Sonic Perspectives

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This is exciting, it’s only the third time it’s happened, but anytime a Lifesigns album comes out, you can just sense the anticipation. A lot of that build up is because these last two times you’ve been crowdfunding the albums, which seems to really get people on your side even before the album is finished and released.

Yeah, very much so. Initially with the first album, we did go down the record company route, but we decided fairly early on that from there on in we were going to be independent. We’d spoken to several record companies. We talked to people in power and we’d realized that we’d rather really be left to our own devices. [laughs] Because we thought with that, then it would be down to our quality control and nobody else’s. And I think that has served us well. Then we kind of put out to the people who supported us from the first album: Would they continue to do that with both the second album, the DVD, and also now this third album. But unfortunately the funding platform that we used, Pledge Music, went horribly wrong. So we just decided to do it ourselves this time and it’s all gone very nicely thus far.

So did the fact that you didn’t have a record label – you had one behind the debut album but not the next two – did that have something to do with a shift in the music? For example, I would say “Altitude” has a little more in common with “Cardington” sonically than the debut album, which seemed a little more full-on prog. So was that somehow influenced by the lack of a record company?

No, to be honest with the first record and the record company, we just made the record and gave it to a record company. So we’ve always been in charge of our own destiny, so to speak, but with the first album that really all came from a bet very early on where I said, I felt that there could be better, newer prog. It was kind of treading water a bit and we felt it could move forwards and we felt there were still places to go sonically that hadn’t been reached yet. And we were very lucky. The band kind of morphs from year to year, so everybody that’s been involved in it has got day jobs working for, shall we say, slightly more famous artists than ourselves. So it was always a labor of love. So to an extent, we managed to make the first album quite proggy, we thought that was the way to go. And then we wanted to build something else in from there. And I think with “Cardington“, it was a lovely mix. I always felt that that was a nice mix of big tunes and also some proper songs. And to an extent, this has now probably moved on from there a little and there’s an element of lots of different things, there’s even jazz fusion in there. A couple of people I’ve seen in reviews have compared us to UK, which I was very pleased with. Jon, our bass player, he has on his bass guitar “Destroy All Genres” so he’s quite happy to be in any genre you want. I think that’s a good thing.

How does playing with a new drummer this time – and previously different guitarists and even bassist – how do those changes impact the recording for you?

As I say, it’s been very fluid. When we did the first album, Nick Beggs was playing bass and from there Nick couldn’t do it live because of his commitments with Steve Hackett and Steve Wilson. So Jon Poole came in and has been with us ever since and is truly wonderful. We’ve been very lucky because everybody that we’ve ever approached has always said, Yes! So even the guests, Steve Hackett, Thijs Van Leer, people like that…nobody ever said no. We even had some very special guests that didn’t appear on the records because it didn’t work. I’m not going to go into who they were, but it’s always been about the quality, it’s always been about making sure it fitted the way that we worked. And I think that has probably stood us in good stead.

Does it impact the way that you write or arrange the music depending on who you are working with, especially with Dave now as the guitarist?

Oh, Dave‘s glorious. [laughs] I mean, when we were doing these last shows, it was quite funny because I said I’m probably about the third best keyboard player in the band. There’s Dave, and Jon‘s brilliant, and it’s a joy, it’s a joy to work with such talent. Well, you know, Scott, you work all your life to work with the people who are the best. And I can only say that with these three albums – and obviously Steve Rispin is very much part of that – we’ve been very fortunate to work with the best all the way through, and it’s been such a joy. It’s very difficult because there isn’t…it’s something we’ve been discussing on sort of prog areas in the UK and Prog Magazine readers and stuff…there isn’t really an outlet these days for this music. It’s not like it was in the seventies. Robert Fripp once said to me, John, you know, your only problem was you were born five years too late. Well, that applies to a lot of people. And it doesn’t mean that the music necessarily got any worse after that period of time, there was just no funding. So I think in a way, the way that I see it, is that the people who work hard to make great records these days – and there are many – deserve far greater accolades than the people from the seventies, because they never had fast paychecks and swimming pools and big cars. They just had to get on with it while they worked in other day jobs and generally really strived hard to make beautiful music. In the old days, we used to have things like the Old Gray Whistle Test and stuff like that, which used to sort of showcase some of the great talent that was around at the time. And I do feel that if that was possible now on either side of the Atlantic – I mean Casey Casem and all that kind of stuff back in the day in the States – then there would be a chance that the music would become far more accessible.

You mentioned being the third best keyboardist in the band [both laughing] and I noticed in the liner notes that both Dave and Steve are credited with some keyboards. But considering that keys are mainly your role, how do you decide when someone else will play keys on the album, or what moves you to say, Hey Dave, why don’t you give a go on this?

It’s generally down to the guys involved. If somebody is listening to the track and goes, You know what? I think I can put something in there. Then it can come from anybody. I mean, pretty much all our guys can play keyboards, so anyone can put, you know, a bass pedal part here or whatever. It doesn’t mean it gets on the album. Obviously then it all goes to committee and we are pernickety to the last. I mean, we really fight tooth and nail to make sure it’s exactly how we want it to be. So a lot of stuff gets thrown out, and a lot of brilliant stuff gets thrown out. But if it doesn’t fit the song then it doesn’t get on. So The Song is King all the way. It’s not about how brilliantly you play, how fast you can play, what you can do, how much you can show off. It’s about the song and if it fits in the song then that’s when it works for us.

Well, let’s look at some of the specific songs on here. A song like “Ivory Tower”, is that written about a specific person from your life or someone that you knew?

Ha, I won’t go into specifics on that one but yeah, it was from a moment of my life that wasn’t particularly pleasant in terms of a relationship. The whole story took place in an Indian restaurant. And it was just about being told something beautifully that was a complete fabrication. The song came from that. I felt it was quite evocative the way that it worked. It was on my first album “Life Underground“, so it’s been around for a while. We did it with The John Young band as well. It was really Steve that said, You know what? This song is great. Can we put it in the set? So we put it in the set on the last gigs before lockdown happened and it went down really well. As did “Last One Home“. What we’ve tried to do over time – and this included the DVD – is as we move forwards, obviously there’s a lot of new stuff, but there’s also one or two epics from the past that have crept into the albums. I think that will continue to be the case, with a bit of luck.

I’ve always thought it was dangerous to be in a relationship with a songwriter, as you’re bound to make the headlines sooner or later for better or for worse.

[laughing] But also the song is a thing of beauty. So you have to be thankful from that point of view as to having created something that was that beautiful. You asked earlier about writing, and “Ivory Tower” was the first time I’d written a song in the way that I write now. So up until then, I’d been writing in a kind of more established way. And then “Ivory Tower” was the first time that I wrote in a new way, shall we say

It’s an interesting juxtaposition because the song has such a beautiful, almost romantic cadence to it. One would think that it’s a love song.

Well, in a way it is. it’s about a lost-love song. So it’s about what might’ve been rather. I think songwriters have always tended to go for that, in some ways the pathos of it is probably more interesting than what is. So, um, I think unrequited love is something that becomes quite tragic in a way, but beautiful at the same time.

Give us some background of titling the short instrumental piece “Arkhangelsk”, and its relation to John Wetton.

Yeah. Well this goes back, obviously. I worked with John for 15 to 20 years, something along those lines. I remember when I was touring with Asia, John said to me one evening while we were rehearsing down at Barry Barlow’s place on the Thames. And John said to me, You know, we need some more tunes [laughs]. I said, Fair enough. He said, Can you come up with anything? So I said, I’ll give it a go. So, that night I came up with three tunes that kind of work together, of which one was “Arkangel” and one was “Last One Home“, strangely. John really liked them. I can’t remember what we used at that particular time, but we later played “Last One Home” as well with Quango when we did that. That was the beginning of our writing together. Shortly after that, when John did his “Battlelines” album, I worked with them on that. But on “Arkangel” I co-wrote half of the album. John‘s an absolutely brilliant songwriter, amazing musician. And so I felt it was nice to sort of just give a nod back to those times and say, thank you.

Can you tell us a little more about the different incarnations of “Last One Home” over the past decade?

I used to go and play “Last One Home” on my own when the first album came out. And I could quite easily go into a room where no one would clap, no one would be the slightest bit interested because you weren’t playing anything they knew. And this has become a more common occurrence. So then when we did it with JYB and we’d outnumber the audience! And this kind of thing. So it’s certainly done the rounds to get to where it is. And then when Quango did it, it went down really well. I think people have always enjoyed the song. And then we brought it back into its current incarnation. I mean, Dave Bainbridge’s solo is outrageously good. And I did wonder how long it would be before his name and another Dave from another band would get compared [laughs], So, which one’s better? I think it’s well-deserved, David’s an incredible guitarist. And before that, obviously with Quango, we had Dave Kilminster on it, who does work with the Pink Floyd stuff. So, I think you have to be called Dave to play the solo!

You got three Dave’s right there. You know, I kind of chuckled when I heard the song and heard Dave solo over it, I was just wondering, Was Dave just really excited when you presented him with this lengthy section for him to solo over? I kind of think of it as like when Steven Wilson gave “Drive Home” to Guthrie Govan and said, All right, I’m just setting you up here, man, go be a star!

Yeah, there is an element of fill your boots with it, that’s for sure. The thing was that when we first did the song, the solo section was half the length. [laughing] So, you can imagine who suggested it should be twice as long! And he was absolutely right. I mean, the build is beautiful. And I have to say that, as a band, it works really well. One of the things I’ve really loved about Zoltan‘s playing is that he plays within the song and he can adapt to anything. You know our song “N” from “Cardington?” Well, when we changed drummers, I gave that song to a number of drummers and they said, Well, give us a couple of weeks and we’ll get back to you. [laughs] Zoltan got back three hours later. And it was amazing! And I just thought, Well, that’s incredible. But the thing is, he’ll hold it back when he needs to. And so I think that’s always been a requirement with everybody within the band and Jon Poole as well. You know, I mean, Jon can play Chris Squire-reborn in areas and plays incredible bass guitar. But they will hold back when it’s necessary. So we all hold back underneath Dave’s solo in “Last One Home” to just let him rip. And boy does he rip!

Well, I went back to the, to the Quango live album and it was interesting hearing John Wetton sing it and then Dave Kilminster’s approach to that guitar solo with that very clean sound and feeling as it starts…it’s just great to hear the dynamics and differences that guitarists will choose to approach it with.

Well, yeah. How spoilt am I? You know, I get to listen to all these wonderful people being on my tune. I remember there was one night on the Quango tour, that John couldn’t sing it, so I sang it and there was a definite interchangeability there. I really enjoyed doing that with Quango. To be honest, going back to that band, I wasn’t really a massive ELP fan or anything like that. And it was quite a tricky gig, but I think the melodic side of John, which we had more so probably in the John Wetton band – and the UK end of it as well, which I really enjoyed – I think the melody and John’s voice just were synonymous with each other. There was a beauty in the way the man sang. Not too many people have that. So yeah, it was great to hear him sing these tunes and things like going back in time to Crime of Passion and stuff like that, which we did together.

Speaking of vocals, I’ve really been enjoying the backing vocals from Lynsey Ward on this album, too.

Phenomenal, aren’t they? Yeah, absolutely.

Do you write the backing vocal sections, or does she come up with that? How does that work?

Gotta be honest, apart from a few minor things, Lynsey’s come up with 99% of it. What I felt was, if we needed somebody to do backing vocals, aside from myself and Jon and Dave, then it would be good to get somebody in who was creative. When I work for other people, if I put keyboards solos on, they pull you in for your creativity on their tunes. And that’s kind of what we did with Lynsey. And I also felt that she’s a star waiting to be born, basically. So to give her this opportunity. It’s really interesting because her dad’s become like a major fan and he’s a lovely, lovely man, and he’s now a big Lifesigns fan. But yeah, it was duck to water, she absolutely just lapped it up. She would send through files and they would always be beautifully made and with great ingenuity. It’s very easy in this day and age, especially after so much music, to copy somebody. But to be unique is always very difficult. And Lynsey has that.

Do you know when you write a section, like the latter section of “Fortitude”, do you have a sense of, Oh yeah, this is just going to go down so well with the audience. Do you have that sense right in the moment of writing it? Or does that come out more as Steve is producing the sonic quality of it?

Yeah, probably a bit of both, really. When I first latched on to the end section of “Fortitude“, I thought, Well, this is a bit different! It just felt like it just kicked in and it was…huge. But it wasn’t until Steve got hold of it that you really felt the whole of it…I mean, it was just beautiful. And I remember sitting in the studio, and again, Jon does most of the bass parts for the album…again, it’s mostly down to Jon. But on this particular one, I pointed out how I thought it should go. And we just needed something that sat for those few minutes at the end. I remember the first time that we’d kind of finished it and we went through and got through to the end of it and Steve and I just looked at each other and grinning at the end of it. And I thought, Yeah, this is special. This is very special. And judging by the reaction we’re starting to get, it is.

So along with Jon’s bass, are there bass pedals on that, or is that a synth as well?

Yeah, Steve uses a thing called, I think it’s called a Baby Taurus or something, which is like Taurus pedals that you just run off a keyboard. So whenever we need to do that, we just fly that in. And I think it’s used in “Ivory Tower“, It’s used in a couple of places on the album and “The Last One Home“. I mean, in the old days we used to all sit around the studio and go, Yeah, that one works, that doesn’t, put that on, do this…and of course this was all done remotely. So, that makes a whole different game.

So after that huge epic finale of “Last One Home”, you know, that could have very easily sealed the album. So what inspired you to instead close the album with brief “Altitude reprise” at the end, and with a little more electronic vibe to it?

