Umphrey’s McGee’s Brendan Bayliss on UMBowl, new sound, new supergroup

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Bands often say the music’s for the fans. Saying and doing are two different things. But Chicago-based jam band Umphrey’s McGee works tirelessly to put its fans front and center – such as by encouraging fans to distribute recordings of its live shows, and distributing its own recordings of all of its shows online – garnering the growing act a cult following in the vein of The Grateful Dead and Phish.

Come Saturday, the band’s taking its crowdpleasing live show to a whole new level with its 1st annual UMBowl, an evening of four 45 minute sets influenced entirely by the audience. Not only have fans who bought tickets to the intimate event (Umphrey’s playing Lincoln Hall, much smaller than typical Aragon-sized venues) voted for certain songs to be played, they’ll also be encouraged to use text messaging to influence the direction of the show. It’s an innovative approach that’s bound to blossom in coming years by other bands seeking to make their fans feel more empowered and connected to the music.

In addition to pleasing the fans, Umphrey’s McGee co-founder/singer/guitarist Brendan Bayliss is trying to please himself, trying out some new material inspired by a painful divorce in a new supergroup called 30db featuring Yonder Mountain String Band singer/mandolinist Jeff Austin. That band’s debut album, “One Man Show,” is available beginning May 11, and the group plays Lincoln Hall a few days prior. Umphrey’s is also heading back into the studio next week and seeking to evolve its sound.

Before UMBowl, the 30db show and the recording of the latest Umphrey’s album, Chicago Beat spoke to Bayliss about these projects.

Chicago Beat: Let’s start by talking about UMBowl. This is a really ambitious thing you’re doing. How did it come about?

Brendan Bayliss: We started doing something called the S2 Series, a fan interactive show where they text into Mozes, the program that runs it, and [the message] comes up on a big screen and the crowd can kind of direct the band. We’ve done it five or six times now. We’ll be playing and the text will appear on the screen where everyone in the theater can see, and we’ll have to play what that suggestion is. So we wanted to develop [the concept] a little further. We are on the road so much and we travel so much we’re trying to figure out ways to do more interesting shows that could also bring in more revenue for us that will allow us a little more time off to write in the studio. So it kind of came from that necessity but evolved from our original S2 ideas.  … [As for the name], we’re big Notre Dame football guys.

CB: So how is this going to work?

BB: Well the first quarter is an acoustic set, and the fans voted, and I think we’re getting the results any day now. We’re going to be playing the top 10 selections in every category. The second quarter is where people text in and we have to do what they want. The third quarter is another fans voted thing, but it’s an electric set. And then the fourth quarter will be like those books that are choose your own adventure. We’ll be in the middle of a song and then A, B and C [options] will pop up [on screen], and whatever the crowd votes the most in real time [via text], we’ll have to react and go with whatever they choose.

CB: Talk through quarter two and four. Those seem a little bit more complicated with the texting involved, and how you’ll be able to suddenly switch gears to please the fans.

BB: We have a moderator who will filter out some outlandish suggestions to be funny that we wouldn’t do, and basically a suggestion will pop up [on the screen] and the crowd and the band will see it at the same time. We didn’t set a limitation for how long until we switch. We try to do it seamlessly. So if we’re in the middle of a groove, we try to keep that groove going until we all can go at the same time to something, or we’ll stop and one person will start something. So the text will say more percussion or switch guitars. We’ve had things where someone will suggest a reggae version of one of our originals, so we’ll play it with a reggae feel. There was one suggestion once, we have this song called ‘Ocean Billy’ and the suggestion was ‘Ocean Billy Joel.’ So all of a sudden [keyboardist/vocalist] Joel [Cummins] started playing a Billy Joel song and I started singing ‘Ocean Billy’ over a Billy Joel progression. You’ve kind of just got to be on your feet and just go with it because you don’t have a lot of time to think.

CB: You guys are a jam band, so you’re more accustomed to that style of improvised playing, but I imagine it’s still got to be a challenge to just switch up when its not the music that’s driving the transition but a suggestion that’s driving it.

