Camp Counselor Alex Interviews Jeff Peterson: Rising Drummer of Turbo Suit, FlightWave

Photo by Kristine Condon Photography As expected, this past Summer Camp Music Festival filled me with memories and experiences I can carry forward as an unwavering source of gratitude and fulfillment. I’ve lost count of how many “once-in-a-lifetime” musical moe.ments I’ve had, (I once did the Meatstick dance on stage with Phish), but I do know that #SCamp16 certainly continued to add to the tally. One of the many awesome occurrences of my blissful weekend was sitting down with Jeff Peterson, the dance rhythm drummer of the funky livetronica band Turbo Suit, and now also FlightWave. Camp Counselor Alex: Thanks, Jeff, for sitting down here with me! First thing I’d like to know is, how many times have you now been to Summer Camp? Jeff Peterson: This is the 4th year. One with Roster McCabe, and this is the 3rd with Cosby / Turbo Suit. Right on! Do you have a favorite memory of Summer Camp from all of the different years here? The first year that I was here, that was 2013, was the crazy weather one. I don’t know if that’s a great memory (laughs), but definitely sticks out as being Summer Camp. It was crazy to deal with all that downpour, and getting out of here. If I remember right, you were supposed to play in the VIP lounge (with Roster McCabe)? Yeah, it didn’t happen, Roster McCabe was supposed to. But, I mean, I remember the first year with Roster McCabe – that was cool. We played The Camping Stage, there were a lot of people there, we had a great set. I was there for that! 2 nights, including the Pre-Party. Yup! And I remember the year after that, 2014, we (Turbo Suit) did Thursday with Joel (Cummins of Umphrey’s McGee) on the Starshine, and last year we did the Sunshine which was awesome, and we played in the Barn for the Thursday late night. Those are all great memories, and this year has been awesome so far! Indeed it has been! I’m glad you brought up Joel. It seems you’ve shared the stage with him a lot now, in multiple bands, he even came and sat in with FlightWave (video here!). How did this relationship come about? I think all of that stems from Turbo Suit’s manager, Dan Rucinski, just because of the agency he works with, which is also a part of the Umphrey’s crew. But since he manages FlightWave now, as well as Turbo Suit, he just asked Joel, “Hey, sit in with FlightWave. You know, hang out, be a part of this.” So yeah, he’s the guy that’s stirring all that together. Very cool! About FlightWave, I just found out about you guys not too long before the festival. Seems like you’ve just started up pretty recently? Last night was the first time we’ve ever played a show! Oh, really! Wow. Oh, yeah, and the first time we played all the songs together was last Sunday, a week ago. So yeah, it was a Summer Camp, worldwide debut. I see FlightWave is based out of Detroit. How did you join members with the other 2? Actually, it was Jesse Clayton, who is writing all the material and putting it together. He lives in Detroit so we just say we’re based out of Detroit. I’m still in Indy, and Collin Scott, the bass player, is in Chicago. So we’re a bit spread out in the Midwest, but still technically based out of Detroit. Between FlightWave and Turbo Suit, you’re doing 6 sets this (Memorial Day) weekend? 6 sets, and also the drum clinic on Sunday. Wow, so you are being very active this weekend. Yeah, 7 total performances. Do you have any tips or tricks you use to stay focused and well during such a long weekend, with so much going on? Well, you know, the obvious stuff. Get sleep when you can. You wanna have a good time, and it’s so tempting to go 100% party mode, like today, I don’t have anything to do the rest of the day. It’s tempting to party really hard, and I probably still will (laughs), but not so hard that I can’t do the job tomorrow. So that’s all you really gotta do is pace yourself through it. Bayliss always says that it’s a marathon and not a sprint. But last night, Greensky Bluegrass went ahead and declared a sprinting marathon. (Laughs). Sometimes, it is. I mean, yesterday was the first day we got in, and just had the one set which was alright. And today (Friday) is one set and Sunday is my busy day. Actually Saturday too we have 2 sets cause we’re playing with Stasik for the “Nevermind“ set. So yeah I gotta be careful to not get out of hand tomorrow after the Turbo Suit daytime set, cause then we still gotta play at 2:30 AM that night. I gotta keep it together! You’re doing great so far! Yeah, (laughs), it’s not the first time, I think I’ll be alright. You mentioned the “Nevermind” tribute set with Ryan Stasik of Umphrey’s, which you’ve done once before this past winter in Brooklyn. How did you guys come up with that idea? Again, I think it was a lot of Dan, our manager, putting things together. I think we were just playing with Joel, and there was some sort of conversation with the Umphrey’s guys, and they said Stasik would like to do some sort of outside stuff too. He rarely gets a chance to do that and would love to play with you guys, so that came together. I think it was his idea, too. “Nevermind” is going on its 25-year anniversary now I think, so that’s why we chose that album. And it just all worked out! We remixed about half of the album, and the other half pretty much sounds like the regular recording. Even though it’s the saxophone playing all of the melodies for the most part, it’s identical. Yeah, I’m super stoked for that set! You know, when we did it the first time, I had no idea how the crowd was going to interact. But you know, it was very cool because we didn’t prompt them, but they just started singing the songs, the Nirvana lyrics while we were playing the songs but not singing – just Nick playing the melodies on sax. So there was a really cool vibe happening, everyone just jamming to the tunes and singing along. Especially with Nirvana being such an iconic band, and not around anymore, the people are going to eat it up! Exactly, it was a great moment. Maybe the same thing will happen tomorrow night, I don’t know, but hopefully it does. Seems like you’ve played with nearly every member of Umphrey’s at this point – Jake and Andy have also collaborated on a few tracks on your album “Out Here.” Is this your manager again just bringing you all together? Yes, it’s 4 out of 6. You know, one thing leads to another. Joel was the first guy to hop on with us, and then it’s like, who are we gonna get to play percussion on this one? It just makes sense to have Andy do it, and yeah we want a guitar solo, who’s a notable name in the scene that can do that? Let’s see if Jake can do it. So yeah, it’s Kris and Brendan that we haven’t worked with yet, but uh, who knows? Maybe we will some time. Seems like you have a good relationship with them! Doing some remixes of their songs, like “The Linear” was awesome (watch here!). I’ve also seen you do “The Triple Wide,” and it’s all super fun. Yeah! Well, if you count the remix, now we’ve played with Brendan in a way too. (laughs). It’s fun to play with those guys! They’re all great musicians, they’re really supportive and awesome to hang with. It’s very cool! Any final messages to Summer Camp? Yeah! I’m honored to be here again, very grateful for all of the opportunities I’ve had to perform for everybody. It’s a lot of fun. And I get recognized by people all the time, (laughs), you know, the hair (laughs). They see me play, and then, it’s just a real honor to have that recognition. You deserve it! Keep it up, Jeff, and thanks for the chat!  ]]>