Well, it’s a funny one. We try out a lot of the music between ourselves. And so there’s a little bunch of us, obviously the band, Julie who does merch, Brett who does the artwork, everything bounces out to everybody, a couple of close friends. And I had just been playing around with this electronic thing. And then all of a sudden I realized that the chorus of “Altitude” fits perfectly over it. I thought, Oh, that’s really lovely. And I thought, Well, if that actually just came at the end, then people would want to go back to the beginning and start again. So there was method in my madness. But then Brett said to me, Well, I could do with a 20 minute version of the electronic one! [laughs] So I think we were all in agreement. I mean, a lot of people probably thought it would just end with “Last One Home” but it kind of brings you back wanting more, I think. Well, I hope so!

I must say I agree with the call for a 20 minute version. For me, I was thinking, Oh, I really can’t wait to see where this develops. And I hadn’t looked at how long the song ran for, and so I was like, Oh, what a pity it’s fading out now.

I do actually have about an 18 minute version of it or something. So I’ll have to dig that out at some point.

Like Riverside on their bonus discs. they put their more ambient spacious stuff. So it would be great to have something like that.

Ha, yeah.

The other cool trick I wanted to mention that is really nice is during “Fortitude” when you sing, “Why…” you’ve got that reverse delay that introduces the word “Why”. Was that one of Steve’s tricks that he introduced or how did that come about?

Yeah. Steve and I have worked together for years and years and years. So he knows me backwards, he knows what I’ll like, he knows what will fit and as a team, although we do tend to tear into each other when we’re not happy with something, we’re just very strong, you know? So I remember I just came into the studio and that bit came on and I had not heard it, you know, and I just lit up and went, Very cool. [laughs] He just has a little grin on his face and that’s it.

So up until COVID brought an end to live shows, your main gig outside of Lifesigns has been heading up the Bonnie Tyler’s band, is that right?

That’s right. Yeah, she was just on the phone yesterday, actually. It’s one of those things. I think for a lot of people my age who were in music, we ended up working for a lot of different people over the years. I was very fortunate in that respect with the amount of different types of music and different types of bands I worked with. But Bonnie, I think it was 1993 that I got the call to go down for the auditions. So it just became sort of family, really. I’ve been lucky with a few bands like that. Yeah, so we’ve traveled all over the world. She’s massive in places you’ve never heard of, so that kind of thing. And it’s been great, I’ve really enjoy it. But the thing is with all of us is that we all have other bands that we do stuff for. I mean, I was playing keyboards with The Strawbs and then Dave joined The Strawbs. We all sort of bounce from one thing to another. Steve works with Yes. It’s part of his job. So, Lifesigns has always been in our spare time, but we’ve always made time for it, if that makes sense. So, I’m hoping that will change. I’m hoping that it might become more important. We shall see. [laughs] But with your help, Scott, with your help!

Well, it’s just incredible to have a twenty-five year run with one artist.

Well, Nick Beggs and I talk about it a lot. It’s about juggling, you know. I write for television. I’ve done a lot of music that’s mostly news channels and stuff like that. I did the music for the war in Iraq on CNN. Never got paid a penny for that one, unfortunately, but we live in hope! (He said not bitterly). But stuff like that sort of keeps you going. And then while I was doing Bonnie, I was also doing Fish, I was also doing The Scorpions and Greenslade and Strawbs. So it’s a bit like, um, Nick was very busy with Steve Hackett and Steve Wilson at the same time. And so you just fit in what you can. And occasionally you have to turn down jobs you’d really like to do. But I think those days have changed now because obviously there’s less music around now than there was back in those days. And so you tend to find – whereas we all jumped ship from one thing to another back in the day – now people keep hold of their gigs. Ha! It’s changed, definitely.

One thing you were involved with that somehow I missed at the time, was a brief collaboration with Paul Rogers and Kenney Jones in a band called The Law. You have any good stories about that experience?

Oh yeah, a few. Some I can talk about, some I can’t! Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Paul and I got on very well. I was quite surprised, actually, because for me The Law was just something that happened and then there was a gig and it was in front of, I don’t know, 75,000 people and it was great. And I remember standing there on stage playing cowbell in “All Right Now” and I’m just thinking, Well, it doesn’t get much better than this. You know, and there’s Paul giving it what. And he was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. And then for some reason, which I still don’t know the full story to, it didn’t happen. We were all set to do a European tour. Big things were being said, the gig had gone really well. I do know that that gig, I think, was where Paul and Brian May met each other. What did happen after that was that I ended up for the next probably 12 to 18 months working with Paul at his studio on his own compositions. And that was great fun. And I always remember about two o’clock one morning having a cup of tea with Paul and he just turns to me. He said, Why isn’t anybody buying my songs [meaning, other artists buying his songs to cover]? And I said to him, You’ve got to stop singing the demos. Because he just sang them better than anybody else could sing them! And the thing was, I said, They just sound brilliant! He’s the only guy I know, and I’m completely heterosexual, but he’s the only guy I know that can walk up to you and go, Oh, baby. And you just go, Wow! That’s, that’s amazing. [laughs] So, just what a gift, what a gift. Amazing singer. Absolutely amazing.

Did that time that you were spending songwriting with him, did your playing wind up on any recordings from that?

You know, I don’t know. I mean, I’m not sure if he ever did anything with those songs, to be honest. We kept in touch for a few years, but not recently. So, I couldn’t say.

I’m curious about your background with aviation and how that’s played into your life and writing.

[laughs] It’s no major thing. But it is also part of my income stream because I do buy and sell aviation memorabilia. I always had a love of aviation. I would love to have been a pilot. I just wasn’t clever enough, basically. I applied to air traffic control, got accepted. But it wasn’t what I wanted to do in the end. My father put me in a bank when I left school and then I started working as a dock foreman. And then I thought, well, I can jump from this into aviation, with shipping and handling and cargo and all that kind of stuff. Which is what I did. And I worked for a couple of companies in the UK, and then eventually I worked for the American company Airborne Freight Corporation in their London office. I was 23 years old and it was just like European sales manager of a big American company. And stupidly, I decided to do music! And most people thought I was mental because obviously I’d done all the hard work to get where I needed to go. And I have this massive love of like fifties and sixties civil aviation and Imperial Airways and all that kind of thing. I just think it must have been an incredible time to have traveled the world. I mean, we get to do it as musicians and we’re very lucky. I’m very lucky from that point of view. But I always remember there was a photo album I got through a very rich family from the thirties traveling around the world on Imperial Airways. And these things were held together by string. They were incredible planes. And there’s a picture of the pilot with this massive wheel in front of him, flying across the equator. And he’s a young lad and he’s laughing, he’s wearing his shorts and everything else, and he’s just laughing. And I thought, that’s the only aircraft in the sky over Africa when that picture was taken. How was that? How did that feel? It must’ve been incredible. So again, the time that you can only look at from a distance and think about. But again, great inspiration from the point of view of writing and that kind of stuff. So, I’m a bit of a romantic in those areas, I guess.

So are we seeing enough light at the end of the tunnel that you might be able to plan for some future Lifesigns shows either end of this year, beginning of next year?

Hmm. I don’t know on that one, Scott. I mean, we’re down to do these shows with Big Big Train in the UK. And I suppose both of us, both bands and the people who manage the venue who I know really well, we’re probably all looking at it and going, Will it, Won’t it? We just don’t know. It’s a bit like the Cruise next year, nobody knows whether everything will be fine for then again. I do think the steps forward with the vaccine, although I’ve not had one yet, seem very positive and very strong. Part of the problem, cause we discussed this amongst the bands that I’m with, is it’s not just about, I don’t really want to tour and get on planes unless I’ve had both jabs [of a vaccine]. I think most of the guys that I work with feel the same. But then again, most people aren’t going to want to be in an audience if they haven’t had them, either. So you’ve got to look at the whole perspective that different countries are working at different rates…I think we have to play the careful part with it, really. I’m quite happy to wait until the time is right so that we can all have a really good time and feel safe. I think that’s the important part. And that’s for everybody: band, crew, venues, audience, you know, everyone.

I’m a little out of the loop, obviously being over here in Colorado, but I’ve heard that the impact of Brexit is going to make it even more expensive and challenging to tour Europe. Is that what you’re looking at, too?

I would agree, Scott, entirely. Firstly, the thing that really annoys me for our kind of music is that we can’t get to your country. Visas are now something like $3,000 each and that’s before you’ve played a note or hit a chord. And then you have to hire equipment, hire hotels, tour buses, whatever. For a band at our level, it’s almost impossible unless we can find some way to crowdfund. Canada is free. You know, you can just go to Canada and play a gig. And I wish the U.S. would take the same deal. Sadly now with Brexit, they’re talking about visas and everything else to get across to Europe. And I don’t think anyone’s going to be terribly inclined to do that at our level. It’s okay if you’re Paul McCartney or if you’re U2 or those kinds of things, someone will do it for you and the cost will come out of something. But I think for those bands that need to be heard, then it’s really difficult. Don’t get me wrong, I am the eternal optimist. You’d have to be to do this. You know? So I am always looking to positivity and brightness and there’s definitely a certain amount of that in the music that we make. But I’ve met quite a number of people from the US who haven’t gone on the music cruises and they haven’t had any access to the current new bands. There’s so many great bands around now. So many really great bands. And they don’t know any of them you know, and they think old people stopped songwriting in about 1995. No! This is not what happened! So we need to find ways, there needs to be a kind of global change, for people to discover this. This is a very long conversation, probably better in a pub one evening or whatever, but you know the search for the lowest common denominator in current television and radio and everything else kind of precludes any artistry. I’m not saying there aren’t good records around, I’ve got to be politically correct. Yes, people still make good music. But the thing is that there’s so much that isn’t heard and that has to change, that has to change.

Oh, I know. In 2019, I said, Boy, I think this year for progressive rock rivals the early seventies in terms of quality and quantity output. And then 2020 proved that true again. And already 2021 is proving to be the same.

It’s crazy. We picked the wrong year to bring the record out because there’s so, so much good stuff coming out. It’s really, really good.

Well, the new album’s getting a great response from the fans thus far, so we’re really wishing you the best on where it’s going to take you in the next year or two.

Yeah. It’s an interesting ride, Scott. I’ll be honest, the boys have done us proud on this one and judging from the reviews that we’ve seen so far, we’re just lost for words, really. It’s everything we’d hoped for. I hope with that, we can find new friends around the world who enjoy what we do.

Given that kind of response, is your general mindset that every two to three years is the time for a new Lifesigns album. Do you think you’ll continue with that kind of pace from here on out?

I’m not sure actually. We’ll have to see. We don’t actually work to a schedule. It’s kind of like when it’s ready, it’s ready. Which is why when people say, When is the release date, we’re terribly vague on those kinds of things, because we don’t want to push something. We want to do it in its own time. You know, so when it’s ready, it’s ready. And now it is. And I have to say a huge thank you to everybody who helped to crowdfund what we did. Above and beyond the call of duty. So many people who’ve become such good friends, which has been the nice thing. One of the joys of Lifesigns for me personally is when we go and do a gig, it’s like a party. Because people know all the words, they’re friends with all the band, everybody just gets together and has great fun. And it never used to be like that years ago. You know, I can remember with Asia, we used to come off stage, run for the tour bus and try and avoid meeting the people. And I remember saying one night when I got back to the hotel – and you’re just sitting in your hotel room after a gig – I said to Carl, I’m sorry, I’m not going to do this anymore. I said, I’m going to hang around the gig when we finish. And of course the one thing they wanted to see was Carl and John, you know, but that wasn’t the mindset of people from that time. And this has changed now. And it’s changed with people who are still around doing it. Carl‘s very different these days in the way that he approaches things. He’s very hands-on. So I do love that change. I think it’s a really a positive change that you could spend time with your friends and fans and become a good chums. It’s very nice.

The post JOHN YOUNG of LIFESIGNS on New Album “Altitude”: “We’ve Always Been In Charge of Our Own Destiny” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

“This album is all about growth,” she continues. “Every cloud has its silver lining, and there’s always light at the end of a dark period.”

“If you look for it,” she adds.

Anneke van Giersbergen is no stranger to facing daunting odds with a self-assured smile. Indeed, she penned one of her former band’s most gentle ballads, “You Learn About It,” in response to frustrations with the record label they’d just left; shocked metalheads worldwide when she left both The Gathering and metal itself a few years after; and was warmly received when she started playing metal again, albeit part-time. In between, there have been a number of acoustic rock albums, pop albums, rock albums, and collaborations with everyone from Anathema‘s Danny Cavanagh to some guy named Devin Townsend. And she was riding mighty high on the wings of her fantastic live album “Symphonized” and moving on to her next project when Covid-19 brought the world to a screeching halt last year.

“What better way than to try to turn it into something positive and something we can heal from and do together?” Ms. Van Giersbergen reasons.

That something positive is her soothing new acoustic album, “The Darkest Skies are the Brightest.” Anneke was kind enough to discuss the album, lockdown life, and performing not-metal to metal crowds with Sonic Perspectives scribe and Texas Bureau Chief Gonzalo Pozo just a few days before hell froze over. Listen to their revealing conversation below, and remember that for more interviews and other daily content, make sure to follow Sonic Perspectives on Facebook, Flipboard and Twitter and  subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified about new interviews and contents we publish on a daily basis.

