Sonic Perspectives

Having risen to fame in what is now regarded as the “classic” Symphony X lineup, Mike Lepond has surely kept himself busy in recent times. Aside from commanding the grooves on Symphony X, he decided to put his metal influences to good use on Mike Lepond’s Silent Assassins and Ross the Boss Band.

More recently, Mike has started a new project with his buddy Rod Rivera, from the Christian Metal band Rivera/Bomma. The end result is called DeadRisen, which delivers an explosive c**ktail of older, traditional musicians with young, hungry new school guys. With heavy metal music now approaching its 50th year, DeadRisen embraces many of the evolution our beloved genre has taken, and then pushes the envelope to the next level.  This creates a metal sound that can go from blues, to classical, to thrash and beyond with style and grace. The band also has the ability to incorporate unique kinds of music into the songs such as Latin-flamenco overtones, but without losing any heaviness. They are the definitive package of power and class, making it clear that heavy rock & roll has risen once again.

You’ve read our take on DeadRisen’s debut here, and now we bring you even more insight into the making of the album. Sonic Perspectives flagship interviewer Rodrigo Altaf had the chance to engage in a fun conversation with LePond and the two discussed the ideas behind several of the songs in the album, how the band came to form, the current status of several other projects like Kingdom North, and even some clues about the upcoming Symphony X studio album.

Follow Mike Lepond and DeadRisen on social media using the links below, and order your copy of “DeadRisen” from this location.

The post MIKE LEPOND Talks New Band DEADRISEN and Debut Album: “We Wanted the Band to Sound Live, with a Modern Production and to Go Anywhere We Wanted Stylistically” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Flattening the curve is a strange concept for Clutch, the Maryland rockers who continue to experience an exponential growth in their loyal fan-base. If you dig songs that have “groove,” with a mix of bluesy hard rock and funky riffs, and an oozing touch of hardcore, you are missing out f you are not already a Clutch fan. The band will reach their 30th anniversary in 2021, and while everything is at a standstill when it comes to touring, they keep forging ahead with the energy of 50,000 unstoppable watts. Recently they experimented with a new format, releasing stand alone tracks online, in an initiative named “Weathermaker Vault Series”. It consists of re-recording of some of their older songs, and a few tasteful covers of bands that influenced their sound, such as Cactus and ZZ Top.

Sonic Perspectives collaborator Rodrigo Altaf – a long time Clutch fan who discovered the band by accident at a festival many moons ago – had the chance to sit down with their charismatic front-man Neil Fallon. They discussed the evolution of the band, the upcoming Record Store Day release of the monumental Obelisk box set, the cancelled tour with Volbeat, the changes in his voice, facial hair and many other subjects. Listen to and watch the streaming audio slideshow, or enjoy the audio in your favorite podcast player. You can also read the interview transcript below. And as usual remember to subscribe our social media channels to be notified about new interviews and contents we publish on a daily basis.

Follow Clutch on social media using the links below.

Neil, how are you doing?

I’m good, how are you?

Good, man. We’re here in self isolation in Toronto, and I imagine you’re in Maryland right now.

Yeah, pretty much the same thing. We’re trying to make the house clean!

Let me start by asking you about the “Weathermaker Vault Series”, where you’re re-recording some of your old material, and also bringing new cover songs! What was the idea behind that?

Like a lot of heavy metal bands and hard rock bands, we’ve been very slow to adapt to streaming and the world of digital. The fan base of rock and roll is still oriented towards physical albums. So we really wanted to explore avenues to release our material digitally. But since we didn’t know what we were doing we just decided to re-record some old songs and some cover songs. If it turned out to be a disaster, we would hate to have released a whole album of new material, so there’s that. And it’s also to bridge the gap between albums and to keep people engaged.

I love what you did to “Willie Nelson”, “Spacegrass”, “Electric Worry”… how did it feel to revisit those old songs – I imagine it’s like reconnecting with an old friend!

It is. We played those songs for many years, and they changed through those years. Especially the songs we wrote in the studio or right before we got into the studio and were never tested out on the road – that always changes the song. And I’d like to think we became better players through the years. And I don’t listen to our songs in our free time, so it was kind of eye-opening to listen to those songs for the first time in many years. It was kind of like reading an old diary entry.

I imagine you found new things here and there in every song, right?

Yeah, I think that when you first write a song and record it you’re more worried about learning it and executing it properly and not having fun, but once you know the song backwards and forwards, that’s when a performance can truly pop and shine. And it’s easier to sing if you’re not trying to remember the lyrics. If you have it memorized already it cuts you free a little bit.

Lyric wise, do you still relate to all those songs? Are you the same person who wrote those songs years ago?

Lyrically for me there are maybe two phases. In the early stuff I still hear my teenage “bad attitude” in some songs [laughs]. And then later I tried to write fiction. And I’m grateful I did that because I can re-tell a story and find something new in it every time. I think the songs that are more emotionally anchored to me are hard to relate because people change through the course of their lives, and I’m glad I’m not the person I was thirty years ago – that would be weird! [laughs]

It would. And the reason I’m asking that question is because the biggest change I see in most of the songs you re-recorded is your voice, which is much more mature and confident nowadays. Do you feel the same way about it?

Thank you for saying that. For me it was many years of identity crisis maybe, because I was always of the mind that if you’re in a punk rock or a hardcore band, things like pitch and melody were things to be avoided, because that sounded like commercial motivation. That was kind of an immature attitude to have, because I realized that a lot of the punk and hard rock bands I like have plenty of melody and pitch. And I don’t think I took it very seriously in the first years, because I thought this was just a temporary thing. But then I started taking guitar lessons, and not even two years ago, I started taking singing lessons. And that has helped me immensely. I guess I had just throwing shit over the fan for many years, and this is where we arrived eventually! [laughs]

How do you take care of your voice these days? I imagine that taking lessons like that has helped you with that, right?

Yeah, that was the main reason to take lessons, it wasn’t an attempt to sound like anyone in particular or to change the way I sound. It’s like a muscle like any other thing in your body, you have to warm it up. I tried everything under the sun, all the teas etc. What you need to do is drink lots of water, exercise your voice regularly and learn the very difficult art of shutting your mouth. [laughs]

I imagine that’s the hardest part!

It is, because when you’re trying not to talk and people come and talk to you – and shows are always very social – and you don’t engage back, you can come across as being arrogant or just a jerk, but sometimes that’s what you have to do, because you always have to think about tomorrow’s show, not just the one that’s happening right then and there.

It makes sense. Let me talk about your videos for a bit. You guys always seem to have so much fun doing those videos – “In Walks Barbarella”, “X-Ray Visions”, “Burning Beard” come to mind, and now the new video for “Willie Nelson”. Who’s responsible for the concept in all those videos?

