Umphrey’s McGee is one of the hottest bands on the jam-band” circuit. The Chicago-based band — which consists of Joel Cummins (keyboards, vocals), Brendan Bayliss (guitar, vocals), Ryan Stasik (bass), Andy Farag (percussion), Jake Cinninger (guitar, Moog, synthesizers, vocals) and Kris Myers (drums, vocals) — has developed a loyal local following and played for more than 12,000 people at last year’s Bonnaroo Festival. PLAY caught up with Bayliss before McGee’s show this past Sunday at the Ryan Family Auditorium.
PLAY: What’s it like to be on the road for over 150 days a year?
Brandon Bayliss: It’s not as romantic as everyone thinks it would be. It’s work, but it’s the best way I could ever make rent. After day 39 in a boxed van, walled in with the same guys, smelling the same smells and eating the same food, it becomes more of a lifestyle thing than a music thing. For me it would be much better than sitting at a desk and working for somebody else, doing what they told me to do.
PLAY: Do you find it weird that people can’t even categorize your music?
BB: No, because I can’t myself. So it kind of makes sense. To some degree we don’t even think of ourselves like a jam band anymore. We’re leaning more towards progressive, fusion and aggressive rock instead of the “heavy hippie bounce twirl.”
PLAY: So you’re more into the progressive stuff?
BB: Exactly. It’s just more dynamic, its just more fun to play. Jumping around stylistically with the intention of not just going about and doing the same ol’, same ol’.
PLAY: That moniker definitely has a wide range. What is a jam band? No one really knows.
BB: It has a wide range but at the same time it has become just a general label. When you think jam band, you think of the scene and the crowd. We fell into the label for a while; just getting started it was our natural tendency playing that scene.
PLAY: So you guys get the freedom to pretty much do whatever you want with your music.
BB: We really do. We can do some bad things if we want to and know they’re bad, and we can adapt to a crowd and a room, which is nice.
PLAY: It seems that you guys have a very loose dynamic. Do you find this essential to surviving as a band and to not losing your sanity?
BB: You can’t take it too seriously. You have to have fun with it. You have to call each other names, you have to pull yourself out of it and just kind of go about your normal day without only focusing on the show and setting up. Getting along and having fun with it translates back to the music.
PLAY: What kind of preparation do you guys do for shows in terms of setlists?
BB: There’s been some shows where we haven’t talked about it. Like the night the Cubs lost Game 7, we didn’t have a setlist because no one cared. We just went up and played. We’ve realized that with a setlist, you have more control over things. But at the same time, nine times out of 10 we have to cut songs because we’ve improvised for an extra 10 minutes.
PLAY: Do you guys have certain formulas for jams, and do you create songs on the spot?
BB: Lately we’ve unwittingly developed this style of improvisation where we create chord progressions, work with cues, and almost create a song structure. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
PLAY: You guys played at NU once before?
BB: Yeah, at a frat [ZBT].
PLAY: A lot of bands start out and play frats their first couple years.
BB: Look at Dave Matthews, and where he is now. If you get an underground following with a target audience of 18- to 22-year-olds that enjoy partying and music, it’s a good strategy.
