The title of Blues Traveler's A&M release
Straight On Till Morning could not be more appropriate, as this
is one band that truly stakes its reputation on a relentless touring
schedule. For years these musical road warriors, led by the
larger-than-life harmonica wizard John Popper, worked to build a huge
and devoted fan base without the help of major radio or video airplay.
But all of that changed in recent times, as the group's breakthrough hit
"Runaround" introduced them to the masses, and another "overnight
success" was born. Blues Traveler's Popper, guitarist Chan Kinchla,
bassist Bobby Sheehan and drummer Brendan Hill took some time between
gigs at the New Orleans JazzFest and the Beale Street Music Festival to
inform LAUNCH executive editor Dave DiMartino about the developments in
their long and colorful career.
LAUNCH:
Straight On Till Morning is a really great album. How
have you guys evolved since the recording of your early stuff? Did you
approach this release any differently than the albums you've recorded in
the past?
JOHN:
We tried to give this album a diverse sense of diversity. The
diverseness was very diverse in its diverse diversities. No, I think we
focused on each song. We're a versatile bunch of guys with too much to
say and we should shut the hell up. Actually, I think the making of this
record was a lot harder than making the last record. We were figuring
out how to work more effectively and that opens up doors to things
you've never tried before, and that's a whole bunch more work than you
were expecting and before you know it, you've lost your mind quite
completely. I like to think that's what happened with us on this record.
I'll tell you what, it's easily the best record we've ever made. With
the evolution of each member's playing, and for me, the string arranging
is very evident on this record. I believe it was some filmmaker who
said, "Movies are like little moments that are saved forever." I'm not
sure what that has to do with what I'm about to say. But records are
like little moments in time, When you make them, you like to forget
about the pain. [He feigns crying]....Next question?
CHAN:
By this album, we were fairly sure about the technique we
should use. Also, a great thing was, previous to recording the album, we
had two different month-long segments to concentrate on songwriting,
which we hadn't done previously, so we were very familiar with the
material. We had worked up like 25 songs, had a lot of pre-production
and we were very well prepared. We were with same producers we'd been
with on previous records, and we were very comfortable in that
situation. Plus, we had a good long vacation before. It was nice because
we were very relaxed and focused going into it and it achieved a certain
sense of openness and improvisational attitude--if not necessarily
improvisational playing--and at the same time, it was very disciplined.
As far as the songs, the arrangements were very well selected and
organized so we could just relax and have fun with it. It was really a
very smooth and painless process.
LAUNCH:
Where did this title Straight On Till Morning come
from?
BRENDAN:
I think it was John and Bob's idea. It seemed appropriate
because we're always touring, driving through the night to get to the
next gig. I think there's a slight Peter Pan reference there. It just
seems like were always driving straight on through till morning.
BOBBY:
Straight On Till Morning is apropos in a lot of
different ways for us. "Straight on till morning" is how you get to
Never Never Land or whatever. We just thought it was a cool name. It has
a lot of different meanings.
LAUNCH:
What are some of your favorite songs on the record?
BOBBY:
I think the song "Yours" on there is pretty cool. It's got a
lot of strings on it. John had a chance to orchestrate those and I think
musically that's one of the best things we've done. I really like the
song "Make My Way." I like a lot of the album; I like it all.
CHAN:
It was nice because we played out of the straight 4/4 rock 'n'
roll beat more successfully than we have in the past. There are a few
songs that are departures: The song "Psycho Joe" is really kind of
twisted and weird; there's a song called "Yours" which has a really
great string part; there's a great blues song at the end called "Make My
Way" which is a great, loose, open jam, which we hadn't done on record
before.
BRENDAN:
Because it's our latest album, I like all of the songs. We
haven't really played them that much live yet, so we don't know the
crowd reaction yet. I really like "Carolina Blues" because it's a strong
blues song, leads off the album. "Felicia" is a great song, and so is
"Justify The Thrill," the third song. There's a lot of really good
interaction between the bass and drums, which I like since I'm a
drummer. John, lyrically, did an amazing job.