Not us! [laughs]. We’ve always had a tumultuous kind of relationship with videos. Nowadays it’s become easier because it’s cheaper to make – recording music is easier, making videos is easier…we did the videos for “Hot Bottom Feeder” and “How to Shake Hands”, both of them in one day. These most recent videos have all been made by a guy by the name of Dave Brodsky, and that’s always his brainchild. And “X-Ray Visions” – that was Dan Winters who did that album package. But I think we found a good teammate in Dave Brodsky because he can turn these things out in a way that’s relatively painless way for us to do. This has always been a problem, because we’re not actors by any stretch.

I think you and JP seem to embrace the acting part of the videos a little bit more, for the most part, but Tim and Dan seem kind of uncomfortable at times, am I right?

I think Tim has definitely warmed up to it. And Dan has never liked to be around cameras, period, in any capacity [laughs]. I don’t relish it, because all four of us are fairly humble dudes who simply like to play music. Sometimes when we feel uncomfortable with these things it’s not really for any other reason, it’s just that it’s not in our skillset.

Fair enough. And a funny detail about the “Willie Nelson” video is that you shaved your beard! Can I ask why? And how long did you groom it for?

I shaved it right after the New Year, because my son, who’s now going to be ten, asked me to. And then three days later he said “can you grow your beard back?” [laughs]. I was honestly kind of annoyed by it. The first time I grew a beard was probably around 1997 or something like that, and then it came off. This last manifestation has been like that for about fifteen years. And I’ve gotten used to it, I’ll probably grow it all back and like anyone else in this coronavirus situation, growing one’s hair seems like the natural thing to do.

Well, I heard that having short or no facial hair helps you put your mask on, but there’s so much conflicting information that I really don’t know at this point! But I digress…tell me about the choice of covers for the Weathermaker Vault Series – I know you did “Fortunate Son”, from Creedence Clearwater Revival, a Cactus song and a ZZ Top song.

I think we just wanted to play songs that we liked, and that’s really quite that simple. These are songs we grew up listening to, and I think doing cover songs is a good exercise. When you’re writing songs you’re in your comfort zone, because you’re writing whatever comes naturally. When you’re playing someone else’s songs and learn someone else’s comfort zone it can be very challenging. What sounds like a straightforward song like “Fortunate Son”, was for more challenging as I would have expected, as far as the guitar parts. As many times as I heard that song – and it must have been thousands – trying to figure out the little licks that John Fogerty plays was really hard, and there’s no straight answer on the internet, so we just kinda said “you know what? Let’s make it our own to some degree”.

Funny you say that, because a lot of bands seem to find their comfort zone in doing covers, but you see it in a different way. So that was challenging for you.

Yeah, it was challenging to try to get into someone’s headspace. If a guitar phrase starts a certain way, our instinct is to end it a certain way because that’s the way we do it. But someone else who wrote this is someone else. So it’s kinda forcing you to practice music in a way you wouldn’t have otherwise. And maybe some people like cover songs because they’re a bit of a protective play. If you put an album out covering ten number one hits, then half the work is already done for you. Then it’s not much of a chance creatively, let’s just say that.

Tell me about “The Obelisk”, an LP Box Set you’re preparing for Record Store Day on June 20.

It’s not going to be the “Weathermaker Vault Series” on vinyl, these are already existing releases which we are bundling up in a package. We will press up the “Weathermaker Vault Series” on vinyl, probably at the end of the year. We need to record a few more tunes, to have it be a full blown full length. But back to your question, “The Obelisk” has seventeen LPs, some of them are picture discs, a turntable mat, a signed lithograph all put inside this giant black box.  

You’re certainly not holding any punches in this release, because it’s massive!

Thank you, and it’s reassuring that people still like physical albums and not just their phone or whatever device is convenient for them.

Let me take a quick detour and ask you about the collaboration you did with Volbeat on the song Die to Live, which is amazing! I guess the intention was to play this song live in the tour you guys were going to do together later this year, which is now postponed, right?

That’s correct. We had done a tour with Volbeat years ago in Europe. And we stayed in touch, and we’ve done festivals almost every year, every summer, we happened to be on the same bill. I got an invite from Michael [Poulsen, singer and guitarist with Volbeat] to track this thing, and I guess it became a single, so they decided to do a video. And although he and I never discussed it prior to the tour, I was always under the assumption that it would be a no brainer, to do that live in their set. And hopefully that remains the case when we reschedule these things.

Are there talks already of rescheduling those dates? I know there were a few South American dates that were also postponed, right?

Yeah, it’s a real drag, we have been trying to get down to South America for years and years, and finally the stars aligned that we could go down there, go to Santiago, do a big festival in Mexico City, but fate dealt a difficult hand. I can’t speak about specific dates. One, I don’t know yet, and two, I’d be remiss if I was to run my mouth. I’m usually the last one to know about these things anyway. I go on our own website to find our tour dates [laughs]

Fair enough. As a South American myself – I’m Brazilian, by the way – I hope you guys make it there. I know you guys played in Brazil once, but you’re nowhere near as famous there as you should be, and I hope that touring there more might change things in your favor.

I hope so to. We’re gonna get down there eventually and make it happen

You worked with Vance Powell on you last album, “Book of Bad Decisions”, and I remember one of the things you did was to invite him to see you on tour before you went to the studio. I think that helped the end result of “Book of Bad Decisions” a lot, right?

I agree. His background is in live sound, so he was able to see the dynamics of those songs. A perfect example would be when we were playing “In Walks Barbarella” live, one day after the set he came into the dressing room and said “this song needs a horn section”. So there were very tangible things that happened because he came out on the road with us.

Was that the first time you had a horn section in a song? I think so, right?

Technically, with a full section, yes. On the “Elephant Riders” album, Delfeayo Marsalis played on a number of songs. But that was more like a jazz approach to the tunes.

On the last album, there was a song about Maryland Crab Cakes, called “Hot Bottom Feeder”. You also did a song about recycling bins years ago, called “Green Buckets”. How do you explain that such weird subjects come to you? Is there anything you consciously avoid or search for while writing?

I search for whatever can provide me enough nouns and adjectives to get through the song and maybe write some story, even if I don’t exactly know what it’s about – that’s half the fun. For the most part I try to avoid politics, because I like escapism in music, and sometimes getting reminded of things, even if I agree with it, that can be a bit of a bummer. And I write a lot of songs that involve cars, so I’ve been trying to avoid that, because I think that has been done to death quite a bit.

Whose idea was it to add the line like “Put Jimi Hendrix on the 20-dollar bill, and Bill Hicks on a five note”?

That was myself. That whole song started as we were learning a Ry Cooder song called “John Lee Hooker for President”. It’s hysterical, he does a great John Lee Hooker impersonation. I wasn’t really stoked with our final product, but I liked the idea of a presidential campaign in song form. In his version he talks about having other bluesmen in his cabinet. So I kinda yanked that idea and made it my own,

And you mentioned your son, who is now ten years old, I believe. Do you find that it has changed the way you write in any sense?

Oh, absolutely. I kinda had a very naive notion that once I became a parent, my creative life would be over. That somehow my imagination would be stifled with the responsibilities of raising a human being, but it’s the exact opposite. Because once you’re tasked with explaining the universe to somebody, you’re forced to exercise your head in ways that you wouldn’t otherwise. He had so many questions that you didn’t expect, like first thing in the morning “hey dad, why are most umbrellas black?” [laughs]. That’s a valid observation, and in some ways he’s teaching me to observe the world with new eyes again, because you can take things for granted as every year passes by.

