by Dean Budnick

This will be an interesting next few months for the String Cheese Incident. The group is about to embark on a twenty-six show east show tour which will carry the quintet into larger theaters and halls. On New Year's Eve the band will return to the Portland Convention Center for a multimedia extravaganza billed as "2001: A String Cheese Odyssey." Soon afterwards the band will issue its third studio release, for which it has collaborated for the first time with an outside producer, Los Lobos' Steve Berlin. In addition, many individuals are curious to see what will happen in terms of the touring retinue following the announcement of Phish's hiatus (the New York Times recently reported that the band will "benefit" from Phish's time off). All of these topics are addressed in the following interview with the quintet's bass player, Keith Moseley, as well as the nature of the group's improvisation and its elevated production values. For additional information about the band, visit the group's official web site.

DB: Lets' start off by discussing your own musical development. When did you start playing the bass?

KM: I started playing when this band started, actually. I had never touched a bass before this band started. I was a guitar player before that, and played for quite a while. But when the band first formed, I was playing guitar in a bluegrass band. I met Bill Nershi and he was a much better guitar player than me but there was no bass player so I said, "I guess I can either play bass or I'm out of the band." As a result I learned to play bass. I really enjoy it now and it has opened up a whole new world of musical expression for me.

DB: You mention that you were in a bluegrass band. Did you have a heavy background in bluegrass?

KM: I still listen to quite a bit of bluegrass as I did in the beginning but my real musical roots were growing up with classic rock. My musical influence and background are both in classic rock and bluegrass. Since the band has gotten going, I've also put more time and energy into getting up to speed on the jazz stuff and world beat stuff. That's a lot of fun and challenging as well.

DB: In terms of bluegrass, is it true that there was a time in the beginning of the band's career when you performed as a trio with Bill Nershi and Michael Kang in the classic bluegrass configuration minus the banjo?

KM: In the very beginning we played a few happy hour gigs in Crested Butte with Billy, Michael and myself but that was really just the seeds of the band. I think the first gig we ever had that you could call a gig with the real band included [current drummer Michael] Travis and that was a locals night talent show in Crested Butte, Co. That would have been December of 93. It went over really well and we had so much fun we said we should make a go of it.

So in terms of bluegrass, we've always had those influences and played some bluegrass music because we enjoy it but the instrumentation has always included Travis on drums. Actually at the very beginning he was playing hand drums- just congas. He'd never played a drum kit before the band started. He started out playing the congas and after doing that for maybe six months we said we really want to make people dance so we have to get you on a drum kit. So yes the instrumentation has never been that of a bluegrass band even from the beginning. We've been a rock band that plays bluegrass music.

DB: Returning to your initial experience on bass- how did you approach it and who were your influences?

KM: From the very beginning I was in way over my head. We were playing bluegrass and rock tunes, some jazz, some world-beat stuff, and I was playing catch-up, trying to get up to speed on all that. One of my biggest early influences as a bass player was Tye North [formerly of Leftover Salmon]. He was a good friend I met early on when the band was starting out and I talked with him quite a bit. I really tried to learn from Tye and he continues to be a great player and a great influence.

DB: Let's jump to the present for a moment. I'm not sure if you've heard this but a few days ago the New York Times heralded the String Cheese Incident as the band most likely to "benefit" from Phish's hiatus. What do you think about that designation and are you concerned at all about the potential influx of people coming out on tour with the band?

KM: I think the band most likely to benefit from Phish taking a hiatus is Phish, really. They deserved to take a break and after we've been together for however long, fifteen years, I hope by God we get to take a year or two off as well. There certainly has been a lot of talk that there's going to be Phish fans out there who might come check out the Sting Cheese Incident. We welcome them to check out the band. Obviously there are some concerns with our fans and with us- we don't want to see the scene just explode in numbers and grow uncontrollably. We really would like to welcome newcomers but if they do decide to come and see our band and even tour with the band we want them to be String Cheese fans and become part of our scene and start to understand what our scene is like, and be incorporated into out family. That could be a challenging thing to do with a large influx of people. We'll have to see how it goes. No one really knows who's going to show up or if they're going to show up. It's all conjecture up to this point.

DB: Speaking of the String Cheese scene- the band performed two big events with John Dwork that incorporated string elements of ritual ands spectacle. I'd like to hear your perspective on the relationship and significance of ritual to music.

