The Road to Mountain Music Fest: Rich Vogel of Galactic May 26, 2022 10:13

Photo by Marc Pagani

Interview by Jordan Kirkland: Live & Listen

As countless music fans prepare for this year's Mountain Music Festival at ACE Adventure Resort in Oak Hill (WV) on June 2-4 (2022), we're sitting down with a number of this year's performers to get a better feel for what fans can expect this year. This festival was established in 2014 and has proceeded to solidify itself as one of the most anticipated jam-focused events of the year. While MMF features an array of major national acts, I think everyone can agree that Galactic is the main event of the weekend.
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Since the band's formation back in 1994, Galactic quickly solidified themselves as a permanent fixture on the festival circuit. I think it's accurate to call them one of the founding members of the modern jam/funk scene. Hailing from New Orleans, this band has truly done it all over the past 30 years. You won't find long-standing, major festival that they haven't played. This is funk music in its truest form, and their Friday night / Saturday morning set at MMF might just set the mountain on fire. 
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Earlier this week, we had a chance to sit down with founding member Rich Vogel (keyboards) just ahead of the festival. As you will read below, Rich and his bandmates became true pioneers early on, and they haven't even thought about looking back. Check out the full conversation below and make sure to follow the band on Instagram and Facebook to stay in tune with all of the latest happenings. 
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Great to speak with you today, Rich. Galactic has been going at it for nearly 30 years now. I think you guys started back in 1994. The lineup has seen so many collaborations. I was hoping you could tell me a little more about when this band started to take off.
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Rich: Yeah, you got it right. We started playing together back in 1994. I think that's when I started playing with them. Rob (Mercurio), Jeff (Raines), and Stanton (Moore) already had something going. They wanted some keyboards, so I volunteered my services (laughs). They invited me to a rehearsal, and the rest was history.
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We played a few gigs around town. We'd open for guys like George Porter Jr & The Runnin' Pardners. Played a bunch of uptown clubs. It was really in 1995 that we met Dan Prothero. He was an engineer / record producer who had done things on a label called Ubiquity out in San Francisco. They were putting out some old school, rare groove stuff from the 50s and 60s. Some of the underappreciated and unreleased stuff.
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Back then, all of music wasn't available like it is now. There was so much music that hadn't ever been released, especially in that world. They were rereleasing some things and really creating a scene out there on the West Coast.
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Dan came to New Orleans and was looking for a local band to record. Somehow, he got in touch with us. We ended up doing one track in our apartment, which was kind of the band house at the time. Stanton, Rob, and Jeff lived there, and I lived a few blocks away. We did all of our rehearsing there. We set up make shift recording gear. Dan had a DAT, which is a digital audio tape. It was pretty cutting edge at the time. No one was recording on computers yet.
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He was able to set up a make shift studio. We ended up cutting one song, which was "Black Eyed Pea." That appeared on a compilation record that Ubiquity put out. I remember the title of the record was Is That Jazz?  It was an interesting title, because it was a bunch of instrumental music with solos and everything, but it was more so based in funk.
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It was really that collaboration with him and making a recording of any kind that made things start to gel with us. We made plans with Dan to make a record. He came back in the summer of 1995. We booked two days at Sea-Saint Studios, which is a legendary studio in New Orleans. Sadly, it's no longer here post-Katrina. It was Allen Toussaint's studio where so much incredible music was recorded there in the 70s.
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Pretty much everything The Meters did was recorded there. We really wanted to work there, because it was the source of so much music we loved. We figured out we could record two days there (laughs). That was about how much analog tape we could record at the time as well (laughs). We were recording on 24-track analog tape. We also set up at the house so we had a few more days to fine tune some other stuff.
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We ended up making Coolin' Off, our first record. That was really it for us. That really turned the corner for us. We had an album, and we got accepted to play New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival for the first time in 1996. That was when we really hit the road and never looked back.