As a father of a five year old, I can definitely confirm that [laughs]

You understand!

On the topic of children, you’re involved with an organization called Innocent Lives Foundation. How did that happen, and what is the organization about?

I’m a board member of the Innocent Lives Foundation. A friend of mine called Chris Hadnagy runs a company called Social Engineer and they do the human side of hacking. That’s how he makes his bread and butter, and in the process of doing that, he was getting more and more requests to help with cases of online child predators, and that kind of ugliness. He realized he knew a bunch of people with a specific skillset that could help law enforcement. To put it in a nutshell, the team – I’m not part of the team, I’m a board member and my capacity is to help raise money. But their goal is to unmask online child predators, on whatever platform they’re working on, create a dossier and then hand that over to the appropriate law enforcement. It’s a charity, and it’s only been around for just over two years, and we’ve had dozens and dozens of cases that the team has handed over to the law enforcement. Where it goes from there we don’t really know, because that’s not our job and that’s actually a legal issue. What we’re trying to do is to provide the skills that some of the bureaucratic law enforcement agents frankly don’t have.

Alright. I told you I’m a father, so I applaud you and thank you for doing this and for taking this initiative. Is there a website where we can go and donate?

It’s https://www.innocentlivesfoundation.org/.

Ok. As soon as we’re done I’m going to make a donation.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

Going back to Clutch, you guys are about to complete quite a landmark – your 30th anniversary! Are you planning anything special to celebrate it?

Book all those cancelled shows [laughs].

That’s a start! [laughs]

No, I don’t think we are. We haven’t really spoked about it – we didn’t for the 20th, we didn’t for the 25th, and I think we’ve always been kind of averse to that, because we’re a little bit spooked by nostalgia, and we like the idea of looking forward. Speaking personally, I think the best way to celebrate the 30th anniversary is to put out another kickass rock and roll record, just like we did on the previous one before that. The trajectory of this band hasn’t been a sprint, it has been a long slog, a marathon and we have our fans to thank for that, for allowing us the luxury of doing that for so long.

We see so many bands come and go in a span of 30 years, some of them with many lineup changes…what would you say is the secret for your longevity and for sticking together?

Some of it is just good old fashioned work ethic and not taking it for granted and being defensive about it. If you’re afforded the opportunity to make a living or just have a life in the creative arts then you’re a very, very fortunate person, and you should be very defensive about it, and not ruin it with vanity, or substance abuse. We all have our ups and downs, but if you find yourself in a situation, you gotta treat the art like it’s a baby that you’ve been forced to adopt. And also, I’d say a good sense of humor. You gotta be able to laugh at yourself. 

It’s cool that you say that. The only other band I think stood together for so long is ZZ Top. Maybe also Rush, but even they had a change in lineup after the first record, so props to you for looking at it that way!

Thank you!

Do you have any regrets, or anything you would have done differently? What would the Neil Fallon of 2020 say to the Neil Fallon of 1991 if he could?

I do have one, I think about it quite often: I wish I had written everything down and kept a diary and a journal of even the most boring days on the road or in the studio. Because I never thought it would last this long. My memory is pretty terrible, and it would have been nice for me to have a document to look back and remember how these things change so slowly. But over the course of thirty years, a lot has changed. So that’s what I would tell myself: don’t be so damn lazy! [laughs]

So no chance of an autobiography any time soon?

 No [laughs]. If there is, I have to make a lot of stuff up!

Filling the blanks, right?

I’m like the opposite of Keith Richards in that sense.

That’s a shame! I’d love to read that bio, but anyway, moving on… Clutch has opened for many metal bands in the past, like Slayer, Pantera, Iron Maiden etc. Do you find that you’re usually embraced by the metal crowd, or do you guys have a hard time at shows like that?

It depends. I think it’s changed quite a bit. I think metal used to be much more conservative and much more “folded arms across the chest”, because if you didn’t look it and you didn’t sound it, then they wanted nothing to do with you. But now, we can go to these huge metal fests like for example Hellfest and we don’t look it, we don’t sound it, but people love it. I think people have become more open minded in some regards. I remember growing up – and it sounds so stupid in hindsight when we would think that “oh, someone with a shaved head shouldn’t go to a metal show, because the long haired are going to beat him up”, or vice versa. And how ridiculous that sounds now. But then again, maybe that’s still the case and I just don’t go to those shows anymore…but we always found it easier to get metal bills and hardcore bills than anything else so here we are.   

Funny you should say that, because the first time I saw you guys was in a festival in Australia and you played before Anthrax. I was there for Anthrax and when you guys started I was like who the hell are these guys with flannel shirts? But then I stopped and listened, and fell in love with the band after the first song!

Right on!

What’s the plan for the band right now, are you thinking about a new album already?

We are. We started kicking around riffs, and that’s kinda put on hold. I think we’ll just have to kinda do that at home for a while. I would love – I know we all would love – for there to be a new album this time next year.

I loved the previous one – I don’t know if you read my review, but it was a glowing one of course, and I think you’re on an upward trend with “Earth Rocker”, “Psychic Warfare” and “Book of Bad Decisions”, so I hope you keep that trend!

I hope so too!

Neil, thank you so much for your time, and stay safe out there!

You too! Bye Rodrigo!

The post CLUTCH Frontman NEIL FALLON Reflects On Their “Weathermaker Vault Series”: ‘Revisiting Those Old Songs Was Like Reading an Old Diary” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

WOLFHEART, the solo project of Tuomas Saukkonen, has done it again. Their brand of Finnish melodic doom death, or as they like to call it, “winter metal”, has gained another worthy installment of their victorious saga, in the shape of their new album “Wolves of Karelia”.

With a new member in tow (Vagelis Karzis on guitar), this time they chose to tell the story of the war for the region of Karelia, between Finland and Russia. Throughout eight blistering tracks, WOLFHEART manages to conjure the tales of despair and adversity faced by the Finns, and the triumph over a significantly bigger army. Just as wildlife itself maintains harmony through a violent clash of the beautiful and unpredictable, “Wolves of Karelia” explores the previously coined genre of winter metal – smoothly connecting a traditional approach towards extreme genres (“Reaper”) with atmospheric or acoustic details (“The Hammer”, “Horizon on Fire”), crowned by the instrumental interlude, “Eye of the Storm”. And although the tracks have a similar theme, they do work as stand-alone numbers as well.

Sonic Perspectives collaborator Rodrigo Altaf had the chance to sit down with Tuomas to discuss the themes and the recording of their fifth album, the plans for an exclusive virtual concert due to tour postponement in early April, and much more. Find out this great chat in the links below, and as usual remember to stalk us us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to be notified about new interviews and contents we publish on a daily basis.