BB: Yeah, it’s really been a great improv exercise for us, because we can’t predict what’s coming, and we can’t predict how we’re going to react, we just know that we have to, because we’re on a stage we can’t be like, ‘No, we’re not going to do that.’ So it gets intense and kind of nerve wracking and you really have to be sharp and have your wits about you. But it’s also more rewarding, because everybody in the room knows that we’re kind of pulling it out of our ass, everyone sees that we’re winging it, so if we hit something really well, it’s a big reward.

CB: So how will quarter four work being multiple choice?

BB: It’s going to be very similar to [quarter two] except there’ll just be three options. Option A will be for example going into a Frank Zappa-type jam. Option B would be to segue into a cover song. Option C would segue into another Umphrey’s song. So basically that will pop up, and I’m not sure how long, maybe a minute, but whatever gets the most texts in that minute will be the isolated answer and we have to go with that.

CB: Fan request shows aren’t new, but the reason this is so interesting is because you have fans there on the spot directing the direction of the set list and the music. What do you think this opens the door for? Do you think other bands would embrace this concept or you would consider doing this more?

BB: Well honestly the way the music business works now is so different. We realize how lucky we are. So it’s about catering to our fans and making them feel more included, and knowing we have our core group of fans that pretty much allow us to have the life we have. So we just listen to them a lot. The more you include the fans, the longer they’re going to be around for you. We’re just trying to figure out more ways to be more interactive with them, to make them feel more a part of it. It’s a long-term investment deal. We see the rewards, and ideally years down the road, I imagine this is something we would incorporate for a normal live show maybe for one song. Like, ‘All right everybody, get your phones out and we’ll do a 10-minute version of this.’ But right now we’re just developing the idea, throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks.

CB: The way you guys encourage fan interactivity with this type of method and encouraging recordings and spreading of your music online, do you think that’s a key component to your success?

BB: Absolutely. The first time we played Colorado, we had never even been there. We sent out 1,000 CDs about a month or two before we went there for a show we were playing, and it sold out. Word of mouth is the best form of advertisement, and giving out the music will only come back in ticket sales. We don’t make money from selling CDs. The typical music model doesn’t really apply. I definitely think giving it away is the best thing we ever could have done.

CB: How will UMBowl help you get more income to focus on recording more?

BB: It’s a much higher ticket price. I think it’s $100 a ticket. So that will allow us to make the kind of money we would make on a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We’re going into the studio the Monday after the UMBowl, but we basically need to buy ourselves more studio time. But it’s also an idea that we wanted to develop and see what we could really turn it into. It’s different for us. We play so many shows that it’s nice for us to get out of the box. And there’s a relief in us not having to worry about writing the set list. This is what the fans want, so let’s do what they want. It’s easy.

CB: Let’s shift gears a little bit and talk about your side project with 30db. How did that come together and what are you hoping to accomplish with that supergroup?

BB: Jeff Austin (mandolin player and singer for Yonder Mountain String Band, and Arlington Heights native) and I had become close friends just through playing the same festival circuit. We had been on the same bill so many times, and long story short, we both got divorced within four months of each other. So we would both just talk to each other about what we were going through because we could understand it. So then we started writing songs about it and decided to make a real project out of it and be, ‘Well let’s have a medium for this subject matter so we don’t have to write about these songs with our real bands.’ So it kind of came out from us just bonding over that, and we ended up having a pile of really good songs that we’re proud of, so we decided to recruit Cody Dickinson (drummer and keyboardist for North Mississippi Allstars) and Nick Forster (electric bass player for Hot Rize) and Eric Thorin to flesh out the music and make it a real album. We never really talked much about it, but now that the album’s done, we thought, ‘Well, let’s put a tour together.’ So we never were like, ‘Let’s put a band together.’ It happened naturally from playing together and writing together. Hopefully it will turn into a legitimate band. Obviously, and same with Jeff and Cody, we have our main groups to focus on, because that’s what we do, and I’m not looking to get off the road with Umphrey’s and get right back on the road with 30db, but it’s a nice side thing to have because it’s fun and it’s a lot different than Umphrey’s. The songs are very stripped down vocal verse chorus, so it’s just nice to have that outlet.

