Aug 15, 2017
Colorado-based singer/songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov joined KZUM’s Steffan Decker and Beau Poehlman on their program, “The ISM Machine,” on Aug. 14, 2017. Isakov and Blind Pilot will play The Slowdown in Omaha on Sunday.
Audio and Transcript below. Music used with permission.
GREGORY: Hello
STEFFAN: Hi is this Gregory Alan isakov?
GREGORY: It is
STEFFAN: Hi, this is Steffan Decker from KZUM in Lincoln, Nebraska. I really appreciate that you took the time out of your busy tour schedule to talk to us today.
GREGORY: Oh, I appreciate it too! Thank you so much.
STEFFAN: Oh, it’s our pleasure trust me. I’m here with my co-host, Beau Poehlman.
BEAU: Hello
GREGORY: Hello
STEFFAN: And we co-host The ISM Machine on Monday mornings and we play indie and alternative music and we’ve played your music in the past. We have also played Blind Pilot who you are playing with here in Omaha. We understand you only have a short time to talk with us so we only have questions for you. We’ll make it short and sweet for you. So… Starting off: Talk a little bit about the tour so far. How’s it going so far?
GREGORY: Israel and I, – or Blind Pilot – and I have been on tour before. A couple years ago. We had such a great time, and we’re good friends. So, we’ve been sort of waiting for a period of time that we could do something fun like this. We’re so excited. Our first show is in a few days together. But yeah, everyone is so stoked about it.
STEFFAN: I guess that kind of leads me to one of my questions: Who have you enjoyed touring with the most and apart from, like, the obvious – like Paul McCartney, or you know whatever – who would you like to play a show with someday?
GREGORY: I don’t really have that thing. It’s funny. My friend asked me that. If you could choose anyone, living or dead – or whatever – one of those questions, y’know. And my first thought was Leonard Cohen, because he’s my hero. But… I think I’d rather just watch his show.
STEFFAN: Fair enough. I hadn’t considered that.
GREGORY: I love touring with Blind Pilot. And we had a good time with Iron and Wine.
BEAU: So speaking of collaborations and touring, we understand you released an album with the Colorado Symphony?
GREGORY: Yeah!
BEAU: So what was it like working and touring with them?
GREGORY: It was amazing, y’know. We were originally going to release a live show. And we performed with them about four times. And we had the scores written and we kind of took it on the road. And brought it to all these other symphonies around the country. We played with 12 national symphonies. And we brought this other Ghost Orchestra with us for the Club shows. But it was amazing! It was amazing to get to work with people like that. Very intimidating and awe-inspiring and everything you could imagine. But what was so cool about the Colorado Symphony is that – we were about to do this live record – which I never thought I’d do a live record. In general I don’t love live records, once in a while, of course, is a major exception. But I never thought we could pull one off. And we did. We recorded on this first show and it sounded great but there was… Something happened with the audio, and there was a lot of crowd noise and stuff. We referred… we had some references and rehearsal tapes and I fell in love the rehearsals, because it’s just an empty room and it sounded great. And so we just called them and they were like, ‘yeah, well let’s just set up in Boettcher Hall and put mics up and just make a record in front of nobody. And I love how it came it. I was really proud of it.
BEAU: Awesome sounds like a rewarding experience.
STEFFAN: And the record sounds really awesome too. How did you-
GREGORY: Thank you.
STEFFAN: How did you come into just deciding to do that? Did someone come to you with the idea or did you think of it on your own? How did that come to be?
GREGORY: I used to go see the symphony when I was a kid. It’s kind of like one of those lists that we make that’s like ‘this would be the most badass thing if this ever happened.’ I couldn’t believe that it actually happened. When the conductor of the CSO came to one of our shows and kind of brought up the idea. I kind of figured it would never happen. He was like, ‘no that sounds like it would be a good fit… Let’s try it.’ And then the shows did really well. And a lot of artists are doing that with symphonies now. Because, I think that draws a lot of attention to the local symphonies as well but it’s great for the artists. So it ends up being this really cool collaboration. But, yeah, I couldn’t even believe that happened. I’m still kind of like ‘that didn’t happen.’
STEFFAN: One of the shows that you played with the symphony was actually just outside of Lincoln, here in Nebraska, at the Folk and Roots festival in 2016.
GREGORY: Totally! We did that with the ghost orchestra. That was, about, a nine-piece orchestra. It was just kind of like our homies just playing the charts. There was a violin player from the Lumineers. And cello player from Brandi Carlile. Just a few of our friends. And a few members of the Colorado Orchestra
STEFFAN: That’s really cool! How many different types of shows did you play like that? Were they all sort of, like, outdoor festivals did you play a bunch of variety of shows?
