Today we look back five years to this 2006 reader interview with the Disco Biscuits’ Marc Brownstein

Our mailbox overflowed with a near-record volume of questions for the subject of our latest Jambands.com reader interview. This is not surprising because Marc Brownstein has been rather visible over the past year. In addition to new CD and DVD releases from the revitalized Disco Biscuits, Brownstein and the group hit the road with a renewed vigor (including a current New Year’s Eve run), even as the bassist serves as co-chair for HeadCount. In the following interview he addresses many related topics in his own inimitable, forthright style.

First off, a number of people submitted questions about your bass. They wanted to know how and why you selected it, as well as how much you experimented with it before you first brought in on stage.

MB- My new Modulus, I didn’t experiment with it at all, I just put it directly into action. I knew I needed a new instrument. What I needed was a good back-up bass. I had a great playable show bass and if it went out for some reason I was going to be up the creek. It started to act up one day on the beginning of this last tour and we jerry-rigged it but I immediately started looking for a new bass.

I went into a couple of different stores and I tried a couple of things out. I was thinking about getting a Fender Precision American model or maybe a Fender Standard jazz bass and then I remembered while I was in the store that a couple of years ago Modulus had offered me their artist endorsement deal. I had shied away from it because I felt like it was the road that all the bass players in our scene had been going down. I thought that maybe it would be wise for me to forge my own sound and go down a different path. So I mentioned it to my guitar tech Dave and he said, “Get the Modulus!” And I said, “Really? Shouldn’t I try one out for a little while or check it out in a store?”

So we tried to find a store in Ohio that had a Modulus that was in stock. The Q5 was the one I knew I was interested in. But we couldn’t find one so I called Modulus and said, “Hey, I’m looking to maybe become a Modulus bass player, I’m getting over my hang-ups.” And Anderson over there said, “We’d love to have you still.”

So I said, “Let’s do it,” without trying it out, I just took a leap of faith. I figured if it’s good enough for Mike and Phil and Oteil and Dave Schools and Dave Murphy, them it must be good enough for me. I had played one a couple of years ago and I kind of got the feeling I would like it. It arrived on a Monday, I was using it that night and I’ve used it at every show since.

It’s a graphite neck and the intonation is such that you get a very even tone from the lowest note on the whole bass to the highest note on the whole bass. It’s a little punchier, a different sound for sure but I love how the high end cuts through really clear. It’s a familiar sound, there are definitely times where I’ll play a line and for a second I’ll be like, “That’s eerie-sounding.” You’ve heard this bass so many times if you’re a fan of the jamband scene, you know the tone of the Modulus Q5 because that’s the standard bass of the scene. That having been said I definitely fell in love with the low end of this bass especially at the Hammerstein Ballroom shows you could really feel the bass fill the room. It’s almost everything I was expecting a graphite neck bass not to be. I was expecting it to be a little bit less warm and woody than it is and it’s just a sleek beautiful bass, I’m loving it. And now I have the best back-up bass in the whole business.

Another series of questions that people submitted had to do with the addition of Sean Hennessey on percussion during the first few shows of the fall tour. Can you talk a bit about how that came about?

MB- Hennessey is a really close friend of ours from Phili. We take classes with him sometimes. He’ll come in and give us lessons in rhythm. He’s a master in Brazilian and African rhythms. He went to Africa to study rhythm for many years and he went to South America to study. He has an African drumming troupe in Phili and he’s in the social scene we’re in. Getting to know him, and playing with him and jamming with him and hanging out with him, we started to learn what an incredible musician he is.

We had been playing with him a lot and hanging out with him a lot and one day we said, “Wouldn’t it be fun to bring Hennessey out for five days?” He’s such a fun guy, has such a great vibe and a great work ethic and we thought it would be a nice thing to have around for a week on tour. He’s an easy guy to get along with and he’s so great at the instruments that he plays that we thought we could bring him out just for fun. That was the vibe at the beginning of this tour, “Let’s bring Hennessey out for five days just for fun.” We did it just to have fun and do something different and add another layer to the electronic jams that we felt would be really interesting. There are times where some of the stuff he does is just so unbelievable.

I heard reports that people were chucking stuff at him. Did that really happen?

MB- I didn’t notice that people were throwing stuff at him but I’ve also heard that. I heard boos when he was announced at the Sonar and it was unbelievably disconcerting. He’s such a great guy and anybody who would boo him would sit in a room with him for five minutes and they would feel so awful about themselves. He’s the nicest, most harmless guy in the world.

