Sonic Perspectives

For the past 47 years Alan White has been synonymous with the band Yes, taking over from Bill Bruford in 1972 without missing a beat. From the classic era in the 70s to the chart-topping success of the 80s to Union and various lineups of the 90s and beyond, Alan and Chris Squire delivered one of progressive rock’s top rhythm sections. Having famously played on John Lennon’s Imagine album, as well as working with George Harrison and a host of other artists, White was an in-demand drummer at any early age before making his commitment to Yes.

In this interview with Alan just hours before launching their Royal Affair Tour, correspondent Scott Medina and White chat about coming into the band during their creative peak, the subsequent changes that Yes encountered, and of course the current tour and possible future directions. You can read the transcript or listen to the audio interview, followed by Alan’s pick for a closing song, “Turn of the Century”. Be sure to follow/subscribe to Sonic Perspectives on your social media channels to see our latest reviews and interviews. Enjoy!

This interview was made possible by The Hard Rock Live Event Center at The Seminoles Hard Rock and Casino, in Hollywood Florida, where YES will bring their Royal Affair Tour next Saturday, July 13, at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the Box Office and also online at the Ticketmaster. 

Slideshow photographs courtesy of Norrsken Photography and Design and Rich Ward.

Thank you so much for joining us today, Alan. We are speaking on the day of the start of the Royal Affair Tour, so you must be pretty excited to be back on the road starting tonight.

Yeah, yeah! I’m pretty sure everybody in the band is! Yeah, I’m looking forward to getting out on the road again, and playing some good music.

You’ve got quite a lineup of bands who are playing with you. It seems like one summer you go out on your own headline solo tour, and then maybe the next year you bring a bunch of friends along.

Yeah,(laughs), it seems to be like that. This is a good lineup! All the bands are pretty well-seasoned players, and hence the name of it. It’s going to be a very good show.

Exactly. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve heard mention that it’s going to include you doing a tribute to John Lennon. Is that true?

Yeah, we’re doing a tribute to John Lennon near the end of the set, as it coincides with 50 years since “Live Peace in Toronto” and of when he recorded “Imagine”.

Well that’ll be a treat for the audience for sure.

Yeah! It was my manager’s idea…he’s sitting here in the room right now.

All right, well one point for the manager. And rumor has it that you’re going to be playing “The Gates of Delirium” too. Is that true?

Yeah, that’s in the set. It’s one of the well-liked songs from Yes that we haven’t really played that much for a lot of years. So a lot of people I think are looking forward to it.

I’m sure. I think it’s been since the Magnification tour with the whole symphony that you guys did that. So that’s really exciting.

I think it was, actually, yeah.

Are you and Jay Schellen splitting time on the kit, this time around? Do you ever both play at the same time?

Yes, I’m playing mainly more towards the end of the set and doing all the finishing songs. But yeah, we’re quite well adjusted at this point.

Well let’s go back to when you first joined Yes. I’m always fascinated that the first studio album that you appeared on was the epic Tales From Topographic Oceans. I mean, that’s quite a way to start with a band!

Yeah. I mean, it was quite inventive stuff back then. But that’s what the band is all about and it was back then, too; it’s creating new music, and looking over the horizon, not at it. Trying to come up with sounds that were different from other people, and crossing boundaries in music.

Did it faze you at all to suddenly be playing on a double album that had four 20-minute songs on it?

(laughs) No, it’s just something that came about while we were rehearsing and people kept coming in with different ideas, musical passages and storylines and really it just developed like that and all of a sudden we had four pieces of music. In fact, the track on side one of that was 27 minutes long and we had to cut out about six minutes of it.

By that time you probably were already used to being a quick study with Yes. Because it sounds like you had very little time to take over on the Close to the Edge tour after Bill Bruford left.

Yes. Basically I had like a weekend of playing, intensely studying Yes music for two or three days and then all of a sudden I was on the stage. You know, it was a bit like that, yeah.

You and Chris were the pillars of Yes through so many changes from Drama and “Run with the Fox”, then into the 80s with 90125 and then Union and Talk and everything subsequent from there. So now at this point, you are the most consistent member of Yes, for about 47 years, I think.

Yes, that’s exactly right! It’s a pretty crazy position to be in. If you told me that 47 years ago, I would never have believed it!

When you joined Yes it sounds like you were very in demand as a drummer and had offers from Jethro Tull and America in the same week…

That’s exactly right, it was a pretty scary week for me. But, you know, I think the music won out in the end because I love playing Yes music. I was already familiar with their music and it just seemed like the perfect way to go for me. It was a challenge to play.

In terms of longevity, it looks like you made the right choice of the band, too.

Oh, certainly, yeah.

You’ve played with, I think it’s been probably four different lead singers and seven different keyboardists with Yes over all these decades.

(laughing) It’s quite amazing when you start looking at figures like that!

Do you approach the drum kit differently relative to who the singer or the keyboardist is?

I think the band evolved through different personalities being in the band, and subsequently finding new areas of music to go in. Like 90125 with Trevor Rabin was another direction for the band that was very successful.

Yeah, it sure was. Some of your older drum recordings that you did a couple of decades ago were recently included on Jon Anderson’s new solo album called “1,000 Hands”, along with some recordings from Chris and Steve. Have you heard that finished album?

Yeah. I haven’t heard it too many times, I must get the finished version and give a real listen to it. What do you think?

It’s a lovely diverse album. It has so many different styles and draws on some musicians, like yourself, who recorded decades ago but it brings it all into a very modern context. So I quite enjoy it.

Yeah. Oh good. Well, I’ll have to give it a thorough listening.

Does the idea of bringing together many members of Yes from the past 50 years, either for a tour or an album at some point, hold any interest for you?

Well, you know, I’m not going to say no because anything’s a possibility. Maybe one day everybody will just come together and be able to do a big show of everything again, which might be in the future. But as of now, we’re just getting on with this Yes.

Are you guys in the studio right now for a new album?

No, that’s going to be coming down the line.

Well, it’s been several years now that you and Billy have solidified Yes’ rhythm section. And even though it certainly was a blow to lose Chris, it was very fortuitous that you and Billy had a long history already.

Yeah. Well we’ve known Billy for an awful long time. He was commenting to me, “The first time I ever met you was thirty years ago.” And I said, “Wow, Billy. Don’t make it sound like that!” (laughs)

Yeah. Along those lines I can wish you an early happy birthday. You’ve got a big birthday coming up too, right?

