Anders Beck of Greensky Bluegrass on Recording in Iceland & Halloween Shows

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    Anders Beck of Greensky Bluegrass on Recording in Iceland & Halloween Shows
    Published: October 28, 2024

    Greensky Bluegrass have toured relentlessly for two decades and still find new avenues for creativity. One such avenue came via the recording of their latest EP, The Iceland Sessions, which was recorded at the remote Flóki Studios in Northern Iceland in the summer of 2023, in the days leading up to the three-day festival, Camp Greensky, at the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik.

    As the band prepares for their Halloween show at The Refinery in Charleston, SC, I hopped on a call with dobro player Anders Beck. We discussed their unique experience in Iceland, recording with Holly Bowling, and the renowned jam band holiday that is Halloween.

    Recording in Iceland

    “We all travel a lot, and we see a lot of the same places over and over again. Not in a bad way, but it’s what we do for a living,” Anders explains. “So going somewhere new together was super exciting to begin with. And then with the intention of having our own festival in Iceland and recording an EP there, there’s lots of new excitement swirling around it.”

    They landed in Reykjavik and drove five hours to the middle of nowhere, or the location of Flóki Studios.

    “I don’t think I’ve ever been somewhere so remote in my life,” Anders recalls. “That energy overtook the whole thing, just adventure, excitement.”

    Greensky was joined by longtime friend and collaborator, Holly Bowling. They had all gotten together in the U.S. a week or so before traveling to Iceland to prepare the material, as once in the studio they would only have four days to work.

    Four Days at Flóki Studios

    “We had a good idea of what we were going to do,” he says. “We didn’t know how we were going to do it, but everyone heard the songs and was psyched about them as a project. We thought maybe we would get three done, five done, then four was just the way it turned out to be.”

    While they did have an option to continue working on the EP back home, they decided to button the project up and call it done after the four day session at Flóki Studios.

    “The idea of finishing it there, calling it good, and really making it feel like a concise project, felt the most natural,” Anders says. “And it was cool for the storyline and the vibe.”

    The result is a warm, open feeling that permeates throughout the EP, and a sound that is almost live.

    “It’s not far from live compared to the way we record a lot of the time,” Anders recalls. “We usually spend weeks in the studio messing around and dialing things in and re-recording stuff. I play dobro, which is a slide guitar. So I like to re-record stuff in the studio. If it’s not exactly right, the difference between the wrong note and the right note on a dobro is like millimeters.”

    Without going back to re-record and fine-tune everything, Anders notes that the EP has a certain grit to it.

    “I won’t say there’s mistakes, but there’s flaws. Or there’s warts,” Anders says. “There’s a little bit of grit on the album, which I think is awesome. You can’t fix everything in four days. And a lot of bands make records that way, with that more live vibe. We’re not usually one of those bands. So it was fun to do that.”

    Being Close to Nature

    Anders says that since all of the material was so new, everything was in flux, and they were able to really connect with nature and the remote location, which certainly comes through on the recording.

    “I think Iceland, the vibe there, informed the album,” he continues, referencing the slower song on the EP, “Entirely Mine”, which he says is the first song they recorded for the EP.

    “When I listen to it since then, it puts me right back in that space of just, sleep deprived, 24 hours of sunlight. You know, just crazy weird. It just feels– there’s a vibe — perhaps it’s only because I was there that I feel it. But there’s something there that feels like this really remote place to me.”

    Greensky Bluegrass with Holly Bowling – “Entirely Mine” (2024)

    The EP truly does bring nature to mind, and Anders explained how they were thinking a lot about nature during the sessions.

    “We also brought a documentary filmmaker with us who had an idea of tying nature into the whole process and to make some video content, which may or may not turn into a documentary,” Anders shares. “But the idea that music and nature are not so far off. We were talking a lot about that sort of combination. Dave, our guitar player, was really into the idea — There’s no straight lines in nature, right? And that’s the way music feels to us.”

    Writing with Holly Bowling

    Greensky has collaborated with Holly Bowling extensively in the past, including on the track “Stress Dreams” from their 2022 album of the same name. This was the first time that they had her, or any other musician, in the writing process from its inception.

