Catching Up With Kyle Hollingsworth of The String Cheese Incident March 4, 2021 22:35

Kyle: Sure. So, Baltimore...essentially, we're below the Mason-Dixon Line. We're kind of in the South, but not quite. I can relate to the community, and those sticky summer nights where it's so hot you just have to keep the fans on. I lived right by the water. I would go downtown to the inner harbor and see music when I could. At that point, everything was 21 and up. I'd stand outside some of the club and listen to some of the bands coming through. Who would those bands have been? It may have been a little early for ARU and Spin Doctors. Maybe it was around that time, but I'd go listen outside of the door. 

I also started studying at that point. I wanted to be a rock and roll guy. I grew up listening to music. I was a child actor for a little while, but I was also a bit nervous when it came to auditions. So, I was said "Forget that. What else can I do to be on stage?" I knew I could practice piano forever, so studied as much as I could. I realized that I needed more chops, so I went to college and studied jazz piano in Baltimore.

I was then finally old enough to start playing the clubs I would visit when I was younger. It was awesome and just so much fun. We weren't old enough to drink yet, probably 19 or 20, but we'd get ushered in. My first band was called Black Friday. There was a bit of a punk scene in Baltimore and DC at that time. I wasn't that into punk, but I liked the edge that it brought. It was loud and had a lot of energy. Black Friday had some of those punk elements while also being highly improvisational. 

So, that band did pretty well. We'd get to play the clubs, but we couldn't hang out because of our age. We had a good following though, so everyone would still come see us. We just had to dip out the back door after. We worked through that, and that's how I got started. At that point, my brother was really into the Grateful Dead, so I listened to a lot of those tapes with Brent Mydland on keys. Some of The Doors stuff for sure. Then there was all the stuff in the pop world, like The Cars. At some point, I discovered The Talking Heads. They came out with "Burning Down the House," and I was just like, "Wow, that's so cool!" That led me to some of the more trippy albums like Remain in Light. 

At some point, I was probably 23 or 24, and I'd kind of done the Baltimore thing. I decided I was going to move to Colorado and see what's happening there. I originally went out there to be a forest ranger. I quickly realized I was a little better at playing music, so I put my focus there. I played with local bands like Lakewood Sunshine and Durt, who ended up opening for The String Cheese Incident. I sat in with String Cheese, and I've been sitting in ever since (laughs).

Kyle: Yes. They were just newly formed. I joined the band in 1998, and they had just started a few years priors. The band had relocated from the Crestview/Telluride area to Boulder. There was definitely a buzz about them, but they were still pretty new to the scene. It was mainly Dave Watts, the drummer from The Motet. He and I were playing in a band together, and Kang came and sat in. He invited me to come check out his band (String Cheese). I was like, "What kind of name is that? Who names a band The String Cheese Incident. I don't know if I can join a band with a name like that." (laughs)

Kyle: Exactly. 

Kyle: Right. So yeah, I believe I joined in 1998. They had only been a band for a handful of years at this point. Carnival '99 came out, and the funny thing about that time is that I was listening to Bela Fleck's Flight of the Cosmic Hippo and Spin Doctors, and the HORDE Tour comes around. HORDE stood for "horizons of rock developing everywhere." Bela was on that, and he had a great keyboard player named Hank Levy in that band. By Carnival '99, we were going to festivals and meeting these people that I thought I could be playing with. I had this vision of wanting to play with these guys. It moved very quickly, as you said. All of the sudden, by 1999, I was actually hanging out with people, even the Grateful Dead guys, and I'm just like, "What?! I guess this was the right choice. Forget Forestry!" (laughs).