What is Solo Banjo Psychedelique, you ask?
Let Tall Tall Trees’ Mike Savino tell you
Mike Savino of Tall Tall Trees says people have a predisposition to the banjo: It has a stigma, and they expect one thing.
As a pioneer of solo banjo psychedelique music, though, he believes the banjo is still relatively unexplored as an instrument.
“There’s a lot of deep history to the banjo, from its roots in African culture, Caribbean culture, to its application in Appalachian music and country music and bluegrass. There’s a huge history; some of it’s twisted, and some of it’s dark, but there’s something very soulful about the sound of the instrument, and I’ve always been drawn to it,” Mike says. “It’s very exciting to listen to. It’s kind of fast, and there’s a lot going on.”
As a child, Mike loved his banjo tapes, including The Flying Burrito Brothers and Flatt and Scruggs; he says he’s not sure how they came into his possession. During college, he studied upright bass, playing jazz in New York City after music school.
One day, he got out an old banjo someone had given him and started writing songs with it. Used to the “serious” jazz world, he says he had fun writing and playing these songs and received cool responses from audiences about them. He decided to continue pursuing it.
Mike’s jazz background shines through at live shows, where he plays solo and uses loop and effect pedals as well as exploratory techniques and nontraditional sounds to create something new each night with electric banjo. He says it’s a full band experience with one person, and he works to make each show spontaneous. Influenced by the jam band alternative music scene he grew up on in the 1990s, some of his influences include the Grateful Dead and Phish, bands that “took it to a weird place,” he says.
“I still love that stuff, and it’s definitely influenced me to get into jazz music and understand music language deeper,” Mike says. “So, I approach my shows kind of like that, in a way. I will jam, I will rock out, and then I’ll do something unpredictable, even to myself.”
Recording and producing his own music from the beginning, his most recent album, “Stick to the Mystical I,” released in 2023, is improvisational in nature, too: Although Mike had written music for it, he and his longtime friend Josiah Wolf, drummer for the band WHY?, didn’t end up recording it. Instead, they improvised in the studio, and when they found something they liked, they explored that concept further.
“If it’s something I’ve heard before, I abandon it most of the time. Unless it’s like really solid and simple and good,” Mike says. “[I’m] always trying to discover something that excites me and gets me interested in continuing to listen to it. … There’s a feeling, when something feels cool and unique, and I chase an idea and see how far I can take it.”
Now, Mike is working on an upcoming album that doesn’t use pedals and loops; he says it sounds more like old-time Appalachian-style banjo music, and he’s starting to play these songs at shows, too.
It’s a different mindset, he says.
“When I do all the loops and the effects and stuff, it’s a lot of recipes that I’m working through while I’m playing my music. It’s like a concoction of all these sounds,” Mike says. “[With the new work I’m making,] the banjo just kind of lets me be exposed and raw. Which is something new for me, and I’m excited about it.”
Right now, Mike’s listening to bands in the world psychedelic music scene, including musicians from Australia, Thailand and Iran. Some of his favorites currently include the Australian band Surprise Chef, and Brazilian acts Sessa and Tim Bernardes. He says he also binges banjo music recorded before 1950.
At a show, his goal is for people to see something they never thought possible and to leave feeling joy. He hopes he creates an experience for people to share together in the same room, a “little distraction from this crazy world.”
Mike will be at Scout Hall in downtown Cape Girardeau Friday, Feb. 28, with doors at 7 p.m. and the show at 8 p.m. Get your tickets at thescouthall.com/events.