The post ANNEKE VAN GIERSBERGEN Talks Recent Album “The Darkest Skies are the Brightest” and Inspiration Behind it: “You Have to Go Through Darkness In Order to Get To The Light” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

In his in spare time between work with Yes and Asia, Geoff Downes began a new project with noted singer songwriter Chris Braide. Ten years later, the fourth release from the Downes Braide Association (DBA), “Halcyon Hymns”, is a beautifully textured album, as colorful as the Roger Dean cover art which adorns it. You can read our full review here.

Sonic Perspectives correspondent Scott Medina interviewed both Chris and Geoff extensively about DBA and other projects in their careers. Although the interviews are separate, we are providing an interwoven written transcript which covers highlights from both interviews. You can also listen to the full-length audio interviews as a podcast below. Geoff’s fireside chat (note the crackling fire in the background) is first up, with Chris’ interview starting at 25 minutes and 25 seconds. In addition to talking about DBA, we cover areas such as the upcoming Yes album, the most challenging pieces for Geoff to cover from Yes’ repertoire, Chris’ time with Trevor Horn in The Producers and his work as a songwriter for other superstar artists, and much, much more.

Remember that for more interviews and other daily content, make sure to follow Sonic Perspectives on Facebook, Flipboard and Twitter and  subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified about new content we publish on a daily basis.

A lot of our listeners might be new to the band, so why don’t we explore a little about how you two came together and developed your musical relationship?

Geoff: Sure. We got together about 10 years ago almost to the day, actually. We did a show in 2010, which was a Buggles reformation show. Chris was working with Trevor Horn on a project called The Producers. We all did a gig with the Buggles, playing the whole of “The Age of Plastic“, and that’s how I got to meet Chris.

Chris: We just really got on very well. We’re both keyboard players. I was a huge fan of his from when I was a lot younger and we just clicked. And now we’re four albums later! I never thought that that would be the case, but it’s been a magical kind of connection that we’ve had.

So on that night with The Buggles show, what did Trevor bring you in to do, Chris?

Chris: I was playing second keyboards, but I was also singing. I sang a couple of songs. Trevor asked me to sing “I’m Not In Love“, the 10cc song, and a couple of backup vocals and things like that. It was just really great. It was just fascinating and great fun. I met Geoff and I thought, I’ve known him forever. It was just one of those things. And then I thought this is unfortunate because I’m moving to the U S. It was the eve of me moving to Los Angeles. And I thought, here I am, I’ve met this guy that I really get on great with musically and I’m leaving. But he said, Not to worry, I’m going to be there myself in a week. I’m doing “Fly From Here” with Yes. So it was perfect! Good timing.

Geoff: Because Chris was over in LA and I was in the UK, it meant that we had to develop this relationship in working remotely. It’s something that in recent times with the whole pandemic, a lot of musicians have started to collaborate in that way. But it’s something that we did really from the beginning. It’s something we’ve perfected and worked on and it’s been great to build our fourth album that we’ve come up with now.

It’s interesting that the band is a duo and yet both of you are primarily keyboard players. So how do you navigate that in the songwriting?

Geoff: Yeah, I usually work with bass players, even going back to Trevor Horn or John Wetton or Greg Lake or Chris Squire, even Glen Hughes. I always seem to work with bass players. So it was kind of interesting to work with another keyboard player. And Chris was very into the Buggles’ keyboard parts particularly, the way that I did all of this keyboard orchestration. So it was nice to join forces with Chris and come together in that way and pool our ideas. It was a different way of working definitely. But the proof is there that it does actually work and that we have a common ground that we collaborate on.

Chris: Yeah, it works really well because Geoff will send me the germ of an idea in a Logic file. And then nine and a half times out of 10 I’ll love it, and then I’ll add my keyboard parts to it. Or in some cases like “Your Heart Will Find the Way” he had the verse pattern and the riff, and then I added the chords in the chorus. And so we’ll sort of blend elements together like that. I sorta get where he’s coming from and vice versa. He knows what I will like, so he’ll send me an idea, like the chords from “Warm Summer Sun” cause he knows that I’ll like that kind of thing. And then I’ll add chord sections to it and just build it into a big towering thing. [laughs]

So it sounds like you collaborate on most of the DBA material then.

Chris: Yeah, very much so. I suppose it’s like some kind of symphonic kind of keyboard textures that we’ve merged together, it just kind of works. I don’t know why it works. Especially with the new album “Halcyon Hymns”, it was just so easy to write those songs and sometimes that’s not always the case. Sometimes you sit there and go, God, you know, come on! Why is this thing not working? But with “Halcyon Hymns“, those songs just, they just fell out. I don’t know if it was part of the energy with what was going on with COVID and all that stuff. It was like the muse was begging us to be creative and just pour the energy into something positive. It really worked, I think.

What songs are you most happy with on this new album?

Geoff: Well, I think it’s an album that’s conceived as an album as opposed to it being just a collection of songs. Much more so on this album. I think we’re both big album lovers, in terms of not wanting just to have songs cherry picked, like the way that it’s gone in many ways with Spotify and things like that, people just sort of dash around and play individual tracks from here, there and everywhere. I think it was very much in our minds that we wanted to do something that was a sort of creative and collective way of working.

The whole album has this theme of reverie, illustrated in the title of “Halcyon Hymns”. Did you set out with that concept initially or did it develop as you were writing the songs?

Chris: I think it developed as we were writing the songs, actually. I think the first song, if I’m right, was “Your Heart Will Find the Way“. That was the first song that came out as I was in the studio. And I thought, that sounds upbeat, but the message is a juxtaposition because it’s like some kind of message to your psyche to keep going, not to give up hope. But then the second song “Love Among the Ruins” suggested more of how the album shaped up.  I think that that song is the sort of the king-pin song actually. After that was written, then suddenly it was like, Oh, okay, I get it. This is what the album is about. I was trying to write the world that I wanted to be in at that moment in time, not the one that I was actually in because that was strange and worrying and scary. I had heard about, a couple of people that I’d actually worked with, such as Matthew Seligman who is a great bass player from Thomas Dolby’s band and also The Camera Club, he was one of the first people I heard of who’d actually passed away with COVID. It was such a shock, and this is right in the middle of writing these songs. So it was really like, Gosh, this thing’s real, it’s really happening. And so the songs really were an escape, hopefully an escape for anyone who’s listening as well. You know, they sort of presented themselves. It’s really strange and it’s not being a cliche to say that the songs just fell out and wrote themselves. Sometimes that happens.

Let’s talk a little bit about the other musicians on the album and how did you enjoy where their contributions took the music?

Geoff: We’ve got a great rhythm section! I think Ash Soan and Andy Hodge really laid the foundation. So they took it away from it just being two guys working with maybe a drum machine and being very project-based. It’s much more of a band sound, much more of an overall feel of having these actual musicians in. Chris‘s voice works really well with Marc Almond who comes very much from a pop background and, say, Dave Longdon who is much more progressive with Big Big Train and their progressive music. So it was kind of nice to be able to have that spectrum of musicians as well on board.

Chris: Dave Bainbridge plays all the guitar solos and more, he’s an absolutely blinding player. I play some acoustic guitar on it and a bit of electric. My guitar parts will be things like the little riff at the beginning of “Love Among the Ruins“.  But that’s very me, that’s like a little pop hook, you know? And Dave obviously plays the incredible insane solos. I wouldn’t even attempt it!

There’s a lot of mandolin on the album too, I noticed.

Chris: Well, Dave is a virtuoso player. I sent him the roughs so that the keyboards and the drums, the bass and all the vocals were finished when Dave did his parts. He’s actually one of the last elements to go onto the finished recording. He really picked up on the Kate Bush influence because I’m a huge Kate Bush fan. So he really picked up on that, especially with things like “Remembrance” and there’s another song that he thought sounded very Kate Bush-like, and he said, What about a bit of mandolin bazouki because, that’s what she would do. And I thought, Yes, perfect! So it was almost like the songs really dictated what instrumentation should sort of go on. It wasn’t really that we discussed it. The songs actually suggested it, which was really nice. It’s a natural kind of thing in that respect.

And then that instrumental section at the end of “King of the Sunset”. There’s a lot of room that you gave him there to explore.

Chris: Yeah, I absolutely did. And I said, Just think about the landscape; think about looking out over the hillside on the South downs, West Sussex, whatever, and it’s a beautiful sort of autumn evening, and you’re there with the person that you want to be with. And he just got it, he understood it.

How do you see the development of DBA over the past decade and what has excited you the most about how things have progressed?

Geoff: When we started out, we were just dipping our toes in the water because we just wanted to work together and write some songs together. But I think as time has progressed we’ve felt that it has more substance and we got more into adding other musicians, creating more of a bigger spectrum rather than the first album. This is now having a bigger perspective. It comes full circle with things like the Roger Dean album sleeve being much more kind of epic.

You’ve mentioned that you started off together with this one-off gig with the Buggles and with that more electronic approach. I noticed that Chris also has a love for electro pop music and even had a project called “Hello, Leo”, which was more along those lines. So I’m curious why DBA didn’t follow that track of more of the electronic Buggles and instead went more towards the piano and the prog rock landscape.

Chris: Yeah. I get a bit tired of programming and synthetic sounds. With the “Hello Leo” project thing, it’s that I’m never bored because I just create situations for myself. If there’s a bit of downtime I’ll make something happen. So “Hello Leo” was just kind of like a mad professor in the studio just mucking about with gear. But I think with DBA, my heart really is where this album is. I think that the sound of it is really what I’ve always loved. But yes, you’re right, I do listen to the Pet Shop Boys or a great Soft Cell single from the eighties and think, Yeah, it’s magnificent and a fantastic bit of pop. But the older I get, the more my heart is pulled towards those kind of widescreen, symphonic kind of big records. I still love them, you know, and I still listen to them a lot. I’ll never get bored of listening to Yes or Genesis or Pink Floyd, you know?

Geoff: This album in particular very much bears mine and Chris’ souls. We’re both lovers of the same kind of music and coming together on this album, there’s a lot of depth to it. There’s pathos in there, there’s some classical undertones to the music, it’s a much wider spectrum. I think that when we started out with these almost Buggles-like pop songs, I think we’ve kind of moved into a wider zone.

As with the last album, you have this poetic narration that is interspersed. What can you tell us about that approach?

Geoff: Having the narrated dialogue gives it cohesion that makes for an album that’s an entity rather than just fragments of individual songs.

Chris: He’s a fantastic writer, Barney Ashton. We’d been working on something just before “Skyscraper Souls” was written. We’d been working on the idea of a play together, a song cycle, if you like, based on some dystopian sort of worlds. He’d sent me some lyrics and I’d written music to them and he’s just got a great way with the English language. He speaks so beautifully. And so I would say to him, You should say some of these things, actually speak them. Anyway, to cut a long story short, when we were writing songs for “Skyscraper Souls“, I said, Why don’t you speak some of the bits that you sent mean? And so he did that and we used it a little bit on the album, but with this one it’s just a natural progression to have that beautiful voice of his and his fantastic words really featured. And I think it really worked. For me, he sort of weaves the narrative of the songs together, he kind of brings it in and sort of makes it coherent. And it’s also a break from the musicality because there’s a lot of it on the there, and a lot of singing and a lot of harmony. So he kind of breaks that up as well with the speaking, it was just a natural thing. He’s just got such a great way with words. I just thought, I’ve got to use more of him, you know? He’s become like a part of the sound now, I couldn’t imagine doing something without it, in a way.

In terms of live performance, it seems like DBA is primarily rooted in the recording studio, with a few exceptions. Chris, how important is live performance to you?

Chris: Live performance is fantastic. I absolutely love live performance. I’ve never been one of those artists that could play 300 shows a year. And I know guys that do that and they sort of live for it. I mean, I’ve known Squeeze for a lot of my life actually, since I was very young, and they live for being on the road. They would rather just live on the road, and I was never that sort of person really. I love the creativity of being in the studio. I like creating new things. I would get a bit bored of singing the same things night after night. I want to make new stuff, you know. And I think with the live kind of scene, you tend to have to repeat yourself a lot. But I think it’d drive me crazy with the sort of person I am. I get excited about the NEW stuff, you know? But I do love it. And when Geoff and I performed songs from at that point 3 albums, there was quite a lot of material to draw from. And it was great to just sort of present them on the stage and hear the songs being sort of freed, if you like. It’s really fantastic. And we’re definitely keen to do more. In fact, we were going to do more, but all this happened, you know?

Geoff: I think that we got a taste for it. It was actually shortly before the lockdown started around this time last year, we did these couple of gigs and it was great fun. When we started out, we never thought DBA would actually be anything more than just a studio project sort of thing. But when we got a taste for it, I think it brought it home to me that it does have the capacity to work well in the live environment. We’re on four albums now. So we’ve got plenty of DBA material to draw in for a show. So, the fact that Chris has now moved back to the UK, I think that we’ve now got a chance whereby we can be a bit more hands-on together and see where we can take.

Chris, when we consider the songwriting that you do for a lot of other superstar pop artists, which results in huge charting hits, it’s amazing that you’ve also got this love for progressive rock music and write this kind of material with DBA.

Chris: You’re absolutely right, but I think if you actually dissect some of that stuff, particularly the stuff I wrote with Sia, there’s a lot of that in there. I sneak it in! There are epic moments with Sia like on “Unstoppable” or “Kill And Run” songs like that. If you actually strip them down, all the songs I write with Sia or with Geoff, you strip them all down and they’ve all got the same kind of skeleton in a way. I bring that kind of grandiosity – if you like – to whatever I do, because that’s the kind of music that I love. I couldn’t do the pop stuff if I didn’t have those elements in it. Like big chords, big choruses and stuff.

