I had the desire to bring live instruments into our show, but I was always apprehensive about going all the way with it. In years of touring I had seen many lame attempts at live band hip-hop that came out as light, jazzy funk. Also, the second verse of MC Ren’s Kiss My Black Azz had steered me away from live instruments since the 90’s. (“All you need on the stage is meat and bones, save the band shit for Quincy Jones”)
Still, my new guitar-based songs called for it, and I was inspired by seeing it pulled of excellently by Kane Mayfield and Soul Cannon. Jen Rice had done a couple tours as part of Height With Friends as a singer, and she helped me understand how to get it the way I wanted it. It was decided that we should always add to the beats and never subtract.
We found the perfect way to play the songs off Bed Of Seeds and (the forthcoming) Rock and Roll live. At the time, it felt like now that we cooked this up it should stay this way forever. Now, I see that the live show is always going to change as the albums change.