LAUNCH:
John, tell me about this experimentation you're doing with
the strings. How do you think that song "Yours" compares to the other
songs you've added strings to?
JOHN:
On this one, I think I did a better job. I took more time with
it. I heard the parts in my head for a longer period of time. So it
definitely was a better string part. I think "Yours" is the best song
I've ever written. In terms of the shape of it. I'm really proud of that
one. That was the one I stayed up worrying about. I held its little
hand. Songs are like your children, and that one was my favorite.
LAUNCH:
When you get lucky enough to score a hit like "Runaround"
and sell so many albums, do you feel intimidated by the prospect of
living up to your own hype?
CHAN:
I'm sure it was in the back of our minds, but fortunately, by
the time Four came along, we'd been touring for years and years,
we'd done three different records. We had a lot of friends who'd come
and gone in the music business, so we were fairly realistic about
success. We just got lucky; the timing was right. The success didn't
seem to mess with us too much. If anything, it gave us a chance to pick
up the shambles of our personal lives, kind of balance things out a
little more. So I think we were a lot fresher and just more relaxed and
at peace going into this record. There was something to follow up, but I
feel pretty good about the consequences.
BRENDAN:
We felt a little pressure in the fact that the label would
be looking for a single that would go the same route as "Runaround" or
"Hook." So in that respect, we did feel some tension in the studio,
like, "which is going to the be the song they'll pick?" That was kind
of in the back of our minds but we really just wanted to express
ourselves.
JOHN:
There's an old adage: Before I play I hope you like it. After
I've played, I hope you liked it. But while I'm playing I don't care. If
you try to anticipate what people want you to do, you're going to fail
every time. We just wanted to keep kicking butt. The important thing was
to keep our goals.
LAUNCH:
You guys are such a prototypical live band. It seems like
you definitely enjoy the tour circuit. How does that experience compare
to the studio for you guys?
JOHN:
There are definitely two different mindsets between live shows
and recording. I hate recording. I've always hated recording. Recording
is a big pain in the ass and there's just no way around it. You're
dealing with machines that break down. Just like computers. You expect
them to do what they're supposed to, but they'll freeze for no reason.
Sound boards are the same. Last night we were recording something and we
spent three hours waiting for a buzz to stop buzzing. And we weren't
quite sure where the buzz was coming from. It is the biggest pain in the
ass that I have to deal with. This record was different in that I
could feel the rewards while we were doing it--like I could see where it
was going. I think that's an indication of how we're learning to deal in
the studio. We're getting better at that aspect. Live playing is just
very natural. It's like vacation for us.
BOBBY:
When you go live, there's just more raw energy. Anything
could happen. If you know our albums, you'll know our live show better.
If you know our live show, you'll be interested in our albums.
BRENDAN:
We really earned our bread and butter as a live band in the
beginning. We really feel that's where our home is. It's starting to
shift over now to recording in the studio. We're feeling more
comfortable and we have more fun at it now. We used to be like, "Oh no.
We're going to have to change these songs we do live, make them short
and such." Now, we're finding you can still have a lot of fun writing
songs for the studio, you know, adding guitar parts and percussion to
songs. Just making something which is concise and gets to the point.
Then when you go out live, you can really expand it.
CHAN:
Blues Traveler live is a hell of a lot more fun. The live
thing is great because when you play, you have the immediate reaction of
the crowd. You're up there sweating, you can have a drink. If you mess
up, you brush it off, go on, you have train wrecks all night long. The
gratification is immediate, and it's much more...you're having fun while
you're doing it. The record is a very different animal. It's something
we've learned to kind of reconcile: that making a record is a different
thing from playing live and you just try to mesh the two. On the record,
you're trying to create something, and there's a lot more parts that are
going to be coming out of those two speakers in someone's car, as
background music or on their stereo at home--there's none of that club
vibe, no physical presence. You're going for a very different approach
to reaching people and drawing them in. So you use a lot more
techniques, more over-dubbing. In fact, there's no gratification, it's
just frustration for three months. Finally, when it's all done, you
start to feel really strong about it, so it's a little deeper
gratification. But it's much more frustrating and tedious.
