Punch Brothers to play in Bend

Published 12:00 am Friday, September 4, 2015

It’s getting harder for the members of the Punch Brothers to find time to collaborate these days.

The bluegrass-inspired band has always had to balance its schedule with the side projects and other musical wanderings of its five members — mandolinist Chris Thile, fiddler Gabe Witcher, banjoist Noam Pikelny, guitarist Chris Eldridge and bassist Paul Kowert. Thile, in particular, started working with Nickel Creek again last year after a lengthy hiatus and is set to take over hosting duties on “A Prairie Home Companion” radio show from creator Garrison Keillor next year.

Most of the time, having all these concurrent side projects is healthy for the band’s well-being, according to Pikelny.

“One of the reasons the Punch Brothers is still a healthy entity is that everybody has several other things to get their kicks and pursue other musical ideas,” he said recently from his home in Nashville. “It’s a good thing, but it does make scheduling tricky.”

When it came time to record its fourth studio album and first in three years, “The Phosphorescent Blues,” the band wanted dedicated time to write together, rather than fitting in writing sessions between touring obligations. The band is currently touring behind the album, which was released in January. The tour hits the Athletic Club of Bend tonight.

For the first four years of the band’s existence, when all five members lived in New York City, collaboration was easy.

“When Paul joined the band on bass, that hastened the move to New York for everybody, and that’s when the band found its identity as a collaborative entity,” Pikelny said. “Beforehand, I think we were a vehicle for Thile’s grand vision.”

In order to get everyone in one place to write after the nearly two-year touring cycle behind the 2012 album “Who’s Feeling Young Now?,” the band organized a number of songwriting retreats in such places as Charleston, South Carolina, and Telluride, Colorado. The week-long retreats, usually built around a one-off show in the city where the retreat was held, helped the band’s members reconnect with each other.

“We had this goal of really kind of getting deep inside some musical ideas, not having to squeeze in time here and there while we were off the road,” Pikelny said. “We booked a show here and there to get us somewhere. It’s just a really great way to make music and to get to know your bandmates better, to really figure out what everybody has in common as far as next projects.”

“The Phosphorescent Blues,” a concept album about technology’s affect on interpersonal relationships today, grew out of these retreats.

The album, produced by modern roots music mainstay T Bone Burnett, finds the band experimenting with rock and pop song structures and sounds — lead single “I Blew it Off” features electric guitar riffs and, for the first time on a Punch Brothers recording, a full drum kit. Witcher has taken on drum duties live, while simultaneously playing fiddle.

“Gabe Witcher is the absolute champion. I don’t know if he considered himself a drummer before going out on the road — he would be the guy to dabble at it, like if he was at a party, he would pick it up and make some noise,” Pikelny said. “But he’s such an amazing musical talent, so he somehow willed it to happen — he’s simultaneously playing fiddle and drums on certain songs and all kinds of gadgets. It’s pretty fun to watch.”

The album kicks off with “Familiarity,” a 10-minute suite featuring three distinct musical parts — a short introduction, a middle section reminiscent of modern dance tracks (only played with the band’s bluegrass instrumentation) and a dreamlike section to close the song. It’s the band’s first extended song suite since “The Blind Leaving the Blind,” the four-part piece written by Thile that forms the centerpiece of the band’s first album, “Punch.”

Unlike “The Blind Leaving the Blind,” which was primarily a Thile composition, the entire band helped compose and arrange “Familiarity,” especially the final section, which was improvised in the studio.

“The band contribution arrangementally happens most substantially on the third part (of ‘Familiarity’),” Pikelny said. “The duality was something we were striving for on the record. Maybe on ‘Who’s Feeling Young Now?’ or (2010 sophomore album) ‘Antifogmatic,’ we distanced ourselves from situations where Chris would get out his computer and arrange things. We were trying to find out what we could do as a band, and we didn’t want to lean too heavily on him for stuff like that.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7814, bmcelhiney@bendbulletin.com