STS9 began with a friendship between teenagers Hunter Brown [guitar] and David Murphy [bass]. It has since evolved into a five piece sentient paean to art and expression that regularly incorporates guest performers in diverse media. The band recorded its recent album, Offered Schematics Suggesting Piece onto analog tape, a practice which resulted in numerous physical challenges because the band also sought to incorporate looping techniques. For intrigue's sake, there is also the Mayan calendar, which the band embraces. The following interview with Hunter Brown touches on all of these topics.

On Tuesday February 20, Sound Tribe Sector Nine embarks on a tour that will carry the group from its newfound home in California out for an extended foray through Colorado. The full itinerary as well as interactive resources can be found on the band's web page, www.sts9.com

D- Let's start by talking about yourself. When I've seen the band or heard live recordings, one of the things that I find compelling is not just what you play but also what you choose not to play. I like your sense of restraint and dynamics.

H- It's really a collective movement. The music is a collective rhythm, all these people are entwined in one cloth. It's not about showcasing, unless it is. We've been a really rhythm-heavy band from the get-go. It's not an "I'm going to solo" attitude or an "I'm not going to solo" attitude. We just try to put a collective musical thought out there.

D- In that context is there any musician who you personally emulate? Anyone whose ethos or perspective you bring to bear on your performance style?

H- I would say I'm a percussive player but emulate isn't the right word.. When I first focussed on music I was more into keyboard players. Herbie Hancock really touched me in a big way. The guitar players I really loved I couldn't emulate- people like John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny and John Scofield. I try to keep my scopes wide open. John McLaughlin, in particular, is an amazing inspiration holistically, as a person, and what he's chosen to do with his music and his life. My intention is to be truthful to myself and how I feel. I don't try to latch on to anyone's playing but I acknowledge everything I hear and take to heart so I'm sure it comes through.

D- Let's talk about how that is realized with the band. You began as a trio?

H- I knew the bass player [David Murphy] when I was 13 years old. We played together in high school for fun. Then I met Zach [Velmer] the drummer. He was in a band already and I kind of joined that band for a while. Zach and I really hit it off and I said, "I know this bass player, we should try it out some time." So the three of us opened up for this other band and played between sets and then we finally just gave up the other band altogether and went on as a three piece.

D- You recorded Interplanetary Escape Vehicle not long after expanding into a quartet right?

H- We'd been with [David] Phipps for only a few months. It was a real spur of the moment thing. Our main intention was to capture where we were at that moment, to have something to share with people to get shows and get us in doors. It was a three day thing. We did it live with everybody in the same room together, no overdubs, and nailed it out.

D- I know a number of people who are still entranced by that disc. I'm curious, what are your impressions of it?

H- I'm really proud of that album. I look back on it and just smile because I think we did an amazing job of capturing where we were at that time and where we were going. We'll probably do the same kind of recording technique in the future.

D- As opposed to this last time out where you went it and created the music piece by piece. Although this time, you decided to do it on analog machines which some might suggest is counter-intuitive.

H- Absolutely, For sure, what better reason to do it (laughs). We wanted to try that out. A friend of ours had a completely analog studio and it just seemed right. It was really hard but we learned quite a bit from the work that we had to do on the analog machines. We were dealing with tape so to do any type of looping, which is what we did on some of the drum tracks sand rhythms tracks, we had to take a razor blade and cut a piece of two inch analog tape and splice it back together. You have to shave millimeters off at a time to get it right. I was working at two analog machines trying to synch things the way you would two turntables. Then the first thing we did was we mastered it to vinyl. It was helpful to work with this organic level of recording, to get those fundamentals. We figure its going to pay off when we go into other realms where things are much easier. Granted the sound is lost…

D- You find that analog is a warmer sound?

H- I testify. It's true. We mastered it to vinyl first and then we mastered it to CD. I had a copy in the studio of the vinyl at the same time the CD was playing. I had an A/B button going from vinyl to CD. Vinyl sounded like the biggest open room, massaging your organs and your body. Then I clicked to B, to CD and the whole thing just compressed into a little cup of music. It's phenomenal what the difference is. We hope to get a little piece of that vinyl out although it didn't work out right away.

D- Speaking of the new album, Kofi Bubridge appears. How did that come about?

H- We're from Atlanta and we were playing at this place, Smith's Olde Bar, and Oteil [Burbridge, Kofi's brother] came up and heard the show. He came backstage during our setbreak and was chilling with us. Amazingly enough, and this is just how things happen with us, we had asked a friend of ours who plays bass to sit in with us that night so we had an extra bass rig and an extra bass there. We asked him, "Would you please sit in with us?" He said, "Okay, but I don't have my bass," Well we had all that taken care of it as it turned out.

So we formed this relationship with him. He was an elder to us in a way. It was really inspiring the way he took to us because he didn't act the way that someone of his stature could act. He was such an open guy and he was such inspiration. Over time he'd come to shows. Once he even sat in with us on drums in Alabama.

