A solid formula for a quality act can sometimes boil down to just a few things; excellent music, a killer light show, a loyal fan base, and a top notch studio album.  And after their Debut Album Release Party on Friday, September 16th at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, WI, the Grasshoppers will have all of that, and then some. 

Sprouting to life in the Spring of 2006, the Grasshoppers, or G'hopps for short, have etched themselves out an impressive niche in the Wisconsin jam community.  They are a force in the psychedelic rock scene, with gritty keyboard solos,  top tier guitar work, and one of the tightest rhythm pockets around.  Featuring the talents of Joe Burbach on keys, Jimmy Sanborne on guitar, Jason 'Stinky' Menting on drums, 'Slick' Rick Becarra on bass, and Paul Gorz heading up the audio/visual department, the G'hopps are known for their live shows that always seem to pack the house, without the aid of any over the top web presence.  Clearly, good old fashioned word of mouth and a consistently above the bar product are the backbone the G'hopps process.

I had a chance to interview Burbach on that process, their first album, and what the future may hold for the Grasshoppers and the scene in general.           


WIJAM:  The Grasshoppers.  How did it all begin?

JB:  Well, I always thought our ReverbNation bio explained it pretty well, 'The "Grasshoppers" was an idea, a concept formed by great psychedelic warriors who carried the name "Grasshoppers" until it was passed on into musical form. The message was and will always be to "set the monkey free", The monkey in your heart, head, and, soul..'.  But in all seriousness, myself and Jimmy Sanborn had been playing music together for a few years. I then started playing with the Hightop Band, which had Slick and Stinky playing bass and percussions. As Hightop winded down it was just a natural progression to bring Jimbo in and start a 4 piece band. At the time it was more or less something to do on a Saturday night, but eventually evolved into a band, and we're still going 6 years later!

WIJAM:  What are some of your favorite markets to hit?  Why?

JB:  We've always been partial to Madison & Milwaukee. Mainly because the bigger the city the bigger the market for music fans, good venues to play, etc, but also, I think because we've all called both of these cities home at one point in time. Dubuque, IA has always been a fun city for us too.

WIJAM:  How about some new markets you're interested in breaking into?                                                                                                                      

JB:  We generally don't go out of our way to get into a lot of the smaller cities around the midwest, & I'm starting to wonder if that's something we should start doing. I think next on the list for major midwest cities will definitely be Minneapolis, and most likely Chicago. We actually had a tour we were booking for northern California this summer which we ended up cancelling. It was based around a big show we did the year prior (Furthermore Fest) that we had been asked to do again.... they ended up cancelling that fest and we didn't see the point of rushing to do the tour without the "big show" involved. We're hoping to get out there either next summer or next fall for at least 2 -3 weeks.

WIJAM:  Tell me a little about how your group handles the requirements of being in a band along with the requirements of your personal lives, i.e., families, jobs, etc.

JB:  It's tough, for sure. Especially in the summer when we do a lot of festivals, it seems that we're working all week and driving / playing shows all weekend.... never really a moment to just relax. We try to stick to weekend shows only unless they're a big deal. Luckily a lot of us our in a position with our jobs that we can make our own schedules. Our families are incredibly supportive of what we do too, so we get a lot of help there. I don't think that any of us would be able to do what we do without our wives / girlfriend's. We definitely owe them big time.

WIJAM:  Yeah, I think we all do.  Madison currently boasts a flourishing jam scene.  Talk a little about what, in your eyes, makes Madison a special place.

JB:  As musicians we are incredibly lucky to call Madison a home base. This town has a wonderful group of people that support live local music to it's fullest. It's almost a giant "family" based crew, everyone knows everyone else, and seems to be out at almost every show going on around town. It's really an amazing thing. We also have some of the best venues around. Great bar scene, mid size venues, and even some of the big venues really like letting the local guys get involved. SummerJam Thursdays at the Majestic is a perfect example of that. Local band every Thursday in the summer, for free? Awesome. We've also done Halloween shows at the Barrymore Theatre every year for the past 4 years. It's nice to have such a huge group of musicians in town as well. Seems like you can't go anywhere without running into a fellow musician, which is nice because you see a lot of people sitting in with other groups that they normally wouldn't, just because they were at the show. Makes for a lot of fun evenings. Kind of reminds me of a Nashville, or Austin, type music scene.

WIJAM:  With the emergence of DJs in today's jam scene, what's your take on the womp?  Do you think it's detrimental to the more traditional bands and the scene?  Do you embrace the crossover?

JB:  Well, I guess that I can't speak for my entire band on this one, but I am not the biggest fan of people playing a bunch of laptops on stage. If you want to use a computer as a MIDI device for sounds that's fine, but when you start letting it control what you're playing, instead of the notes coming from your instrument, that's just wrong. (Traditional) DJ's, I think, would be a different story than this, though.  I guess I wouldn't have an opinion one way or the other on DJ's. Sometimes it get's a bit monotonous, but whatever. If the people dig it, they dig it. To each their own.

WIJAM:  The album.  Give me a little background on it's inception; from an idea to a reality.

