WHO: The String Cheese Incident
WHERE: Whistler Conference Centre
WHEN: March 17 & 18
"Are you getting any snow up there?"
Ah, spoken like a true ski bum. The first thing out of bassist Keith Moseley’s mouth when he calls from California.
For anyone not familiar with the band The String Cheese Incident, you may be surprised to know the quintet started out very much like the Pete and Chads of Whistler. Crested Butte was home to these powder hounds, where they found themselves drawing regular crowds to the local watering holes after being together for just a few months.
"We enjoyed some success early on," says Moseley. "We started playing the ski hill circuit and after just about six months we were able to get the opening spot at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. That was a big confidence boost for us.
"Shortly after that we made a commitment that we really wanted to try and make a living doing this and make the band our career. We were all pushing 30 when the band started, so we were a little older. We had all worked a lot of different jobs by that point. Once the band got started, it just felt like we were on to something good."
Who could have predicted that just seven years later, The String Cheese Incident would find itself being compared to the likes of The Grateful Dead and Phish? String Cheese’s style really doesn’t resemble either of the aforementioned, but what they do have in common is an obsessively loyal fan base that ranges from 18 year olds all the way up to their grandparents.
"We’ve played over 1,100 gigs, so we’ve definitely put some time in on the road to work up that fan base.
"The difference between us and some of the other jam bands is our diversity. We cover everything from bluegrass to acid jazz to world beat and straight ahead rock ’n’ roll. And because of that, our fan base is wide and diverse as well… We have people coming with their kids and it’s pretty cool. I enjoy that."
And the fans have taken to following the band to the corners of the globe. So much so, in fact, that the band actually formed its own travel agency to book tickets, airfare and accommodation for fans wishing to travel to shows in other cities and countries.
Like the travel agency, it seems a large part of String Cheese’s success has to do with a keen business sense. Moseley says he’s not really sure where that smart business sense came from for guys with degrees in environmental resource management.
"I think from the beginning we worked hard to develop a business plan. We’re just five guys who are in to controlling our own destiny. So it’s been important for us to control our career. We hand-picked our management staff, who were really able to share the vision, that big picture, that we have for the band.
"And part of setting up the whole organization was due to the fact that we were a little older than a lot of bands just starting out and we were already very career minded when we began. We not only took the music very seriously, but tried to formulate a business plan that was going to work for us over the long run."
That business now includes 25 full-time employees dedicated just to running the band’s merchandising, ticket sales and travel agency. The band also made the decision along the way not to sign on with a major record label.
"When the band was in its infancy and we were beginning to tour hard. We talked with as many different bands as we could about their record deals. We tried to figure out the pros and cons of record deals. And really, across the board, no one had anything good to say about their record deals. From that we decided we would try to go the independent route. So we started our own label. We really enjoy retaining artistic control and the freedom of the project. We managed to sell 55,000 copies of our latest release, Carnival ’99, in a 12-month period, and we count that as a big success."
Moseley says they’re hoping to double those sales with the soon-to-be-released Outside Inside . It’s the fifth release on their own label and the first studio recording in three years.
"It’s the first time we’ve worked with a real producer. Steve Berlin of Los Lobos produced it. We’re really excited about it. I think it’s our best album to date… It differs a lot from Carnival ’99 , which is a live recording. What we really tried to do with this album is focus on the songs and the songwriting… In a live show the improvising and the soloing and the extended jamming takes the forefront. On the record we really tried to pare them down a bit and show that we can make things happen in a four minute time slot."
During a time when a lot of music groups are crying foul over the likes of Napster, Moseley and crew actually encourage fans to tape their shows and put songs on their Web site available for downloading. He says they’re not concerned about bootlegging taking away from record sales and says it only encourages people to come out to their shows.
And it certainly seems to be working. The String Cheese Incident sold out 90 per cent of all their tickets in the year 2000. The band sells out venues with seating capacities up to 10,000 people. Many of the shows on this 2001 tour have been sold out months in advance.
"We love playing in California and the Bay area… but of course at this time of the year, the ski resorts are our favourite stops. We had a blast in Whistler last time we were there. Some of the guys are actually staying in Whistler past the shows just to get in some more time on the slopes."
You can take the musician out of the ski town, but you can’t take the ski bum out of the musician.
