From Gus To Guster

The three original members of Guster—Adam Gardner, Ryan Miller and Rosenworcel—met at freshman orientation at Tufts University in 1991. Originally called GUS, they had to change their name in 1995 when another artist with the same name signed a major record deal.

Since their formation, the group has released four major studio albums, leading up to 2003’s Keep It Together. The first three albums have been described as “acoustic pop,” with Gardner and Miller on guitar and Rosenworcel on a variety of hand drums, mainly bongos and congas.

Lost and Gone Forever, their third album, was a stylistic breakthrough for Guster, in addition to producing “Fa Fa,” their first radio hit.

“We always felt like we had something to prove with Lost and Gone Forever,” Rosenworcel says. “We still hadn’t made a record that captured our signature live sound.”

The band wanted a finished product that was true to its instrumentation, so they turned to Steve Lillywhite, who has produced albums for U2, The Rolling Stones and most recently, the Counting Crows.

In the past, Guster kept their equipment set up in their living room, building songs from Miller’s melodies and lyrics. For Keep It Together, the band used “more of an evolving process.”

Rosenworcel describes the new setup: “We pretty much filled a room with every sort of instrument you could think of, other than two guitars and some drums.”

From there, the songs developed out of jam sessions, with all of the band members contributing to the composition and lyrics.

One of the major new components was that each of the band members picked up a new instrument for the album—Gardner on piano, Miller on bass and Rosenworcel abandoning his hand drums for a traditional drum set. At other points they add in banjo, clarinet and even a Jew’s harp.

Picking up a new instrument is no simple task, Rosenworcel admits.

“It was so hard. I’ve always been more of a creative drummer than a technical one...so getting all four limbs to coordinate at the same time took a while,” he says.

The additional instrumentation has also brought a fourth member to the band’s live performances. When Guster performs on Sunday, they will be joined by longtime friend Joe Pisapia.

Despite recent performances at Radio City Music Hall in August and a free concert for an estimated 45,000 people in Boston this September for their album launch, Guster’s members don’t feel that they’ve made any huge leaps in popularity. In the past few years they have appeared on Leno, Letterman and Conan and toured with the likes of Bob Dylan and the Dave Matthews Band.

However, Rosenworcel says the group’s rising popularity has been “a steady gradual trip. None of us really feel like we’re the next John Mayer. It’s pretty easy to stay grounded.”