By: David Schultz

2006 has been an extremely eventful and productive year for Zac Lasher, Rob Salzer, Adam Bendy and George Miller, collectively and better known as U-Melt. After securing February's New Groove of the Month from jambands.com, U-Melt closed out April's Jammy Awards show with one of their signature high-octane late-night sets. Later in the year, U-Melt celebrated the late September release of their second studio album, The I's Mind, with, what else, an after-hours show at New York City's Knitting Factory. In addition to lighting up the Big Apple, U-Melt has been exponentially broadening their fan base through constant touring, headlining clubs as well as pairing up with their brethren in Tea Leaf Green and moe. As the year comes to a close, U-Melt will be beginning 2007 as it began 2006: ringing in the New Year on stage in New York City with a set starting right around the same time most other celebrations will be winding down.

On The I's Mind, U-Melt effectively captured their sprawling, free-ranging sound within the confines of the studio. Out of necessity, the songs are shorter than their live counterparts but they hardly feel edited. Highlighted by the interplay between Lasher's lofty, soaring keyboard rolls and Salzer's precise, focused guitar solos, The I's Mind is nice showcase for the band, nicely showcasing the various twists and turns that are identified with U-Melt. On the whole, The I's Mind has the feel of an early Phish album: the opener "Air" and "Different Things" come with a nice catchy hooks; "Escape" and "Cloud Box" feature numerous interesting musical passages and "415" shows that not every song needs to be amped up in order to groove.

In addition to giving U-Melt their distinctive sound with his oftentimes luxurious keyboards, Zac Lasher also assists in giving the band its voice as one of their songwriters. Always open, friendly and humorous, Lasher's not just a student of the music but a keen observer of the scene that surrounds it. Over an increasingly rare break in U-Melt's schedule, Lasher took some time to answer some of Earvolution's questions about U-Melt's new album, the never ending tour schedule and their evolution into the kings of late-night.

Earvolution: Over the last couple years, U-Melt's catalog has grown pretty rapidly. How did you go about selecting the songs to include on The I's Mind?

Lasher: We definitely had a lot of options . . . which was really nice. We started thinking about the track listing at the beginning of the year when we were rehearsing some new songs. We noticed that our recent writing was all going along a certain theme, so we put those songs aside to save for the next album. Then we looked at what we had left over and worked from there. There were certain songs like "Air," "415," "Different Things" and "Cloud Box" that we knew we wanted to get on this one. Then we looked at our other options and decided what would fit best with those songs. We wanted to create something that flowed while, at the same time, being all over the place - which is pretty much what we try to do with our live shows too.

Earvolution: Many of the songs on The I's Mind have traditionally run twenty minutes or so on stage. In crafting studio versions of the songs, did you encounter any difficulties in reining the songs in to fit on the disc?

Lasher: It really wasn't that challenging. Songs like "Air," "415" and "Funknine," we just kept the solo sections short as opposed to really taking our time with them. "Different Things" is exactly as we play it live . . . there's never any jam in that song; "Cloud Box" was recorded as it was written: we put a jam in it when we play it out, because it's a nice kind of groove and mood to improvise on, but when I wrote it I didn't intend it to be a 15 minute thing with a long jam in it. I think the same goes for "Escape."

Earvolution: Did you approach the recording of The I's Mind differently from The Unbelievable Meltdown? What were the differences?

Lasher: For one thing we had Josh [Parrish, sound engineer] on board, which made a huge difference in the overall sound of the album. We all had a much better idea about what we were doing in the studio though, and were certainly more comfortable. As for the approach, for the first album we pretty much did everything like we would live. For this one, we played some parts to a click track and did a lot more editing. Some songs were recorded in separate sections and then pieced together in post. We didn't do that for the first album, but that allowed us to sync up effects and synth parts and such. We paid much more attention to the vocals on this one too.

Earvolution: It seems as if U-Melt has been on a constant tour over the past eighteen months. What effects has the road had on U-Melt's music? Have the demands of the road taken any sort of physical/mental toll on the band?

