Umphrey's McGee, Part 2

DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR LYRICS POETRY? OR ARE YOU SIMPLY LYRICISTS?
I think of it lyrically. Everything that I do, I'll have a melody and I'll stick words in to match the length of the note. You also have to remember that when you're singing, you can't sing consonants as well as vowels. Your word choice has to go with what flows. I was an English major in college, and I read a lot, so there might be some of that coming through. To be honest, I never really think about it and I try not to.

I FOUND MYSELF DIGGING FOR MEANING IN YOUR LYRICS.
That's my favorite. I love that. I don't like something that is spoon fed to you because you can't get anything out of it after 200 listens. When something is vague the meaning can morph over time. Let's say something happens to you during the day and, normally, that song doesn't strike you, but then it does all of a sudden. If it's a song about the sunrise or sunset, you know what it's about. There are plenty of those.

DO YOU FIND AN ELEMENT OF COMEDY OR CAMPINESS IN YOUR LYRICS?
We try to have fun. Funness is the key to longevity. Sometimes I'll write something lyrically that is very brooding and I'll need to have a break from that.

I MUST ADMIT THAT IT TAKES BALLS NAMING YOUR FIRST ALBUM "GREATEST HITS, VOLUME III."
We were trying to get gigs. We had just formed the band. We did it because we figured if we had a CD, it would be more legitimate than a cassette to send the clubs and try to get gigs. We weren't trying to make an album, but then we figured we might as well. That's always been one of our elements--not taking ourselves too seriously. We've seen it on MTV and VH1. You wonder if when people crossed the line between starting from scratch and becoming super stars, they forget where came from and who they were and all that. Taking yourselves too seriously is dangerous. When we trying to come up with the first album title, we felt we couldn't be serious with this. Greatest Hits Volume III made perfect sense

SO, IT WAS INTENTIONAL.
Yeah. Absolutely. We figured we had nothing to lose.