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Mix musical elements of equal parts trance, jungle, drum and bass, add a hint of jazz and throw in a good helping of live musical improvisation and what do you have? Answer, the music of Sound Tribe Sector 9. For 8 years, this Santa Cruz, California-based band has offered up a fresh musical cocktail that anyone with an ear for new sounds can appreciate. On the eve of their new cd’s release—“Artifact” due in stores February 8—STS9 came to Lawrence to play an all ages show at the Granada.

Jayplay writer Chris Brown talks with keyboardist Dave Phipps about mysterious song titles, the Mayan origin of the band name, and Corey Feldman.

How would you best describe your music to someone who’s never heard Sound Tribe before?

Usually, I’d say its dance music but most of the music we play is instrumental music using modern technology like samples and computers—that’s the evolution of what we do. When we first started in Atlanta, we were a more traditional band of drums, bass and guitar. Then, one-by-one, we started buying computers and producing music. For two or three years, we’ve incorporated technology into our music.

What’s new about this tour you’ve just started to kick off 2005?

“Artifact” is a lot of compositions that came out in the studio. We took the fall off to rehearse because we probably have 50 or 60 older songs that we kept playing and as a band we were just burning out. We have 20 or 30 new songs to work with on this tour and I think kids are responding well to the new material.

What do you think of being called a “jamband?”

To me, it describes more of an audience than the music. The audience is a really dedicated community of kids that appreciate the live music. We want to appeal to all different crowds—my parents and grandparents love the music and we want to make music that 10 year olds and 80 year olds could even like.

Where is Sector 9?

It refers to a period of time in Mayan history about 200 years long. It was called Baktun 9 and was the height of artistic exploration in Mayan culture. You know there’s open air acoustic music that still resonates from the top of those temples there no one can figure out. Originally, Sector 9 we just thought sounded cool and we shared the name with Sector 9 skateboards but then we added Sound Tribe to the beginning to set us apart and for legal reasons. It also refers to all the peeps around us; we travel with 11 and it takes more than just us to make the music happen.

What’s your process of creating new music? Do you all collaborate in writing the music or does one musician in particular write?

We’re all willing to pass ideas around, deconstruct them and build up new ones. Hunter Brown [guitarist] is definitely the musical connoisseur of the band—he brings new stuff in to the band and his arrangements are all very tight and quality. For this record, we’ve focused on jamming out and crystallizing arrangements with the rise and then climax to the music. It’s different than throwing out a groove and having the audience let us know where to take the music.

What bands or music do you all listen to for inspiration?

Just recently we played with Richard Devine, one of our idols, down in Atlanta for New Years. After the show, he gave us a 200-gigabyte drive loaded with pretty much the full history of electronic music, from early 1960s tape recorder sampled beats to modern stuff like Prefuse 73 and Boards of Canada.

I still love Miles, Coltrane and I recently have been listening to Sade, ya know—“this is no ordinary love” [Phipps mock-sings].

How do you arrive at the names for your songs—like Jebez, Satori, Moon Socket, and Wiki Chikana? It seems to me they sound like a fusion of Native American and otherworldly imagery.

Song titles are the most random things. They start out being songs like “jam in E Minor” and they don’t even have names until we have to name them, and sometimes that’s not until press release day. But no, they don’t have any special significance.

You all played at the Wakarusa Music Festival outside of town this last June. Any comments about the scene at this festival? How did it stack up among the festivals you played last year?

It seemed like a good festival in its first year. Last year, so many people lost their ass on these festivals. I just really hope the ones that work, work for a reason. It takes a long time to set up our stuff and we’re trying to anticipate going overseas for a string of shows. We want to just boil some shit down to make it easier to play over there and at future festivals.

How is the music on Artifact similar or a departure from the music on your other four albums?

It’s the first album that is premeditated. We wanted it to be a quality recording. It’s something we want to listen to for years because so much of our music requires thousands of people in front of us to really sound the way its intended to.

You are all from Atlanta but you now live in the San Francisco bay area. Why did you all move out to this area, was it for the drum and bass and club scene there?

Naw, it was more just leaving home after growing up in Georgia, gettin’ out, goin’ to California and establishing ourselves independently. It’s so beautiful out there and there’s so much to be inspired by. We all live in Santa Cruz now and its great living nearby each other and recording in a studio in town.

Better 80s actor with the first name Corey: Corey Haim or Corey Feldman?

Corey Feldman for sure because of “The Lost Boys.”

Hot or not? Joan Rivers?

Not. Vanna White?

Not anymore. Maybe when I was in middle school.

Oprah Winfrey?

Hot for sure.

Bridgette Neilsen?

The chick with Flav?

You bet.

Definitely not hot, that’s just fucking weird. [Laughs] I actually just had to stop watching that shit [“Strange Love”] to do this interview.