Trey Anastasio Talks Phish’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nomination (And Why He’s Not Voting For His Own Band)
You’re allowing yourselves to be someone different. You’re not the band that wrote “Wilson” or “Carini.”
Or Rift! I really like Evolve, and I really like Sigma Oasis. They don’t sound like Rift. I’m writing something right now that is so not anything like anything I’ve done before, and I’m really excited. I don’t know if it’s good, and we’ll see where it goes. But I set a rule: It doesn’t sound like that other song, and half the people are going to loathe it.
Tell me about the song.
I bought a new piano as a gift for my 60th birthday. I started getting up at 5 in the morning and writing on this thing. It was like a new toy. The stuff that came out is very melodically and harmonically intense, but beautiful. Because I was at the piano, it was easier to access the confused language of deeper harmonics. You know how guitar music all sounds the same? It’s because that’s where your hands land. It is much harder to play than I thought it was going to be.
But anyway, the bigger point is I don’t think you have to burn out or fade away. There’s a third choice. The third choice is to not separate any aspect of your life from your “music career,” and that’s what Phish has done. We tried to have an incredibly wide palette that includes all the aspects of our life, because I started off as a young kid writing and singing music to save my life when my parents were getting divorced. My music friends felt like my family. I wanted everybody in the boat, and writing a song together was saving my life. That’s what it felt like, and it still does. It’s like playing for your life. That’s why this acknowledgement is meaningful.
Who should induct you?
Wow. I would be honored if Ezra [Koenig, of Vampire Weekend] wanted to do it. He is so articulate and smart and from New York and a lovely guy, and I think he gets it. It would be nice if someone could do it who wasn’t a star that was just assigned, someone who doesn’t understand Phish. With an enormous amount of respect for Anthony Kiedis, I don’t think he really liked the Talking Heads that much, not as much as I do. He inducted them, I guess, because someone asked him to. There was so much to say about them.
And who would you vote for? You get seven.
Chubby Checker, No. 1. 1958? He invented rock ’n’ roll. He’s who this building was built for. Joy Division. Joe Cocker. That’s three. Soundgarden, probably. I’m just picking my favorites, not assigning meaning. The White Stripes. Am I supposed to vote for myself?
What do you think happens in the presidential voting booth, Trey?
If I got one more, I’d pick Maná and Phish. How’d I do?
Fine, but as a Southerner, I’ll always resent that you didn’t vote for Outkast.
Oh, no! Outkast was supposed to be the first one. Fuckin’ A. No, that’s No. 1. Take somebody off. Take Maná off. Sorry. Outkast, Chubby Checker, Joy Division. Outkast is No. 1.