Lasher: It's had a huge effect on our performance. I think that the only way to get good at playing in front of people is to play in front of people. You also learn a lot about the songs by playing them for an audience. You learn what works and what doesn't - well, you do if you're paying attention. I wouldn't say it's taken a toll on the band . . . we're always pretty burned out by the end of the year, but then we take a couple months away from touring to recharge.

Earvolution: What's your favorite part of being on tour?

Lasher: Aside from the hours upon hours spent in a van with 4 other dudes? It's definitely all the great people I get to meet. We've got this really cool little community forming around the music, and watching that happen is really the coolest thing in the world. I really feel that the music is only a part of the big picture. The music isn't the end - it's just the conduit for the real purpose of a band: to establish connections between people. I see the music as a beacon around which people who are on a common wavelength can gather, ya know? I look at bands like The Dead and Phish - to a lesser degree moe. and Panic and Pearl Jam - these bands that spend a decade or more touring and touring and touring . . . they have these communities that form around them . . . people meet, ideas are exchanged, bonds are formed, people get married, have kids, and then before you know it, these bands have contributed to the propagation and hopefully the evolution of the species. I think that's really the goal of any art. So when we're on the road and I meet all these people who come to the shows, and they're really cool people . . . then they come to our message board and meet each other and become friends - I can see the early seeds of this family forming, and it's very exciting.

Earvolution: Do you mind the "jamband" label? Do you think the term unfairly pigeonholes bands?

Lasher: Well, to say a band is a jamband doesn't really describe the sound. I think it describes a philosophy about performance rather than a sound, and it's definitely a philosophy to which we subscribe. So you can say we're a jamband, but, you know, it hardly tells the whole story. There are such so many disparate kinds of music that you can apply the "jamband" label to - there's jambands that are roots rock bands, jambands that are jazz bands, jambands that are bluegrass bands, jambands are trance bands . . . and we're none of those, but then again, at times we're all of those. When it comes down to it though, labels really mean nothing. People put labels on things so that they can try to understand them without digging deep to actually understand them. The only way to understand the kind of music that a given band plays is to listen to the music.

That said, I've been around the jam scene for many years. I've taken what I think is great about it and tried to incorporate it into my writing and my playing. At the same time, I've seen the pitfalls that a lot of jambands encounter, and I've tried to avoid those. The thing that I've noticed the most is that the players in the really great jambands are all relatively fearless, they all really know how to play their instruments, they all listen very well and they're all comfortable playing many different styles of music. That's something I really aspire to - there's a level of virtuosity there that's not found in the more commercial genres. I mean, there are some bad-ass players in this scene. There's also a level of fun and freeness there that isn't found in the more traditionally disciplined genres. It doesn't take itself too seriously, ya know? I like that I can take a classical form and put it in something that just rocks.

I think that the thing that really defines what a jamband is to me is the crowd. I find that jam-fans are some of the best music fans around. They're open minded, hungry for new sounds, and when necessary, forgiving. They want to hear their favorite bands stretch out and try new things and they realize that it doesn't always work. They don't expect perfection all the time and they understand that the exchange of energy between band and audience and back again is what it's really all about. Jam-fans are active participants in the show and they create a really wonderful atmosphere in which to play music. I love the community and that's a large reason that we play the music that we play.

Earvolution: Last year's New Years Eve show at Coda will be the subject of a new DVD. Was the recording of that show always intended to be a DVD? What did you see in the tape that made it ideal for your first DVD?

Lasher: The DVD is entirely the brainchild and work of our good friend Alison Holmes. She designed our logo, did the art for The I's Mind and she shoots a lot of our shows. She did a 3 camera shoot of the New Years show and has spent the better part of the year editing it and putting together the special features and such. It's pretty awesome actually . . . there are some really trippy effects, but it's all very tasteful. I'm pretty excited about it. That was a really great show for us. I think we really turned a corner as a band that night, so it's cool that it was documented in this way.

