Tea Leaf Green in Trouble?
(Don’t worry, it’s a joke...read on to find out more)

On day four of the fabulous Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival, I sat down for a chat with Tea Leaf Green’s Trevor Garrod. Seriously, Trevor Garrod is one hell of a funny dude. And he’s a pretty friggin’ fantastic musician too. On to the interview...enjoy!

MB: How has your Wakarusa Festival experience been so far?

TG: Thus far, it has been...well it’s been complex (laughs).

MB: Understandable, since you were bumped today.

TG: Yeah, we did get bumped and that caused a bit of consternation and confusion. It took me a while to figure out what had happened, but now I understand it and am at peace with it and I think it worked out ok. But you know, apart from that, I’ve had all kinds of good times! I got stuck in the rain last night and now I don’t feel like I have to shower (laughs).

MB: Hey, that’s a bonus! You could always go jump in the lake too!

TG: Well, I hear there are chiggers out there. And leeches.

MB: Oh really? That’s not good.

TG: Well, I’m not sure about the leeches. Leeches kind of intrigue me. I have never seen a leech before.

MB: I have – they aren’t too pretty.

TG: It’s not like a big deal when they bite you though, is it?

MB: No, I don’t think you even feel it happen.

TG: Yeah, so...

MB: Doesn’t that kind of unnerve you though, the idea that something could latch on to you without you even feeling it and start sucking your blood?

TG: It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened! (laughs)

MB: Would you care to expand on that at all?

(At this point, we are both laughing our asses off)

TG: Ahh yes, my blood’s been sucked....Well, you know, out west, I guess you have them here and everywhere, but where I grew up, we had ticks...we’d be tromping through the brush, you know. And those hurt when they bite into you! They’re full of diseases...you don’t want them biting you. But with a leech, it seems like a nice little creature. I’d give it a shot.

MB: That’s very kind of you.

TG: Yeah, I’ll try anything once.

MB: Have you ever seen that commercial...actually, you probably don’t watch much TV, do you?

TG: I watch more than I’d like to.

MB: Well there is this commercial where kids are putting leeches on themselves, like they are some sort of a drug or something.

TG: Oh yeah! Isn’t that an anti-drug commercial?

MB: Exactly.

TG: Those commercials just make me want to do drugs.

MB: Yeah, especially those commercials with the cute little dog and the flag and all that...

TG: I just want to be like, oh yeah? (laughing)

MB: My dog would stay.

TG: My dog loves it when I get high.

MB: So where are you guys off to next?

TG: Well, we are making our way to Bonnaroo.

MB: Nice, any stops in between?

TG: Yeah. We’re going to play in Fayetteville next with Railroad Earth and we are really looking forward to that because we really like those boys, those men.

MB: Yeah, they are really good!

TG: Yeah, they’re awesome, really good. We had a bunch of them play with us during our set yesterday. Andy Goessling came up and played the saxophone and Tim Carbone, a fiddle player, he just blows my mind. I want to hire him into my band.

MB: You want to steal him away?

TG: I want to steal him, yeah.

MB: You are making your offer known now, right here on MoBoogie?

TG: Yeah, I want to kick Josh out and just replace him with a fiddle player! (laughing)

MB: Why can’t you have both? Why does Josh have to go?

TG: Any excuse to get rid of that motherfucker. I’m just sick of his tired ass.

(again, we are both laughing uncontrollably)

MB: So what else is going on for Tea Leaf Green right now?

TG: Well, we are just doing our summertime festival circuit. Playing our shows, trying to make deals, make our way in the world. You know, we just put out a live record not too long ago that we’re still trying to peddle.

MB: And a mighty fine live album it is.

TG: Yeah, we’re just kind of trying to figure out when and how to get back into the studio to make another studio record, but it’s kind of a process to get the space we want, the time that we need to do it, the money and all those kinds of factors have to come into alignment, so at this point, I don’t know if it’s going to happen until next year.

MB: Do you have a lot written already, a lot of material for your next studio album?

TG: Oh yeah. Tea Leaf Green is about five studio records behind (laughing). You know, but I actually kind of just want to go in and for once record an album of songs that we are just writing then, which is like a better way to do it I think. After you go out on the road and you play these songs over and over every night, then you try to recreate that in the studio and something is missing. You’ve blown it up too many times, you know? So playing in the studio, it’s pretty much the opposite of that. Less is more, so you can really blow it. It’s never going to have the same magic that it had. But if you played it for the very first time in the studio, you can just let it grow in performances later on.

MB: Have you guys ever done it that way?

TG: You know, on our last record, there’s one song on there that we learned and played right then in the studio. The take on it was actually the second time we had ever played it. We went through it once, went through it again and that was it. And that song actually wound up being my favorite track on the record – it was "Flippin' The Bird" – because it was just very honest and exactly what it needed to be instead of trying to be like, we played it like this in all those live shows and trying to recreate that...it was just the song. Everyone just learned their part and made it up right then. When people don’t know how the song goes very well, they tend to listen better.

MB: Well that makes sense – they aren’t comfortable with it, so they have to listen better.

TG: Exactly. I did this like side project show a little while ago, but the drummer I had lined up had to cancel on me, so I had to call up Scottie, the drummer for Tea Leaf Green, and was like, will you come and play this show with me? He didn’t know any of the songs but I think that guy plays better when he doesn’t know the songs. (laughing) He pays better attention! To me at least! PAY ATTENTION TO ME!

MB: You know this interview is going to piss your whole band off.

(Trevor leans into the recorder)

TG: I’m sorry! I love you guys!

MB: You are going to be a solo act after this!

TG: Trevor Garrod speaks out against his band!

MB: I will entitle it, "Tea Leaf Green in Trouble?"

(Again, we are busting up)

MB: Well Trevor, is there anything else you would like to share with the MoBoogie readers?

TG: The MoBoogie crew know how to party!

MB: Indeed! Well thank you so much Trevor, I have truly enjoyed talking with you today. My stomach hurts from laughing so much! And I am really sorry about what is about to happen to your band once they see this interview.

And of course, we end with a laugh.

Peace.

Tea Leaf Green @ Wakarusa