In a new “Phishin’ With” series, L4LM has been sitting down with artists from the live music scene and digging deep into their love for the Vermont jam band Phish. While the first installment featured Robert Randolph, we found ourselves eager to chat with the man behind the skins in Big Gigantic.
Jeremy Salken has been seeing Phish regularly since the late 90’s, and experiencing their music for even longer. The drummer has been playing since he was three, and has found stylistic inspiration from Jon Fishman. It’s a similar balance of improvisation and technical skill that drives the beats for Big G!
Between loving the band and a crazy story of performing with Mike Gordon in 2003, Salken is a true phan! Read on to see what he has to say about his love for Phish…
L4LM: Tell us about your first Phish concert experience.
JS: Even though I started listening to them much earlier, I felt like I was late to the game. My first Phish show was 12/15/99 at MCI Center in Washington, DC. At that time, I was a freshman at VCU in Richmond, VA only a couple hours away. I drove up with a buddy of mine that I had only met that year. I remember it being a super last minute thing because, well, we were broke college students! Haha
Outside of listening to Rift, I wasn’t that familiar with any other albums but had been listening to shows nonstop for the last few years. I remember being in college and finally having access to T1 Internet, which at the time was a rare thing! Only colleges and businesses had high speed internet and there was definitely no wireless anywhere. You HAD to plug your computer in. I had built my desktop from scratch and was super proud of it. If you had a laptop it weighed 20lbs and couldn’t do much more than browse the Internet and write word docs.
I remember downloading pretty much everything off nugs.net! At the time I was really really digging into 90-93. I only wanted to listen soundboards so I could clearly hear what was happening between the guys. Ok back to the show, Even though it was DC and Hampton shows were right around the corner they still played an insane set! Got a Maze, Reba, Halleys, Suzy & YEM! Those were honestly some of my favorite tunes at the time so I was seriously blown away that I got to catch them. I specifically remember being in the nosebleeds at the back of the venue watching the lights for the vocal jam at the end of YEM and getting sucked into the show. I had been listening to the music sooooo much but never actually experienced on of the best parts of seeing the boys live… Kuroda! Damnit he’s a bad ass!
Because I’d been listening to early 90s and not really anything off their later albums there were a few tunes I had never heard before that blew my mind! Down With Disease, Guyute, Free that all quickly became some of my favorite tunes. I remember feeling somewhat at home at the show but also being super intimidated because I was soooo young and everything was so new to me. I made the mistake of smoking a joint with some friendly neighbors, that smelled & tasted amazing but literally put me in my seat for the rest of the show. Just sitting back in the nose bleeds taking it all in and letting Kuroda melt my face. haha
I remember after the show being so excited but also in Washington DC not knowing where the hell to go, there were no smart phones or Google maps or anything like that at the time. I don’t think texting even existed back then! [Laughs] I remember taking a turn and then all of a sudden we were on some restricted road we were definitely not supposed to be on by the White House or something like that. We were scared out of our fucking minds but somehow got on the interstate and made it back to RVA safe and sound.
L4LM: How would you describe the music of Phish?
JS: This is such a tough question and extremely frustrating. Usually when I describe a band I’d start w/ the genre. Oh those guys, they’re like New Orleans funk or they’re an afrobeat group. With Phish it’s almost impossible. One second they’re funky, then bluegrass, calypso, rock, reggae, swing, then some heavily arranged classical pieces with canons & fugues. It’s really all over the place & trying to describe it doesn’t do it justice at all, or at least when I try.
L4LM: How were you introduced and turned on to their music originally?
JS: I specifically remember being a freshman in high school and riding in this upperclassman’s car and he put “It’s Ice” on. I had been playing drums since I was like 3 years old and was REALLY into Dave Matthews at the time. Carter Beauford was my hero. I would mimic his every move and through that had learned how to play all sorts of grooves and in all sorts of time signatures. Hearing “Ice” and all the crazy shit that’s going on it that song opened my mind up to so many possibilities! It sounds crazy but it seriously changed my life forever. I was immediately like who is this, he told me it was this band Phish and played other tracks off that album. I went and bought Rift and would listen to over and over again for like 3 or 4 years not knowing there was this whole other sub-culture behind the music.
L4LM: How many Phish shows have you seen? Do you have a favorite/most memorable Phish show?
JS: I think at this point I’m only in the 60 or 70s? I lost count a while ago. I saw a few before the hiatus and then did some tours after that, but was already in Colorado being a starving musician so I couldn’t afford too many tix. At one point I had my Phantasytour stats up to date, but that was ages ago.
My favorite show was 3/1/2003 Greensboro. Winter Tour closer. I had just seen them in Denver because I had moved out there to be snowboard bum but was back East trying to figure out what to do with my life! [Laughs] In Denver, they did YEM>Lion Sleeps Tonight vocal jam which was incredible and mind blowing, but I swore Mike was teasing Proud Mary in the YEM vocal jam! Then in the YEM jam in Greensboro they went into Proud Mary and the prophecy felt fulfilled!
