The band has such a loyal following. Do you see this film as more service to longtime fans or a way to expose new people to the band?

It’s got a nice flow to its script and yet it’s being true to its form in being both visual and oral in the interviews and through pictures and videos.

There's a lot of throwback stuff, some of it’s funny and fun and some of it’s more sentimental or just talking about the business aspect or the social aspect. We have people helping us out with the edits, and a lot of them are fans.

We cater to our fans mostly, we’re known for that with anything we release. Mainly the hardcore fans get the first fixings, or whatever you want to call it. The rest of the intention is for it to come off, legitimately and professionally for people outside that bubble in a way that’s enjoyable.

We’re always trying to expand in the generations to come, not just committing to one era, per se. It’s an ever-evolving thing.

I noted your use of the term 'jam band' earlier. Have you embraced that categorization or is it merely a means of concisely describing UM's world?

Yeah, the naughty word: jam band!

It [is a term] that sells a lot of bands short on what they really are. And that’s typical of most organizations in the music industry, or not, where you’re being labeled by the public or the industry or pigeonholed in a certain way. No one has time to give the full summary of what it is that you do.

We are a complex and eclectic bunch of musicians that have a lot of eclectic songs. Different genres and we cross them over together; it’s a hybrid of things. But we build the network and the structure of a model that is that of a jam band.

It’s grass roots from the get-go.

As far as a genre, if I had to describe it, I’ve always wondered that too. It’s Americana music; it’s harmonies and melodies and rhythms and live improvisation and live performance fused into the genre, which a lot of other genres don’t glorify as much. The cookie cutter perfectionist, ProTools-esque approach to songs and recording and songwriting is a different look and a different feel altogether from this, which is bringing back a lot of elements of classic rock of the ‘70s.

[Our influences are] bands like Led Zeppelin, of course, the jam band grandfathers the Grateful Dead, parts of Allman Brothers, maybe even The Band, songwriting wise. But there’s southern rock in there, too, with bands like Widespread Panic, Gov’t Mule and other things. Then there’s a Hendrix-y thing going on.

It’s taking the roots of these artists and assimilating it to your own subculture. In our era, we had that infused with more electronic elements and pop elements that we grew up with.

If that’s entertaining to the fans, you end up having a very eclectic calliope of genres. There’s no other way to really categorize that in other genres, so jam band becomes the land of misfit toys situation. That’s how I interpret it.

Jammin' Jessie

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