Phish’s Mike Gordon – HuffPost 3.5.14

Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?

Mike Gordon: That’s an interesting one. You know, I do this thing where I watch DVDs on the treadmill. I have a bunch of music-related ones. Usually the ones that people have given me, one promoter gave me thirty DVDs to promote his acts. Yesterday I watched Chick Corea Unaccompanied and the country duo Big & Rich on the show that may be part of World Cafe. Anyway, someone asked one of the guys from Big & Rich that same question, advice for new artists, and he sort of stumbled on the answer a little bit, but then he said, “Well are you playing your stuff?” He said he remembers talking to some people and the person he was talking to said, “No, I don’t play it in front of people” and his advice was, “You should play it in front of people, because even if it’s just a family get together or a coffeehouse or whatever, it’s going to be doing it in that way that makes the material develop. Music is communication.” I thought that was a good thing to say. I didn’t expect them to start philosophizing but they ended up being some thoughtful people and I thought that’s a nice thing to say. I had this mentor early on, Jim Stinnett, I used to go to these lessons and they were like life lessons about discipline and being focused and music and studying. He had such a positive attitude. He used to say, that when you practice, you should practice three things. Practice your technique, how your hands move; Concepts, which are new things to play so you’re not always playing the same stuff; and then just playing. If you skip the last part you’ll be in trouble because you’ll get on stage and you’ll sound like you’re just practicing. In a way that’s the same thing that Big & Rich said. So maybe instead of coming up with my own fresh answer I’ll borrow their answer and say to put what they’re doing to the test. Get it out there somehow. Maybe even just as a video blog or playing at the family picnic or a big jam session or something, but take all of your ideas and follow through with them all of the way. Do I really know how I got here anyway.