Follow WOLFHEART on social media using the links below, and order your copy of “Wolves of Karelia” from this location. The aforementioned virtual concert will be delivered on April 9, 2020. The purchase of a virtual ticket will grant access to a full HD pro-mixed multi-cam video of the entire set, a Q&A video and a bonus full gear overview video. To buy your tickets for the virtual concert here

The post WOLFHEART Leader TUOMAS SAUKKONEN Talks Upcoming Album: “I Have A Very Personal Connection With This Record, Which I Don’t Have With The Previous Ones” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Back in the mid-1970s, a Prog group came out of Harrisonburg, Virginia of all places.  It was not a YES or Genesis or ELP knockoff.  It had its own very unique sound, one that blended free-form jazz along with classical and some other sounds that were hard to pigeon-hole.

The band was Happy the Man (more later on where the name came from).  They quickly built a cult following, which included the likes of Peter Gabriel.  But for a variety of reasons, the group never took off.  It splintered in the late ‘70s.  It’s come back together at various points, mostly for some live gigs in small venues.  In the meantime, some of Happy the Man’s members have continued to make music.

Frank Wyatt is one of them.  Back in the day, he was the main songwriter for Happy the Man as well as a keyboardist.  In the meantime, he has helmed a variety of other bands and done work outside of music in order to make a living.  Late in 2019, he presented Zeitgeist, an album of new music that featured many of his Happy the Man cohorts and others.  It harkens back to that ‘70s sound but maintains a modern feel. 

Sonic Perspective’s Mark Boardman sat down with Frank to talk about the new music, Happy the Man, fighting a deadly disease and much more in a wide ranging discussion.  Listen to their interesting conversation below and remember to stalk us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to be notified about new interviews and contents we publish on a daily basis.

The post Prog-Rock Veteran FRANK WYATT On His New Album “Zeitgeist”: “As The Title Says, I Wanted to Present Something That Represents the Feelings and Emotions of Today” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Kansas City’s newest metal heroes Hyborian are a young band, formed in 2015. Combining the octane-coated stoner metal of High on Fire, the progressive thunder of early Baroness and Mastodon and Bay Area thrash metal influences, they released their first full-length, “Volume I” in 2017, to critics and fans’ delight. In 2020 the band took things further and decided to record a continuation of the concept of their debut. For “Volume II”, they knew they wanted to expand upon the foundation laid before, doing something different to bring their already immense sound to the next level.

Throughout “Volume II”’s eight blistering tracks, Martin Bush (Vocals, guitar and synths), Ryan Bates (Guitar, vocals and bass) and Justin Rippeto (Drums) take us on an enigmatic, time-and-space bending journey, following the steps of the story recurrent and main character “The Traveler”. The band has ambitious plans to conclude this story on a third album, and even went as far as writing a novel (The Traveller: A Hyborian Tale) that chronicles the origin of the central character while acting as companion piece to “Volume II”.

Sonic Perspectives collaborator Rodrigo Altaf caught up with the whole band in a spirited interview where they discussed their creative process, different aspects of the new album, their gear preferences and much more. Find out this great chat in the links below, and as usual remember to stalk us us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to be notified about new interviews and contents we publish on a daily basis.

Follow Hyborian on social media using the links below, and order your copy of “Volume II” from this location.

The post HYBORIAN Members Talk New Album “Volume II” and Songwriting Process: “When We Write, We Try To Go Beyond Our Ability To Play It – That Pushes Us To Become Better Musicians” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

When it comes to 80’s guitar playing, the first obvious names that come to mind are shredders like Yngwie, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. One unsung hero of that era, however, is Ross the Boss. Coming straight out of the Bronx, New York, as a member of The Dictators and Manowar he focused more on the strength of his riffs than in flashy playing. His work on albums like “Battle Hymns” and “Into Glory Ride” (just to name a couple) was instrumental in shaping what speed metal and traditional heavy metal went on to become in the US. His influence is also felt in the rise of German Metal, with bands like Helloween, and Blind Guardian drinking from the same fountain of ideas and slowly shaping their sound.

Fast forward to 2006, and Ross decided to reestablish himself as a metal act, and formed the Ross the Boss Band. Four records later and a full lineup overhaul in 2016, this outfit is still a force to be reckoned with, and consistently delivers live, whether on the massive stages of European festivals, or in smaller clubs in North America. With the core of the band being maintained since the last effort “By Blood Sworn”, they set out to write their most consistent and rousing album to date, the recently released “Born Of Fire”.

You read our views on “Born of Fire” here, and now we bring you even more insights into the creation of this album. Sonic Perspectives intrepid old school metal fan Rodrigo Altaf at down with Ross and the two discussed the genesis of the album, touring plans, how Ross brought KK Downing out of retirement in 2019 and other stories. Find out their spirited chat in the links below, and as usual remember to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to be notified about new interviews and contents we publish on a daily basis.

Follow Ross The Boss on social media using the links below, and order your copy of “Born Of Fire” from this location.

The post Heavy Metal Founding Father ROSS THE BOSS Reflects On New Album and His Playing Style: “You Won’t See Any Kind of Ego-trip Guitar Playing from Me. I’ve Been a Team Player All My Life” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Virgil Donati belongs in a different class of musicians: his determination to improve himself and challenge past concepts is second to none, and his prowess on the instrument is envied by many. More importantly, he was able to find his own identity, and come up with an instantly recognizable style.

Through the years, Virgil was part of bands such as Southern Sons, who were big in his motherland Australia, Planet X, IceFish and Ring of Fire, and lend his talents to Steve Vai and Allan Holdsworth. He has also released several solo albums, the most recent of which is called “Ruination”. Famed as a drum virtuoso, Virgil is also a multi-instrumentalist: he’s highly accomplished keyboard player, arranger, producer, lyricist and more, all of which is showcased on the new album. With a career spanning four decades and having worked with some of the finest musicians in the world, it’s no surprise that “Ruination” is packed full of sophistication, skill, and exciting composition.

Fusing elements of prog, jazz fusion and occasionally tending toward the heavier, “Ruination” is an experimental and progressive musical exploration, as tightly controlled as it is dynamic and free. A notable addition on this record is prominent vocals, which add a great texture and entwine traditional songwriting elements into the mix. As expected, Donati’s skill and creativity behind the kit is undeniably impressive; his ability to paint stunning pictures via his exploration in rhythm is unmatched, and his work on this album is no exception.

The core band on “Ruination” consists of Irwin Thomas (guitat/vox), Andre Neiri (guitar), Junior Braguinha (bass), Chris Clark (keys), but there are several notable guest performances. Virgil himself performs on keyboards, and he is also joined by some more exceptional players: Joe Chindamo (keys), Julian Lage (guitar), Evan Marien (bass), Marco Sfogli (guitar), Alex Argento (keys), Carl Morner Ringstrom (guitar) and Steve Hunt (keys).

Sonic Perspectives collaborator Rodrigo Altaf had a very insightful conversation with Virgil, and discussed the writing and recording of “Ruination”, the balance between complex and accessible music, Virgil‘s touring plans and many other topics. Find out their conversation on the links below and remember to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to be notified about new interviews and contents we publish on a daily basis.

