Q&A with Stephen Murray

Stephen Murray, banjo player, guitarist and vocalist for Holy Ghost Tent Revival is playing with a few bandmates to support Mike Quinn at this weekend’s Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance. He recently talked to Diversions Editor Joseph Chapman about the group’s recent shake-up in its lineup, and its plans for the festival.

DIVERSIONS: What’s the news with HGTR’s lineup?

STEPHEN MURRAY: Well, our bass player of four years, who was kind of there from the beginning in some aspects, decided to move on with the old life and move to Wisconsin and marry a lady and whatnot. So he did that, we played our last show with him last weekend.

And yeah, that was kind of a stick in the spoke. We were growing rapidly and at a really exciting pace, and there’s nothing more frustrating then having to deal with a lineup change. It was really not a good time. But you know, we haven’t hit a horrible rut, we just had our keyboard player move to the bass. Which, you know, is the perfect substitution since he knows all the songs, he just has to learn them on bass.

So, we were excited for that move. And then we just found out (Sunday) that our keyboard player is going to be leaving soon, too. So, we have a little dramatic fixing we need to do. This will probably be the first printed thing ever about it, but we’re going to soon start actively looking for two new members.

DIVE: Who will be playing with you at the Shakori Hills festival?

SM: We’ve been trying to advertise it as us backing up our really good friend, Mike Quinn. He’s from Scranton, Penn., and he’s an extremely influential songwriter to me personally. He was in a band called And The Moneynotes.

He came down with us last spring at Shakori and we primarily played Holy Ghost music and then in the middle of our sets, we would play five or six of his songs. Because where he’s at right now in his life, he’s recording albums and he’s struggling too to find permanent band members — I’m not sure if he even wants any, he just wants to find people who will go on tours with him.

His passion is to get his music into people’s ears and have people know his songs. With our bass player leaving, we kind of took ourselves out of playing so many shows this fall. And also we weren’t chosen to play Shakori in the fall, so we decided we would try and get some more of our fans, because we feel like if you like us, you’ll definitely like him.

DIVE: What stands out to you about the festival?

SM: It’s really the land. They scored big on the amount and kind of land they found. We’ve done a lot of festivals, and so much of it really isn’t the importance of how you feel and how comfortable you are and about the way it’s all laid out.

I think that’s one of the most important things for me. Other festivals I gone to, it’s so circular, and a lot of festivals are just huge plots of lands where you get lost easily. But Shakori is a consistent circle every year and you can never get lost.

The people that go there — you know, at some festivals, it quickly becomes such a drug-induced experience. As a person experience, I think it’s a wonderful thing. But it’s sometimes — not upsetting — but you feel a little more sketchy at certain festivals where you walk around and see, like, 16-year-olds tripping their balls. And it seems like the only thing about going to a festival is getting really f—-ed up, it’s not so much about the experience. And that’s what I’ve always enjoyed about Shakori.

If you choose to go down that road and have a good time in that way, then it’s available to you and it’s fun and it’s comfortable. But there’s also family and little kids running around — there’s a safer side of it that I think is lost in some festivals.

There will be security at every place you walk. With Shakori, there’s still a sense of safeness and security, but it’s not an invasive one. I’ve chosen every year to camp there, and I know some musicians, the idea of camping and not being able to shower and do your hair and makeup before you perform is a nightmare, but for our group, we’ve always enjoyed being there for the sense of the experience.

DIVE: How do you think the band fits in at Shakori?

SM: I think when we started gaining some popularity there, I think in a way, we started a kind of excitement about that festival. There’s always great music at Shakori, and any festival that you go to, there’s always going to be a few bands that are really memorable.

I feel like we kind of brought a different energy and a different style of how to approach Shakori Hills and the festival. Our performances excited the younger crowd. I really think we brought to Shakori a new sense of energy and excitement — the nights that we play, we will give you that festival experience where we throw down really hard and we perform our hearts out.

We won’t hold back by anything. I think that’s sort of caught on as to sort of why people get excited to see us, because they know that we’re a no-holds-barred kind of band.