Well, thank you very much!

Do you have a favorite era of the band?

All the eras of the band really are very different, you know, and it reflects on the difference in some of the albums. 90125 was a great period for us, and very successful. But Relayer – that period – that was a great album to make. And Topographic is yet another era that sticks out. So it just goes album by album really, and I had a big part of it.

Well, we like to close our interviews with, with a song from the band. Is there one particular song that you would like us to feature that is special to you?

“Turn of the Century”. How about that one?

Beautiful. You co-wrote that with Steve. Is there anything you want to share about that experience of writing that song?

Well, actually I wrote that on piano and then Steve did an adaption of the chords that I came up with. And then Jon basically plays the same melody as I played on the piano. So it came together relatively quickly and I know a lot of people love that song.

It’s a gorgeous one, so we’ll close with that. Thank you so much for chatting with us, Alan.

All right. Thank you!

Have a wonderful opening of the tour tonight.

Thanks very much. Bye!

The post Legendary YES Drummer ALAN WHITE: “YES is All About Looking Over The Horizon, Not At It” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

As part of the Graham Bonnet Band‘s 2017 “The Book” tour in Japan, a three night special engagement and reunion of Alcatrazz was presented much to the delight of the Japanese hard rock faithful.

Founding Alcatrazz members, Graham Bonnet (vocals), Jimmy Waldo (keyboards) and Gary Shea (bass), reunited after 33 years for a unique series of shows in Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo, Japan in March 2017. For the special occasion, the band was rounded out by Mark Benquechea (drums) and Conrado Pesinato (guitars), both from the Graham Bonnet Band. In addition to this unique farewell performance captured on audio and video, Alcatrazz raided the archives and added some unreleased bonus tracks taken from the original sessions recorded in 1985, including one song, “Emotion” with a young Steve Vai on guitar.

Alcatrazz was formed in 1983 by former Rainbow and Michael Schenker Group vocalist Graham Bonnet along with Jimmy Waldo and Gary Shea and made three studio albums in the 1980’s. The band’s debut album included a young Swedish guitarist, Yngwie Malmsteen and their second album, guitar virtuoso Steve Vai. Alcatrazz split up in 1987 after the release of their third album, Dangerous Games.

After the news of the upcoming release of the Graham Bonnet focused set recorded that very same night in Japan entitled Live In Tokyo 2017, which will see the light of day next July and can be considered an accompanying piece to last year’s Parole Denied – Tokyo 2017 – our never-resting collaborator Rodrigo Altaf sat down with Jimmy Waldo to talk about the live album, pressures from the band’s record company in the 80’s, what was it like to work with Malmsteen and Vai, as well as the undergoing plans for an Alcatrazz new record. Find all about this and much more in the interview below, and remember to subscribe to our Podcast in several platforms to listen and be notified about new interviews and contents we publish on a daily basis.

The post JIMMY WALDO Remembers ALCATRAZZ Early Days: “Our Record Company Wanted Us to be FOREIGNER or SURVIVOR, and We Were a Hard Rock Band” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Picking up on their first mammoth hour-long interview, the legendary original Fates Warning singer spills the beans on his love of Iron Maiden, his own history with the city that gave Fates Warning its next two singers, and the possibility that the one and only Bruce Dickinson might be a John Arch fan. Yeah, read that last part again. 

And when you tell JOHN ARCH that you’ve met Bruce Dickinson twice, he’ll say “I hate you too then.”

Additionally, John gets at the heart of two more of his favorite cuts from the recently released Arch/Matheos album Winter Ethereal, and goes particularly deep on closing track “Kindred Spirits,” which covers ground neither the interrogator nor the interrogated believe has ever been handled in metal. Listen to the second part of John‘s conversation with Gonzalo Pozo below, as he proves to be an incredibly gracious and affable dude, and the Sonic Perspectives crew collectively thanks him for the opportunity to chat with a second time.

As usual you can subscribe to our podcast to be notified of all our interviews in a timely manner. And don’t forget to stalk us on social media via Facebook and Twitter.

Slideshow photographs by Rodrigo Simas Photography and Stephen Schmidt

The post Former FATES WARNING Singer JOHN ARCH Talks Lyrical Themes And Musical Influences: “Most of My Friends Have Met BRUCE DICKINSON. I Hate Them All” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Coming off several weeks of technical foulness and work-related brutality, the ever-obnoxious triumvirate of twits that is Jordan Blum, Nick Andreas, and Gonzalo Pozo resurface to bring you a long-overdue 24th episode of Talking Perspectives. This time around, our panel discuses their favorite releases 2019 has given thus far (spoiler: The Mute Gods and Empath are brought up yet again); exciting album announcements from Opeth and Blind Guardian; and the summer concert season, which will see our two Pennsylvania noodle-heads in particularly rowdy form.

Despite the break, the trio of talking troglodytes are in such fine form that we can only hope our audiences find as entertaining and informative as our panelists find each other irritating. So tune in, sort your laundry, and get ready for some laughs as yet another Talking Perspectives comes your way today.

The post TALKING PERSPECTIVES: “Favorite 2019 Albums Thus Far / Upcoming Summer Concerts / Most Exciting Anticipated 2019 Albums (Episode No. 24) appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Some statements are so unambiguous that they require no further explanation: “If you like the first song, then the odds are you’ll like the whole album. It’s balls-to-the-wall heavy metal, song after song. No ballads and nothing your mom will be humming,” promises Carl Canedy, drummer of legendary US metal act The Rods. Recorded at the Barn Castle and the Nire Studio, engineered by Lonnie Park, Carl Canedy and Eric Chesek, the album features spectacular cover artwork courtesy of Belgian artist Eric Philippe and brings a breath of fresh air to the band’s classic metal.

The American drummer talks about the latest Rods album, Brotherhood Of Metal, which is scheduled for release on Steamhammer/SPV on 7 June 2019. The three musicians: David “Rock” Feinstein, Canedy and bassist Garry Bordonaro have recorded eleven songs (a twelfth track will be included as a bonus track on the vinyl edition), in other words in exactly the same lineup that cut their 1982 cult release Wild Dogs. “When we’re together it’s clear that we have a strong bond. That hasn’t changed since then. What has changed is that we now have families and adult children. Other than that, it’s still the same as it was. Only now our kids come to the concerts. It’s still weird for me to hear my daughter start singing a Rods song out of the blue. I never imagined that would ever happen. David, Garry and I are still close friends all these years later, we’re a band of brothers and proud that we’re heavier than ever and making great Rods music for the fans.”

