GOT NO WORRIES... GET IN THE CAR AND ROLLA Conversation with Kyle Hollingsworth

The String Cheese Incident is about to embark on a lengthy summer tour across the country. With a brand new record on the streets and a growing live-show buzz, these Boulder, Colorado tour-warriors find themselves hitting the road for the next seven weeks where they’ll create muscial Incidents at a mix of venues such as Red Rocks, Deer Creek, Central Park, the Aladdin and the Greek Theatre. Along the way, the band will share the stage with friends such as Karl Denson, Phil Lesh, Les Claypool, Keller Williams and Warren Haynes. Kyle Hollingsworth, keyboardist of the String Cheese Incident took some time earlier in June to share his thoughts about the band’s new album Outside Inside and what lies ahead on their summer tour.

photo C. Taylor Crothers

Kyle: Yes! We’re just finishing up taking a breather before the summer tour. It’s been about six weeks now.

Powers: This summer tour seems like it’s your most adventurous one yet. The band is hitting some much larger venues like Alpine Valley and Deer Creek, but yet there’s still some low-key places like Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center and Mount Shasta. Plus it looks like you’ll be sharing the stage with many guests... Karl Denson, Phil Lesh, Femi Kuti and more.

Kyle: I think the whole band is very excited. It feels like that this summer has been a long time coming. We’ve really wanted a summer tour like this to happen for us... and now it’s about to finally happen. It’s great. We’re just about to start rehearsing again to get some new tunes going and the creative energy flowing for the summer.

photo C. Taylor Crothers

Kyle: We’re working on some new tunes and some fun covers.

Powers: Speaking of new material, congratulations on the new record, Outside Inside. It must feel good to have it out there on the streets at last.

Kyle: Yes! It’s been a lot of fun finally getting the record out there. We did really well the first week out with about 9200 copies sold or something around there. That’s never happened before!

Powers: Is there an excitement within the band about how the record turned out?

Kyle: I think it’s one of the better albums we’ve put out. It’s definitely the best studio record yet for us. I think it’s a little more coherent than the past ones. Bringing Steve Berlin from Los Lobos in made a big difference. It allowed us to focus on songs. We wanted to keep the live aspect of String Cheese in the album, but we didn’t want to be completely long-winded with every song. Steve helped shape and keep the bare essence of the songs intact, but yet still allowed Outside Inside to be a good live-feeling album for a studio record.

Powers: Outside Inside as a whole seems like it’s a studio record with a live vibe to it. Was that a goal when you guys stepped into the studio?

Kyle: On our past albums we were spending serious time and energy perfecting every little piece of every little moment of every song. Steve said, "Forget it, we’re not going to do it that way. We’re gonna go for the best feeling tracks." In fact the first song on the album was the very first take from the very first day. Steve immediately said to us, "Ok that’s it, you don’t have to do it again." The band of course is like, "Wait we can do it better." Steve fires back, "Nope. You couldn’t do it better than that! That’s good... on to the next song."

Powers: Was there any tweaking done at all or did you guys roll right through it steadily?

Kyle: There wasn’t much tweaking done, except for some vocal stuff. He was determined to go for the live instant feel and I think for most of the album that really worked for us.

Powers: At points Outside Inside seems to flow like a set list from a show.

Kyle: It does at times, but I think it’s a bit more rock-oriented than most of our past stuff. (laughs)

photo C. Taylor Crothers

Kyle: It’s a cool feeling. We had some limited airplay with stuff on the last two studio albums, but nothing to this extent. It is kind of cool and weird to hear yourself on the radio. We never really thought we’d be that kind of band. We’d always assume that we’d be more of a live band. It’s neat to hear yourself on the radio. It’s neat.

Powers: Down the road would you possibly want to have a bit more airplay on the radio and maybe step back from such heavy touring?

Kyle: I think I’m back and forth on that one. What we do is a live thing. I think our best music comes out from the creative live space. A little airplay doesn’t hurt, but it’s not at all going to be a focus for us. Airplay might be something that happens to come on the side.

Powers: The Cheese has been steadily picking up fans the past couple of years now. It seems each time you hit various cities the band has to be booked into a larger venue or do multi-night runs. Here in San Francisco, you’ve had multiple runs at the Fillmore, Warfield and soon the Greek Theatre. The growth seems to be catching up on the East Coast as well. Fans in Boston have seen String Cheese graduate from the Somerville Theatre to the Orpheum and to Harborlights this summer. What’s that like watching the scene grow so quickly of late?

