Persona Grata – Reaching Places High Above

As I’m writing this review, I’ve probably listened to this album dozens of times.  This is the type of album that motivated me to start reviewing in the first place.  A band of this caliber not being signed or at least getting some exposure is ludicrous in every sense of the word.  The band I’m talking about, of course, is Persona Grata.

Persona Grata formed seemingly out of nowhere in Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic, in 1999.  Not a surprising place to form a band, considering the political, economic, and cultural importance of the bustling city of over 400,000 strong, but as it stands there are only two Progressive Metal bands from the area, one being Castaway and the other being, of course, Persona Grata, both featuring members of the now-defunct Dead Poets Society.  Since its formation, Persona Grata has released one demo entitled ‘Kus Hry’ and an album that, unfortunately, has yet to be released to the world, entitled ‘Reaching Places High Above.’

‘Reaching Places High Above’ is one of those albums that, musically, a person finds to be perfect in every way, but either the rest of the world doesn’t think so or the band just isn’t very lucky, because few others get to share that glory.  In place of the archetype ‘Metal with some Prog Rock’ influence that most Progressive Metal bands use, this band actually plays something of an opposite, instead adding Metal influence to a very evident Progressive Rock structure.

There’s nothing more valuable than a good opener track; it starts the album off on the right foot and in many cases, can make or break a listener’s enjoyment.  While ‘Ace’ starts out a bit slow it’s certainly forgivable, because it picks up fairly quickly.  From the introduction (courtesy of our flight attendant) to the uplifting (but short) flute passage, and finally to the introduction of our rhythm guitarist, the shortest song on the album is off the runway and into the air in no time.

Probably one of the most standout factors of any Metal recording is the riff work.  In many cases–more so with Progressive Metal than anything–the riff work is at the forefront of the music in a very obnoxious manner, and it overshadows the rest of the things going on in a song.  With Persona Grata this isn’t the case; as I said earlier, they seemingly take a Progressive Rock structure and blend it with elements of Metal to produce what I find the sound of Progressive Metal SHOULD be.  As many who listen to Prog Rock know, a number of bands barely use the guitar if at all, and when it’s used it’s almost always a backup instrument.  In Persona Grata’s case it’s used pretty regularly, but it’s never obnoxiously placed at the forefront of the music, and instead falls into place with everything else that’s going on.  Between the catchy riffs (‘Ace’ and ‘Orient Express’ specifically), melodious leads (again, ‘Ace,’ as well as the solo about 3 minutes into ‘Orient Express,’ right after the piano break), and soothing acoustics (‘Edge of Insanity’), Persona Grata’s riff work is definitely worthy of praise.

A couple other things that really stood out were the vocals and, quite surprisngly, the flute.  There’s always been something about woodwind instruments that I’ve found organic, and

the masterful use of the flute courtesy of Jana Vargová gives the music that extra warmth that many of its contemporaries lack.  In addition to the use of flute, the vocals found on much of the album are quite easy to digest, but at the same time are fairly unique and can be recalled quite easily.  The lovely flutist Jana Vargová also has a few sections where she sings, specifically on the two longest tracks, ‘Edge of Insanity’ and ‘I Am You.’  The latter features a brilliantly executed passage near the beginning where I can’t help but feel a chill run up and down my spine with each listen.  Of course, it doesn’t go without saying that Martin Stavrovksý, the frontman, has a very respectable range, and while it may not be as dynamic as Peter Hammill or as over the top as John Arch, it has its obvious merits, and most importantly, it fits the music.

Another very vital part to any Progressive Rock or Progressive Metal band is most definitely the presence of a keyboardist, and former Dead Poets Society member Adam Kuruc hits it off with flying colours, featuring a balance of technicality and beauty with multiple sounds ranging from the usual piano and organ, with something a tad different–and quite possibly my personal favourite–harpsichord.  Listen to ‘Orient Express’ for some of the best keys on the album, there’ll be no disappointments.

The only major issue I had with the album was the drum work, and even then it was minor.  Of course, a self-recorded album isn’t going to be perfect, sound quality-wise, but as it stands the drumming could use a bit of work, not with the performance, but with the volume.  I’m a stickler about this part of the music specifically, and I have to admit that the double bass kicks could use a bit more fattening up.

If there’s one small thing I have to mention about the album before I wrap up though, it has to be the length.  48 minutes is considerably short compared to some of the other bands in existence, putting out 60-80 minutes of material on a constant basis.  While a lot of material may, in many cases, correlate to an abundance of ideas, back in the seventies when Prog was king, bands had to be incredibly ambitious to release double albums because of cost, and many reserved themselves to releasing albums that ranged from 30-40 minutes in length.  Persona Grata’s use of restraint is something that, to me, shows focus and maturity, and because of my tendency to be overwhelmed by the sheer length of some albums, to the point of wanting to skip over them, I greatly appreciate this fact.

In conclusion, this album is something that everybody who listens to Progressive Rock or Progressive Metal on ANY scale should listen to, hands down.  I believe the term ‘the best band you’ve never heard of’ comes into play here, and with an album this good, it’s incredibly easy to say.  In a scene where there are numerous clones and rehashes, this album is a breath of fresh air.

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Mathias Danielsson, My (second) Brother the Wind

About 2 weeks ago we interviewed Nicklas Barker, a fellow of a certain Mathias Danielsson, with whom I had an opportunity to talk about My Brother The Wind, a common project of Mathias and Nicklas. Mathias also has a band called Makajodama, which we spend a lot of time discussing, as well as a country rock band called The Usual Suspects. We also talked about his other projects, future plans and collecting vinyl records!

Nick: Hey there Mathias. Thanks for your time. How are you doing?

Mathias: I’m fine thanks! I’m really enjoying the weather here in Sweden at the moment, and my upcoming vacation.

Nick: I’ve spoken recently with Nicklas Barker and I asked him few questions about My Brother The Wind, but I want to deepen it more, so how did it turn out from your point of view? You guys recently released an album called Twilight in the Crystal Cabinet, are you happy with how it came out?

Mathias: Well, it isn’t out yet but it’s said to be available from June 21st. We’ve had some problems with the release.

I’m really pleased with the result. The sound of the recording is just amazing, you can’t beat the analogue thing. It’s the real thing!

Nick: Twilight was recorded and mixed in just two days. What was that like? Did you have clear vision of it was it all a product of pure jamming/improvising?  I guess that you knew its base, which is rooted in psychedelic rock, but who was initiator of this project?

Mathias: The vision as far as we were concerned was to meet and record an album totally out of the blue, with no rehearsal or arrangement whatsoever. We wanted a sound so pure and free that you seldom capture in a recording session nowadays and I think we succeeded. We didn’t talk about direction or influences, but we did know we had a common enthusiasm for psychedelic rock from the late 60s-early 70s.

Nick: I have to say that it’s amazing and weird in the same time that you managed to do all the work in just two days. Were you driven by spontaneity? I wonder how it would sound if you guys had spent a lot more time. I don’t mean it might sound better that way, as a lot of bands are known to spend months on an album, and end up with a weak product.

Mathias: I’m convinced that the result is a product of it’s spontaneity and the short time we spent on it. If you only get one chance to make a statement you’ll focus more and play more convincing. And I got to mention that the communication between us when we play is almost subconscious, never experienced anything like it. It’s almost as the music plays itself sometimes…

Nick: MBTW is signed by Transubstans Records, a label that’s mostly focused on releasing albums from psychedelic/progressive bands. Are you satisfied with them? A few of my favorite bands are also signed by them, such as Carpet Knights, Gösta Berlings Saga, Lucifer Was, Magnolia and now MBTW. Would you recommend some other bands which are on Transubstans?

