(This interview was originally conducted by Kade Graves, AKA: kaveman)

i. CGT Online Store

What piqued your interest in selling CGT merchandise on your own via an online store?

Mainly to provide a place where we can offer recordings and merchandise that is not available from our record label. And also to give fans an opportunity to help support us directly.

What items will CGT fans be able to buy at the CGT online store?

Our entire catalog, plus the Collector’s Series CD, T-shirts and perhaps some items that we haven’t even thought of yet.

What will be the advantages of the online store to CGT and to the fan?

The advantage for the CGT is that we can release things that our record label is not interested in releasing, such as the “Monday Night in San Francisco” recording. This is a very bootleggy sounding recording, not quite good enough for a major release, but still of possible interest to CGT fans. One of the advantages to the fan is that they call buy all CGT related merchandise from one place.

ii. CGT Direct Collector’s Series

What is and what prompted CGT to establish a Collector’s Series?

The CGT Direct Collectors Series is a forum for us to release recordings that might not otherwise be available. This was prompted after the release of our Rocks the West live album. Many fans emailed us saying, this is good, but we want to hear the entire show, from beginning to end. In addition to live recordings we may also release rare archive recordings and other CGT stuff that is currently unavailable.

What will be the first release from the CGT Direct Collector’s Series?

The CGT Direct Collectors Series Vol 1 is a live recording of a CGT/T-Lev show at the Great American Music Hall on May 1st, 2000.

Please give us a little background to the Monday Night in San Francisco CD.

The Monday Night in San Francisco (Collector’s Series Vol 1) is a recording of the entire performance that evening, unedited from beginning to end. Very live and rough sounding, but also very high energy. After the tour, I remembered that show being a particularly good one, with some good energy. So when we began listening through tapes to select our first Collectors Series release, this one stood out from the rest. Not necessarily our most accurately played concert, but a good feel.

Will the collector’s series only be limited to live performances?

No, we are open to releasing other formats as well.

How limited will the Collectors Series releases be?

It depends of the demand. In the beginning we were considering naming it the Limited Live Edition Series or something like that, but you can always print up more! So the term “limited” is not accurate, because we could say only 5000 printed, but when those are gone, all it takes is a phone call to the CD manufacturers to print up another 5000.

I had read in your DGM online diary that your wife has been remixing some CGT tunes to techno and dance rhythms. Tell us a little about that. Could this possibly be a candidate for the CGT Direct Collectors Series?

Yes, my wife is a producer for a fitness music company and very into the techno dance scene. I went to pick her up for lunch one day and she brought me into her studio and played me a mix of the CGT’s Kan-non power with trance techno rhythms. Sounded pretty cool to me. I have asked her to peruse this further and see if we can come up with an entire release. Yes, this could be a Direct Collector’s Series release, unless it is so good that DGM wants to make it a major release.

iii. US Tour 2000

How hard is it for CGT to organize a tour when all three members of CGT live on different continents?

We are fortunate to have a good agent, Steve Ozark who has been working very hard for us. He sets up all our concerts. At the moment we don’t have a manager, since I am currently the only one in the CGT living in the US, the managerial duties fall mainly on my shoulders. This means coordinating all the details…promotion, traveling, routing, accommodation, on and on.

Do you expect to premiere some new material on this tour?

We are adding Jarrod Kaplan on percussion for most of the tour. With Jarrod, we will be delving into some uncharted improvisational material. Plus Jarrod will be giving a new twist to much of the current CGT repertoire.

Any original material premieres this go around?

We are hoping to generate new original material out of our improvisations with Jarrod.

Who are some of the special guests joining you on this tour.

Jarrod Kaplan (for most of the tour) and Tony Levin (for the Texas dates).

Please tell us a little about Jarrod and what you have in store with him on this tour.

Jarrod Kaplan is an amazing percussionist from Seattle.

How did the relationship between CGT and Tony Levin get started?

We became friends with Tony when the CGT opened up for Crimson in 1995 and ‘96. About a year ago I heard that Tony was on tour with Seal, but the tour had been canceled. I took a chance that Tony might be available to play with us and sent him an email asking if he would like to play on our next album and do a few live shows together. Fortunately he was interested and we set up a few shows in October of 1999. These shows went so well that we released our “Rocks the West” album recorded at these concerts and set up an entire tour together this past May and continue to find ways of working together.

Could Tony be considered the fourth member of the Trio?

When we are playing together on stage, Tony fits right in and it does feel as though it has become a quartet. But Tony still has his other possible gigs with Peter Gabriel, Crimson and others. So it is not possible to include him on everything we do.

Your tour van seems to get as much publicity in your diary as you do! What exactly goes on in that little tour van as it treks across the U.S.?

Mostly work on laptops, updating the CGT site with Roadcam photos and my online diary. We also listen to music occasionally, sometimes we listen to CDs that people give us at the shows. We also have the “Robert Fripp…Unplugged” Cassettes and have been laughing at some of Robert’s stories.

What are some other ways you pass time while on the highway?

Well, at this very moment we are driving down I-45 on our way into Houston. And I am answering your questions for this interview.

iv. Future

I hear that you have a project with Magna Carta records in the works. Please explain that.

The president of Magna Carta has invited the CGT to do a project with Tony Levin and Terry Bozzio. This is in the very beginning stages, we are just discussing the possibilities now. There are some good ideas floating around, it will be interesting to see how this develops.

Are there any particular artists that CGT would like to work with in the future? Maybe a vocalist?

We want to invite Sarah McLachlan to sing with us. Do you think she will say yes? We have actually recorded with a famous Italian singer named Aliche. Some very nice sounding stuff.

What other plans does the CGT hold for the immediate future?

Because of the huge response from the CGT tunes played on the Weather Channel, DGM is interested in creating a sort of CGT greatest hits compilation aimed more at this audience. As our CD are now, all of them have a few pieces that scare away most of this crowd!

Thank you Paul for your time! Good luck with the rest of the tour!

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