After years on the jamband circuit, the veteran Max Creek frontman and Mike Gordon guitarist finds newfound fame in a post-jam world.

TIME LOVES A HERO
Way back in 1976, we had this friend who was a very successful artist. He would throw these Narragansett Blowout parties every summer at his mansion down in Rhode Island, and we would play on the beach facing the water. People would come and camp on the property, and we would play for three days. In 1983 we said, “We can throw our own party” and held the first two Camp Creeks that year—one in Granby, Conn., and another off Route 24 in Bowdoinham, Maine. We held it up in Maine for a few years after that—we had a single stage and set up in a barn. There were obviously the big events like Woodstock and Watkins Glen and all of that, but smaller festivals were nonexistent at that time.

When I go to festivals these days, I get overwhelmed with the number of stages and how there’s music from 11 a.m.–6 a.m. What I’ve always liked about Camp Creek is that we have only two stages—you can just turn around to watch the next show. We put a lot of thought into who the other acts are. It’s a lot of our good musical friends and people that have deeper meaning to us—last year, we had Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett. I’ve been on the little side stage when there’s a really good band playing on the main stage, and I’ve been on the main stage when friends have been playing on a side stage. I don’t want to compete against my musical buddies. [Ed. Note: This year’s Camp Creek is slated for July 8-10 in Mariaville, N.Y.]

CREEK FREAKS
My earliest memory of Mike Gordon that stands out was when Max Creek played Burlington, Vt., in the 1980s. He handed me a cassette tape and a piece of sheet music and said, “I took a recording of Max Creek’s ‘Emotional Railroad,’ and I transcribed your guitar solo.” It looked unbelievably complicated. I grew up reading music, but I don’t read music for guitar and I certainly don’t write music for guitar, so it was pretty cool to have somebody give me a piece of sheet music with my playing on it.

He said: “Here’s the recording of my transcription. It’s got Max Creek on one side and I’m playing bass on the other.” I thought, “This is a person who has way too much time on their hands!” Mike was aware of Max Creek while growing up in Massachusetts and, when he went away to college, Mike actually sent his dad a recorder to tape one of our Boston shows.

INTO THE WOODS
The first project that Mike and I had together was The Drop Caps in ‘97 when Mike was asked to play a folk festival in Ann Arbor, Mich. And then, he approached me about his Inside In band in 2003. We’ve been writing together for the past few years. He’s in Burlington, and I’m near Boston, so now we find these isolated cabins on lakes in the middle of the woods betwee nus to work. The first time, we brought way too much gear and then, every time after that, we reduced it. We would sit around and just throw ideas out. We probably came up with 15 songs during our first five weekends and we whittled that down to eight.

Mike’s an interesting guy. He wants everything to be the best it can be and to explore every possibility. That can be overwhelming. A lot of times, in preparation for these Skype writing sessions we have on Wednesdays, he’ll do a bunch of work before and then just spit out all these different lyrical possibilities. There’s a lot of trust. He trusts my opinion and I trust his opinion. We’re always there to serve the song as opposed to serving our personal agendas.

MIKE’S SONGS
Mike’s 2014 album, Overstep, was the culmination of us developing our process. It’s been a very educational collaboration and, at this point, we can write pretty quickly. It’s also very cool to have Phish play some songs that I helped write. When Phish was lookingfor new material, Mike and I got together and took some things that we hadn’t developed—a couple of jams and ideas that seemed more Phish-oriented—and we polished three or four of them. He also brought in one of the songs that didn’t make it to Overstep. Phish picked “555” for Fuego, so it’s neat that Bob Ezrin produced a song I helped write and added all these horns and gospel singers.

POST-JAM ALL-STARS
[Mike Gordon’s new solo band] is firing on all cylinders. The new members have such a new energy. When we auditioned Johnny Kimock for the band, it immediately clicked. He’s a good kid, and we have such a great time hanging together. And Robert Walter just brings such a musical history. We had these listening parties on tour—he reminds me of Derek Trucks. Their knowledge of music is just so vast. You could spend weeks picking their brains. I’m a very rhythmic guitar player, almost close to a  drummer. I really enjoy people that have a great rhythmic sense, and Robert Walter is all about that. He’s viciously good.

We’re trying to explore new territory—new sounds—and opening it up to see what else is out there rather than rehashing our other bands. Even though Johnny’s dad is rooted in the jamband world, he hasn’t had all that much exposure to it. Mike is obviously in the perfect jamband, and I’ve had my jamband experience. That’s all well and good, but why put another band together that does the same thing?