For our readers who aren’t aware: Chris has a substantial background in songwriting for a number of very well-known successful pop artists. And like you just mentioned, on the song “Unstoppable”, I heard the version that you did yourself with just solo piano in the background. And it’s so different hearing you just accompanying yourself on a piano with that song, versus the huge production that you do with SIA. And you’re the producer on that as well as the songwriter, right?

Chris: Well, I co-produced it. I’ve always loved great songwriters like Neil Finn and he always used to talk about how if you could play a song on a piano or acoustic guitar without all the embellishments that the studio adds, then you’re onto something. But if you write in the studio, you can kind of get a bit hoodwinked by fancy toys and the song ends up being lost slightly, or maybe it sounds better than what it actually is because it’s been polished to a certain degree. So I think with “Unstoppable“, somebody said to me, You should put all the demos out of your original versions…cause I’ll always do a demo of a song at the piano in the studio once the session is over just to hear it and just to make sure it works, and I play it to a few people I trust. And someone said, You should put them out because they’re interesting as kind of guide versions. I’ve kind of grown to appreciate the song in its simplest form. I think that I can sort of trust it then.

Geoff, do you pour most of your own song ideas into DBA at this point? Or did you give some to Yes for your next album there as well?

Geoff: Well, I’ve been working on quite a lot of stuff over the last year, because obviously we haven’t been going out on the road at all. We’ve been exchanging ideas for the next Yes album as well. But as far as working with Chris, the ideas that I can perceive as being good for DBA, I kind of put them in a compartment and send those over to Chris and then the same with Yes. It’s a different vehicle that your creative process is drawn towards. The way that I write is bound to have some similarities here and there, but I try to keep it as separated as possible.

The song “Subway Walls” certainly was a favorite for many people off the last Yes album, I know, which was the main song you wrote on that album.

Geoff: I listened to the last Yes album recently. It came under some criticism, I think for a lot of people because they felt that it was not very kind of driven and it wasn’t as sort of manic as previous Yes albums. But I think if you look at Yes’ history, there’ve been all kinds of different chapters, if you like, that reflect the musicians that in it at any given time. I think that being the first album that Jon Davison had come into, it took on a different form because he’s a very different kind of creative than, say Jon Anderson or in my own sense, Rick Wakeman. We were a different group of musicians and that’s the way it turned out. I think “Drama” is a strong album and I think that Yes fans have come to sort have gone full circle on that and cited it as one of their favorite albums. So, for the last album, you picked out “Subway Walls“, and I’m still proud of that song, I think it comes across really well.

What has been the hardest keyboard piece for you to learn from one of the other Yes, keyboardists when playing live?

Geoff: Wow, there’s some very, very in-depth stuff. I mean, it was really an incredible learning curve for me to go back to some of those albums cause I was not whole familiar with some of the latter or mid period Yes albums. “Tales From Topographic Oceans” is very complex and things like “Awaken” from “Going For the One”, these are really big, complex pieces, you know. The year before last, we went out and we did the Royal Affair Tour, which was great, and we were doing “Gates of Delirium” from the “Relayer” album. I think that’s probably one of the most challenging pieces.

And I know you’re planning on doing the whole Relayer album, when you get a chance, did you guys ever get to the point of rehearsing “Sound Chaser” yet?

Geoff: No, we didn’t, unfortunately. We all did a lot of work independently on it because that is probably the most challenging Yes piece of all time. Not just from a keyboard standpoint, but from the rhythm section, it’s full-on, uh, hysteria! Yeah! It’s something that I really rise to the challenge. Hopefully thing will ease up a bit and we’ll find the window where we can go out and do it.

And what is the state of the forthcoming Yes album? Is that looking like it’s pretty much finished at this point?

Well, we’re not in the end zone yet, but I think that we’ve done quite a lot of work over the months and certainly towards the end of last year, in developing these ideas that we’ve been exchanging. And it’s just really a case of trying to get everybody into one place. Obviously it’s more difficult now because we’ve got the guys in the States, and Steve and I are over here in the UK. It’s not been the easiest way of working, but I think we’ve adapted to the new normal, rather than us all being in one room, which is the historic way that Yes have worked in the past. I think this is a new way of working. There’s been creative aspects that have come up that may not have happened had we all been in that position. But it’s been great. We’re not on the home straight yet but it’s shaping up very nicely.

Chris, I was dipping back into the album with The Producers, which of course was done with Trevor Horn, and I really, really loved that project. I’m trying to remember which of those songs were specifically yours or did you collaborate a lot as a band?

Chris: We collaborated a bit, but I would usually write the tunes for most of it. I think the only one I didn’t really write that much was “Garden of Flowers“, but the rest of it, I wrote all the tunes and I wrote all the lyrics for “Freeway”, “Man on the Moon“, for example. It was a great project, but I think it got a bit sour in the end in some ways, because I left. Because I’d been doing it for four years, and I eventually moved to the U.S. Yeah, it was unfortunate. They kept trying to sort of say, Fly back and do some gigs or fly back and do photos and that kind of thing. But at the time when they were busy doing that, I was working with Sia and that really changed my life in some ways, so it was the right move for me. They sort of removed some of the vocals and that kind of thing, it all got a little bit petty. But, it was great fun to write the album and we did do some great games. We played the Albert Hall and some really memorable private parties. We played Jeremy Clarkson‘s 50th birthday party and got Roger Daltrey up on stage with us. It was quite funny because we’d rehearsed “My Generation” with him and we got it down. Perfect. Okay, this is going to be great. Roger gets up, we do “My Generation“, it goes without a hitch. But he’s just so into it then that he starts suggesting other songs for us to do, and we haven’t rehearsed them. So it was a very interesting evening. I learnt a lot from it. It was great. And I wouldn’t have met Geoff had I not been part of that. But I’m still proud of some of the songs. Lol and I sat at the piano and wrote “Man on the Moon“, I still love that song. Every couple of years I bump into Trevor and he will say, We should do a Producers gig. It’s one of those things. It’s always like unfinished business in a way. In some ways, the five of us are secretly really keen to get back in a room together. But maybe some things should be left as a sort of a wish or dream or whatever.

Speaking of Trevor, Geoff do you have any ambitions for the future with the Buggles at this point? Or for that matter, with Asia?

Geoff: Well, they’re always on my mind. It’s funny that the Buggles really had more activity in the last 10 years, I think  than we had in the previous 30. We’ve done a few gigs and I’m in constant contact with Trevor, so that’s work in progress. I think the same with Asia, we went out with the Royal Affair Tour and it was nice to hear that music played again. Obviously we miss John greatly, who’s a central part of the whole thing, but I think that he would have wanted that music to be heard for as long as we’re able to, really.

Let’s bring the interview to a close in the same way as the album does, talking about the track “Remembrance”. Right at the start it has those three spacious, evocative chords. And then it just builds during the entire 11 minutes, doesn’t it?

Chris: Yeah, I’m really proud of the sound of it, actually. It was one of those things that, because those chords are so lovely, it never wanted to break away from the progression. And so that’s why, again, the song dictated the arrangement. It kept saying to me, Just add more, keep going, don’t break away from it. Don’t go to a different chord section. Okay! And it was just one of those things, it’s hypnotic and it’s not long for the sake of it. It feels absolutely the right length to me. Sometimes it’s as long as it needs to be, isn’t it?

Right. And then Barney comes in, especially towards the end, with that long poetic section too.

Chris: Yeah. He did such a great job on that end section. And in the studio, I must admit, I was glad no one was there because it’s a very emotional piece.

The post Extensive Interviews with GEOFF DOWNES and CHRIS BRAIDE of DBA: “This Album in Particular Very Much Bears Mine and CHRIS’ Souls” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Over the course of five decades Steve Lukather has placed an indelible stamp on pop culture. Alongside his tenure as the only member of Toto to never take a hiatus from the band, he has performed on thousands of albums as a session musician. Amongst these musical contributions are some of the most successful, influential and enduring records of all-time including Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Additionally, he released a memoir titled “The Gospel According To Luke” which was a global best-seller. He continues to be Toto’s band leader, a member of Ringo’s All-Starr Band, and a solo artist performing with multiple ensembles.

2021 brings a whole new chapter for Toto, with a new lineup having already been presented on a well-received live stream late last year. Also, both key figures of the band are now releasing solo albums in tandem: Steve brings out “I Found the Sun Again”, while singer Joseph Williams is releasing “Denizen Tenant”. According to Steve, “play both albums on shuffle and you almost get one full Toto release”. Both come out on February 26th, and while the material was recorded and produced in remarkably different ways, they find similar roots in the fact that Steve, Joseph and keyboardist David Paich all worked together in them.

The repertoire of “I Found the Sun Again” features five new original compositions and three covers personally selected by Luke. Those are Traffic’s “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys,” Joe Walsh’s “Welcome To The Club,” and Robin Trower’s “Bridge of Sighs.” It’s an upbeat album with a 70’s vibe, recorded with zero to no overdubs, with modern day technology. The cherry on the cake is a guest spot by Ringo Starr on the song “Run To Me”, written specifically with the former Beatle in mind.

Sonic Perspectives senior interviewer Rodrigo Altaf spoke at length with Lukather, chatting about a few tracks off “I Found the Sun Again”, how the current incarnation of Toto was put together, playing with G3 and much more. Listen to their animated and chock-full of anecdotes chat from the links below;  and remember that for more interviews and other daily content, Sonic Perspectives is on Facebook, Flipboard, Twitter and YouTube, where you can be notified about new content we publish on a daily basis.

The post STEVE LUKATHER Talks New Album “I Found the Sun Again”, Friendship with EDDIE VAN HALEN and More: “Musically Speaking This is a 70’s Album, But With a 2021 Fidelity”” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Earlier in the month, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced their 2021 list of nominees. Among the illustrious group of artists was heavy metal favorite; Iron Maiden! It was a long-overdue recognition for the band as they are arguably one of the world’s biggest metal bands, selling over 100 million albums worldwide during their 40+ year career.

Back in the late 70s, Iron Maiden was the brainchild of founding member and bassist Steve Harris. His drive, determination, and songwriting skills helped propel the band to superstardom and light the fuse for the musical movement called the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Cutting their teeth in the bars and pub in England with various line-ups, the band released their debut metal masterpiece in 1980. This self-titled album contained eight powerfully raw metal songs with punk attitude and ethos.

The line-up for their seminal album included Steve Harris [bass], Dave Murray [guitar], Paul Di’Anno [vocals], Dennis Stratton [guitar] and Clive Burr [drums]. With the band’s evolution came member changes over the 40 years, but the magic of that initial line-up and sound they captured will be remembered long after we are all gone.

In 1979 guitarist, Dennis Stratton joined the band not only for his tremendous guitar playing abilities but to help forge the band’s unique sound by adding the intricate nuances and harmonies, which gave these powerful songs depth and dimension. Together they recorded the first album then toured much of the world in 1980, supporting Judas Priest and KISS. Unfortunately, Dennis departed from the line-up before releasing the band’s second album, “Killers.” Dennis’s musical career did not stop there. He went on form Lionheart in 1984, and after the band broke up in 1986, they reunited in 2016 and have released two new albums. Their most recent album, “The Reality of Miracles,” was released July 2020 to critical acclaim due to the song’s melodically powerful nature.

Correspondent Robert Cavuoto spoke with Dennis about the release of Iron Maiden’s debut LP, what he brought to the band’s music, the importance of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination, and why Iron Maiden fans should vote and vote often! For more interviews and other daily content, make sure to follow Sonic Perspectives on Facebook, Flipboard and Twitter and  subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified about new content we publish on a daily basis. 

Congratulations on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination for Iron Maiden. How does it feel to be nominated?

It’s a fantastic boost for me! I first heard about it from Christian, who does all our Lionheart‘s graphics and artwork. He sent me a link when the news first came out. I looked at it and saw my name on there and just sat there for an hour or so, thinking about how nice it was to be included. The last 40 years have been a rough ride for me, being left out of receiving something like 70 gold discs from around the world for that first Iron Maiden album. It went gold in so many countries, and I missed out on never receiving the awards because I didn’t have anyone from the Maiden office representing me. So it was just so nice to see my name with the rest of them, and I’m very proud! It would be great to get a Hall of Fame nomination in print so I can put it on my wall to show my grandchildren!

With the nomination and potential induction, do you think you will have a better chance to get them?

No, I have tried so many times. When I was in America, I tried talking with Sony EMI, and they didn’t want to know about it. I spent 15 years going back-and-forth trying to get them. When I was in Japan with the band Praying Mantis, my record company contacted Sony EMI, and they didn’t have any luck as well! I have three, which I feel I was very lucky to get. I think they were moving offices at the time in London and were going to be thrown out [laughing]. I was lucky to get those, but it’s such a shame not to have them from all the countries, especially from Europe, Australia, and America. They are really good things to hold on to and show your grandchildren. After 40 years, for this to come along was a big bonus to me, and I’m very proud of it.

The first Iron Maiden LP is considered one of the most influential metal albums of our time. When you were recording it, were you aware of just how revolutionary it would be to heavy metal?

Not at all! In 1979 when they signed the deal with EMI in London, they transformed from a pub band to a big band overnight! There were only three guys in the band; Steve, Dave, and Paul. When I went down to meet them, they were missing a drummer and second guitarist. Going into the band, I was given the “Soundhouse Tapes.” I had always been involved with harmony guitar bands like I am now with Lionheart and Praying Mantis. Joining Maiden, I helped transform the sound of the band quite dramatically. Dave and I sat down to run through a few things, and then I was left alone to put down my stamp on their songs prior to recording the first album. I was basically given free rein to put harmonies where I thought it would make it more interesting. It seemed to work, and it still works for them today with three guitarists doing all the harmonies. As far as knowing what the album was going to do, it was nowhere near what we were thinking. At the time, we were in a rush as we needed to finish the Metal for Muthas tour we were on, finish the album for EMI, and then go out with Judas Priest.

