KGNU’s Dave McIntyre interviews Chris and Kyle from Foggy Mountain Spaceship ahead of their performance at Oskar Blues in Lyons. They explain how they wanted to reimagine the banjo’s sound by combining it with electric bass and drums, avoiding traditional string band setups. Their music combines elements of bluegrass, jazz, and rock, creating a unique sound (Interview date: 11/1/2024)
Dave McIntyre: All right, folks. As promised, we have a couple of gentlemen in the studio this morning. Chris and Kyle from Foggy Mountain Spaceship. Yes, indeed. Say good morning, guys.
Foggy Mountain Spaceship: Good morning. Hello.
Dave McIntyre: If you haven’t heard Foggy Mountain Spaceship yet you should go out and hear them. You have that opportunity tonight at Oskar Blues in Lyons. The band will be there. So tell us about the band, Chris. Chris of course is a champion banjo player. Kyle’s a champion of a lot of different instruments. They put together a banjo band. Where did this come from, Chris?
Foggy Mountain Spaceship (Chris): Since I’ve started playing banjo in 2001, I played mostly in string band ensembles, so bluegrass bands or maybe jam bands, stuff like that. Your traditional type of string bands. And it came to a point where I was wanting to put the banjo in a little different of a sonic space with electric bass and drums, and not have guitar and mandolin. There’s a lot of open space there that you can utilize with different sounds and different frequencies and stuff. So that’s really what I wanted, was just electric bass and regular drums and banjo.
I asked Chris Sheldon, who is the drummer, and he had made his own banjo drum kit 15 years ago or more. I just thought that was really cool. I was like, he’s going to be my first choice. He’s a great drummer. I asked him, and he was on board. Kyle was still playing electric bass, and we were like, this is a little wonky. Somehow, Kyle got the idea to get a banjo bass, and it immediately made sense, especially visually, for a show.
Dave McIntyre: Was that hard to find, Kyle?
Foggy Mountain Spaceship (Kyle): We accidentally fell into a banjo bass. A neighbor in Longmont happened to have one and we got ahold of it. Then I upgraded to a better one. But yeah, a company called Gold Tone makes banjo basses and all kinds of wacky banjo instruments. It was easier than you would think, yeah. But it’s a fun instrument.
Dave McIntyre: Just to explain a little bit now, the drummer, he uses a banjo head for his snare, is it?
Foggy Mountain Spaceship (Chris): Exactly, yeah, banjo head, and it still has the neck on it, so it’s still banjo neck. But he has all these little percussion things attached to it: castanets, and then a washboard type thing to get like a Cajuny sound, but he uses it for a lot of stuff. And then he’s got his cymbal attached to the banjo head. One small cymbal, and then he has a suitcase bass drum thing, which has got a street performer jug band type look to it or something. I’m trying to think of what else. Oh, and he’s got a kazoo that he utilizes, too, so that’s pretty fun.
Dave McIntyre: So when you see this band, it’s a trio, and they’re all playing banjos of one sort or another, and utilizing computerized sonic sounds and it’s nothing like you’ve ever heard. It’s exciting. People see it and say, what in the heck is going on up there? It’s a sight to behold, frankly, and to hear. It’s so unusual. I give you guys credit for doing something that as far as I know has never been done before.
We’re gonna play a little something for you from their list of songs that they brought in this morning. We’ll get back and chat some more. But this one is called what, Kyle?
Foggy Mountain Spaceship (Kyle): This is “The Interstellar Blues”, and for folks that might be curious, this is a music video on YouTube that’s a trip. Check it out.
Dave McIntyre: Alright. We’re watching that on YouTube, actually, folks, and you can too. It’s out there. They have a number of YouTube videos. videos and stuff for Foggy Mountains Spaceship. I want to play something from your past, Chris, as you mentioned with the string band, a song that I listened to years ago and was excited about. This is something that you wrote and I glommed on too many years ago and thought, that’s a cool song.
Foggy Mountain Spaceship (Chris): Yeah, this one kind of had some Alan Munde influence in it, a little Latin jazz type stuff, and this track features Michael Cleveland, so that’s really cool too. On fiddle, yeah.
Dave McIntyre: Cool. To me, this is the precursor of what you’re doing now.
Foggy Mountain Spaceship (Chris): It was, yeah. I was just honing some writing skills all through those years.
Dave McIntyre: Okay. Here comes “Cuba Vera Swing”, I hope.
All right, I had to indulge myself with that song, Chris. One of my favorites from Spring Creek in the day. But We’re going to get back into some more Foggy Mountain Spaceship. Kyle, you got one queued up for us now?
Foggy Mountain Spaceship (Kyle): Yeah, this tune is another one that Chris wrote, and it’s called “Echoes Through the Void”. It’s going to be on our upcoming banjo rock opera.
Dave McIntyre: Oh yeah. That’s great. So you folks out there listening know now why I’m saying it’s like nothing you’ve heard before. It’s a great sound, a great show. That one was live at Whibby Brewery in Longmont. Again, you can see this stuff on YouTube. The boys got a lot of things out there to listen to and enjoy. Again, they’ll be at Oskar Blues tonight. 7 to 10, free show. Where else you guys going to be, Kyle?
Foggy Mountain Spaceship (Kyle): Next Saturday we’re going to be up at the famous Gold Hill Inn. That’ll be another fun local gig. Following that we’re going to be out on the big island in Hawaii. If any folks find themselves out that way, we’ll be doing some gigs out there. And then the next big one after that will be New Year’s Eve at New Terrain Brewery down in Golden.
Dave McIntyre: I see. You gotta let me know, Chris, when you go to Hawaii so I can get my son over to see you. You’ll be on the big island again? That’s where he is. He’d love to come see you, I’m sure. Thanks, you guys, for coming on and bringing There’s a Foggy Mountain Spaceship music to us. We appreciate it and we’ll see you tonight.
Foggy Mountain Spaceship: Thanks for having us Dave.
Dave McIntyre: You bet, my pleasure.
