Warren Haynes Working On Instrumental Music & Discusses Next Gov’t Mule Album In New Interview

Gov’t Mule frontman Warren Haynes revealed he’s writing “instrumental music for the first time in quite a while” and talked about the band’s follow-up to 2017’s Revolution Come…Revolution Go in a new interview posted on Grammy.com. Haynes kicks off a solo tour tonight (Wednesday, July 24) with the first of two performances at Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center in Westhampton Beach, New York.

“I’m right now, thinking a lot about what the next Gov’t Mule record is going to sound like, what it’s going to entail from a songwriting perspective,” Haynes said. “The first record on the other side of our 25th anniversary, I know in some ways we’re going to revisit the beginning and comfortably explore some of our earliest roots and concepts, but I’m sure we’re also going to go into some places we’ve never gone before.” Warren also mentioned his work on instrumental music, “Some of the stuff seems to be influenced differently than maybe instrumentals that I’ve written in the past.”

The Asheville native spent the majority of the interview talking about the recently released Gov’t Mule live album/concert film Bring On The Music – Live At The Capitol Theatre. Haynes discussed the process of collaborating with filmmaker Danny Clinch on the set. “One of the great things about working with Danny Clinch was that we’ve known each other for so long, and I completely trust and respect what he does,” Warren explained. “And it allowed me to just concentrate on the performance part of it and just try to make it where it was just another night, or two nights, even though it wasn’t just another two nights. The more we could relax and approach it that way, the better the results were going to be. So I put a lot of trust in Danny’s hands, and for good reason.”

Haynes was asked about a period of Gov’t Mule’s 25-year career in which the band turned hardships into something beautiful and recalled the era after founding bassist Allen Woody died in 2000:

“Well, when I look at the songs that I wrote before [2000’s Life Before] Insanity, when I look back at that now, it was foreshadowing what we were about to go through unknowingly. And then after losing Woody in 2000, of course, the only way we knew to move forward was to do the deep end sessions with all the different bass players, who are all Allen Woody’s favorite bass players and our favorite bass players. So each day, we would walk into the studio, and his rig would be set up where he used to stand. And a different legendary bass player, sometimes two different legendary bass players, would come in and plug into his rig and record with us. And that was a healing path. That was a very cathartic way of dealing with such a massive loss for us, and it was the only way I think we could have dealt with it.

“So those times were extremely bittersweet. On one hand, we’re playing music and recording, and in some cases, riding with Woody’s heroes. But on the other hand, the reason they’re there is because he’s gone… Speaking for myself, and I think [Gov’t Mule drummer] Matt [Abts] as well, in the beginning, we didn’t even think it was a possibility to keep going. But once we did decide to keep going, that seemed to be the best path forward. And we got a lot of encouragement from our friends, many of which who had lost band members.”

Head here for more from Warren Haynes on Bring On The Music, his relationship with the late Gregg Allman and additional topics.