Follow Virgil Donati on social media using the links below, and order your copy of “Ruination” from this location.

The post World Renowned Drummer VIRGIL DONATI Reflects on the Writing of New Effort “Ruination”: “Writing from Your Soul and Your Heart is Something You Can’t Manufacture – You Either Have It or You Don’t” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

In late 2019, progressive metal band The Night Watch released their third full-length album, a stunning instrumental masterpiece titled “An Embarrassment of Riches. Weaving together classical guitar, violin, and breathtaking cinematic effects,The Night Watch managed to create an immersive experience like no other in a conceptual adventure following a shipwrecked explorer. Though they already had two albums to their name, “An Embarrassment of Riches” was not just their boldest endeavor to date, but one that rightfully turned the spotlight on the humble Canadian artists.

Sonic Perspectives placed “An Embarrassment of Riches” on the final list for the 2019 Progressive Metal Album of the Year, pointing to the strong diversity and technically complex songwriting as some of the album’s greatest strengths. Drawing from a number of genres resulted in rich folk passages, vibrant violin solos, and technically adept guitar segments that paint a boundless scope of emotions in over an hour of instrumental bliss. The key guiding force through the album are the sometimes folksy, sometimes fiery contributions by guitarist Nathanael Larochette, an artist who glides naturally between styles as a fish cuts through water. Definitive in setting the album’s tone and crafting decadent atmospheres  alongside violinist Evan Runge, Larochette demonstrated his ability to shift the execution of his craft to encompass multiple sub-genres and explore a bold artistic vision.

The album’s depth and stylistic scope contribute to the inability of an outsider to fully delve into the many layers within “An Embarrassment of Riches.” To speak at length about the album’s creation, the stylistic influences, and where the band is headed in the future, Larochette spoke with Sonic Perspective’s contributor Samantha Buckman about the album and his own vision as an artist. To keep up with interviews like this one and more, be sure to follow Sonic Perspectives on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to be notified about new interviews and contents we publish on a daily basis.

The post THE NIGHT WATCH Guitarist NATHANAEL LAROCHETTE On Latest Album: “It Feels Like We Found Our Voice” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

With over 40 years of Pendragon under his belt, Nick Barrett has guided the band as its principle songwriter, guitarist and vocalist. Often considered part of progressive rock’s second wave that built a following through the 80s along with the likes of Marillion, IQ and many others, Pendragon’s star began rising in earnest in the 90s and they have maintained a respected profile ever since. However, few would have expected that 2020 would bring one of the crowning achievements of their studio recording history. New album “Love Over Fear” finds the band confident, inspired and radiantly upbeat through its ten excellent songs.

In this interview with Sonic Perspectives correspondent Scott Medina, Nick discusses the new songs, vocal breakthroughs, unexpected inspiration and the current state of the band. As he prepares to embark on a well-selling tour, the future looks especially bright for Pendragon and its fans. Listen to and watch the streaming audio slideshow, or enjoy the audio in your favorite podcast player. You can also read the interview transcript below. And as usual remember to subscribe our social media channels to be notified about new interviews and contents we publish on a daily basis.

Hey everyone, this is Scott Medina for Sonic Perspectives and we are talking today with Nick Barrett. The Pendragon machine is gearing up and raring to go. So, what are you in the middle of right now, Nick? You were just saying to me that you’ve had concert t-shirts arrive and you’re probably doing rehearsals and all sorts of things, right?

You know, the thing is that people, they kind of think you strum a bit of a guitar, you know, but that’s like 1% of what you do. The rest of it is checking if the actual correct music is on the CDs when they turn up, that on all the labels the picture isn’t upside down on the album sleeve…we’re just looking at the moment and we’ve just realized that on quite a few of the tee shirts, that the design has been printed slightly off to the side. So you know, I tell you, this is heart-attack material, really! This close to the tour to get these sorts of problems! So yeah, it’s a lot of stress.

I hope it pays off for you when you hit the stage and you have some fun then.

Oh yeah, I mean, it’ll be absolutely fantastic then! You know, the moment you step onto that tour bus and the driver starts to pull away, there’s nothing else you can do. You know? And at that moment, you pour yourself a whiskey, you sit down and you enjoy it.

Right on. Nice. I look forward to you having that moment here shortly. 

Yeah. We’re looking forward to it!

So let’s talk about this new album that’s come out, “Love Over Fear”. It feels like this is an album with a message of “carpe diem” woven throughout it.

(Chuckles) Well, yes! It kind of is what it says on the cover a little bit, love over fear. I’ve sort of felt with the way the world is at the moment, sometimes in music you just need something that’s uplifting. You need something that’s positive, something that’s beautiful again. There’s a place for social comment and politics in music, you know, I’ve definitely done that. But you sometimes look at it and think you need to counter balance that sometimes with something which is just uplifting and not so heavy for people. And I think the world at the moment kind of needs something a little bit like that. So, it felt like the right sort of thing to do for this album.

So when you were song writing, were you really trying to tie a concept together, or more that the overall sense was more of positivity for this one.

Yeah, the overall feeling was one of positivity. I didn’t want to get into any really heavyweight politics – which I kind of enjoy and have sort of touched on things in the past – but I think you kinda gotta remember, sometimes it is like with the Oscars, when people get up there and they start banging on about political things sometimes… people want films and film stars and music to be an escape. They don’t really want to be lectured to all the time, so I just think there’s a sort of a counter balance to everything else that’s been going on the last few years with music and films and things, that it’s nice to do something that’s just music! It’s just got some tunes! And some nice artwork you can look at!

Beautiful. Yeah, the artwork is stunning. Talk a bit about the design of that cover painting. There appears to be an ocean wave turning into a vortex where all the fish and sharks are headed towards.

Yeah. The thing is with this art work, it’s weird because I originally got the idea for this about five years ago. I thought, for the next album I want this kind of vortex thing. I thought maybe it’d be butterflies and birds and maybe some sea creatures and going towards a kind of single point in the middle. So that kind of idea was there. And then where I live now in Cornwall, we went to a place called Boscastle, which is a tiny old little Harbor town. A beautiful classic sort of smuggler’s type of village, It’s a lovely, fascinating place. And there was a shop there selling these paintings and we went in and had a look and I saw this picture and I thought, wow, that’s incredible. That’s almost exactly like what I was thinking for a new album and I love the artwork. I thought I’ve got to get in touch with this artist. It was a local girl who only lives two miles down the road from us here. A girl called Liz Saddington and I got in touch with her and said I’m looking to try and get an album cover made for a new album. This is the kind of idea I’ve got. But I liked the idea of having all these sea creatures because I live very near the sea and it’s very sea-based in Cornwall. In her pictures that I saw in the shop, they were all kind of shoals of fish and a couple of mermaids and this sort of thing. I thought that’s almost exactly what I’ve got in mind. And the other thing was to have limited colors. So it was mainly blue, with a green thing going on a little bit. So it had this sort of real atmosphere to it. Liz came round here probably a couple of dozen times she’d come around and we’d go through every detail of what we were looking for. Every fish was completely different from another one. And it just took about a year and a half just to get the artwork finished, but it’s something in the end that is exactly how I wanted it to be and I’m really, really pleased with it.

