Producer Steve Lillywhite Talks Phish, Jon Fishman’s 1996 Trip To Score Opium & More On ‘The Corner Of Grey Street’ Podcast

Grammy-award winning producer Steve Lillywhite discussed his work behind the board for multiple Phish albums on the latest episode of Osiris Media’s The Corner Of Grey Street podcast. Lillywhite also spoke about the last Dave Matthews Band LP he worked on and chose Goose as one of the contemporary acts he’d like to produce.

The Corner Of Grey Street was launched in 2019 featuring co-hosts Bruce and Nolan. The longtime Dave Matthews Band fans have posted over 100 installments of the podcast. Bruce and Nolan conducted two extensive and wide-ranging interviews with Steve Lillywhite that were published in separate parts late last month.

Steve Lillywhite connected with Bruce and Nolan via video chat for both conversations. The first episode featuring Lillywhite gave an overview of his illustrious career. The Brit recalled his early days in the music industry and work with U2, Talking Heads and The Rolling Stones as well as other artists. Steve Lillywhite then dove deep into collaborating with Dave Matthews Band to produce their first three studio albums: Under The Table & Dreaming, Crash and Before These Crowded Streets.

Lillywhite spoke at length about producing Phish’s Billy Breathes (1996) and Joy (2009) albums in the second part of his appearance on The Corner Of Grey Street. Steve also detailed his work on DMB’s 2012 LP, Away From The World, and participated in the program’s “Rapid Fire” question and answer segment.

Steve remembered getting a call from Crash engineer John Siket who was working with Phish at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York on what would become Billy Breathes. “After a month, he said ‘Steve, there’s something going on here that could be good. But they’ve got no bloody idea. They’ve got no one leading them,'” Lillywhite recalled of his chat with Siket. “‘Basically what they’ve done in a month is record the blob, which is everyone just experimenting. It feels like they need a producer,'” John Siket added according to Lillywhite.

The producer went up to Bearsville Studios and spoke with Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio. Lillywhite played Trey the yet-to-be-released Crash album which helped convince Anastasio to sign up the producer. Steve discussed the various roles he held during the sessions that yielded Phish’s sixth studio album and remembered “Steep” and “Swept Away” standing out from “The Blob.” He looked back fondly on Billy Breathes. “It’s a complete album. You can put it on from the beginning to the end,” Lillywhite told the co-hosts of the record.

Steve Lillywhite also told a wild story involving Phish drummer Jon Fishman. Once Fish was done recording his parts, he drove from Woodstock to New Orleans to pick up a pound of opium. “We get a phone call, ‘I’m here, I’m picking the stuff up,'” Lillywhite rememembered of the drummer who said he’d be back in Woodstock the next night. Steve Lillywhite and Fish’s bandmates didn’t hear from the drummer for a few days. “Eventually, he called two days later, ‘Hey guys, sorry I was so tired. I checked into a hotel in Kingston [New York] and slept for 24 hours,'” the producer continued of his communication with Fishman.

However, the drug left the producer and musicians unimpressed. “[Fishman] eventually came down with this huge smelly piece … like a pound of opium. It was rubbish,” Lillywhite recalled. “It didn’t really do anything. By the end of the time it was just sitting there and no one was interested.”

Steve Lillywhite went on to reminiscence about the Joy sessions, a completely different experience where there wasn’t even a drop of alcohol present. He pointed to “Ocelot” and “Backwards Down The Number Line” as Joy tracks he particularly liked. “While we were doing it, I loved ‘Time Turns Elastic,’ but listening back to it yesterday there’s something about it that doesn’t work for me,” Lillywhite said of the highly complex composition. “Sometimes when they do that song people get a drink,” the producer was told regarding “Time Turns Elastic” by Phish management.

The English producer named Bruce Springsteen (“at his peak”) and Arctic Monkeys as bands he’d want to work with before bringing up Goose during the “Rapid Fire” segment. “They connect, somehow, in a great way because they play huge gigs. For me, my antenna goes ‘there’s a connection with an audience, this is what I do,'” Lillywhite explained of why he wants to produce a Goose album. “I try and take something and turn it into a recorded version of the experience that I’m getting. Because I have experience in doing that, I feel that maybe I could do it again,” the producer added.

Listen to Steve Lillywhite talk Phish, DMB and Goose on The Corner Of Grey Street podcast below: