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Steamboat Springs — When Todd Park Mohr and his platinum-selling blues rock band walk onto a Gondola Square stage Wednesday, the first thing they’ll have to figure out is how to keep their instruments tuned in chilly weather.

The next step will be to sift through their 20-year-long, 10-album-deep supply of songs in blues, R&B, reggae and jazz styles to create a set list to satisfy their familiar Steamboat Springs fans.

Big Head Todd & the Mon­sters plays a free concert at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Gondola Square. The performance is connected to the U.S. Olympic Trials in freestyle and Nordic combined skiing.

Bred in Colorado, Big Head Todd & the Monsters made their national mark with the 1993 record “Sister Sweetly,” which produced several hit songs and tossed the band into a hard-hitting touring circuit it’s kept to for years. The Monsters are Todd Park Mohr on lead vocals, guitar, keyboard and saxophone; Brian Nevin on drums, percussion and vocals; Rob Squires on bass and vocals; and Jeremy Lawton on keyboard, vocals and steel guitar.

Mohr talked with the Steam­boat Pilot & Today about the band’s long history, his favorite kinds of music and the group’s next turn on a stylistic ride that has had plenty of offshoots but never has derailed:

Steamboat Pilot & Today: Could you start off by telling me a little about the concert you’ll be playing Dec. 23?

Todd Park Mohr: We’ve been recording a new album, so we’ll have some new material to play, which is really exciting to me. And we have, of course, a lot of material from being around so long. We have a lot to choose from. But we’ll also be playing some of our hits, because people want to hear those.

SP&T: Having been around for as long as you have, how has the band developed through the years?

TPM: Well, we started making records over 20 years ago. We started out as a blues and rhythm and blues kind of cover band, and slowly worked original music into our repertoire. … I guess the biggest thing about our music is that there’s a lot of variety in terms of the influences. I think we kind of work really hard to not make the same song twice or have even similar albums, so there’s been a lot of variety in our music. Hopefully, I’ve grown as a writer and gotten better at it — I like to think that I have.

SP&T: What’s included in that variety of influences, and how does that come through in your music?

TPM: I’ve always been really interested in blues and rhythm and blues music. That’s the music that I fell in love with as a kid and I still love very much. All of us have a different emphasis on what we like. Our drummer is really into jazz, and Rob (Squires) is really into classic rock. As far as what we have to draw from, I think it is a lot of reggae and folk and rhythm and blues. It’s sort of just a melting pot, which is what I think rock ‘n’ roll is.

SP&T: What originally got you interested in the blues?

TPM: It was one of the things that made me feel special about myself. People kind of identify with a certain kind of music, and it’s a way of defining their personality. Everybody else at my high school was listening to REO Speedwagon and Van Halen, and I fell in love with Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. I love the honesty of the music and the emotional part of it.

SP&T: You mentioned working on a new album. Are you doing anything different with that project?

TPM: I would say that, stylistically, I’ve been really interested in reggae and punk rock for similar reasons that I like the blues, just the honesty of it and the emotional quality of it. The stuff we’re working on now I would describe as really fun. … I mean, it still has complexities and different emotional textures, but overall it’s fun — some of our albums are a bit heavy. … The difference to me is whether it makes you want to dance or not.