(Interviewer Benjy Eisen:) What was the most unexpected challenge of writing your first real score?

(Trey Anastasio:) It's been a steep learning curve. I've learned that in the theater the story is everything. Every lyric, every line and every musical gesture has to propel the journey of a given character or the overall plot. We've had workshops that take place over two or three week periods. In the workshops, actors run thru each number with minimal props and blocking. Sometimes a song doesn't land the way we expected it to. The solution is often not what I would have anticipated.

In one case, there was a song that Amanda and I had written that we were particularly excited about. When the actor sang it in the workshop, it didn't have the same emotional impact as it did on the demo. Amanda, Doug and I huddled up in the hallway to talk about it. I suggested re-writing the song, but Doug disagreed. He explained that in this case, he didn't think that the issue was the song. He felt that the character needed a few more lines of dialogue to set the song up, so that the audience understood the intent behind the song before they heard it. He changed the actor's lines, we ran it again and it was stunning. This was a complete revelation to me. In the past, I've habitually led with the music. I've learned so much from this experience.

Read more, full interview at: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-phishs-trey-anastasio-talks-about-his-first-musical-20111031#ixzz1cPMtLVnt

Congratulations to Phish.netter and r.m.p. digester Benjy Eisen for doing this interview with Trey in Rolling Stone.

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Benjy Eisen