Interview: A webchat with Mike Gordon - November 10, 1998

Last Updated: Wednesday, 30-Oct-2002 01:36:16 EST

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Moderator: Welcome to the barnesandnoble.com author auditorium. We are excited to welcome Mike Gordon, who will be in the author auditorium at 9PM ET to discuss THE PHISH BOOK. To ask a question, click the SUBMIT QUESTION button on the screen. To purchase a copy of THE PHISH BOOK at 40% off the cover price, click the cover above. See you at 9PM ET.

Moderator: An interactive editor will be typing for Mike Gordon, who will be joining us via telephone.

Moderator from barnesandnoble.com: Welcome Mike Gordon! Thank you for taking the time to join us online tonight. How are you doing this evening?

MG: I am quite well, thanks for having me.

Brendan O'Neill from NJ: Mike - I notice that you are playing more covers than in recent years. Why is that ?

MG: I think it is because we feel so confident about our own material now and we have so many songs of our own that we feel like we can play a bunch of other people's songs without sacrificing out integrity and it has been fun to learn the songs and better and quicker with songs. The biggest example is "The Dark Side of the Moon" this past Halloween.

Andr Jacobson from Lewiston ID: What influenced you and the rest of the band to write such an in depth book? or to allow one to be written about you?

MG: The project evolved a few times. At first we thouight we hard many cool photos and the main goal was to get them out. Then our manager John made us feel that the band is evoliving in an interesting way and we always analyze it so why not share the analyzing. It was Richard Gehr' s idea to stem it as one concert then it evoleved to a year. We knew we wanted to make a book but we didn't know how important the text is. We are really pleased the way it came out. We are in the process of making a film and the book got to a place that we are really proud of.

Robert Crowther from Selinsgrove, PA: Mike, I'm over 40 years old and attend 20 plus shows a year, (Halloween was great!) The crowd seems all younger than me. Do you think there is any hope for a guy that can't to decide what I want to be when I grow up?

MG: I am 33 and a lot of people say I haven't grown up either. It is hard to stay in touch with the child's mind so i think it is a nice quality to be able to hold onto the child's perspective, but in terms of how our music is inspiring to people and what they do with their own creative urges is a different issue. IN general that is how art works, people get inspored and o things for themslecves and give things to the world. BUt not growing up is a good thing...

Jim Predhomme from Detroit, MI: Mike, It seems that Phish is constantly touring. Do you have the time or any plans to do any more writing? I really enjoyed "Mike's Corner".

MG: Thanks for the compliment. I have actually been spending all my time working on a film, not the PHISH film and I like to write so hopefully at some point I will have another book out, who knows maybe a novel. It is hard to have a lot of different interests and find time to do them all.

Steve from Boston: How do you feel about improvistational rock or "jam" rock moving into the mainstream?

MG: I think that is a good thing becasue it just means that the times are swaying towards a direction of more spontaneaity and expereimetnation, which is what the music is supposed to be about. The 80's are long since over. I dpon't know how mainstream it is becoming. I guess maybe the only danger would be if there got started being a jam band flavor of the week where it waqs capitalized on by the radio and trivialized but it is not something I spen any time worrying about.

Suzy Greenberg from Winsooki, Vermont: What is your favorite venue and what is your favorite show of all time?

MG: My favorite venue ....hmmm tough one....the Gorge in Washington is up there--the accoustics are always good. These are hard questions...the band just keeps evolving every year. Sometimes I talk about my peak experience in 1995, but we were only playing to two people. I talk about it in the book. I always write things in my jounral then I have to go back and remind myself which shows I really liked.

Zzyzx from Seattle: First thanks for covering one of my favorite songs (Oh! Sweet Nuthin'); the Loaded set was amazing. I noticed the math joke in the PhishBill biography of you and was wondering if you wrote it or not. Thanks.

MG: I did write it. I wrote the four band member profiel and a couple of the others then Brad Sands wrote all the rest of them.

Brendan O'Neill from NJ: Mike - I was fortunate enough to catch the Sessions @ 54th Street Recordings. Can you Tell us how that went for you, and when it might be on PBS for us to enjoy ?

MG: I am not sure when it will be on, but it was really nice because it is such an intimate little environment to be playing in. There were people closer to Fish than I was to Fish.

Moderator: We are chatting live with Mike Gordon of Phish, and we are glad to see you all out there! Keep the questions coming, and we'll do our best to get to as many as we can. To ask a question, click the SUBMIT QUESTION button on the screen. Don't miss your chance to purchase your copy of THE PHISH BOOK at 40% off the cover price! Just click the cover above. And if you haven't taken a look at it yet, order Mike Gordon's last book, MIKE'S CORNER -- available at 30% off! Just run a search on our site and order your own! Thanks for joining us, and enjoy the chat!

