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Tom Marshall: The Amfibian Comes Up For Air
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Tom Marshall programs computers for an insurance company as a day job. In his spare time, he writes lyrics for one of the largest touring bands in the country, Phish. For years, Marshall has enjoyed his life out of the spotlight; his musical vision, however, has recently taken a turn. A family man and friend to an incredible pool of musicians, this lyricist has moved beyond his aversion to the stage to the forefront with his own band. (His involvement with Phish, by the way, is not in jeopardy.) Marshall's personal commitment to music has evolved into a new project, Amfibian, which showcases a new group of talented individuals from the same school as stars Trey Anastasio, Blues Traveler, and Spin Doctors. Don't be mistaken; this is not Tom Marshall's means of capitalizing on the success of Phish. Sprouting from a year of casual recording sessions in Tom's own farmhouse in New Jersey, Amfibian has been an on-going project for more than two years.
musictoday.com caught up with Marshall, one late evening, to discuss his new project. Despite all the rumors surrounding him and his somewhat-reserved persona, there happens to be a great deal of man behind the words. Marshall openly discusses the criticism he received in earlier years, his motivation behind forming Amfibian, and his views on music and community. Enough said, read for yourself how Tom Marshall exists in a dual life as both Phish and Amfibian.
mt: What do you do [as a day job]?
TM: I work for an insurance company doing computer stuff.
mt: So, you are in the corporate nine-to-five?
TM: Yeah, that is the boring side of my life.
mt: You have some major developments going down in the more exciting side of your life. You are getting the Amfibian project off the ground. It interests me that you have managed, while being involved with Phish and having a day job, to keep a community of musicians glued together. Amfibian is a by-product of that community. That kind of community isn't always easy to hold together.
TM: They aren't. Just being that I am near Princeton and Lambertville, New Jersey, just by virtue of the high school class—there was Trey from Phish, the guys from Blues Traveler, the guy from Spin Doctors—a bunch of people right around the same time, in the same class as I, were all extremely musical. We weren't about playing Stones songs, we were really into writing and recording and not so much performing. A lot of my friends are like that. They got really good at guitar or drums, but never really formed huge bands, with the exception of Trey, who left this area and went off to form a huge group. I just kept myself surrounded by these guys, and that is sort of what Amfibian is. It is a gathering of these guys I know that have their own projects. Amfibian brings together four or five different bands. There are seven members in the group altogether, that come from the bands F-Hole, Rana, The Saras, and The Chris Harford project, in its various forms. I have no kind of special gift bringing them all together, other than recognizing them and how good they are and how well they might work together.
mt: Was there any hesitation by those people to get [in] on the project?
TM: Kind of. Amfibian originally formed two years ago. We only played five shows. By virtue of the Phish name, we were able to book Wetlands (NYC) on a Saturday night. If you can play a Saturday at the Wetlands, then you have pretty much done something as a band. It takes bands a long time to get a Saturday there, but just by my name here, we were playing a Saturday night headlining. At the time, we were just doing songs I had written with Trey, but we were doing them our own way. We had written a few songs, but there was never a real feeling to it. So, I abandoned the project in favor of retreating back to the studio and writing an album. The people in the band took that as a negative. Here we were on our way up and I am quitting the whole thing. It was hard for me to explain to them that it wasn't quitting, but it's more like, "we need to come up with some original stuff on our own." The album that ended up coming out ended up not being an Amfibian album, even though I named it Amfibian Tales. I named the project Tom and Company, but they all played on it, so I named it Amfibian Tales, just in case Amfibian ever formed again. Sure enough, I tried to start it out again and people were less than enthusiastic, I gathered, at the beginning. People were just suspicious that, "this is just another one of Tom's whims and maybe he won't follow through with it." They were concerned as to whether they should devote all this time to practicing, if I was just going to quit in a month or so after we do two shows.
mt: Obviously, you were able to convince them.
TM: I think the big feather in my cap, which added to my ability to convince them, was that I added a seventh member, Chris Harford. He was signed by Elektra for a while and is kind of a local legend. He is the oldest guy in the band; I think he is coming up on 38. He has well over 200 original songs to his name, not to mention he is an incredible guy. He has played with lots of amazing people, and been [in] a number of very good bands. I actually enlisted him to produce the project that we are doing for the up-and-coming Phish tribute album. In the time that we were producing, he would pick up a guitar now and then. I think he and I felt, at the same time, that we were forming a band, even though he was just supposed to be producing.
mt: So the magic was just naturally there?
TM: Yeah, from the first jam, we were all smiling, and it was the coolest musical thing we had all done in years.
mt: That must have been a great feeling especially since you put it down for so long. So, after he signed on, you pretty much had the golden ticket with the rest of the cast?
TM: Yeah. If I was lacking any integrity, then he provided more than enough integrity for them to see what the hell was going on and want to at least try it again. My name, itself, just because of my involvement with Phish, is pretty much our golden ticket, but he—for them and admittedly myself—brings the band much needed integrity that it didn't have before. We play some of Chris' songs. Chris and I have found the ability to write together. We have written four songs. We write rapidly, and that is a good thing. When you find that spark with someone, you have to churn that stuff out. We realized that this was a good thing and that it could really be sustainable.
mt: You had that spark with Trey for so many years. Was it almost like falling in love again? Or how about being hurt the first time, and being hesitant about falling in love again? [laughingly]
TM: [laughs out loud] I don't know if the love analogy is exactly one I am comfortable with, but I know what you mean. Then again, that would imply that I am cheating on Trey.
mt: I want to know what kind of Amfibian you would get if you all had a ménage a trois!
TM: That is healthy in a relationship. Sometimes, you look elsewhere for something and you realize that, "hey, you're the one I wanted all along."
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