Mathias: Transubstans Records is home of many great bands, and is runned by true music freaks! Check out their mailorder shop Record Heaven and the vast supply of  great obscure albums.

I got to recommend Oresund Space Collective, a jamband from the Copenhagen/Malmö area that’s really doing their thing. They’re releasing their new album soon. I’ve been doing some gigs with them on bass, guitar and pedalsteel. Mattias Ankarbranth, the drummer in my band Makajodama, used to play with The Carpet Knights when he lived in Malmo. They’re great too!

Nick: What are your next plans with MBTW? Will there be any concerts? It would be great to see you live.

Mathias: We’re looking forward to the album release of course and to promote it. We played our debut gig a couple of weeks ago at a club in Stockholm. Sure, we’re looking for gigs so we’ll see where we’re heading next time. Hope to see you there!

Nick: Let’s move now to your other band Makajodama. First of all, I would like to solve mystery about the name. I have a theory that the name of the band is connected with the first letters of the band members’ names, so we have MAthiasKArinJOhanDAnielssonMAttias. I hope you will not break my theory down, but let’s hear what you say.

Mathias: Bingo my friend! With one exception, the DA is from the first letters of  the name of a guy that played with the band in the early beginning.

Nick: I’m afraid to label your music, so won’t even try. But let me say that from my point of view, Makajodama is what happens when Comus meets King Crimson meets Gryphon meets Can. Did any of these bands have influence on your music or am I just wasting my time?

Mathias: All of the bands that you mentioned have big influence on me, as well as a dozen others of course. I think it also owes a lot to the Swedish contemporary composers Karl-Birger Blomdahl and Allan Pettersson, check them out they’re something else. The idea was to fuse contemporary music with edgy progressive rock and some folk added for good measure…

Nick: Would you mind telling us about Makajodama’s beginnings and your musical background?

Mathias: Makajodama began 2007 when I met drummer Mattias Ankarbranth at a audition for a band I was in at the time. He didn’t get the job but we clicked and started jamming soon after that. The violin player Johan Klint lived in the same building as my rehearsal studio so we could here him practice eagerly, after he joined he told as about Karin Larsdotter who plays Cello and that she would be interested to join too. Well, said and done! I asked Dante who played bass with the band that auditioned Mattias if he wanted to play with us. I already had some material that would fit the ensemble so we started rehearse that.

I started playing in punk bands when I was 12, and as I progressed on guitar and discovered other music I played a lot of different kind of bands. I try to keep the punk spirit in my playing though…

Nick: Your self-titled album has gathered very good reviews and I have to agree with them. Please tell us something more about its beginnings, as well as the recording & mixing process, the special guests that helped in its making, etc.

Mathias: After we’ve rehearsed for a while with Dante he decided to quit, so I started to play bass instead of guitar for a while to get the rehearsals going. We recorded three of the songs on the album, “Buddha & The Camel”, The Ayurvedic Soap” and “Reodor Felgen Blues” first. Then we took a kind of hiatus due to child birth. I continued to write material for the album and after we were asked to play a gig we got a new start and continued the rehearsals and recordings. The other sessions produced “The Train Of Thought”, “Wolof”, “Vällingby Revisited”, “The Girls At The Marshes” and last but not least “Autumn Suite”. The suite was pretty complicated to nail, we tried to do the string parts live with a trio but it didn’t work out so we got to do it part by part. Me and Mattias recorded the rhythm tracks for all the songs and then I’ll call the others to come down and do their stuff, with exception for “Wolof” and “The Girls At The Marshes” when me, Mattias and Johan played live before we added the overdubs. The guest musicians are friends that play in different bands and were asked to give their special touch to the songs. Christine Jost came down and recorded the weird Bassoon parts for “Autumn Suite” in 3 hours, and she was dancing while doing it!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes or ears for that matter, truly amazing.

Nicklas Barker of Anekdoten helped me mix the album and Hans Fredriksson who also works with Anekdoten did the mastering, both of them did a fantastic job.

Nick: “Autumn Suite” is a wonderful suite-piece, influenced by a lot of Eastern styles. I love the use of sitars on this one. Have you listened to Oriental Sunshine, perhaps? Their “oneshot” album called “Dedicated To The Bird We Love” is a really nice record.

Mathias: Haven’t heard that one! Thanks for the tip, I’ll check it out. Yeah, “Autumn Suite” is a tribute to the best of all seasons in my opinion. The time when things start to mold and new things emerge. The suite can also be heard as a cycle of life for example, variations and twists and turns that ends up with the calmness of eternity. That’s where the sitar comes in.

Nick: Speaking of records, what’s the most valuable vinyl in your collection? Sorry because of this little digression, but I’m always interested in talking about these things. Are you searching for any particular records lately?

Mathias: I’m not really interested in the value in the records, just the music. The list of records goes on forever I’m afraid…. To give you a more pleasing answer I’ll give you some examples;

The Pretty Things-”Parachute”, Third Ear Band-”Abelard and Heloise”, John Fahey-”The voice of the turtle”, The Flying Burrito Brothers-”s/t”,  Älgarnas Trädgård-”Framtiden är ett svävande skepp förankrat i forntiden”, Hatfield & The North-”s/t”, Michael Yonkers-”Microminiature Love”, Tim Buckley-”Goodbye and hello”, Simply Saucer-”Cyborgs revisited”, Phil Pearlman-”The beat of the earth” (this one is gonna cost me a fortune….)

Nick: Another band you are involved in is The Usual Suspects. This time you play some classic country rock. How come? Tell us something more about it.

Mathias: The Usual Suspects is a tribute to the California country rock scene in the late 60s; The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Byrds, Nashville West, Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Why? Well, because I love this kind of music as well. It’s a four piece band with two guitars (one plays a Fender B-bender in the Clarence White tradition), bass and drums and harmony vocals. We’re playing clubs and pubs around the Stockholm area on a mission to Hillbillyfie the Swedes, hahaha…

Nick: I have to mention that you are former member of Gösta Berlings Saga, you’ve contributed to Magnolia’s album, and you’ve played with Oresund Space Collective, I think that I’m missing something, thus it would be nice if you would come up with the full list of your bands/projects/involvements and whatnot.

Mathias: I’m sometimes playing with Swami Coco & The Maximum Meetha Orchestra, an Bollywood outfit that mostly plays Ananda Shankar tunes. I’m going to Kathmandu, Nepal to play the Himalayan Blues Festival with Baba Richie & The Raags in October, it’s gonna be a blast!! Sometimes I do recording sessions for others than my friends, but then it got be something interesting. I’m gonna do an session with Pete Molinari in a couple of weeks that’s gonna result in a couple of tracks on a MOJO magazine CD.

Nick: What have you been listening to recently? Give us some recommendations. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Swedish Prog.

Mathias: The Finnish band Tasavallan Presidenttis “Lambert Land” has been spinning quite a lot recently, and so has Frank Zappa “Uncle Meat” and The Rain Parade “Emergency Third Rail Power Trip”.

If you haven’t discovered them yet you better check out Arbete & Fritid, a great swedish progband from the early 70s.

Nick: What gear/equipment you own?