Heavy metal marauder and contributor to the Sonic Perspectives team Michael “MettleAngel” Francisco sat down with Canedy to talk at length about Brotherhood Of Metal. Listen to their chat, or subscribe to our Podcast in several platforms to listen and be notified about new interviews and contents we publish on a daily basis.

The post Drummer CARL CANEDY Talks THE RODS New Album: “It’s Balls-to-the-Wall Heavy Metal, Song After Song. No Ballads and Nothing Your Mom Will Be Humming” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

JOLLY, the genre-defying band from New York City, has endured more than their fair share of struggles in their ten-year career. Everything from having their homes and band gear destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, to seeing the death of a beloved friend and the births of their own children, JOLLY has weathered a lot in the 2010s, much of which might have contributed to a bit of a hiatus since their last release in 2013.

After several years in the works, including a successful Patreon effort, JOLLY is ready to release their fourth album, the aptly-titled Family in June 2019, and are set to tour Europe for the first time in at least a few years.

Sonic Perspectives self-admitted JOLLY fanatic, interviewer Austin Kokel, sat down with JOLLY‘s drummer, Louis Abramson, on a late evening after JOLLY band practice, to talk about all of it, and more. Listen to the interview below, or subscribe to Sonic Perspectives podcasts however you listen to podcasts for this interview, Talking Perspectives episodes, and more.

The post JOLLY Drummer LOUIS ABRAMSON On New Album ‘Family’: “We’ve Been Dying to Give it to Our Fans For So Long” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Whenever and wherever guitarist, keyboardist and composer Turilli and vocalist Lione have been working together, the result has been something extraordinary. Something both metal and rock lovers around the globe loved, cherished and remembered forever. Now, after eight long years, the two brothers in arms are finally back together again. They reunited to start an exciting new chapter on their journey that will take the trademark sound of their old bands, not only to another level, but to an altogether different universe. Turilli/Lione RHAPSODY is a dream come true for every fan of cinematic, bombastic, epic symphonic metal. This band is a redefinition of their Italian trademark sound and a modern interpretation of their old virtues and roots.

With a release date set for July 05th 2019, the new album, entitled Zero Gravity (Rebirth And Evolution) is a different take on the symphonic metal that Rhapsody fans have known and loved for so many years. It’s a clear evidence of  their unparalleled talent and their untiring mission of reinventing themselves, pushing forward, and reviving a genre that has had its share of repetitiveness over the years, and needed a boost.

Our dragon-slaying interviewer Rodrigo Altaf had a chat with Luca Turilli about the new album. Enjoy their talk in the audio below and remember to subscribe to our Podcast in several platforms to listen and be notified about new interviews and contents we publish on a daily basis.

The post LUCA TURILLI Talks Upcoming TURILLI/LIONE RHAPSODY Album: “We Wanted to Modernize Our Approach to Symphonic Metal” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

In the midst of their longest tour of North America, Riverside leader Mariusz Duda takes some time to speak with Scott Medina right before taking the stage in the beautiful Boulder Theater, in Denver, Colorado. Their conversation focuses on the band’s experience on tour and how the evolution of Wasteland is bringing Riverside to a new stage in their career. Riverside have proven to be one of the most popular contemporary bands in the progressive rock scene. Mixing ambient, metal and progressive influences into their songwriting, Riverside offer what Duda calls “melancholic rock”. Having endured tragedy personally and as a band, notably with the passing of their iconic lead guitarist over three years ago, Riverside continue to blaze new trails and expand their audience as they reinvent themselves.

You can also check out our wonderful photo galleries of this tour below.

Listen to their conversation in the video below, and be sure to follow/subscribe to Sonic Perspectives on your social media channels to see our latest reviews and interviews. Enjoy!

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People will be approaching Terraformer, the third album from Thank You Scientist from a lot of different angles. Of course there will be those who have never checked out the band before, and excited current fans ready and waiting for new material. Of that latter group some may have expectations set by the advance singles from the album, along with their rather outside the box videos. But what will really set this release apart as far as fan expectations are concerned is that by my estimates the band played roughly half the new album on their recent month long tour of American and Canada with Kindo and In the Presence of Wolves. Thousands of fans including myself effectively formed a first impression of the new album based on its live presentation and we now approach the fun point of seeing how people’s memories of the songs live merge with what they hear on the album due out on June 14th. Fans have also been treated to new drummer Joe Fadem, saxophonist Sam Greenfield, and trumpeter Joe Gullace in the live lineup for a year and a half now, but the trio makes their recorded debut on this album.

From the moment this album was announced I knew I’d be keeping a critical ear to it as the runtime clocked in at eighty four minutes, which meant to a fuddy duddy CD collector like myself that the music would need to be split over two discs to accommodate four minutes of music. That means, somewhere in an eighty four minute span my listening experience will be interrupted, and perhaps far more critically I will be expected to walk across my living room in order to change discs. Stephen King couldn’t write of a greater horror. A near perfect album would require me to say after several listens that there is absolutely no way you’d want to cut any four minutes of material, and my live impressions at least led me to believe that may well be the case. Of course some out there might say a majority of people are going to listen to this digitally and none of this matters, to which I say get off my damn lawn. Now, onto Terraformer.

The album is a refinement of the classic Thank You Scientist sound, driven in part by the core of the band’s identity. The fact that they are a progressive rock band that uses little to no keyboards (or live backing tracks), and includes a saxophonist, trumpeter, and violinist as full time members forms a pretty unique identity. That identity can also serve to keep them from deviating too far from the sounds one might expect. That being said new saxophonist Sam Greenfield also brought an electric flute/wind instrument into the fold for this album, and guitarist Tom Monda added some additional sounds with a samisen, most notably on the penultimate track “New Moon“, and a fretless guitar on the closing/title track. The band continues to write in a semi-long form way, with most tracks clocking in between six and ten minutes. The band still lacks the long epic of a more traditional prog band, but continues to stay away from the simplistic single formula of a rock band. While it may sound like I lament this fact reality is quite the opposite, I’ve always appreciated that they can hook you in with a pure rock vibe, and give you reason to keep coming back with writing and musicianship that matches prog’s finest.