Yeah, it’s sumptuous. It’s a gorgeous cover. And so does the landscape that’s there on the cover, does that sort of reflect the vibe that you have in Cornwall?

Yeah, it’s very much like that, it’s a lot of open fields, a lot of hills. I mean, the main feature down here of course is the Atlantic sea which we’ve got just in front of us here. And the influence of that very much came through I think on the album. I mean, Peter our bass player, when he first heard the demos he said, I can really feel the sea in this music. It really kind of has that flavor. And I was very happy about that. You know, it’s very kind of smuggler country here. You’ve got very, very rugged shore lines, rough seas, and like at the moment in the middle of winter you get a lot of storms. It’s quite famous for the smugglers, like a hundred fifty years ago. So, it’s really got an atmosphere about it and it’s nice to incorporate that into some music.

Yeah, you do feel that reverence toward the elemental world in this recording and the animals and nature. And then we’ve got the track “Water”. Can you talk a little bit about what that element of water means to you personally?

Well, one of the reasons for moving to Cornwall was because of my love for surfing. I really wanted to be close to the ocean eventually. I thought that sometime we would move down here and we did three years ago, we’ve been here for three years now. It’s an incredible thing. Every time I get in the water there’s this amazing sense of peace and it sorts out all my problems. I mean I used to get in the sea and realize, you know, I’m not thinking about the mortgage or the gas bill or problems. You’re just kind of letting all that go and just being in the moment. It’s a bit like mountain climbing – which was what “Men Who Climb Mountains” was all about – was being in that moment. And I think it’s at those times when you see who you really are. It’s quite amusing as well because if I get wiped out on a wave, I stand or fall by my own actions. Nobody else, it’s just me, you know? So if I do well, it’s me. If I do badly and wipe out, it’s just me, it’s my fault. And that kind of amuses me, that you take responsibility for yourself. So there’s all these different facets of being in the sea. And I always come out of the sea feeling happy and relaxed and really contented and I just love it. So, you know, there had to be a song about it!

It’s an epic track, but of course you have a lot of epic tracks on this album, don’t you?

Yeah, there are really, I think three or four, maybe even five. But they were all epic without being 22 minutes long. I thought, in eight minutes you can do pretty much what we were doing with songs like “Paintbox” or “Breaking the Spell” or “Explorers of the Infinite”. They weren’t really, really long songs. So that was my kind of mental template for most of them, at the eight minute, nine minute mark.

You’re right, something like “Truth and Lies” really has that “Breaking the Spell” kind of feel, and then something like “Who Really Are We?” I think has the immediacy of a track like “Indigo” and really hits you right away.

Yeah. On an album I always try to have a sense of balance and it’s a journey for people. So they’re not kind of like locked into just hard-hitting up-tempo stuff, or not just locked into just wishy-washy atmospheric stuff. I like a bit of a roller coaster, so you might have a couple of songs which have…I mean, we nearly always start an album with a typically kind of Pendragon melodic song, you know, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, that sort of thing. And then we usually go into something that gets a little bit slower. I mean, like, obviously you’ve got “Truth and Lies” but before that the big change is something like “Starfish and the Moon”, which is basically piano and vocal. So, that’s going to kind of surprise people a little bit. And then after “Truth and Lies”, you’ve got kind of an Irish rock song. So, you know, just when you’re sort of like ready for the mood to change, you get this sort of Irish rock song come along and it’s kind of taking you on a bit of a journey. And then from then on there’s lots of ups and downs and highs and lows, I hope. That the sort of idea.

Well that’s what I really love about this album is the diversity. Like you were saying, the “360 Degrees”, this Celtic rock song that is just infectious. That’s going to be, I would imagine, a crowd favorite in concert.

Yes. We’ve always been looking for something that might be a replacement for “Nostradamus” which is very uptempo. We’ve been playing that since 1993. It’s a very popular live track. It’s always been in the set, you know, it’s a short and sweet track. So I was looking for something that had the same sort of feel as that. With this though, bringing in some different instruments like the violin and the different styles of backing vocals, I really thought we could do something uptempo and lively and I think that track is going to be fantastic live. I’ve really, really got a good feeling about that one for live.

Yeah. Will Zoe be playing violin on that live as well?

Yeah, she will. She’s been practicing hard and it sounds amazing. She’s a very talented woman. I said to her the other day, I was watching when we were rehearsing, I said, you know, you’re playing the violin and then you get into the vocal mic and doing all those little backing vocals. And that’s a big deal to have to do that. You know, it’s not an easy thing. She does those things remarkably well and it’s been an absolute pleasure working with her and having her in the band to do this sort of thing. She’s got a very powerful mid-tone to her voice which really brings something to Pendragon. It’s a female backing vocal without it sounding too girly. And it has this sort of folk thing. And I like that in folk music. On the one end of the spectrum with music, you’ve got someone like Mariah Carey who does vocal acrobatics as I call it, very kind of complex solo type of vocals. And on the other end of the scale you have these sort of folk type of vocals where people just have a very kind of nice sound to their voice, very powerful, really suits the song, very earthy sounding. And for me, that’s where Zoe is. And I just love that.

It must be great for you now to have two backup singers on stage and get to share the vocals a bit in the live performance.

It’s absolutely brilliant. I mean, I can remember back in 2006, we were doing a gig in Warsaw. It was about half an hour before we went on stage and it was dark and I just went outside the tour bus, just to look outside and get some fresh air. And I just thought, man, this is difficult, carrying all these songs for two hours. The harmonies that I would like to have, we can’t really do because everyone else is playing their instruments, so there’s parts where they can’t always do harmonies. So it’s always like an approximation of what the finished album sounds like. And I love vocal harmonies. I’ve always loved them. But I always felt we never quite had the lineup to be able to produce it live. And it kind of feels a bit lonesome as well, when you’re on your own fronting the band. And it’s nice to have some female energy to spin off live. To me it kind of completes the kind of story, in a way. I really love playing live now and having the girls along. It’s just a great thing. And they’re a bit more fun as well. You know, you’ve got grizzled campaigners like Peter Gee and Clive Nolan that (laughing) you know, they’re kind of the old hacks…having the younger girls along, you know, to take the mickey out of us, it’s good fun!

Getting back to the album, you had mentioned “Starfish and the Moon” before and then toward the end we get to this piece “Whirlwind”, that is basically like a crooner piece. It even has saxophone in there. Where did that come from? It’s such a departure,

I don’t know (pauses). I don’t know. It is absolutely extraordinary. Once I had done those vocal melodies, um, I thought where did this come from? I mean, in a way, I think it kinda came through…something says, you know, maybe it’s the ghost of George Michael!

Exactly!

