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Butler admits that he's not the first one to conduct a band and its audience. "In a lot of respects, tons of bands do this" says Butler. "Michael Franti gets the audience to say words, to clap, and to do all sorts of different things. The conducting is just a little bit more blatant, and I feel like we're just scraping the beginning of the possibilities of where we can take this, as far as really integrating the audience." Butler plans to use projections to conduct larger audiences and to demonstrate very specific actions. Perhaps, for example, he can get the entire crowd to slap their cheeks or click the back of their tongues against the roofs of their mouths, creating a thunderous unison of strange noises.
Butler likes being the liaison between band members, but he also enjoys connecting the band with the audience. He considers conducting to be an instrument, and he's not the only one who thinks so. At a recent New Monsoon and Hot Buttered Rum concert, Butler was invited to conduct the encore, audience participation and all. "I basically showed up at this gig with my dry erase board, and for 15 minutes, it was an Everyone Orchestra show."
As a result of that performance, New Monsoon has invited Butler to open future concerts with a solo performance and to conduct the band for encores. "It's just kind of a little interesting offshoot, in that I'm being asked to do some of the things that I do within Everyone Orchestra, but I'm not necessarily putting the whole show together." It's those kinds of instances where Everyone Orchestra becomes the concept that Butler describes, rather than a simple amalgamation of star players.
Activism is the final piece of Butler's vision. Painters sell visual interpretations of the music and split the profits with charity. Some shows hold a charity raffle for a chance to guest conduct the band, and donation money is often scooped out of ticket sales, except when the band is playing at festivals. Butler is also trying to come up with some other sources of revenue, like CD sales, that can be utilized at any show.
Money isn't the only thing, though. "There's a lot of awareness and stuff that we can generate that's above and beyond fundraising and that is just as valid within a lot of these festival environments," Butler says confidently. There's also the ability to hypnotize the audience with a message set to music. Butler has invited activists like Rock the Earth founder Marc Ross and Circle of Life founder Julia Butterfly Hill to preach spoken word over a groove.
Still, Everyone Orchestra's benefit concerts remain their most significant events. The third-annual Pangaea Project benefit is set for April 14th and 15th at The Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon. The Pangaea Project is a non-profit group that sends low-income students around the world to volunteer for community-based projects. After the project was founded in 2003, director Deb Delman asked Butler if he'd like to put together a benefit show and suggested that her friend Jon Fishman would be available to play the drums. "That really opened up a bunch of doors and got a bunch of dialogue started," Butler explains. "That was my introduction to Fishman, and in a sense, that was a point in my life that helped jump start me from where I was at."
Among the musicians for this year's Pangaea benefit are Fishman, Jason Hann from String Cheese Incident, Jamie Masefield of Jazz Mandolin Project, Kai Eckhardt from Garaj Mahal, and Reggie Watts from Maktub and Soulive. "It's two shows, it's a huge, great venue, and we have all weekend," Butler says. "It's kind of our prototype, in some respects, of how I would like our shows to go."
04/06/06 >> go there
