Phish’s Trey Anastasio Talks Guitar Gear & More On Cory Wong’s Podcast

Guitarist Cory Wong interviewed Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio for the 100th episode of the Wong Notes podcast. The first part of the two-part discussion went deep into guitar gear, which Anastasio said he could “talk gear all day.”

Wong and Anastasio’s relationship dates back to when Wong’s band Vulfpeck played with the Trey Anastasio Band at Red Rocks in 2017. During soundcheck of that show, Wong explained that Anastasio asked him to play through Trey’s rig so he could move around the amphitheater to hear it being played for himself.

The interview started with Wong and Anastasio commiserating about their shared lifetime love of hockey. The two talked about their daunting experiences sharing the ice with professional players.

From there, the bulk of the rest of the chat went heavy into guitar gear. Being a guitarist is not a requirement to enjoy the two guitarists talking shop, those who do play will likely find elements of the deep dive into Trey’s gear evolution particularly interesting.

“I was just laughing,” Anastasio told Wong. “Because this not a subject I could talk about at home.”

During the thorough explanation of Trey’s gear changes and tweaks over the years, he talked about his close relationship with the other members of Phish, keyboardist Page McConnell, bassist Mike Gordon and drummer Jon Fishman. Anastasio talked about how his tone helped define not only the band’s sound, but approach to composition and jamming. Despite Anastasio’s constant search for the right gear to achieve the exact tone, McConnell can keep it real with his longtime bandmate.

“Even when I’m talking with Page on stage – who I’ve been in a band with for 41 years,” Anastasio revealed. “I’ll come out and I’ll be like, ‘oh man, I’m going to try this new speaker.’ [And] he always says to me, ‘You always sound exactly the same.'”

Another topic Trey and Cory touched on included the latter talking about his influences, which ranged from Broadway productions to Led Zeppelin, King Crimson and Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, Queen and Brian May and the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia.

Telecaster masters Dangerous Don Rich and Redd Volkaert were also cited by Anastasio as key players he followed. Both Anastasio and Wong went on to praise Billy Strings' skills as a guitar player.

The chat turned to how Anastasio approaches highly composed musical pieces compared to free-form jamming. Trey talked about Phish’s evolution with respect to both types of performance over their +40 year career together.

Trey described Phish’s current use of the term “N.V.,” which stands for “never vary” – something someone will call out during a jam, instructing everyone to, “just for a minute, just play one thing and stop changing it until you know that everyone else hears it and is responding to it and not making something up randomly.”

The end of this part of the interview turned sentimental, with Anastasio sharing Phish’s pre-show ritual that involves reminding each other that this could be their last show together. Anastasio noted how lucky the four members of Phish to be together and just as importantly be in good health, while noting two members of TAB (Tony Markellis and James Casey) passed away within years of each other.

“I don’t mean to sound morose, but we’re in our 60s,” Trey said. “Something’s gonna happen. It’s just a matter of when. So, we’re all hyper aware now every night. Like, ‘wow, we get another night of doing this.’ I mean, because we love it so much, we just love it so much. It’s like, I can’t wait for tour to start. You know what I mean? Playing with those guys it’s such a joy. It’s just people who know you that well.”

Click through below to listen to Wong Notes with Trey Anastasio on your prefered podcast platform.