by Ray Waddell, Nashville |
June 26, 2009 9:24 EDT
Billboard: Phish built such a huge fan community, then stepped away. What led to that?
Page McConnell: After you’ve spent as much time together as us – we started in our late teens/early 20s and basically spent every breathing moment together for about 20 years -- sometimes you just need a break. We really just needed to grow up a little bit and spend a little time and get to know ourselves as adults, which is something you can’t do when you’re in a rock band for 20 years straight. It was really good for all of us.
When and how did you discover that it was time to reconvene?
After a year-and-a-half or so, I started having some conversations with the other guys, just about what was up with them, how we got where we were. I think there were some conversations that just had to happen between us, to just say “Hey, you know, when this was going on that was kind of a problem for me and if we got back together I wouldn’t want it to be like that again.” The communication between the four of us is just so much better now than it ever was.
Did you feel welcomed back immediately by your fans?
Absolutely. It really was incredible how much they welcomed us back and how eager they were for us to play again. This whole tour sold out immediately and it has been great, we’ve had a great response.
Where did all these people go while you were on hiatus?
They did the same thing I did, they got on with their lives and had jobs and families and settled down. It does a feel a little bit different out here now. There’s not so many random, transient people that lived on the road and maybe didn’t even care about the music or the shows, but just lived in the parking lot. There are a lot of people that grew up a bit, and also there are a lot of younger fans that never had a chance to see us before.
Has the songwriting process changed for you guys and the way you make music evolved?
Because we had all this time off, a lot of us had songs we brought to the table as potential songs for recording and playing. The songwriting process didn’t change that much, but because we had so much time off we had a lot more songs to choose from than we would have if it had only been a year since our last album.
Did anything the other guys have pleasantly surprise you?
There’s one piece, “Time Turns Elastic,” which is a 13-minute epic that Trey wrote. It’s a piece that he wrote for an orchestral arrangement and played for a couple of different symphonies around the country. We recorded it in a really cool way that I enjoyed. Steve [Lillywhite] had some really good ideas about how to record that song and I think it’s through his production that it came to life.
Do you feel more comfortable onstage than in the studio?
We made 12 or 13 albums and played between 1,500 and 2,000 shows, so you can do the math. We’ve spent a lot more time playing live than we have trying to make records. I have a fun time in the studio, but I like making [albums] on the faster side, you don’t want to get bogged down.
You kind of existed outside what we would call the mainstream music business and found great success. Now the business seems to have sort of come your way. Are you doing it the way you did before?
Oh yeah, we haven’t changed. We’re still outside the mainstream of the business and happy to be existing there. We may not fall into the category of what’s typically considered indie, but I challenge you to fid another band that has done things their own way with as much success as we have.
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