Earvolution: This year U-Melt will once again return to New York City for New Year's Eve. What types of feelings does returning to NYC bring out in you and the band?

Lasher: It's just great. NYC is our home base, so it's always good to come home. It's such an amazing town. There's an energy there that is unlike anything I've felt anywhere else. It's also one of the few places that you can play until 6 am, which is a fun thing to do on a night like that. We always have a ton of friends in the crowd so there's so much love. This is going to be our third consecutive year doing the late-night thing in New York on New Years, It's always a great way to end one year and bring in the next on a very high point. There's nowhere else I'd rather be on that night.

Earvolution: From what other bands or what other sources does U-Melt derive their musical inspiration from?

Lasher: Our influences are all over the place really - and I think that's reflected in our sound. The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Pink Floyd, Phish, 1980's pop, 1970's disco, modern jazz, psychedelic trance, musical theater, modern rock, 20th century orchestral music, classical Indian raga. We've all lived our lives with very open ears, and we've all spent time studying a wide range of music so there is really influence from everywhere. We try to bring it all together into something cohesive.

Earvolution: As the main songwriter, where do you get your inspiration from? Are you writing songs in general or are you creating with the band in mind?

Lasher: Well, for the record, Rob [Salzer] and I really share the duty of primary songwriters - which is important. I've always wanted to be in a band where there was another songwriter who could push me and challenge me, and I've really found that in Rob. Over the past 3 years, his writing has become as big of an influence on mine as anything else, and I imagine he can say the same about me. It's really cool, because our styles have really started to merge and grow together to a large degree - which has probably been the singular most important aspect to the evolution of our sound. What's even more exciting though is that over the past year-and-a-half, we've been writing about the same ideas . . . we noticed this at the beginning of the year and decided to really run with it. So we have this batch of material that is all really about the same kind of thing, which I think adds to the cohesive nature of our music.

I definitely write with the band in mind. The guys are all really good musicians, so I have to write music that will be challenging and fun for them to play. I might be more inclined to write simpler stuff if that weren't the case - but it's great because we all push each other. Rob and I write stuff that forces us all to push our abilities as players. In turn our newfound chops push the writing to go in new directions too . . . it's a beautifully vicious circle.

Earvolution: In putting together U-Melt's songs, are they designed to be lengthy? How do they grow?

Lasher: The writing process is usually very organic for me. I don't ever say "O.K., I'm gonna write a 12 minute song." It just ends up that way more often than not. I find it very exciting when you can introduce a theme and then go really far away from it, only to bring it back several minutes, keys and modes later. I come from a background steeped in classical and theatrical tradition where the songs all have an arc; they are a little journey - there is a beginning, a middle and an end - and when you get to the end you're in a different place then where you started. I think that most rock songs are different. They're more like photographs - a snapshot of a moment - I see my songs more as mini movies or plays that contain many of those moments.

I just really love writing music, and I have a hard time stopping myself. I always have a huge backlog of ideas, and I tend to keep piling them on top of each other. I'll write a verse and a chorus, and then I'll go to write the bridge, and the bridge ends up being a 7 minute long journey - and then I throw in a place for us to improvise and the next thing you know it's this monster of a composition that takes 20 minutes to perform live, and even with all the improv stripped away it clocks in at 15 minutes of composed music. We just started playing a new song I wrote called "Clear Light," which is one of the longest, most involved pieces I've written. I decided to rein it in a bit after that, so I intentionally limited myself to a more traditional structure for the next song I wrote. That one clocks in around 5 minutes, and I think it's one of the best things I've ever written. I'm going to be doing more of that in the future, though at the moment, I'm working on a few more monsters.

Earvolution: U-Melt has made late-night, after-hours gigs a specialty. How did this become a U-Melt staple?

Lasher: It just kind of happened. When we were just starting off, we'd get these 4 am slots at festivals. We do the whole dance-hall trance thing, so it worked for us, and we were able to really capitalize on it. Ya know, I've spent many a late night wandering around festival grounds or in the clubs in New York City, so I feel at home playing at that time. We'd also try to inject something different into our late night sets to make them special. The crowds at that time are usually very forgiving, so we were never nervous about trying something crazy. It's great to really let the improvisation happen too. We usually have a lot of time at those slots, so we can really stretch out.



