Off the road and into the woods, on this Mini Cast Fishman and Lamont talk about living in Maine and the sound of silence.
Kyle:
I'm Kyle Lamont, host of Concert Cast, a podcast about road tripping to America's best music venues, and one of the hardest things about producing each episode is the editing. The solution mini casts bite-size morsels for your ears conversations that didn't make the full length episode.
Our first mini cast is with Jon Fishman, the drummer of Phish, who I had the supreme privilege of hanging out with after his radio show in Belfast, Maine.
Life on the road can be noisy, stressful and loud. It makes total sense how my Fishman would want and go to the woods and turn all that down.
Fishman:
I remember these interviews with Michael Jordan in the 90s where he said, oh, I love to play games at Madison Square Garden because, you know, when the crowd gets really worked up, they start stomping the floor. I actually get more height. I can actually time it get more height out of my jumps because the floor moves. I didn't know what he meant until we actually played there. And we were playing the song Xilla, which just goes right And Nana and Urbano and and and and it's just as far on the floor, you know. Boom, boom, boom. And it's the kind of thing. It's like a little bit of a headbanger tune. And I think people in the room kind of got, you know, all in the same beat. And I felt it the whole state, my whole drum set and everything under us just started going woof, woof like this, you know, undulating. And that was really cool. And I thought, all right, you know, this is amazing.
I guess if I really had to talk about favorite venue, I think I do still prefer. As much as I love Madison Square Garden and the big stages and all that, it's great. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's awesome, but. And the festivals and everything I really do. Kind of like the little rooms. I do like I like going in little clubs and like that VFW hall thing. You know, that is as fun a place to play as any place, really. But in some ways kind of more fun because it says you're not likely to be there again or maybe very often.And those little or rooms,
Kyle:
Little rooms that are more likely found in rural quiet towns.
And how would you describe Maine's soundscape? You know, in terms of the natural noises that you hear. You know, you've traveled all over the country. How would you say Maine's natural noises really maybe affect your music or help inspire your music or enrich—
Fishman:
Well, to be honest. It's funny, but that goes back. Silence. So in 2004, Phish kind of ran itself into the ditch and from ’04 to’09, we were not a band right? And that was when my wife and I decided we were going to look for a place to raise our kids and just farm and just kind of homestead. And it was like a little bit of a back to the land effort on our part.
Hold on, I have a quote. Yeah, I'll read you the quote. And this is the quote that basically guided my idea of like, where do we want to live? And this is gonna answer your question about Maine soundscape. Let me find my little quotes here
Kyle:
he scrolls through his phone
Fishman:
Oh quotes! There we go. All right. And OK. I don't know who wrote this quote. Maybe somebody can tell you.
“Soon, silence will have passed into legend, man has turned his back on silence. Day after day, he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life. Contemplation, meditation, tuning, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides, his inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation.”
So I was like, I gotta find someplace that's quiet, you know? And I remember driving up the driveway where we live now and getting out of the car and hearing nothing like hearing no cars or like in the way distance, I could kind of hear like a logging truck maybe in the back Belfast Road like or like, but real distant, you know.
But there was no consistent harm or anything like that.
Every once while someone decides cut by a bunch of trees and you hear some hum, a chain says for a few days it's up. But generally speaking, you know. And what was interesting about it, it was like, wow. And that that far from civilization, you know, we're not near Portland or. You know, we're not near a big city necessarily. But the coast is like a lot of culture going on here.
Kyle:
Fishman and his wife found Lincolnville. Maine a small coastal town right on Route 1.
Fishman:
So I called my wife is I mean, maybe come up, look at this place. And that's where we ended up buying in Lincolnville.
And I still get out the car and it's still the same relief that was on some nights. You get sometimes you get here stuff, but like some days you get out. It's just like all I can hear is the ring in my ears, you know, and that that's as close to silence as I get now. So for me, that association like me, when I think of the soundscape of Maine, it's like so people call it the Alaska of the lower 48 or whatever. But it's a place where you can get peace and quiet in the sounds of nature are still really present.
Kyle:
Silence for them is a sound. I have a question. So when you're like in a road trip situation and you guys have talked enough and you've talked about the sad or maybe you've talked about what you're going to play or you've gone through all the talking, you guys have come to a point where you're comfortable in silence.
What is that like being a big band together and driving together in silence?
Fishman:
It's pretty great.
I mean, we don't all live in the same house anymore and see each other as much. We get together, we have practice sessions, we have recording sessions. But mostly when we get together, we're working on new material. Everyone's kind of responsible for sort of knowing the old things. And then we do go over rough spots sometimes in old material. But usually there are conversations because when we get together, there are things to catch up on. There's other new things to do or things we've all been meaning to catch up on.You know, like, well, well, we get together, we'll talk about, well, we'll figure this thing out or that thing out
Kyle:
You guys just comfortable being silent together.
Fishman:
Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's really comfortable that way. Well I think we got training for that on the road though, because there are a lot, you know, comfortably silent hours and hours and hours driving, you know, on the road.
Kyle:
I just love the concept how you guys are just this huge mega band. And just to think that you all can be silent together is pretty special thing. Just the essence of silence on a road trip is sound and in itself.
Fishman:
Well, you learn that a lot in music, though, too. You know, the hardest thing to do music is play really slow and really sparsely and like. And still have people on the edge of their seat. Like a real slow ballad duet. There's one of my favorite series of records is Joe Pass and Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Pass guitar player. And it's just like guitar accompaniment with vocals. And there's more space on those records and sound. And it's pretty incredible. They keep it keeps you riveted.
Kyle:
And that completes my mini cast with Jon Fishman. As I reflect on our time together, I'm mostly in awe of how little distraction there was outside of the studio caller, which you have to listen to the full length interview for that moment. Sitting with Fishman for close to 90 minutes without interruption from anyone was spellbinding. In the quiet comfort of a radio studio, we simply had a great conversation. It wasn't until my friend our class Meyer, who produces Fishman's show, had to cut us off. And yes, the spell was broken, but thankfully I pushed the record button.
Kyle:
Subscribe to ConcertCast the podcasts on your podcast app of choice to listen to our full length episode where Fishman and I talk about his favorite music venues.
Fishman:
There's this place. Blossom in Ohio. That's just it's like you're on the inside of it, upside down ship that the shell inside is this wooden knee. Looks like the inside of a wood, hull of a ship.
Kyle:
And we even have a late night studio caller.
Fishman:
WBFY I guess I got to answer it first.
Kyle:
This has been a Good To Go Studio's production made in Maine. Tyler Gardner of Digital Lives Audio is our engineer and Mark Tekushan is our resident mastermind. Special thanks to John Fishman. WBFY100.9FM Belfast Community Radio Station. Eric Klausmeyer, Chris Katsaras. And thank you for listening.