This album continues a trend of those somewhat longer tracks not feeling as long as they are, with instrumental sections typically focused and loaded with plenty of hooks. Be it stellar guitar work, vocals, or the regular punching in and out of the trumpet/sax, every track has its upside. It’s only because of the overall length of the record that one might become fatigued on later tracks like “Life of Vermin” or “Anchor“. That said listening to those track on their own almost certainly won’t elicit that same response. The album also features several shorter tracks or interludes, and as most tend to stand out as different and help pace out the album. The world’s first taste of this album was the eight minute X-Files inspired single “FXMLDR”, but before that kicks the album into full gear we’re eased into things as “Wrinkle” builds things up to start off the album. A few tracks later “Birdwatching” is a soft and smooth track with new drummer Joe Fadem bringing an electronic drum pad to the mix and using it wonderfully. “Shatner’s Lament” is the only track that I’d chalk up as a simple interlude, with no real purpose other than to break things up. “New Moon” is a beautiful and serene two minutes with Tom Monda’s samisen and a light orchestral backing that really separates itself from the rest of the album. It’s also a treat to hear vocalist Salvatore Marrano on this track, a high energy vocalist singing over a much softer section than one is used to hearing. I would love to hear the sounds in “New Moon” and “Birdwatching” incorporated more into other songs, and we perhaps get one tow in the water on a song like “Anchor”. As is the album seems well divided between the traditional and experimental.

As for the longer tracks that make up the bulk of the album, perhaps the simplest thing I can say, also perhaps negating a lot of time spent typing, is check out those songs already released to the public, “FXMLDR” and “Terraformer”. I find both tracks represent the album very well, and if you like them you probably will like Thank You Scientist and you almost certainly will enjoy their new album Terraformer. Song after song their ability to weave in non-traditional rock instruments into stunning compositions shines through, and the same can be said in the mix which manages to give everyone time to shine. “Son of a Serpent” features near its end one of Tom Monda’s several highlight guitar solos. The instrumental “Chromology” is unsurprisingly is full of brass and woodwind flare, but also points a spotlight at violinist Ben Karas to show off a bit. Generally throughout most of the songs you’ll pick up highlight moments from the individual players, though through most of the material a solid song structure takes precedent over individual flash. Bassist Cody McCorry and drummer Joe Fadem form a stellar rhythm section throughout the album. Founding members Tom Monda and Salvatore Marrano ensure through guitars and vocals that the album is unmistakably Thank You Scientist. Violinist Ben Karas continues to be both an excellent accompaniment to Tom’s guitars at times and the perfect counterpoint at others. And finally the new blowing boys (note to self: need to work on that name), Sam Greenfield and Joe Gullace stepped right in to their roles and added that regular sonic punch to the music that fans have come to expect.

Circling back to the big question I posed earlier, does this album deserve to be split over two discs? Yes and no. Aside from “Shatner’s Lament” there isn’t much that I’d call filler, unnecessary, bad, or otherwise easily dropped. The album is nine fantastic songs with a classic Thank You Scientist sound and mostly excellent shorter works woven in. That said this music is a lot to take in, and generally speaking the run time of the previous two albums, fifteen minutes shorter at least, seemed more digestible. I can’t help but feel cutting a song or three for a future album or digital only release to keep the primary album to a more manageable length, all while amplifying those remaining songs may have been to some benefit. However I suppose if one of my primary complaints is that there is too much good music on Terraformer, then things are looking pretty good.

Is this my favorite Thank You Scientist record? It’s hard to say, the debut holds a special place in my heart and has several tried and true anthems that have held up for many years now. That being said Terraformer joins its two predecessors as being an excellent effort from one of America’s great young bands, aided by fresh blood and their most refined sound to date. Picking between their albums at this point might as well be like picking your favorite kid, although the music will bring just as much joy for far less cost and sacrifice. So really the point I’m trying to make it, why have kids/more kids when you can just buy Terraformer? Yeah, that sounds like solid advice.

Released By: Evil Ink Records

1 Wrinkle

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Neal Morse does not stand still for long. Mere months after releasing double-album The Great Adventure with the Neal Morse Band, he is back with an epic musical of the life of Jesus, in Jesus Christ the Exorcist. Written and performed extensively by Morse, a wide host of guest vocalists take the spotlight including Ted Leonard, Nick D’Virgilio, Jake Livgren, Rick Florian, Matt Smith, Talon David and many more, along with several guest musicians from the Neal Morse Band and beyond.

In this in-depth interview, Sonic Perspectives correspondent Scott Medina finds out the origins and development of this new musical, from casting to performance to how the title came to be The Exorcist. It’s a fun dialogue that shows Neal’s warmth and enthusiasm. You can listen to the audio or read the transcript below. A few additional questions are asked towards the end about upcoming projects with Flying Colors, demo’s of The Great Adventure and more.

Enjoy this interview on streaming audio or read the transcript below, and remember to subscribe to our Podcast in several platforms to listen and be notified about new interviews and contents we publish on daily basis.

Hey everybody, this is Scott Medina for Sonic Perspectives. We’ve got Neal Morse with us today because following up from The Great Adventure, amazingly he’s got another double album coming out this year. It’s called Jesus Christ the Exorcist and we’re going to focus on that along with other questions. So welcome to the call, Neal.

Oh, thanks man! Thank you.

So, this is your second double album in less than six months. Are you going to make this a habit?

Ha ha ha, I hope not! [laughing] The funny thing is I never wanted to make a double album…like ever! I remember early in the Spock’s Beard days some of the prog fans – I remember one in particular – kept kind of hounding me about “when are you going to do your double concept album, when are you going to do your Lamb Lies Down?” And I thought, oh, that seems so predictable. You know, I really didn’t want to do that. And then when it happens, it must just happen naturally. All of these albums, they just wanted to be doubles. Snow was that way…we really resisted having it be a double, but you got to follow the music where it wants to go. And Jesus Christ the Exorcist is no different.

Yeah, it seems like you have had resistance to double albums all along, whether it’s in the guise of Mike Portnoy or someone else, and somehow you’ve all come around and said, “yeah, that was a really good decision, I’m glad it went there.”

Oh yeah.

So, tell us about this one because you started writing this musical, Jesus Christ the Exorcist, I think in 2008 or 2009. So how did the timing come about to revisit it last year first with the Morsefest performance where you did the whole musical last year at Morsefest – for our listeners who may not realize that – and now subsequently doing a studio album of it?

