Camp Counselor Alex Fornes Interviews Stan From Mountain Standard Time.

Alex: First off, I wanna talk about your genre and the newly coined term “Freegrass” What is it? Stan: Well, we’re not your grandpa’s bluegrass. We realized that a lot of us have played bluegrass music over the years and this is just not by any means traditional. So, we were trying to figure out a way to describe it and its based in bluegrass but we are free to go in other genres. Most the tunes start off in the typical bluegrass 1/5 sort of stuff. From there it can go anywhere to latin, funk, fusion, prog, and it came together where “Freegrass” kinda had a ring to it, so we went with it. Alex: Going from there, what are some of your influences for creating such diverse music? Stan: We all have different influences and some overlap and some of them don’t. We all listen to a bunch of different stuff and some of our inspiration comes from the region. There’re so many good bands in the area. I’d say 99% of our songs are based on our own personal history. Things we have gone through that make them a lot more closer to our heart rather than writing a song for the sake of writing a song. Alex: So when playing live, do you guys create room for improve during your sets? Stan: There’s definitely some big areas where improve is what’s going on. Alex: Speaking of live sets, have you guys played at Summer Camp before? Stan: We have! It’s been about 4 years ago. We played on one of the smaller stages in the afternoon. We love it there! It’s a fun festival and we are always honored to be apart of a festival like that with so much good talent everywhere. Alex: So what do you like about Summer Camp and how does it compare to other live festivals? Stan: I love Umphrey’s Mcgee personally. I really like what they do and that’s a big selling point for me to see a few sets. From all the line-ups I have seen, it seems like Summer Camp is a lot more edgier and heavier of a music festival. More rock orientated rather than electronic. Being as close to Chicago too, it’s always nice to drop in and see what’s going on in the city. Alex: How does playing at a festival compare to playing at a club or venue? Stan: It’s its own animal. When we are back doing a club date in Colorado it’s pretty apparent that people who buy the tickets are there to see us. Playing at a festival, it’s pretty nice to turn new people on to our music who wouldn’t normally see you, and really just throw it all out there and bring all your heavy hitters out to one set rather than having to plan it out over 3 nights. Alex: Are you guys getting ready for a new release? Stan: Right now, we just launched a kickstarter campaign. We’re trying to raise money to build our own studio, which will also be mobile. Were looking pretty good and will probably reach our goal, so we are planning on releasing a full-length album in the fall. For the people who donate, we are releasing an exclusive backer’s CD that we will not release anywhere else. Also, that gear will allow us to record every show so we will probably have some seasonal live CD’s. Right now the industry is one of such where you have to continually put out content to stay permanent so what we are doing is putting that power into our hands rather than spending tens of thousands of dollars on a release. So, you will probably se several releases in the next year or so. Alex: Will you guys be playing some new stuff at the festival? Stan: Oh ya, yep! We are rehearsing a ton and I’d be surprised if we played anything off of the EP actually. Alex: So other than Umphrey’s, which is a personal favorite of yours, are you excited to see anyone else to play at Summer Camp? Stan: I know our keyboard player is pumped to see Zac Brown Band. I’m just stoked to be there and just sniff around some of the smaller stages and see what else is new out there. Alex: Alright, last but not least.. Favorite kind of ice cream? Stan: I’d have to say coffee. Haha ]]>