GS: Yeah‚ Andrew (Barr) played with us the other night. Those guys have been home so they're down all the time. Marc (Friedman) will be playing with us in a couple of weeks. Those guys actually play with me quite a bit‚ as well as Timo Shanko.

GS: You can just cut it open. Yeah I think it depends on what type of music you're playing. If you're playing improvisational-based music then this is great place for it. I think it works so well because I rely so much on improvising because I play with all different bands. I might have this certain group together for two weeks in a row‚ or the same group one week in say April and then again in June. So to have material for these people to play every week... I do have tunes together and they serve as roadmaps. A lot of the people that come down I've been playing with on and off for years. Someone like Bill Carbone‚ I've been playing with him for like fifteen years‚ but then there are other guys that I haven't really played with that much that I'm trying get in. A lot of times it's mixing and matching groups‚ and some work better than others. I know who plays well together and I'll try to combine those elements. Mike Rivardi and I have this term called "crazy-make-them-ups" where you just start with a groove or an idea like‚ "Let's play something dark and up tempo‚" and we'll just go from that. Thirty-five minutes later you're busting a sweat and loving it.

GS: Yeah‚ in the moment. The second track on Table 8 is exactly that. It has a loose form; it's a fast up-tempo groove‚ like a James Brown feel. It moves into this House feel‚ and its twenty-three minutes of pretty cohesive playing. That's how the album is - a majority of the recordings are improvised except the first and last tracks are more composed.

GS: When I first heard that track I was in my car with Drew (Sayers)‚ who plays sax on it. Actually the first track and the second track on the album were the first thirty-five minutes of a set we played. We were listening to it and we were like‚ "Man‚ this is just fucking crazy‚" and the recording was actually good. That's the rarity of it; I have so many recordings where the playing is phenomenal‚ but the recording just sucks. So I couldn't use a lot of stuff... I think the album would be a lot longer if some of the recordings were better. I felt I didn't have the material‚ recording quality-wise to put it out. I think it's a good footprint - the album is short and sweet‚ and it's a good indicator of what's going on down there. It doesn't have too much information (laughs).

GS: I've put out albums before where you just have so much material you're trying to shove into seventy-five minutes‚ you know‚ where you're trying to get every idea that you spewed out over the past year onto the recording. By the time the album comes out you're ready to throw it into the trash because there's just too much on it. So with Table 8 I was able to put the album and the artwork together relatively quickly without having to deal with too many outside sources.

GS: Well that's interesting because I don't want to stay idle‚ but I'm really content doing the Murphy's thing and the video game thing. The video game thing is long term; I know I have work to do for the next two years putting music to these games. Musically‚ I just want to keep writing and getting the guys together to perform it. I want to do another live album and I want to do a studio album. I have a studio and I record all day long‚ so I'm definitely capable of getting the stuff out. I'm working with a drummer right now who comes over and lays down grooves and I write parts on top of that. I've been working on my piano chops quite a bit‚ and I play bass as well‚ so I'm trying to get all of those components working. I think I'm in an education phase right now‚ where I'm just studying all different styles of music. I'm just trying to incorporate everything that's going on in the world of music and kicking it all down here in my bedroom studio (laughs). Eventually‚ I would like to write for a small orchestra - with a string section‚ French horns‚ an upright bass‚ tenor sax‚ a vocalist‚ and have that revolve around the centerpiece of an acoustic guitar. I think doing something like that would be incredible. That's very time consuming and takes a lot of bread‚ but it's getting to that point where I will have a lot time and where I will have the bread to do it. I feel I'm capable of writing music on that level and it's just a matter of getting the opportunity to do it. I think I'm on the right track especially with the game stuff where I'm doing a lot of composing in a cinematic‚ film score type of way. I think the next step for me could be trying to compose for films‚ you know‚ starting at a local level. That way I could get some hands-on experience conducting before I try to do it on my own.

GS: I've probably played Murphy's about 90 times in the past two years. So on any given night I could have a band together that plays a lot of my tunes. I would give them very specific‚ in-depth charts for the composition. Like the Miracle Orchestra‚ all of that stuff was composed with some serious‚ serious forms‚ and were very thought out pieces‚ but there was still a lot of room for improvisation within that. I'm still very much in that school. I might have a tune that goes from this change to this change and so forth‚ but I'll leave‚ say‚ the B section of the tune very open. The forms and sections serve as the roadmaps to cue back to. It's not cut and dry though‚ one tune might be more open to improvising and exploring the compositional ideas‚ but it might not happen on a certain night. We might take a tune up and down and ends after flowing through each section of the composition and it feels like it should end‚ and that's a cool thing as well to know that it isn't happening tonight on a particular composition. It's nice to make that decision and realize a tune might not go the distance tonight‚ let's try something else that might. Then you find that huge exploratory jam where you're out of your body‚ you're not even there when that's happening. But it's still fun just to play tunes. So it all depends‚ I know in the next few weeks I'm going to be trying some more sophisticated compositions out at Murphy's. At this point I've compiled two discs worth of original compositions‚ outside the Miracle Orchestra material‚ that bands have played at Murphy's. So it's at a point where I can give musicians that are going to come down to Murphy's a disc and charts to work with. It's great that it's getting to that point where my repertoire is growing with all the musicians I've been playing with. That's the reason there's been so much improvising because with some bands we run out of material‚ but then again that's when the best shit happens.

GS: I learned more playing in that band than I could ever dream to elsewhere. By traveling and living together I learned so much. By playing with those guys I had every opportunity learn great music; we studied really hard together and really pushed each other. We tried to make our music as progressive and current as it could possibly be. Playing in that group was such a great lesson and so much fun. My wish‚ I'm not sure we're all on the same page‚ but if we were to get back together we'd do all new material and start fresh. I think that band was the best at arranging music and writing music together. We would go into a rehearsal and start writing tunes together‚ and from the beginning I feel like we would come up with really great stuff.

GS: Yeah‚ just getting together and saying "we're not going to play old material‚ everything we play is going to be new stuff;" we come to rehearse and every one brings an idea. I know we can rehearse our asses off and I think it would be sweet. Maybe someday we'll do that. I was actually on Jam Nation (radio show) recently‚ oh‚ you heard that right?