The seeds for what was to become the Oregon-based septet Calobo, first germinated on Washington's Orcas Island where eleven year old friends David Andrews and Caleb Klauder initially performed together. Nearly twenty years later, the band, which has five albums and multiple national tours to its credit, has become an estimable grassroots success. Along the way, the group has remained steadfastly independent, recording and releasing all of its albums on its own Padre Productions label.

Recently, Andrews has decided to put a bit more focus on his solo career. He has started to seek a creative outlet for those compositions that he does not deem a suitable match for Calobo. These efforts recently yielded an album entitled Get Me Out of This Place. In many ways it is a quieter, more introspective work than that of Calobo although there are many affinities between the two. In the wake of this release, Andrews intends to direct some of his energies towards supporting the disc. At the same time Calobo remains a vital entity, which returns to the road on July 20 for a tour that will carry the band to Colorado and back. For more information on Andrews' solo effort visit www.davidandrewsband.com. The latest Calobo updates are available at www.calobo.com.

DB- Let's jump right in and talk about Get Me Out of This Place. How did the album come about?

DA- We had been out there playing shows during my downtime from Calobo and people wanted something to take home with them. So we decided to put together a record. But as we got into it, I just went deeper and deeper and decided to make it more professional. It's a pretty heart-felt record with a pop feel. Pop's too general, I wish we had a different phrase for it. Its kind of current-day take on the whole singer-songwriter thing from the 70's. The arrangements of the songs are along those lines. We had lap-steel guitar and fiddle but it still has more of a rocking edge. I wanted to capture the energy of our shows, so I went in with the guys I have as my solo band and we just played live. It turned out being a much stronger project than I had expected.

DB- What led you to put together a solo band and tour?

DA- In certain ways Caleb and I have grown apart in musical styles over the past few years. As a result, right now we're both interested in doing projects where those styles really come out. Musically, we've both started to hone in on what interests us. For me it's creating more sentimental pop songs, although not necessarily in the commercial sense. I mean I've been drawn to that pop sensibility for a while: early Jackson Browne, Rumors-era Fleetwood Mac. I'm interested in creating that type of sound with my own experiences. Meanwhile Caleb is heading towards a bluegrass style of music, old traditional stuff. [Klauder has released a disc of instrumental tunes with Alan Glickenhaus and others as Everyday Dirt]. I think that by exploring these areas we can each experience some growth and then bring that back to Calobo.

DB- The sound of Calobo has evolved quite a bit since you and Caleb first started performing together. You started as a folk duo, correct?

DA-We began as just a couple of boys who had an unusual experience growing up on this island. Everything we do comes from that genuine, sort of communal place to be raised. My first instrument was the drums and Caleb got a guitar at about eleven years old. Soon after we were writing songs and doing living-room performances for our families. In middle school we both played in the school band together.

Then we went to boarding school in California, at rival schools, and he pursued guitar and songwriting and I was a drummer in a band. It was around that time that I figured out I wanted to be a songwriter, so I started playing piano and guitar. Caleb and I would get together and we had two acoustic guitars and we started singing together. We really got into the idea of harmonies. We started writing more songs and then when we went to college in Oregon, actually at rival colleges, we started picking up players. We did gigs in the cafes and we always wanted a third harmony so we hired a female vocalist.

From there we played for a year as a trio and it just grew. We said, "Well maybe it would sound cool to have a bass, maybe it would sound cool to have a piano player..." Then we sort of settled into a sound that was coming from all these places because these new people were trained musically from different areas: jazz, opera, classical, bluegrass, reggae. That's what made the Calobo sound. Then in 93 or 94 we made a record Running In The River which was kind of an accident. We made it for ourselves just to have it, and it sort of exploded and became this thing that people attached themselves to. At that point everybody finished school and we went into a full-time mode. We just hit the road.

DB- Would you say that musical vision of Calobo changed over the years?

DA- Well it became less ours. Caleb and I used to lead the band but over time it has become a democratic entity, to the point where everyone now takes part in the decision-making. That's fine, and it's helped to define our sound. However, I suppose it has led me to pursue this project in order to explore more of my own vision.

