Steamboat Magazine: WinterWonderGrass has become a beloved stop for many artists, and this year you’re returning as headliners. What were your first impressions the first time you played the festival in Steamboat, and how has your relationship with it evolved since then?

Andy Falco: My first impression was, ‘this is f***ing nuts. This is completely insane, like what is going on here?’ Playing outside in the winter in a festival, I mean, are we crazy to do this? Sometimes that snow and wind is blowing straight at you sideways and you're really cold. There is a little bit of an element to it where as a musician you're battling against it. I mean if you play in 55-degree weather your hands are cold. I always kind of laugh, it's very extreme. However something magical happens out there, when you get up and you see the audience out there. Now of course, this audience, they're people that are used to being out in the cold, they have the right gear. What do they say, ‘there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear?’ But alas, they are out there shoulder to shoulder and all of a sudden things start to feel a lot warmer. You're feeling that energy from the crowd and the band certainly feels it and you realize that there's something very special going on there. The audience and the musicians are so hype and that's what keeps everyone warm. And, of course, the whiskey.

S.M.: As headliners at this year’s WinterWonderGrass, what intention are you bringing into the performance – not just for yourselves, but for the weekend as a whole?

A.F.: It’s just more of that energy, you know? Like I said, it's a very unique experience. I am not much of a skier these days but a lot of the guys in the band will be up on the hill skiing and then they’ll get up there on stage. We really want to harness that energy and bring the heat to a very cold festival.

S.M.: Stepping into that headlining role, are you feeling reflective, celebratory, experimental – or some blend of all three – heading into this year’s festival?

A.F.: Yeah I think it's all those things. First of all, there's a lot of our friends who are playing this festival as well, so every time you're there you're always inspired by everybody else that you get to see and be around. I think you're also reflective, you're remembering that time that it really blizzarded hard when you were on stage. In fact those memories are reinforced – backstage they have large poster prints of festivals past and you’ll see pictures of the other bands or us or whatever up there. There's one hilarious photo of our dobro player, Andy Hall, with his tongue out catching snowflakes as we’re playing.

S.M.: How does headlining WinterWonderGrass fit into where the band is headed creatively in the near future?

A.F.: Well, we are always trying to evolve. I think any artist is striving to evolve. But this is a special one because this is the 20th year of the band. We have our new record that is coming out on February 13 before the festival. It'll be fresh. The album is called “2020” and that's for 20 songs for 20 years, so we have 20 new originals that we put on this record. For us it's great because it's a whole influx of material for our shows. So to infuse 20 new originals into our repertoire is always really exciting for us, hopefully for the audience as well. The goal is really to be true to yourself as an artist and make the best music that you possibly can and hope that they like it as much as you do.

S.M.: After years of touring and now helping anchor festivals like this, what continues to make WinterWonderGrass meaningful to you?

A.F.: I think our history with Scotty and just having done it for so many years is special. That's always a cool thing when you're working with people who are still doing it and giving it their all and so that's a big part of why we keep coming back. It's just such an amazing event.