Music of Phish - Compositional Approaches

Compositional Approaches

Trey Anastasio has credited Vermont-based art music composer, pianist, and teacher Ernie Stires for inspiring him in musical composition and arranging. Stires' music juxtaposes atonal melodies and harmonies against catchy swing rhythms. Stires' influence can be heard on The White Tape, The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday, Junta, Lawn Boy and Rift.

Anastasio used techniques ranging from riff-based and/or verse-chorus songwriting to unusual chord progressions, modes, atonality, polyrhythm, irregular and compound meters, and polyphonic textures.

The Phish pieces written by Anastasio after the band had begun touring nationally on a full-time basis, as well his compositions for his past and current touring projects outside of Phish, have tended with few exceptions to focus on simpler, more direct songwriting than many of the more involved works of earlier years. Accordingly, dynamic, large-scale improvisation became more of a driving force than detailed composition in the band's final decade.

Anastasio has said that this shift was at least partially due to time constraints imposed by Phish's increasing fame, family responsibilities of the members, and other considerations. As a band of carefree college students, Phish was able to spend vastly more time writing and rehearsing challenging material.

Many of the tracks on the early Junta, as well as some other material from roughly the same period (1985-1990), were notated wholly or partially in full score by Anastasio and were learned by the band in this manner; all four members are experienced at reading notation. This contrasts starkly with their later practice of making demo tapes of original compositions, some of which were later released for sale, from which the band would then aurally pick up and develop selected material.

Sometimes several compositional forms and elements were blended into a single piece of music, with the end result rarely coming off as overly cerebral because of the collective musicianship of the bandsmen and because of the innate "groove" of much of the music. This aesthetic reflects Phish's taste for danceable music with intellectual and artistic depth. Anastasio, in particular, has spoken of his lifelong attraction to music that can be richly appreciated in both the intellectual and the corporeal planes of experience. Phish and other jam bands have always striven to bring the best of both worlds to their fans.