Interview by DJ Johnson

Pain sets in, but your night is just beginning.

Just when you think you're too tired to dance anymore, and you think the band has driven you over the top, the frenzy clearly too much for you, BOOP goes the kick drum and bass, everyone else falling back as a brand new groove pulls you back in through the wall of your own body heat. And you're dancin' again. Dancing softly, moving gently with the flow of this bass groove that just won't let you go. How did they do that? You were gone, man! Done! Finito!

It gets kinda sexual, if you know what I mean, and pretty soon there's some grinding going on, and the body heat doubles about the same time the tempo picks up and up and up and you remember you were headed for a cold one, but that incredible singer is back at the microphone and she's got you by the gut. You're a puppet on a string as the band breaks into a tune called "Grass Skirts."

Forget it, Chucko, you're on the floor until your body's 75% water ends up in the janitor's mop. The rest is Alpo. You've been treated to an evening with the Wise Monkey Orchestra.

Never had the pleasure? Maybe you don't live near San Diego, California or Tempe, Arizona, the two cities WMO call home, or you weren't lucky enough to see one of their two hundred shows in half of these United States in 2000. After a decade of workin' on the machine, getting each piece just right, it seems Wise Monkey Orchestra have stepped up to a new level of professionalism, playing shows with the likes of Maceo Parker, The Gap Band, Fishbone, Pharcyde and Jazz Is Dead, among others. Sharper and sharper grow the skills and the understanding of the game. Now taking a quick breather -- or rather their idea of a breather -- this Wise Monkey Orchestra is much the wiser. Early in the year they recorded a live album, They Live, which has just been released on Lauan records, and a studio album is forthcoming.

Two of the three band members who reside in Arizona also happen to be married to one another. Singer Alley and bassist Chad Stewart have returned to the land of the sun for a breather, but I'm having none of that, as I get Alley on the phone and cajole her into an interview. The timing is perfect. She's exhausted; one child is under the weather and the other's not in the best of moods, and on my end of the line there are electrical problems knocking circuits out left and right. The odds of this interview coming off are about the same as the odds of making it through an entire Wise Monkey Orchestra show on the dance floor without dissolving. And yet here we all are.

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Cosmik: So you just turned 30 the other day, huh? Did they black-balloon ya?

Alley:: That's for 40, isn't it?

Cosmik: Oh, I dunno, they got me at 30.

Alley:: Well, I've been telling myself I'm 30 for the last 3 years or so anyway. I started rounding up at 26.

Cosmik: To make this a non-event, yeah?

Alley:: Exactly. No big deal at all.

Cosmik: So Wise Monkey Orchestra has been together since you were 20?

Alley:: Yeah, since I was just a little pup. I was just talking to our guitar player about that the other day, because he obviously has listened to some of the older recordings, and he said "you sound so young. I said "I was so young! I was so stupid." I had no idea.

Cosmik: Were they the same age as you?

Alley:: They're all pretty much around 28 to 33.

Cosmik: How much has the band changed over the years as far as personnel?

Alley:: Basically it's been Sean Hart, Chad. my husband, who is the bass player, me, and Andy, our trombone player. That's been the band for the last eight years, and different people have come and gone around us. It wasn't until the last year and a half that we found a group that we really felt like "yeah, this is it!" Any other person who's been in the band in the last year and a half, it's been like "well, no, this isn't going to work." So it was so nice to find our drum guy, our guitar guy, and now we have our sax guy who falls in perfectly, and it took eight years to get there.

Cosmik: Did you feel it go up a level then?

Alley:: Oh, of course, because to me it's all about the vibe that these people have together, writing songs or playing live. When there's animosity, when people disagree on the theme or the goal of the band, it's going to cause problems in every aspect of it. Especially playing live, because that's the rawest form of it. I just got back from San Diego last night. I was there for a few days because we had a birthday party and we were just basically hanging out together. We rehearsed, but not as long as we wanted to because of certain circumstances. But even the little bit that we did rehearse, we got so much done. We'd write a new song in about 15 minutes because our heads are together and everyone's got the same ideas going. It used to be... if it's not the right group of people, it's going to be a big head butting match. People trying to push their ideas instead of trying to do it for the common good. We've had that, too, where everyone's arguing and you can't get a word in edgewise, and that's not what we're about. That's never been what we're about. If we were about that we'd do ten solo projects.

Cosmik: So you've gotten it all together now, and in the last year you've played 200 dates in 25 states.

