Because he is now the “former” Phish bass player you would think that Mike Gordon probably has a lot of time on his hands. Not so. When I spoke with Mike by phone back on May 30th he talked about his new band, his new CD, his new tour and his new wife. But then again, he’s not directing any movies or writing any books right now and there are no little kids at home yet, so maybe he does have plenty of downtime?

Mike’s new CD is called “The Green Sparrow” and it will be released on August 8th on the Rounder Records label. Some of the featured guests on this disc include Bill Kreutzmann, Ivan Neville, Chuck Leavell, the Antibalas horn section, along with former Phish band mates Trey Anastasio and Page McConnell. When he tours in support of this new CD he will come to Connecticut on Saturday, August 2nd as one of the headliners at the spectacular Gathering of the Vibes festival in Bridgeport, Connecticut’s Seaside Park. (www.gatheringofthevibes.com)

I last saw Mike at the Jammy Awards in New York City on May 7th where all four members of Phish were onstage for the first time in years accepting a lifetime achievement award. The quartet looked to be in excellent spirits, especially lead guitarist Trey Anastasio who seems to be winning his battle against substance abuse problems. Of course, rumors of an inevitable reunion are running rampant but as of now there are no specific plans. However, some of the recent comments by the various band members, including Mike in this interview, have left open the possibility that we may not have seen the last of this all- time great jam band. But for now let’s enjoy Mike Gordon and his new music and see what next year might bring.

BH – Your new CD called ‘The Green Sparrow’ will be out soon. Is it still exciting for you to come out with new music?

MG - "Oh yeah, more than ever before probably. I've never done this before where the idea was to just take a whole year and write music. I actually haven’t heard of too many other people doing it now that I’ve been talking to people about it. People have their phases but I really just wanted to hunker down. My rule was no gigs allowed for that year. So like any artist trying to figure stuff out it was an ongoing discovery process the whole year where for a few months I’d work on something and realize that I wanted to change to a different method or outlook. So after the whole year was over I had like sixty-two songs or forty-two plus twenty from previous years. And it was just a matter of figuring out what I wanted to make into an album and I knew I wanted it to be sort of upbeat and funky. I guess the ones sort of fell together that made sense, the ones that resonated most. So yeah I’m actually really excited about it.”

BH – I assume it’s different from your previous solo disc ‘Inside In?’

MG - “It’s very different from ‘Inside In.’”

BH – In what ways?

MG - “Well, ‘Inside In’ started out as a movie soundtrack and then I wrote lyrics and the lyrics were all about the crazy characters in the movie. Even though I really like the way ‘Inside In’ flows, the way the transitions work and some of the different grooves. But in terms of what the songs are about its kind of obscure and strange. Whereas now I feel like that it’s more about the songs. And I knew I wanted to have an album with song, song, song and not transitions in between them and not little vignettes in between them. I wanted to take big bites for each song and have the lyrics be more universal in the sentiment that I’m having and wanting to write about and having it be heartfelt as opposed to just saying oh well, there’s crazy characters in the movie, I’m just going to have the songs be about the crazy characters.”

BH – Besides the Gathering of the Vibes I see that you’re playing a few other festivals. You must be looking forward to playing these new songs before a live audience.

MG – “Oh definitely and we’ll be filling in some more dates as time goes, some club dates. But yeah I’m really excited and excited about the band.”

BH – I know that earlier this year you were touring with the Dead’s Bill Kreutzmann and Max Creek’s Scott Murawski. Will it be the same trio?

