 |
| |
We really appreciate our fan base, they're so loyal. They come out and spend the time and spend the money and fly everywhere to come see us... I mean that's pretty much the secret to our success, the hardcore fans.
-Jake Cinninger
|
|
|
| |
|
Photo by Brett Saul :: NYE 2005 > 2006
The concept of the record starts, or in this case, finishes with the album cover, designed by Storm Thorgerson, who is responsible for some of the greatest album art of all time. In fact, he probably designed your favorite cover, as is the case with Cinninger. "Led Zeppelin's Presence album is one of my favorite records. There's this family sitting around this like black statue in the middle of the table, and everyone is just reeling from it. It's the thing that gets them through the day."
Storm Thorgerson At Work |
Thorgerson's secret is that he stages the photos, using real objects instead of computer-generated imagery. "That's why it looks so real, so true and translucent, because it's actually what it is. You can see the quality in all his work" explains Cinninger.
"We were able to meet Storm when we played the Mean Fiddler in London. He came out with his crew and we hung out and chatted a bit, and he said he wanted to work on our next record. We were like, 'Hell yeah! Of course!'"
"You can take the name of the record and apply it to anything that's going on in the photo. The idea of counting sheep, but the sheep is sleeping, actually in the human realm rather then being outside grazing. The people that should be sleeping are in his position, as being the sheep. So it's reversed dream-state photography. Even if you can't put your finger on it, you definitely have the flavor of what we're going for."
The band gave Thorgerson an early copy of the album and lyrics, and when he came back with sketches, they reacted instantly. "We were like, 'That's perfect,'" Cinninger says with excitement. "It's cool that he had time to listen to the record and to read the lyrics while he was sketching."
Umphrey's McGee at Bonnaroo 2004 by Adam George |
Boosted by four years playing the Super Bowl of festivals, Bonnaroo, Umphrey's McGee has emerged from the shadow of Phish, but the current field of "jam bands" are not runners in a race that one band will win. Umphrey's McGee has played the Jam in the Dam festival twice in a row with friends The Disco Biscuits and Particle, two bands that, along with UM, have experienced shakeups in their lineup. For the Biscuits and UM, it seemed like something from a rock comedy.
"They are dissing rock & roll for medical school. It has an American Spinal Tap quality to it. It will be a trend now, a shockwave throughout the drumming community where drummers now have to go to medical school to fulfill their obligation in life. There's like some connection between pounding the skins and working on someone's heart; it sort of connects. I think that's a good preface for a movie" laughs Cinninger.
All jokes aside, Jake revealed that he thought the band might be finished when founding drummer Mike Mirro followed his calling to attend medical school.
"It was scary" says Cinninger. "We thought the band was pretty much over. It was like, 'Who are we gonna teach 80 songs to and have a family vibe with,' and keep our momentum rolling as a band, because we'd already put so much time and effort in with touring and sort of establishing a name. It's like, 'Oh no, what are people going to think?'"
Kris Myers by Robert Massie |
"So, either we could take that role and worry about it, or right out of the gates jump on finding a drummer instantly. The instant we heard he wanted to do medical school, in order to save our asses, we had to get on this and find someone. So we got the word out, scoured some of the music conservatories and areas unknown, and we ended up finding Kris [Myers] right across town. And he was one of the first packages out of 300 we received in the mail. We had a stack of them, and he was right on top. It was like 'Oh, look at this. This guy, right out of the gates, is killing.' We auditioned about ten drummers and kept on coming back to Kris. He seemed to have it all. He really has a solid sense of theory, jazz, classical, and he's a team player. He has studio prowess and live prowess, ya know. He's very anal about the way the drums sound, down to everything. He's a total drummer and totally involved in his profession. This is what he has to do, so we knew right away that this was our man."
"Any band that's in that position, like Disco [Biscuits] or us, it's kind of a point of hopelessness, like, 'How are we going to find someone else?' So it's a scary feeling when there's no drummer there in that position. Someone's got to take a lot of abuse in order to fill that role. For Kris, he had to learn so much in such a little amount of time because financially, we couldn't sit on our asses. We had to go play gigs. We had bills to pay, and we had mouths to feed. It's the same with the Biscuits guys. They had to really find a guy quickly and to find someone that's going to fit in the chemistry and be a brother and be able to handle the load of life and handle all of the success and the weirdness that comes with it. Kris is a valiant soul and he put in the true effort. He really showed his true colors in the early phases when he joined, and he really worked hard to achieve all that music and let it soak in his head and spit it out through his hands."
|
