Flying Phish Hits High Note with Cooperative Recording October 23, 1996 - The Hartford Courant By Roger Catlin To record its new album, Phish decided on an approach that was radically experimental yet democratic. The band members decided to write their new material as they recorded it -- note by note -- with each successive note chosen by each of the four musicians, in order. That's right: "One note at a time, going around in a circle," keyboardist Page McConnell says by phone from Buffalo, on a tour that brings the group to a Hartford Civic Center sellout tonight. "We called it the Blob of Music," McConnell says. "We worked on it for two weeks, going around in a circle. We ended up changing the rules so you could add one phrase at a time." As the Blob started to top 20 minutes in length, the band added another rule in this studio parlor game: "If it was your turn, you could also erase a part," he says. "In fact, we'd have something called erasure sessions, where we'd go around in a circle and took out what didn't belong." The band, which formed 13 years ago in Burlington, Vt., built its considerable following in a much less deliberate way -- from lots of on-stage jamming. This summer, it hosted the biggest concert in North America, the Clifford Ball in Plattsburgh, N.Y., which sold 140,000 tickets for a two-day fest. Erasing each other's parts wasn't a problem in the eccentric band, whose other members are guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon and drummer Jon Fishman. "It was a good exercise in group dynamics," McConnell says. "I was happy by what I got out of it." Just a brief part of the Blob -- actually two parts of it spliced together, in the song "Steep" -- made it to "Billy Breathes" the band's new album, released last week on the Elektra label. But the painstaking method of recording ironically may have pushed band members to record what's being cited as their most mellow, song-oriented album yet. They even used an outside hit producer in Steve Lilywhite, partly because he was already in the same studio in Bearsville, N.Y., working with the Dave Matthews Band and the engineer Phish had been using, Jon Siket. Is the band trying harder to get on the radio? "It was never our intention not to have songs on radio," McConnell says. Mostly, the band wanted to take more time in the studio. "We've had a little bit of a challenge making albums in the past. We focused so much on our live show, we were more like a live band that stopped by the studio for a couple of days." As a result, the band members have been unhappy with a lot of what they've released over the years. Nevertheless, their live audiences have grown, especially in the Northeast, where they moved from packed clubs in 1991 to sold-out theater shows in 1992 to arena sellouts the past three years. "To some people, we are a very well-known household word," McConnell says, "to the general mass consciousness, not known at all. I'm always surprised both ways -- I'm surprised when people are familiar with us and surprised when they're not." Most fans Phish-heads The idea that Phish's popularity rose with the demise last year of the Grateful Dead is a misconception, McConnell notes. "When the Dead stopped playing, we were already on an arena level," McConnell says. Fans, he adds, "are not as stupid as people think. They're not lemmings. They like the Dead because they like the Dead and like Phish because they like Phish. There's not that many people who follow bands blindly, who go, 'Oh, the Dead aren't here; I'm supposed to like Phish now.' "I'm not saying there's not some element of people who would have been going to Dead who are now going to Phish. But it's not what people predicted." Phish may have moved into the realm of mega-band by the time it hosted its huge Clifford Ball in August. "We wanted to put on an event that didn't feel like most concert events, where you're herded in and harassed," McConnell says. "We wanted it to be a fans' weekend, so we wanted to encourage people to come and camp right on the site, and they wouldn't have problems going in and out. "Every aspect we tried to make as organized and comfortable as possible. And the fans respected it and appreciated it. Everyone was well behaved. For 70,000 people [a day], there were essentially very small problems for a city that size." Phish was the only rock act on the bill for the two-day event. And even playing three sets a day didn't nearly exhaust their material. McConnell's favorite set there was an unannounced seventh set, about 4 a.m. on a flatbed truck through the parking lot. "We had about 200 people walking around behind us." "It was the biggest concert of the year this year in North America," he says. "Yet it didn't get the the attention that the Tibetan Fest or the Lollapalooza did. But maybe that's what we are -- we're not a huge media thing. We've got more of a grassroots feeling. And that's fine." Many of the more acoustic-based songs on "Billy Breathes" were previewed on an acoustic set the band used at Plattsburgh, and again at shows at Red Rocks near Denver and Deer Creek near Indianapolis. But on the current tour, the songs have been adapted as full-fledged electric songs, some with optional jams attached. Phish has long included cover songs in its performances, "not because we have to, but because we like to." Some songs the band played as a bar band in Burlington more than a decade ago (Jimi Hendrix's "Fire," for one) are still played on stage today. Who is that masked band? But a Halloween tradition has emerged in recent years: covering an entire album by another artist. Two years ago, it was "The Beatles" double album, better known as the White Album. Last year, Phish tackled "Quadrophenia," months before its originating band, the Who, decided to perform the show and take it on the road. So what's up this year when Phish plays the Omni in Atlanta on Halloween? Keyboardist McConnell won't say. While the earlier two events were voted on, through the band newsletter, by fans who gravitated toward both double albums and '60s British rock bands, this year's choice will be the band's. "We decided on an album by a contemporary band, recorded in the '80s by Americans," McConnell says. "Beyond that, I can't say." article © 1996 The Hartford Courant Company