LAUNCH:
What prompted the decision to leave the HORDE tour this
summer? You guys are so closely identified with that tour.
JOHN:
We've done it for five years and we've had a ball, but you
miss your three-hour show and that's the way to grow live. We were
afraid of stagnating in the live thing by only having an hour and a half
every summer. We've done just about every aspect of that tour. We've
pretty much been in every lineup in every which way and last year we got
to headline, so where do you go from there? It was a good year to take a
break.
BRENDAN:
Actually, we decided last summer at the end of the tour
that we wanted to try other things, expand our horizons. We wanted to go
to Europe and play the European festivals, and that usually coincides
right with our HORDE tours. We wanted to try our own outdoor
amphitheaters. We do Red Rocks every year on July fourth. We love all
the theaters we go around to. We'll do the Greeks in L.A. and San
Francisco. I think we'll be doing the Great Woods in Boston and Saratoga
Springs, which are great venues, both of them.
LAUNCH:
Would you do it again in the future?
JOHN:
I'm not sure if we'll do it again. HORDE is not a required
tradition. As soon as it stops being a practical idea, we should chuck
it.
LAUNCH:
But aren't you going to miss it? The lineup is incredible
this summer!
JOHN:
I'll tell you this about HORDE: We are definitely going to
miss the free seminar we get every summer. You're touring with the best
musicians, hanging around and exchanging ideas in that workshop tent.
Every musician comes and just sort of sits in. We're excited Neil Young
is playing; we're looking at the bill going: "Gee, I wish we were on
this more." But we're right. Our decision to do this is a good one. You
have to keep your chops sharp.
LAUNCH:
I don't think you have to worry about that. Speaking of
festivals, we're talking to you on the eve of JazzFest in New Orleans
and then you're off to the Beale Street Festival in Memphis. How do you
like playing these two towns?
BOBBY:
New Orleans is a crazy town, definitely. I've spent a lot of
time here. When we recorded our third album here, John crashed into a
car on his motorcycle and shattered his legs and was in Tulane Hospital
for two months, so we all lived here for two months and really got to
know this place and we made a tremendous amount of friends. There's so
much great music here. You just go out at night, sit in with all the
great bands. We were out all night last night as you can see. It's
definitely a party town. I live between here and New York City so I
never get any sleep.
BRENDAN:
New Orleans is one of our favorites cities to come to. Just
the history here, the music, the food. The first time we came down here
was to play at Patinas. We always come in the middle of summer, and it's
just so hot down here. Of course there's no air conditioning. Patina's
was 100 or 155 degrees. But people came and had a great time; they
really welcomed us in. We decided this was the place to play. I remember
John planting a harmonica in Conga Square and it's just very spiritual
how much has come from here. You know, from slavery came the blues and
all those spiritual folk songs. As a drummer myself, I'm into the fact
that this was the place where they allowed slaves to express themselves
with conga drums. You can feel the emotion as you walk through the
streets. Bourbon Street is a fun place just for its decadence. But
really, there's so much more in the area. And then Memphis...they have
great ribs in Memphis. The Beale Street festival is just one of our
favorites. Last year, it poured with rain and there were still 30,000,
40,000 people standing out in the rain. We try to get to Memphis
whenever we can.