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That's amazing. I feel like the mid-late 90s was when so much was happening in that scene that Galactic fell in place with. Bands like Phish, Widespread Panic, Dave Matthews Band, and moe. were really taking off. Now you see the emergency of Galactic, Medeski Martin & Wood, Sound Tribe Sector 9, and Keller Williams. It seemed like a really special time to be a part of that movement.
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Rich: It really was. I completely agree with you, especially looking back now, It seemed like there was a handful of bands, you know? It seemed like we ended up knowing all of them within about a year or two of being out on the road. The bands were just really getting out there and playing shows.
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We were kind of used to playing for hours, late into the night around New Orleans. That was just how things went around there. We were trained up to go out and do whatever. These festivals were coming together. We were kind of designed for that with our history in New Orleans.
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I have a vivid memory of Medeski Martin & Wood coming into town. They playing a tune on WWOZ, our radio station in New Orleans, and I knew I needed to go see them. They had a keyboard player who plays organ and all of the old keyboards that I love. These weren't really in vogue prior to this era that you mention. Guys like Medeski, JoJo from Panic, and I were bringing out old Wurlitzers, Leslies, and Hammonds that had fallen out of vogue in the 80s and early 90s.
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I went to an MMW gig at the old Howlin' Wolf. It was fantastic. I was mesmerized by their whole evening of music. It's just three guys playing instrumental music. I'd never seen anyone who played music like that. They were so talented. They were improvising. Playing a lot of groove stuff with hip hop beats. It was so cool, and the 12-15 people who were there with me completely agreed (laughs).
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I think they came back 6-9 months later, and there were a few hundred people there. Then I they opened for Phish at some point, and when they came back, they were about ready to headline Tipitina's. That was right when we were getting to. The same type of thing happened. We went out in '96 and hit a bunch of clubs on the West Coast. Thanks to Dan and Ubiquity, there was already a little buzz about us out there.
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We had some pretty solid shows, but we played a bunch of clubs. There might be 30-50 people in one room, but those people really dug it. So, we kept coming back, and it kept growing and growing. And you're right, that was really the beginning of that era. There was such a synergy with all of these bands. That really lasted into the early 2000s.
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We were riding that wave and didn't even realize it at the time. It was a great time to be on the road, and it feel like a special thing. We always wondered why there weren't more bands out there doing what we were. There were some older bands, such as Dirty Dozen Brass Brand, which certainly had been doing it. It was a great time for us to be interested in what we were naturally interested in. We loved all of this old school funk, soul, R&B, and rock.
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We were in New Orleans, and we love The Meters. They have the same instrumentation as us. Those groove-based rhythm sections that were so good. That's why i was so taken with Medeski. We just wanted to hone those skills. A rhythm section that can really groove. Everything feels good and you develop it from there.
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Absolutely. Whether you knew it or not at that time, Galactic really did help pave the way for what would become such a huge scene. It's damn near impossible to keep up with all of the new acts emerging these days. Being a teenager in the early 2000s, I have such vivid memories of the era of music.
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I remember stumbling across the Coolin' Off back in middle school. I can't tell you how many times I listened to songs like "Something Wrong With This Picture" and "Church" back then. Definitely an interesting era for music with what was going on with modern rock at the time. The grassroots movement that Galactic was a part of really became the modern jam era.
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Rich: Yes, you're absolutely right.
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I know there has been plenty of evolution within the band over the years. While y'all are predominantly instrumental, House Man (Theryl DeClouet) added a major element with the vocal material. Later on, you've had so many special guests join the band for various projects. Who have you guys been working with on vocals lately?
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Rich: That's kind of been our mode ever since House Man had to stop touring. For a minute, we searched around for another vocalist. Ultimately, we decided that we weren't going to "replace" House Man. We felt that we should focus on collaborations. We knew so many talented singers. When it comes to making records, you can do anything. Why not collaborate with the best people who were interested?
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While we had that strong instrumental side, there wasn't going to be a new "lead singer" of Galactic. For a band like us, this overgrown rhythm section, as I like to say sometimes, it kind of made sense. Then when you go out on tour, you want to present these songs, and you want to have someone who can do them justice. It's a tall order when you've recorded songs with Irma Thomas, Cyrille Neville, Allen Toussaint, and Jon Boutee.