Did you play with the band in pubs prior to recording the album in order to get familiar with the songs?

We rehearsed at Hollywood Studios, where I took Clive because they didn’t have a drummer. Once the line-up was complete, we could start rehearsing properly as we had been rehearsing without a drummer at the time. We were basically ran through a set of songs that they played live for many years, which included the songs that were going to be picked for the first album. They had enough songs for the first and second albums! We rehearsed that set and then went out straight on tour for Metal for Muthas. There were no pubs involved. They weren’t massive shows, like 600 to 800 seat venues. They were nice size to get our feet wet. It was surprising how loud Maiden was. I have been on tours before with my previous band Remus Down Boulevard all over Scandinavia with Status Quo. It was a good apprenticeship working with big bands like Quo, who was very loud, but not that wall of sound with Maiden; it was a massive sound. So, we went straight on tour and never did any pubs.

How many songs from Killers were written while you were with the band?

I can’t remember all the songs. When we were doing headline shows in 1979 for Metals for Muthas, we played for about an hour and twenty minutes. They had been playing the pubs and clubs around the late 70s, and they had an hour and a half worth of songs. “Killers” wasn’t in the set because we wrote that while I was in the band. A lot of the stuff that was being played live was part of their hour and a half set. Steve knew out of those 17 or 18 songs which 9 or 10 songs would be on the first album because he wrote them. Those were the ones we were polishing up in the studio. In the studio, we concentrated on those 9 or 10 songs that went on the first album just to get them ready in pre-production so we could go in and record the album very quickly. At the same time, I was still learning their whole set of 17 or 18 songs when we played live, including the harmony guitar parts.

Did you ever bring any song ideas or demos to the band during your time with them?

Oh yeah. Steve was always looking to hear any ideas that we came up with. Once I learned the hour and a half set, our feet never touched the ground! We were on the Metal for Muthas tour, then recorded the first album, then back out to finish the Metal for Muthas tour, then out with Judas Priest plus a few shows on our own. After that, we went out with KISS. It wasn’t until we got out on tour with KISS that we started to pencil down a list of songs for the “Killers” album. That’s when the song “Killers” came into the set when opening for Judas Priest and KISS. We didn’t know it at the time, but “Killers” was going to be the title track of the album. We never got the time to sit in a rehearsal room when you are out touring nonstop.

You and Dave Murray had a unique chemistry that spawned a generation of guitarists and bands. Was that chemistry evident when you started playing together?

Maiden was always a one guitar band. They may have had a rhythm guitarist at times, but Dave was always the soloist. There were never any harmony guitars in Maiden. I grew up on Wishbone Ash and bands like that. In my previous band, I always had harmony guitars, and when I first went into Maiden, I spoke with Dave and Steve about it and tried to explain what that meant to the songs. You have to try to be careful not to lose the rawness and power away from the songs yet make them sound sweet with the harmony guitars. Dave never worked with another guitarist, so when he and I would sit down in the rehearsal room, I was really impressed as he would flow with it. I think it was something new that he picked up on it as well. It was more interesting than having one guitar. The next job was the make the songs sound bigger and wider yet still powerful and punky. It was to give the songs more dimension.

With the last few Maiden records, the band has been incorporating more progressive elements into their music, possibly because they have three guitarists who can execute more of those intricate harmony parts accurately on stage. This is something you were at the forefront of bringing to the band in 1979.

I’m proud to say that it was me that took the style of playing into Maiden, and they kept it. Because I did all the pre-production for “Killers,” you will notice when Adrian Smith came in to record the album; there is a lot of my playing style with the harmonies, which Adrian had to learn. Then he recorded the album. After that, I started to listen to their other albums as they ventured on through their career, so when they added the third guitarist, they kept the harmony style going all the way through to now. It’s a big plus for me as it was my idea that started it with the band. In the mid-70s, the band I was in Remus Down Boulevard, we were always doing harmony guitars. It was the Stones, Thin Lizzy, in the early 70s, but it there was another band in the late 60s, which most people never heard of started it. Then it was Wishbone Ash. We had the harmony guitars down to a “T” from the beginning. Then other bands started using. 

Iron Maiden opened for KISS in 1980. KISS’ sound was changing considerably to being more pop or radio-friendly. What do you recall about the audience’s response to Maiden as you were such a heavy support band?

I can’t say much about KISS going to the more commercial sound. All I remember from 1980 was how shocked I was to see so many Iron Maiden fans in Europe due to all the fans wearing our shirts. It was summer, and we traveled through Italy and all over Europe playing football stadiums; we would see fans outside the stadium standing in the sunshine or on the grass having picnics wearing Iron Maiden shirts. That was mainly one of the reasons why KISS did not want us to support them in the UK. We had too many fans [laughing]. We stayed in Italy those ten days while they were in the UK with a different support act.  It wasn’t like we were the underdogs. We held our own. By the number of T-shirts you saw outside the venues, you knew the audience was 60/40 for KISS, and sometimes it may have been 50/50.

Tell me about the comradery while you were in the band. Who were you closest to at the time?

I brought Clive into the band as I knew him for many years before Maiden. I suppose he was the closest friend to me. It was strange because with my old band Remus Down Boulevard we grew up together, so we were like pals or brothers. With Maiden, I got the feeling this was a business. I didn’t know Dave or Steve very well before I met them. Steve and Dave used to come down to the Brick House in East London to watch me play, but that was before I know who they were or before I joined. I’m someone who likes excitement and variety, so I would sometimes travel with the road crew, and Dave Lights became my closest friend as we would share hotel rooms while on tour. I was also friends with the guitar and drum techs. Those were the three people I was probably the closest with. I had more laughs with the crew than the band [laughing].

Are you still in contact with any of the members of Iron Maiden?

I speak to Steve all the time and have done so ever since. We are both West End Supporters, so I talk to him regularly, sometimes once a day, sometimes once a week, and it’s mostly about West End football. I see him at shows. When he was working with British Lion, I would go down to see him play in the UK and meet up for a beer. I don’t really see any of them anymore; it’s only Steve.

I met Steve a few times through the years, and he is genuinely a nice guy to his fans.

He has always been that way. Like I always say, “He is the bloke next door.”

You are currently in Lionheart, and Steve has a sideband, British Lion. Is that a coincidence with the names or perhaps something you and he spoke about as back in the day of having bands with the words Lion in them?

I don’t think so. The guys from British Lion are good friends of mine. Grahame Leslie, the guitarist, lives on the east coast of the UK. I never knew that Steve managed them back then. He was trying to get them up the ladder in the early days. He has always liked the band and their songs. I think it was only a matter of time when Maiden got big, and he got some time off; he would do an album with them. He can’t sit at home during the break, so it was only a matter of time before he would get the band back together and started rehearsing.

Lionheart released “The Reality of Miracles” in July. It’s melodic metal at its best while still having a cinematic aspect. Tell me about that approach to songwriting?

That style of music is what I have always liked best, even before and after Maiden. With Lionheart, we love American bands like Journey, Foreigner, Toto, Kansas, and REO Speedwagon. We love their big harmony vocal and guitars. In 1984 Lionheart went to Los Angeles to record our first album “Hot Tonight” and had Kevin Beamish, who produced REO Speedwagon produce our album. That was the sound we were looking for even then. If you listen to any of the stuff we had written, whether Lionheart or Praying Mantis, it all has the same feel with the vocal harmonies and harmony guitars. Listening to that style of music after all those years, it comes across in your songwriting. When Lionheart got back together a few years ago, it was one of the things that we started writing, and it came automatically. We wanted to keep it rock but not too heavy. It has a melodic rock sort of sound. We don’t do it purposely; it just comes naturally to us.

There seems to be a lot of religious connotations from the cover artwork, to the album title, to the song’s titles, and some of the lyrics. Was that intentional?

No, funny enough, before the album was being released, I was asked to do so many interviews, particularly from America. I was asked this question a hell of a lot. It seems that way, but it’s not. We wrote the music and put a guide vocal down. Lee Small [vocals] took it over to work on the lyrics as he is a great songwriter. When he put down “Thine Is the Kingdom,” we asked him if it was about anything religious. He told us it was about New York! If you read the words, he is talking about the games in New York. With the big backing vocal sound by the three of us, it becomes the dominant part of the song and sounds religious. The lyrical verses are all about New York [laughing]. None of that was an intention of being religious. When Steve Mann [guitar/keyboards] was working on the song, “Planet Earth,” and Lee took it over to work on the lyrics for the verses, the speaking part was done long before the COVID virus, at least by a year. It’s a really strange coincidence. It has a lot to say about how we are as a planet!

The spread of the virus seems to be slowing down, are there any touring plans or festivals for Lionheart in 2021?

When COVID started in 2020, it was the 40th anniversary of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and we were booked all over the world. I was also booked all over to do the Iron Maiden’s 40th anniversary of the first album. The whole year was canceled. Come forward a year, we were emailing with our management in Germany on Metalville Records, and they explained to us that last year killed the business completely! They are trying to recreate it to get it back. There is no light at the end of the tunnel at the moment. The vaccine will take another 6-9 months then you will be coming to the end of the summer. You don’t know if the pubs and clubs will open, let alone have music.  Our management said they are pulling their hair out as they don’t know what will be the next steps for the bigger shows and tours. It’s impossible to say whether or not we will be able to work this year. There are shows and tours being booked by other artists, but we really don’t know.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I know this is a big thing for me, and there are a lot of Maiden fans who have been listening to Bruce Dickinson‘s comments on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. All I want to say is to please vote. To some people, the Hall of Fame may not mean much, but from this boy here, being nominated and included in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame would mean the world to me! Please vote and make me very happy.

To vote for Iron Maiden, click here.

The post Former IRON MAIDEN, LIONHEART Guitarist DENNIS STRATTON Talks Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nomination: ‘I’m Honored to be Nominated and I Ask the Fans to Vote!’ appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Bayley Alexander Cooke, (widely known as Blaze Bayley), is a survivor. From his early days with WOLFSBANE, through his tenure with IRON MAIDEN and his prolific solo career, he has faced more than the usual share of hardships. A motorbike accident, the loss of loved ones, and criticism from the IRON MAIDEN fanbase who never fully embraced him as the front-man of the band are only a few examples of the challenges he had to face. And yet, he always managed to come out even stronger after going through all those hurdles.

Since leaving MAIDEN in 1999, he has released many solo albums with different lineups, including the ground-breaking “Silicon Messiah” and “Tenth Dimension”. In 2013 he started a partnership with the members of UK band Absolva, which yielded another high point in his career: a trilogy of concept albums with a sci-fi concept of a pilot who leaves his planet to find a new place for humanity to live on. “Infinite Entanglement”, “Endure and Survive” and “The Redemption of William Black” are the records containing this story, and Blaze’s plan is to expand the plot and conclude it in the form of a book.

Coming off of the massive undertaking of writing the trilogy, Blaze decided to take yet another turn and write an album with more direct material. “War Within Me”, which will be released on April 9th 2021, is pure metal, with a relentlessly positive outlook. Through songs like “Pull Yourself Up”, “Every Storm Ends” and the title track, Blaze tells personal stories, and summons the listeners to face their problems head first. The album also contains a trilogy of songs dedicated to scientists who challenged conventional wisdom: “The Dream of Alan Turing”, “The Power of Nikola Tesla” and “The Unstoppable Stephen Hawking”. In tune with the times, Blaze delivers the exact dose of optimism that his dedicated fan base needs.

Sonic Perspectives collaborator Rodrigo Altaf, whose first ever metal album was IRON MAIDEN’s “Powerslave”, had the pleasure of speaking with Blaze to discuss the writing process of “War Within Me”, his plans for the future, his time as MAIDEN’s vocalist and much more. Listen to their animated and chock-full of anecdotes chat from the links below;  and remember that for more interviews and other daily content, Sonic Perspectives is on Facebook, Flipboard, Twitter and YouTube, where you can be notified about new content we publish on a daily basis.

The post BLAZE BAYLEY Talks New Album “War Within Me” and Time in IRON MAIDEN: “Being in MAIDEN Was A Crazy and Wonderful Time, It Gave Me Incredible Confidence in My Songwriting And I Got No Complaints or Hard Feelings Whatsoever” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Drummer Jason Rullo, from the internationally acclaimed prog metal band Symphony X, is venturing into new territories. His new band 3 Rules, with Ron Sanborn on guitar and Artha Meadors on bass, is focused on instrumental music with no boundaries. The end result can sometimes be heavy, melodic or jazzy, depending on what goes through their minds.

3 Rules has just released their debut album “Rule of 3” through a well succeeded GoFundMe campaign. Formed in 2019, the band traverses many different styles without sacrificing melody and songwriting, while somehow combining groove and aggression. Rullo impressively shows many other sides to his drumming skill set as bassist Artha Meadors seems comfortable with anything he throws at him, rhythmically and creatively. As the main songwriter and guitarist, Ron Sanborn draws from his many influences to inventively put it all together while defining a “sound” for the band. Through nine tracks, the trio showcase their individual abilities in their respective instruments, but most importantly, serve the songs. You can find out more information about the band on their official website at this location.

