Wong Notes

Back in August, at Cory Wong’s Syncopated Summer Camp in Nashville, Wong hosted a late-night interview and hang session with Italian guitar hero Matteo Mancuso. If you weren’t there, you’re in luck: This week’s episode of Wong Notes features that exclusive rendezvous in its entirety, recorded live in front of an audience of camp attendees.Mancuso unearths his roots on the guitar, from starting on the electric guitar to learning Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix while using his father’s finger-picking style. “Later on, I discovered about the pick, but I was too lazy to start again,” says Mancuso, who shouts out other fingerstyle players like Wes Montgomery and Django Reinhardt.

Mancuso credits his unique playing vocabulary to his atypical approach to the instrument, which meant he had to “find some solutions to some technical problems” that he encountered while learning to play. What kind of warm-ups does he turn to when he wants to get his fingers and brain moving? Mancuso has a few thoughts, but it all has to be “goal-oriented.”

Mancuso and Wong, both veteran bandleaders at this point, swap advice and techniques on heading your own band, arranging, and writing, plus scores of other obscure tricks of the trade. Tune in and listen to get the goods.

Phish’s Trey Anastasio is back again on this week’s extra-special episode of Wong Notes. The expansive conversation goes from the mundane to the massive: Trey shares the meaningful gift he bought himself for his 60th birthday, reflects on his most meaningful song, dissects boredom and nostalgia in the streaming era, and names the young bands impressing him most these days.

Then, Trey and Cory dig deep into the songwriting process, and Trey reflects on how his songwriting has (and hasn’t) changed over his length career: “Maybe it’s some kind of human nature, that you’re kind of fighting against who you actually, really are,” he offers. He then opens up the files and plays few unreleased (and vintage) demos! At this stage in his career, what is Trey Anastasio hoping to accomplish, and has his approach to making music changed? Tune in to find out.

Imagine being in a band with your best friends for over 40 years, and each night you step on stage you get to play one more show. That’s exactly what guitarist Trey Anastasio and his bandmates in Phish think about right before every sold-out arena or amphitheater show. “We're all hyper aware now, every night,” mentions Anastasio. “I mean, we just love it so much. It's like, I can't wait for the tour to start.” Anastasio’s energy and passion is infectious, even when he isn’t talking about music. Bring up hockey, 6L6-based amps, or even his generationally deep Iowa roots and watch as his eyebrows raise. 

We had to do something special for the 100th episode of Wong Notes. We caught up with Trey while he was preparing for a November tour with his solo band. In part one, Cory Wong brings Anastasio in with some hockey talk before diving straight into his current full-circle journey with his rig, and he reveals a bit of an epiphany that all true gearheads know, but sometimes are afraid to admit.

This go around, Cory Wong is joined by Pino Palladino and Blake Mills. Palladino, a Grammy-winning bassist, has collaborated with everyone from Erykah Badu and Keith Richards to John Mayer and the late, great D’Angelo. Mills’ resumé includes work with Bob Dylan, Fiona Apple, and Joni Mitchell. The duo has been around the block.

Wong probes all corners of their creative processes, from the purpose of the music they make, to dealing with “unnatural” elements of the creative process, to layering parts on a record, to different approaches to melody. As you read, Palladino and Mills have worked with some of the greatest musicians and writers of the past century. They’ve got a lot of wisdom to share.

Tune in to learn from some of the best in the biz.