Anyone else that was there that night will probably remember one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed at a show. I can’t remember what song it was during, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw this bright orange orb shaped light glowing from the nose bleeds on the opposite side of the venue. It started shaking then all of a sudden the ball exploded turned into a never ending orange waterfall!! Obviously it was glowsticks and I’d seen glowstick wars before, but never one color and honestly never orange! It was thousands of glowsticks and not tiny ones, they seemed massive because the light was soooooo bright. Swear I wasn’t tripping (at that show at least).
Anyway that will stick in my head forever and I’m sure anyone that was there will remember that waterfall!
L4LM: How would you describe the community of Phish Phans?
JS: That’s a tough question too! I feel like the community has morphed over the years, through the different phases of the band’s history and although pretty much everyone is pretty opinionated, they’re also extremely loyal. The music they’ve made over the last 30+ years has inspired so many people in so many different ways. Its a pretty incredible accomplishment and something Dom and I talk about all the time when we talk about our scene and community. The vibe at shows these days is great, i feel like every show is a family reunion!!
L4LM: What are some of your favorite jams and covers?
JS: “Sneaking Sally Thru The Alley” is one of my favorite covers the boys do. “Boogie On” is such a great dance party. The Chalkdust Reprise at Deer Creek was pretty awesome. Jam wise, it’s really hard to say, there are soooo many of those jam playlists floating around. I will say this last year or so they’ve been getting into some really different spaces with their open sections, where I feel like they don’t necessarily remember what song they’re in but they’re just vibing out. It’s really really cool to see the guys let loose and explore like that. They’re just creating on the spot, which are the moments I live for when I’m at a show!
L4LM: How has Phish influenced your music with Big Gigantic?
JS: As a drummer, Jon Fishman has been an incredible influence on me. From the first time I heard “Ice” back in 94, I literally got Rift then started shedding as much of that music as possible. Really trying to figure out what the hell he was doing and how he was doing it with four limbs. Fishman is one of the great drummers of this time. His time is right on, his pocket is huuuuuuggeee, he can seriously play his ass off and the syncopated grooves he comes up with are so out of the box that it hurts my head to figure them out. I wish I could get a lesson from that dude!
Dom [Lalli] and I used to talk about his sax solos and he’s said in the past sometimes in a solo he thinks “what would trey do?” haha It sounds funny but Trey is one of those guitarists that can build a solo like no other. He knows how to take everyone on a rollercoaster with twists and turns then right when you’re at the peak he takes it one step further and everyone loses their shit! Its funny how improvisational music and electronic music are very similar in that way. A lot times its all about builds and drops. Thats what a lot of people are craving. You get that adrenaline pumping and literal serotonin release when the drop happens. Music is pretty fucking awesome.
L4LM: Have you ever shared the stage with members of Phish? What was that like?
JS: I actually had the privilege of playing with Mike Gordon back in 2003!
I had just moved to Boulder a few months before and he was coming through town on his solo tour. He was doing two nights at the Fox Theatre in Boulder. It was when Mike had that hotline from summer tour. You could call his phone and listen to these crazy & amazing messages he was leaving and, if you were lucky and the mailbox wasn’t full, you could leave him a message.
I had just randomly met and started a band with Zach Deputy and Kyle Ussery who were on a journey from Georgia out West. Kyle had called like 20 times all week and never got through, then I remember driving around Boulder right in front of the Walrus, Zach called and it went through! He left a message telling Mike we were playing next door at the Players Club earlier that evening the night of his show. Day of the gig had arrived and we were doing our thing, playing random funk covers and some tunes Zach had written. At the time we didn’t really have a band name so we called ourselves the Zach, Kyle and Jeremy Show (I’ll pause for laughter).
Half way through the gig with like 10 other people in this tiny bar, Mike comes in with a crew and sits down at a table like directly in front of us and orders food while we played! We were all freaking out… We asked him if he wanted to sit in and he said sure! We played The Chicken & I think Mercy Mercy Mercy with him. It was one of the coolest moments of my life at the time!
Didn’t have a chance to chat with him because he had to go play his gig, but the next night we booked a gig across the street at Gramazios and got Mike to come back and sit in with us there! This time the place was paccckkkkeddd, everyone was losing their shit! Mike brought Scott Murawski with him as well and we got to play with both of them! It was a legendary two nights in Boulder and ended up being written up in jambands.com! The headline was Mike Gordons Word of Mouth Experience. We literally said shit, that’s a great band name and all of a sudden we were the Word of Mouth Experience. (Little did we know Word of Mouth was a famous Jaco album). The rest is history folks!
L4LM: What did you think about Trey playing with the Grateful Dead?
JS: Loved it! I can’t imagine the pressure he was feeling in so many different ways but he crushed it! I was at two of the Chicago shows and man the vibe in that stadium was unmatched. I’ve never been surrounded by so much joy! Everyone was there having a good time and throwing love at the band. I’ll never forget that weekend and the feeling I had at those shows. It honestly gives me hope for the future! Music is such a very very powerful thing that can bring every walk of life together and get everyone on the same page spreading love!
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Be sure to catch Salken jam with the Stratosphere All-Stars for three nights at the end of January, with shows at NYC’s Highline Ballroom on 1/28, DC’s Howard Theater on 1/29, and CT’s The Warehouse At FTC on 1/30. Boasting a lineup that includes Salken, David Murphy, Steve Molitz, Marcus Rezak and Hayley Jane, these are some shows you won’t want to miss! More information can be found here.