Sonic Perspectives collaborator Rodrigo Altaf is a lifelong Symphony X fan, and had the pleasure of catching up with Jason about this new band, the plans from Symphony X in the future, their mutual love for Neil Peart and Eddie Van Halen, and much more. Listen to their long and relaxed conversation in any of the links below and remember that for more interviews and other daily content, Sonic Perspectives is on Facebook, Flipboard, Twitter and YouTube, where you can be notified about new content we publish on a daily basis.

The post SYMPHONY X Drummer JASON RULLO Dives Deep About His 3 RULES Band: “This Is a Real Band for Us, Not Just a Project” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Owner of one of the most distinctive voices in rock, Eric Martin has had an unstoppable career. Best known as the longtime vocalist for the Los Angeles-based hard rock group Mr. Big, he found chart-topping success with the band in the early ‘90s with the ballad “To Be With You.” Since his early efforts with the Eric Martin Band he has always displayed infectious energy, and an impressive set of pipes. Martin has released many solo albums with different styles, including the evocative “Somewhere in the Middle” and the extensive “Mr. Vocalist” series. Since 2013 he has also been involved in the endless roster of singers of Tobias Sammett‘s metal opera Avantasia.

2020 has not been a kind year to any artist, and Eric is no different: he’s had shows cancelled, recordings delayed, and like most of us, he seemed to be forever on waiting mode. Things are starting to change in the new year though, and his plans are starting to kick into gear. He’s planning a live stream, a new solo album, and a new Mr. Big live release, to celebrate the work of late drummer Pat Torpey. In this lengthy conversation with Rodrigo Altaf, he reveals how he coped with the “stay-at-home” routine, reflects on the long run that Mr. Big had and discusses his future plans in the challenging environment of the music business, while sharing some hilarious and evocative anecdotes from Mr. Big tours with Canadian musical heroes Rush.

Find out their long and very informative chat in any of the links below and remember that for more interviews and other daily content, Sonic Perspectives is on Facebook, Flipboard, Twitter and YouTube, where you can be notified about new content we publish on a daily basis.

The post MR. BIG’s Front-man ERIC MARTIN Discusses Plans for New Live Releases: “They Are Coming Out, with Some of the Last PAT TORPEY Shows” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Steven Wilson may have originally made a name for himself through his band Porcupine Tree but his subsequent solo career has seen his influence and impact grow exponentially. Having made music with a variety of projects and bands over the past three decades, Wilson has long pushed his edge of being a big fish in a little pond who jumps into bigger and bigger ponds. His new album “The Future Bites” is no exception, exploring new waters while still retaining the essence of his songwriting.

In this lengthy interview, Scott Medina chats with Steven about everything from future touring plans, to distinctions of his “muso” solo albums vs. songwriting albums, to what inspires him to continually evolve, to how his new family impacts his creativity, to additional insights to the songs on his new album and much more. You can read the transcript below, download the podcast or stream the audio in the YouTube slideshow below.

Remember that for more interviews and other daily content, make sure to follow Sonic Perspectives on Facebook, Flipboard and Twitter and  subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified about new content we publish on a daily basis.

Hi everyone. This is Scott Medina with Sonic Perspectives. We are talking to Steven Wilson today as he’s just on the cusp of finally releasing the new album, “The Future Bites.” You must be excited, Steven. It’s been a long time coming.

Hi, Scott. It has been a long time, yeah. It’s very strange that in this period of waiting, the album has apparently become even more prescient and even more kind of topical in that respect. Yeah. So in some ways it’s lucky that it’s coming out now because it seems such a perfect moment for it to come out because the future is certainly biting, that’s for sure.

Indeed it is! This must be the longest pregnant pause you’ve had in releasing an album, which was supposed to come out last June, I think it was originally, right?

That’s right. In some ways I’ve kind of liked the fact that I’ve had this time to reflect on the album. There’s a truism about being a professional musician that usually, on the day after you finish an album, you deliver it to the record company and it kind of goes into “the machine” and you don’t really have any time to reflect on what you’ve done. So, when you consider that you spent – certainly in my case about 18 months has been spent writing, demoing, recording, mixing, mastering – by the time you get to the end of that process, you usually are unable to really be objective about what you did. You kind of look at it like a science project. You know, it’s no longer about the music…it’s about “Oh, does that high hat have enough treble on it?” Or, “Is that backing vocal too far over to the left of the stereo?” So you’re not really engaging with any more as music. And almost uniquely in my career this time, I actually was able to step away from a record I made for six months and then come back to it and hear it as music and actually be able to respond. I did make some changes to the record over the summer. And that’s something that I may never have as a luxury ever again. So in that sense, I’ve kind of appreciated having this delay.

I know you switched the last track [to “Count of Unease”], are you satisfied with the way it closes now?

I am, yeah. I originally had a much more kind of upbeat ending to the record. And when I listened to the test pressing of the vinyl last summer, it just felt wrong to me. I felt like I wanted a more spiritual, more kind of transcendent, more beautiful sort of note to end the record on. And like I say, I never would have had recourse to have made that change or made that decision. So that was definitely something I was very happy to be able to do.

In addition to the actual recording, you also originally had a really ambitious live show planned for going into some of the biggest venues of your career. It seemed like you really were going for it, intending to jump to the next level. And so I’m curious if you can share your vision regarding what that jump was meant to be, and to what extent have you had to scale it back now for the eventual live shows that you’ll do later this fall?

Well, not too much. I mean, the rooms I’m playing on the tour are still going to be pretty big. Obviously they’re not the arena shows that I was hoping to do. Unfortunately those venues are just not available, they’re booked three years in advance. So I kind of lost that chance. So that’s a shame, but I’m still gonna raise the bar. One of the things for me that’s always important is to feel like there is a sense of evolution and a sense of raising the bar and trying to do something bigger and better with each project. And that’s still certainly the case. I guess over the years, I’ve become pretty well experienced in putting essentially what is an arena show into a theater. You know, that’s been my thing. People come to my shows – in relatively compact theaters – and essentially they get something on the scale of an arena show. And so nothing has changed in that respect. I have a bigger canvas to work with now, even though it’s not quite as big as I was anticipating. It’s still going to be a bigger canvas. And I’m planning something… I mean, I don’t want to give away the specifics except to say that there’s a lot of material in this album in terms of the subject matter and the concept behind it that lends itself very well to the live context. This idea of living in a world of commerce… the kind of contract between the listener and the performer, all of those things lend themselves really well to some fun things… I’ll say “fun” in a kind of dystopian way, which is really my schtick, you know?

Well, I remember on the last tour, you kind of freaked people out with that opening video which really had people second guessing what was going on there. So I can imagine that you can even take that further. Like the merch stand must just be off the hook for this upcoming tour.

[smiling] You’ve kind of guessed one of the things I was going to look at. Yeah, definitely the whole idea of creating almost a corporate Future Bites identity for all of the merchandise and the merch stands is something I was definitely going to have some fun with. And I still plan to have fun with!

Can you share with us who the touring musicians will be?

Well, I don’t know for sure myself yet. The tour is not starting until September this year, so we’re still the best part of eight months away. So I’m still talking to people. A lot of it is going to come down to who’s going to be available come the time, because obviously all the musicians that are used to working on a session-basis right now are scrambling around for any work they can get. So, a lot of them are not sure if and when they’re going to be available. So I’m keeping a few options open right now. And also of course I have to consider this album has a slightly different musical esthetic to it. So I need to think about the kind of musicians I need. Maybe it’s a slightly different kind of musician I need this time around. But obviously they still also need to be able to play some of the older stuff, too. So it’s something I still have to figure out.

We’re talking here just a couple days before the album actually gets released and you’ve just released a lyric video for “Man of the People,” which is one of my favorite songs on the album. Have you ever personally known a person who’s in the situation that the song is describing?

Anyone that has been in the world of celebrity – and I kind of include myself in that, albeit on a very low rung – anyone that has been in a situation where they’ve had to deal with that notion of celebrity or being someone that is a public figure in any way, understands the kind of difficulties with that that can have with family life. I have experienced that, albeit on my very modest level, I have experienced that kind of thing. To be with someone, to have a family and to be also someone that is a public figure that is going off on tour for months on end, that makes statements online and basically makes themselves and their inner life and their opinions available to the world at large is kind of subject to some of the things I talk about in that song. It’s very easy to let your ego run away with you. And I have been guilty of that myself. I don’t think now I would, as I’m older and more experienced now, but I understand how easy it is to fall into that trap.

Yes. In the past decade or so, you’ve said on more than one occasion that you’ve sacrificed having a family yourself to focus on your career and all of that’s involved with that. And now of course, you’ve been married for a year and a half and have two kids in your life now. So how would you say that marriage has been impacting your musical inspiration, your output and your look on life?

Yeah, “I’m not sure” it’s the simplest answer to your question. I’m not aware of it having impacted my creativity. It’s funny because a lot of fans, of course, immediately heard there was more of a pop sensibility on “The Future Bites” and they put two and two together and got five, thinking that somehow it’s because I was now happy and that I’d never been happy before. Which of course nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve always been a pretty content individual, but I’m much happier now than ever. But of course, most of “The Future Bites” was written long before. It was written back in 2017 to 2018. So that’s a bit of a red herring. But the answer to your question, Scott, is I’m not sure. I think it must’ve changed me creatively because everything does…that’s the thing about being somebody who’s creative, whether you’re writing music or you’re writing movies or novels or painting…whatever it is that you do, everything that you experience in your life becomes part of the input that affects therefore the output. So I’m sure it has affected me. I don’t know quite how and maybe that’s something for other people to judge rather than me.

Can we ask what kind of music your wife likes?

She is very, very open minded. She likes a lot of the same music I like. I’ve played her a lot of stuff which she’s really liked. She’s a big fan of stuff like Radiohead. She’s Israeli so she’s a big fan of a lot of Israeli music as well. She loves Neil Young. So she’s got very cool taste, as you would expect my wife to have.

Well, let’s talk about that happiness factor. We spoke about three years ago during the “To The Bone” tour and at that time you seemed to be headed more toward a happy and joyous songwriting style, “Permanating” being an obvious example. Yet this is sometimes at odds, as you know, with the perception of some of your best material being full of angst. So how do you reconcile those forces of that more happy, contented aspect of yourself, and the other side, as you’ve said yourself, that the best material is the stuff that’s really wrestling with the challenges of life.

Yeah, this album is no exception. Much of this album is taking a very kind of dystopian view of the world that we live in, as you would expect. “Permanating” was really an outlier. I think some fans were sort of terrified that that was going to set the agenda for the future. And it wasn’t, it was kind of an outlier. There’s nothing like that on this record, as you know. This record is still concerned, shall we say, with the problematic aspects of modern life and the world that we live in. How do I reconcile it? It’s been quite simple for me. I think of the songs very much as an exorcism or a kind of cathartic experience. So let’s just say exorcising that side of me in order that I can be a fairly well adjusted and fairly happy person. Because there’s no question that there’s a lot of stuff to get angry about and to be pissed off about and to be depressed about. And I guess I tend to deal with that and have always tended to deal with that through the creative act. And I’m sure I’m not alone in that. It’s funny that some of the most charming and funny and happy people I’ve ever met – musician-wise, that is – have been the musicians that are working in some of the most extreme, dark corners of music. Some death metal and black metal groups. And they’re writing songs essentially about some of the most dark and evil things conceivable, and yet they’re always the most happy, well-adjusted people. I think there’s something in that kind of equation that if you put that stuff into the music, then it kind of almost takes that burden away from you. And I think I’ve always felt that way. That’s the way it’s worked for me.

So how much would you say that your professional image, especially your stage image, would be a persona?

I’m not sure. I’m not conscious of creating a persona. I mean, obviously I must do it. You know, you kind of have to. I mean, it’s true to say that you have to have a pretty big ego to step up on a stage in the first place. So I must have one. And I do, I do have an ego…that kind of urge to step upon a stage in front of 2,000 or 3,000 other people who are all looking at you, and to think that’s perfectly normal. It’s a very strange perspective to have on the world. And of course there are some people that have that have had that perspective for most of their life. And we’re surprised when they’re eccentric and they’re pretty messed up. Who wouldn’t be eccentric and messed up if they’ve had most of their life being put on a pedestal like that and idolized like that? It’s not normal. It takes a particular kind of ego – a particular kind of narcissist in a way – to think that that is normal or to even have the confidence to step out on stage and do that. And I do. But I have to say, I’ve learned to have that confidence. And I’ve learned to accept that as some semblance of this is what I do professionally. And the audience almost want me to be that person, you know. They want me to be a poser and a pop star and a bit pretentious because that’s part of the fun in a way, for them, too. So over 30 years of being a musician, I think I’ve learned to play the game of being, a quote unquote “pop star”, a little better. Certainly a lot better than I did at the beginning when I would walk on stage and spend the whole show staring at my shoes. Quite literally from a wall of hair looking down! And I couldn’t even look the audience in the eye. And now I’m completely different. I love it! I love walking out on stage. I love engaging with the audience. I’m very natural on stage. I talk to them as if I would to anyone down at the pub, basically. That’s the way it works for me, being someone who is a public figure.

As you’re speaking, I’m remembering talking with Bruce Soord from The Pineapple Thief and he had this issue. He used to really struggle with stage fright and have a hard time getting on stage, until at some point he said, Yeah, right. I’ve got to get an ego to be on stage and have sort of that persona. And ever since he made that shift, things have gone really well for him. He really loves performing now.

