Blues Traveler Interview

INTERVIEW WITH BLUES TRAVELER FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES

DM) Your bio lists you as 'New York's Most Dangerous Live Band'. Are you guy's all from New York originally, and what's the story behind that?

BS) Well, we grew up in Jersey right outside of New York, in 1987 we all moved to New York. We've been here for 7, 8 years now. That's were we started out playing, just playing in the bars in the lower Manhattan, lower east side, and down in the village. We got to one point where we were playing 5-7 nights a week between Houston and 14th street, just everywhere all along that whole strip.

DM) Where did you guys initially meet in New Jersey?

BS) We met in High School over there, and then moved to Manhattan right after... Well John [Popper], he's the singer, a year ahead of us, and the other three guys, we're all in the same class. When we got out of school, we all moved into New York City.

DM) I noticed Paul Shaffer was on keyboards. I know you've played on Lettermen a lot... what brought Paul on?

BS) I think Dave is a fan of our music, and they've had us on the show a couple of times, and that's how we met Paul, and Paul has always been cool, so when we needed some keyboards we just gave him a call, and he just came over.

DM) I noticed a lot of publicity is given to John Popper, with the harmonica and when he was in a wheelchair. Does that get weird at times when you have a group and one person dominates it in some sense?

BS) Not really... John's harmonica playing is what it is, and it deserves a lot of attention, I think. As a whole, Blues Traveler's sound is a combination of all four of us, and however the press wants to look at it, it can.

DM) When did you learn to play bass?

BS) I taught myself to play, just hanging out in my basement. Just playing around, and when I got out of High School, I went to New York and went to jazz school for a semester or so, and a lot of what I learned I learned off the streets of New York, just hanging around.

DM) Brother John is about your younger brother, what's the story behind that?

BS) Well, that song was written a bunch of years ago, maybe 1988. Johnny was having some personal problems, and during one rehearsal he disappeared, but he came back and everything's cool.

DM) During this year's H.O.R.D.E concert you were playing with the Allmman Brothers. How was it?

BS) We've actually done a lot of shows with the Allmann's. The last 4 summers, we've done a couple of shows with them. This one was more of a co-bill with the H.O.R.D.E. for the first year. It's always fun working with those guys.

DM) Lately in the music industry there has been an upsurge of 'tribute' albums for one artist or the other. For example, the Elton John album, the Grateful Dead album or the Kiss album. If your band could work on an album like this for any artist, which artist would it be?

BS) At one point we were going to do something on a Zeppelin Record... I know they asked us to, I don't know if we ever did it though, I don't think we ever did... but it would be fun to do a Zeppelin one. It would be fun to do a Hendrix one or a Marley one.

DM) How would that opinion differ from the rest of the members of the band?

BS) I think they'd pretty much go along with that, but I'm sure have their own ideas too. None of them would be like, 'No that's a bad idea.' But I'm sure some of them would want to do a Clash Tribute record or something.

DM) Is there ever a time, when one of the other members would think your ideas are way out there... and how do you resolve that?

BS) Pretty much we have a policy, if somebody comes up with an idea all we got to do is try it. You can't say no, that's crazy, I won't do it. You got to say, no, that's crazy, let's try it. And if you try it, usually you know after if it's crazy or not. If it works, pretty much everybody knows it. And if it doesn't, it doesn't.

DM) What would you consider your fan base, the stereotypical Blues traveler fan?

BS) I guess a live music lover. There's all different kinds of people. We have a really diverse group of fans.

DM) Is there any one song off the albums, that you'd choose as your favorite?

BS) That's a really hard question. I like all our songs a whole bunch. I really love to play the song 'Alone' off our first record. And off this cd, it's so new, I like them all equal. It's almost like asking a parent, "Which kid do you like best?"

DM) On this new album, there's an instrumental called, "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly." Is this your first instrumental, and how was it recording it?

BS) We did an instrumental on "Save our Soul" called, Manhattan Bridge. In the recording of it, the song has to be able to say it's message, just with the music. There's maybe some more changes, or there will be... it just doesn't stick on one groove, or if it does, then there will be a solo going on.

DM) Is there any one musician that you would like to be able to work with in the future?

BS) Good question. I'd like to work with Neil Young. I've done a little recording with friends and stuff. Shannon and I put together another band, and play at a ski-resort, ski for a week, and play to pay for our trip.

DM) What's the name of that band?

BS) Either The High Plains Drifter' or 'Is This For Real', or Chance, Fruits and Vegetables... we change the name all the time.

DM) Has that ever brought up tension within the group.

BS) No, not at all. We just do it for fun.

DM) Is the band really close, and do you find yourself hanging out with one member more then others?

BS) Shannon and I hang out the most, but we all are really close. But we've known each other forever. I'd take a bullet for any of them. (coughing heavy)

DM) Are you okay there, I notice you have a pretty bad cough there?

BS) Well I'm a smoker.

DM) I noticed the cat [on the cover of the album] is a smoker too?

BS) Yeah, he's a smoker too. That's been our logo for a long time. The black cat has always symbolized Blues Traveler. We were in New Jersey jamming one day. It was one of the first jams which was all improvisational. We came upstairs out of Bernie's basement which is where we used to rehearse. We were listening to the tape of rehearsal... cause we used to have a box down there, and we used to just press record, whatever we were playing. We were listening to the tape, and this black cat came up and just started hanging out with us, and was sorta grooving with us. And then as soon as the tape was done, the cat just turned around and spilt. So we called that jam, the Black Cat Jam. Then when we moved into New York, we met a friend of ours who was an artist and he made posters for our shows. So we asked him to make a funky looking cat smoking a big, fat joint... and that's what he drew.

DM) Is there any one show you have done which you'd consider your favorite?

BS) There's been a handful. We did a show last summer, not this summer but last summer, in Vermont with us and the Allman Brothers, and that was our favorite show. There was a lot of interaction between the fans, and a great jam. There is also one we did with Neil Young and Pearl Jam up in Canada, in a stadium and that was a very fun show.

DM) I noticed right after you thank Eddie Vedder and Neil Young in the cd, you thank Dan Akyroyd. Why Dan Akyroyd?

BS) Well, John's [Popper] initial attraction was from the Blues Brothers movie, and so over time we've gotten to know Dan a bit.

DM) What are the future plans of Blues Traveler?

BS) To keep doing what we're doing, and bring it to more and more people. We've been recording a live record through this tour, and I think the next record will be a live record.

Out of all the interviews I've done, this was the most unique. I was wondering the entire time why Sheehan seemed so distracted. Some questions would completely confuse and baffle him and seem to make no sense at all. Maybe it was how I asked questions, or maybe, just maybe there was a slight correlation between his excessive coughing and choking over the phone, the cat's... smoking tendencies and his seeming... higher level of distraction then normal.