When the final tally is taken, Phish fans may ultimately give thanks for the once-feared hiatus that the band took after its 2000 tour, as the division of talent plays out like a musical stock split: The faithful are now on the lookout for four new albums, rather than a single Phish release. McConnell's Vida Blue project is set to launch its latest, bassist Mike Gordon is readying a collaborative duo album with the great Leo Kottke, and drummer Jon Fishman has just finished an album with his project, Pork Tornado.
Of all the Phish men, however, Anastasio has easily been the most productive. His work, before and during the hiatus, with the Dude of Life, the twisted supergroup Oysterhead (Anastasio, bassist Les Claypool, and drummer Stewart Copeland), and his solo projects (including Surrender to the Air, One Man's Trash, and Trampled by Lambs & Pecked by Doves with Tom Marshall) has given Anastasio an extensive profile, and now his eponymous solo album adds another fascinating page to the guitarist's résumé. Although each of Anastasio's various projects has offered slightly different textures, he points out that the one common thread in his last three recordings has been the Barn, the home recording studio/rehearsal space he built three years ago that spawned the last Phish album, Farmhouse, as well as the Oysterhead disc and Anastasio's solo release. (Fishman's Pork Tornado and McConnell's Vida Blue albums were both recently wrapped at the Barn as well.)
"The creation of the Barn was set up as a model of the way I wanted to record in the future," says Anastasio, speaking from the Barn itself. "It's not really a recording studio; it's kind of a hangout place. The Barn was put together with salvage: There were no plans when we put it together. It was improvised. There are stained-glass windows and ramps and garage door openers that were turned into elevators. There's no control room; everybody's out in the middle of the room. You don't even know you're recording an album. You drop your guard and start to have a good time."
That organic process has intensified over the course of the last few projects recorded at the Barn, culminating in Anastasio's solo album, a groove-laden jamfest that offers Phishy charms, but is built on a foundation of horn-fueled old-school funk. Anastasio's band here is a big one: a standard guitar/bass/drums/keys rock backing, with percussion and a four-person horn section. The big band format is an idea that Anastasio has been considering for a long time, but which only recently coalesced enough to attempt for real.
"It was a weird process," he says. "In a certain way, I had the idea before I did Surrender to the Air. If you look at it, it's exactly the same instrumental makeup, even though the music sounds nothing like this. This album specifically has been a real explosion for me. I was very much waiting for my opportunity to do this."
Anastasio's latest band lineup grew out of a jam set he did four years ago with a Burlington, Vermont group called the Eight Foot Fluorescent Tubes. As the group began to expand, so, too, did Anastasio's scope of the material.
"I had a very clear vision, in a very vague way, of how I wanted the album to sound," says Anastasio. "Rockin', with a lot of heavy, danceable grooves and high energy. But as each person joined the band, I would literally say, 'What's the first thing you learned? What's the last thing you practiced? Do you play better fast or slow? Do you have keys that you like to play in?' And then I would try to create an atmosphere where they were playing that, so they could be at their best, within the confines of my general vision for what the band would be."
Looking ahead to a not-so-immediate future, Anastasio admits that each Phish member's widely divergent and idiosyncratic solo projects have inspired a great deal of anticipation regarding the eventual reunification of the band and what each member will bring to that party. But he is also wary of rushing the process of relinking with his Phishmates, so that everyone in the band will have the chance to experience the thrill of creating outside of the Phish continuum.
"I am fascinated by the potential," says Anastasio. "That being said, I think it's a ways off before anyone makes that phone call. And that's not necessarily coming from me. That's becoming more clear. People are really enjoying their individuality, which is more than understandable, if you're living a life in music. I don't think anyone can get everything out of one band."
With all that in mind, there is a milestone looming in Phish's near future, and it's undeniably large. Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the band's formation in Burlington for the purpose of entertaining their friends -- a circle that has grown to global proportions over the past two decades.
"Yeah, look at that . . . 20 years," says Anastasio, clearly shocked at the realization. "We feel lucky, that's the general vibe around here. It's just been a warm, good, surprising experience for all of us. And now that we've had this break, I feel even luckier, because I ended up in a band with three people who had the maturity and vision to know that this was the right thing for everybody and not to be threatened by it."