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These are the kind of vocal artists we were collaborating with. And with that, you need a pretty heavy hitting singer to come out and help you represent your history and material. We've had tremendous luck to find the right person at the right time. Some of them have joined us on the road for a year, two years, or whatever it may be.
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Right now, we're in as great of place as we've ever been with Jelly singing. We call her Jelly, but her name is Angelica "Jelly" Joseph. She's just amazing. Her presence is amazing. Her take on all of the songs is fantastic, while uniquely hers. They live up to the original while bringing something different, which is kind of what you always want.
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You want the music to stay fresh and get reinjected with something that feels fresh. Not regurgitating your old records. She totally brings that. We also have Eric Gordon playing trumpet with us, who is equally amazing. He rounds out our horn section. We get to call it a horn section since we have two players (laughs). We already had Ben (Ellman), who also amazing playing tenor, bari, and harmonica. Ben and Eric together are just perfect.
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We're really just having fun. Being on the road again is great. We took a forced hiatus like everyone else, and I think that makes you come back with fresh eyes and ears. A new appreciation for being able to get out and do this for a living.
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I'm sure it comes with a rejuvenated sense of appreciation for it all.
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Rich: It definitely does. As we're talking about these festivals coming up, it's just great to have a real summer festival season again. We just had the first Jazz Fest since 2019, and it felt so good to be out there. You could feel the joy around the whole event. It had been three years without the festival. It just feels so good to be back playing.
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Didn't you guys go on right before The Who at Jazz Fest?
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Rich: Yeah, that was a fantastic slot. We sure did. You can't beat that. It was an incredible day.
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You really won't find a better spot than that. I didn't make it to Jazz Fest, but I was at SweetWater 420 Fest that last weekend of April. Atlanta also had another festival called Shaky Knees that weekend, and they were both sold out. I hadn't been to anything with that many people in several years, and it was incredible to know that both of these major festivals in Atlanta were sold out. People can finally feel safe doing these things again.
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Rich: Absolutely. It feels so great to be back to this point. Like Jelly always likes to say on stage, "We back, baby!" She means all of us, not just the band!
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Well before we wrap this up, I wanted to talk a little bit about Mountain Music Festival on June 2-4 in West Vrigina. Galactic is the headliner on Friday. Starting right at midnight, which feels so appropriate for y'all.
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Rich: (laughs) They still give us those late spots. We can still do it!
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Oh, I have no doubt about that. It's been way too long since I've seen Galactic at all, much less in that perfect time slot. Can you share a little bit about what the West Virginia can expect that night, and how you're approaching the rest of the festival season in general?
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Rich: Yeah, i really like those late-night sets. If you have a shorter set during the day, you're pretty strategic about it. You have to hit all of these certain notes within an hour or maybe hour and fifteen. The late ones sometimes prove to be the most fun. I think the attitude is a little different, and it takes us into interesting directions.
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Sometimes you're just the right combination of up but also laid back from the end of the day. It's always fun to play outside at night. Playing outside at night in West Virginia sounds nice to me. We love New Orleans, but we do look forward to summer festivals. Getting out of town and going anywhere sounds a little more comfortable (laughs).
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Could not agree more. I'm in Birmingham, Alabama and I was looking at the weather forecast yesterday. Anything in the 70s sounds like a dream. We're already cracking well into the 90s here.
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Rich: Oh yeah. We're all for it. You know what a Gulf Coast summer is like.
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We're off to another scorching summer. That's for sure. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your time today. I've been a Galactic fan for what feels like majority of my life now. I haven't been able to see y'all near as many times as I would like. It's been way too long since the last one, and I know that I'm not the only one who is stoked for Friday night at Mountain Music Fest.
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Rich: Oh definitely. We're really excited about it. We're primed for this festival season. And like Jelly says, "We're back, baby!"
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Love to hear it. Well thanks again, Rich. Hope to have a chance to say "hello" up on the mountian.
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Rich: Please do, Jordan. Thanks so much for doing this!
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