The Yeti Trio: These Monsters Speak For Themselves
Interview with The Yeti Trio: These Monsters Speak
Interview w/M. Alberto Rivera
The Yeti Trio is self described as “frightening fusion improv” and this is an accurate yet vague hinting at what it is they do. Pianist Brooks Smith, guitarist Vaylor Trucks, and drummer Eric Sanders, combine their considerable musical abilities and produce far-out electric fusion jazz which at times recalls Frank Zappa’s “Jazz From Hell” or the most challenging works by The Mahavishnu Orchestra. And yet the music is still very accessible and filled with hooks.
Fans of progressive rock should take heart as well as the music is challenging and consistently dynamic. Indie Music was lucky enough to be able to sit down with The Yeti Trio, and they were frank about their approach to the demands they place upon themselves as well as how they provoke one another to greater performances.
Indie Music: Did the three of you have chemistry the first time you played together?
Brooks: Without a doubt. We knew each other from various bands we’d each been in, and I believe it was Vaylor’s idea to get us together. He called me in 1998 or so and said “we’re forming a trio: you, me, and my friend Eric Sanders.” I said “hey, I know that guy!” When I was on the road with the Grapes as a guitar player, we played with Bruce Hampton and the Fiji Mariners in San Antonio, and Eric’s playing struck me enough just that one night to ensure I never forgot him. We got together and improvised everything from the first moment, which was the way we performed for years – never planning out anything. There was a “cohesive band sound” from the very beginning, so we were excited to pursue it.
Eric: Absolutely! It was magical right off the bat. I knew I had met my musical soulmates. The very first time we got together as a trio was August 30th, 1998. Brooks was playing electric bass and our first improv was about an hour long. It wasn’t until about a year later that Vaylor had the idea to have Brooks switch instruments and shift our focus to being an organ trio in the mold of Tony Williams Lifetime. We took our moniker from a lyric in a song Brooks wrote for his first solo record.
Vaylor: I moved to Atlanta in 1993 after being a big fish in the small pond that was Tallahassee, Florida’s music scene and then for five years played pretty much no music at all. When I had finally gotten to the point where I was tired of waiting to be hired to play for someone, I decided to put together my own band and play music that had always appealed to me. It was Col. Bruce Hampton
that gave me Eric’s number. Brooks I met as a sort of friend-of-a-friend. My sister had become friends with the Grapes guitarist Ted Norton and his girlfriend, and I met Brooks when I attended a Halloween party Ted hosted. The original rehearsals were in Eric’s house in Norcross with Brooks on bass (until I found out how good he was on keyboards). We still have recordings of those first rehearsals somewhere, on cassette even! Even 15 years later some of that stuff was pretty great.
IM: There’s a real looseness to the band and the interplay between the three of you. Aside from the basic structure, how much of a song is plotted out before hand?
Eric: When we started out, it was 100% improv. We recorded everything and would each critically listen to the music on our own, taking mental notes we would share the next time we got together. We would like a certain section that we felt should become a part of the piece. This could be a melody, riff, rhythm, time signature, dynamic, et al. We would have to figure when and where we would play it in future performances. These guideposts are often signaled by me bashing the crap out of my china cymbals. HEY! Yeah, you two! That thing we did last time that was cool? DO IT – NOW!!!
We ended up liking a lot of the improvised sections, and as the band progressed, we started structuring epic fusion and prog pieces. Each of these works have a lot of sections, but there’s quite a lot of room within the framework to improvise solos and fills, as well as taking a left turn, if anyone of us is inspired to do so. In order to play this style of music, you have to trust each other implicitly. I’m so proud of the fact that we’re best friends both on and off the stage!
Brooks: Yep, that looseness is something I hope will always be there. When we played our first show, opening an Allman Brothers festival in Macon, GA, in 1999 at the Douglass Theater, we made up absolutely everything on the spot. It was a terrifying and invigorating idea, and that’s what we did for years – total improv. As we played more shows throughout Georgia, and then from Mobile, AL to the Wetlands in New York, certain sections of pieces began to reappear just because we’d liked them and remembered them from the night before. We started each bringing pieces of music to the table and collaborating on making them into cohesive pieces, still leaving room for improvisation in each one. Right now we’re in a phase of composing ridiculously complex and challenging pieces, but trying to leave sections of them open to see what happens. When it works, it’s a great balance between “this is crazy improv and I can feel that nobody knows what’s going to happen next” and “whoa, there’s no way they just did that all together without rehearsing it.” I like it when it keeps shifting like that.