KM: John Dwork is a unique and spirited individual and it's been lot of fun working with him at New Years last year and the Horning's Hideout show this year. John and Peak Experience are going to be involved again with the New Year's show coming up and we're going to do more with them next summer. As far as the ritual idea goes I think that was probably one of John's ideas and something he ran with rather than something the band came up with, or any individuals in the band. I think that our main focus is the music. We've enjoyed being part of it but I really wouldn't say that was something the band created. It was something we enjoyed and had fun with and I'm sure we'll continue to do some special events like that with John but it's not something we're trying to promote as a band.

DB: In terms of the band's philosophy, one thing that has always impressed me about the String Cheese Incident is the commitment the group has made to production in the live setting. Right now I know you're touring with a rather massive sound system that you're loading into venues. What was the impetus for this and what has the impact been on the band and its music?

KM: I think from the very beginning part of our philosophy was to try to create the ultimate concert experience, even when we were playing clubs. We try to put ourselves in the fans shoes a lot and say, "If I were going to a concert what would be important to me and what would I like to experience?" Obviously a fantastic sound system is at the top of list. I'm glad that people are noticing and I think it's something that people expect when they see the String Cheese Incident and it's something that we're going to keep as a priority. We thought, "How can we do this, what needs to happen?" Well we borrowed a bunch of money, bought a real nice sound system and started hauling it around really early on. We would load it into clubs that had p.a.'s and we would sound better than other band sounded. Now we're driving a semi- we're up to two tour busses and a semi- we have a fantastic sound system and a great lighting rig as well. It's just been part of our philosophy to give the fans the most we can possibly give them in terms of a fantastic show- lights, sound and the band really putting it out there. I think it has helped a lot. I think people come out to see us they know it's going to sound good, it's going to be a high quality show and that's something we continue to reinvest in as we grow as a band. It's especially challenging to make acoustic instruments sound good in a big rock setting. That's something we have focussed on from the very beginning, and we continue spend more money to sound better all the time but we think it's money well spent. We appreciate the good sound and I know the fans do too.

DB: Lets' talk about the new studio album, which will come out early year. How did you select Steve Berlin [Los Lobos saxophone player] to produce?

KM:We played with Los Lobos last February. We had them out to join us in Denver as part of our Winter Carnival when we did several shows with special guests. That was the first time I met Steve. We had a great time playing with Los Lobos and we knew Steve had produced some albums [Tragically Hip, Los Lobos, Buckwheat Zydeco, Crash Test Dummies] and we talked to him for a little bit and put the word out to say that we were thinking about using an outside producer for the first time. After that Steve made a couple of special trips to see the band. He flew out to see us and took an interest in the project. We really enjoyed his company and his vibe and thought he would be good to good work with.

We've finished tracking at this point and we're going to do the mixing after the fall tour- but I think we've got a great album in the can. It was a new experience for us and Steve was great. He offered a lot of creative input and arrangement ideas. It was kind of like adding an extra member in a creative sense and it's something we've never done. The String Cheese Incident functions as a democracy which is great but consequently it can be slow moving. We're voting on everything we do in the studio or on the road and it's almost always three to two. So I guess it's good we have five people in the band {laughs).

Anyhow, it was good to work with an outside influence and have someone else offer direction and ideas. Everyone was willing to go with it. What we've come up with is a lot of four, five and six minute versions of our songs where we've really tried to take the essence of the songs and pare them down to something that stands alone and shines.

DB:Have all of the songs been played live?

KM:Everything on there we've played at least a little bit out on tour although some of the compositions have been changed for the album. There are some arrangements of songs that fans might have heard live that we've changed around in the studio. Again, this release is going to be something that we're proud of. This is only our third studio album but I think as we get more and more comfortable every time we go into the studio we're happier and happier with the output.

DB:When you work with a producer who plays sax does he try to sneak the instrument onto the album?

KM:There is some sax on the album but it's not Steve Berlin playing it. We had Karl Denson come in and play for us. Steve might have plunked a couple of notes on the piano at one point but I'm not sure if those made it to the final cut or not. He's primarily an artistic director, a collaborator- offering ideas with different sorts of sounds and studio tricks and techniques. He's very experienced in the studio so it was great to work with him and benefit from some of his creative ideas but he didn't end up blowing any sax.

DB:When you come out of the studio and start touring right away does it alter the nature of the live shows?

KM: I think it does. I think every time we go into the studio the music is under the microscope a little bit- these are the parts we've been playing together on a song, do they really work well together and what can we do to improve them? As players we examine what we do closely and as a band we examine what we do closely and we always come out a little better. I think every time we do an album we come out of the studio a little more seasoned as players and performers.

