Pete Francis isn’t your average rock star. He defies that stereotype. In fact as his latest project Dragon Crest Collective affirms, he defies most any musical stereotype.

Francis is a founding member of the indie/roots-rock trio Dispatch, a band that fellow member Brad Corrigan identifies on their website as “the biggest band nobody’s ever heard of.” This sentiment holds true as the group which has sold out multiple arena shows and drew over 110,000 people from all over the world to Boston’s Hatch Shell for their farewell performance in 2004 has never needed the spotlight (the group returned to the stage a few years later, in part to benefit charitable endeavors). The members of Dispatch have always been content to let their music do the talking, remaining true to their foundation as artists. None more does that than Francis, whose Dragon Crest Collective is a testament to that integrity.

Dragon Crest Collective’s debut, Volume 1, draws together different influences and sounds—a vast universe with stops to the funk, jazz, hip-hop and indie rock worlds. Francis explains that The Beastie Boys’ 1992 record Check Your Head, and A Tribe Called Quest’s 1993 album Midnight Marauders both served as inspirations for the project. He adds, “It really is truly a collective working with not only my main band, but also some rappers and different horn players and instrumentalists to get the record’s flavor.”

The album was recorded at Pete Francis’ house in Connecticut, and features Danny “dbone” Golden (keyboards, drum programming), Paul Maddison (guitar, bass), and Kenny Shaw (drums).Other special guests include guitarist Darian Cunning and the Funky Dawgz Brass Band. The production on the album is stellar, and it was all recorded and mixed by Pete himself.

Relix caught up with Pete to talk about Dragon Crest Collective, the writing process, influences, and other aspects that went into the creation of the project, along with a bit about a Dispatch’s future plans.

You are best known for being one of the members of Dispatch and your other solo work which has a distinct sound, but this is a completely different avenue for you. What led you to this project?

I think that it comes from this idea that I love bringing people together and working on different projects. Even for me back in the day when we put Dispatch together, it was kind of a band that I formed in 1995 when I had met Chad (Urmston) and Brad (Corrigan); two guys that were coming from music writing in a different place, but I wanted to bring it together. So I think this is another example of wanting to bring musicians together.Also one of the most influential records for me about being in a band and loving the spirit is that Check Your Head record by the Beastie Boys back from ’92. I think that’s such a classic album, and I love the way they rap on it, and the way they sounded as a band, and I think that was just a part of me. My brother gave me that record when I was in high school, and I think that ever since then it was an influential for Dispatch and one of my favorites still to this day, and I think I was drawn inspiration from that record by A Tribe Called Quest, Midnight Marauders.It’s always been one of my favorite albums; just how the words are so clever with the grooves.The grooves to me seem to be formed around jazz and funk, and that was definitely something that I wanted to bring into this record.

Can you talk about your inspiration for some of the individual songs on the album? Did you have a larger theme in mind?

Well, a lot of what I should mention is that I did a lot of this as a co-write. I wrote lyrics with my friend Danny Golden, and his nickname is “dbone.” So dbone brought a lot to the table lyrically, and sometimes he takes the train out here to Connecticut, and on the train ride out here he’d write a lot of lyrics on the train, and I would pick him up at the station and he’d say, “alright, I got these versus. Let’s look at this verse,” and I remember that’s how he wrote “Nose Dive” and the other songs on the record. So I guess I am coming back to that point about collaboration, and I think for me some of the best work I have been a part of is really where people present a line or a chord progression and you say, “What do you think? How can it work with that? What do you think of that part? How could it be better?”  It’s that process of taking an idea, and editing an idea.

The way that any artistic work moves around in terms of where I think I am in my life and career is that I really want to look at something and say, “What is this?What is this idea?How can we look at it and how can we refine it? How could it be something else?” And I know that I have been part of the jam-rock world, but I’ve also been influenced by jazz, funk, and hip-hop.All those art forms to me are really interesting. Like when Snoop Dogg lays down a flow or something like that, or I think about James Brown; and I love how these things blend in with the Pink Floyd guitar sounds. That’s really when I think how today we really have these amazing groups and bands to listen to that have now even spread out farther sonically.

I think that sometimes people feel a need to categorize bands and artists in certain genres, and promote a particular agenda from a business perspective.The best bands I have listened to are guys who collaborate, where they are all different people who meet in the middle musically, and create their own sound.

Yeah and I definitely agree that you hear a lot of different styles coming in. I always thought that the Grateful Dead were a band that did a beautiful job of collaborating their different talents together, and how each band member had a different style.When Phil Lesh’s bass playing comes in with Jerry’s (Garcia) guitar; it’s so much about the ingredients to make up something that I think we all can enjoy.

I think not only of the Grateful Dead but Phish with their Oh Kee Pa ceremonies where they locked themselves in a room and jammed endlessly to be one with their instruments.Also, bands like Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Primus and Tool do the same where collaboratively they all meet in the middle to create their sound and identity.

Yeah I love those bands.For us in Dispatch we were listening to that great Tool record, Ænima, which was huge, also Rage Against The Machine, all the Pearl Jam stuff, and Nirvana.Then there were the bands in the 90s like Dave Matthews Band coming out who were incredible and doing a different thing; blending the fiddle in with horns.I used to love that stuff too.

Going back to the writing and you saying that you want to keep the ball rolling going forward with music, and before with your other solo projects and Dispatch, have there been times that you learned something new and got inspired by after you’ve written a record that you apply to the next one, and going forward?Do you also learn on the fly during the process?

Yeah, I want to mention that I made this record at my house here in Connecticut.Dragon Crest is a studio that is part of my house. Having my own studio has been this enormous learning process because not only are you learning about the gear, but also how Pro Tools works.Pro Tools to me is this extraordinary program where when I first started making records, we were making them on tape. You didn’t have the same kind of versatility that you have now where you can throw loops and sounds, move stuff backwards and forward, and cut stuff up. Also the editing process now to me is way more sophisticated.So if I’ve learned anything, it’s all about getting in there with my instruments, and learning about sound, and manipulating sound, and learning about the editing process; how it seems to be infinite.

Are you planning on doing any touring for the album after its release?

Yeah I’m thinking we are going to do some dates in the fall. We got two nights with Dispatch at Madison Square Garden in July, and then probably take August off and then get back touring in the fall.

Speaking of Dispatch, what else is on the horizon for the group?

We’re going to be writing and putting out a new record next year.I think that we are still trying to challenge ourselves today, saying to ourselves, “How can a song be fresh?”So that’s really my quest, which is to keep the ideas fresh and keep them exciting to work on.