sets and it was the only time we'd ever
done something like that. I don't really like the concept of video screens and
things unless they're used in some kind of creative aspect where the audience
as well as the band are using their creative minds.
(a+p) So you do not believe in Spectacle as a part of the music
performance?
(trey) I'm not against it. If there's Spectacle, hopefully it enhances the
music.I want to incite the listener to be creative as opposed to spoon feeding
them. That's very important to us. So, for instance, our
backdrop is abstract on purpose. People come up to us and they say,
"Oh...that sign that says 'Phish' behind you," or "Oh... that picture of
something or other you have hanging behind you..." That means
they're being creative.
The stories I tell up on stage are fun for me because I'm using my
imagination. People don't do that too much because television doesn't
really make you. Its passive entertainment.
(a+p) So you want Phish to be active entertainment?
(trey) Yes, I want to be active entertainment - where the listener is
active. I feel the same way in the jams as I do with the Spectacle. To me,
they can be listened to on all these different levels. And from a
listening standpoint, you have to actively listen in the way that you
choose. You're not going to be hearing the jam in the same way I'm
hearing it.
(a+p) Like in "Guelah Papyrus" (off of Picture of Nectar), someone might be
hearing a cool rock song, while someone else hears an insane atonal jam?
(trey) Yeah, and someone else might be hearing a wash of different lines
crossingover one another. That's just scratching the surface.
Someone who's being really creative might hear a giant stomping
through the forest.