Well, yeah, it was quite providential. We really only did Jesus Christ the Exorcist at Morsefest because Mike Portnoy was booked all year with Sons of Apollo (laughs). So, my wife and I, we were racking our brains as to what we could do that we wouldn’t need Mike for? And so we did the Jesus musical. And as soon as I thought of that, I thought, well, it’s not very known. And you know, kind of the original thought of Morsefest was that the only way this would really become a successful thing is if people travel in for it from all over the world, and the only way that they’re going to do that is if we’re gonna play some album that maybe we’ve never played in its entirety or you know, something that we know is kind of a big deal to the fans.

And the Jesus musical wasn’t really that. Because it had never been released fully, I only released something to the inner circle in demo form. But I just got so excited about it and I prayed about it and I thought, Oh yes, this is what we should do. And it just went so well. But what was really interesting was that in the weeks before I was going to begin rewriting it – I knew that for Morsefest I was going to have to revisit it and rewrite it and cut it down a little bit because It was two and a half hours long in the original draft – and right when I was entering into that process, I got a call from a music business friend of mine. It was the same guy who called me in 2008 to suggest that I write it in the first place! He called me in 2018 and said, “you’re not gonna believe this, but I’ve got a record deal for the Jesus musical.” And I said, “Really? Wow, that’s really interesting cause I’m just entering into this whole rewrite phase!” And I was trying to cram that in while we were also making The Great Adventure album, it was all piling on top of one another in a kind of crazy way. But it’s all worked out, they both got done and I think they’re both really extraordinary and very different of course from one another.

About what percentage of the material would you say was written back in 2008, and what was totally newly written after you started revisiting it last year?

Well, a lot of it remained. I would say 75% of it is from the original version. And 25% of it is either new or reworked or rearranged music and themes from the first draft. There was a thing where I removed one whole section and then I took these other two sections…I think it was the Garden of Gethsemane and maybe Jesus Before Pilate or something like that. I kind of remember taking these two different things and throwing them together and making them one piece. Um, I was just thinking about the flow of it as a little bit more of a concert kind of performance and setting like we have at Morsefest. And so the rewrite was really geared towards that, but I think it works really, really well for the album version as well.

You’ve titled it Jesus Christ, the Exorcist. Why use that description of “the Exorcist” rather than something like Jesus Christ, the Healer or Savior or Preacher?

Right. Well, it could have been any of those things. As I was writing it, it seemed that I was really attracted to writing about Jesus and his activity of casting devils out of people. It just kind of happened naturally as I was reading through the stories and I began to write “The Madman of the Gadarenes” story where Jesus cast this legion of Demons out of this man. I wound up writing this actually kind of almost funny [laughing], rather lighthearted sort of Gentle Giant telling of the Madman of the Gadarenes story with a bit of a sense of humor. And I really liked it! That was one of the early pieces that I wrote that I was like, oh, I think I’m onto something here because I’ve never heard anything like that before. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard any piece of music that was based on that story, even in classical music or anything. There may be one, I’m sure there is! Of all the music that’s been written based on the Gospels throughout the centuries, I’m sure somebody did it besides me. But I was really excited about that and I also accented the healing of Mary by that same method. And so that was why I thought of the title of The Exorcist. And I guess I thought maybe it would be a little bit jarring, which might be good. You know, some people might not like it, but it also might grab some people’s attention. Really the only reason why, of course, we have the connotation that we have of the word ‘exorcist’ is from the film. So we think of that as being some kind of a horror movie thing, you know. But of course it doesn’t mean that at all.

Yeah, it does grab people in a different way. You know, it’s not Jesus Christ Superstar…it’s Jesus Christ, the Exorcist. And you’re like, Whoa!

Yeah, like “What?!” Well in the same way, Jesus Christ Superstar was a jarring sort of funny title to me when I heard it when I was a kid. Cause the word ‘superstar’ was just being used a lot. It was a new word at that time. And then to say Jesus Christ Superstar was, I dunno, I thought it was a joke at first. Ultimately none of that matters if you like the music. Titles really don’t matter that much once you get into the piece. And I hope of course that people will do that.

Interestingly enough, there is this sort of humor that that does come into a few of these pieces. You know, like you were talking about the Gentle Giant approach, which of course is a classic technique that you’ve used a few different times. But also like listening to the song “He Must Go to the Cross”, it’s such a full-on, almost heavy metal anthem with the “we will rock you” kind of stomp in the background…

Yeah, it’s like “we will rock you” meets AC/DC. That was all part of the rewrite from last July when I came up with that. What I wound up feeling from the first draft was that it needed some more “up” numbers. So I was trying to write some stuff that said the same thing…for example, to have Peter saying, “okay, I believe you’re the Christ and I’ll follow you anywhere” and in the first draft I had this really long ballad. And I thought, oh, we don’t need another long ballad because Mary sang “Free at Last” not very long ago. So it could be something up and maybe shorter and so I wrote “Better Weather”. So a lot of things were like that. I had songs that were saying the same thing or providing the same scene, but then I wanted to write something that was maybe up tempo and shorter. And I really felt like I got some help last July with that, cause I did it like in 10 days or something. It was pretty cool.

Yeah, it’s unbelievable that you were doing that at the same time as The Great Adventure. I don’t even know how you got through those couple of months, putting all that together.

I basically had the last two weeks of July for the Jesus musical and to actually prepare it for all of the musicians and singers to learn at Morsefest. Not only did I have to write it, but I actually had to demo it as well, then send all the parts out to everyone so they could learn it. It was pretty intense! And then I remember Mike came for The Great Adventure sessions. The whole band came the first week of August. And yeah, it was an action packed time, that’s for sure! It was great. What a blessing. What a blessing. Oh my goodness!

Indeed. And in that track “He Must Go to the Cross” I just love Jake Livgren’s portrayal of Caiaphas, it just always leaves me with a smile. It’s so over the top, it grabs you in that moment…

Yeah, it’s great! You know, it was so cool, I feel like that was a God thing as well. Jake came down early for Morsefest. He was just like, “I really love this piece. Can I just come down early and hang out while you guys rehearse?” You know, I was trying to schedule all the rehearsals so this singer would come in this day and that singer would come in that day, so they weren’t all waiting around or that kind of thing. Jake just wanted to be there the whole time. And it was so cool cause he had printed up all the lyrics for the whole show and put it in a book and he has this amazing voice. So if nobody was there and we were working on the music and there were no vocalists, he would sing whatever the part was. He knew the whole show. He even sang Mary’s parts!

