Three Fish Swims Deep Waters For New Album, Tour

Three Fish, the band featuring Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament and South African vocalist Robbi Robb, has just headed out on the road in support of its just-released sophomore effort, "The Quiet Table."

The new record is the follow-up to Three Fish's critically lauded, self-titled 1996 debut, an album that helped bring focus to world-influenced pop a year before rock supergroup Tuatara released its first album, "Breaking the Ethers."

Its very existence is an affirmation that these three friends were able to continue to work together without the business of making music souring their relationships.

"Our friendships are more important to me than putting out records," Ament told us, "and maybe having that cause any sort of strife or making our relationships more stressful. Because going into business together can always add a certain amount of tension to everything." [RealAudio]

"The Quiet Table" was recorded in a Montana studio during on-again, off-again sessions across 1997 and '98, and the expansiveness of the environment apparently lent itself to such ethereal rockers as "Tremor Void" and "Resonate" from the new album.

Like its debut, all the members of Three Fish contribute to the songwriting of "The Quiet Table," and even though Ament, Robb, and drummer Richard Stuverud all have other bands (Pearl Jam, Tribe After Tribe, and the Fastbacks, respectively), they agree that their Three Fish material tends to have a life of its own.

"I know there's stuff I've written where I'll go, 'No, this is more of a Three Fish-type of thing,'" explained Robb, "because Three Fish does have a sensitivity to it. Whereas Tribe After Tribe is more of the African drums, the heavy metal, the chanting, and it's more of a linear thing. These are more of songs."

Three Fish will tour North America until the end of June, after which the band will make an appearance at the 1999 Womad Festival in Redmond, Washington on July 30. But beyond that, both Robb and Ament admit to being pleasantly unconcerned about the band's open future.

"I've definitely opened up to these guys as much as I have to any men in my life," Ament said, "so that's a good place to be able to go to every once in a while."

"And we have discussed one thing," Robb said. "and that's been soundtracks. That's something we'd love to do, to get into a music that's formless."

[ Taken from MTV - http://www.mtv.com/news/headlines/990607/story7.html ]