Interview: Checking Jim Weider’s Pulse
I didn’t know much about guitarist Jim Weider’s Project Percolator band before I listened to the ensemble’s latest album, Pulse. I was familiar with Weider’s work as a member of both The Band and Levon Helm’s band, so I expected to hear your standard classic rock fare. Instead, I was treated to a wonderful disc full of complex, proggy tunes that grooved.
Jim Weider & Project Percolator – Squirrels in Paris
In fact, I enjoyed the disc so much that I reached out to Weider – known among musicians as the “King of Tone” – about Pulse, Project Percolator’s live shows and his time as a member of The Band.
Scott Bernstein: Please tell us about how you put Project Percolator together? The sound on the group’s two albums seems like a departure for you.
Jim Weider: The record I did before this was Percolator and this was a new direction I decided to take – more groove-oriented. I wanted to write myself out of the classic rock thing I had been doing on my earlier solo records. I cut that record with John Medeski, Tony Levin and Rodney Holmes. I went out and toured it with Tony Levin and Jesse Gress and we toured it for a while and then eventually I started working with Mitch Stein who’s fantastic. He used to play in the Kimock band. When Rodney freed up, Rodney joined up with us and they’re old buddies and have a great chemistry.
We slowly formed the band that you hear on this record. We’ve been touring for about a year and a half, so when we went into the studio to record Pulse we had been playing about half the songs. I really wanted to capture that live feel and I think we did it. We pared the songs down enough and didn’t overdub anything besides two or three tunes.
READ ON for more of Scotty’s chat with Jim Weider…