MG - “It’s a five piece band now. Murawski is still going to be with me. We’ve done a whole bunch of projects together for about fourteen years and actually the last thing we did was with Kreutzmann and we’ve been getting a lot closer. Scott and I have been getting to that point where it’s starting to seem almost telepathic, whereas the other three guys I’ve never played with. It’s really exciting because I had an eight piece band in 2003 and I knew I wanted five people this time for it to be really tight and not four people like Phish was. I knew I wanted to have a percussionist because there are a lot of juxtaposed rhythms. With a lot of the songs on the album there are lots of experimenting with more than one rhythm at once. Sometimes you can’t tell because its way in the background or it’s just kind of woven together. So to have a drummer and a percussionist made sense. So yeah I’m really, really excited about the band because we had our first get together with all five of us not too long ago. It just felt great. Any kind of groove or song we took on went a lot more easily than I thought it would for people never having played as a five-some. And the drummer, this guy Todd Isler from Brooklyn is just incredible. It’s going to be really danceable and really funky but he also puts a unique spin on everything and he listens really hard so if I change a couple of bass notes then the drums will change with me instantly. And you know I’m definitely from a world where improvisation is the most important thing. Just to be able to dial in these grooves where it’s almost like songwriting on the spot where you take a song and then in some part of it it’s almost like you’re writing another song. It’s like one song being burst out of another! It really requires people with big ears that can listen hard to what the other people are doing. Everyone is like that, the percussionist, the keyboard player are great.” (Mike’s band is rounded out with Craig Myers on percussion and Tom Cleary on keyboards.)

BH – Mike I saw you at the Jammy Awards last month where Phish was honored with a lifetime achievement award. You guys came across to me as four close friends.

MG - “We had that feeling too because it was the first time in a while that we had gotten together in the same room. So it was a good feeling.”

BH – Let’s get back to Phish a little later on. I know that in 2002 you directed and starred in the documentary ‘Rising Low.’ Are you working on film projects at this time?

MG - “Not right now but I will say that I’ve had ideas for a film before my last two. Before ‘Rising Low’ was ‘Outside Out’ with Col. Bruce Hampton. And that I started in 1995. And even before 1995, I had these ideas and I guess what I decided to do is really get my music career going. That’s the most important thing to me post Phish. Once I feel I’ve got something going and the gears are turning then I would like to write a film script. My other two features didn’t have a script. But I think it’s going to be much, much wilder than my other two and hopefully more mature in certain ways. It’s hard to have two careers because you get better at something by doing it a lot. And if you have two things that you’re trying to do, because each one of those has so many facets to it, then in some ways you’re compromising. But on the other hand you learn from one experience and it informs the other so it can be a good thing. But I just decided that for a while I really want to do one thing and that would be music. My films will be about music in one way or another anyway. I am really looking forward eventually, not this year, to making the next movie and having it be big and crazy. And it’s going to be fictional.”

BH – Well if two careers are a challenge then I can imagine how difficult three would be. So with that said are you doing any writing? I know you’ve published many stories. Have you thought about a book about Phish or even a memoir?

MG - “I actually do think about these things even though I may be too young for memoirs. I start to think of these stories that would be entertaining to tell. I have a handful of ideas. You know, I was saying this the other day to someone. I really admire Leo Kottke who is a good friend. His career, he’s on these list of the 100 best acoustic guitarists, he ends up number one. And I think the one big reason is he’s stayed very focused to it. And he made two examples when we were touring together of things he could have done really well that he loved and one was writing. He had publishing deals that he could have done. And he said ‘I like it too much and it would take me away from the guitar which is my greatest passion.’ And petal steel guitar was the other thing that he really loved and felt like he could get the hang of it and he said ‘I better just sell this thing right now because my main thing is the six- string and twelve-string guitar.’ So I thought that was interesting. And I think that it’s no coincidence that he’s so successful. I often find that people who are the most successful are people who have managed to weed out the things that are taking up karmic energy that could have been spent more productively. On the other hand you get the Renaissance man model and some people work that pretty well. Then there’s David Lynch for example who will put out a CD of music and makes furniture for his films. There are people like that who seem to do a good job of it. But I know I love music in a certain way that… well, I guess it’s what Jon Fishman said one time which is ‘you got all these possibilities it’s a matter of figuring out what you can’t stand NOT to do anymore.’

BH – Speaking of Leo Kottke, are there plans to do a third album with him?