Sean from Overland Park, KS: Has this started? And if so, what are some of the inspirations for Phish's lyrics (like Reba)?

MG: That is a much older song and Trey was experimenting with ways to write songs, but in the case of Reba it was based on how each word sounded phoenetically qand having them be about the subject of meat. Kind of another lyrical writing experiment.

doglog from NJ: Can you talk a little about the Harpua -> Dark Side of the Moon -> Harpua in Utah? Why did you choose to do that after the big Vegas weekend? I'm sorry this has no Phish Book content!

MG: Utah was a gig weren't as many tickets sold and a lot of poeple had decided to skip it were as Halloween was the hottest ticket we had, so the original idea was to sort of tease the poeple who would have wanted to hear the song but blew off Utah. Sometimes inobscure things happen in obscure places. We didn't htink of the idea until dinner time then we started to learn it. We began to think ti would be really cool to cover a whole album during Halloween then play the album the nexct night. We try to do things that stretch the limits of a bdan. It was as well rehearsed as Loaded but it was fun, they both were.

jim daisy from odenton md.: my younger brother bought a Eumir Deadato cd with a very strange arrangement of 2001 on it. I compliment you and "los guys" for using it. will there be banjo, or pedal steel(please) at any upcoming shows?

MG: Well, that would be unplanned if there were. I did play the banjo at Neil Young's Bridge SCHOOL benefit but it hasn't been the focus as of late, it owuld be nice. We have been focusing a lot more on just sort of doing what we do best with less extra stuff going on and since I don'[t practice the banjo very much it ends up being somewhat novel rather serious.

Sean T. Cercone from Frostburg State University: I have followed the rise of Phish since July 1992 (I saw you open for Santanna at Big Birch NY. ) You have encorperated many types of musical genre into your own style. What other musical genre's do you and or speaking for the band want to fuse to your ecclectic blend? Where fo you see the music going or does is it it's own entity and leads you?

MG: We don't talk as much as we used to about infusing styles although we do listen to a lot of styles. These days the influences are more blended together into an original sound, but we have ideas from time to time about funny mixtures like doing house music kind of album for example. Whose to say what we will actually do.

Josh Zaretsky from Topeka, Kansas: Boxers or Briefs?

MG: Briefs

Tom Korpas from NJ: Where did you learn to dance like you do in "Punch You in the Eye?"

MG: Our friend Myndy taught us a couple of dance steps we could use some more lessons though.

Bob from Toronto Ontario: Hey Mike... I was wondering what the chances of you guys heading north of the border are again anytime soon... I realize that our dollar is not that strong but u havent played Ottawa Montreal or Toronto in years.. Hopefully soon eh... Sharin in the groove!!!

MG: A lot of people have been asking about Toronto. There are a lot of places we don't play, we haven't played in Vermont in years so who knows.

Sean Nowlin from Athens, Ohio: Given your past experience with film, did you or are you having any input on the Phish movie?

MG: Well, I can say we just watched a rough cut today and gave input today as a group. It is hard to know what direction the movie will go now. I don't have any personal interst in getting more involved creatively becasue it is not my movei and I am working on my own movie which takes all of my home time, but we are giving some input and are very interested in seeing what direction it might evolve.

Colin from Toronto: Hi Mike, did you do a lot of writing when you were younger? I love Mike's Corner.

MG: Actually a lot of stories in that book are from when I was younger. It is a compillation of 15 years of writing, I could probably pull together another one if there is enough interest.

Loren M. from hkavr70@aol.com: What specific song performance(please specify performance date) do you feel was the best "jam" ever (i.e. most adrenaline pumping jam)? Thanks for your time :) Loren

MG: I can speak for this tour--I like the "split open and Melt" jam in Madison WI.

Sarah Jeanne Van Cleve from Wausau,WI: So Mike, what is your honest opinon on the glowstick wars created by the audience? Have they become a problem? Are they a welcome audience participatory sport? There seems to be a great debate on this....what comes straight from the horses mouth?

MG: We think it is a really cool thing at the the same time it could be a problem. The first time it happened, poeple starting thropwing up the glowsticks and Chris(our lighting guy) turned out all the lights, it was spontaneous and it is still cool then this year at the Lemon Wheel, I got hit in the eye by oine in the ball of my eye and I saw spots for about an hour. I could wear goggles, it si not too much of a problem ,the other night Trey caught on eduring a guitar solo, but then again if he is going to cathch them then they will throw them which could end up painful in the end.

Andrew Latschar from Lancaster Pennsylvania: I have seen you at shows out mingling with the crowd and fans in the lot. Do you have any strange stories of anything that has ever happened to you in the lot? P.S. See you at Hampton!