JB:  This album probably should've been recorded 3 years ago, but we're generally procrastinators on stuff like this. We've been working on it now for over a year, and it's pretty much all the songs that we've been playing for a while now, just in album form. It's basically the gHopp classics. We're really excited about it though. We're almost done mixing it, and so far it's sounding pretty good. Can't wait to hear how it's accepted into the Madison community. We're calling it "Feed My Monkey", after a song that Jimmy wrote. We sort of loosely keep this "monkey" theme with us a lot. Just an animal that lives in all our hearts, souls, etc. 

WIJAM:  When you write songs, does it happen as a group, as individuals or both?

JB:  Generally someone will come in with an idea, and we'll all work it out together. Deciding on different parts, chords, or even words... we're pretty good at writing as a group. I think that we don't ever take each other's critiques personally, and that helps. Most everything is done constructively in our band. There has been times where Jimmy or Stinky has come in with complete songs done, and that's nice too.

WIJAM:  Do you write songs, as some groups do, with a specific sound or style in mind, hoping to cater to a genre, or do you just write what you feel and see what happens?  Basically, is there a concerted effort to write a 'dance song', a 'psych song', etc., or is it more of a 'grip it and rip it' approach?

JB:  We don't really try to stick to a formula of any kind. Trying to keep the process as organic as possible, we just play whatever comes out. I think a lot of it is based off of the mood we're in, or something that's been going on lately, etc. Pawn Off Your Worries was written when Jimmy didn't have any gas money to make it to practice from where he was living in Dubuque, so he had to pawn his cell phone. I had some different chord progressions that I was working out, and that practice we ended up with Pawn Off. I guess what I'm saying is that we don't cater to a style, but more generally to what's going on in our lives at the time.

WIJAM:  Has there been anything you've encountered in this album process that you didn't expect?  Perhaps something took longer than you thought it would?  Less time than you thought it would?

JB:  We started recording everything in parts, mostly based off our old studio capabilities (which sucked). We did the drum tracks first, then bass tracks, keyboard tracks, guitar tracks, vocal tracks, etc.... all separate. In the future we would definitely do more of a "live setting" for recording, getting multiple tracks at a time. Our new studio is so much better that we can do that now. It took way longer doing each track separate, and that's something I would try to avoid in the future.

WIJAM:  Is there anything on the album that old school G'hopps fans might find surprising? 

JB:  There's definitely a few nuances that will get people's attention. Part of the luxury of the studio is doing things the way you've always intended them to be done, but is hard for only one person. Jimmy has a few parts on the album that have never really been played live that way, just because he's only got one guitar and two hands, but he's always intended for it to sound that way. I think overall people are just going to enjoy finally having a studio quality set from us.

WIJAM:  Festival season has, for all intents and purposes, wrapped up in the Midwest.  What were some highlights for you guys?

JB:  We saw a lot of rain at the majority of the festies that we hit this summer. Harmony park was a flood, but still definitely a highlight to get to play up there. People Fest was really fun too. We played from midnight to 2am, and had this natural fog roll in right up to the stage. Our light tech Paul loved it, and so did the fans. Nothing like a natural fog machine to rip some lasers through!

WIJAM:  What's your take on all the 'micro fests' popping up around the scene?

JB:  Again, speaking for myself, it's too many. Every single band cannot hold their own fest and expect to get all these people there. It seems like every weekend it's another one, and the amount of them has definitely been growing rapidly over the past few years. I would like to see some sort of "combining of forces" so to speak, and have one full on kick ass local band fest. Either that or get rid of some of the other ones.... just keep IfdaKamp and People Fest. (WIJAM laughs appreciatively)

WIJAM:  What's on the horizon for the Hoppers?  Business as usual?  Heavy touring in support of the record?  Time off?

JB:  We have a few fun things coming up. Our CD Release Party is at the High Noon on Friday, September 16th with The Smokin' Bandits and Ifdakar. We're also tentatively playing "Live from Triple M" studios on 105.5 September 22nd. Our annual Halloween show, "Night of the Dead" is again at the Barrymore on October 28th, this year with Steez joining us. We might be starting on the 2nd album right away too. See if we can't get out two albums in the same year.... probably won't be until next summer though.

WIJAM:  What would be your advice for a young band just starting out in this scene?

JB:  Don't take it too seriously, If you're starting a band to make money stop right now, try to play more originals than covers, equipment does matter so make sure you have good sounds and tones, try not to play shows the same night as other local bands or especially national touring bands, support your fellow musicians and they'll support you, and don't forget to SET THE MONKEY FREE!

With all the parts in place, at least one studio effort on the horizon, and a solid core of members committed to the project, the Grasshoppers appear able to write their own ticket.  Whatever happens next, the faithful fan base that surrounds them can be sure of a few things; the sounds will be heady, the lights will be dazzling, the good times will be many, and last but not least, that there's a monkey inside each and every one of us, begging to be set free.

Make sure to catch the Grasshoppers on Friday, September 16th at the High Noon Saloon for their CD Release Show and keep up with them online!