Phish Announces October 7th Release Of 13th Studio Album – ‘Big Boat’

Just days after completing Summer Tour at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park near Denver with the best show and run of the season, Phish is looking towards the future with the announcement of a new studio album. Big Boat, the band’s 13th studio album and first since 2014’s Fuego, is due October 7 via their JEMP Records label.

Today, the quartet announced the name of the LP, its release date and the cover art for the Bob Ezrin-produced effort. Big Boat takes its title from the Jon Fishman-penned “Friends” and the line “We’re on a big boat, like the ones our forefathers sailed.” Phish debuted “Friends” at The Mann in Philadelphia on June 29 and played it once more in the drummer’s hometown of Syracuse on July 10.

Few details of Big Boat were revealed, but the band did share a video which gives us a taste of the LP. The song in the video is one that has yet to be performed live, watch:

https://www.facebook.com/phish/videos/10153681961456290/

Check out the cover art for the new Phish album, Big Boat:

As mentioned, Big Boat was produced by Bob Ezrin whose past credits include Fuego, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, KISS’s Destroyer, Alice Cooper’s School’s Out and Peter Gabriel’s Peter Gabriel I. The LP was completed during Phish’s Summer Tour as guitarist Trey Anastasio mentioned Phish was done with the album and dedicated “Sing Monica” to Ezrin at the final night of the band’s three-night stand at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco in July.

Phish laid down material for the new album at many locations according to a May interview with Anastasio published by Rolling Stone.

“We’re kind of all over the place, flying down to Nashville to work, and then I’ve been doing a lot of work on overdubs at Avatar, which is in Manhattan, and then we go to Burlington, and worked at the barn, and we’re even working at Page’s house and Mike’s house a little bit,” Trey said.

He also noted all four members of the band are contributing new songs, “Page brought some great songs, Mike brought some great songs, Fish brought some great songs. I’ve got a lot of new songs. And everybody’s just diving in, in a unified way.”

There’s no word as of yet about whether Hamilton drummer/percussionist Andrés Forero’s contributions made the cut. In June, Forero told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle he participated in the recording of the album. Trey sent Andres a note after attending Hamilton and asked him to play three tunes on the LP.

“One was a 15-minute piece with classical percussion. Even though I double majored in college in classical and jazz, it’s been a while for me. Of course, I agreed to do it,” Forero told the Democrat & Chronicle. Andrés went on to explain he broke out “cowbells and shakers” for the recording session as well. “We had such a synergy between us, near the end Trey said, ‘There’s only one song you haven’t played on.’” The paper’s article went on to report, “Forero’s on every song of the next Phish album.”

Snarky Puppy’s Chris Bullock also previously mentioned recording with Anastasio:

Stay tuned for more information on the new Phish album, Big Boat.

Phish Studio Albums

• 1989 – Junta
• 1990 – Lawn Boy
• 1992 – A Picture of Nectar
• 1993 – Rift
• 1994 – Hoist
• 1996 – Billy Breathes
• 1998 – The Story of the Ghost
• 2000 – Farmhouse
• 2002 – Round Room
• 2004 – Undermind
• 2009 – Joy
• 2014 – Fuego
• 2016 – Big Boat