Yeah. I think I had a similar thing happen, but also part of that was also acknowledging to myself that I could be completely myself on stage. I know that sounds like an oxymoron. But basically one night I sort of walked up to the microphone and instead of doing the, “Hey guys, are we going to rock tonight? You having a good time?” You know, all that terrible bullshit. Instead I just stepped up to the microphone and started telling them about my day and my neuroses at that moment, and the music I listened to that day or what I’d had for dinner that night. And I realized that actually the audience really kind of warms to that. So I’m very committed to this idea that you don’t go on stage while scripting your dialogue. I’ve been to see several artists, like Roger Waters when I saw The Wall show several times. Even his “ad-lib” was the same every single night. And I thought that was terribly disappointing. So I’ve made a point actually of not really preparing anything in my mind. I just literally walk up to the microphone and start just spouting whatever nonsense comes into my head. And that seems to have really worked. The audience really likes that. It kind of endears me to the audience. I enjoy that and it also relaxes me because there is no artifice about that.

It’s clear that as an artist that you challenge yourself musically, both thematically and in the soundscape. So at a core level, what drives and motivates and influences you to change from album to album and why is it important to you that you constantly change and evolve?

I think there’s a couple of things there. The first thing is that I get bored very easily. I don’t like to repeat myself. I’m also a massive music fan and I don’t understand the concept of genre. I never have. Even when I remember going to high school for the first time, years and years ago, and realizing there are all these little tribes. There was the tribe that liked the metal music. There was the tribe that liked the ska music. There was the tribe that liked the mod music. And I was thinking to myself, well I like all of it! I love all of this stuff! I don’t understand this! And I didn’t understand, and I STILL don’t understand that notion of genre and listening within a very narrow band of parameters. I listen to so many kinds of music still to this day. I’m very curious about discovering new music. So that kind of feeds into what I do. So I’m very impatient, in a way, to explore all of these things.

The second answer to your question is that my heroes, my inspirations, were always the kind of people that were constantly surprising their fans. Constantly surprising their listeners, confronting the expectations. I’m speaking of people like Bowie, Zappa, Prince, Neil Young, Kate Bush. Also movie directors like Stanley Kubrick. I kind of noted to myself recently that one of the things about the world of cinema is that great directors are almost expected to genre hop. Someone like Stanley Kubrick or Christopher Nolan will go from making a science fiction movie to a war movie to a costume drama to a psychological thriller, and no one bats an eyelid. It’s kind of like that’s what’s expected of a movie director. But in the world of music, I don’t think that’s the case. I think it’s very unusual. And the music industry kind of conditions you not to genre hop, not to change direction. So for me, my admiration is all the greater for the people that have done that and have constantly reinvented themselves. And I think Bowie is kind of the poster child for that. What he did in the seventies and beyond was extraordinary, just constantly coming back with a completely different persona, a different band, a different sound, working with a different musical vocabulary. I guess I’ve always been most inspired by those kinds of people. Those are the people I aspire to be in that sense. Someone who is constantly changing, constantly evolving…as much for themselves as for the listeners.

But as a fan, how much did you continue to follow them on that journey? Like with Bowie you might have, but with Prince, did you enjoy all of the changes that he made and continue to follow him?

No, I didn’t enjoy all of them. But I respected their right to do it. And I kept on buying the records. Zappa is a great example, he made a lot of records that I don’t particularly like. But the point is that I was completely invested in his world. I understood that everything he did, he did with integrity. So I kept on buying the records because I knew that maybe the next record would be one that I would love. And I think that’s the trick that is hardest to pull off. But if you can pull it off then your audience almost expects the unexpected and they’re prepared to carry on following you, even if not everything connects with them. It’s the hardest thing of all, I think, to achieve. But I like to think that I’m getting to that point now. A contingent of the audience will always complain. Every time I do something different, they’ll say, “Oh, this is not what I wanted. What’s happening? He’s betrayed this and he’s not doing what I wanted him to do.” But they still seem to buy the records and they’ll buy the next one. And they not only buy the record, actually most of them ultimately do come around to appreciating it. That’s what I’m seeing already with “The Future Bites.” Cause there was a lot of gnashing of teeth early on with some of the early singles that were released online.

The prog rock fraternity particularly were very negative about it. But I’ve seen that change gradually over the course of the album campaign. People are actually now beginning to really appreciate what it is. And I think they’re appreciating that this a record made with integrity, with sophistication, there’s no compromise involved. It’s just as sophisticated and crafted and layered as anything I’ve ever done. And it sounds completely like it comes from my musical world. It’s just a different musical vocabulary that I’m using to communicate it. And I think that’s true of a lot of the records that I love too first time around. I didn’t necessarily understand or like them. But because the artist was someone I respected and I understood they had integrity, I gave them a chance. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and four or five plays later, I was completely swayed. “I get it now, this is what they’re doing, now I understand.” And I just had even more respect for them than I would have done anyway.

It’s great that you are a sincere fan of musical artists in addition to being an established artist in your own right. To what extent does your appreciation of other artists inform how you interact with your own fans?

I’ve learned a lot, obviously, going to a lot of shows. I’ve seen how some people conduct themselves on social media. Which is a whole new can of worms that every artist has to somehow find their position in terms of how they engage with people on social media. I think for a long time I didn’t get it right. I kind of distanced myself very much from it. I said, I’m not going to engage with people on social media. I’m going to be very remote. And it didn’t really work for me. I’ve found now that there’s an aspect of engaging with people on social media that I do enjoy. There’s obviously a line I don’t cross, but I have shared more of my private life, a little bit more of my private life. I have taken to doing things like “The Future Bites” sessions where I do impromptu versions of some of my songs, just from my studio I’ve been doing one a week and having fun with that too. There’s no question that we live in a very different world now in terms of the music industry now. The music industry has changed beyond recognition since I started. I mean, I started in the early nineties, and it was a completely different industry. It’s unrecognizable now in the sense that people like myself who’ve been doing it for this long have had to learn and adapt to a completely different model. And a lot of that model, of course, is based around the internet, social media. Particularly at a time like now when there is no other way to communicate with the fans. There’s no touring, there’s no record shop signings, there’s no TV. So social media is now the way – certainly during the pandemic – that is the way I’ve been able to communicate with the fans and talk to them about this new record. So everything is a learning experience.

The one thing that I’ve found the hardest to get to grips with is that idea that you have immediate feedback now. Which is something that even Bowie and Zappa didn’t have. They would release a new record, get a few reviews by the professional journalist fraternity, but they wouldn’t necessarily be aware of the response from the fan base the way that musicians are now. So that we’re now in a position where literally in a minute, I mean, literally within a minute of me posting a new song or a video or a piece of news, there will be a wave of opinion. And some of that will be very negative and quite cruel. And that’s been the hardest thing I think for almost everyone involved in this industry to get used to and how you deal with that.

Are you aware of how much uproar was caused by you covering a Taylor Swift song?

Yeah, but I love that because I…[Laughing]…I knew that would upset the classic rock purists. But you know what? I did it from a genuine place of love. I love that song. I think she’s great artist. It wasn’t like I was doing it for a cynical reason just to upset people. I wasn’t. But I was also aware that it would probably be seen as something quite controversial and quite divisive. But the point is, again, listen to the song, it’s a great song. The lyrics are great. It’s not a piece of pop fluff. She wrote that song and it’s a brilliant song. And again, I love the idea of making people perhaps look at things in a different way, just by virtue of the fact that I’ve sanctioned it or covered it or whatever it is. And I think that also happened.

In your evolution, there was a time not long ago in your solo career when you were writing things and wanting to arrange things to a degree of musicality that you couldn’t pull off yourself. And so you brought in a lot of really talented musicians to realize that vision. But in the last album or two, you’ve been doing more and more of what we really could call a solo album with you performing most of it. What’s behind that shift in different eras of your life when you’re wanting to go for more of the muso kind of thing as opposed to more the songwriter essence of a pop song? And where might that take you in the future?

Yeah, I guess I got tired of the muso thing. I began to become more focused on the art of songwriting. And falling in love again with pop music. And I use “pop” in the broadest possible sense here, you know, pop as in popular music. They art of writing melodic, immediate, catchy songs. They still can have a great degree of sophistication to them. And I found myself moving more and more towards that side of things. As for the muso thing? I did a couple of albums with a real extraordinary bunch of musicians. I got a bit tired of that. It’s not really my thing. You know, when I play, I’m a very basic player, but I also realized and acknowledged to myself that I do have a strong musical personality. So when I play the guitar, I may not be able to play pyrotechnically the way that Dave Kilminster or Guthrie Govan or those guys can play. But actually I can do something different, which I think is perhaps more natural, more organic in terms of my music anyway.

It’s funny, my relationship with the guitar has completely changed over the last 10 years, anyway. I’m using it in a more kind of creative, almost sound designed way, particularly on this album. Some of the solos are…they’re all my solos, but they’re not muso solos. So they’re almost more like an extension of the lyrics. I don’t know how else to explain it really, but for example, the solo on “Eminent Sleaze” is very angular and angry, it’s almost like a direct extension of the lyrics. And of course the only person that can really do that, or do that most successfully, is indeed the person who wrote the lyrics and understands the very essence of the song. So I’ve enjoyed being that person who is very much in touch with the core of the song, being able to interpret that through my own playing. So the muso thing, I wouldn’t say it wouldn’t come back, but it’s not really something I’m terribly interested in right now.

It sounds like you’re so interested in the electronics and the keyboards a lot…

Yeah.

And since now you’ve been focused so much on the short form of pop music…do you think you might branch that out to longer-form pieces that are electronic as well in the future?

Well, “Personal Shopper” on the album is 10 minutes long, that’s kind of exactly what you’ve just described, isn’t it? I mean, that’s a predominantly electronic piece, which also has an incredible kind of conceptual suite to it.

But I’m thinking even going back to your early days with really long pieces, that is kind of how you started.

Possibly, yeah. There’s one piece I’m going to be playing on the tour which is from my very early days, which is called “Voyage 34,” which is a 30 minute piece of electronic fusion between trance and ambient music, and kind of classic rock stuff too. So at the time it was quite different. It was 1992 when I think it came out. And I’ve kind of revived it for the tour because it seems to me that that’s the kind of thing from the back catalog that will actually sit very well alongside “The Future Bites.” So that’s kind of what you’re describing. I think that’s definitely something in the long form, but it is essentially a piece of electronic music or a piece of music that fuses an electronic sensibility with a kind of classic rock sensibility. It doesn’t have the pop vocal element to it, but I think in terms of the kind of musical palette, it definitely has a lot in common with “The Future Bites.”

Overall, how do your solo album sales – especially these last couple of albums – compare to the Porcupine Tree days?

Oh, well, they’ve sold much more. It’s the funny thing about Porcupine Tree. I think the legend has grown! [laughing].

Yeah, it has!

Subsequently since we were inactive. It was always a struggle with Porcupine Tree to sell records and tickets. But it’s funny now, 11 years after we last made a record, it seems like people have this idea, they have this perception that Porcupine Tree was some extraordinarily successful, planet-conquering, rock behemoth. And that’s not my experience. [laughs] That’s not my memory. You know, towards the end we began to move up to bigger venues, but for example, for Porcupine Tree‘s last show, we did one night at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and we it sold out. But I sold out three nights at the same venue on my last tour. So it’s been much more successful solo. But I’m almost thinking now if Porcupine Tree did get back together, I think probably we’d suddenly find we were five times bigger than when we ceased working.

I think so.

Which is a very strange thing! It’s almost like, you know, it’s absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that. The legend has grown and grown and grown. Which has been amazing! I mean, I love that, you know. But it’s also been frustrating cause it’s like, well why didn’t it happen when we were actually working our asses off touring the world and struggling to sell records and tickets?! But you know, I guess quality ultimately outs, doesn’t it?

So are you ready to announce now that you’ve done a one-off Porcupine Tree album during lockdown, and you’re going to surprise everyone with it this summer?

I always said about Porcupine Tree for the last two or three years – because of my nature – I said, we’ll probably do something again when it’s the last thing people expect me to do. So I don’t know if we’re quite at that stage yet [laughs], because I think people still think… But when people finally kind of concede that I’m never ever going to do it again, that’s when it’ll happen. That’s kind of my M.O., isn’t it? That’s always been my M.O.

So how do you see your role with Blackfield at this point in time?

Well, I’ve stepped away from Blackfield, really. I mean, I didn’t have the time and I didn’t have the inclination… Aviv wanted to go in a different direction. I haven’t even heard the new record! I sing a couple of songs on it, but I haven’t heard it yet. Blackfield was always intended to be a vehicle ultimately for Aviv‘s songs, anyway. That’s where the genesis of that group was. It was in this idea that I’m going to take this guy who writes amazing songs, but mainly in Hebrew, and we’re going to reproduce the songs, we’re going to translate them into English and we’re going to take his songs to a wider English-speaking audience. And we did that! Particularly on the first couple of albums, I think we very successfully did that. And I’ve been more kind of peripheral to it ever since then. It’s been more a question of like, it’s kind of up and running now, so go with it. You don’t need me now, just go with it. And he has. So my position is I’m still there to kind of help out. As you probably know, I played on the new record and I sang a couple of songs. And that’s probably going to be the kind of level of involvement that I would anticipate going forward.

Yeah it’s interesting because almost like you with your career, Aviv’s really been pushing the sound of Blackfield in a more contemporary pop sound lately. The three songs that you sing on the new album are the only things that really hearken back to maybe the first few albums, and the rest of it’s kind of challenging listeners, just like “The Future Bites” does for people who are more used to the older stuff.

Right. Okay. That’s interesting. I mean, I will hear the record at some point. I just haven’t yet.

When you contacted Elton John through a friend, do you think he had to research who you were or had he already heard of you?

