Just days after their phenomenal three-day Suwannee Hulaween festival, we sat down with String Cheese Incident guitarist Bill Nershi to talk about the festival and all things Cheesy. Nershi has been a creative force of SCI for decades now, and hasn’t slowed down yet! With new music on the horizon, as well as a recent teaser of the band’s music during a Denver Broncos game, there’s a lot to get Cheese fans and band members excited!

Read on for L4LM’s Rex Thomson’s exclusive interview with Nershi:

L4LM: Are you still recovering from the big Suwannee Hulaween extravaganza?

Bill Nershi: Yes, I felt better this morning…felt a little more like my head was screwed on more than it has been for a while.

L4LM: After a big incident like that, do YOU need time to recover like all the fans do?

BN: Oh yes! I needed to get some sleep after that weekend, for sure. It was a really busy weekend, with a lot going on, a lot of people and…yeah, it kinda wiped me out!

L4LM: Coming into a three day, seven set musical marathon like Hulaween, how do you go about putting all the different set lists together?

BN: Well, there’s a lot of different elements going on. We had sets that were just String Cheese sets, we had the big Hulaween “Ghoul Train” bash, which had singers and horn players, and then we had a set on Sunday with Sam Bush. So there were a lot of different elements that go into each set.

The big “Hulaween She-bang” set, that we played as the middle set of our three set Saturday, was planned out well in advance. We had to know the songs we were gonna play, so that the singers and the horn players could learn them. We spent some time on two or three occasions that we were together thinking about songs, watching some Soul Train stuff, selecting the tunes we thought would work the best and also showcasing the singers and the horns the best. So that was all planned out ahead of time.

The straight String Cheese sets were worked out during the day before we get up and play our show, and the Sam Bush set I put together right prior to us going out. I picked out some tunes that I thought he would enjoy playing and he picked some songs that he wanted to sing, and we put it together right then. The Cheese sets we put together like normal, we talked about the tunes that we wanted to play. There was a lot of time and energy involved in putting together all the different sets.

L4LM: Who’s idea WAS the Ghoul Train theme?

BN: Mike Kang came up with that idea…I don’t know who he talked to…maybe a friend of his perhaps, and they came up with “Ghoul Train” and that was an idea that we thought would be a lot of fun for the crowd and for us as well. It was fun to learn those tunes. We, right away, months ago, decided that was the way we wanted to go.

L4LM: How hard was it narrowing down the song list for that set?

BN: It was kinda hard, actually. We all had our own favorites from that era, and I used to watch the show when I was a kid, so I definitely had my favorites. You get to the point where you can’t get too emotionally tied to any particular song. There were artists that we wanted to play songs by, y’know, like we definitely wanted to get to the James Brown tune, and some tunes were obvious, like “Car Wash“…that’s just a fun tune. Everybody had input, and we wanted to do tunes that weren’t too obscure because they’re so old that some of our crowd would only know some of the songs that were somewhat on the popular side, but some of the younger members of our audience wouldn’t really get it. So that was a big art of our thought process.

L4LM: So, do you remember the first time you heard the Wu Tang Clan?

BN: The Wu Tang Clan is something that’s in my brain, and I’ve heard them but they weren’t really on my radar much…

L4LM: So I guess you probably never gave much thought to the idea of one day sharing the stage with the GZA?

BN: Right! From my perspective I didn’t understand the magnitude of it, but when I talked to Roosevelt Collier before he sat in with us on Sunday, he said GZA doesn’t come on with just anybody, y’know? He said “That cat just doesn’t come out and do things like that.” He was amazed…he couldn’t believe that that had happened…(Laughs)…that GZA came out and did that with us. I guess when I talked to him I started to understand that is was pretty monumental that he made it out for that show. And the reason that he came and did it was he saw the list of songs and he said “These are songs that really represent the artists of that era,” and made him want to be part of the she-bang.

L4LM: There were a lot of fans who had their minds blown, seeing you guys together.

BN: Right?

L4LM: Did you get to go out, listen to some tunes and enjoy yourself at the Hulaween?

BN: Well…I listened to Railroad Earth play, I caught part of Elephant Revival but honestly I was just reaaally, really busy.

L4LM: It’s got to be hard, being a host band, and not getting to enjoy the party you’re throwing because you have so much to do.

