We’re incredibly honoured and proud to have an interview with GARY LEE CONNER of the SCREAMING TREES! The Screaming Trees are legendary. If you had to name all the great bands of 90s era rock the Screaming Trees would be firmly placed alongside Nirvana, Pearl Jam, The Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against The Machine, Janes Addiction, Sound Garden, Alice In Chains, The Melvins, Mudhoney, Stone Temple Pilots and Sonic Youth. That’s some good company to be in and the Screaming Trees were as raw, exciting and musically brilliant as all those bands. Often referred to as the greatest group never to hit mega stardom, they leave behind a legacy of stunningly good albums and a bonafide classic in the form of ‘Sweet Oblivion’. After the band split in 2000 singer Mark Lanegan went on to release records with Mad Season (Lanegan featured on the original 1995 record and went on to complete Layne Staley’s unrecorded songs for the band’s 2013 Deluxe Edition), Isobel Campbell and Queens of the Stoneage as well as achieving success as a solo artist, whilst guitarist and chief songwriter Gary Lee Conner exiled himself from the music industry for 10 years. The internet is a beautiful thing and with artists no longer requiring a record deal to get their music heard, Gary jumped back into the music scene self-releasing his own albums. With Gary Lee Conner’s new release ‘Ether Trippers’ around the corner, we’re thrilled to present an interview with the great man. Honest and insightful, Gary answers the questions most fans are desperate to know, such as why the Screaming Trees never hit the heights they deserved to, why the band split up and if they’re planing on reforming. We also find out more about Gary’s solo work and what brought him back to music. VELVET SHEEP: Going back to your early days in the Screaming Trees, how did you break out of your home town? GARY LEE CONNER: There was a studio in town that was starting a record label (Veletone, which our first album Clairvoyance came out on). Steve Fisk (producer/engineer for Nirvana, Soundgarden, The Wedding Present) was working there and had a few connections to people like Calvin Johnson in Olympia (K cassettes and Beat Happening) and he also knew a few people in LA who worked for SST Records. After we put out our first cassette ‘Other Worlds’ and...