Mathias: This is the stuff that I got that I use the most;

-1973 Gibson SG with factory Bigsby tremolo.

-1972 Univox Hiflyer, a Mosrite Ventures model copy from Japan.

-Fender Telecaster 50s reissue

-Fender Blues Junior 15W tube amp

-1973 Marshall JMP 50W tube amp

-1965 Hagström 310 tube amp

-1979 Roland Chorus Tape Echo

-1968 Nu Fuzz/Nu Wha (Wha and Fuzz in one pedal)

-Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Wha pedal

-Rogue Electric Sitar (reissue of the classic Coral from 1968)

Nick: Is there anything you would like to add in this interview or maybe ask me now that I’m out of questions?

Mathias: Go out and buy the June issue of Guitar Player magazine where Barry Cleveland reviews Makajodama on his top three list!

Nick: Thanks for the interview, Mathias. Hope to hear more from you.

Mathias: Thanks Nick, take care now!

Charlie Dominici – A Trilogy Concluded, a Career to be Continued

Charlie Dominici remains remembered as a former member of today’s most influential and successful progressive metal band, Dream Theater. But besides that fact, Dominici still knows how to make good albums and that’s what he has presented in his O3 trilogy. I’ve spoken with Charlie about his time before joining Dream Theater, 15th anniversary of When Dream and Day Unite, but also about the O3 trilogy itself and his future plans.

Nick: Hi Charlie. I don’t want to say your time in Dream Theater was absolutely crucial to your growth as a musician, but it was definitely a part of it. Shall we start from your musical beginnings? What was your background before joining Dream Theater in 1987?

Charlie: I started getting into music in 1964. That might surprise anyone who doesn’t know anything about me other than my time with Dream Theater. The funny thing is, I started out playing acoustic guitar and harmonica and 40 years later I came full swing back to my roots on the “O3, A Trilogy part one” CD, which was all acoustic guitar ,vocal and harmonica. In between, those years were filled with many different band projects.

Nick: As I said, you joined Dream Theater in 1987, shortly after an audition. What was the audition like? What was joining the band like?

Charlie: The audition was a little rough because I was trying to sing like the previous singer, which as you might know by now, is not really my style. After a few songs I asked to sing something that no one had sang before me. They gave me the lyric sheet for “The Killing Hand” and I proceeded to sing the melody like I thought it should be. They were impressed by that, I guess because I got the job. Joining the band was like every other band I had been in. A lot of rehearsing, Low paid gigs etc. It was a lot of fun but many times I was uncomfortable because it never really was my band and I am an “alpha” type just like Mike Portnoy. We had a lot of differences of opinion and along with other reasons I eventually went on my own way.

Nick: You performed on Dream Theater’s debut in 1989, and that album marked the beginning of Dream Theater’s career, but also practically created a new genre, progressive metal. How big was your involvement in the making of this album?

Charlie: I was involved in the entire process even though many of the songs were being worked on before I joined the band. I made many musical and some lyrical contributions on almost every song except “The Ytse Jam”.

Nick: According to after that first album DT, you were a good singer in the wrong band and you parted ways with them amicably. How do you see that situation now? Was it easy to depart the band?

Charlie: It’s never easy to leave any situation, even a bad marriage is hard to leave but it obviously works out for the best in most cases.

Nick: You haven’t been so very musically active until 2003, if I’m not wrong. Why is that? Surely, you had many chances to be involved in music. Was that your decision to stay aside? Tell us something more about it.

Charlie: I wanted to get the “love” back. I’m not the type of person that can stay in a situation for very long if it is not what I really want. I was also burned out from many years of struggling in music so I took a long break. When the time was right, I returned to music for the right reasons.

Nick: In 2003, you released a song, which was available through your website, with the symbolic title “Now The Time Has Come”. Did you want to show that you’ve returned to the music business? Tell us the story behind this.

Charlie: That was a song from a project I was working on with Richie Cannata, the sax player from Billy Joel’s band. In fact it was Richie playing the piano part and me singing. The project never took off and I eventually started my own project of 3 albums which you know as the O3 Trilogy.

Nick: 2004 brought the 15^th anniversary of Dream Theater’s debut and you rejoined them for a concert in LA, singing that album in its entirety, but you also did a duet with James while playing “Metropolis”. How did it come to this “oneshot” reunion and how did you feel being on a stage after all that time?

Charlie: It was James that sang the album in its entirety and I sang the 2 encore songs with James. I did it because Mike asked me to join them in celebrating the 15 year anniversary. I was very much unprepared for the whole thing. I was overweight and out of shape but I did it anyway. It’s funny to see the comments on you tube about how I looked out of place. The truth is, I was out of place. If you look at the you tube videos of me with my own band you will see the difference.

Nick: Did this performance with Dream Theater help you to return once and for all to music and help you start creating your own?

Charlie: Only in the sense that it made me realize that I missed being in the music scene and that it was time to return. I had already been writing the trilogy for months before that night.

Nick: In 2005, you released the first part of your O3 trilogy, which is a conceptual story. Would you mind telling us a bit more of this part’s concept? What’s your opinion on concept albums in general? Do you have any favorites?

Charlie: Part one introduces the story and the main characters. It makes you think that it is a story about a terrorist but in parts two and three you find out different. Concept albums can be great or they can be boring. I guess it depends on how well they are written and performed.

Nick: Speaking of music, on this first part of the trilogy, you’ve done it acoustic. It’s sort of done in a singer/songwriter style, which is different from the majority of albums like this. Did you have clear image of this trilogy when you started working on it? Did you know that the first album would be acoustic, and the others more “electrified”, with a band approach?

Charlie: I wanted the trilogy to be with a full band on all three albums but I had no band yet. The idea came to me that it might be cool to just do part one myself and see what happens. The fact is, it all worked out perfectly because I soon found a band and the fact that part one was all acoustic made it more interesting and original, in my opinion.

Nick: The second part gave us a more progressive melodic metal sound, a much more energetic album than its predecessor. This time you had a full line-up. Tell us something about the musicians that performed on this album. The art cover on this one is totally different in comparison to first part, on which there was a photograph.

Charlie: By now, most people know that the guys on the second and third parts are from the Italian band, “Solid Vision”. They are still working in that band today and we are all living very far from each other right now. The album covers were different because the music inside them was all different.

I did the entire part one completely by myself, writing, producing, album art and everything. The cover art on parts two and three were done by myself along with the artist at the label.

Nick: The story from the first part is developed more, and the main character, who was trying to destroy the world, was arrested. Please, tell us about lyrical side of this part.

Charlie: It all contains the groundwork for the rest of the story. If someone really wants to get the whole story, they need a copy of part one which I still have a few copies of. Even if you are not into the acoustic style on part one I think it is something most people can appreciate if they like the concept at all. Anyone who wants an autographed CD of part one can still get one from me on my website, www.dominici.com

Nick: The last part of the trilogy inflicts a feeling that it is rougher than the previous one, a heavier and more aggressive record. What is it that made you follow such a direction?

Charlie: It is what the story ending needed. The whole thing comes to a head and the events surrounding that part of the story are climactic.

Nick: How did you get an idea to name this trilogy O3? It’s known from chemistry and medicine that ozone has harmful effects on respiratory systems and I think the title fits well with the trilogy itself.

Charlie: In part one you find out that the so-called “terrorist” guy is told to develop a formula for a version of “O3” that will kill everything and choke all life on the earth. It is not till the end that you find out what it is really all about.

