“Our last gig before we took time off was at Bonnaroo for 20,000 people. I remember talking to my dad after that show and saying, ‘If we never play again, I’ve accomplished something with this dream. We went from our basements to Bonnaroo in just a couple of years.”
Drummer Damon Metzner is reminiscing about the unlikely rise of his band — the live electronic outfit — and the even more unlikely decision to call it quits at the height of the band’s popularity.
“We toured for four years solid,” explains guitarist and keyboardist Ryan Burnett. “We bought a 45-foot bus, built ten bunk beds, and loaded up the dogs, the girlfriends and the gear.” And then, they just got tired. “I’ve got a family of my own and I want to balance my life so I’m not totally insane.”
And though things are a little quieter these days, Burnett’s idea of balance might not match yours. The band — now a trio with bassist Matt Schumacher — has scheduled eight shows in eight cities in ten days this month alone, and is also planning to release four free EPs this year. Welcome to Signal Path 2.0.
Burnett started Signal Path in 2001 while living in Missoula, Montana, but the project really got going when Metzner moved from New Orleans to the remote college town in 2002. At first, they weren’t sure there was a fit.
“I was playing funk music,” recalls Metzner. “I was like, ‘I only play the funk, but I’ll come down and try it out.'” He and Burnett laugh at this shared memory, but it wasn’t long before they were on the road together, beginning that four-year touring binge that culminated in the Bonnaroo performance.
“We’ve never had time to really focus on the music — ever,” marvels Burnett. “The project came together magically, and we were on the road and didn’t come off for more than a couple weeks at a time for years. And now we have time to make the music as awesome as we want it to be.”
That’s not to say that the music wasn’t awesome before. With seven full-length albums to its credit, Signal Path’s output is nothing short of impressive. However, after the band took a couple years off, Signal Path settled back in Burnett’s hometown of Denver in 2009 and released “Clash,” which represented a new beginning for the project. The group continued to develop with 2010’s “Imaginary Lines.” Both albums are available as free downloads from . Combining elements of drum-and-bass, house, dubstep and other electronic styles with live instrumentation and improvisation, the trio creates music that appeals equally to fans of jam bands and electro.
“The whole idea is just to play awesome electronic music with human beings there to create it, as opposed to standing behind a laptop,” Burnett says. “I love this kind of music, but I hate it if, when you go to see it, it’s just a guy. You want to feel like it’s actually happening in front of you.”
This recipe for improvisational electronic music — popularized by , but also practiced to varying degrees by Colorado-based acts like , and — is big business these days. By tapping into the trading/touring folks who might have followed Widespread Panic or Phish at another time, these groups have unlocked a passionate, supportive scene that prefers a thumping beat to a noodling guitar solo. They come in many shapes, sizes and colors, wearing everything from ’60s tie-dye to ’80s day-glo, but they all come to dance. With more visible energy than most Deadheads, you might call fans of this improvisational dance music Undeadheads.
“There’s a ton of crossover,” Metzner says. “Every single show we’ve played, there have been legitimate electronic music fans and Widespread Panic fans. When we started, it was more the jam band crowd.”
“It really depends,” Burnett asserts. “You can play the same city three times and you could have three totally different crowds and vibes, depending on who’s throwing the party.”
And where fanzines and tape trading kept the Grateful Dead fans engaged, the live electronic music scene is held up — in fact, might be impossible without — the internet.
“To some degree, all of our successes are, in some way, related to the internet,” Metzner explains. “Whether it’s just inspiration from listening to other artists, or the ability to disseminate information to our fan base, it is an integral piece of our business. It’s how we communicate with our fans. It’s how we get support. It allows us to offer our music for free because of the infinite shelf space that the internet provides. It’s the lifeblood of our operation, at least, in a promotional sense. We’d be creating, regardless, but as far as being able to do this as an independent artist and not have to rely on a label, it’s indispensable.”
And speaking of giving music away, Signal Path plans to continue its model of free releases this year with not one but four EPs, released at the turn of each season.
“The seasons are perfectly spaced for releasing four albums,” says Metzner. “What does seasons changing represent? There are parallels to people’s lives and change. It’s cyclical, and it’s a completely different model than a traditional album cycle.”
“I’ve been working so hard,” continues Burnett. “I put in 60 hours in my home studio and it goes by like that. It’s been a great gift to have so much time to work on my music. Every day, I’m stoked. I drink a gallon of mate and geek out in the studio.”
Thanks to all those years of touring and effort, Signal Path finally has the luxury of being a full-time band for its members. Though the group is still touring heavily, they are now flying out for long weekends of gigs, and spending weeks back home in Denver with friends and family.
“It’s that hard work — that literal sweat — that is allowing us to pick our own schedule now,” Metzner concludes.
In addition to creating music at an unprecedented pace, Signal Path also plans to use its time to invest in Denver’s fertile music scene. This summer, the band plans to remount its wildly popular Summer Sessions multimedia events — which started simply as a way for transplant Metzner to meet people — at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom and Cervantes’ Other Side. “We’re going to try to keep it very Denver-centric,” says Metzner, “but also bring in one national thing each time, and have as many local artists and vendors as we possibly can.”
“We don’t want to just take from this scene,” says Burnett. “We want to give too.”
Catch Signal Path live at City Hall on Feb 19, with Prefuse 73 and the Hood Internet. Tickets available .
Listen to — and download — a sneak preview of Signal Path’s spring release, “The Prosaic Fades,” for free. The album won’t be released until March 20, but you can grab “Bitcrush My Heart” today.
Eryc Eyl is a veteran music journalist, critic and Colorado native who has been neck-deep in local music for many years. Check out every Monday for local music you can HEAR, and the every Friday. Against his mother’s advice, Eryc has also been known to . You can also follow Sorry, Mom.
