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AcoustiCafe: Do you guys have a title for the new album yet?
Michael: No we don't. (Laughs)
AcoustiCafe: Do you have a release date?
Michael: We think in March, sometime in March.
AcoustiCafe: You can definitely hear the progression in the music from "Cruel Sun" up to this point, as far as the new album is there any new sounds you can talk about or elaborate on?
Michael: Well John's (buynak) playing a lot more guitar and it got a real neat sound that hasn’t been there and he’s playing it on almost every song... It’s really good having Jenn (Wertz) back. Jim Donovan has gotten into a lot of computers, making weird sounds and incorporating it in our sound and that was pretty cool.
AcoustiCafe: So is it drum loop kind of things?
Michael: Yeah we used a little bit of loops, but we would record Jim playing one of his tribal grooves and then we would loop that, so it’s like a Rusted Root loop, it’s not, you know...
AcoustiCafe: And when can we expect the Rusted Root Christmas album?
Michael: (Laughs) We actually thought about doing one. There was this song, and it’s actually a very good song, but we didn’t have time to record it.
AcoustiCafe: What the title of that?
Michael: Uhh... I can’t give that a way! (Laughs)
AcoustiCafe: When it comes to performing you guys have done a lot of festival tours and things like that. Do you prefer festival tours or headling tours?
Michael: I think at this point I prefer a much more headling. I think festival tours were sort of a faze for us and it can get old quick. It’s not as fulfilling creatively.
AcoustiCafe: Do you feel like you’re playing for the same types of people and you’re not expanding out?
Michael: Sort of, yeah. You’re sort of confined to the festival’s marketing and vibe. but it’s also like the length of the set too. because you have to play shorter you can’t expand out if you want to do something different one night, it’s just tough and confining, but it’s fun because you’re hanging out with everybody and it’s sort of a party and that what I mean it got old, sort of like a parting faze.
AcoustiCafe: I saw you guys at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial show. You guys played almost everything from "When I Woke" and a lot of the other older tunes like "big White bird" and "Artificial Winter". Do you find yourselves playing a lot of the older stuff now that Jenn’s back in the band?
Michael: Yeah. We played a little bit off of "Remember" and when we go back and headline again and like do some longer shows we’ll pull some of the other stuff up.
AcoustiCafe: A lot of bands totally stop playing some songs or totally forget about songs, are there any songs like that that you’ve just totally forgot about?
Michael: Oh yeah, like some of them I can’t remember, like what the chords are. (Laughs)
AcoustiCafe: In the future do you look at solo projects?
Michael: Yeah. This is sort of the start of a solo record. I only had three days to prepare for these show! So it was like three days into preparing for my solo career. (Laughs) but, yeah, there’s a lot of older songs that didn’t sort of work out with the band because of different styles and some songs just sounded better acoustic and I didn’t use them for the band. So I have my concept voice which is to have maybe half the album be acoustic, and maybe half the album be really expansive and a big rock and roll, kind of like a Neil Young kind of concept.
AcoustiCafe: What’s your greatest memory from a show?
Michael: I don’t know. I don’t know if I have one. I don’t really have one that I can say was the best. It gets kind of blurry. It’s like different energies and colors kind of explode and the crowd energy kind of explodes. It’s not one moment, I don’t know...(Laughs)
AcoustiCafe: What was the funniest thing that’s ever happened to you on stage?
Michael: Umm... What’s the funniest moment on stage? (Asking Jenn Wertz and John buynak)
Jenn: The funniest was when that kid came up and uh...remember? We asked him to come up and sing "Send Me On My Way" and he was like peeing his pant!...well, he didn’t really pee his pants. He didn’t know the words.
Michael: Yeah I think he just got too excited and he forgot them and was just dancing around on stage.
 Jenn: The funniest thing ever?
John: That’s a big word! That’s a hard question...
Jenn: I don’t know I wasn’t there for five years!
Michael: but what about back then?
Jenn: back then the funniest thing that ever happened was the fight we had on stage in Rochester!
John: It was funny hindsight!
Jenn: I think it was probably really funny to people watching it! They loved it man!
John: People got in an argument and walked off stage one at a time... and it was during the middle of a song and the only people that were left on stage were Patrick playing the bass and Jim on the drums and they just kept going and it was like minutes and minutes went by and they just sort of like...
Jenn: They were playing "Sympathy For the Devil"...
Michael: And we were screaming "Fuck You!", "No, Fuck You!", "No, Fuck You!" and the crowds going "YEEEAHH!!!"
Jenn: And I was like "Fuck You!" and then I went over to John to like tell on Michael and I was like "Michael’s being really mean!"
Michael: So I walk off stage and John’s looking at me and I’m like "What?" and then he took a beer and threw it in my face!
John: You knocked me into a bunch of folding chairs!
Michael: And then our opening band came up and was like scolding us for fighting...
AcoustiCafe: What artists have inspired you?
Michael: I think Peter Gabriel a lot and early hard rock. Really anything I’ve listened to basically. Going through high school I was listening to black Sabbath and I was into like really early Van Halen... and U2, Peter Gabriel, Neil Young... uh, John Lennon’s solo stuff.
AcoustiCafe: Any Paul Simon?
Michael: Yeah, a little.
AcoustiCafe: This might be a hard question, but in life what inspires you?
Michael: I think, early on it was more about idealism and the world and what it should be like that inspired me to write music about change, but I think now I’m kind of going into more of these personal relationships and Éand maybe even bigger because you can really get a grasp on the reality of it.
AcoustiCafe: Yeah cause I’ve definitely noticed a progression where now you seem to be doing almost like folky kind of lyrics and story songs.
Michael: Yeah.
AcoustiCafe: You seem to have a strong spiritual element in your music. Where does that come from?
Michael: The spirit! (Laughs) I don’t know, I think it just comes from music, what the music does to me. When I play music that where I go, that’s what I write about. It’s like when I first picked up the guitar and started writing a song and went "WOW! That feels different!" It’s like a drug, you pick it up... well actually it’s not like a drug, it’s more like for someone who does Yoga a lot in their life. Maybe the first time they do they’re like "Wow, this is great! I want to do this all the time!" It’s like a spiritual practice or meditation or for me it was music. I was like "Wow, I want to do this all the time" and it makes me feel different, it makes me feeling bigger, it makes me feel like I know myself better. That’s what it was, it just sort of awoken the music.
AcoustiCafe: Do you write all your music on guitar?
Michael: Mostly, yeah. I play a couple piano songs, a couple mandolin songs, and a couple banjo tunes, but primarily acoustic guitar.
AcoustiCafe: Is it usually the music first or the lyrics?
Michael: I would think more than often... well, what I’m really to do now is only write songs that happen at the same time and trying to finish it as much in the moment as I can...
AcoustiCafe: You guys have definitely played with some amazing performers on different tours, but if you could jam with one person, who would it be?
Michael: I think maybe singing with Robert Plant.
AcoustiCafe: What was the greatest album you’ve ever bought?
Michael: I would say John Lennon’s "Plastic Ono band" ...that’s a pretty amazing record.
AcoustiCafe: Out of all the songs you’ve written what is your favorite?
Michael: No favorite really. I mean they’re all like my kids, I don’t have a favorite. Even if they’re not strong or whatever they still get me somewhere, they’re still there with me in a great way...
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