JOHN:
[He quotes the Marc Cohn song]: "I'm walking in Memphis. Ten
feet off of Beale. Yeah, I'm walking in Memphis, but do a I really feel
the way I feel?" What the hell kind of song is that? Both New Orleans
and Memphis are incredible music towns. They can both fairly claim the
birth of the blues. The blues really came out of the field calls and the
Gospel music--it goes back to the beginning of slavery actually. What
was unique about New Orleans and Memphis was that the river led out of
here and so there's a huge coming together of cultures. And the slaves
were treated a little differently in New Orleans because it was
controlled by the French and Spanish. They allowed them to maintain
their culture a little more. In English-controlled territory they were
paranoid about the African drums as a form of communication, so they
banned them. You weren't allowed to play them. But in New Orleans, the
African drum was allowed. And as New Orleans became an
English-controlled territory, they came up with a compromise that
everybody seemed to accept. And that was: On Sunday, there was a place
called Conga Square where you could take your drums and jam. This
happened up right up until 1885. This is what allowed the fusion of all
these cultures to occur. And then, after the Civil War, all these
instruments were being hocked, which lent itself to the evolution of
Dixieland. Most of the musicians found work in Storyville, which was the
red light district where all the prostitution and stuff was going on.
But when Storyville closed down, for fear of disease and all that, all
these musicians were suddenly out of work. They moved up Mississippi
river and traveled up into Memphis. Memphis was one of the first stops.
This moved all the way up into Chicago and then spread all over. That's
where the term Chicago Blues comes from. If you take that history into
account, you can't fight the tradition of really good blues and jam
music, and I think rock 'n' roll comes right out of that. So when you
play these two towns you've got a lot to live up to.
LAUNCH:
Speaking now of the birth of the blues, would you describe
Blues Traveler as a blues band?
JOHN:
I really believe that the true aspect of the blues is an
attitude you play with. It's not a form of music. If we tried to sound
like four black guys from the Mississippi Delta in 1930, we'd be faking
it. We're four white kids from the suburbs of New Jersey. We're just
trying to play with the same honesty. My teacher once said: "The blues
is the sound a baby makes when he cries for the very first time. Because
after that, he knows he'll be picked up and it's all show business."
LAUNCH:
I've heard you guys use the term BT-Lite. Is that what you
call other bands who imitate you?
CHAN:
For Blues Traveler, what's reached radio is something we
affectionately call BT-Lite, which is a certain something we do, and we
like that whole side of the band, but we do like to think that we cover
a whole spectrum of different dynamics of music--at least that's what
we're interested in. So when you hear us refer to BT-Lite, it's what
radio catches on to in terms of us. When it comes to people imitating
us, I think we steal too much to be imitated.
LAUNCH:
But wouldn't you agree that there's a certain group of bands
out there who kind of sound like you guys?
BOBBY:
Everyone sort of feeds off of what they listen to, what they
like and respect. I haven't heard too many things that are just like
Blues Traveler, but there are a few bands that are sort of like
brother/sister bands of Blues Traveler from groups like the Dave Matthews Band, Phish and Widespread Panic. We all have the same
philosophy about playing--not that the music sounds the same--but that
sort of philosophy of musicianship and of playing. We've also known each
other a long time, so I think there's a group of us that are similar.
LAUNCH:
How about bands that you emulate?
BRENDAN:
I think we've followed a similar train to the Grateful
Dead, where without having a major radio song or video, we'd just tour
and through word of mouth we'd come to a city, and 50 or 60 people would
come see us. Everytime we'd go to a fraternity, the people would go home
with their bootleg tapes they made, or have the tapes they bought. And
they'd make copies for their friends. I think just the feeling that
music should be everyone's. If you like a band, you should record your
experience and share it with your friends. I thought that was really
cool the way the Dead did that with that "taper" section. Just so people
could say: "That was the most intense concert I ever saw. Listen to
this part. This is where Jerry looked at me." I don't think our music is
similar at all. But the attitude and the fact that we really care about
our fans, and we care about our music, and we're always exploring new
avenues of the fan-band relationship. I think there's a lot to learn
from people like Bill Graham in that era.
LAUNCH:
Who are some of your favorite musicians? Bobby, do you have
a bass player you aspire to be like?
BOBBY:
My favorite bass player? There's so many for different
reasons: George Porter, he plays with the Meters and the Nevilles--he's
great. And if you go back Jaco Pastorius, yeah, I really respect his
stuff. I really like Phil Lester's bass playing. I really like Chris
Squire from Yes, he's a really cool bass player.