Vaylor: I’ll give you an example. On one of the first recordings Brooks ever made of the 3 of us performing together at a rehearsal, the first track was a 7 minute improvisation that was highlighted by these amazing feats of almost telepathic changes – where all 3 of us would change the song in the same way at the same time, and even in the same key. I started referring to this jam as a 7-minute masterpiece, like a Chuck Jones cartoon (hence the name). To flesh it out into a full song, all we did was compose an intro (in 13/8 of course) and some transitions. The heart of the song remains the same improvised madness – but with a clearer direction on where the song needs to go next.
IM: There seems to be a great deal of humor and wit in the heart of the compositions, like “Chuck Jones,” and “Bonk ‘em on the Noggin with a Wrench, Jim.” Were these conscious decisions or did they just evolve naturally through jamming?
Brooks: You know, I’ve never thought of it before, because the three of us are naturally goofy and funny people who don’t take ourselves too seriously. If there’s one thing we appreciate, it’s the funny. We spend half of our rehearsal time laughing and trying to crack each other up. And we try to do that with musical jokes as well. There has to be a light-heartedness to offset what are occasionally very difficult passages – not just difficult to play, but perhaps to listen to. We push ourselves to the limit of what we can pull off, and so we try to feel a vibe from the audience and keep from assaulting them with too much self-indulgence. Humor has always come naturally to all three of us, so it will keep surfacing. Of course, in titles, too – all three of us love language and the way words work together, and sometimes saying “this next song is called Son of a Duck Fumbler” may be an automatic way of diffusing what might seem like a possible pretentiousness that someone might see in a complex instrumental piece. We are, after all, self-indulgent in that we aren’t making music with an aim to please everyone; we’ve just been trying to challenge each other and feel fulfilled from the very beginning.
Eric: Wow, thanks for noticing! These characteristics are definitely not conscious decisions and have never been discussed. We’re 
all huge Frank Zappa fans and this reminds me of the name of one of FZ’s albums – “Does Humor Belong In Music?” Well, of course it does! This is an unspoken aspect of Yeti that thrills me to no end. We’re all jokesters by nature and we spend way more time laughing than making music when we get together.
For me, The Yeti Trio provides the perfect balance between serious and silly. To perform this music is incredibly challenging on many levels – emotionally, spiritually, physically, and, of course, musically. It’s so much fun to stop on a dime, take a left turn, and play the unexpected. We’re all completely in tune with one another and can follow a new path without hesitation. There are so many musical aspects to contend with – time signatures, cross-rhythms, techniques, tempos, and styles – that it’s nice to offset the headiness with sound effects, space, and performance art comedy.
I didn’t mention this to either one of the Yeti monsters, but I got the chills last week creating music with them. There was a point where Brooks went to take a solo and the left side of his body suspended in air as he stared at his keyboard without blinking, while playing the most mind-blowing solo ever of all-time. Then, there was an old improv we resuscitated for the first time in a dozen years and Vaylor contorted into a Yeti coming out of hibernation, filling the mountain ranges with his glorious tone.
On live gigs, I’m forced to move my ride and sizzle cymbals in order to watch Brooks’ left hand. As he walks bass lines, he figures out a way to give me the finger without losing a beat! I’ll be concentrating with every ounce of my strength to keep the fast tempo consistent through tears of laughter. I’ll gladly exchange a few clicks on the metronome for a hearty laugh with my musical brothers.
We all love letters, words, shapes, colors, and numbers. I’ve always been fascinated with song titles to instrumental pieces and taken a great deal of care when naming my original solo percussion works. There are stories behind the titles of our pieces, but none are worth telling. Check out some of our other song titles: “The Diminutive Bob Legweak,” “The Spazzy Lamba,” “Yeti House Music,” and “Boatmeal.”
Vaylor: Wouldn’t it be amazing if, tomorrow, we renamed all of our songs and gave them titles like “The Everlasting War”, or “Nature’s Symphony”, or “At One With All Consciousness”? I’d have to start wearing all white – or perhaps a knee-length dashiki.
IM: Do you sometimes feel as though the virtuosity is lost on most people?
Vaylor: I am a firm believer of making the art you want to make and not the art you think people want you to make. I mean, I cannot count how many times I have heard very talented completely amazing musicians playing music that didn’t interest me in the least, because they had no real investment in what they were performing. That complete dedication and commitment to the notes that are happening right here and now – that is what I prize most in music.