It has that sort of soulful approach, which I’ve always wanted to do. I always love that kind of soulful, heartfelt type of vocal. But I never really thought…I didn’t think I could do that! I don’t really consider myself first and foremost a vocalist at all! I ended up doing the vocals cause no one else in the band wanted to do it. That’s initially how it kinda started. And as the years went by, I just got left with it. And in the end it ended up being sort of a trademark sound of Pendragon. It’s a bit like Phil Collins…if you hear that voice, you know who it is. With me, I wouldn’t call myself a classic good singer at all. Um, but you know who it is! You know, like you hear a lot of rock vocalists and they sound amazing but you can’t really always tell who they are. Cause they always sound quite similar. And if you get someone who stands out, maybe their technical side isn’t as good – I would say that about me, I’m not technically that great a singer – but it’s a trademark sound so you at least do get that. But I do feel that with songs like “Whirlwind” that I found something that I’d never found before. When I moved to Cornwall I have a piano in a little sun room which looks out over the fields and the sea. It is amazing! I just sit there staring out the window. And I wrote that piece of music on that old upright piano. It’s a real piano, so you get a little real vibe from it, like just playing the acoustic guitar. It’s not electronic at all, so it’s pure. So I had the music and then to try to come up with a vocal melody, I thought it was gonna be very difficult. But soon as I got in front of the mic, ideas started to come out and the lyrics came…and I just couldn’t believe it! And within in a few days it was done! I’m still in a bit of a state of shock about it. It’s kind of nothing like I’ve ever done before. And there it is.

I’ll resonate that back as a listener because although you’re right that a listener knows Pendragon when they just hear the vocals, to your credit, that’s not true on this album in a few places. Like on “Whirlwind”, I mean I’m listening to it and I’m wondering, hang on, I’ve got to check the liner notes here…did one of the female backup singers come and do lead on this song? Because is that really Nick singing right now?

(Laughing) Is it Clive Nolan just holding his testicles?

(Laughing) Well I don’t know, maybe we’ll find out in concert. Are you going to play those songs in concert?

Yes sir, we are!

Right on, hats off to you. So going to an area that you are more revered for and known for, is that of the guitar. When you approach songs, is there a rhyme or reason why certain songs bring forth more of an epic lead guitar solo and others don’t? Like on this album, we’ve got “Truth and Lies” and “Who Really Are We?” which have that classic Pendragon lead guitar but on a track like “Eternal Light”, you start to go there but then the guitar kind of fades back into the mix and the keys come more to the fore. So I was curious how you decide when to really let it rip for two or three minutes straight?

It’s all down to the feel of it. I mean if you take something like “Water” the chord progression is a very melodic chord progression. And the same with “Truth and Lies” and “Who Really Are We?”. The chord progression lends itself very well to guitar solos because of the way the chords resolve to make it emotional. I kind of know now what will make that work. I sort of have been doing it long enough to know whether something will work on that front. On the other side of the coin, something like “Eternal Light”, you’re quite right. Particularly the end I was going to do a longer solo and I really was not going to do the solo that actually is there. That solo that is there was going to be an alternative version. It was actually going to be a slide guitar, but I played around with it and the chords, and I just always knew it wasn’t gonna be a killer solo with emotion. It was going to be more of a sort of a slide melody and I just couldn’t get the melody…It just wasn’t working. So in the end I listened to the other one, which is more of a blues solo that’s on there now, and I thought, you know, that works really well. It’s very short, it’s not a long solo, but it kind of rounds the song off well. And it’s enough. It’s not a solo that develops. It’s just got a nice blues lilt to it and then the song ends. But I think during the song, and particularly in places on this album, I really wanted keyboards to feature because they were carrying the melodies. So on the middle parts of “Eternal Light”, it’s that kind of ethereal vocal sound on a keyboard, and I really wanted that to be the main feature. I didn’t want the lead guitar to be the main feature there because the beauty was in that vocal sound. Sometimes I think you listen to it, you think, yeah, that’s a keyboard melody right there. Or you listen to it and think that’s taking me in a sort of feel-guitar solo way. So it’s kind of just the way the dice fall, really. I think I know now pretty much which way it’s going to go quite early on.

Could you talk a bit about what that theme of “Eternal Light” means to you?

Hang on, I’ve got to think about the lyrics again, now (laughs). The weird thing about “Eternal Light” and you’re probably the first – I haven’t said this about “Eternal Light” before – it was actually a song, or part of that song, that was around about the same time as the “Not of this World” album. And I had some of the lyrics but I didn’t like it. It sounded like some funny…it just sounded like a mid-paced rock tune and I didn’t like it. So I put it to bed and then dug it out again for this album with some slightly different lyrics and changed it a bit. So it suddenly took on a completely new life. But the song really is about a spark of something that I think is in everybody. It’s about bringing some light into the world. So hopefully we do that through bringing music. It’s funny cause like some people, you can see them on the internet, on Facebook (I don’t do Facebook, but you know, I hear about it from Rachel), and they just bring darkness. They bring it and they just spread it. They don’t want to bring light. I’ve seen this with a couple of people that have reacted to things that we’ve done and you know, I just think it’s just a negative black thing and it’s much better if you can bring something that people can kind of enjoy. Just bring a bit of light into the world for goodness sakes! That’s all, you know, it doesn’t take much and it’s a much better thing for everybody if you do that.

There’s a few themes and lyrics that are repeated in that song “Eternal Light” that are in the first song, too, in “Everything”. Like the lines, “Looking out in shades of gray…”

Yes, that’s right, yeah. I wanted the idea of repeating certain sections, but done in a slightly different way, with a slightly different sort of feel to it. I like that. I’ve always liked it. I think wow, that “A” section will go really well with that “C” section and then we can do this vocal over the top and it kind of becomes very exciting to sort of break things down like that.

So with you being the main songwriter in the band, how much do the other musicians impact the arrangement of the finished songs?

Well, not at all really. I mean I sort of do the whole thing as a sort of finished song. It’s been like that for forever really, it’s the way it works well with Pendragon. I mean some people just say, well, you know, it’s like Nick Barrett’s solo band… Well, they can say whatever they like. All I can say is as a band, this is how it works well for everybody. I mean when Clive first joined, we had had quite a few not great experiences with keyboard players in the past. So me and Peter said to him, look, we’re not really looking for any more writers in the band. And he said, not a problem, I’ve got all my other projects I want to do. And we said, well that works out great for everybody. And so Peter‘s done his solo stuff. So, it’s pretty well been sort of left to me to do, which I’m really happy about. I love doing music like this. But in terms of something like bass playing, I mean I do some rough demos for it, I demo the whole song all the way through, the arrangements, picking all the keyboard sounds and what we’re doing, the complete thing. But then like when Peter comes in, he’ll play the bass like how he plays the bass. I mean, I’ll do some demos of the bass. They’re just like root-note things and a few rhythm things and it’s okay, you know? But when Peter comes in and plays the bass, it goes to another level! He’s bringing his personality and he’s putting that down on the record. And I listen to that bass on this album and man, I’m telling ya, I mean it just blows my socks off. That’s a bass player putting his mark on the record. His sound is great. He’s got some great little ideas where he puts little notes and things in like in those sections you were talking about in “Everything”: “Looking from the inside out…” He’s doing bass parts in that which are lovely little ideas. So he’ll bring things like that to the table. Clive more or less doesn’t need to so much because a lot of the keyboards in the arrangements are written in that way. But he’ll kind of have suggestions for things and we’ll try some things. And on the acoustic CD he got to let loose on the classical arrangements on “Truth and Lies” and doing the church organ thing. And that’s really where as a classically trained musician he’s able to really play something like a church organ how it would be played on a church organ. So you get sort of another side of a sound on the acoustic CD. But that’s pretty much the way we work. I mean, same with like I program all the drums, but my drum programming is pretty much kind of, boom chick boom chick. I mean I’ll put in sort of triplet rolls and rolls that I know that a drummer might do. And then Vinny comes in and laughs at it and he does his thing. And that’s what it should be. He puts his mark on it. So they don’t really get involved in the writing or the arrangements or anything like that. But they come in and they add to it and make it into a band thing. That’s the deal. We’re all happy that it works like that, that’s what we enjoy. As I said before, I got a bit of a thing about this because some people say, well, you know, it’s like a Nick Barrett solo thing. And I just say, this is Pendragon and it’s worked for 40 years. Don’t knock it. It works!

