Umphrey’s McGee has been together 16 years, averaging 100 shows a year are annually. Year after year, their audiences grow, as do their record sales which avails these lucky guys the opportunity to record and their latest LP Similar Skin (their seventh studio recording) on their own independent label. Similar Skin is about “fatherly” advice, maturity and growth.
In concert, Umphrey’s McGee connects with their fans on a grassroots, one-to-one level in ways never done before thanks to modern technology. UM offers to their devout followers a chance to text them during performances such as the UMBowl, and the band urges fans to comment on song selections and ideas on how to perform them. The band has also developed “Headphones & Snowcones” where the live soundboard mix is piped wirelessly through to noise-cancelling headphones while you’re watching the show live. If that’s not enough, Umphrey’s McGee also makes all their live shows since 2006 available via their live music portal UMLive.net in either downloadable format or physical CDs to ship.
Umphrey’s McGee currently on tour to promote their latest LP Similar Skin came to Jersey Shore to play the Stone Pony Summer Stage on August 10, 2014 to an enthusiastic, full crowd. As night fell, an extraordinary light show emerged, while rocking out songs from current and previous albums, including same samples that exemplify their genre jumping skills: from Clash’s “Rock the Casbah”, Wings’ “Live and Let Die” to TLC’s “Waterfalls”.
Great show! You guys were wonderful!
Thank you! Yeah, we have been on tour for quite a while, so we are pretty well oiled.
How long have you been touring?
We have been out for about four weeks now. This is a six-week run where we do four shows a week: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and then fly home for a couple of days like a 48-hour kind of thing then fly back to the tour. So it’s a nice little hop-skip-jump throughout the weeks. You know, go home, see the kids, be a daddy for a couple of days then go out and do the rocker thing.
Nice. Do you like that schedule?
We have tried all types of schedules like going out for 3 weeks at a time and that’s way too long. 2 weeks is even too long. With the amount of kids we have it makes sense to do this sort of scheduling. I have three under four years old: 7 months, 2 years and almost 4, spaced out just right. It’s awesome, it’s a lot of work but I’m not the only one out here doing it which helps. That’s how I look at it because there are a lot of people in a similar situation.
It sounds like it is working for you.
We are blessed to be in such a successful outfit too. It’s great. All the hard work that we put in, all the years paid off in a baby steps along with the success rate. It’s not like a shooting star: super successful, super quick. It’s a nice gradual endeavor.
Excellent! And you have your new album Similar Skin. How is the audience reaction?
This is the best release to date because the record has such a pluggy sound. We wanted to go towards a basic rock-n-roll sound on this last record because our sound is very chameleon. So the fans’ reaction is very, very strong and we’re back to doing a basic rock-n-roll record and having that vibe run throughout the record and not get too wishy-washy on style: nothing funky, nothing jazzy. Just an impactful rock record is what we are going for.
The first track “No Diablo” is very catchy, happy, and melodic with all the harmonies.
It’s got that Supertramp meets the Beatles kind of thing.
So you incorporate many different influences in your writing?
Yeah, very much so! We are just products of that going through the timeline of the history of music. Say rock-n-roll, for instance, since the 90’s there have been quite a few things that we can be influenced by like techno-rock to like the grunge era to death metal to anything of the sort. So even since the 80’s there have been all these stylistic things that have happened, and we sort of dip into each one of these styles and try to use them in our out favor.
I recognize a lot of the influences in your playing; I’m from the same era.
Growing up my parents had an amazing record collection filled with the Genesis to the Frank Zappa’s to the Mahavishnu’s, Miles Davis to John Lee Hooker. I really got a good idea of the styles early on. So even the stuff like Emerson, Lake and Palmer we really influential to my guitar playing even though there wasn’t a guitar player in the band, for instance.
What’s your favorite place to perform?
I would say Red Rocks in Colorado was probably one of the most amazing outdoor venues. We just played there July 5. It was amazing to have 10,000 people scaling up the mountain and we are in the middle of it all. It’s really amazing: a thing to feel and see.
And indoor venue?
I really enjoy San Francisco. There are a lot of vibes there. Everyone played there. You get a very historical feeling; a lot of ghost in the corners, you know!
How long were you in the studio for this album?
Well, usually we’re on tour then we get a little time off we’ll go into the studio. It takes us 2 years to really put out a product. We’re constantly going back and forth from touring to the studio but it’s nice that way because we can go back and revise things after we let it set for a little while. We can go back and take a listen and decide to change things around. These songs are like pieces of clay being mold and shaped and get it to what you’re trying to get to. The studio we use as a tool to get that finished product of the song. It’s basically our version of this song in the studio. This is exactly the way we want it heard and played. So it gives us time to arrange things and get it together. If we’re feeling confident that means the fans will dig it. I think generally we’re very democratic in that song writing process.
Have you made any changes to the sound? Or any changes to your rig and rack?
Yeah! It’s usually a 15-year process with my guitar rig. It’s a process of adding and taking away things and coming across a new pedal that makes a weird noise, try it out for a little while. But it’s a pretty complicated process and I’m always tweaking it, trying to find different ways to make it sing, like an opera star. I think of the guitar as an operatic instrument. It has these soaring qualities so I’m always looking for little devices to make the guitar soar.
I obviously use my Fuchs amp. It’s my main amp. I love the Fuchs products: all the compressors, distortion pedals, and amp heads… great stuff! I just recently got a new Moog: Mooger Fooger 104-M with TAP delay & LFO. I use 3 of them: one on my MiniMoog Voyager, one on my Fender Rhodes and one on my Roland Juno-60/Mellotron M4000D.
What you do in the studio, you bring on the road with you?
Yeah, I did all my guitar parts at my studio which is nice because I have a plethora of amps, probably 20 something guitars – just everything there! All these different microphone combinations and preamp combinations we can use. So it’s nice to track at my own studio at my own pace and get the tones, a different tone palette throughout the record never using the same thing. Some tracks might have more telecaster kind of vibe, others have more of a Les Paul crunchy vibe so it’s nice to go back and forth.
What was the inspiration for your artwork on your album cover?
I think we wanted to do something really basic. I know we were coming up with concepts of just landscape are where it’s very simple like looking at things that just has a ridge or mountain range in the distance, something with a lot of space, and something in the distance because the title Similar Skin came up and we were like, “Wow! We can make this landscape of skin happen.” So we used that idea of landscape, but used a female body instead really subtle, pretty classy, I think. We just wanted to keep it really simple and effective.
What’s your favorite track on the album?
I like “Educated Guess” a lot because that one goes back to that Jim Grim & Lea (King Crimsony, or King Crimson like) progressive rock song structure that I like. I like all those parts fused together as a musical story and journey. “Educated Guess” goes back to that progressive element that we’re known for.