[laughing] What a stand-in!

And he sang ’em really well! it was crazy! I knew he was a great singer, but I got to know even more of what a great singer he was. And so, a lot of people did file sharing. Like, Ted sent his vocals from California. He didn’t fly out to do the vocals on the album. Jake, on the other hand, was like, “I really want to come. I really want to be there. I want to come be with you. I want to work with you on this.” And I’m so glad that he wanted to do that. Because he finished his vocals for Peter in the morning and then we were doing ensemble vocals, all the men’s ensemble things with my son Wil and Mark Pogue and Gabe and Gideon Klein and myself.

But then we had this time in the afternoon and I didn’t have someone for Caiaphas at that time. John Schlitt had done it at Morsefest, but it wasn’t going to work out for him to do it for the studio album. It was pretty late in the game and I still didn’t have anyone. I was talking to Michael Sweet, I talked to Kip Winger. I was talking to all these different singers, but nobody really had the time to do it. And so I said to Jake, “Hey, you can sing anything!” Cause I knew how he had done that at the rehearsals. “Do you want to take a stab at singing Caiaphas?” And we just happened to have a two and a half hour, or three hour window. And of course he already knew the whole show. So he just walked in there and killed it. I was like, “Hallelujah! Thank you Lord!” It was great!

Well I gotta say, I saw John Schlitt play Caiaphas at the Morsefest show and then listing to Jake essentially do a “John Schlitt” on the recording, it’s uncanny. He nailed it!

[Laughing] Yeah, great! Yeah.

So let’s talk about the casting for a second. I’m really curious about the role of Jesus. Maybe it was from watching Ted singing “The Devil’s Got My Throat” in the “Snow” performances, but I always seemed to have in my head that Ted would play a great Devil, you know, but suddenly he’s there playing Jesus. So, how were you guided to cast him in the role of Jesus?

Well, really, I wasn’t thinking much about his persona or anything like that. It was all just about vocals. I’m very un-visually oriented, let’s put it that way. I try to turn over as much of the visual concerns and content to other people because they’re better at it than I am. I’m really very auditory. So most of my choices are always going to be based on music first. And so that was the thing with Ted. I just knew he would sing the role really, really well knowing his voice and how great his voice is. I think he had a little apprehension about taking on the Jesus role, sort of personally. But I just assured by saying, “Hey, just sing it, you know? You’re not going to have to do a ton of acting or anything like that.” We did it with minimal staging, you know. And I feel like he really felt it. I mean, there were times at the performance and at the rehearsals where you could see him tearing up a little bit in the parts that were really touching to him. That was a beautiful thing to see. And of course he does such a wonderful job on the album.

There was this section when Jesus is revealing his identity to Mary at the tomb and in the performance, right when Ted was about to sing, you know, “Mary, Mary”, something happened to him on stage. Like, before he could even get those words out. Do you remember that moment?

Yeah. Well, you know, that moment…I don’t know why that moment is so special…because there’s nothing going on musically that should make it that way. It’s just a really special moment. When I wrote it I knew it was a special moment. I’m just so glad. You know, when you feel something and you feel like something is special and has that indefinable “anointing” for lack of a better word; it has that magic to it. When you see that other people feel the same way, there’s something magical about that, too. And then you’re sharing it and everyone’s feeling it…that’s just the greatest thing that you can be involved in. And to have it all be built around music which we all love so much. It’s hard to put into words how it makes you feel.

Do you ever have challenges holding it together yourself on stage? Like as you’re seeing the Jesus story playing out in front of your eyes and this musical vision that you’ve had coming to fruition, is that ever so overwhelming that it’s hard for you to keep track of your musical parts you need to play or sing?

I don’t hold it together. [laughing]

[laughing] Well, there is that, yeah.

I’m very well known for falling apart! [laughs] Sometimes it happens when I’m really not expecting it. Like I prayed in the morning of the last Cruise to the Edge concert. We were gonna do the second half of The Great Adventure and then the encores. And [laughs] I prayed that the Lord would touch my heart and I would really feel the music [laughing]. I don’t know…it was, it was almost funny! I mean, I cried through like, like 45 minutes!

I know, I was there and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cry so much!

Yeah [laughing] sometimes the emotion of, of the, of the whole thing, you know, the moment and the music and the people and the Lord and what he’s done for you and, and I, I don’t…you can’t even say what it is! You don’t even know what it is! You’re just so moved and I’m just really thankful that it’s all still so fresh for me.

For the musicians in the band on the studio album, you have it mostly rooted in the Neal Morse Band with a few obvious shuffles going on. What was it like for you having Eric covering the drum kit on that one?

Oh, that was so much fun! That was actually my wife’s idea. Yeah, we go for walks and kick things around. You know, I’ll say, “This thing’s coming up, what do you think about this?” She’s very people oriented, you know? My head’s a little bit in the clouds thinking about music and she’s more grounded and thinking about people. I think she was thinking, “Well, since we don’t have Mike, who could we get that would be maybe a little different, but somebody that people would be interested in? Hey, Eric plays drums, doesn’t he?” And I’m like, “Oh yeah, he’s great!” So she said what about having him, and I was like, oh yeah, that’s a great idea! Yeah, Talon David as playing Mary was also was my wife’s idea.

Boy, what a find she was — just an amazing singer!

Yeah, she is! She’s incredible. Yeah. I didn’t have anybody for the Mary role up to like August [editor’s note: the Morsefest performance was on September 1st, 2018] It was August! So I was about six weeks out and I still didn’t have a Mary. Everyone that I had talked to, you know, it was just a long process of waiting for people to send in a tape of them singing it. And so I was waiting and waiting. And then I finally get the tape and think about it, and say to myself I don’t think it’s really right for this person. And so then I look for another person and then I finally get their tape, but I just didn’t feel it was right. And then when Talon sent her videotape of her singing “Woman of Seven Devils” while standing next to a wall in her room I said, okay, I’m sold! Let’s do this. And I think by the time I made that decision, I think it might’ve been close to a month out. But she was so young, that was my concern about her. She was like a third of everybody else’s age. Not that that matters particularly, but as this being a performance, I was just concerned about that. She didn’t have a lot of experience doing concerts, her background is more in musical theater and she’s in college taking musical theater classes. So I just didn’t know if she would have the experience to pull it off and…Wow! I think everybody that was there was amazed, I called her the surprise hit of the festival.