Alley:: Yeah, we had an insane year. That's why this year I said "you know what, I really need to take a little time," because we were playing so much there wasn't time to take time to do the things we needed to do, like write new songs. Now were getting ready to record a new album because we were finally able to slow down enough to write these new songs. We all have families. Almost all of us are married, except for a couple, and the ones who aren't married have long term girlfriends that they live with, which is the same thing anyway, and we were all suffering because of the schedule. Besides which we weren't signed to the kind of label that puts a lot of money behind you on the road, so you're living hand to mouth out there. You're staying in shitty hotels, you're eating shitty food. After ten years of that we need to sit down and regroup. We need to chill out for a little bit and see what we're going to do, and write some new tunes, and spend some time with out families. I have two children who I have basically raised on the road so far. It was important to me to make sure they didn't become the little road rats. A little bit of that's good for them, but we didn't have any moderation. It was all "go go go go go!" There was no time to think about anything. That was good for us then, but this year we said let's just chill out and focus writing some new tunes and getting a new studio CD down.

Cosmik: On that tour, you played with a different class of musician than you'd probably played with before. You played with [James Brown's saxophonist and bandleader] Maceo Parker, and Fishbone, and Pharcyde, and Jazz Is Dead. When you're standing in the wings watching them play night after night, does that bring your band up another level, as well?

Alley:: I think so, definitely. I think it makes you more professional when you see other people doing it right. It makes you realize you can have longevity in this business. When I joined the band, I was just a little kid, I was still.... you know... "paaaaaaartaaaay!!! woooohoooo!" It was all about the fun for me, and I had a great time, believe me. I had a great time for everybody. But as I've gotten older, my priorities have changed.

Cosmik: In what way?

Alley:: It's definitely been more about the show, it's been more about the music, and being in the scene. Not only have we played with these people whose names everyone will recognize, but we've played with thousands of bands like us. Jam bands on the circuit that people have never heard of. But these are people who have toured and done the work and played the shows and done the CDs on their own, without producers telling them what to do. See, these are the people I've really learned from, because their lesson is "you can do whatever you want to do if you really want to do it."

Cosmik: You learn the lessons of sticking to it, the heart lessons, from the jam bands, and the professionalism lessons from someone like Maceo who's been there forever.

Alley:: Oh, definitely, yeah.

Cosmik: Did you get to spend time with some of these guys? Did they offer up any wisdom?

Alley:: Some of them. As far as hanging out, we really didn't get to do a lot of that. But just being there... All the years we listened to James Brown while we were on the road, they were all such idols already, and then to be able to walk into the backstage dressing room and see Fred Wesley standing there, it's just like... "Dude! Do you even know how much I love you!?!" (Laughs) And just to see that he's just a human being, doing the same thing I'm doing: standing backstage and getting ready to go on. Seeing that these people were just normal people was a big thing for me, because you know you put these people up on a pedestal when you're young.

Cosmik: An eye opener, huh?

Alley:: Well yeah, but it also made me realize something else. Now, here's someone that I think is probably one of the best trombone players ever, and also Maceo is one of the best sax players and performers ever, but it just makes you realize they have worked their asses off forever. They should be legends. They should be so rich they shouldn't have to take little gigs just to get by. They shouldn't have to be treated like second rate musicians. You know what I mean? It's kind of slap in the face of the business, too.

Cosmik: That may be, but particularly with Maceo and Fred, you get the feeling they'd take any gig just to get up and play simply because that's what they love to do.

Alley:: Yeah, but also, you know... they need money. It's not like they had a retirement fund, unless you really planned ahead. It's not like a corporate job where you have benefits and you can plan it all out.

Cosmik: So if you're reading this, James, we know you have quite a stack of cash up there...

Alley:: Exactly! Where's my 401k, dude! (laughs)

Cosmik: I think Maceo and Fred have done their gigs for you.

Alley:: Fork it over!

Cosmik: Okay, before James comes over and beats us up, cuz like he can, let's talk about the live album. Wise Monkey Orchestra has been a live band for ten years. That's the main attraction right there. This is a very hot album. Are you satisfied with this as the document of your live sound that people are being left with?

Alley:: Well, I'm the type of person who always thinks she can do better. There hasn't been a CD that I've been done with and said "I did the best I could." Maybe I DID do the best I could, but I'm always the one saying "let's redo this, or that one," and the others are saying "no no no!!!" Because if you keep doing that it's pointless, and that's not the nature of a live album anyway.

Cosmik: It's to capture moments in time.

Alley:: Yeah, and it IS a good representation of us then. You know what I mean? It's like we evolve daily, I feel. I feel like we get better every time we play a show together. So I think it's a great representation of we sounded like eight months ago, but I think we sound even better now.

Cosmik: Now because you're married to him we'll try not to get into a raunchy hidden meaning here, but the bass player has a groove than never quits.

Alley:: Oooooh yeeeeah. I can vouch for that. (Laughs)

Cosmik: We just recently got a new speaker system in the office with a sub-woofer and sound surround and the works, and we were cranking the bass and getting into it.

