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Quotations on...
Growing Up Each
Other Vermont Drugs The
Musical Process
Inluences The
Establishment The Phans The
Shows The Future
Mike: "I was a very strange kid. I never played any sports, ever, and I spent much of my time alone. I didn't want to be a kid--I wanted to be an adult. I spent a lot of time planning projects; when I was nine I planned a full-length feature film, and I also put together these clubs that never existed...
"I was completely introverted; even when I was one or two, I'm told, I never played with toys. I preferred things in the real world, like going through the stuff in my mom's purse. I always needed to be building something, like a little-kid mad scientist. Finally, in high school, I came out of my shell, and music started to become this thing I cared about more and more." --to Karl Coryat, Bass Player (Sept. '96)
Mike: "We have close family ties, family values. We're not
angst-ridden. We're rebellious in certain ways. We rebel against the norm.
But we're not rebelling necessarily against out parents. They all have
parent laminates, and they come to see us a lot. Every single parent we
have a great relationship with." --to Robin Caudell, Plattsburgh P-R (Aug 17 '96)
Trey: "Growing up, I was always getting into trouble--serious trouble. I remember in the fifth grade taking a big black magic marker and writing on walls. I defaced a kids painting and tried to lie my way out of it. My parents so drilled it into me not to lie that now I don't know how to lie." --to Lynn Minton, Parade Magazine (Feb 6 '97)
Trey: "Stating in about sixth grade I had this group of
friends who are very musical. We would just hang out and write songs constantly...
When we would go out, it was usually five or six people, we'd go to this
rhombus in Princeton. We still do--at the age of almost 30, on Tom's wedding
night; it's this weird thing. We just call everybody up, people we haven't
seen in years. We say, 'Rhombus, half an hour.' Everybody will show up
there. It's a big black thombus in the middle of a green field. You climb
up on top of it. It's kind of a magical place for us."
--to
Bob doran, Edge City Magazine (March '93)
Page: "Both my parents are very giving people who feel it's
important to give back to the community. Their lives make me feel good
about what we're doing--trying to bring happiness and joy into people's
lives."
--to
Lynn Minton, Parade Magazine (Feb 6 '97)
Fish: "There were times when I caught my dad saying to my
mom, 'We should never have gotten that kid a drum set.'"
--to
Lynn Minton, Parade Magazine (Feb 6 '97)
Fish: "The first time Trey saw me, I was walking past the
library. He and a friend were having a conversation about who looked like
they belonged there and who didn't. I came walking by and they both fell
down laughing. They pegged me from a hundred yards in a crowd of people,
going, 'He doesn't look like he belongs here.'"
--To
Parke Puterbaugh, Rolling Stone (Feb 20,1997)
Trey: "Vermont has everything to do with who we are. Simplicity
and slowness. And cold. People here are in no rush to get anywhere. And
neither is Phish."
--to
Charles Hirshberg, Life (June '96)
Page: "We just really like it up here. It's out of the way
and has a small town feeling to it. It definitely feels like a community.
And where else would we go? I can't imagine us moving to Boston or Los
Angeles. We're on the road a lot--eight or nine months last year--so why
not spend the rest of our time in a beautiful place like Vermont?"
--to
Steve Morse, Boston Globe (Mar 27 '94)
Trey: "The only time we hear anything about Vermont is during
the election. During the last primary, the newscasters were wondering aloud
how to pronounce the capital of Vermont. It's pronounced 'mont-PEE-lee-yer.'"
--to
Bill Locey, Los Angeles Times (April 16 '92)
Mike: "Had we not come from Burlington we wouldn't have
made it as a band. There would have been pressure to play other kinds of
music, to do certain kinds of gigs... We've found all these people in Burlington
and in the outskirts of Burlington, a community of musicians."
--To
Steve Rosenfeld, Vermont Times (Mar 12 '92)
Mike: "Our fans like to alter their consciousness. Hopefully,
the music, independent of the Drug, is a conscious altering thing."
--To
Nate Eaton, The Best of High Times #18
Mike: "I smoke pot from time to time. Not regularly, though
I realy like to play music after smoking pot. I don't do it very often;
I save it as a sort of ritual. It's pretty rare that I do. And I haven't
tried any other drugs. That's it for me Not everyone who experiments
with drugs is a drug addict."