CB: Do you think your fans from your respective bands will go with this new direction?

BB: You know, I really don’t know. I have no idea. And to be honest, I don’t really care. Obviously I hope they like it, but I’m not doing it for them. I’m doing it to have an outlet for these songs. I have another side project with [Umphrey’s] bass player [Ryan Stasik] and two guys from the The New Deal. But it’s a cover band, and I’ve never had something where I can write music outside of Umphrey’s. It’s good to have a different songwriting partner to mix things up, and when I come back to Umphrey’s, it makes it me appreciate that that much more.

CB: And how else is the music different?

BB: Well Umphrey’s tends to be a lot more progressive, more aggressive. This is very three chords and simple verse chorus, just simple song forms. With Umphrey’s we do a lot of hand signals and cues to improvise. We might do 25 minutes of avant-garde, call it whatever you want, whereas 30db is much more song-oriented. And also it’ll be stripped down; there’ll be some stuff with just acoustic guitar and mandolin for a couple of songs too. Much more rustic.

CB: With [Umphrey’s McGee’s last album] ‘Mantis,’ even though you still have some longer tracks, you seemed to rein in some of the jam band orientations on that one too. Is that a direction you’re looking into going more into for the next Umphrey’s album as well as 30db?

BB: Yeah, to be more concise. I think everybody, myself included, appreciates that. In the past I think there was a tendency to be difficult for difficult’s sake. As we mature and grow older its more about the songs that stick with you, and after the night’s over, the melody that’s humming in your head. It’s becoming more obvious to me and [Umphrey’s other guitarist/vocalist] Jake [Cinninger] and those guys in Umphrey’s that songs are everything. And you can put any group together and go play an E chord jam for 30 minutes, but the songs are what you can take away from that, you know? And you can’t take that away from you actually, because [the songs] are stuck in your head.

CB: At the same time, you guys have such a following for doing this improv and being freeflowing. Is there concern that your fans who really like that kind of thing may not like that you’re reining it in?

BB: No, because that’s never going to fully disappear. We’re going out and playing 115 shows a year, we’re still going to have to play the 20-minute version of that and this. Those are songs we’re never going to stop playing. I’m just kind of talking about in the future what we’re trying to write. But you know, we say things, and then we do the exact opposite. You could be talking to me in six months and I’m talking about a 15-minute, pre-composed piece of music.

CB: Throughout all this, and as you guys have gotten more popular, you still have tight roots to Chicago? Why stay in Chicago versus doing what other bands do and go off to New York or L.A.?

BB: Well we moved to Chicago 10 years ago from South Bend, Indiana. And we basically put all our cards in. We said, ‘Let’s go for it. Let’s move to the city and give it a shot.’ Chicago has been a Godsend to us. Being centrally located, it allows us to go out for two weeks and come home, go out for two weeks and come home, whereas if you were a West Coast or an East Coast band it takes two weeks just to get to the other coast. So you’re out touring for at least a month, where we could go to Colorado and be back in a week, Atlanta and be back in a week, New Orleans, Boston. That’s a huge element. Plus my family is in South Bend, they’re only 90 minutes away. Our manager’s family is here, Joel’s parents are here, [percussionist Andy] Farag’s family is here, [drummer/vocalist] Kris [Myers’] family is here. We’ve been based here for 10 years, and home is where you hang your hat, you know? And Chicago’s given us everything. The city’s been so good for us. We came up playing the Elbo Room for 17 people and then the Auditorium and the Aragon. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. I mean, I wouldn’t mind have a vacation home in the wintertime. But in the months between mid-April and mid-October, I don’t think there’s a better city in the country.

UMBowl takes place at Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln Ave., on April 24. Tickets are sold out, but the show will be broadcast live via iClips.net for $14.99. 30db performs at Lincoln at 10 p.m. Saturday, May 8. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased here.