You definitely chose well and it all came together just in time.

Oh, yeah. Incredible! Just incredible.

And on the album, as far as guitar goes, you have Paul Bielatowicz as the main guitarist, but also Eric and yourself. You played a lot of the guitars on the recording too, right?

Yeah. Actually most of the guitars really are played by me. Eric did one guitar solo, that’s the one during the Crucifixion. Paul did guitar on “There’s a Highway”, the solo in the “Overture” and one other thing. But yeah, most of the rest of the guitars are all me. Some of them were recorded in the 2008 demos! I just kind of went through it and where I thought it was broke, I fixed it. And where I thought it wasn’t broke, I didn’t fix it. Some of the performances I really liked. Sometimes you like the way things are on the demo so it’s like, well let’s roll with that. It sounds great.

I like that you got a little talk box guitar there during the Devil theme.

Yeah, that was from the demo! Yeah, I punched into that. It’s really interesting that I punched into the talk box guitar track to record a bit more on top of the demo. So part of it is from 2008 and part of it is from 2018. I’ve got vocals on there, too! My pilot vocal is part 2008 and part 2018. [laughs] Isn’t that crazy?

[laughing] I can believe that, yeah!

I just matched it up, man! You know, I’m probably using the same vocal mic, too! I’ve been using the same vocal mic for a long time,

Comes in handy in situations in situations like this.

Yeah, I just love it. We’ve done a couple of shootouts with different vocal mic’s. We always come back to that one. So, it’s really easy to match up.

Looking at the words of Jesus that you chose to use in this musical, some of Jesus’s most powerful words are when he’s on the cross, from Luke: “forgive them Father for they do not know what they do.” And you didn’t use those actual words toward the end of the performance when he’s on the cross. Was there a reason why?

Let’s see…well, right in the very beginning of the album…uh, I don’t use those actual words because…well, it didn’t fit in the song! [laughs] I sang: “Father forgive them their envy and pride, they do not know whom they’ve crucified, Father forgive them and heal them too, they do not know what they do. Now I give my soul up to you.” Which is saying the same thing, just a little bit broader.

So you’re really focusing on having it fit the music.

Yeah. Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes I would take a thought of his and then see how you would want to sing it. And I felt like that was worth embellishing. Because I believe that would be the Lord’s heart, you know, that don’t just forgive them but also heal them. He came for the healing of our hearts. So I embellished a little bit, but I hope when we meet that he won’t be upset with me! [laughs] If you know the scriptures well, you would notice that I took different things that he said to some people and I have him say them to different people. For example, I took some of the things that Jesus says to the woman at the well, or to the woman caught in adultery, and I basically had him say all of those things to Mary. You know what I mean? It’s all things he said, but they weren’t all necessarily in that scene. I wanted to get as much of his teaching in as I could. I feel like a lot of the movies and plays and musicals and things about Jesus, a lot of them focus only on the Crucifixion really, on the last few days of his life. Jesus Christ Superstar and The Passion of the Christ both take place on the last few days of his life. And of course they put a lot of his teachings in there, but I wanted to do one that was a little more comprehensive and covered his whole ministry, which I think is more important than just the ending.

Right, you really do that with a lot of the songs, and then there’s even some additional notes in the accompanying booklet describing what’s going on, and what’s happened between songs.

Yeah. Come on, let’s hear him preach! Come on!

At the very end, in the final song “The Greatest Love of All”, there is an extensive duet between Jesus and Mary, basically stating the new relationship between Christ and his people.

Yeah. Mary’s the one who’s there at the tomb! The Apostles are all scattered. So I think that’s really important. I’ve always felt like that was a really important part of the Gospel. And I’ve heard some really good talks on it. A friend of mine used to pastor at a church in London. I remember him giving a really good talk that really touched my heart about how it’s dark and Mary has no hope. Her hopes are completely dashed. She goes to the tomb just thinking, well, I’ll anoint his body. He’s dead and it’s over, but I’ll sort of do this last rite. Not expecting to find life, you know? And then just the whole beauty of it when he calls her name. And with that song, I wondered how can we talk about the love of God that’s poured out through Jesus in a way that really kind of encapsulates the whole thing. And I think that for “The Greatest Love of All”…well, I guess I always felt like the Whitney Houston song was selling love short [laughs], talking about the greatest love being learning to love yourself. Even way back then I thought, well no man, the greatest love of all is the love of God, come on. So I think that’s a pretty appropriate way for them to sing that and then for him to say to her, go and tell my brothers, go and tell the disciples that I’ve been risen from the dead. It seemed like a good exclamation point to end on.

Now that the studio album is coming out, do you think you’re going to be inspired to tour the show?

Oh, I would love to! I don’t know about touring per se. I think it might be difficult because we’d have to have a pretty big group even to do it with people doubling on parts. Even in a cut down way, you’d need to have I think at least 13 people and six crew or something, so there’d be like 20 people. So my vision and my hope and my prayer is that there’ll be enough interest that we could do a week here, and a week there and have some time off and do another week. That’s my hope but I wouldn’t want to do a bunch of one night stands, it doesn’t feel right for that kind of a piece. It would be better if you could be somewhere for a little while, in a small theater. So I hope that happens. I believe it will if there’s enough interest from people, I mean that’s what it’ll take.

Have you talked to people like Ted, Talon, Nick, etc… if they’d be up for doing that in that kind of a situation or will you approach that at the point you might get some offers?

Well, I did talk to them. Yeah, I talked to Ted and Talon. I figured I would talk to them first. And there wasn’t really much of any kind of time-frame where they can both do anything. Talon is in college. She’s going for a year to Melbourne in Australia starting in July. So that kind of makes it a bit difficult. And Ted‘s quite busy, too. And so I thought, well let’s let the album come out and see what gets stirred up. My strategy with this whole thing from the very beginning on this album was to just wait on the Lord and see what doors God would open and not trying to force anything. You know, I wrote it, I presented it, Michael Kaplan shopped it. Nothing much happened at that time. And I just thought when it’s ready to happen, it’ll happen. So that’s my feeling about us doing it live again.

