Gimmicks aside and rituals explained, Phish bassist and founder Mike Gordon recently sat down for an interview with Esquire Magazine to chat about someting other than strictly the music: his fashion preferences. In the article, Gordon describes his on and offstage style inspirations, as well as the evolution of the band’s and his fashion consciousness. Here are some notably interesting excerpts from the piece:
I don’t think I was ever into the hippie thing. Maybe for one day.
On how the band’s style differs from that of their fan base: “Like no one in the band would ever wear tie-dye, or Birkenstocks, or… What’s the long list of stuff like that? There’s all kinds of things. Not even for a minute would any of us ever have worn that stuff.”
On the importance of selecting just the right shirt for the right show: “There’s so many times I’m onstage where I’m on this musical adventure and adventure of consciousness, and having this peak experience, and liking the shirt, or pants, is really part of that.”
On the band’s evolving awareness of their on-stage style presence: “I think the thing that made us seem not very fashionable is we’d go on long tours, and somebody would find a T-shirt they liked and wear it every night, and that would be the end of that. All the extra fashion stuff would stay in the suitcase. But then I think as time went on a couple of us just became more conscious of it.”
On other artists hiring professional photographers: “I see photo shoots that are incredible, but then I wonder if it’s really the way that the people look, or whether the whole thing is a set up.”
On incorporating style as a significant live performance element: “You can tell that someone’s just thinking about what would work, and the way the music sounds, and the lighting. It’s kind of an art school mentality where creativity can stem into all the departments.”
On how seemingly minor changes can translate to profound creative awakenings: “And if I can suddenly make a change with my hair, then suddenly making one with my music becomes easier.”
Two summers ago I saw some picture of a guy wearing eyeliner and thought, “You know what? I’m going to try this.” I got this little iPhone album called “guyliner” with pictures people sent me. It was only on occasional nights and at the big venues. You know, if there are twenty-two-thousand people, it’s only the front row who can see anyway. There was mascara that was purple and I don’t even know what all the other different kinds of makeup was called. They were just globbing it on.
We got ourselves invited to a party at Prince’s house. We heard it was creative formal, whatever that meant. So we went to this Italian suit shop, and within half an hour got four Italian suits, got pinned up and the whole deal. Then we got there and we learned what we thought was creative wasn’t creative.
– Alex Miller
[via Esquire]