    “She’s just an amazing musician,” Anders says. “Usually, we take the songs from their infancy, which is just a guy on a guitar, right? One of us shows the other ones the song. And then together, we all turn it into a Greensky song.” We really wanted to have Holly in on that process, because she’s such an incredibly talented musician. So to have her working on the songs from their inception was really cool.”

    He explains how having Holly’s extremely talented set of hands in on the writing and recording process was great for the band and the outcome of The Iceland Sessions.

    “Just to have another set of hands, an incredibly capable set of hands, and pianos and keyboards are such amazing instruments,” Anders says. “They can cover so much ground, to record the whole thing with her, because everyone could do a little less, which is harder to do than you think. But really helped create a unique texture for us.”

    On Halloween Shows

    This past Sunday, October 27th, Greensky Bluegrass performed a headline set at Hulaween with Holly Bowling.

    “Hulaween is just a super cool festival,” Anders says. “And this time of year, we’re sort of done with festivals for the most part. So it’s exciting to be back in that environment with lots of friends around. Being around that energy, it’s fun to play that vibe. And we’re really at home there at Suwanee.”

    Hulaween 2024 also included a set called The Bobby Weir Incident, featuring Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and String Cheese Incident.

    These shows sadly occurred just two days after the passing of Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, a major influence on Greensky Bluegrass and the entire modern festival world. Anders and I also discussed the Grateful Dead and their influence on today’s scene.

    “I was texting with Nershi to see how everything’s going for that,” Anders says. “And he’s like, hey, we’re rehearsing all the Dead tunes. We’re just sort of laughing about it. Because the Grateful Dead has turned out to be the great American songbook of our generation. We played with Phil Lesh and I played with Bobby once. Playing those songs that you’ve listened to a million times, getting to play them is such a trip with those guys. So it’s super cool.”

    After speaking with Anders I looked up the Greensky set with Phil Lesh, which took place on 3/24/15 (full stream here) at Phil’s then-venue Terrapin Crossroads, in San Rafael, California. I think it’s a really excellent set of music and would be appreciated by fans of both the Grateful Dead and Greensky Bluegrass.

    Greensky Bluegrass in Charleston: Halloween 2024

    “We always try and go big for Halloween,” Anders says. “It’s such a jam-band holiday. Halloween and New Year’s are the big holiday shows. Halloween is a fun party event. We will be throwing a party. And there will be costumes. And there will be all sorts of extra stuff, because that’s what we do on Halloween. I can’t tell you too much.”

    Anders explains how Greensky always tries to do a themed costume for Halloween that includes all five members of the band.

    “The five of us are best friends, still. And we’re also just kind of idiots that come up with lots of really dumb ideas and then work backwards from that to what’s attainable,” he says. “I guess the best thing I can stress to you is that it’s going to be a really fun Halloween party. Because Greensky’s an excuse to party. Halloween’s an excuse to party. Any show is an excuse to party. And we take the fun that is Halloween very seriously. So if you could tell anything to your readers, it’s that they should probably be there.”

    Get tickets to Greensky Bluegrass at The Refinery on Halloween here.

    Closing Thoughts: Bonnaroo Memories

    The first time I saw Greensky Bluegrass was at Bonnaroo in 2017, on Sunday, the final day of Bonnaroo. It was also my first time at that festival, and the Saturday night before was the craziest night of my life. The timing for Greensky Bluegrass couldn’t have been better for me that day, and I laid in the grass listening to these guys play, having an amazing experience. I mentioned this to Anders at the end of our call.

    “It’s so interesting to me, the power of music, how it affects people,” Anders concludes. “My whole life, I grew up going to see a bunch of shows and seeing the end of the Grateful Dead and a lot of Phish shows and things like that. And music changed my life. And knowing that what we do, hearing what we do is powerful for people is really special.”

    Enjoy below the highly recommended Greensky Bluegrass set with Phil Lesh on 3/24/15, and I’ll see you at the Refinery on Halloween.

    Greensky Bluegrass with Phil Lesh – 3/24/15

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