Phish’s Mike Gordon Tells ‘Ghost’ Story
It’s been a busy month for Phish. The eclectic
mega-cult band jammed with Neil Young at
Farm Aid and the Bridge School
benefit concerts, taped a future show for the PBS series
Sessions at West 54th Street, and this week released
The Story of the Ghost, the band’s ninth album on
Elektra.
On Oct. 29 in Los Angeles, Phish launched a fall tour which runs
through late November, including a Halloween stop in Las Vegas at
which the band will revive their infamous tradition of covering an
entire album by another artist as a “musical costume.” Bassist
Mike Gordon, guitarist Trey
Anastasio, drummer Jon Fishman and
keyboardist Page McConnell will close 1998 with
four shows at Madison Square Garden — the quartet’s first
four-night stand since their epic stint at Red Rocks in Colorado
two years ago..
Earlier this week, Gordon took time to talk about The Story of
the Ghost — produced by Andy Wallace (Jeff Buckley,
Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, the Cult) — and the
group’s recent live exploits.
How do you feel about The Story of the
Ghost?
It’s kinda both funkier and dreamier than some of our other albums,
and it’s like we have our own sound that’s coming together. Our
influences are jelled more into being us. And it was a very organic
way that it was put together, starting with a lot of jam tracks,
then writing lyrics together to those jams. That makes up at least
half the album right there. And while we were writing lyrics, we
were singing them onto a tape right at the point of conception.
So were you writing lyrics, or adjusting [longtime Phish
lyricist Tom Marshall]’s?
We were all using Tom’s book, of ten years of his writing. I had
never picked out lyrics and made up melodies to them from his book
before. This was the first time. It had always been just Trey and
Tom. So it was a lot more collaborative.
Then songs like “Guyute” and “Limb By Limb” were recorded
more straight-ahead?
Yeah, but the difference was that after we had all the jam tracks
from the farmhouse [we rented], we went in and recorded more songs,
and actually recorded sixteen songs in two days, including those.
And usually it takes us three days to record one song. We were
kinda on a roll, and they all sounded pretty good, all sixteen of
them. It took maybe a couple of takes for certain ones. We were
just in the right moment. We’ve been talking to Neil Young a lot,
doing these benefits, and his philosophy is you should record
everything, and some stuff will be good, and not to worry whether
everything’s recorded in the same room for consistency. An album is
capturing a period of time, and that will tie it all together.
Why has it been so hard to get your studio thing down when
your concerts are so consistent?
I guess some things come differently to different people. We’ve
always enjoyed the studio, even making four-track tapes. But
oftentimes, we’d get into the studio and make an album and be
loving it at the same time, and then …[trails off]. What it is
maybe is, in a concert, you can’t really dwell on it for too long,
’cause the next night, there’s another concert, especially if
you’re interested in improvising and having it always be different.
Whereas on an album, you’re so immersed in it, maybe you lose
perspective.
Other songs on the CD like “Meat” and “Fikus” have a
different, spooky side, and I really like “Roggae” (an
atmospheric, Brian Eno-ish tune on which Gordon added
pedal steel).
I had to fight for that one when the rest of the band wanted to cut
it. We had forty-three songs recorded, for an album that ended up
being fourteen songs, so we had to cut about thirty songs and that
wasn’t easy… Trey said, “okay, if you like [‘Roggae’], you be
pro-active and make it into something better.” So I took the
original tape and added the bridge section where the pedal steel
comes in. That alone gave the song the tweak of structure that it
needed.
When did you decide on a Halloween album this
year?
We had a few different ideas, and then in the end, it just became
obvious.
Will it live up to the other three (the Beatles’ White
Album in ’94, the Who’s Quadrophenia in ’95 and
Talking Heads’ Remain in Light in ’97)?
It’s different. I guess they were each different in their own
ways.
Especially as a surprise though, you’re always going to get
some people who are disappointed on one level or
another.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s a touch more risky in terms of how many
people will know the album.
As opposed to scratching their heads?
I guess in the cases where people don’t know the music, it just has
to invite them in, in some way.
Farm Aid seemed to be an intense experience,
too.
We were really grooving well together, and Neil must have been
inspired too, ’cause he just popped out on stage [to steer Phish
into a scorching twenty-minute “Down by the River”], and I thought
the jam was really impassioned in a certain kind of way. So it was
a really special experience, ’cause we had just met him that day,
and then to really bond with someone like that….
It was kind of an old-school jam, but sonically and
texturally, it had so much going on. Have you ever had a guest
appearance that turned out so intense?
Maybe not, it was definitely on a different par. He’s such an
intense and deep guy that he was out there without any distractions
in his mind. He wasn’t out there thinking, ‘I’m a big star
joining.’ All he cared about was getting immersed in the music, and
that was so apparent.
Are you guys finally getting a new level of
respect?
We’re increasing our visibility right now, or it’s increasing
itself a little bit. Things are just surfacing in the public
perception a bit for us, and it’s been nice. It’s not out of
control or anything. We’re still not pop stars. Like the other
phases of our career, it’s still gradual.