Trey Anastasio: Phish Working on New Album
Phish are working on the follow-up to their 2009 album Joy, frontman Trey Anastasio told PBS NewsHour in a recent interview for a story that will air later this summer. NewsHour producer Mike Melia tweeted the news, writing that Anastasio said the band has been working collaboratively on lyrics.
That fits with Anastasio’s prediction in 2011 that Phish would begin working on a new project in 2012. Last year, keyboardist Page McConnell offered slightly more detail when he told Rolling Stone, “We’re going to try to create something that really comes from the four of us.” McConnell also said that the band was “going to try to create something more in-the-moment together,” as opposed to bringing previously written songs into the studio.
Although Phish have toured in recent years, the group’s reconnection in the studio comes after Anastasio last year released a solo album, Traveler, and worked on a Broadway musical that closed in April after just a few weeks.
In the PBS interview, Anastasio also expressed gratitude for the band’s dedicated fans, Melia related in a series of tweets. “A lot of the people that come see us have been coming for 20, 30 years . . . And I know them. A lot I don’t know by name, but there are people that I look out and see that I really genuinely feel a connection to . . . people who stand like 10 rows back and dance that I recognize.”