Earvolution: At Strangefolk's Garden of Eden Festival 2004, U-Melt played for seven straight hours. How did such a marathon show come about?

Lasher: Earlier that summer we played the Strange-Creek Festival which was produced by The Wormtown Trading Co (who co-produced Garden of Eden). We had one of those 4 am slots that I was talking about. The promoter told us to play however long we wanted, so we played until 7. I think that was our first late-night show. It was a lot of fun and we had a great crowd rocking out until we stopped playing, and they were begging for more. We had actually played a bar gig earlier that night, so after setting up our gear, playing two sets, breaking it down and packing it up, driving 3 hours, setting up again, and playing another 3 hour show . . . we were pretty damn beat. Anyhow, as we were breaking down our stuff, the promoter jokingly asked us why we stopped so early. We said, "What do you want us to do, play until the main stage starts up again?" He said, "Why not?" We had a laugh and then kinda forgot about it. Soon afterwards, we got an offer to play the same time slot at the Garden of Eden festival and we thought "ya know . . . let's do it . . . we'll just fuckin' play until the main stage is supposed to start." So we talked to the promoter about it and he was more than excited for that to happen. We weren't gonna tell anyone about it, but when we got to the festival all our friends were coming up to us and saying, "So there's this rumor going around that you guys are gonna play until 11 am." So we really had no choice at that point. It had to happen. It was the coolest thing I'd ever done in my life to that point.

Earvolution: What was the reaction upon learning you would be playing the Jammys After-Show party at B.B. King's?

Lasher: Mild elation. That was a huge opportunity for us, and we were so grateful to everyone who helped make that happen. We were going to be playing a different show as part of the Green Apple festival, but the promoter we usually work with in NYC recommended us to the Relix people for that show and it just happened to work out. That show ended up opening some pretty huge doors for us.

Earvolution: The Jammys are known for interesting collaborations. In a perfect world, who's joining U-Melt for their ideal Jammys-style set?

Lasher: That's an easy one: Walter Becker and Donald Fagan. We talk about it all the time. We're big Steely Dan fans and we LOVE playing their music.

Earvolution: U-Melt's always very generous with their stage, who have been some of your favorite musicians to play with?

Lasher: Definitely the guys from moe. We've played with Al [Schnier], Chuck [Garvey] and Vinnie [Amico] on separate occasions. We did a show with Strangefolk earlier this year and brought the entire band up to play a song with us. It was great to watch George [Miller] and Russ Lawton playing side by side. Rob Sommerville from Deep Banana Blackout has played with us on a couple of occasions - last New Years, and at the Jammys After-Show. He always brings an amazing energy to any stage he's on.



Earvolution: U-Melt has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with moe. What are your memories from those performances?

Lasher: Our friends in moe. have provided us with some amazing opportunities to rock some great crowds. We opened for them in New Jersey and got to play for upwards of a thousand people who were just digging us. We've done a few after-moe. shows, and we got to play snoe.down, Summercamp, and moe.down this year, so their crowd knows us. We walked onstage and the room came alive . . . people cheered and rushed the stage. I'd never experienced anything like that in such a big room. We opened with "Question Matters," which is one of my favorite songs that I've written and when we got to the end, where it gets quiet and the theme from the intro comes back, people just started screaming. I couldn't hear what I was playing over the crowd. People got what we were doing and it was amazing.

Earvolution: At the CD release party at the Knitting Factory, what was your reaction when the room exploded in a glow stick eruption?

Lasher: Oh man . . . that was such a wild wild night. Best night of my life. The energy in that room was unlike anything I'd ever felt before. I can't wait to play New York City again.

Earvolution: Have you had your Almost Famous "I am a golden god" moment yet?

Lasher: Oh god no - I'm no guitar player . . . just kidding.

Labels: U-Melt