LAUNCH:
How about you guys?
CHAN:
It's hard to say. Once a musician is good, I try not to pick
out a favorite. I'm a huge fan of Charlie Parker's sax playing. I just
love how it was such a reckless abandon with how he played. There were
moments of sheer genius and a lot of mess in between. He just seemed to
emote a lot of passion. He really always strikes me as someone to
endeavor to play like or to approach music like. I'm a great fan of a
large variation of artists.
BRENDAN:
I really started out listening to Led Zeppelin and John
Bonham's style of just solid, hard-hitting, great fills. They recorded
all that great music with just the bare necessities. One mic on the
drums, maybe a kick drum mic. You move on to bands like Cream, with
Ginger Baker. Also, Keith Moon was a really big influence on me. Then
you have the jazz drummers: Art Blakey. There are just so many musicians
or drummers that really made me listen to the drums and say, wow, that
made me excited in my heart. Then you have other instruments that make
you feel great, like Jimi Hendrix on guitar, Charlie Parker on sax. I
think you should listen to everything you can all the time. If it's
classical one day, that's a great influence as well. Or it it's hip-hop,
that's great.
LAUNCH:
How about you, John? You've got such a unique style of
playing. Where did that come from?
JOHN:
Hands down: The reason that I play this the way that I play it
is Jimi Hendrix. Without a doubt. You look surprised, you probably
thought I was going to mention a harp player. I got into playing the
harmonica by watching the Blues Brothers. I wanted to be a
comedian once a long time ago and I found that I wasn't that
consistently funny. Funny is a good thing, but to do it constantly
requires a certain amount of insanity that I don't possess. A certain
amount of self-loathing that I refuse to possess. But I got into the
Blues Bros. and I loved the sound and found I was good at it. And
someone said Dan Aykroyd sounded like Paul Butterfield. So I bought a
Paul Butterfield album. And he was into Elmore James, so I got an Elmore
James record. And before this, I didn't really have a record collection.
I used to sneak into my sister's room and listen to her Beatles records
and sing along with them and stuff like that. But it was when I got into
Jimi Hendrix and I bought Electric Ladyland, when I heard "Voodoo
Child" that's when I knew I wanted to be a musician. I stopped listening
to harp players, because I was doing what they were doing and getting
bored. I would look at these horn players and guitar players. Hendrix
led me to Coltrane and Parker. Jazz opened up to me. Hendrix was a
crossroads that led to everywhere. Here were two kinds of
instruments--the sax and the guitar--with limitless vocabulary, they've
evolved for the last century unabated. And the harmonica is still
supposed to sound, like the banjo does, where it has its place being a
clichéd, stereotypical sound. I didn't care about any of that. I wanted
to make those sounds happen like Hendrix did. So what you're hearing
from me usually is a bad impression of some bastardized Hendrix 'Trane
impression.
Carlos Santana said I play like a trout swimming upstream, battling a
waterfall. I totally see that. I don't let anything go. I would love to
be able to have the patience for the long tones he does, or like Miles
Davis does. To make one note mean a lot. I'm too neurotic I try to get
the details and I never get the details I want, but I try and come
close.
LAUNCH:
Are there any secrets about Blues Traveler that no one
knows?
BOBBY:
There's lots of stories and rumors, but it's good to have
those out there so no one really knows what's going on: the truth.
BRENDAN:
We have our own history and we have the history the press
knows. I think we like to keep them separate, define the lines. There's
a lot of stuff you go through as a band, which is important to keep your
own. Otherwise you lose that glue that holds you together. We've been
together now 10 years as a band. It seems like a lot of bands give away
too much of their story. People know too much and then it just starts to
fade away. We have so many great tour stories from Europe: Just all the
hardships of getting a record deal, signing with a management company,
all kinds of legal problems, doing long tours where we made no money,
going horribly into debt. Those are the things that bond you and keep
you together.