Alley:: He's one on those people who's so positive and easy to be around because he's a genuinely great person, so that vibe comes through. He's always smiling. And he's one of the hardest workers. He'll do any show, any time. He'll play for five hours if you want him to. He's just completely inspirational to me, the way he's given everything to the band. The band's like our first child together.

Cosmik: It seems like the grooves come through him no matter what. Funk is obviously the thing here, but "Demons" is a ska tune. What inspired that?

Alley:: Deep despair.

Cosmik: (Laughs) Excuse me?

Alley:: That was one of the last songs we wrote together with the last group. It was a really weird time. There was one particular person in the band who I was tired of and I was tired of trying to make it work, and you can hear it in the words. "Don't tempt me, I'm standin' on the edge - you can't push me off the ledge." All that shit is about "you know what? I'm over it and I'm not putting up with it anymore."

Cosmik: So did this poor schmoe have to help work out the song?

Alley:: A little bit, but basically everything came to a head during the writing of that song. Actually, what happened was he was supposed to sing the chorus, but we fired him and I wrote out the chorus as "I won't listen to your evil plan - now it's time for me to take a stand - no more devil on my shoulder," and all that was just like "fuck you," basically. (laughs)

Cosmik: (Laughs) I guess so!

Alley:: And it was therapeutic for me, because anytime those feelings are in you and you don't get them out, you're going to have something you wrong. A health problem or something like that.

Cosmik: Yeah, one moment here please.... "note to self: never piss Alley off."

Alley:: (Laughs) Believe me, a lot of people have learned that one.

Cosmik: You don't take much shit, huh?

Alley:: Well, whenever someone's had to be fired, guess who they tell to do it.

Cosmik: You take 'em for a drive in the mountains, the car comes back with just you.(Laughs)

Alley:: I break out my clipboard and say "Let's have a little talk, you and me. So... You've been with us a year now. How do YOU think things are going??" (Laughs) It's actually horrible. It's not something I like to do, but the reality is certain people need to be doing other things.

Cosmik: Ska's not that far from funk, but is the approach different for you?

Alley:: It's always been really hard for us to label ourselves. When people say "what kind of music is it?" that's not my favorite question. I hate that question because of the fact that we've never tried to be anything but what we are. And I don't even know what that is. Every time I have tried to describe it I've ended up listing 8 genres of music, then they still really don't know what's up. We all come from very different backgrounds as far as our music socialization and our backgrounds and influences, and that's what makes us unique and special, and makes us come together and form what we are.

Cosmik: I heard you call yourself a jam band

Alley:: Well only because we got thrown into that genre big time. Only because "jam band," to me, doesn't even have to say a lot about the music. You know what it means to me? It means a band that isn't supported by any major label, that basically produces their own CDs, produces their own tours, and makes shit happens on their own. That's what a jam band is to me. Once we met a lot of these jam bands, a lot of us didn't sound anything alike, musically. Some of them have structured songs, some of them jam, some of them don't. But what we did all have in common was we would play anywhere, anytime, and we did it all on our own.

Cosmik: That's totally different than my definition of a jam band. And Except for a segment of maybe six minutes on the live album, I never considered Wise Monkey Orchestra a jam band.

Alley:: That's kind of the weird thing. We got thrown into that genre, especially when we started going east. We started getting thrown onto bills with all these jam bands and "jam band" nights, but we do have structured songs. After a while, though, I realized what it was that was similar about us, and it was the way we went about things.

Cosmik: By the musical definition, and going only by the live album, the only place I would have considered you a jam band is the segue section between "Hell Ain't For Me" and "Space."

Alley:: Right! And see, we have one section of each night where we'll jam. We have a couple different songs where we'll say "okay, everybody improv, but as a rule, we like to have songs with a beginning, a middle and an end. I never really thought of ourselves as a jam band outside of our approach to the business.

Cosmik: Just out of curiosity, when that long stretch goes by where you're not singing, what are you doing?

Alley:: Usually, during that portion, everyone says "go get me a beer." (Laughs) And when I was pregnant I was usually peeing.

Cosmik: And nobody wanted you to bring 'em a beer then, I'll bet! (Laughs) I wondered because you're gone from the stage for a long, long time, and when you come back in, you're stepping right into "Brainchild, which would be a workout by Janis Joplin's standards, and I'm thinking it must be hard if you've cooled down again.

Alley:: I stay involved. I might have a shot of whiskey, I might go down to the sound board and talk to the sound man or listen to the mix. Every night, I'm sure it's different, but my energy gets up and stays up until the end

Cosmik: You had a few extra sax guys for the live album. Beefed it up a bit.

Alley:: Yeah, we had Robbie Helm, and we had Dave Ellis, who played with Bob Weir's band for a long time, but he's mostly a jazz guy. He'd go to some town to play a jazz show and there'd be all these hippies twirling at the front of the stage, just because he was in Bob Weir's band. (Laughs).

