Greensky Bluegrass’ Paul Hoffman on planning for improvisation ahead of Grinders show June 6

Greensky Bluegrass at the Uptown. // photo by Allison Scavo

Greensky Bluegrass is a quintet who has created their own subgenre of bluegrass. Their progressive swamp grass mountain rock sound is composed by Anders Beck on the dobro, Michael Arlen Bont on the banjo, Dave Bruzza on guitar, Mike Devol on upright bass, and Paul Hoffman on mandolin. Their songs are ever-flowing, lyrical gold, organic, and just downright fun.

Their massive following—known as Campers—find healing and self-discovery as Greensky’s boundless reverberations fill the air. We spoke with with mandolinist Paul Hoffman to learn more.

The Pitch: Stress Dreams came out in 2022. Do you have anything in the works for a new album or maybe live action or anything?

Paul Hoffman: Well, we just released four songs—an EP that we recorded in Iceland—just last weekend. We recorded that a year ago in Iceland when we were there to play some shows, and then we were just at the studio where we recorded Stress Dreams. We’re writing another record currently, the creative process has begun. We were in the press booth place, so it was pretty sweet. It’s, it is certainly a process.

This will be your ninth album, is that right?

I think so. That sounds right. The EP might have been the ninth album.

Where is your favorite place to play?

I have a lot of favorite places to play for various reasons. I love playing at Red Rocks because part of the reason I moved to Colorado is to be close to Red Rocks. I can go to shows there now too. Freaking great. But there’s so many other places I love playing for different reasons, too.

There’s a place in San Diego called Humphrey’s by the Bay that I love playing at. It’s like a beach resort, basically. Right on the ocean, but with like a pool and stuff. I’m right by New York City right now. We’re playing a place called Pier 17 there that’s super fun to play. It’s like on a rooftop in the city. In Kansas City that we’re talking about currently, which is also really fun. We hadn’t been in Kansas City in such a long time. I was speaking with our agent, and I was like, “Let’s play down here like a freaking Saturday night,” because often we don’t play places we haven’t played in a long time on weekends. It was such a blast. I think it was a sold out show. Really cool, it was just really high energy.

That is so thoughtful of you to think about the places you haven’t been. And not only that, but to go and book it on a weekend for us. That’s just so thoughtful of you and it really is a testimony to your character. I think that’s one of the major reasons that you guys have grown such a massive following—You have your own little community.

Oh, we do, and it’s really a blessing. We’re very familiar with a lot of our fans and we have the type of following that is so loyal to our music. No wonder when we release stuff or when we play shows, big shows somewhere, people travel for them. People come to multiple shows. They keep coming year after year. They become our friends, our family. It’s really great.

They also whine and moan if they live in a place like Kansas City and they haven’t seen us in a long time. And they’re like, “Why aren’t you playing my city?” It’s hard to play everywhere. But those complaints come from a place of love, is what I tell myself anyway.

Yeah, it really does.

Right. We’ve been living in Kalamazoo for a really long time, and Kalamazoo doesn’t have much of a music scene—regular music scene. It’s changed, it’s gotten better recently, the state theater where we play there is really nice.

With this new album and in general—When you’re creating an album, what is your main goal? Is it the sound? Is it the message?

Well, obviously reaching the fan base, but if I had to pick a most important thing—obviously all the elements are important—but I think it’s just that we honor our creative journey. We’re an older band, I dare say, and I think in the last couple records we’ve made, we find ourselves in moments where we’re trying to push our boundaries still, and figuring out new things we can do or incorporating things we’ve learned playing shows.

The way we jam will influence the way we write. And then to be like, “Hey, you know that thing we do on stage that’s like this? Let’s put that here and find a home for it.” So we want to incorporate our growth into all the new material. But then we also find ourselves in these moments where we just sort of play the song and it feels really easy and we try not to fight that sometimes. We resist the urge to overcomplicate things.

I think the simple answer’s on our creativity—We do do what makes us happy and it’s a challenge. We’re mindful of it. You think it sounds good and what people might like, but we’re also aware that sometimes we’ve made choices that people might not like and we make them courageously. I think that in the end it all works out though.

I really don’t think I’ve ever heard or seen a bad word about you guys. You’re really, really loved. It’s not even like the Grateful Dead where it’s like you either love them or you don’t. It’s like, no, you love Greensky or you’re wrong.

You can love and hate a band, too. I’ve experienced it with bands I love, too.

I’ve never even really thought about that. That’s true.

I find I use that judgment when a band I really love does something that I don’t think is cool and I’m vocal about it. I think that the reason I have that opinion is because I care a lot about that band and I really love it. I also honor that it’s hard to do what we do and to be creative as long as we have and keep it fresh. It’s really challenging.

It’s like whenever you discipline a child because you love them and you want them to do better. I get that. That’s beautiful. When you are writing a specific song, what’s your biggest struggle?

Finishing it. I have a hard time finishing thoughts. I leave them unfinished until the very last minute. I’d like to not submit to it too soon, so that if I do have new ideas for it or want to change it, I’m not too attached to how it started.

You guys are like such an improvisational band that I almost envision that your songwriting is the same way, in that it comes and goes, it flows. But on that note, your jams. Do you guys practice jamming? Or is it natural and you guys just get each other?

We do practice it, and we practice it live in front of people all the time. We’re always practicing. Kind of a tricky thing because I guess it’s like that conversation we were having about creativity. You know, people think that you have to wait for the creative spark to move you before you can create. But if you learn, you have to learn to be a creative person who can turn it on and force yourself to be creative as a practice.

Improvising, I think, is the same way that you have to sort of give yourself the tools and the training to be able to do it. But if you over plan for it, it’s not improvising anymore. I think that our band listens to each other really well. I’m sure that most bands listen to each other, but sometimes bands don’t listen that closely to each other. Maybe we’re trying to force you without a drummer. We rely on each other for a lot of the rhythmic intricacies of how we share the role of the rhythm, specifically, and then share melody roles, all the roles. Basically everyone does the same stuff.

But, you know, we make a plan for how we improvise sometimes, and sometimes the plan is no plan. Sometimes someone is a leader, specifically design by design. Other times we just could take turns. Some songs are new so they can be really loose.

“Leap Year,” for example—which is a 12 year-old song now—when we first started playing it live, there was this big open section in the middle, and there was kind of a couple people, including myself, who were assigned a leader spot, and we took turns, and it changed a lot for a few years. Then, slowly, it’s more into something that’s, like, scarcely even and open anymore.

There’s parts that we go to and from that we’ve been improvising the same way for so long, that it’s got landmarks along the way, and how it gets from place to place is different all the time. It’s a pretty fun process, where it’s like the excitement of when it works, the vulnerability of when it doesn’t, and the adjustment for the release of what we present to the audience is our best intentions. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be our best, but I think that that intention is endearing. And that’s why I love improvised music, too. People want to be part of a struggle or live in something unique.

What are you listening to?

I’ve been listening to this Olivia Dean record. I had no idea who she was, but it came up in a shuffle for me. It’s called Messy. I just love it. There’s a song on it called “The Hardest Part.” I’m pretty new to it. It’s really random. It’s kind of like R& B, soul pop, I don’t know what it is.

Greensky Bluegrass play Grinders KC on Thursday, June 6. Details on that show here.