During Phish’s fall and early summer dates, the band covered songs by Neutral Milk Hotel, TV on the Radio and Rage Against the Machine. In the September issue of Relix Trey Anastasio talks about the decision to interpret these compositions as well as other aspects of the group’s June and July shows. With the next leg of the tour beginning tonight in Berkeley at the Greek, we ‘vedecided to share some of Trey’s insight into the process by which these songs made it to the stage. Anastasio acknowledges that the suggestion to cover these groups was his idea, adding, "Sometimes I will just walk in after listening to something on the bus and say “Fish have you heard this tune? have you listened to TV on the Radio? They’re great.” Next thing you know I’m at the computer looking up the lyrics and I will read them and go “this is a great song – oh man, I’d love to sing this song” and then there’s a set up backstage, drums and stuff and the four of us will go over there and we’ll start playing it and if it sounds good, we’ll play it that night. It’s almost like a skill that you learn."

To learn a bit about Anastasio’s latest songwriting efforts, check out the excerpt on Jambands.com.