CHAN:
We're all complex individuals with many sides to our personas.
I think people can try and understand us as they try and understand
anybody. But there's always going to be a dark, inner secret side to
Blues Traveler that no one will ever know. It's nice being with these
guys; as far as knowing each other: We all went to high school together,
we moved to NYC together. We grew up as friends and individuals apart
from being in a band together, which I think gives us a lot of ties and
trust that go beyond being in the band. That really helps keep us
grounded and focused when we're on tour, doing press all the time,
whatever the case may be. We've been through so much together that
having that family kind of foundation is very helpful.
LAUNCH:
Do you ever get dogged by rumors in the press?
JOHN:
The only thing that really annoyed me was this rumor that I
died. That was amusing till I learned that people were really upset
about it and really believed it. I had a friend call me from San
Francisco, and when I answered the phone he nearly passed out. You can't
do anything about rumors, I get credited for all sorts of things I've
never done. I jumped a death leap 30 feet across a huge fjord to save a
burning baby. And as I lowered the baby, I drank seven bottles of Jack
Daniels. Okay? Sure, cool. I think people will decide what they will
about you and think what they will about you, but the important thing is
to remember what you want out of life. And that should pertain to your
goals musically as well.
LAUNCH:
Would it be accurate to say that one of your goals is to
avoid making music videos?
JOHN:
I hate 'em. I've always hated 'em. Always will hate 'em. And
they're not like the studio. You don't get satisfaction out of a video.
When you work in the studio and make a record, at some point, you get a
result that you can say, "Ah this is what I've been working so hard
for." Video is just utter nonsense from start to finish. It's an
advertisement. It's like an ad for your band. We once cared. The first
video we made we cared about. Then we heard MTV didn't like long guitar
solos and they wanted an edit. Same length of song, but they wanted it
edited, because guitar solos aren't in this year. With that in
mind, how much can you care about this? It's nonsense. I try to ham it
up, because what the hell else can you do. You try to make the most of a
bad situation: That's the mentality of making a video. We're musicians,
we like playing in band, we like having fun. We like talking about
ourselves, but gosh darnit, we hate making videos.
LAUNCH:
There are those who would say music video is killing live
music.
BOBBY:
I don't know if they're killing live music, but they're a
real pain in the ass to make. They just suck. You just go and sit there
and wait all day. We just made one two days ago. You just sit in the
rain. Lightning was striking us on the bridge. It takes 17 hours to do
something that should take an hour and a half. You hear the song a
million times over. We're not hugest fans of music video. It is an
avenue to do really cool stuff if you have the time and money and the
creative input. We're more musicians than video makers. It's somewhere
where we might grow in that aspect of entertaining or we might just
might recede. I don't know which one will happen.
CHAN:
We definitely didn't get into music to do videos, and when
we're writing a song, we don't; think: "Wow, this will be a great
video." It's lower on the priority list than a lot of other things.
People love to watch them; it just adds a little extra fun and bells and
whistles to the song. If it impels people to go buy the record, that's a
good thing.
BRENDAN:
I think it's a very good medium. It's another way to
express your music. I don't' think that should be the sole focus of your
music. It seems like a lot of bands have one song on their record that's
a hit. They make a video. And they sell tons of records because of that
one video because it has scantily clad women in int. I think if that's
the only reason why a group would sell an album, then it's lost its
meaning. It's another way to express yourself, and if you can do it in a
way that's from your heart or is a story you want to tell, that's
great.
LAUNCH:
What's the clip Bobby was referring to?
CHAN:
We just filmed a video out on a rainy day down in Louisiana on
this bridge for the song "Carolina Blues." It was dangerous; we did our
own stunts, but we were pretty pleased with it.
JOHN:
We stood on a bridge. I got to stand there longer than anyone
else. It was freezing. Well, it wasn't freezing, but it was wet. We were
in the middle of a thunderstorm. You get cold when you're sopping wet.
It was a lightning storm and we were on a metal bridge. The things we do
for you people out there in TV land.