Nick: Where did you record these three albums? I know that one was recorded in Italy, Germany too.

Charlie: Part one was recorded at my home studio in California and parts two and three were both recorded in Sardine, Italy and both were mixed and mastered in Germany.

Nick: So what’s the latest news? It’s been 2 years now since you completed your O3 trilogy. It’s over now, but I guess you have more to say, right?

Charlie: I have a lot to say but I’m not ready to say it yet.

Nick: Which artists/bands have been influenced your musical shaping? Who are your favorite vocalists?

Charlie: That’s difficult to answer in a few sentences. I have a very long musical history and I have many favorites. Steve Walsch, Paul Rogers and many others have influenced me but I always try to find my own voice.

Nick: How do you see world today? How do you see a man’s behavior towards the world?

Charlie: I’m pretty disgusted.

Nick: I’m out of questions, so is there something that you would like to add in the end of this interview?

Charlie: Thanks for taking the time to interview me and I hope you like the music!

Nick: Thanks for the interview, Charlie. All the best.

Kinetic Element – Powered by Light

What’s a characteristic of those bands who are, ready to take promotional duties on themselves, in addition to music? Of course, I’m talking about enthusiasm. I was contacted by Mike Visaggio recently, one of the leaders of this US symphonic/neo-prog band, Kinetic Element. Let me give you a short history about Kinetic Element and its mainman. Besides Mike, who plays keyboards and sings, the rest of the band consists of Michael Murray on drums and backing vocals, Todd Russell on guitars and David Donlon on bass. Kinetic Element has toured with Circa (featuring Tony Kaye and Alan White of Yes), Rare Blend and IZZ as well as many other ands. They have also played at Prog Day in 2008.

Kinetic Element is not Mike’s first band, as he has been involved in music since 1962, playing in a number of NYC cover bands, then in progressive rock groups Randori and Intervision. He has worked with Billy Falcon’s Burning Rose, as well as Strokers. In 2006, Mike released his first solo album named Starship Universe, which was used as a base for starting Kinetic Element and recording Powered by Light.

Now that I’ve bored you all to the verge of leaving this page forever, let’s get back to music. I have to admit that I was a bit sceptical when I got my hands on this CD, as I’m not much into neo-prog as a sub-genre, but the album quelled my fears, and the end result is quite excellent.

Powered by Light is divided into seven tracks, with a total duration of a little less than 70 minutes. The most obvious thing on this record is the usage the of the wonderful Hammond B3 organ, which is performed incredibly well. There’s evident influence from Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman in this playing. The whole album exudes an inspiring atmosphere, and Mike’s vocals and keboard harmonies go in favor really set this mood. Keyboards are definitely the *key* instrument of this release (sorry for the pun), but the other members are not there just as a fillers. Just check out the guitar solo in „Now and Forever“ or „Peace of Mind, Peace of Heart“. „Meditation“ is the only instrumental on the album and it’s written by Tod Russell. It’s a very nice acoustic piece that fits well as a bridge beween the vocal songs. The only complaint I have about this album have to do with the drums. In my opinion the drum work is rather simplistic, and I was expecting it to be dynamic, with more fillings and diversity like the rest of the music.

Powered by Light is not an epochal achievement, but it’s a good retrospective of what’s been done so far in the subgenre of neo-prog and as such, it deserves to be heard. I believe this album can be seen as an excellent starting point and, I hope that their second album will make a step forward and bring us some more originality in this era of hyperproduction. Keep up the good work guys!

Rating: 4/5

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Hans Lundin in the Wake of Evolution

Prog Sphere brings you an interview with a man behind one of the most influential Swedish bands, Kaipa. I had an opportunity to ask him some questions about his musical background, the beginnings of Kaipa, their albums, his collaboration with other musicians, future plans and so on. Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for… Mr. Hans Lundin!

Nick: Hello, Hans! First of all I want to say that I’m very glad you’ve agreed to do this interview for Prog Sphere.

Hans: Hi Nick! Thanks for the invitation, I’m glad that you want to share my thoughts and history.

Nick: Would you tell us something about your musical beginnings? How did you get into composing music? Which bands/artists influenced you back in the 60’s/70’s?

Hans: Before Kaipa started 1973 I played in my first band S:t Michael Sect 1964-1969 and in the later version of the same band San Michael’s 1970-1972. I think the first 7 years were, except having a lot of fun, like an education learning the basic rules of playing in a band. 1970 I had grown as a musician and I started to write own songs. I think San Michael’s in a way are the basic roots of Kaipa. San Michael’s disbanded early 1972 and for one year I worked as a backing musician behind other artists. During this year I realized that I wanted to form a new band where I could develop my musical ideas.
In the 60’s I was of course impressed by Beatles but also bands like Steppenwolf and Spencer Davies Group with Steve Winwood. They were using Hammond organ with a dirty and distorted sound that I really liked. In 1967 I bought my own Hammond organ. In the early 70’s I remember I was impressed by the band Ekseption and their heavy versions of classical music on Hammond organ and also Swedish organ player Merit Hemmingsson who showed how to play Swedish folk music on the organ.

Nick: Kaipa formed out of a band called San Michael’s. With this band you had recorded two albums. Please tell us a bit more about San Michael’s as well as these two albums. It’s interesting that San Michael’s second album, “Nattåg” was released last year, after 37 years. Why’s that?

Hans: San Michael’s started as a trio 1970 – Hans Lundin (Hammond organ, Hohner Clavinet & vocal), Tomas Eriksson (bass & vocal) and Gunnar Westbergh (drums & vocal). In 1972 Nane Kvillsäter (guitar & vocal) joined us. We played a lot of own material with Swedish lyrics but like one of our heroes “Vanilla Fudge” we rearranged cover songs to become moodier and heavier. We also jammed a lot on stage.
We recorded two albums with only original material. The first one was recorded and released 1971 and the second one “Nattåg” was recorded 1972 but it was never released. Not until 2009 when Japanese record company Marquee released the album for the first time after 37 years. This album is also released in an European version 2009 by Transubstans records/Record Heaven.

Nick: In 1973, San Michael’s split and later that year you and Tomas Eriksson formed Ura-Kaipa and recorded a single under that name, but later you shortened the name to Kaipa. What does Kaipa mean? It’s a Swedish word, right? Kaipa’s first records, as well as San Michael’s were sung in Swedish, why did you decide to do that?

Hans: The single with Ura Kaipa actually contained two songs from San Michael’s album “Nattåg” but we decided to use the new band name when it was  released simply because San Michael’s didn’t exist anymore.
The name of the band was originally URA KAIPA. It referred to a Swedish Stone Age chieftain and came from the book “Svenskarna och deras hövdingar” by Werner von Heidenstam. In 1975 the name was shortened to KAIPA.
At that time we were only playing in Scandinavia and it felt natural to use our own language.

Nick: Would you tell us something more about the original line-up of the band? Beside you, there were also Thomas Sjöberg and Tomas Eriksson. It was the line-up in the very first days of Kaipa.

Hans: In 1973 I wanted to form a new band and I asked Tomas Eriksson and Thomas Sjöberg to join me. Sadly, Thomas Sjöberg was hit by cancer and couldn’t rehearse regularly any more. He was forced to leave the band early 1974, and was replaced by Ingemar Bergman. During the spring of 1974 we felt that the trio format was too limited to express all the dimensions in our compositions. So we started to look around for a guitarist and during the summer of 1974 Roine Stolt joined us.