DB: Can you provide a specific example, maybe in terms of your own technique or approach?

KM: I may have played a song many times live and always thought that what I was doing worked. Then in the studio I'll listen back and see well actually if I played this song a little differently, if I moved up over the bridge to get a little different sound that might work better in this context. It's reexamining what you do and hopefully learning from it.

DB: How has the band's rehearsal schedule and rigor changed over time, if at all?

KM: It has changed. We've gone from the days of doing two hundred shows a year to doing half of that now. We're looking to do less shows in the next calendar year. We're shooting to do 90 shows in 2001 instead of 125 this year. More time at home for writing, rehearsing and then hitting the road with a lot of gusto. We didn't get in as much rehearsal this time before the tour because we've been working on the album and Michael has just been out on tour with Comotion, so we're going to have about four days. Then we have a bunch of rehearsal time scheduled for the end of this tour and prior to our New Years shows and then we have a lot of time scheduled for his spring. So we're trying to make rehearsal time more of a priority. As the scene grows and our fan base grows I think people continue to expect more from the band and I think we do feel pressure to really be on top of our game and write new songs and come out better and better each tour- so the rehearsing is important. We want to stay sharp and continue to outdo ourselves every time we go out on tour.

DB: How do you think that your approach to improvisation and that of the band has changed over the past few years?

KM: The more understanding I come to have about the instrument and about music theory in general, the more tools I have to work with. I think as far as the band goes, we have somewhere around 1100 shows under our belts and with more experience we're more able to listen to each other and pick up on subtle cues. I think we have more trust in each other to really go out into uncharted territories with the confidence that we're probably going to come up with something that's pretty good. Some times we fall on our faces in jams but more often than that we end up finding something that works. I think we've changed our confidence level in being able to jam. I think we've matured in our ability to really listen to each other and follow subtle cues, follow each other's lead and I think that as we continue to grow and progress as players we really get better at blending and coming across as one unit rather than five people with their heads down. These days more often it comes across as a unified musical expression.

DB: How often does the band leave behind structure altogether?

KM: It's different tour to tour and show to show. We are still pretty structured about the show in terms of setlists because we do cover so much ground musically and all five of us sing. So we put quite a bit of time into setlists and saying this is a musical journey we want to take a crowd on tonight where we'll try to plan out the entire evening. During the course of this we'll put in a couple of arrows, which will be segues between songs. Sometimes we'll talk a little bit about it and come up with an idea like maybe we want to do some kind of funk jam out of the end of this song in the key we're in, say A minor, and we want to get to C and that will be as much as we'll say about it and let it go from there. Other times we won't even say anything about it. There will be an arrow on the setlist but there'll be no discussion. Then it's just a real exercise in listening and following each other. So there are specific parts of the set where we try to do some jamming and then there's also quite a few songs within the set list- for instance we know that if the song "Texas" is on the setlist there's a certain point in the song where there's going to be a jam and there really aren't any parameters for how it's going to go, it's just kind of a jumping off point.

DB: The band also seems to really take pleasure in interpreting other performers' material. In terms of covers, how aggressively do you rehearse them? Do you work them up in advance or are they relatively spontaneous and do you learn them in the practice room prior to the show?

KM: We do a lot of rehearsing on tour. That's something that we have built into or schedule. We try to have a good two or three hours a day of soundcheck so we can rehearse. The cover thing is really a lot of fun and challenging at the same time. A lot of the covers are just reeled in the day before or the day of show in rehearsal. Someone will bring an idea and perhaps a CD of the song and we'll try and shed and pull it off that night. Other times if the cover's more difficult it might take a few sessions of practice to where we feel comfortable play it. That's really fun and challenging thing to do and we have a few fun cover ideas up our sleeve for this tour as well.

DB: Final question. How about your own songwriting? Do you have more contributions on the way?

KM: I have a few new songs in the works. I don't know if any of them will be played out this tour- I hope at least one. Every time we get together after taking a break it seems Billy has song news songs, Michel has new songs, Kyle has new songs. So there's always new material in the band and it's great that there's so many writers in the band. My writing is something that I continue to struggle with a little in terms of getting things finished and feeling comfortable with them. The last thing I wrote was a collaboration with Billy, we did a bluegrass tune called "Up The Canyon" where he wrote the music and I did the melody and lyrics. I think that came out well and that's going to be on the album. As for as more new tunes, I guess that's what break time is about for me- it's something I need to stay on top of.