Kyle: Well it’s very flattering and a wonderful thing to see people really dig the band. I think what we’re putting out is music that can connect with people. I think people are connecting to it and the buzz is growing around that. The scene itself is almost sometimes a separate thing. It can grow as people connect with each other and families of friends begin to grow. Friends tell more friends about the scene’s vibe and then they get turned on to the Cheese. Sometimes it’s the scene that brings them in. I think that’s part of the growth factor. That’s great. I think it’s really good for the band. It’s a really good thing for us to give more out to more people.

photo C. Taylor Crothers

Kyle: Yeah, that’s key. Interaction is a tremendous part of what it’s all about.

Powers: A bunch of us here in San Francisco traveled down to New Orleans for Jazz Fest and caught the band rocking the Saenger for a couple of nights. I bet Jazz Fest never gets old for you.

Kyle: It’s crazy. There’s so much musical energy down at Jazz Fest. It’s oozing out of all the doors everywhere. It’s great. It’s important to keep your head focused though. Sometimes we go down there a little less focussed because there’s so much going on around us. There’s just so much great music around. Sometime you lose focus, but for the most part it’s an inspiration. It’s always fun getting down there.

Powers: The festival vibe continued even after New Orleans too, right?

Kyle: Yeah! We did our last two dates of the tour in Nashville and Memphis. They were downtown big city festivals with lots of great acts. In fact, John Popper was able to sit in with us in Memphis since Blues Traveler was performing there as well.

Powers: "Memphis in May" has quite the musical scene.

Kyle: Yeah, such a good time! John came on the bus. He was looking great. We talked and then later on he came up for a bluegrass tune with us.

Powers: Speaking of guests... how about when DJ Logic sat in during that New Orleans "Jellyfish" and "Mountain Girls"?

Kyle: DJ Logic is incredible. We had played with him once before. The thing is if you don’t get him loud enough in your monitors you’re not sure what exactly is going on. (Laughs) He and I were trading back and forth very similar sounds at various times during those songs. We found ourselves wondering at times who was making what sounds. It was funny. "Was that a sound I was making or was it Logic?" (laughs) DJ Logic is a great guest to have sit in!

Powers: Ozomatli traded similar licks like that with you during the New Year’s Portland run too.

Kyle: Definitely! They’re friends of ours from a few years back. That show on the 30th was a blast with them.

Powers: Last July found String Cheese and Karl Denson performing a memorable gig together in Reno. This year it’s going to be Vegas. Will there be anything special lined up for the Aladdin gigs?

photo C. Taylor Crothers

Powers: I remember String Cheese topping off that amazing Reno show with an encore of "Chameleon" with Karl and Andy Cleaves on horns. The next thing you knew, there were fireworks going off behind the stage. The party continued with the band and fans bowling late night at the Hilton.

Kyle: That’s right! It was a good one. Late night bowling in Reno! (laughs)

Powers: On Outside Inside Denson is on "Black and White" and "Lost," right?

Kyle: Yeah. We were psyched to have the horns.

Powers: Anything on the record that you feel like you absolutely nailed?

Kyle: That’s a good question. I think "Black and White" is really good on there. "Outside and Inside" was a great take. The more live-feeling ones were the ones we nailed I feel. I think the album might move between different feels. Outside and Inside rocks out at the beginning, but then "Joyful Sound" and "Close Your Eyes" feel a little more produced. You can kind of feel the album move between polished and rough songs. I think some of the stuff that wasn’t polished as much might be my favorite.

Powers: Most of these tracks have been jammed out live plenty of times in the past. That must’ve been a challenge learning how to chop off 10 minutes of every song.

Kyle: (laughs) Right! It was a good experience for us to try to shorten the jams. We’d tried to do our best and we hope it shows.

The String Cheese Incident begins a massive summer tour starting Thursday in Sedona, Arizona. The tour heads across the mountains with gigs at Red Rocks and a Fourth of July celebration in Steamboat Springs with Ben Harper and Charlie Hunter. The band then heads through the mid-West where they will share bills with Phil Lesh, Les Claypool and Widespread Panic. The East Coast gets their fill of Cheese with shows in Rockingham, Vienna, Canandaigua, Central Park and Boston. The Cheese shifts back West starting with a weekend appearance on the Strip at the Aladdin in Las Vegas before climbing up the West Coast with stops in San Diego, LA, Santa Barbara, Berkeley and Mt. Shasta. Mid-August finds their summer tour culminating festival-style with many friends at Horning’s Hideout in Oregon.

Special thanks to Carrie Lombardi

Mike Powers | San Francisco