Nick: Kaipa is one of those bands that sees several different line-ups over the years. In 1974, Roine Stolt and Ingemar Bergman joined you and Tomas Eriksson, and these musicians basically beside you formed the core of Kaipa for the next 5 years or so. I’m not sure, but Roine then was 17 years old when joined the band, and slowly you became one of the leading acts coming from Sweden. How was it then to compose music with these guys and how has your approach to creating music changed since then?

Hans: Roine and I were the main composers in Kaipa. There is only one song from that time that we wrote together “Musiken är ljuset”. The arrangements were mostly made together by the whole band.
The basic roots in my compositions are probably the same but today I have a lot of experience and knowledge that I didn’t have at that time. I suppose that my basic identity today is a mix of all my musical impressions since I started to play in my first band. I’ve been on a long musical journey and it seems that some of the places I’ve visited just continue to stay in my memory but they seem to change in size and form and sometimes they come back with a totally different identity. This is probably the seed to the music I’m writing today.

Nick: 1975 brought us your first album, called “Kaipa”, and with this release you became one of the most important progressive rock groups in Sweden. This album exudes with ambition, refreshment, as well as professionalism even now after 35 years. An explorative release. What are your notes on this album? How do you see now?

Hans: I wish it would’ve been recorded with a better sound especially the drums but I think it contains some really great compositions and beautiful melodies.

Nick: After your selftitled album, the band continued to grow and mature, and as a product of this you created “Inget Nytt Under Solen”. This record contains the epic “Skenet bedrar”. Please, tell us about the songs itself, the titles, and give us technical details about this album. What was it like creating it?

Hans: This was the first time we created a really long song. It was a challenge but I think we succeeded. The song “Skenet bedrar” had several different faces and went through many changes before we found the final version that we recorded for the album. The song is almost 22 minutes long, it couldn’t be performed properly as a whole so we recorded it in several sections that were later reassembled in its final form. The album was produced by Kaipa together with Leif Mases who also recorded the San Michael’s albums. Leif managed to reproduce the sound we wanted, as close as possible to that of our live gigs with less reverb and more punch to the drum parts.

Nick: “Inget Nytt Under Solen” includes a slightly jazzy atmosphere. What were your influences for it? I have to say that most beautiful keyboard work is done on this record, in my opinion. Would you mind telling us what instruments you used for this album?

Hans: I don’t recognize your description “jazzy atmosphere” but there are many other influences Swedsih folk music, classic music and rock. I play Hammond organ, Grand piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano, Mellotron, Yamaha & Korg synthesizers, Logan string machine, Hohner Clavinet, vibes, marimba and prepared piano.

Nick: I have an impression that all other songs on this album are under the shadow of “Skenet bedrar”, as this is so great. Would you agree with me?

Hans: Maybe the other songs are overshadowed by “Skenet bedrar” but there are several great songs on this album. The song “Korståg” is considered to be a classic Kaipa song.

Nick: For your next album, Mats Löfgren joined the band to be the lead vocalist and did a very good job. What were some of the influences behind “Solo”? Also, what’s behind the name? It seems like the same as the English word “solo”.

Hans: On the two first album I wrote most of the songs. On this album Roine Stolt was the main composer. I’m not sure we really knew what direction we should choose. But it ended up with shorter and sometimes simpler songs. The artwork for this album is made by a close friend to the band “Lars Holm” I think “Solo” is the name of one of the figures in his painting.

Nick: How much were Roine and the other band members involved in creating the music for Kaipa’s 70’s albums?

Hans: As I mentioned before Roine and I were the main composers in Kaipa. Roine’s involvement increased until he left the band 1979. The arrangements were mostly made the whole band.

Dan: Could you tell us about some of the lyrics on the early Kaipa albums, for all of those people in the world who don’t speak Swedish? I know this is probably a hard one because you guys released quite a few songs that all had lyrics… Just pick something that comes to mind that you think we might enjoy.

Hans: The main message in our lyrics was probably to celebrate the power of love and the beauty of nature.

Dan: Also, who wrote the lyrics for Kaipa in general?

Hans: On the two first albums Roine and I wrote the lyrics but also Ingemar Bergman in some places. When Mats Löfgren joined the band he became the main writer.

Nick: “Händer” introduced many changes to the band’s sound and lineup, and I believe that majority of your fans have been disappointed with this and next album “Nattdjurstid“. Not that I’m trying to blame you or make you feel guilty, but what happened? Did it have anything to do with Roine leaving?

Hans: No I don’t think it had anything to do with Roine leaving. Just listen to what he did with his own group “Fantasia” a few years later. I think it was more a question of what happened in music business generally these years. We wanted to continue our musical journey, not playing the same style over and over again. Many other famous band went in the same direction and symphonic rock was just not in fashion during these years. In a way I think we was progressive anyway, we were looking for new challenges, even if it is the albums from the 70’s that are remembered both regarding Kaipa and other bands.

Nick: And then after “Nattdjurstid” the band disbanded and you continued as a solo artist. In the period of 1984 – 1989 you recorded three solo albums and released them under your label. Tell us something about these records.

Hans: During the 80’s I recorded three solo albums “Tales” 1984, “Visions of circles of sounds” 1985 and “Houses” 1989 (listen at: www.myspace.com/hanslundin). The music on these albums was a melodic progressive music, mostly instrumental and would probably attract prog rock fans. When these albums were recorded many musicians recorded solo albums playing almost everything themselves. So did I, but I had a few guest musicians (Roine Stolt – guitar, Ulf Wallander – saxophone among others) playing on a few tracks. When I listen to theses albums today I wish I had used more real musicians for the recordings but now this is history. The two first albums were released on LP and the last on CD.

Nick: There’s an interesting detail for me. I found recently that you’ve collaborated with former Yugoslavian musician Blagoj Stojanov. I come from Serbia, so that’s why I mention this. How did you get in touch with him? Tell us a bit more about it.

Hans: At that time I collaborated with “Boris Petrovski” who worked with theatre in Uppsala and I wrote music to some of their performances. Blagoj was in Sweden at that time, he was a friend of Boris son Viktor and they asked me to record two songs with Blagoj. I don’t remember all the details but the songs were released as a single.

Nick: Hagen is another project you’ve been involved with, and an album “Corridors of Time” was released in 2001. What about this? I’d say that Swedish folk music has become your sphere of interest. Am I right?

Hans: I’ve always liked the special feeling in Swedish folk music tunes. They often contains both a melancholy and merry feeling at the same time that goes directly into my heart. There were some folk influences already on the first Kaipa album 1975 but today I feel it’s a more integral and natural part of the compositions and the Kaipa landscape.
In the late 90’s I was invited to play in a musical project called Hagen, mixing traditional Swedish folk music and progressive metal. We recorded an album “Corridors of time” that was released 2001. Another member of Hagen was Per Nilsson who is now the guitar player in Kaipa.
I think working with Hagen gave me a lot new inspiration. I had written a lot of songs, I just didn’t know what to do with them but in 2000 I decided to record an album (KAIPA: Notes from the past) which was the beginning of Kaipa part two.

Nick: The new millennium brought us the return of “Kaipa”, but with a different lineup. Who initiated this idea? Also, why was the name “Kaipa” reused?

