Trey Anastasio Talks Fare Thee Well & Phish
By Andy Kahn Jun 24, 2015 • 11:58 am PDT
Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio will appear this weekend at the first two Fare Thee Well -Celebrating 50 Years Of Grateful Dead concerts at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. After that he will head to Chicago for three final Fare Thee Well concerts at Soldier Field before heading out with Phish on their Summer Tour beginning July 21 in Bend Oregon. The busy guitarist (who also has a two-night stand at Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas planned for Halloween weekend with his solo band) recently discussed the many projects he’s working on with Rolling Stone.
[Photo by Ian Rawn]
Anastasio discussed recent practice sessions conducted with Grateful Dead members Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann. Anastasio also shed light on what he feels about the music been made with his bandmates in Phish (who he was on his way to rehearse with), telling Rolling Stone:
Oh man. At the risk of sounding cliché – listen, I’m trying to speak from the heart here – I feel like we’re playing better now than we have a really long time. I just feel like some kind of imaginary pressure has gone away. I feel like something happened in the last three or four years where the only thing important to us is that everybody’s together. There’s this kind of an open-hearted feeling onstage. Fish described it best: “When I’m playing music with you guys, I feel like we’re all on a lifeboat together, and if someone falls over the edge, all the other three guys reach right out and pull him back in.” And it does feel like that.
Playing improvisational music with people is so intimate. I know if Mike got a good night’s sleep by the way he’s playing the bass, or if he’s in the middle of an argument with someone. You can feel it. Page and I might start reaching out. We might slow down, and Mike will play something on the bass and we’ll be like, “I hear you, come with us.” And it’s powerful. It sort of means more with every passing year. Because we’re not gonna be here forever.
The entire interview conducted by Patrick Doyle is worth a read, head here to check it out.
Anastasio discussed recent practice sessions conducted with Grateful Dead members Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann. Anastasio also shed light on what he feels about the music been made with his bandmates in Phish (who he was on his way to rehearse with), telling Rolling Stone:
Oh man. At the risk of sounding cliché – listen, I’m trying to speak from the heart here – I feel like we’re playing better now than we have a really long time. I just feel like some kind of imaginary pressure has gone away. I feel like something happened in the last three or four years where the only thing important to us is that everybody’s together. There’s this kind of an open-hearted feeling onstage. Fish described it best: “When I’m playing music with you guys, I feel like we’re all on a lifeboat together, and if someone falls over the edge, all the other three guys reach right out and pull him back in.” And it does feel like that.
Playing improvisational music with people is so intimate. I know if Mike got a good night’s sleep by the way he’s playing the bass, or if he’s in the middle of an argument with someone. You can feel it. Page and I might start reaching out. We might slow down, and Mike will play something on the bass and we’ll be like, “I hear you, come with us.” And it’s powerful. It sort of means more with every passing year. Because we’re not gonna be here forever.
The entire interview conducted by Patrick Doyle is worth a read, head here to check it out.