BN: There’s a lot of work involved, and what I got out of it was a real sense of satisfaction. When we got done with all the shows I felt like we played a wide variety of music with lots of guests and sit ins and such, and it was really fun.

L4LM: You mentioned your bluegrass set sits ins, and Sam Bush and Roosevelt…and you had almost the entire Elephant Revival band come out with you. How’d you end up getting them to join you for “Will The Circle Be Unbroken?”

BN: They played earlier that day, and they’re good friends of ours, and I really wanted to include them in the fun, because that’s what that Sunday bluegrass set is all about…Including people from the festival and playing music with all the folks we know and love. Having them out, with Sam, for that last song was a lot of fun!

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L4LM: What exactly was your costume?

BN: We were just kinda trying to be late sixties/seventies musicians…just really flamboyant Hendrix-like garb. (Chuckles)

L4LM: You’ve been hitting all these big venues on this recent tour of yours, how was it ditching all that and getting out in the Florida sunshine?

BN: It was nice…it was good to get some hot sunny weather. Last year it was kinda cold, ironically, at Hulaween, so we were really psyched to have good, warm, tropical weather this time. Maybe even a lil too warm a couple of times onstage, honestly. I felt like you could cook an egg on my head.

L4LM: Okay, so the question on every bodies minds…There has been some debate as to if your original contract with the venue is over after this year, so…are you guys gonna come back and do Hulaween next year?

BN: HELL Yeah! Definitely! We’ll be back! Next year, we’re gonna set each other on fire! That’s gonna be our grand finale’!

L4LM: Well, I know a bunch of fans who are gonna be pretty happy about all that…

BN: Yeah, we had a good time working with Paul and it was definitely a celebration. It was such a great weekend and we’re just so thankful for all the people that came out for the weekend to check out the show and enjoy the festival…we hope they continue to keep coming out, ’cause we’re gonna keep this festival growing, improving and it’s gonna be different every time we do it!

L4LM: On a different note…how pumped were you to hear that they had played “Rosie” during the Denver Broncos game?

BN: I was watching the game when that happened! I was like “Woah! That’s Rosie!” It was very surreal. It took me a few seconds to put together that that was really happening! There are a few of us that really big Bronco fans, so it was a special treat to hear that.

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L4LM: Do you think you’ll get a nice lil royalty check out of that “Rosie” getting played?

BN: Well…I would hope so! I think that’s how the music business works. (Laughs)

L4LM: Well, the NFL has got money…

BN: Yeah…more than they need. They probably have it laying around in piles.

L4LM: Over the years The String Cheese Incident has become something of a Swiss Army band…you guys go through about fourteen styles of music in the course of a single show. Do you ever worry that you’ve gone too far astray from your bluegrass roots or are you comfortable with what’s going on?

BN: The reason that we sounded like we did when we started out was more due to the instrumentation we had and us not having more varied musical ideas. Now with our expanded instrumentation and the new players in the band we can really pull off all these different styles. I think that keeps things interesting for us and hopefully for the fans too.

We still get back to the bluegrass and calypso and the things that we did when we started with from time to time. That’s still in our bag of tricks, and I’m still pushing for an acoustic tour, ’cause I think right now we could do it. We have the two drummers that can play congas and pull out all kinds of percussion instruments that don’t involve the full drum kits. Mike’s got a great sounding acoustic mandolin now and his fiddle. Keith has gotten really good on his upright bass and I’m always playing acoustic anyway so for me it’s like falling off a log.

L4LM: Several people remarked about how good Keith’s tone sounded during that bluegrass set at Hula.

BN: Yeah, he’s got a good pick up system in that acoustic bass now. He’s put a lot of time in at bluegrass festivals, pickin’ with people on site. He brings that on tour with him all the time now and he and I play a few bluegrass tunes from time to time when we’re out on tour. I think all the elements are there that we could do a little kick ass acoustic tour.

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L4LM: How’s the new music coming? What can we expect some from the new album?

BN: Yeah, we have “Roughs” done on eight new songs. We got rough mixes on five of the eight songs so far and they’re sounding really good. They’re not completely developed…we still have some overdubs and some singin’ to do on these tracks, but they’re coming together very nicely, so we’re really psyched about that. It’s the thing that makes us feel like we’re not gonna be one of those reunion bands that get together and play “Black Clouds” and “Texas”. Like…”Yeah…draw a lil closer…don’t you remember this song?” It makes us feel good that there’s a lot of new material coming out.