Hans: The album “Notes from the past” started as solo project. I asked Roine if he would like to play guitar on the album and help me to get back into the recording process again after my long hiatus. I didn’t have any intention to release it under the name Kaipa. Per Nordin who made the artwork for the album told me when he heard the music: “this is exactly how Kaipa should sound today so why don’t you use the old band name?”  I asked Roine if he thought it was a good idea. He said yes and suddenly Kaipa was reborn.

Nick: This new turn brought us a different Kaipa. Roine rejoined you and as a product of this collaboration, we were given “Notes from the Past”. From the title, it sounds like this album is very retrospective, would you say so? Also, why did you decide that this album would be done in English, along with all other future Kaipa albums (as far as we know).

Hans: With “Notes from the past” I wanted to record an album with brand new music but with a lot of inspiration in the song writing and sound structures from my own history. If you listen carefully to the last minutes of the album you can hear fragments of several melodies from the old 70’s Kaipa albums.
In the 70’s there was a market for progressive rock in Sweden making it possible to act and tour in our own country and it was most natural to sing in Swedish. Today the situation is totally different, the market for our music is now the whole world so it’s most natural to use the English language.

Nick: New Kaipa kinda brought forth a new sound. Was that natural growth or did you want to start something different? How would you describe your musical status now? The fact is that with this reincarnated Kaipa you’re more closely to the fans of bands like Karmakanic, The Flower Kings, Transatlantic, etc. and that’s fine with me, hehe.

Hans: The unique sound of Kaipa is the sum of the original compositions and the personality and high quality of the individual musicians playing in the band.

Nick: Do you think that re-forming with Roine brought a surge of popularity to Kaipa?

Hans: Of course it did. Even though many people maybe had heard about the old band most of them didn’t know how we sounded. Many people discovered Flower Kings because Roine played with Transatlantic. In the same way many people discovered Kaipa because Roine was playing with the band.

Nick: Was that hard to find a vocalist for the new Kaipa? Patrik Lundström did great job, and I have to say that his vocals, especially on “Notes from the Past” remind me of Goran Edman’s vocals of Karmakanic. In fact, when I first heard it I thought that Edman had sung on that record! How did you get in touch with Patrik, as well as Aleena?

Hans: From the beginning I worked with “Mikael Olsson” from Hagen as singer but we soon realized it wasn’t a good idea. Roine mentioned Patrik as a potential singer, I had heard him on a Ritual album and thought it was a good idea. I contacted him and the rest is history.
I had written one song “A road in my mind” for the album “Notes from the past” where I wanted female vocal. I asked  Patrik if he knew someone who could perform the song with both energy and passion. Aleena Gibson and Patrik  are old friends and he thought Aleena could try to sing this song. She came to my studio and from the first note she sang I immediately knew that this was exactly what I wanted. Today she’s a very important part of the Kaipa sound. Aleena is not only a brilliant singer she is also a famous songwriter. Listen to her music at: www.myspace.com/aleenagibson

Nick: Some critics say that Roine sort of “paved the path” for Kaipa on Notes from the Past, Keyholder and Mindrevolutions, and you were sort of in his shadow, but I (and many other critics) would disagree with them. Aside from the fact that Roine is a great musician and talent, as well as friend of yours, it seems to most that you were the main man behind Kaipa. Am I right?

Hans: Kaipa (part 2) has always been my project but Roine had a lot of influence to the final result especially on the album “Keyholder”.

Nick: Roine departed before the recording of Angling Feelings, but you quickly found a new guitarist in the form of Per Nilsson. Many people know him as a guitarist of Swedish melodic death metal band Scar Symmetry, but I would bet very few fans of that band would imagine he’s a guitarist for a band like Kaipa. How did you find him? No doubt he’s a great guitarist; so how would you compare his style with Roine’s? They both grew up in different times, listening different artists, what is it that Per brought to the band?

Hans: I first met Per Nilsson when we both played in Hagen. I immediately realized that he is a very diverse and gifted musician able to play any styles in his own personal way. I actually asked him already in 2002 if he wanted to be the guitar player in Kaipa some time in the future. I had a feeling that the collaboration with Roine Stolt shouldn’t last forever.
Both Roine and Per are great musicians but they have different styles and starting points. When I formed Kaipa in 1973, Per wasn’t even born. So he grew up in a totally different musical environment. I know that one of his heroes is Alan Holdsworth.

Nick: How is it to work with Jonas Reingold? He’s probably one of the most renowned bass players around today and personally one of my favorite musicians.

Hans: A real pleasure.

Nick: “In the Wake of Evolution” is your newest album, and it is, well… it’s evolution. An emotional record, if I can say like that. What’s your experience on making this album?

Hans: I think “In the wake of evolution” is a logic development and continuation of the previous album “Angling feelings”. I never decide in advance what to do or in what direction I shall take the music. It was like if the inspiration took me on an unpredictable ride when I wrote the songs for this album.

Nick: I personally feel like In the Wake of Evolution is Kaipa’s greatest album since Solo. How would you compare Kaipa’s albums, looking back at all of what has been released under that name?

Hans: Yes I think “In the wake of evolution” is our best album but every album is like a separate story and they all have their highlights.

Nick: The elements which adorn your new album are great guitar solos, originality in the structure of melodies and their imaginative blend with excellent vocals. From the distance of few months since this album has been released, do you consider it a worthy effort? I truly do.

Hans: Yes definitely.

Dan: Speaking of the vocals… how do I say this… some people had problems with Aleena’s voice on Angling Feelings. I will admit she was very “emotional” on that album. She seems to have been toned down a bit on “In the Wake…” What do you think about this?

Hans: I think she’s always been truly emotional and I don’t think she will change her way of singing just because some people have “problems” with her voice.

Nick: What about live shows? Do you have in plan doing them? Maybe a few venues? I have to admit that I’d like to see a live DVD of Kaipa where you would perform two sets, one based on the 70’s albums and the other one based on the post-millenium era. What do you think?

Hans: I’m probably a bit like the bull Ferdinand who would rather smell flowers than fight in bullfights. I’ve always considered this second edition of Kaipa to be strictly a recording project.  I’ve spent eighteen years of my life (1964 – 1982) sleeping in a bus, eating cheap food, taking care of all my equipment, doing all the booking and all other things you have to do when you’re poor and play in a band trying to be famous. I don’t regret a single day but that is history and I just don’t want to do it once again under the same conditions. If the conditions were different today and we could just concentrate on playing our instruments and always have the chance to do a proper sound check maybe I could reconsider this decision but the prog market is very small that’s just a fact.
It would also be very difficult to play the Kaipa music live without including several extra musicians. If you listen carefully to our albums you can notice that sometimes there are up to four or more different guitar or keyboard lines playing simultaneously.

Nick: Would you tell us about your favorite bands/albums of all time? What/who are your influences? Also, what gear/equipment you use?

Hans: I don’t like rating music and after all the taste changes from one day to another.  Maybe you expect that I spend my time listening to a lot of progressive rock but that’s not the case. I like all types of music (including progressive rock) as long as it contains good melodies and performance. There was a time when everything was “real” instruments and you could turn real knobs to change the sound. Sometimes I miss that time and I still own some of these instrument like my Hammond organ and Yamaha CS-60 Synthesizer but I seldom use them when I record nowadays.I use a Studio Logic master keyboard to control a lot of different plugin instruments in my computer. Several different self programmed electric piano and clavinet sounds together with organ and different mellotron sounds are the basic foundations in the recordings. The only real synthesizer I use for solos and melodies is a Nord Lead 3 synthesizer which I mostly connect to a guitar amplifier and wah-wah pedal to produce my typical distorted sounds. I also play Melodion and Grand Piano.