--to
The Onion (www.theonion.com)
Fish: "I was never heavily into drugs. My drug is music.
I ended us stopping quickly because I would have one experience or another
where drugs would end my ability to play. Of course my first experiences
inspired me to play. When you're high, your playing seems to sound better,
but when you listen back to the tapes, it sucks."
--to
Christopher Rossi, Relix (Oct. '96)
Fish: "I feel that the inspiration and the new directions
you can achieve by opening yourself up to the other styles far outweighs
anything you might lose. No matter how straight a thing might be, you can
still find some different way to play it and still be true to the basic
groove of the song."
--to
William F. Filler, Modern Drummer (Sept. '95)
Trey: "The way I look at it, the music exists in the universe,
and if you're lucky enough, or strong enough, to get your ego out of the
way, the music comes through you. The audience that we have is open to
that, and they understand that conversational transfer of energy."
--to
Steve Silberman, San Diego Reader (Dec. 22 '94)
Trey: "It's like you're surfing: The wave is stronger than
you. If you relax and have no fear, and you're with the flow of the wave,
you can ride it. But if you try to fight it, you'll wipe out. The same
wave can be a source of pain, or beautiful flowing grace--it's just a matter
of how you respond to it."
--To
Kevin Ransom, Detroit News (Oct. 26 '95)
Trey: "Music is sort of the last pure thing on earth. We've
kind of always seen it as a thing where it's an escape. You can go with
the music and lose yourself."
--to
David Goldberg, Worcester Telegram & Gazette (Jan 1, '94)
Fish: "If you're taking a risk you've really got nothing
to lose."
--To
Paul Robicheau, Boston Globe (Dec 22 '96)
Trey: "The thing about the influence question is understanding
how many there are. All I do is listen to music. We have thousands of albums."
--To
Paul Robicheau, Boston Globe (sept 20 '90)
Fish: "We all have a certain desire to honor the roots and
traditions of music, but there's also this persistent desire to find out
what else we can do rather than the common forms, the things you always
hear."
--To
Parke Puterbaugh, Rolling Stone (Feb 20 '97)
Trey: "You have to at least familiarize yourself with jazz
if you're going to be an American band. That's something we think about
a lot. I think Phish is a really American kind of thing."
--To
the Times-Picayune, April '96
Trey: "There's a kid of competitive edge in the band where
we hear somebody and we think 'I want to be able to do that."
--to
Marek Kohn, The Independent (June 25 '92)
Fish: "Well of couse [the Grateful Dead were an influence],
along with a zillion other bands that were a huge influence. The Grateful
Dead did pave the way for improvisational playing in the context of rock
music and arena rock. So in that way, yeah, they really opened the doors
for bands like us, and any other bands that jam. The Allmans kind of did
too, but the Grateful Dead had the highest exposure. That's definitely
an influence. In the structure of the shows and the whole approach, I think
there are more similarities. I don't think the actual music sounds the
same."
--to
Paul Robicheau, Boston Globe (Dec 22 '96)
Trey (on practicing to the Meters): "We knew it was the
only way we were ever going to even resemble playing with a groove. We'd
try to be as far back on the beat as they would be, knowing that we were
going to speed up--there was no way to lay back as far as those guys. It
was like going to school."
--to
Keith Spera, Times-Picayune (April 26 '96)
Fish: "We're already successful, and on our terms. Not everybody
needs MTV. We definitely don't and I'm proud of that."
--to
Peter Castro, People (June 6 '94)
Trey: "MTV is fucking up music." <--------My Personal
Favorite!!!
--to
Nate Eaton, The Best of High Times #18
Mike: "We've spent more time avoiding growth than seeking
it."
--to
Entertainment Weekly
Trey: "I think the luckiest thing for us was to be ignored
for 11 years. It was bliss."
--to
Guitar World (Aug '97)
Trey: "We never made any money off Gamehendge, and that's
what kept it a cool thing. We made a vow that we will never make money
off any of those songs. So we canceled the CD-ROM."
--to
Mac Randall, Musician (Dec '96)
Fish: "The Grateful Dead has been part of all of our interviews
for the last 12 years--why is that going to change?"
--to
Paul Robicheau, Boston Globe (Dec 22 '96)
Fish: "There was one critic who ragged on us really creatively.
I used to save her articles because here adjectives were so good."
--to
Peter Castro, People (June 6 '94)
