Features

Phish: Getting It Clearly Through Alternate Paths (Relix Revisted)

As Phish prepares to embark on its fall tour, we look back to 1992 and this article on the group in the June issue of Relix (Vol. 19 No. 3)

This spring marks one of the most extensive tours in Phish’s history. With the Februray, 1992 release of Picture of Nectar on Elektra Records, this four-piece band from Vermont is receiving more attention than they’ve been accustomed to in nearly a decade of playing together. And they’re ready for it. Their steady ascent through the ranks of the music business has prepared them for the consequences of their highly original and provocative music.

In 1984, at Goddard College in Vermont, the band had “only two fans, Amy and Brian,” according to Trey Anastasio – guitarist, vocalist, and composer of much of the band’s material. By New Year’s Eve 1991, Phish was celebrating their success, which included a recently signed long-term contract with Elektra, with a sold out show at the 3,800 seat New Auditorium in Worcester, MA.

In an interview conducted the day after the first show of the tour, Trey spoke about the fact that the band had debuted six new songs – written and arranged while the band was “on vacation” after New Year’s. Hearing a new Phish song – convoluted chords and rapid-fire lyrics – is a challenging task for the audience as well as the band. “You’ll probably hear three more [new songs] tonight,” Trey said. “We like contrast and change. That’s why we came out with ten new songs after a short vacation. We don’t like to stay settled in one place.”

This restless, creative dynamic of flexible parameters guides the band as much as they guide it. “For me,” Trey said, “it’s been very exciting, musically, the whole time. The feeling of pushing the limits [of the music] is the most exciting feeling you can have – that’s what our goal is. But once you’ve done that, to just re-create that level isn’t going to be as exciting as it was to push to the new level. You’ve got to try to move forward in some different direction. Constant change is what’s exciting.”

With an every-changing history of ten years already behind them, has phish evolved in ways similar to what Trey might have expected?

“It’s totally unpredictable,” Trey said. “We do have short-term goals that have nothing to do with Phish. When we’re home on vacation I work on my playing, chord comping and blues playing. I work on one area of songwriting and then another. Phish is where all this stuff comes together.”