BRENDAN:
At the time we thought of it, it sounded like a good idea.
But when you're sitting in the rain for four hours playing with the
click track it changes. But I think it's going to be good. The producer
we worked with is a great photographer and has a great eye for image. We
got to ride up and down on a huge train bridge, which went up
vertically. It was pretty cool to be up 100 feet high over the
Mississippi, and to see New Orleans in the distance. Very cool.
LAUNCH:
How would you explain the fact that you guys have been
together so long? Most bands don't stick it out this many years.
JOHN:
That's a multi-faceted questions. For one thing: Cash, that's
always good. We're a family. That's what it is. What else would we do?
It's that fear of having to play polka I suppose, getting real jobs.
BOBBY:
We made a deal with the devil, actually. We can't break up is
the only problem. We really hate each other. We would have broken up
years ago, but we would all get our testicles cut off. We really can't
play.
CHAN:
I hate each and everyone of those bastards. I hate each and
everyone of those fucking bastards.
LAUNCH:
But seriously...
BRENDAN:
I think our friendship and the fact that we communicate
about everything and we have no secrets from each other is the key.
There's always someone there to support you--no matter what. The band
comes first. That's what's held us together through thick and thin.
We're a democracy. Everyone values everyone else's opinions. We're two
Aries and two Geminis, even though I'm not really into that astrology
thing. Sometimes it really shows. There are two guys who want to be
grounded, take the safe route. And there are two guys, who say, "let's
go for it!" That all balances nicely. We're also really into our
business. We like to keep our fingers in things. We like to know what
we're getting into.
LAUNCH:
It seems to be working. You've got an amazingly devoted fan
base.
JOHN:
Our fan base is really loyal and they were there before all
this. The core, the ones who really stuck with us, were way before any
of our records did anything. We'll never be able to repay the
appreciation we feel for that. They made our lives possible.
CHAN:
That's true. And it seems they're a pretty creative lot. It's
amazing to see the great letters and really creative stories they'll
write. They'll draw us paintings. It's nice to know we're part of an
exchange of getting people to be creative. So by and large, they're a
creative lot. They all seem to have pretty stable day jobs, which is
nice. When we come around, they do seem to go off the rocker. But they
all seem to have a pretty good foundation, as well as can be expected.
They're great, and they've been great to us for years. We really cherish
that more than anything else: That great group of people that come out
to watch us. Because we look at shows as a 50/50 proposition. If the
crowd doesn't want to get excited and feed their energy into the whole
idea, than it's not going to come off as a good show. But if you can
fire each other up, it takes everyone a little higher.
LAUNCH:
Who is the Blues Traveler fan?
BRENDAN:
It's changed over the years. It used to be college kids.
That was our main bread and butter --going to colleges and playing that
circuit. That was a really, really great time. You have kids who see
you and then during the summer, they break off and go to their home
towns and talk about the highlights of the year, hopefully we were a
highlight. Then the word spreads around to the hometown. Then we started
doing different cities. Whenever you play a city, you attract the
college crowd and also people who love music. And that can be anyone
from Deadheads to middle-aged people who just love to go out and see
music. Then we started touring with bands like the Allman Bros, the
Neville Bros., the Jerry Garcia Band. Then we would incorporate their
fans into our fan base. When you look out there you see everything from
the former college kid who's grown a little older to the hippie to the
Allman Bros. fan. And now because of radio, you have the 13-year-old kid
who enjoys your music, as well. It's great to have that diversity. Then
when we tour in Europe--we toured with Lynyrd Skynyrd over there, which
was pretty interesting to hear people yelling for "Free Bird" in all
different kinds of languages. We toured with the Tragically Hip in
Canada. The trick is to spread yourself around to all these different
fan bases. And that's what HORDE was all about: Joining all four of the
original bands together and co-mingling all of the fan bases, and that's
why I think it's succeeded.