DB- Over the years Calobo has remained independent. You've released all of your albums on your own label, even though majors approached you along the way. I know some younger groups look up to you for that very fact.

DA- When anybody from any upcoming band asks me for advice, the best advice I can give them, the best I've ever been given and I'll always value, is: pave your own road, your own path. We never had a major label so we just carried on this path created by ourselves. We made mistakes along the way but we kept trudging along, and I think we're all real proud of what we've accomplished. Another example of a band who has done this is String Cheese Incident. They've really defined their own goals. We played with them in Baton Rouge and I was blown away by the production. It's great. The light show...

DB- Did you play with them after they bought their new sound system?

DA- Oh yeah, I had fun just watching the techs running around. I enjoyed seeing their way of communicating and how well dialed-in their gear is.

DB- In terms of that do-it-yourself ethos, Calobo has really thrived due to grassroots support. I can remember when the band first traveled east. People were really psyched to see you perform purely due to kind words from folks back west.

DA- Word of mouth has gone a long way for us. A lot of times people haven't heard what we sound like but they've heard that we're good or that we're supposed to be good. So they might come out, it's a strange thing. The live show is really what we're about. It's real easy to get to used to feeding off the energy from a frenzied dancing crowd in a club.

It was somewhat strange though. All of the press and promotion that preceded our arrival in the east was through the jam band scene. I was almost like our name was Calobojamband. People had read about us in Relix and High Times or the Jambands site or your book and we were playing jam band festivals. I think there was this expectation that we were supposed to sound like Phish or Widespread Panic or String Cheese or Leftover or maybe the Slip or Deep Banana Blackout. I think people expected us to sound like that and I don't think we do. We are more melodically-based. We've strolled away from the epic guitar solo and more into concise songwriting where there are lots of harmonies and melodies that are intricate and interesting. So a lot of people were surprised by our sound. I can remember 12,000 people at Buckeye Lake [at Hookahvile] staring up at us with this dazed look as if they were waiting for something. They were bewildered by us. It was very exciting in terms of the hype we were getting but then I think we were surprised and felt a little out of place. It could have been unfamiliarity or it could have been a preconceived notion of what they thought we would be like.

I think we can exist in the jam band world. I think we totally belong in the book and on the web site. I think we fit in with all those other bands. If there's a band out there that can play long solos, improvising all the time I have the utmost respect for them. That's a really challenging thing to do and do well. For instance, Phish, it took me a long while to really like them but they can blow me away with what they can do musically. They can do anything. There are other bands who also do a fine job of improvising, creating and taking music into tweaky weird places where you almost don't want it to go. But it goes there and then they bring it back to that critical point where there's just so much tension that it really feel good to let it go. I read an article recently where Ken Kesey was saying that the Grateful Dead were like magicians up there who would do a series of tricks. And if you ever went to show and at one point were bewildered by how you were fooled by one of those tricks then that's all you needed to have that essential experience at a Grateful Dead show. And I thought that was pretty cool. The Calobo live experience is not quite like that but we do share a number of affinities with the bands that do set those types of goals.

DB- On the subject of live shows, I'd be interested to hear your comparison of east coast and west coast audiences.

DA- I think that the west coast seems a little more ready to just get up and dance. At least for us it seems like in the east people are really reserved at first even with a full house. They're just waiting for something to happen musically.

DB- I have heard that from a number of musicians over the years. Having said that, I just looked at your updated tour schedule and I noticed that Calobo basically is traveling to Colorado and then heading home. What are you plans to return to the east?

DA- I would like the opportunity to come back there with Calobo two or three times a year. I'd like to concentrate more efforts in terms of touring out there along the whole eastern seaboard. I really think we could catch on out there and it's a fresh experience for us. One of the things I really enjoyed about touring out there is that there's so much new territory for us.

DB- But I take it that after these dates you're going to focus on your solo group for a little while. You'll be heading out as the Dave Andrews Band?

DA- We usually just call it David Andrews, otherwise it sounds to close to Dave Matthews Band. Yeah, I just want to go out and further develop and mature the sound of my own band. We do three or four dates at a time every two months. We deserve the chance to try to go out and mature as a group of musicians. That takes time.