EOTO invites dancers to break down that invisible wall

By Steve Wildsmith
of The Daily Times Staff

Jason Hann and Michael Travis, the duo that plays percussion for The String Cheese Incident and makes up the side project EOTO, want you to come closer.

Don’t be afraid of the spotlight. Don’t be self-conscious about dancing. That’s why they make such frenetic, hypnotic electronic-driven music anyway — for you to get up and move, man.

So let it out. Close your eyes, and forget about whether anyone is watching you.

“It’s funny, because if you go see a band that has songs and lyrics, you can sing along and bounce along and be a part of it that way,” Hann told The Daily Times this week. “It’s something we notice whenever we play — however far the light extends from where it’s shining on stage, anywhere from 3 feet to 10 feet, there’s like this invisible wall that people stay behind. They don’t want to come into the light.

“And we totally get that. Not everyone likes to show off their moves; people are very self-conscious about that. And the way the room is laid out can make a pretty big difference. If it’s nice and dark in there, it feels like you can get away from all of that stuff, and it feels like you can dance with no one watching.

“But we do see that at every show, and we look for that invisible line,” he said, chuckling. “What we do works different from rock bands. The only thing to do to our music is dance.”

EOTO (pronounced “E-oh-toe”) is live music, and it bridges the divide between the jam-loving hippies of the String Cheese scene and the club kids who would rather get out on the dance floor. The music of EOTO is derived from the deejays and computer artists that spin music for a living; the difference is that Hann and Travis create and improvise their breakbeat, trip-hop, house and drum n’ bass music every time.

Every show is different. Every song is different. It’s an incredible technical and creative challenge, Hann said, which is refreshing from what the two do as members of SCI.

“I was definitely a jazz-head at times when I was growing up, and we approach this the way Miles Davis and John Coltrane approached music each night,” he said. “I think it was Miles who said you don’t want to play the same note twice — not just in one night, but ever. And it’s very liberating for us, having to make this stuff up for hours every night. It really puts you on your toes. You start recognizing the things you get into the habit of doing every night.

“With traditional songs, you’re required to play them the same way. Sure, you can color within them and get creative, but the expectation is to be true to the song. With something like this, we can go in any direction, and it makes you very aware of your habits, and pushing yourself every night to play something different is more challenging. And when you get through to the end of the night and you’re still making stuff up and it’s still sounding good, it’s very, very rewarding.

“That works, but what also works is not having to play the same songs over and over, night after night,” he added. “We’re lucky that in String Cheese we have such a big song repertoire that we don’t get into that habit anyway, but this is many leagues beyond that.”

Hann plays the drum kit, percussion and sampler, while Travis is in charge of the music’s tonal elements — bass, guitar, keyboards, hand percussion and live mixing. The music is created on the spot — recorded, mixed and remixed to create an evolving experience. It’s a far cry from the earthy jams of The String Cheese Incident, and when EOTO first hit the road, it threw a lot of SCI fans for a loop.

“Last winter, when we were going through those ski towns in Colorado, a lot of them were coming up to us, saying, ‘We don’t know what the hell you’re doing up there,’” Hann said. “But really — what do you expect from the drummer and percussionist of String Cheese Incident who have a duo? We just hope they go to the Web site before they come to a show, so they’ve heard what we’re doing and can see what’s going on.

“But on the other hand, we’ve had a lot of people who come check it out, and even the ones who don’t like electronic music appreciate what we’re doing. They can appreciate the elements that carry over from String Cheese — we’re jamming live for three hours, and every part you hear is being played by a live person. It provides a little bit of a bridge between the hippies and the electronica fans.

“And then there are moments where it’s like, ‘OK — enough of the techno, trip-hop stuff; let’s get super-organic and do something Jerry (Garcia, late front man for The Grateful Dead) might like and want to sit it in,” he added.

More than anything, the two have to be keenly aware of the dynamic’s of each particular venue, Hann said. A place like World Grotto, where the duo performs on Saturday, is ideal for EOTO’s music — dark, cavernous and perfect for the sort of hypnotic, groove-oriented vibe the two will lay down. There have been times — like a recent show in Connecticut — where they’ve had to compensate for lack of ambience.

“We played one bar up there, and it was like walking into ‘Cheers,’” Hann said. “It was a great venue for music and had a great sound system, but you’ve got to break through to people, and it doesn’t happen automatically when, right away, you’re in a ‘Cheers’ bar. You’ve got to find a way to take people somewhere else, and it helps when the lights are dark and people don’t have to be self-conscious about dancing.

“The mood has a lot to do with the way we come across, particularly where we’re not necessarily trying to be like, ‘Everyone watch us for two or three hours playing music.’ We’d rather people just close their eyes and lose themselves and dance.”