Eric: I’ve never thought of it in the sense of “virtuosity,” but I have felt that people simply don’t “get” us, at times. Then again, there have been moments in our long tenure where I’ve been pleasantly surprised how well folks have responded to our brand of music. We’re not a band that is easy to fit into a musical category or compare to other groups. We don’t create our music for accolades or acceptance, but we don’t try to purposely alienate people from liking what we do. All of us thoroughly enjoy playing simple music in other groups to make a living. Our hope is that people can appreciate what we’re about, sense the brotherhood, and enjoy seeing and hearing a different musical experience.
Brooks: It’s nice of you to use that word, : ) We’re just trying to stretch ourselves for our own fulfillment. The three of us have been in (and in some cases still are) in plenty of other bands, and this is our outlet for pushing our playing, ability to interact, and
composition skills to the limit. We never want to make music that seems like it’s “over anyone’s heads,” and we don’t want to alienate an audience. Yet, we always try extreme things – noise, extreme dynamics, bizarre forms, non-linear music based on things other than chord progressions, etc – and what’s delightful is seeing how people *do* respond to it. It always renews my faith in humanity when I play really weird stuff and people love it. It reminds me that not everyone just likes formulaic pop music created by committee based on things that have made money in the past. If you get jaded, you won’t want to make music any more, and it’s the wonderful people who support us when we play and give us such love that makes me happy to be a musician.
IM: With the Wanee Festival coming up, are there any performers you’re excited about seeing?
Brooks: I am so psyched about this lineup. I have LOVED Umphrey’s McGee since they first started, and have been so happy to watch them enjoy such success. I love Soulive. I’m excited to see moe. for the first time in many years. And of course, Gov’t Mule always tears my head off in the greatest way, and Tedeschi Trucks Band never fails to amaze me. I could go on and on about that family, which is how I see them. For such great musicians to be such wonderful people just makes the whole weekend the highlight of my year.
That said, I always enjoy seeing the bands I’m not familiar with, and I’m sure I’ll end up with some new favorite bands by the end of the weekend.
Vaylor: Watching Dumpstaphunk perform Led Zeppelin should be amazing; but mostly I am looking forward to catching some bands I have not been able to see live before – Royal Southern Brotherhood, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, and Berry Oakley’s Skylab chief among them.
Eric: Every year there are bands I’d love to see at Wanee, but the program doesn’t always allow it. My teaching schedule doesn’t permit me to arrive at the festival until Friday evening. I watch the Allman Brothers, then go to the hotel to rest up for the Yeti performance. After we play, I tend to my gear, eat, then speak to folks. That leaves the opportunity to see just a few bands before 
heading back to Atlanta on Sunday morning. There are certain bands and specific drummers I very much hope to see, but I don’t know if it’ll be possible this year.
Nothing will ever top the Tower of Power concert, in 2013. I’m still in complete awe that I got to share the stage with that legendary band last year. I am so thankful to be able to watch David Garibaldi up close, from the side of the stage. I was a few feet away from one of my drumming idols and don’t think I blinked for their entire set! I firmly believe his initials D.G. = Drum Genius!
My favorite part of every Wanee is hanging with Vaylor’s dad, Butch Trucks. It’s an invigorating experience that inspires me to no end. I’m jumping out of my drum throne in anticipation of seeing him!
IM: What does the band have planned for 2014?
Brooks: I’d like to say that we have a lot of new musical ideas to work on and pound into shape, and we plan to play some new venues and hit the road a little harder. We’ve been taking it easy for a while. After my firstborn came into the world (I was the first to become a dad, and I took a hiatus for a long time), we stopped playing as much as we had been for the first few years. Now we’re all inspired again to see what we can do!
Eric: Wanee will be special for us this year. We’re premiering one of Vaylor’s original compositions from his forthcoming solo album and we’ve altered and arranged one of my solo percussion pieces from my debut disc. We plan on playing a “Prog Night” concert in Atlanta with another like-minded group. I would love to begin work on a definitive album, that combines both live and studio tracks.
Vaylor: We have been invited back to Alabama to play the second Old Toby’s festival in October, so we’ll do that for sure. Other than that there are a bunch of recording projects happening, so look for new material soon (I hope).
IM: Parting thoughts for the masses . . . .
Eric: I hate Brooks.
Brooks: I hate Eric.
Vaylor: I like pancakes.
Please visit The Yeti Trio at:
https://www.facebook.com/theyetitrio
