Still Jammin' After All These Years
By Josh Bashara

It's a rare occasion when a few buddies will get together and stick with anything for more than a few months, let alone a decade. But String Cheese Incident—one of the most successful jam bands ever—are doing just that. And they're even making a decent living at it.

The nature-loving quintet hails from the snowy slopes of Colorado, where they discovered a mutual love for the outdoors and music. Their jam-a-licious blend of bluegrass, rock, folk and jazz has captured the attention of music fans all across the country. Whether a 50-year-old Deadhead or a 20 year old Phish fan or a17-year-old roots-rocker, there's something for everyone within The Cheese.

Ultra-heavy touring, self-promotion, their own independent label and constant charity benefits keep the SCI boys busier than a termite in a sawmill. And if that weren't enough, they've taken on the corporate giant Ticketmaster in a legal battle to be able to sell their own show tickets.

Their latest release, Untying the Not, is a drastic leap for the band, which brought in hip producer Youth (Paul McCartney, The Verve) to assist in laying down their first-ever, 100-percent professional studio release. The Music Phone Book chats with bassist Keith Moseley about their new album, Ticketmaster and giving it your all.

APPARENTLY THIS NEW ALBUM IS A DRASTIC LEAP IN MUSICAL STYLE FOR YOU GUYS.

Yeah, It's a bit of a departure. We brought in a producer—Youth—who was the bass player from Killing Joke. He's been doing a lot of producing for what they call 'pysch trance' music over in Britain. He definitely put his musical stamp on things. We wanted to bring him in as kind of a creative sixth member to the band, to help us with arrangements, ideas and sequencing. More than anything, we tried to get away from this album being just a collection of songs. We tried to put it together as one piece of work.

WHAT PROMPTED THAT CHANGE?

I think that we were feeling a little burnt out on touring. We play at least a 100 shows a year and We've easily done over 1000 shows together over our 10-year career. But We're relatively novices when it comes to working in the studio. We were at the point where we all really wanted to go in and use the studio as a creative tool. We were thinking about some of our favorite albums—things like Dark Side of the Moon, Abbey Road—albums that you can listen to from start to finish, taking you on a musical journey. We were aiming for that kind of experience.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE MUSIC ON THIS NEW ALBUM? PROGRESSIVE BLUEGRASS?

We're really more of a rock band than a bluegrass band. We've got bluegrass influences as well as world beat, jazz and Latin influences. But We're more of a rock band than anything else. We're fans of rock—we were raised on it. that's our roots.

DID YOU RUN INTO ANY CREATIVE HEAD-BUTTING WITH YOUTH'S PRODUCTION STYLE?

I think he had a great vision for the record from the beginning, as far as putting these songs together into something that was going to make sense. He pushed us as songwriters, too. He was challenging us to be the best we could. he'd offer up different ideas for drumbeats and melodic hooks—things like that. We had to be willing to let go of control and put the record into his hands—to trust in his vision. That was a difficult thing for us to do. I think it really brought out some new creative elements for that band—it really energized us.

SO ARE YOU SICK OF TALKING ABOUT THE WHOLE TICKETMASTER FIASCO YET?

[Laughter] Well, I'm getting there—but that's to be expected. It's part of the deal.

STILL TIED UP IN A BUNCH OF LEGAL B.S.?

We are. We're kind of in a waiting game right now to find out what will happen with the court case. The bottom line, though, is that we just want to be able to sell tickets to our shows to our fans.

DO YOU EVER WONDER IF TICKETMASTER IS JUST SCARED THAT OTHER ARTISTS MIGHT FOLLOW SUIT? DO YOU THINK THEY ARE USING YOU AS AN EXAMPLE?

I think they certainly feel threatened by our ability to sell tickets to our fans. We've spent a lot of time and energy developing our own ticketing company. At this point, It's up and running and we can provide better service than Ticketmaster can and we can sell our tickets at a much cheaper cost to the fans.

HOW DID YOU GUYS GET TOGETHER?

Love of the outdoors. We were all living in Crescent View, Colo. when the band formed, which is just a tiny little ski town with less than 2000 people. It was a pretty unlikely place for a band to form, but we were there because we all loved to ski and hike and mountain bike—that was our common interest in the beginning. We shared this bond of doing it for ourselves. From then we just put the band together and stared touring hard.

WHAT IS THE ON THING THAT ENABLED YOUR BAND TO MAKE IT IN THIS BUSINESS?

Perseverance. It's just the fact that We've played over 1000 gigs in 10 years and We've never quit. We built our audience by touring. A lot of times it was really fucking hard and we didn't know if we could go on. But it was just all about getting out there and spreading the music by playing live shows. I think it was perseverance and hard work more than anything.

WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOUNG BAND MEMBERS THAT ARE JUST ABOUT READY TO GIVE IT UP BECAUSE THEY don't THINK THEY CAN MAKE A LIVING IN THIS BUSINESS?

I would say that if music is what really speaks to your soul, then you've gotta run with it. It's your responsibly to honor what really drives you. If you've got that music in your heart and soul, then stick with it—keep practicing, keep playing—and give it your all.

TELL ME THE FIRST THING THAT COMES TO MIND AFTER YOU HEAR THESE WORDS:

TICKETMASTER.

Lawsuit.

JERRY.

Garcia.

SWEET.

Sour.

PATCHOULI.

Hippie.

INDEPENDENT.

Strength.

SIDEBAR:

THE STRING CHEESE INCIDENT IS:

Kyle Hollingsworth

Piano, B-3, Wurlitzer, Rhodes, synthesizer, accordion, Mellotron, vocals

Michael Kang

Mandolin, violin, viola, vocals

Keith Moseley

Bass, harmonica, vocals

Bill Nershi

Acoustic guitar, electric slide guitar, lap steel guitar, vocals

Michael Travis

Drums, percussion, vocals

www.stringcheeseincident.com