Nick: What plans do you have for the future? Are you planning on releasing any more solo material? Are you perhaps working on a new Kaipa album? Are you planning on collaborating with someone else for to do something?

Hans: My future plans are still written in the stars, but I’m very curious to find out what message they’ll come up with.

Nick: Do you have any messages for the visitors of Prog Sphere?

Hans:

It’s time, we’re closer to the edge than yesterday

We must break this circle find another way

Let our children’s children celebrate this day

When we found our way

Nick: Thanks for the interview, Hans. I hope you enjoyed in answering our questions. All the best!

Nicklas Barker, My Brother the Wind

Nicklas Barker is a well-known name in Swedish progressive rock circles. He’s been working with the highly appreciated Anekdoten since 1991, but also he’s involved in other projects and bands. The last, but not least of them is My Brother The Wind, a psychedelic rock oriented project that came up as an improvisational journey. Find out what Nicklas says about it, but also do not miss the chance to find out what’s going on with Anekdoten. Enjoy!

Nick: Hey Nick, Nick is speaking. Thanks for the interview. So, the newest info coming from you is that there are only a few days left before My Brother The Wind’s album called “Twilight in the Crystal Cabinet” is released. Tell us, please, what can we expect? Who initiated the idea about starting this new band?

Nicklas: The idea was that Me, Mathias, Ronny and Tomas would meet up in a studio and just improvise for a couple of hours. We had never played together before so we didn’t know what to expect. We talked about it for some months and decided to take the train to Ronnys hometown Åmål where his friend Love has a analog studio. We wanted to stay true to our aim and inpirations so we needed a computer free and totally analog studio. We had 3 michropones on the drums three other on our amps. So it’s recorded live on 6 tracks. The sound you get is so natural and homogenic. The tracks on the cd are in the same order as we recorded them. We just started playing and let things happen. The mixing was done in real time the day after and we only used a tape echo, a reverb, a flanger and one compressor. I’m very pleased of the result.

Nick: I had an opportunity to hear the preview of “Twilight in the Crystal Cabinet” on the band’s official MySpace page and I have to admit that this sounds really promising. The sound is pretty raw. It’s evident that in the basis of this band lies psychedelic sounds, so would you tell us where did you get from such influence?

Nicklas: Well we all comes from different backrounds but and we never discussed anything about how it was suppose to sound or anything. I think the first notes on the album set the feeling and we just continued from that.

Nick: The cover art of the album is pretty interesting and I am sure it fits well with the music presented on this piece. Who made it?

Nicklas: Anna Sofi from Anekdoten made the sleeve. She also does all the Anekdoten sleeves.

Nick: Are there any plans for a tour with MBTW? I saw an official announcement on the band’s Facebook profile that you will be “probably opening for U2 or Madonna”, haha.

Nicklas: Well we have some gigs coming up and we are very willing to tour. I hope things will kick of when the album is out.

Nick: How did you come to an idea for the name My Brother The Wind? Pretty interesting name. For some reason it reminds me of a psychedelic band from the 70’s called Socrates Drank The Conium. Have you listened to them?

Nicklas: No I haven’t heard them. I took the name from a Sun Ra record which I love and suggested that. We had many suggestions but we found this suiting us well.

Nick: So what’s going on with Anekdoten? A retrospective-compilation has been released by Kscope in 2009, consisted of 2 discs with completely remastered tracks. Are there any plans for Anekdoten in the near future? I have to say that I would love for you guys to release a new album.

Nicklas: Anekdoten are currently recording demos and writing. We have a lot of material but since we aren’t in any real hurry we want to be well prepared this time before recording. We are going to record analog this time and and try to record as much as possible live in the studio. We will have something out in late 2010 or early 2011.

Nick: You had an interesting experience in 2008 playing on Melloboat together with Opeth, Comus, Bo Hansson, Katatonia, among others. How was it? I envy all the lucky bastards who got to see that.

Nicklas: It was great to finally share the stage with our friends from Opeth and Katatonia. The event was great fun and I was totally blown away by Comus. An amazing trip!

Nick: In less than a month we lost two great musicians who have each influenced many, many musicians. Of course, I am talking about Bo Hansson and Ronnie James Dio. Could you tell us about about how they influenced you? I would imagine Hansson influenced you more than Dio, but I felt it would be nice to mention him.

Nicklas: Well I’m a big fan of both and I guess they have both influenced us in one way or another. When I was a teenager Black Sabbath’s Mob Rules and Live Evil made an big impact on me and still does. I love Dio’s voice. I ususally borrow words from Dio when I working on songs before Jan Erik delivers the real lyrics. For some reason they suit Anekdoten very much. Bo Hansson was one of the greatest and unique composers of all time. His influence is on me is hugh. He had a this very personal touch that was instantly recognizable. In my world he is up there with Hendrix and Coltrane when it comes orginality. I miss them both.

Nick: Anekdoten’s first album is surely one of the best albums of the genre in 90’s. I would say this album is one of the best in my collection. How did working on this album then?

Nicklas: Well it was traumatic experience. We really did’t get the sound right and was in a hurry. The songs were great but we were unexperienced. I v’e been listening to lately when we remastered the tapes for the exclusive vinyl edition that will be out soon and I kinda enjoyed it. The new vinyl edition will be the best sounding Vemod release so far. It comes with a bonus 12″ with Sad Rain.

Nick: I don’t want to disturb your privacy, but on the first releases of Anekdoten you appear as Nicklas Berg, and on “Gravity” it says you’re Nicklas Barker. How come?

Nicklas: Got married.

Nick: I’ve always thought Nucleus has a lot of influence taken from King Crimson’s Red era, with addition of some Starless elements, but in a new, innovative way. How did this blend of old and new occur?

Nicklas: Well actually the idea was to blend Black Sabbath with Univers Zero. It doesn’t really sound like that but the result was good. Of course we where under influence of the current music scene in the 90s like Nirvana, Sonic Youth and Portishead and I think that is obvious in some parts

Nick: Is “From Within” an album which got you on the level of musical independence, leaving the past, when you were a cover band playing King Crimson songs?

Nicklas: Well maybe we parted from the obvious KC influence here. Two important influences here was Motorpsycho and Landberk.

Nick: “Hole” is a song which is probably one of the largest band’s trademarks, and I cannot avoid comparing it to King Crimson’s “Epitaph”. Not that I’m trying to ask you for differences or similarities, but can we consider “Hole” as an homage to the KC song I mentioned?

Nicklas: No not really. I have no memories that Hole had something to do with Epitaph. As I said before we were very influenced by Motorpsycho and Sonic Youth at the time. I guess the mellotron makes it similar to Epitaph.

Nick: A song “Seljak” from Gravity in my native language (Serbian) means “a peasant, nomad”. Was that intentional, or does that word mean something in Swedish? What’s the story behind it?

Nicklas: Hmm I think Jan Erik was dating a a woman from Serbia at the time and maybe he got the title from her but I’m not sure.

Nick: “A Time of Day” is so far your latest studio album, released in 2007. And I have to praise the vocals on this release, as in my opinion they sound excellent. The albums is a bit more rocky. Do you think that you’ve made a turn with this album?

Nicklas: Well maybe but we don’t think in terms of doing changes in our direction. The songs just popped up. I think we can hear some Cantebury influences and maybe some Amon Duul and Popol Vuh in some parts.