That sounds like a perfect approach. Who would have expected this musical would actually be a Morsefest performance and then lead to a studio album, so we’ll see where it wants to be taken from here.

Yes indeed!

There’s just so many beautiful melodies and amazing songs on this album, I’m really excited for everybody to hear it. Songs like “Love Has Called My Name” is such a fantastic duet with you and Nick.

Oh, yeah! Thank you!

I love how you personalized it by singing “I’ve seen him heal my daughter’s heart” in there, that was really beautiful.

Yeah, I like to put in things that show that this isn’t just about the past.

Exactly. Yeah. And what else do you have on your docket now? You’re probably finishing up Flying Colors writing and recording?

Yeah, exactly. I did background vocals and some additional keyboards yesterday morning from like 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Man, I got my eight hours in! Yeah, it’s sounding great. I did like stacks and stacks of vocals and things. Yeah, it’s really, really good. So we’re intending that to come out in August! And also a live Neal Morse Band album in the Czech Republic of The Great Adventure in August as well. So hopefully all that stuff will be out in time for Morsefest.

Wow. So the Flying Colors third album might get out even before Morsefest.

Well we hope so. We’re trying.

That’s very impressive. Fantastic! That’s great to hear.

Yeah, we’re working on it! Hahaha.

Going back to Jesus Christ the Exorcist for a moment, do you have plans on when you’re going to release the live show from Morsefest last year? Will that come out sometime in the subsequent year or are you going to wait and see what happens with the studio version?

I would imagine we’ll wait. You know what would be great? Oh well I won’t talk about it cause I don’t know if it’s going to happen, so I won’t talk about things that may not happen. I have things that pop into my mind like, oh, it’d be great… But I think we will release the live Jesus musical in 2020, I believe.

And for The Great Adventure, does it look like Morsefest is going to be the final performance, or are there any chances you might do more legs of the tour? Because it sounds like it was just as fulfilling a tour as you’ve ever had.

It was! Yeah, we haven’t gotten any other offers that made sense for us to do. And so, yeah, it looks like the Morsefest performance with string, horns and choir is going to be the send off.

Well what a send off it’ll be! If anyone listening doesn’t have their tickets yet to that Morsefest, be sure you get them for the final performance of The Great Adventure as well as a whole evening with Flying Colors, maybe debuting brand new material there?

Yeah, that’s right, we will be! And we’ll be playing a lot of our older material too, I’m sure. And Randy McStine is opening for Flying Colors, that’s going to be cool!

I love that. It’d be cool if he sits in somewhere else, maybe Saturday night or something, who knows?

Yeah, he’s really cool. I really enjoyed when he sat in with me for my New York Life and Times show and it was just great.

He even sat in once on the Cruise for Steve Morse’s place. You guys did some Flying Colors material there. I think he was doing “Blue Ocean” or “The Storm” or something like that.

Is that right? I bet you’re right. I’ve done so many different things on the Cruises that I don’t remember! I sat in with Casey and I sat in with Spock’s and all kinds of stuff. It’s all a blur, man. [laughs]

Speaking of a blur, you just released the one hour plus demo of The Great Adventure, the version that preceded all the rewrites and everything. And there’s several pieces of music on there that didn’t make the final cut. So, I’m just curious: is it ever possible that you’ll pull some of those pieces back for future songs or now that you’ve released the demos are you kind of like, ah, that was it and they’re gone now?

No, I think we totally could. I don’t consider releasing things to the Inner Circle as being like actual releases. It’s like, that’s kind of a private thing that just goes to this smaller group of people. So, I don’t see any problem with taking something back. If it wants to belong somewhere else, then we want to put it there, don’t we?

Well that’s good to hear because on the “Love that Never Dies” extended version that you had on there, in the middle there’s this section that sounds like it’s called “The Way It Has to Be”…

Oh yeah! Oh, that was from Eric! Did you like that part?

Ah, I love that part! Is that Eric playing the lead guitar on that?

Oh, I’m sure. Yeah.

Yeah. I’ve been thinking, Oh man, I really hope they pull this back and incorporate this into a future song. That’s too good to just let go.

Oh, yeahhhh! That was a hard thing to cut! Some of the stuff that was left on the cutting room floor just like broke our hearts, you know? Yeah. There’s more stuff, too! There’s more stuff from my December drafts, I should release that next! Because there’s a bunch of stuff. There’s whole songs that I loved that got cut out. That stuff was pretty cool, some of it. But you know, you’ve got to do what you feel like is best for the whole piece. And I think we felt like if we were going to do that slow version of “The Way It Has to Be”, if we’re going to do this whole slow thing at the end with “A Love That Never Dies”, we wound up feeling like we couldn’t have another big long slow song close to the end. It just didn’t seem to feel right. So one of them had to go, but I love that song too.

Yeah. Well, I’m glad to hear you kind of keep those things around and so you could pull them back in at some point. Thanks so much for catching us up on all of these goodies and what’s yet to come. And good luck with the finishing of the Flying Colors album, too.

Oh, well thank you so much, Scott. I appreciate it, man. Yeah, it’s all good. We’re working away, on to the next epic!

Indeed. Speaking of that, any updates on the Transatlantic world, does that have any possibility of moving forward next year sometime?

It does! Yeah, there’s some possibilities there we’re discussing, but nothing concrete yet. I do want people to know about Waterfall, my streaming app. If anybody wants to stream all my music like Flying Colors, Transatlantic, the Neal Morse Band and everything I’ve practically released in my entire life, go to waterfallstreaming.com.

It’s a really cool app. I’ve been enjoying the stuff you’ve been putting in the Mystery Box there. And the access to some things that I didn’t even know existed. It’s really well done.

Yes, there’s some things that I didn’t even know existed!

Yeah, and the guys who been working on that are just super sweet and really attentive to what fans are asking for us. So they’re making updates all the time. Okay. Well, to all our listeners again, the new Jesus Christ musical comes out on June 15th and it’s epic! So you’re gonna have to check that out. And for Morsefest there’s still some tickets on sale there. And Neal, we can’t wait to see what you dream up next.

Hey, thanks man! Thanks a lot, Scott! Have a good one, man. Take care.

The post NEAL MORSE Talks Prog-Rock Opera “Jesus Christ: The Exorcist”: “I Never Wanted to Make a Double Album, Like Ever! But You Got to Follow The Music Where It Wants to Go” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.