“I don’t like this whole exclusivity thing that seems to
permeate different genres of music. I want to be inclusive
—the whole country needs to be more inclusive.”
We get them pretty early because we had been playing them at gigs for a
while. It wasn’t like first takes in terms of the interpretation of the song,
more so about the performances. This album wasn’t written for a record
company—it’s just a picture of us being on the road during my tenure at
The Tonight Show. Before we moved on to the next group of compositions,
we wanted to record them because we’re musicians and that is what we
do. So it was “in the can,” so to speak, and when I met up with Mack
Avenue Records and told them about the album, they loved it.
It’s almost like you approach it backwards.
Right, I prefer that because then you get a great presentation of the song
already. We already had a good feel for it and we weren’t trying to find our way.
You cover a lot of musical ground on this record. It seems the only thing
you have in common with more traditional jazz guitar records is that there
aren’t any vocals.
Wait until the next record. You won’t be saying that.
Will you be singing?
We are going to have vocals on the next record. I’m already putting it
together. I am just about getting into some music since I have seen so much
from being in Hollywood, and before that, from being on tour for 15 years.
I’m really open and feel confident that, from a musical perspective, it will
be really good. Right now, I’m looking for some musical opportunities and
adventures and bringing it all to bear with who I am.
Now that Zen Food is out, do you have plans to tour?
Yeah, I want to get out on the road, back on the circuit, and play some
gigs. I also want to listen to other musicians, because I really love that
when I’m out on tour. I’m looking for an artist in a different genre, someone maybe in bluegrass or progressive country who is in the same boat as
me. They need to have a career behind them and want to do something
adventurous. You know, do something together where I can bring my
audience to their audience and bring their audience to mine and hopefully create a nice record. It’s hard to go out and look for that. Instead, I
think it just needs to happen. I am sure there’s an artist out there feeling
the same way in their music as I am. I don’t like this whole exclusivity thing that seems to permeate different genres of music. I want to be
inclusive—the whole country needs to be more inclusive. Maybe it’s better if everyone contributes to the whole instead of just a few people.
“Das It” is a pretty ferocious duo with you and Smitty.
Yeah, that’s a thing we started to hit on soundchecks. Here and there we’d
add pieces to it and finally, we had a forum for it. It developed into a thing
and we decided to stick it on the end of the album. It’s pretty intense and I
have a feeling it will turn into a full composition. I don’t think we are done
with that yet.
