The Daily Orange: What was it like recording music differently for “For Hire”?

Ryan Montbleau: It was really different for me because I have a band, and I’ve had the same band pretty much for a number of years, mostly the same guys, so just doing a record with other players was a very different thing. That was the main difference. Ben Elvin, who produced it, put me on to this session band for it. That was the main thing, and those guys were so good and we had such limited time with them, we did the whole record, basically. We did 10 songs in two days. It was sort of amazing. It gave it this sort of freshness.

The D.O.: What was it like working with Eric Krasno from Soulive on “Bendin’ and Hidin’”?

Montbleau: He’s amazing. That particular song was something that was come up with at a soundcheck, and I happened to record it on my iPhone, and I took that idea to Eric when I went over to Eric’s house in Brooklyn and he had a little kind of home studio. He has another real studio, too, but he has a little home studio, too, and it was pretty amazing. He just whipped up a track in front of my eyes.

The D.O.: How has the change in your band lineup worked out?

Montbleau: It’s been amazing the last couple of years. It was a huge, positive change in our band. He (Lyle) has been an amazing guy to work with. He’s a very special player. It’s been cool. We’ve had so few people leave our band, it’s been mostly the same guys since just about a decade, but when a guy leaves, it’s always a really big deal. I don’t think you can replace guys, I think you just change. When he came on, we definitely changed a lot. I think it was a very strong thing for our band. I think it made us all better and made us all play better. He’s an incredible player. He ties everything together so nicely and he’s a great guy.

The D.O.: How do you feel about coming to Syracuse and playing at the Westcott after attending Villanova?

Montbleau: Yeah, I love coming to Syracuse. I almost went to Syracuse, years and years ago when I was deciding what college to go to. I was between Villanova and Syracuse. I went to Villanova, and I sometimes wonder nowadays how my life would be different if I’d gone to Syracuse. But we’ve been going there for years. We’re from Boston, so we’ve been hitting Upstate New York in general for probably a decade. We do really well up there. We have a lot of fun. We have a lot of friends up there and a lot of great fans in different cities, and we’ve been coming to Syracuse for a long time. And the Westcott, every time we come, they make some kind of improvement to the sound or the production. It’s really cool to see. Every time we come, it just gets better and better.

Published on April 24, 2013 at 2:21 am

Contact Zach: ztzeliff@syr.edu