L4LM: You were talking about your guitars, and you’ve been playing some different axes on this tour…you have a history of switching it up a little bit…do you have a process for picking you road guitars?

BN: Different things are suited for different songs. I’ve been working with Santa Cruz Guitars a lot…they made me a custom model that I really like a lot. Lately i’ve been leaning on my 1955 Martin T18…that’s kinda my sweetheart. I’ve been playing that mainly…that’s an acoustic guitar. I’ve got this sweet Falcon, this Gretsch White Falcon…that thing is an amazing instrument and I love playing that! It has a really unique sound…not many people play that instrument. When we played the “Ghoul Train” set and we’re playing funk I gotta play my Tele…my brother Tom built me my Telecaster, and that thing has got the sound can play funk like the “ghoul Train” set or “Rosie” where I wanna get that kinda sound…that’s when I play the Tele.

L4LM: Your band has done some great fan service in the past, from your fighting to keep ticket prices down by selling your own shows and your work with Conscious Alliance. Is it important to you to use your position in the music scene to help these kinds of causes?

BN: This last tour that we did, leading up to Hulaween, we raised money for flood relief for victims of the storm down in South Carolina. Yeah, we try and stay focused on giving back some, y’know? We’re doing well…things are going well for us and it feels good to give back to communities that we go through, especially for a cause like that, help some people out. That’s definitely something we are gonna continue to do. Conscious Alliance is great to work with and their efforts and their food drives..their help with Native Americans up in South Dakota…the Dakota Indians and other people…they were down there in New Orleans right after Katrina. It’s great to work with them…the do some really positive work.

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L4LM: Your band has always had a really uplifting overall feel to it. Positive songs, good deeds, an air of love to everything you do. Is there an overall message for the world you’re trying to convey with your songs and actions?

BN: …a message for the world…Well…I don’t know if we have a message for the world, but we just try and bring people together and help them have a positive experience that we hope can help create some positive momentum…in our part of the world, anyway. We want to get positive momentum and traction going by giving whatever uplifting vibe we can create.

L4LM: That’s the best any of us can do. So, that’s it for our questions, but we like to reach out to your fans for some of their questions. Do you have time for a couple more left in ya?

BN: Sure!

L4LM: You’ve done a shorter song book in the past, have you given any thought to doing a longer form one that encompasses all of the String Cheese Incident catalog?

BN: That would be fun to make a song book. I had a good experience making the last one. I created a Bill Nershi song book with the help of my wife and some friends. Of course, those songs are pretty much String Cheese songs anyway, ’cause when I write, like ninety, ninety five percent of those tunes are Cheese tunes…most of my songs are written and performed with String Cheese.

I did learn a little bit about making and putting together a song book and getting the photos and the stories together to go along with the songs…I would like to do it. It’s a serious project putting together something like that., to make it interesting and not just a generic thing. I mean, it’s easy to put together something generic, you just have to pay people to transcribe stuff but to put something out that actually has a personality and shows some of the bands personality along with the music takes a little more time and effort. Yeah…I would love to be a part of making that happen! We’ll see…I’ll let you know when time permits.

L4LM: I can’t ever picture you guys doing anything generic. Did you guys know that there were like five proposals that took place during your sets throughout the weekend?

BN: I didn’t know that there were that many! I do know that at one point on Saturday there was a guy that help up a sign that said “She said yes!” And I saw that couple backstage and they said they got engaged that day, and that really is a great feeling. Knowing that things like that are happening surrounding our scene…man…it’s a healthy sign…a healthy fan base.

L4LM: Right? That means more fans on the way!

BN: It might take awhile! In fifteen years they’ll be at the shows!

L4LM: There’s a follow up to that…Would you guys consider playing these folks weddings, on the cheap?

BN: Thaaaat…playing weddings…That’s something we did long ago, when we started as a band and I think we’ll leave that to the newer bands that are trying to support their tours by playing weddings. So, probably not, but we’re always there to play the music for when they pop the question.

L4LM: Fair enough. Well sir, thanks for taking time out of your Hulaween recovery process to chat with us. I wanna ask one more time, on the record…you will be back at the park next year for another Suwannee Hulaween Incident?

BN: HELL YEAH!

L4LM: Good enough for me! Thanks sir!

BN: You’re welcome!