This interview with bassist Keith Moseley was done for the State of Mind June 2005 String Cheese Incident cover story. Excerpts were used for the feature‚ and now‚ for your reading pleasure‚ we present the full transcript.

Mike McKinley: The first thing: One Step Closer is your new album-congratulations.

MM: It won't leave my CD player.

KM: Good‚ good. I'm glad to hear it. You know‚ on first impression‚ I wonder a little bit about what people are going to think because it's a little on the mellow side‚ but I think the songs will grow on you after a while. It's the kind of thing that I think after a few repeated listenings really grabs you. That's how it is for me‚ too. I had it in my CD player over and over again for a while and then I took it out and hadn't listened to it and then I listened to it again just yesterday for the first time in about a month. And I thought‚ "OK. Yeah. It is still good." (Laughter)

MM: Yeah. It's like the ethical thing to do. But you want to share it.

MM: I think you're right on. By the third time through listening to it‚ I was hooked. And it's a lot different from the last album‚ obviously.

MM: It's really stripped down. Really raw. But every tune on there is good. It really hangs together. I think it's has a classic vibe.

KM: We had a bunch of tunes. We had more material than we could fit on the record and it was kind of a matter of checking out the tunes and seeing what would work best. And the atmosphere was very relaxed which was nice. We recorded at a friend's house up in the hills of Boulder‚ who had kind of a studio going. We sort of modified the house a little more and he took off for Thailand for a couple of months and we took over the house and the producer moved in. And we just would drive back and forth from home to the studio and spend most of the day and night there. It was nice not feel like the time clock is clicking away‚ you know? Big dollar signs over it like you do in a big studio somewhere. That it was just a comfortable place to try things out and try out the songs in a lot of different ways and mix it up. Just sort of a low-pressure situation. Even mixing up the instruments some. I played some guitar on this and (Michael) Travis played some bass and everybody mixed it around a little bit. And there was not this big pressure of this‚ "we have to click off this song today and another one tomorrow." It was more of a relaxed‚ playful kind of atmosphere and I think that really came across in the record. I think it feels very relaxed when you listen to it.

KM: Well‚ we wanted to get a producer that would really be an extra member on the project. We were kind of interested in that. That's what Youth did on the last record. And‚ you know‚ I think we're still in a spot where we've played so many live shows but only made a handful of studio albums. We still feel like we have a lot to learn in the studio‚ so bringing someone in like Malcolm who will suggest arrangement ideas and help us come up with cool parts‚ additional parts to songs and just make some creative suggestions. That's really what we were after-someone who would have good creative input in the studio and help us maybe put a new twist on some of the songs. And so it was great like that. He had a lot of cool ideas. He played some on the record. Like a couple of my tunes that I brought in that I had written on guitar. He was like‚ "Why don't you just play guitar?" And Malcolm would pick up the bass. And I was like‚ "Wow‚ this is fresh. He's playing something different on the bass than I would've played on that song." And that's really cool. And I get to play it on the guitar like I would play. So it was sort of neat to have him kind of like as an extra member in the studio. He really emphasized the playing live aspect. We set up basically all in one room. We had the drums in an isolation room where Travis could look at us through the window. He was in the laundry room with the washer and dryer‚ you know‚ looking through the plexiglass. But the rest of us were in one main room so it had a very playing-live kind of feel to it. That was good‚ and you know‚ he really emphasized the songs. There's barely any soloing on the record‚ as you noticed. That's a lot different from live. But it was about trying to craft some good four-minute songs with what we had. Everyone has got at least one tune‚ if not two-I think even Travis has two tunes. Everyone's got a couple of tunes on the album that they wrote so it's a real collaborative writing effort. I feel like we're all really maturing as songwriters. It's probably some of the best songwriting we've done. And again‚ it's just another chapter of String Cheese getting comfortable and growing in the studio. And I really enjoyed it. I think we already‚ at this point in our careers‚ are really getting off on the studio experience and what you can do there to craft an album. And enjoying the creative possibilities of the studio.

KM: Yeah‚ we've done so much touring. And of course we love to tour and connect with the fans‚ but it is sort of the other side of the craft‚ where you get to try to hone your songs and figure out what is going to work best. As opposed to just kind of bringing a song into rehearsal and banging it out and taking it out and playing it live without ever really working it over a lot. Which is kind of what we usually do. But with the fresh group of songs and the studio experience‚ we really got to try the tunes out a lot of different ways‚ different instrumentations‚ faster‚ slower‚ stylistic changes‚ play it on upright bass versus the electric bass‚ maybe Kyle will try the accordion on this‚ or we'll make it more of an acoustic number. You know‚ just really play around with things until we find the sweet spot for each song.

MM: Yeah‚ kind of. Or‚ a lot of times there's some kind of problem in there where it doesn't translate. You have a certain energy and certain vibe‚ and people connect with that and then it seems to…I don't necessarily agree with this‚ but I know a lot of people feel this way‚ where they love this band and they go out-you have fans that will travel around the country and see you and then they will pick up your studio album and might be like‚ "I would rather listen to the live stuff."