Cosmik: I've never gotten that.

Alley:: I haven't either!! I've gone to a lot of dead shows and thought "you know, this is really good acid, but they still sound like shit." (laughs)

Cosmik: Every few months someone still tries to get me into them.

Alley:: C'mon, folks, doncha think it's a little late now? And what gets me is now they're trying to do it with Phish. Following them around and doing "I Need A Miracle." I mean come on, people, get a job

Cosmik: It gets more than a little out of hand.

Alley:: Remember when they had that huge memorial service for Jerry Garcia, and all those Deadheads here out there crying and freaking out, and his daughter came out to speak and she said "Thank you... for paying for my college." (Laughs)

Cosmik: NO! (Laughs) She didn't really, did she?

Alley:: (Laughing) She really did!

Cosmik: Makes me think of William Shatner on Saturday Night Live at the Star Trek Convention.

(Both of us say, in unison, Shatner's classic line, "GET A LIFE!!!")

Alley:: There's a real parallel there, though! Deadheads are a lot like Trekkies. And when you're in that jam band scene, there's always these weird hippies that show up and try to massage you. and you're just like "get the hell away!" I don't want to be mean, but I don't know what else to say to these people. I have touch issues anyway. Unless I know you, don't touch me. And what's with the boob curtain? Those things that can make the woman with the best body in the world look like a pear? Those are horrible!

Cosmik: In case you're just joining us on "Trashin' Fashion," our guest today is Alley from Wise Monkey Orchestra. It'd be best not to touch her or make her wear a boob curtain.

Alley:: I'm over that. Uh uh.

Cosmik: So what kind of repertoire do you have after a decade and how hard was it not to make this thing a box set?

Alley:: Well, this is our 6th CD, I think? The first one we don't really distribute or talk about. It's really good, but it's got a lot of weird early experimental shit. We were just this weekend going through our old CDs because we're going to do back to back nights in our home town next month, and we were like "oh! This is a great song! Oh! Remember that one?"

Cosmik: Stuff you'd totally forgotten about?

Alley:: Yeah! It was so exciting to do that. We've thought about re-recording them, or doing a compilation, but with the live CD we were just trying to get the live sound of the band we had at the time, and we did put on a couple of old songs, like "Hell Ain't For Me" and "Colorblind." Those are old tunes that we've been doing since day one. Some songs stay in the mix forever, some songs never get revived. We wrote down all the songs we had and there were 60 or 70 songs! Then, of course, every time we get together we write a new one.

Cosmik: That easy? Just "hey, how's the kids? Let's write a song?"

Alley:: Pretty much, with this group. With the last group it was like pulling teeth, but with this group every time we get together everyone says "oh I have one, I have one," and it'll just come together so quickly. We wrote one in an hour on Sunday, and it's basically done. We're getting together in another couple weeks and finish it, then go for some more old ones. The way the writing is coming with this group is just so cool.

Cosmik: But the way I hear it, not everyone in the band lives in the same state anymore.

Alley:: My husband and children and I live in Arizona. The drummer is also from Tempe, born and Raised, the guitar player is between San Diego and LA. It works out fine. We're not that far apart.

Cosmik: The music sounds hot and sweaty and live and that doesn't equate to long distance.

Alley:: I don't know. We spend a lot of time together still. We're so close. We never go longer than a couple weeks without seeing each other. It's like a brother-sister thing.

Cosmik: So that's the personal side. How about the professional side. The chops are there, Alley. It's hotter than hell. Where do you see the career going?

Alley:: I try not to think about that right now because every time I've had these expectations, I've tended to put the focus on the wrong things. I don't like to think too much about the business end, and that's why we have Reed, our manager and my brother in law, working for us. He's brilliant at it. For me, the only thing I like to think about anymore is the music and our relationships and the show and the CD. You know what I mean? I really focus on that, because that's really what's important to me. Playing. I used to think about the rock start thing and how I wanted to do that, and that just puts my head in the wrong in place. That's not where I want to focus. I want to focus on the music and on the show. As far as what's going to happen to us now, I couldn't tell you that. I know that we're going to continue to play music, we're going to continue to make CDs, and we're going to continue to play shows. Beyond that, I could not tell you.

Cosmik: You know you can belt with the best of 'em.

Alley:: Oh yeah.

Cosmik: If it never goes main stage for the band, will you be happy to keep on belting like you always have?

Alley:: Oh, definitely, because that's part of who I am. There's no way I could stop doing it. That'd be like cutting off my legs. I mean, it's just what I do, and I always will, whether I'm doing it in Carnegie Hall or whether or I'm doing it in a bar just down the street.

(C) 2001 - DJ Johnson