Part IV: The Hiatus

In October of 2000, Phish went on an indefinite hiatus. Since we knew that the Fall 2000 tour was going to be the last for a while, my friend Steve and I organized a huge road trip, driving to follow Phish to Chicago for two nights, then to Minneapolis and Kansas and back. It's not like that meant the end of concerts for me, but something was set off inside me when I returned from this tour.

I randomly picked up my bass one night and like there was no tomorrow, I was working on my bass playing obsessively for two to four hours EVERY night of the week, and even longer on weekends. I had suddenly gotten to a point with my playing where it was no longer work but just fun, and I hadn't even realized it. I was obsessively learning hundreds of songs that would randomly spin in my 200-CD changer, from Fiona Apple to the String Cheese Incident! I don't know what got into me, but over three years later I look at the Phish hiatus as a milestone in my life.

In the Spring of 2001, I placed an ad on www.nycmusician.com and weeks later joined my first real, original rock band, the Mindwanders. We rehearsed regularly and sporadically played gigs until we went our separate ways in November 2002. During my time with the Mindwanders, I started to write my own music and sing my own songs. Towards the end of my time with the Mindwanders, I also played with Spiral Pie, who later became Head Monkey.

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