Somehow in all of that we met Kofi and we became big fans of his as well. He played several shows with us and we just begged him to play on the album. We're always begging him whenever we go south, "Can you come play with us?" He's nothing but a gem in the music world.

D- You guys are very open to adding instrumentation. What are some of your favorite experiences or those you think have been the most successful?

H- Oteil and Kofi of course. We played with Reverend Mosier [banjo] and we didn't know how it was going to work. He was a friend and we'd opened up for Blueground Undergrass a couple of times so we just asked him to come out to see what happens. We thought it would be interesting, something different. And he just turned it inside out and made it something beautiful. We also toured with this guy DJ Genetic for a while. He's a good friend of ours and a whiz. We've had some different experiences with him. He throws in different beats or samples and he also has a theremin that he plays so that's been really fun.

D- You've added vocalists as well, right?

H- We've always been very open to different people who come on stage. We've had women singers, MCs…We're open to anything really.

D- Moving back to Offered Schematics Suggesting Peace, how did your songwriting differ on this disc from your first?

H-Back then someone would have something they'd been working on for a long time and they'd bring it to the band. One of the songs on the disc I'd been playing since I was 15 years old. I'd been working on it for a long time and brought it to those guys and they made it into what it is today ["H.B. Walk To School"]. Back then but also now we do a lot of improvising where we hit upon conversations that really work out. That's how "Tap-In" started. That's the first time we ever played it, the one in the album. Dave went in there and started playing this bass line and we all grooved over it and it became one of our songs. We're really open to that kind of stuff. However the music wants to present itself to us we're open to find it. For the latest album we went into the studio with nothing at all and practiced together, wrote it in the studio basically.

Over the last few months we've also stepped up. We have adrum machine and music sequencers that we can program and this has given us little studios to ourselves. I can come up with the drums, keys and bass to a track and present that to the band and Zach our drummer can write the guitar part to a song. It's been amazing because exploring other instruments and sounds has really helped me out with my own instrument- new textures, sounds and melodies. That's what's so beautiful about this band, everyone's open to that. We don't have any set standards, we're open to every way that we can further ourselves and the music. We're constantly writing music. At this point we probably have more than twenty-five new songs- twelve we just recently learned and we probably have fifteen more that we are going to try to incorporate on the road.

D- You recently sold out two nights at the Fillmore. I'm curious what that represents to you.

H- Faith that we're doing the right thing and we are where we should be. We always had a commitment to each other but we never had set goals. We just wanted to play together and see what happens. No, not even see what happens, we just wanted to play. We got some really lucky breaks and here we are. We coined a term, "It's not for everybody but it could be" because we don't do any one thing per se.

D- At that show and at many others you've had numerous artists at work during your performance, including a short-story writer typing away on stage. How did that come about?

H- It was funny. When we'd drop down and the music was really light I could hear the typewriter over the cymbals and drums. We want to have a space where others can share their art while we share ours. We feel like we've been given a forum and we want to open that up and share it with people, give back a little bit of what we've taken from art. We've been in contact with tons of people who do what we do in another form and we feel like they should have that opportunity.

D- Have you looked at the stories from that evening?

H- I read a couple of them that night and they were just amazing. They're on my table at home right now. We're going to try to share them with people though.

D- Let's move on to another intriguing aspect of the Sound Tribe Sector 9 cosmology, the Mayan calendar. How were you introduced to it?

H- We were studying the cultures of the world and were intrigued by what the Mayans really took to heart. That's where our name came from originally. It all began as something we were interested in with all of these free-form conversations among our friends and it evolved into this fun collective journey about natural timing, the frequencies of earth and how they affect you every day. We were interested in that and people who had more information came forward. A good buddy of ours, Raven, an elder who lived in North Carolina was a big influence and explained the moon calendar. There's a natural way to record time and the way that humans have decided to do it is false. It's not even, it doesn't work out. That's why we have leap years.

Once you pay attention to that you also recognize that there's a tone that goes with every day. It corresponds with the frequency of the moon, the light of the moon that shines every day. That tone then relates to a note. If the frequency is say, 432, then that's true A. So then that day is an A. If we play a show that night we'll start off in the key of A or maybe we'll play the whole first set in A or maybe we'll end in A just to give respect.

D- You guys consistently do that?

H- It's a natural thing. There's a tone that corresponds to every day and it goes up the scale and it keeps on cycling. It brings one into harmony with one's environment. It's about bringing ourselves into that harmony. So through us what someone will feel is natural and it feels good. We're not trying to push it on someone to harmonize, they just do because they do. That's what they feel whether they know the song is an in A or that today is A. It's a beautiful thing and a huge inspiration. That's what we're trying to offer- these things that you can internalize whatever way you want to. You can like Sector 9 and not know anything about this or you can dig deeper and see its natural roots and get into it that way.

It's become a natural thing to us now. Tapping into it was a whole experience and then growing from being tapped is a whole other experience. Now it's been encoded in us, we're using it, we're not so much studying it anymore. We've tried to internalize all of this philosophy and now we're trying to live it. Of course, we're still experimenting, we're still open to the whole thing, we're still learning ourselves. I don't know anyone who can't say that.