GREGORY: That was the only one like that. That was our first gig on the road and it was this outdoor festival on this farm. And it was beautiful. And that was the only outdoor show that we had that whole tour, I believe. And I loved that one. And it was funny because we were like ‘that was the first show, let’s see how this goes.’ And we looked back on it and it was like, ‘oh I loved that one so much.’
STEFFAN: We we loved it too. We actually produced a video here at the station and we used one of your tracks – we used “Living Proof” – we used “Living Proof” as the backing track for the recap-video. It was very good; very well-received.
LIVING PROOF – GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV AND THE COLORADO SYMPHONY
STEFFAN: One or two of the fans of yours at the folk and Roots festival came up to our manager afterward and had mentioned that your music was kind of like their go-to for some really rough times. And it really your music really helped them through that. And I kind of wonder how often it is you sort of get that from your fans and what sort of impact does that have on you as a music creator?
GREGORY: I mean that’s the best thing you could ever hear. I love knowing about that. And I do get told that sometimes. It can be really hard to… Being an artist you’re creating, you’re not really sure what it’s doing; and I live on this farm with nine other people and my friend, Allie, here is practicing to be a nurse to help people with Ebola and all these diseases in Haiti and South America and all over the world. And I’m like ‘well I’m gonna go sit in a bus and play shows.’ You kind of feel like ‘what am I doing for this place and what am I adding and how am I helping?’ When you hear stuff like that it really… Because music is so elusive in that way.
BEAU: I’m glad you mentioned the farm because I told my friend, Lucy, about our short interview with you. And she was very excited to hear that because she is a huge fan of yours and she has seen you perform once or twice, I believe. I think she was at the Nebraska Folk and Roots festival. And so I go: ‘hey Lucy we’re interviewing him what should I make sure I ask him?’ And one of the things she said was, ‘ask him about his farm!’ So, what is it like living on this farm with the other people and how does it influence your songwriting?
GREGORY: It’s a big part of my life. I was a horticulture major in school, so I’ve been working on farms most of my life. I’m growing four varieties of seed, right now, for an heirloom seed company in town. So it keep me pretty busy, but it’s great for touring some in the Summer because the point is to let things go to seed. You don’t really need to harvest much until things are ready. October is pretty busy. Spring is pretty busy. But then I manage to kind of tour in the Winters and when I’m not super busy out here. It’s a huge important part of my life. I can’t really imagine not doing it. I had a year where we toured – I think it was The Weatherman, when that came out – and toured 100 dates that year. It was insane and I remember feeling like I missed working outside. I remember it was kind of my wake up: ‘I don’t want to see the world through the window of a van.’ I love playing music for people, but it’s definitely a shared passion I have for plants. I think it’s important – being a musician you kind of forget we all grew up playing music on the side from our other jobs. You work all day and then you play at night – you play gigs at night after work, or on the weekends. You’re at work, and you’re thinking about that line you’re working on, because I was a landscaper forever, and then the music becomes… And then the dream happens! And you’re working hard every day, and you’re playing out, and you’re sort of making a living just playing music. And then you forget that other part, that work part, is a very essential part of writing and creating. It’s actually invaluable to the whole process, for me at least. Even though the whole time you’re like ‘I wish I could just quit my job and go on the road.’
BEAU: Well you have seen a lot of the world. You were born in South Africa, correct?
GREGORY: Yeah.
BEAU: And you grew up, here, in America. And you’ve toured all over the place. Any other thoughts on how seeing the world and and traveling has impacted the art you create?
GREGORY: I think, for me, my writing process comes from all over the place. I think travelling is a big part of it. But I think getting away from any stagnant situation you’re in is so good for writing. My bandmate, Steve, lives out here with me and he has the Kurt Vonnegut mug, and it’s got all these Kurt Vonnegut quotes on it. I just read it the other day and one it said, “nothing good was ever written at home.” I love that.
STEFFAN: Do you live on this farm with all of your bandmates? Is it just a couple? How did you come into this group of fellow farm mates?
GREGORY: We call it an unintentional community. It’s sort of… Half of it is fellow band mates. And then *missing audio* he lives in this bu- *missing audio* he’s like the bus guy in Denver and he works on all these busses and rebuilds them. Then there’s a few artists that work from home. We have animals too, so when we go on the road, there’s always someone keeping an eye out for us, which is awesome.
“THE STABLE SONG” – GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV AND THE COLORADO SYMPHONY
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Gregory Alan Isakov is playing this Sunday, in Omaha, at Slowdown with Blind Pilot.