So as you are writing and you’re being influenced by things that you really like, you mentioned even some of George Michael’s crooning might’ve touched in on “Whirlwind”. When does it happen that influences come in more directly? For example, I always really loved the Sade album “Stronger than Pride”, and then I’m listening to the Pendragon album “Believe” and the song “Learning Curve”. And I’m like, wait a minute, there’s a direct quote from the Sade song “Nothing Can Come Between Us” there. It kind of shocked me for a moment cause I sure didn’t expect to find Sade in a Pendragon song!. But there it was.

Yeah! (slyly) I mean, I don’t know if the shock is that it’s a Sade song or it’s just a freaking rip off! (laughing) You know, a lot of musicians get kind of a little bit coy about this. But you know, I heard David Bowie say, he said, I copy what other people do and there is no musician that doesn’t. They’ll kind of hook out little bits and they’ll turn it back to front and they’ll put their own slant on it and they’ll change it a bit and do that. I mean, whatever influences us will come out because we think it’s good. You know, we want to speak the same voice. I’m telling you, there’s one prog band that every single album that I’ve heard so far, it’s got that “Apocalypse in 13/8” from “Supper’s Ready” by Genesis, on every single album of theirs. And it always makes me chuckle a bit because that’s the Holy Grail, and they keep kind of coming back with that one. And there’s no band that hasn’t done it. So, in terms of that, I pretty well wear my influences on my sleeve. It’s there and I’ve always absolutely loved Sade. I love that kind of jazz. Ever since I heard “Diamond Life” I bought everything that she did and I love the soulfulness of her music and the way it developed. That sort of soul music was always there in me. It’s the same with people like Michael Jackson and George Michael, even sort of like Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, and Marvin Gaye, all these sort of soul and bluesy type things and jazz soul, things I loved dearly. I suppose in prog people don’t really expect it to come out, but you know we’ve had influences all the way from Slade and Sweet and T-Rex all the way through to Sade and the really obvious bands like Pink Floyd and Genesis. But there’s a lot of different music that I really love. I mean, Mozart came into “Masquerade Overture” quite a lot. I guess it is a surprise for some people, but to me it’s just normal. I mean, a lot of people would be actually very shocked to know how much of an influence the French singer Charles Aznavour was on me. I mean, that guy’s incredible. His songwriting, his lyrics and everything. Incredibly poignant, beautiful melodies and it was a massive influence. And it’s come out in Pendragon albums, big time. People would never believe that. Yeah, believe!

So Pendragon has a very active touring schedule coming up. How have the rehearsals been going?

Really great! We laugh about it now because we always sort of do these preliminary rehearsals at my house, which is brilliant because, you know, we can stop and go and have a cup of tea and then we have a meal together and then go back and do some more rehearsal. We were talking the other day about when we used to rehearse when we were like 20, 25 years old…we couldn’t even do more than about two hours before we were sick to death of it and lying on the floor, you know, we smoked 20 cigarettes a day and we always felt tired and worn out. I guess it’s because we were really struggling to try and get somewhere. There was always this element of being a bit worn out with having to pack the van, it was hard. But these days, even though we’re older, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable thing. And I can’t really believe I’m saying that because we used to really hate rehearsals and we’ve done some pretty long hours in the last few sessions and really enjoyed it. But I think it’s got something to do with the food that Rachel cooks. We all have a great meal and get the wine out and we have a good night. It’s a great thing. I think when you get older in life, you realize the value of the people in your band and the friendships that are formed. It’s kind of emphasized when you’re sat round a table and you’ve got some wine out and the candles are there, you have some nice food and you’re having a laugh about things. You realize how incredibly lucky you are. It really is a flipping gift. That’s a gift! To have that after, you know, 42 years. I mean most people in bands are killing each other after that long. And we find that we get on well. It’s a good thing to be in Pendragon and it sort of comes through when we’re rehearsing. Everyone wants to kind of do a good job.

Well it’s fortunate for fans as well as for you guys because the material you’re coming out with is just fantastic. To everyone listening, definitely pick up “Love Over Fear” because if you’re a Pendragon fan – or even if you’re new to the band – this is a great entry point as well. You guys are going to play as many shows as you can in the coming months and I know those are going to be fantastic. So anything you want to leave us with Nick?

Well we just look forward to seeing everybody on tour. We can’t wait. And getting back to the Cruise to the Edge is going to be amazing! It’s going to be kind of like icing on the cake really because the big tour will be done through February and March. So it’s gonna be pretty cold in Europe! So, jumping on a boat, we can just get into some tee shirts and some shorts. It’s going to be absolutely brilliant.

Yeah, you can kick back at that point. And who knows, maybe they’ll have you on at a reasonable hour. I was at that 3:00 AM show last year on the Cruise, but that was something.

Yeah, the weird thing about it is that going on stage at 2:30 in the morning is just crazy! But it’s one of those things…Pendragon have had quite a few of these. You gotta be crazy doing this, you know, driving 3000 miles to play a gig with Dream Theater in Portugal. You know, we did that and we were thinking what the heck are we doing this for? And then you get there and it’s like one of the best gigs we’ve ever played in our life! Um, so, you know, weird stuff happens.

It does! (laughing) Well, thanks so much for talking with us today, Nick, it’s been a real pleasure.

Yeah, thank you, Scott. It’s been great!

And all the best to you and the band in the next couple of weeks and to Rachel and the whole crew, getting you guys out on the road. And again, congratulations on this spectacular album.

Oh, thank you very much. That’s great to hear. Thanks, Scott, cheers!

Yeah. Really nice. All right. Take care of my friend. Cheers. Bye!

The post PENDRAGON’s Guitarist NICK BARRETT Reflects On New Album: “I’m Still In a Bit of a State of Shock About It. It’s Kind Of Nothing Like I’ve Ever Done Before.” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.