Umphrey's Cinninger looks ahead to Langerado

By Samantha Spector

When Jake Cinninger of Umphrey's McGee gets onstage and shreds into his guitar, everyone listens. From the audience, his talent manifests itself as a manic, high-energy persona. Offstage, however, Cinninger is humble, eloquent, passionate — just a good ol' Midwestern boy after his dreams.

Recently I had the opportunity to chat by phone with Jake from his home in Indiana, which was then under ten feet of snow. We bonded over a love of old-school recording, talked about the emotion emitted from his instrument and discussed the merits of naming their next studio album "Man-tits." Cinninger and Umphrey's McGee will help kick off the American festival season at Langerado in Florida in March.

You have the best job in the world. Do you go home and think about how far Umphrey's McGee has come or does it just not sink in?

It's easy to get wrapped up in the negatives of this business. Ego, bad habits, you know, being drained from the road… there's all these, like, bad things that come with being on the road that can sort of break down the body some of the time. We can thankfully cut down to 105 shows, but that's after years of doing many more. I just focus on all the positives. We're [the band] thankful for what we are- that's why we're all holding on as a group while we keep [a] positive, skeptical and reluctant look to the future. I think that is what makes the future happen. [Photo: Brett Saul © 2004]

I'm a big fan of your band and have to say that I am astounded by the growth you guys have had musically in the past two years. Can you guys feel everything coming together from the stage?

Yeah, I mean a lot of that is all in personal ponying or crafting our skills for what we do. If each year passes by and if we don't improve or weed out bad habits musically then what's the point? We had definitely picked up different styles along the way, and now I think we've found ourselves going back, sight-reading music again, almost about revisiting so we can re-vamp our style. If everyone has that same ideology, it just multiplies in talent. If everyone [in the band] was comfortable with the way we played, than we really wouldn't progress.

So I just got an email from a friend of mine and she would like me to inform you that your version of "Comfortably Numb" [at this year's Holidaze in Jamaica] made her cry. What happens in your head during moments like that?

I think what makes those performances happen for us is there is a nervous energy and excitement and this, like, Super Bowl energy that you have. Tell [your friend] thank you and that I can't wait to make her cry again.

Ok, I'm looking at the Langerado lineup once again — tell me your thoughts on what might go down in Florida this year.

[Langerado] is rivaling the Bonnaroos and the other "big" festivals with this intense lineup. It's also a great time of year to head south. I kind of feel like a vampire right now [because of the cold].

I'm just totally intimidated and in awe and humbled and all that. It's just so weird to be from a little town in Michigan and have these big rock star dreams happening. We'll be playing after the Beasties. Basically, the Beastie Boys are going to come off the stage and we're doing to get up there — it's just insane. Just thinking about Phil Lesh coming out and playing with us…it's that feeling of "He likes us! He really really likes us!"

Any chance the Brain Dead Eggman (a "supergroup" composed of members of Umphrey's McGee and the Disco Biscuits) will reunite soon?

Its kind of all scheduling [but] I could totally see that happening again. I think we were already planning doing another [Caribbean] Holidaze thing, under the same circumstances. I think the Eggman thing is kind of a legit thing and it's so much fun. With that music (the band does entire sets of cover songs), it's so encoded in everyone's DNA and the least we can do is try to get it close to the original just because it means so much to us and everyone else that's there.

Okay, final thought. Sum up Umphrey's McGee in one sentence.

If we can get Jerry Garcia and Slayer to maybe have a love child, that would be what we're aiming for.