It’s funny because somebody mentioned to me last week when we were in California, that the Northampton show, the Ithaca show and the Rochester show, three of the five shows the guy played, were three of the five best shows of the tour. So much layering that happened in those shows was due to what he was doing.

He didn’t know all the songs and I guess there were times when it was a little overbearing or didn’t mesh perfectly. But we’ve been playing with Allen for a year now and it took a year get where we’re all comfortable with each other. We’ve been playing together for eleven, twelve years and this guy was on stage with us for five days, so there were times where it wasn’t all linked up perfectly. But mostly it was linking up really well and I have to say I was surprised at the initial reaction. But then again when I was sitting there saying, “I can’t believe he got booed, I’m so disappointed with our fans about that,” Allen pointed out, “Look at it as a compliment. These people are loving the four piece so much that it’s all they want. They have an attachment to it and that means something, that they have an attachment to the band.”

I can understand why there would be resistance to change after all the change we’ve just gone thorough. People aren’t looking for more change, they’re looking for stability out of our band. So I understand that aspect of it. And I think Jon was even playing into it a little bit when we realized people were bummed out about it. We could have very easily said, “Hey this is Sean, he’s going to be spending a few days with us, give him a warm Biscuits welcome,” but we were almost playing into it, “Hey this is our new percussionist Sean,” kind of fucking with our fans a little. But all in all it was a great experience for us because every time you get to play with Sean is a very special experience. He elevates your play. He accents rhythms you would never think to accent because he’s the master of African rhythm. Playing with him and learning with him has made us all better players, so I thin it the end it’s obviously for the good.

Here’s one with a similar theme: “Your Fans are often hostile towards your opening acts. Keller Williams opens the show on New Year’s Eve and I like his music, but I fear for the guy. What are your thoughts on the negative response your fans sometimes offer to your openers?” Greg T

MB- Well that’s just absurd. I think Keller will be okay. I think Keller is going to hold his own. Keller is another example of one of these guys who’s a master of music. It’s absurd for somebody to fear for somebody who’s a master of music. If anything he should fear for me, having to get on stage in front of 6,000 people but I think I’ll also be fine.

But that’s just an absurd comment. For one, Keller has a huge draw all over the country. There’s going to be Keller fans there cheering for him. There’s also a lot of Keller fans who like the Biscuits and vice versa. We know that because we’ve played shows with him before and when he comes out onto the stage the crowd cheers. And the vibe is always great when Keller is there.

I’ve also heard somebody say, “What the fuck’s going on, why would String Cheese Incident have Lotus and Pnuma open and you guys get Keller? Isn’t that backwards?” And that person just doesn’t understand the music industry. We can get Lotus and Pnuma to open for us but does that really add any extra people to the concert? We get Keller because it adds people and diversifies the concert. And String Cheese gets Pnuma and Lotus because it diversifies their concert and that’s a good thing. So that’s a cute question, do I fear for Keller? Yeah I fear he’s going to be able to pay his mortgage when he has to pay all the sidemen in his band, I’m so scared for Keller. Keller’s doing great.

Still, at times all sorts of turf wars seem to break out when you are on a bill with other bands, like the Biscuits vs. moe. thread that seems to recur. These are groups that I know you respect, so how do you respond to that?

MB- Like everything we try to take it as a compliment. These kids love the Biscuits so much, for many of them the Biscuits are their favorite band. It’s the way the scene is, people get super-emotionally attached to one band that in their head is the be all and end all. I’m guilty of the same thing as a fan towards that band I love the most. Even the Grateful Dead fell into that category when I was going to see Phish, which is absurd to me now, that the Grateful Dead can fall into that category of a band that doesn’t mean that much to me. It’s ridiculous but that’s how you are when you’re young and feisty, you get into something, you get really attached to it.

But I think the relationship we’ve developed with these other bands, there has been so much crossover that it’s been the vocal minority, just like it is with everything. It’s a very, very vocal minority but the truth of the matter is there are tons of people who like both moe. and the Disco Biscuits. There are tons of people who like both Umphrey’s McGee and the Disco Biscuits and we foster and encourage that relationship.

It’s not a competition between us and these other bands, we need to work together in order to rise to the top together. That’s kind of the way it was in the heavy metal scene in the 1980’s. These bands would piggyback, play together and bring all their fans into arenas together and that’s how they all got huge. None of them were able to do it by themselves and we think that’s the way it is and that’s the way it’s got to be. We’ve got to work together.

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