He knew who I was. That’s the wonderful thing about Elton. A lot of people will say this, he’s still incredibly passionate about and curious about new music. Now I don’t know exactly how much he knew about me. But he did know about me. And that in itself was mind-blowing, as you can imagine. And I was very flattered because he’s such an incredible inspiration to me and an influence, one of the greatest songwriters of all time. So that was an astounding moment in my life to pick up the phone and be speaking to Elton John about my song and for him to be so enthusiastic. I mean, that was one of the most incredible five minutes to my life, probably. [laughs]

Have you gained more respect for him after finding out that somehow he he’s never owned a mobile phone himself?

I envy him that, yeah. Being able to…well, I think it’s a bit easier for him because he’s able to delegate, isn’t he? I wouldn’t be able to conduct my career without a mobile phone, but I think he can probably just about get away with that one, yeah. But what an incredible thing to not be involved in that world. I mean, I envy him.

Who knows? Ironically maybe he’s not as self-absorbed as most of the rest of us are, who knows?

Yeah, probably not. Or probably he recognizes that tendency in himself and understands that having a mobile phone wouldn’t be the best thing for him to avoid that.

Along the lines of “self”, that’s one of the main themes that you’ve got running throughout this album and you’ve got that incredible one-two punch in the opening tracks focusing on the concept of Self. Like that aspect of looking at a billion stars and yet only being able to self-regard is pretty telling.

Yeah. I kind of point to that couplet as one of the key things on the record that kind of explains what the record is about. The idea that the human species is now evolving at such an incredible speed – and not necessarily in a good way – into a more self-obsessed, narcissistic species where we do seem to spend an awful lot of our time gazing at the little screen to see ourselves reflected back through the prism and the mirror of social media. You know, how many “likes” we’ve got on Instagram? How many comments we’ve got on Facebook? How many views we’ve got on YouTube? And I’m the same! I find that that is something that’s really distorted. The humans’ evolution, it all kind of knocked it off course in a way that I don’t think anyone really fully understands the implications of yet. I mean, this has all happened in an incredibly short period of time. I think technology has changed our world more in the last 20 years than it had in the previous 2000 years. Through the internet there’s been a much more significant change to our world and our life than television ever was. It’s changed every single aspect of our life. To really understand or comprehend the full implications of that is extremely difficult. And I guess I’m kind of grappling with that in the soul, trying to understand myself how this is changing me, changing my relationship with other human beings and changing my relationship with the world and how it’s changing everyone else’s relationship with the world.

Have you ever explored thematically, either for lyrical inspiration, or just for your own sense of interest, kind of the opposite of self-absorption and narcissism through more of an Eastern spiritual tradition, which can provide a path out of self-identity, such as a non-dualistic approach. Has that ever interested you at all?

I haven’t but yes, it does interest me. It does interest me. I guess I’ve found myself too wrapped up in work to ever consider something like that. But you know what, I’m in my early fifties now, I’m getting to the point where maybe I should slow down a bit and I probably should explore those things. You know, I’ve been working pretty much non-stop for the last 30 years. And I don’t want to give you the impression that I’ve had no life. I’ve had a pretty good family life too, at least I do now. But I’ve essentially used every moment I’ve had available to work. And I’ve enjoyed working, I love my work. I understand that what I do is a privilege. I mean, I basically make a living from making music. And by the way, I make a living from making music in exactly the way I want. I don’t compromise. I basically do what the f**k I want. And I managed to make a pretty good living from it. So I’ve kind of embraced that, in a sense. I haven’t wanted to turn away from that, I’ve wanted to make the most of that. And I’ve spent most of my adult life embracing the privilege and the honor of being a professional musician by continuing to make music, pretty much nonstop. And I still do. But the answer to your question is that I think I probably would, and should, explore that while I still can, yeah.

Well, it’s interesting, in the eastern Indian tradition, they really have it set out so that during the latter part of life, that’s what you get to do. When you get closer to a retirement phase, you really focus on what they would call spiritual concerns, but you can address it any way that you want.

Okay, great!

And, of course you’ve got an advantage in India cause you seem to really have a big fan base there!

I do, and I love going there, India is one of my favorite places to go. Certainly to play there is amazing. Yeah, okay well, that’s good! So I haven’t left it too late then! So yeah, I’m probably about the age. I should start thinking about it. I mean, I do feel different to the way I did 10 years ago, there’s no question. Being part of a family now, obviously by definition makes you a bit less self-obsessed and a bit less self centered. So I guess it is probably the time I should start thinking about those things, yeah.

And vegetarianism is huge in India as well.

Yes! Well, it’s even part of their credo, isn’t it? Their religion and stuff. Yeah. I’ve been a vegetarian now for 21 years and my wife and I just became vegan…I would say 80% – 90% vegan about a year ago. We still lapse maybe once a week – we do love our cheese [laughs] – but trying to do the right thing. One of the things that gives me a lot of optimism…well, “The Future Bites” obviously by definition is quite a pessimistic view of the world we live in… but vegetarianism and veganism and the incredible, almost exponential rise of that does give me some sense of hope and optimism that the human race has still got it in it to do the right thing in the long term.

Can I ask you a question about the Atmos mix? Maybe you can give a real brief overview so that people know what that’s about. And then I’m curious, you’ve said that when you listen to it on stereo headphones, you can get kind of roughly 80% of the impact of the Atmos mix. So, when “The Future Bites” is released on Atmos, if you have the Blu Ray and you listen to it on headphones, will the listener get a sense of what you’re talking about?

Not entirely, you still do need the decoding software. So first of all, the great advantage that Atmos has over previous multi-channel surround like 5.1 or quadraphonic, is that Dolby have also developed software which enables mixes to be decoded into stereo and give you, as you pointed out, kind of 80% of the effect. And it’s incredible! I don’t know how they do it, but I have heard it and it is astounding. And also there are soundbars now that can also decode Dolby Atmos mix is to give you a pretty good immersive experience. That’s amazing. That’s what I think is going to make Dolby Atmos probably have more potential success than the previous surround format.

To answer the first part of your question. Dolby Atmos is 7.1.4 standard. Now what that means is that regular 5.1 surround – which has been around for about 20 years now – was two speakers in front of you, two speakers behind you and a central speaker which is the speaker in between the front two, which is traditionally used for dialogue in cinema. And I use it for lead vocals in music. And then the 0.1 was the sub, the low end frequencies that came through the woofer, the thing that you really feel in your body. That’s 5.1. So what’s 7.1.4? So with the 7, first of all, you have two extra speakers in the horizontal plane, which are either side of you directly left and right of the listener. So you have the two in the front, two in the back and now two in the middle filling in between those two. And then you have the 0.1, which is still the sub. And then you have the 0.4, which is 4 speakers that are situated above the listener. So two slightly in front above and two slightly behind above. So what that means is that as the mixing engineer now, as well as putting music in the horizontal plane around the listener, I can now also put sound and audio above the listener. And that’s incredible! To be able to do that is to just create a whole new level of an immersive kind of audio experience. I mean, I went to hear the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” in Atmos about 18 months ago. And that was what turned me on to it. So I’m relatively new to it too, but it completely blew me away. And I was like, I have to get involved in Atmos. I’m very excited about the possibilities of Atmos, and very, very optimistic that it has a future.

So if I get the Blu Ray and I don’t have an Atmos system with all of those speakers, and I want to get that 80% impact by listening on headphones, is there software that I need to download? Is that what you’re saying?

I believe so. Yeah. So, on the Blu Ray, there will also be a special version that’s encoded for listening on stereo headphones. Um, I think…you know what, I’m a little bit ignorant of this area myself. I haven’t fully understood it myself. I think you need software or you need a particular pair of headphones or something like that. But I’m gonna say, don’t listen to me because I’m not entirely sure myself here!

So is “The Future Bites” one of the first albums coming out mixed in that way?

It’s certainly one of the first new albums. In fact, I think it might be one of only a handful of new records that’s actually been launched in Atmos. I think there’s been a couple before mine. There’s been a few classic back catalog albums, obviously the Beatles catalog being the most famous example of records that have been remixed into Atmos. I think there’s some INXS records have come out in Atmos. I did a King Crimson mix in Atmos, which came out a few months ago, which was quite well received. So I’m very keen to get in at the very beginning of this kind of technology, because I’ve traditionally always been way too late to get on board with these things. This time I was determined I was going to be there at the beginning and get my foot in the door at the starts of what will hopefully be a big kind of audio revolution.

So on “The Future Bites” tour, in the audience can we expect speakers to be over the audience as well as in the back now [laughing]?

Well, I’ve always had quadrophonic sound as you probably know. There are so many problems in the live arena. Obviously one of the things about listening to surround music at home is there’s really only one sweet spot. There’s one spot that you really ideally would be, in order to get the maximum effect or the perfect balance between all the elements. Now think about that in the live context. How does that work? Because there are two, three, five, 10,000 people in the room, there’s only a very small number of them that are going to be in the right position to get the effect. And even with the quadraphonic speakers, there are some people that always end up with it, you know, they literally got their head in the rear left speaker. So they’re getting a very, very skewed kind of perspective of what I’m hoping to present. So there’s still a lot of problems with live surround sound, I would say. But I’m sure they’ll figure it out, too.

How do you look at the lyrics of “The Sound of Muzak” now, about 20 years later, in relation to the current music scene?

Well, sadly, increasingly prescient and increasingly relevant. It’s funny, when I wrote that song I think 20 years ago, it was before streaming, it was before iPods and people playing music off their mobile devices. So I’m not quite sure what I was writing about, but clearly I was a clairvoyant! I was a soothsayer. Yeah, I was looking into the future. Because here we are, and that song seems to pretty much sum up perfectly the world that we live in, where music has become for a lot of people, certainly for the music business, music has become mere content to drive the technology, not the other way around. Which is very sad for me to be saying, but that is the reality I’m afraid to say.

Is it a balance for you, especially now that you’re exploring all the electronics that you do, to keep the heart and the emotion in it for you? I mean, obviously you succeed with that with a song like “King Ghost”, but is it a challenge when you’re writing with these kinds of tools at your disposal?

It’s a challenge. I like it. I mean, I like a challenge. I need a challenge. I mean, I think that’s the whole point for me. It got to the point where writing songs on the guitar, for example, was no longer challenging to me, in the sense that I could write a song very easily that would sound like a typical Steven Wilson guitar song. And I was boring myself with that. So I wanted a challenge. I wanted to be working with instruments again, where I was essentially an idiot. I didn’t know what I was doing. And I don’t know what I’m doing with keyboards. But I play around with them and I experiment with them and things happen intuitively which are exciting and inspiring to me. And that really was the foundation of “The Future Bites,” playing around with arpeggiators on analog keyboards, which is exactly where “King Ghost” came from, for example. I don’t understand as much about keyboards as I do about the guitar, having predominantly been a guitar player for the last 25 years. But there is a problem with that, which is that you become too attached to your comfort zone and you start to feel – at least I did – that I had nothing more really to say using that musical vocabulary. So yeah, absolutely. It was a challenge. It is a challenge, but in the best possible sense of that word.

And on “King Ghost” I’m remembering, I wanted to ask you…I can’t make out most of the words on the male voiceover that happens in that song. And then you say, “That’s what I’m talking about” and I’m like, “Wait – what IS he talking about?”

[laughing] Yeah, there’s a few fairly obscure words in the middle of that song, aren’t there?

Yeah, what’s the essence there?

Yeah. [mysteriously] I’m not going to explain, I’m going to leave that one hanging enigmatically in the air.

Anything about what’s coming up in the future other than the tour? I know there’s a book coming up, too. Anything else that you’d like to share with us?

Yeah, the book is the big thing for me. That’s working in a different kind of media, working with words rather than music, or I should say exclusively working with words. That’s been another challenge and one that I’ve really, really embraced and I’ve had a lot of fun. I’ve been very excited doing this book. It’s still coming on. I’ve still got a little work to do on it. That’s been the real thing for me, the real focus for me since “The Future Bites” was finished. Also the podcast with Tim for example, is another one, which we’re going to carry on again. We’re going to get back to that soon. I’ve taken on more remix projects during lockdown. I’m starting work on another album, which again, will be something different. It probably will be my next solo record, although I’m still very early on. So you never know, it could develop into a project, some other kind of project. I don’t know. I suspect it will be the basis for my next solo record. Who knows when that will be?

I am slowing down a little bit. You know, I have a reputation of being a workaholic, but for all the reasons we’ve discussed in this interview, I am beginning to slow down a little bit. I think I’m more focused on the idea of quality rather than quantity these days. There’s probably been points in my life and my career when it has been more about putting out as much music as possible. And I don’t feel that’s what I want to do now. I want to release fantastic records, and only fantastic records. And if that means there’s three years between the last one and the next one, then that’s what it’s going to be.

Well, Steven, thanks so much for spending some time with us and all the best in the coming spring with the reception of the album and hopefully we’ll get to see you out on tour come the fall.

Fingers crossed, yeah. I’m vaguely optimistic!

When’s the first date supposed to be?

I think it’s mid-September so I’ve still got plenty of time. The world has plenty of time to figure itself out and sort itself out so that my tour can go ahead. Yeah, I’m optimistic. It’s a long way off. But you know, the last 12 months has shown us that you can’t rely on anything these days, can you? Anything could happen. Anyway, Scott, thanks so much mate, it’s been a pleasure and thanks so much for the support. Have a great night.

The post STEVEN WILSON Reflects Upon Just Released Album “The Future Bites” and More: ‘My Heroes and Inspirations Were Always the Kind Of People That Were Constantly Surprising Their Fans’ appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.