So, to help celebrate a great summer of music, I enlisted the help of one of my favorite instrumental and Summerfest bands, Particle, to help kick this summer off with a bang.

I must say it’s a little tougher figuring out which member of an all instrumental band I want to interview, so, I figured I would interview the best looking guy – Steve Molitz.

If you haven’t heard of Particle, you should have, as the band has played The Bonnaroo Music Festival and the Austin City Limits Music Festival many times. They are extremely well known as a jam band, and have played with some of the best musicians out there.

Hey man, I have to warn you, I’m driving right now – which is quickly becoming a trend in my recent interviews.

(Laughs) That’s cool. Are you going to record it, or something?

Yeah, there is no way I’m going to be able to take notes and drive at the same time. Plus, this way there is little chance for me to make up quotes (laughs).

(Laughs) Ok, man.

So, the next logical question is how have you been?

I’ve been great, man, just enjoying the ride.

Sweet. How has touring been treating you?

It’s been going great. We have been having a fantastic time. Touring with Trey (Anastasio) has been great. He has been a lot of fun to work with.

Has he been an artist you have looked up to?

Yeah, I have always respected his vision and the fact that he and Phish always thought outside of the box and continued rising the bar for themselves. They are the kind of band that will present these larger than life occurrences and leave audiences almost baffled with a magical sense of how did they do that. That, as an artist, is really inspiring. I think a lot of bands have learned a lot from Phish. We just had a great time playing shows with them.

Hanging out with Trey, was that surreal?

Uh, um, I think how humble he is and what a down-to-earth guy he is, it never really crosses your mind that you are with this great musician. He is just a real good guy to be around.

So, now that you are touring on your own as the headliner, is it much different than touring with Trey?

The tides are always shifting in Particle’s world, and we are always having to change our mindset to our surroundings and our goals. We have to constantly retrain ourselves to play differently depending who or where we are playing. When we were doing the Trey dates, we were only playing 40-minute sets, so we had to train ourselves to use that time and still be able to tell a story.

It must be tough to do all the shifting.

Yeah, sometimes it is. But Particle always tries to take the audience on a journey, and usually it’s a three-hour set, but with Trey it was only 40-minutes, so, it was more like an antidote or a short story. We still learned how to tell a valuable story with our time.

Were you guys pretty stoked to be playing Bonnaroo this year?

Absolutely. Meeting the people responsible for putting on that event was amazing. They should be mentioned in the same sense that just the depth of their vision is amazing. The first year they came up with the idea of Bonnaroo really caught everyone by surprise. Much like Woodstock did. It’s just this event that no one could ever imagine would go so well and be so big.

And you guys have been a apart of Bonnaroo for a while, right?

Yeah. This was our third out of four years doing Bonnaroo, and it has been amazing. Each year has been more amazing then the last.

Do you get to enjoy the event as well?

Oh absolutely. That’s the hard thing about Bonnaroo is that you look at the schedule and say, ‘Oh man, I wish I wasn’t playing during this person’s set (laughs).’ You always call the other guy and say, ‘Hey man, I’m going to jump on a golf cart and catch the last 10 minutes of your set.’ That’s really how it is.

Are you excited about being in the Midwest for Milwaukee’s Summerfest?

Absolutely. That’s another great events. We love it.

That’s a little different, in that you guys will be playing on a free stage. You will have a packed house, and since the house is packed, do you see that as a chance to expose some new people to your music?

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like our music is pretty universal being all instrumental there is no language barrier. All anyone has to do is just listen. And, we love festivals because someone could be just walking by one their way to get a hotdog and shuffles over and hears the music. And the next thing they know, they’re a Particle fan.

I bet that happens a lot.

Yeah, I hear stories from people all the time that they just kind of bumped into our music and now you are one of our favorite bands.

So, what if you guys decided to become a rap group, what would you call yourselves?

(Laughs) (laughs) (laughs) Vinyl Richie. Vinyl Richie. And we would only put our albums on records, not CDs.

(Laughs) I would support that.

Thank you.

I think your fan base would too. But, since you guys are all instrument playing dudes, who would the rapper be?

(Laughs) I might surprise you.

Hey, Phish is known for covering “Getting Jiggy With It” so, I am sure you guys could break one down.

(Laughs) Absolutely. Well, hey man, anything is possible. Keep your eyes out.

• Nick Powills can be reached at SayWhatPOWILLS@aol.com

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