Features

Reel Time: Trey Anastasio Discusses Traveler

Photo by René Huemer

“The journey is a theme that lyrically runs through the record and, while the songs are certainly personal, it’s also a universal theme that many writers and artists have addressed through the centuries,” Trey Anastasio says of Traveler, his first solo studio album since Phish returned in 2009. Enlisting noted producer Peter Katis and members of the indie-rock community, Anastasio used the studio as an instrument—and created an album full of rich soundscapes and late-night halos.

When word first leaked that Anastasio was working with Katis, the Bridgeport, Conn.-based producer seemed like an unexpected choice for the Phish guitarist’s first album in more than four years. After all, Katis’ credits mostly include indie royalty like The National, Sigur Ros’ Jonsi, Interpol, Mercury Rev, Tapes ‘N Tapes and Tokyo Police Club. But as Anastasio explains, Katis actually has deep roots in the Phish scene, dating back to the ‘80s when his experimental group The Philistines Jr. first opened for Phish at the University of Vermont. Katis also produced and championed the alternative/punk Vermont band The Pants—some of the members played in the short-lived 1997 side-project New York! with Anastasio and Mike Gordon. (Their take on My Bloody Valentines’ “Only Shallow” should have shattered any indie/jam barriers years before the two genres started to blur at festivals across the country.) Though the band only made it through one gig, they introduced the future Phish numbers “Dirt” and “Saw It Again” to a live audience.

Of all the groups that Katis has worked with since graduating from college in 1989, there isn’t any act that he’s more closely associated with than The National, the Brooklyn-via-Ohio indie rock band. Since The National’s 2003 sophomore album Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, he’s served as their engineer, producer, mixer and de facto sixth member—providing the band with the haunting soundscapes that have always made The National feel more like cerebral artists than moody punk rockers. He’s part of their extended family, too. When I interviewed Katis earlier this summer about another one of his clients, he brought up his work with the indie pop valedictorians on two separate occasions and also mentioned that The National guitarist Bryce Dessner also happened to be there spending time with his family. So it isn’t a surprise that The National drummer Bryan Devendorf was at Katis’ home studio one afternoon last fall when Anastasio came over to work on Traveler.

Though their jamband histories were a little more hidden at the time, most members of The National grew up in the improvisational world. One thing led to another and, before too long, Devendorf had recorded some tracks with Anastasio and invited the Phish guitarist to sit in with The National during their multi-night run at New York’s Beacon Theatre last fall. As the Traveler sessions progressed, Katis recruited a number of his pals for other sessions, including members of Mates of State, Bon Iver and even The National singer Matt Berringer, the only member of the band without a few jam-scene notches on his belt—though he almost raged a Phish show with his band at Deer Creek years ago.

“He listened to one song and then went and hid in the car,” Aaron Dessner, The National’s other guitarist, related to Relix and Jambands.com in 2009. “Matt can still not understand at all how any of us can stomach Phish but pretty much everyone else in the band grew up on their music.” “He agreed to go—well, maybe you could say he was dragged,” The National bassist and co-founder Scott Devendorf adds with a laugh. “He wasn’t ready for the culture of the whole thing and maybe not the music either.”

Despite his first Phish experience, Berringer played with Anastasio at the Beacon last fall and sang on the Anastasio/Tom Marshall Traveler song “Let Me Lie,” which Katis managed to rework as a quasi-The National number. He also found some common ground in longtime The National heroes Pavement, one of Anastasio’s biggest inspirations.

“Pavement was the soundtrack to the second half of the ‘90s for me,” Anastasio explains. “We were playing in Portland, Ore., I think it was the spring of 1994. I was wandering around town and came across this cool little record store and went in to look around. I asked the woman behind the counter if she had anything new that she liked, and she handed me Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. I didn’t love it at first, but I remember thinking the first track sounded heartfelt. That was enough for me to want to play it again, after which I began to really hear the first track. I also began to notice the second track, and found myself gravitating to a couple others deeper in the record as well, like ‘Range Life’ probably, though at this point I didn’t even know what the songs were called. This process continued with each subsequent listen. The record just kept sounding better and better had a couple friends who felt the same way and we would quote lines to each other in the corner at parties. ‘him chim chim sing a song of praise, for your elders… They’re in the back. Pick out some Brazilian nuts, for your engagement… Check that expiration date man, it’s later than we think. Most of the people I hung out with didn’t really get what the big deal was, but to the friends I had who really liked Pavement at that point, it felt like we were in on a secret. What was I going to do, they were my favorite band.”