MG: A lot of poepl may know this but also at the Lemon Wheel convert I was with my friend Pistol and I decided to ask some of the skateboarders to hold onto the back of our golf-cart and at one point we had 46 scateboarders holding on to the cart. We had someone on the hood telling folks to watch out as some of those trailiong fell. Them PIstol wanted to drive so we switched drivers while moving and we were swerving so while Pistol was driving I walked off the cart and onto some people's skateboards and I realized how hard it was for some people to hold on, there is one thing...

Moderator: Mike Gordon will be with us for a little while longer, so keep the questions coming, and we'll do our best to get to as many as we can. To ask a question, click the SUBMIT QUESTION button on the screen. Don't miss your chance to purchase your copy of THE PHISH BOOK at 40% off the cover price! Just click the cover above. And if you haven't taken a look at it yet, order Mike Gordon's last book, MIKE'S CORNER -- available at 30% off! Just run a search on our site and order your own! Thanks for joining us, and enjoy the chat!

CARYN from N.Y.C.: MIKE-Now that I've seen the book,my perception of the band as people has changed. Did you know that this would happen to your readers? Was that the goal? The book is a success because it is so personal.Thanks for letting us in. By the way, After seeing your pictures, I can't help but to incorporate them into this sexualfantasy where I'm in your high school-I'm hoping you were shy....

MG: Responding to the first part--the book was a project that had to evolve and there was one point were we got a packet of interviews into book form. When we first read the packets is was very enlightening, even thgough we spent 15 years together nad know each other very well, there were sopme things we talked about with the interview and we learned alot about ourselves and made some progress in the group dynamic by talking about. I think that is why people really like the book, you get this sense of this ongouing discourse among analytical musicans. A lot of times when wwe talk about some issue, it is sort of like we are jamming with words and a lot of our jamming on stage is improv and the book is a dynamic of that music in a non-musical form.

Jim Seikel from Hudson, OH: Mike - You seem to enjoy the bluegrass/folk songs that are done in concert (ie Uncle Pen), which bluegrass artists are you most influenced by?

MG: The most obviosu answer is Bill Monroe not becasue he influenced me specifially but because he inlfunced the genre. Then there are other people who have been around for a while FLat and Ralph Stanley and Dell McVOry who we recently met. He is a big inlfuenbce on all the band, also Tony Rice. ONe of my favorites is Tim O'Brian and Hot Rize--he just has a great voice. It was ten to 15 years ago they toured around and Allison Krauss. There are others that I can mention but those are some that come to mind.

Jon from Greenvegas: How do you guys come up with the Yem vocal jam?

MG: It is entirely spontaneous, we get there (to that part of the song) and we don't know what is going to happen, whether it will be long held notes or words, I actually have to give credit to a singing teacher we had--Jody--she came to one of our concerts and said we do all this imporoiving and concentrate on our playing why not infuse the singing with some of that enegergy and it was her idea to do vocal improiv and we started doing that at our singing lessons. This is another example of the evolving--however we don't try to over analyze things. There was a time that we were saying even duringvocal jam it is importna tot srta froim a simple solfd musical motiff in order for it to go somehwere meaningful and thqat is something we talked about.

Brian from Greensboro, NC: I really like the new direction that the band is taking in regards to more simple songwriting. At the same time, I love some of the older compositons and fugues such as Fluffhead and Guyute, these songs are one of the things that really distinguish you from boring mainstream pop music. So my question is, has Phish totally abandoned the idea of writing new complex compositions/fugues, or can we expect to see these in the future?

MG: We go back and forth on that issue. There was an interviewer yesterday who said to Trey "you are the one badn that can go out make a triple album and not have it be too pretnetous, yet you concentrate on making three minute songs." We thought he had a good point and we should go out and make atriple album, at the same time one thing that appeals to us are concise well crafted songs, when we listen to music that is what we are listening to in additon to Miles Davis jams. We don't write songs like we used to when we were 18, we are just different people nonw so we would have a different approach. Each album we make tends to be a reaction to the previous album although we are very excited about our new album. There have been conversations about making albums with really long songs with a lot different sections plus albmums that are more song oriented like the last two, but who knows.

pete from williamsburg va: in the book, you guys talk about songs that you wanted to quit playing-suzy greenberg and wilson come to mind- but i see you are still playing them...my question is why did you want to quit playing them and why did you choose to keep playing them?

MG: We wanted to quite playing them for a while either because we had been playing them so much that we needed to give them a rest or we felt they were written a long time ago and we don't fell genuine singing them any more. SOmetimes giving a song a rest for a hwile is necessary in bringing it back again.

Mike G from Connecticut: In YEM-- the lyric is-- i think-- "Washa Uffize, Drive me to Firenze"-- i just want to know-- WHY??!??!

MG: Because Art=Z.

COTT from LAGRANGE GEORGIA: Was the Gamehendge story thought up by Trey or all of Phish? What inspired Phish to come up with these unique Gamehendge Characters?

MG: It was Trey's senior project in college to come up with a story.

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