MG - “We haven’t talked about it in a while but I would like to think so. Anything you do you realize how much more you could do. And with Leo it was like that where you did the second album and it’s like ‘oh well we could just get together and write songs in a whole different way and maybe not work with a producer and it would be really cool.’ We just had new ideas based on coming out of the last album and we sent some emails back and forth a while ago. So it would be nice to work with Leo again. But at the time I was doing all these collaborations. In 2006 I had four going although Leo was at the end of 2005. I was playing with Rhythm Devils with Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart which I loved getting to do and I hope I get to do more at some point. And then I had my country band. Practically every Tuesday in Burlington, Vermont this incredible honky-tonk band formed where there’s different people and songs every week in this tiny café. We took it on the road and we called it Ramble Dove. We were at Toad’s Place actually. But anyway, it’s country music but really fun and Scott was playing pedal steel with that too. And then I did the thing that same summer with Trey and the Duo (the Benevento/Russo Duo with Marco Benevento on keyboards and Joe Russo on drums) and we went on tour. And then I got some more offers I really liked the sound of too. I got a couple calls from Leo Nosentelli and I would love to play with him. He’s from the original Meters.”

BH – I’m always amazed at the interaction between the musicians in the jam band scene.

MG - “Yeah that’s what’s pretty cool about it I guess that people like to do that. It’s the nature of jamming because you need people to do it and it’s interesting when you mix that up. But I decided after that year that I’m not bringing enough of my material to the table. I’m having a lot of creative ideas and I want to be able to try out some of my ideas more, rather than joining someone else’s band. So I said to myself why don’t I just spend a year, if it takes that long, and write music and have my own band and here I am. Flash forward to here!”

BH – Mike, the other day I was watching a documentary on John Lennon. It was the late seventies and he was walking around Central Park and practically everyone he encountered was asking him when the Beatles would be getting back together. I’m assuming you can relate to what John was going through during those years.

MG - “Well you know the only thing I can say about Phish is that we’re getting along really well which is unprecedented after I don’t know how many years. Well let’s see twenty-five I guess. And after twenty-five years a group of four people don’t always get along so well. People are healthy and they’re excited to play music. And so we don’t have any specific plans but I wouldn’t be surprised and I would be happy if it happens. If we do Phish again and there’s room in our schedules where we can have other projects going, make films, and whatever people want to do, then we’ll figure out how to accommodate each other enough so that we can just figure it out.”

BH – Did you read what Trey Anastasio said in the latest issue of Rolling Stone Magazine?

MG – “What is the exact quote?”

BH – I’ll read it to you: “When Phish broke up and I made some comment about how I’m not going to go around playing ‘You Enjoy Myself’ for the rest of my life it was symbolic of how much I lost my mind or how much I lost my bearings or something. Because at this point in time I would give my left nut to play that song five times in a row every day until I die. I certainly thought about that while I was in jail.”

MG - “Yeah well when we first broke up I was the one who said I think we should reconsider. I don’t think that it feels right for me to be breaking up because I felt like we had a lot more potential left. I thought our jams in the last year that even if they weren’t always great, were fresh. And that there were some that really were greater than ever. And also just that I’ve always been into long term relationships, something that builds over time that you can’t even put into words. Mark Twain said ‘you don’t know love until you’ve been married for twenty-five years.’”

On June 30th Mike Gordon will bring his band to the Iron Horse in Northampton where he will play in front of a few hundred people. On August 2nd, as we already know, he will be one of the headliners at the Gathering of the Vibes festival in Bridgeport, Connecticut where he will play before 20,000 or so. Back on July 28th 1973, The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band, and The Band played a show in Watkins Glen, New York in front of 600,000 people. I believe it is still the largest crowd ever to see a concert in this country. I also believe that if Phish got together again they could easily break that record. Put them at Watkins Glen and the attendance could reach one million. That’s how popular they were and still are. They wouldn’t even need a new record, radio airplay or publicity. One little blip on their website would suffice. Will Phish eventually get back together? Right now there’s every reason to be optimistic. Stay tuned..