JOHN:
Sometimes we feel like we're walking a tightrope because we're
definitely getting radio accessible, which we're not used to. But the
live show is different. It's more. When you're walking that
tightrope it's very weird. You wind up doing these bizarre computer
interviews.
LAUNCH:
Nice segue into my next question. Do you guys spend much
time on the Internet?
CHAN:
By and large, Brendan is probably the most well-read and best
at getting around. I enjoy it. It blows my mind how much time and
interest people put it into. it. A lot of the best things on the
Internet are the things the fans have taken the time to build up and set
up. For us, trying to keep in tune with our fan base, it's an invaluable
tool to keep the communication going between us and the people who come
to see us.
BRENDAN:
I love checking out what's happening on the Internet. It's
interesting to me to see how quickly things have changed in last two
years. We put up our website last April and it was top of the heap as
far as technology goes. Now it's back in the middle. We had live audio,
banners, Java. We have to constantly keep updating that, which is fun
because you learn about new technology. I think the main thing our
website is good for is fans talking about our shows. If you pop into the
"barter exchange," and read some excerpts, there's some interesting,
insightful things the fans know about the band. I try to go in there
whenever I can and add little comments. If someone's way wrong, I'll go
in and say, "you're wrong," because I know. If they're right, I'll say,
"good job, that's really cool of you."
The guy who made our website made it so easy to log on. We had a chat
room for a while, and we were getting 100,000 hits a day. And it was
really costing us a lot of money. I logged on one day. I had all my
cousins from Europe around and it was the first time they'd ever surfed
the web, and I logged on to show them our website. So I went into the
chat room to chat with people in America and all around the world, and
there was this disgusting picture of a 12-year-old girl. It was really,
really bad. I was so embarrassed. All my cousins were like, "Wow, that
is really weird!!!" That's the problem. If you let all the people in the
world on this one thing, you get the wackos, the intelligent people and
all the people in between. Somehow you have to sift through that. That's
going to be the challenge in the next few years. You have to find a way
to section it off, so there's different areas for different people. They
need to make it easier to find your route through your interests.
LAUNCH:
I was taken aback by the depth of information on your
website. There are some writers on there who really seem to know a lot
about you guys. Do you work with these people or what?
JOHN:
Oh
you mean the FAQ on our website? That is an independent body of writers
who took it upon themselves to write about us. I don't know where they
got that information and a lot of it I can't comment on, because it hits
close to home on quite a few things. It's actually kind of creepy the
stuff they know. We could try and find out who wrote it, but I think in
the interest of interest we're just going to leave them be until they
uncover something really stark and scary. Every now and then something
crops up on the FAQ that is mindboggling, but so far we can co-exist.
LAUNCH:
They'd best stay on your good side, huh? Especially you,
John. Talk to me about this gun collection. A recent Rolling
Stone article said you have like 80 guns or something.
JOHN:
My mom got really upset about this Rolling Stone thing.
The writer mentioned a number--80--and I don't have 80 guns. I have a
lot, but I'm not giving you a number. I collect firearms and swords,
antiques and modern. It's a hobby. I love the aesthetic of weaponry.
It's the most efficient machine you'll ever find. It's designed to be
life-savingly efficient. The designer in me just likes it. The handiwork
in some of the older ones is amazing. I have a samurai sword from the
15th century. If you look at the blade and the metal, it's just
extraordinary.
LAUNCH:
Has this hobby had any impact on the band, at all?
BOBBY:
Aside from the countries we're not allowed to go into
anymore? We've been stopped at the border going into Canada and they'll
pull a cross bow out of the bus or something and they'll want to know
what we're doing with that. They definitely have not caught us many
times as they should have. Just kidding.
LAUNCH:
Well, John, you've been arrested before, right?
JOHN:
In New Jersey, I got arrested for having bullets in my car. I
had a box of 22 caliber bullets in my luggage. It's against the law. I
didn't know it. That's no excuse. I was duly processed. They dropped the
whole thing. I promised never do it again, and then I moved to
Pennsylvania. It's just a hobby. What can I say? I'm a nut bar.