Nick: Considering you have been releasing Anekdoten albums every four years, maybe we should expect another album in 2011?

Nicklas: Yes or late 2010.

Nick: Together with your fellow Swedes Peter Nordins, Stefan Dimle and Reine Fiske, you’ve started a project back in 1998, called Morte Macabre, an homage to horror soundtracks. And so far you have an album called “Symphonic Holocaust”. Whose idea was it to start a project like this? What are your favorite 70’s horror movies? Were you inspired mostly by Popol Vuh or Goblin?

Nicklas: None actually. This was a spontaneous thing and we improvised over the themes. I guess you can hear influences from those bands but at the time I had not heard Popol Vuh or Goblin that much. The recordings were done in a day and much of it was spontaneous. The idea came up when Landberk was asked to do a horror movie soundtrack cover for a italian compilation. Only Stefan and Reine was interested so they asked me and Peter if we were interested.

Nick: Are there plans for recording a new Morte Macabre album?

Nicklas: Not at this point. We had some plans a year ago but I really don’t have any energy or inspiration for Morte Macabre at the moment. But you never know.

Nick: What are your all-time favorite bands/artists? Could you mention some of the albums that wholesomely influenced on your musical shape? Give us a few names from the deep underground, I think that everybody already know of King Crimson or VDGG, hehe.

Nicklas: Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Magma, Univers Zero, Talk Talk, Trettioåriga Kriget, May Blitz, Roy Harper, Bo Hansson, Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate, Beatles, Amon Duul, Can, Sun Ra…
Hmm that was not so deep underground but I’ll continue. Children Of One, Anne Briggs, Frumious Bandersnatch, Cressida, The Advancement, Flower Travelln Band, Spring, Hairy Chapter, il Baletto Di Bronzo, Gracious…

Nick: What kind of gear do you own? Also, how many instruments do you know to play and which are they?

Nicklas: Guitars: Gibson SG, ‘61-reissue,Ibanez Artist, Gibson Les Paul Standard, Ibanez Concorde 12 string and a Ibanez 6 string

Amps: Hi-Watt modified by Marcus Resch Peavey Classic 50

Cabinet: Marshall JCM 900, Lead-1960

Effects: Fuzzface, Line 6 DL4 Delay modeler, Octavia, Wah, Univibe and volume pedal custom  made by Marcus Resch, MXR compressor, A/B switch,

Big Muff

Mellotron M 400S

Fender Rhodes

Pianet

Theremin

Nick: Do you have any hobbies? Also, do you have a full daytime job or are you completely involved in music?

Nicklas: I work as a record dealer buying and selling vintage vinyls. That is my full time job and hobby. Playing music is my therapy.

Nick: Thank you for the interview, Nicklas. All the best with your new band, hope to hear much more from you.

Martin Horntveth, A Gentle Giant

No, Martin Hornveth is not a member of Gentle Giant if the title of this interview made you think so. Martin Hornveth is actually the drummer of Jaga Jazzist, a Norwegian jazz band with about 10 musicians. They have recently released a new album this year called “One-Armed Bandit”. I talked with Martin about new album, other projects, their connection with progressive rock, etc.

Nick: Hello Martin. How have you been?

Martin: I’ve been working like a dog and I miss touring again!

Nick: So, it’s been 5 years since you’ve released What We Must and this year you’re back in the game with a brand new album called One-Armed Bandit. Why that long break? What happened with the band during that break? Some of band members have quit. Tell us a bit more.

Martin: Between 2002-2005 we toured constantly and we thought we should take a break before we started going on each other’s nerves. It was supposed to sbe a few months but it ended up being almost two years before we started to rehearse for a new album.
Many of the members started their own solo carriers or joined other bands. At one point we were all so busy with composing, world tours, producing that we were a bit worried about the future of Jaga.
Many of the members that quit around 2005 were original members that wanted to do other things. Two of them are soon to become doctors, others has totally different jobs. The main thing is that we’re all still close friends and the new members inspires the “old” ones J

Nick: Let’s talk about your new album. One-Armed Bandit received very good reviews. Are you satisfied with how it turned out? How long did you work on this album? Would you compare the way it was made with the process that made the previous one?

Martin: Yes, we’re very satisfied with the album. It’s so much rehearsing, quarrelling, discussing, organizing, arranging etc. with Jaga Jazzist but when the album finally was out it felt extremely good. We started to rehearse with the new members Øystein Moen and Stian Westerhus from the Norwegian noise/jazz band, Puma some time in 2007. The first song we tried was ”Prognissekongen” and people were quite shocked in a positive way of which direction Lars was leading the band into.
On What We Must we wanted to rehearse more like a rock band and we were jamming a lot with the arrangements but this time Lars had written 80% of the music and it was quite complex with written scores for all instruments. There were others that wrote music for the album but we ended up using 99,99% of Lars’ music.

Nick: I wonder have you ever been in a situation that after you had an idea for an album and you start working on that led by that idea, in the end the result turns out to be quite the opposite from what you intended?

Martin: Many times! On the ”A Living Room Hush” album it was like that for at least 50% of the album. But after we learned more about studio technique and possibilities with arranging we know a bit more about what we try to find. But sometimes we play the same song over and over for hours to get somewhere we haven’t been before .

Nick: My opinion is that with this new album you made a turnout to more prog rock sound in comparison with previous works. This time there are more electronics and programming, more dynamics, I’d say. Was that just intentional or was it a logical sequence of circumstances?

Martin: Well, it’s absolutely more prog-ish than before, but if you listen to ”The Stix” you might think that it’s way more electronic/programmed than this one. Anyway, we wanted ”the best from both worlds” this time. In the early song writing process I remember Lars experimented with a ”Justice” (French band) type ”House” beat in all the songs. We talked about mixing the “uber-electronic” sounds with a more prog-rock or even jazz-rock sound. Justice meets Mahavishnu Orchestra or The Knife meets Zappa. The process is all though much more interesting than if the result ends up like planned.

Nick: How did you get in touch with John McEntire of Tortoise? I see mixing of Jaga Jazzist album as something really hard and have to praise John for the work he did on One-Armed Bandit. What did he bring to the album?

Martin: We originally wanted Jørgen Træen to both produce and mix the album. For Jaga he’s become a very important person for our sound and development. But a couple of months before we had planned to mix he got ill and couldn’t work for a very long time, so we had to find another person to help us finish the album. Lars and I were discussing different solutions and persons we’d like to work with and one of them was John McEntire, whom we obviously have been inspired by for years. Jørgen hadn’t really got the chance to start his brilliant way of transforming the material into something new so we thought that the rough mixes of the album sounded to vintage or old school and wanted John to help us get a more modern or fresh sound. In addition to have pretty much the same taste in music and sound as us he also bring in a lot of “playing around with effects and synthesizer” that eventually gave the electronic feel that we felt were missing.

Nick: As a successful indicator of the new album’s quality, I would like to point out that the album has entered top 10 of the Norwegian national record sales charts in the first week. Seems like you did a good thing in enabling two of the tracks from the album to be available for free on the Internet. Do you think that Internet should be used in such a way by all bands? Or is it more of a detriment in general?

Martin: A few years ago it felt corny and sometimes wrong to give away songs for free, but the way the whole industry has become it’s much more of a necessity in the whole release plan and way of promoting the album. I personally don’t like how people feel that music should be “for free” and I don’t think they have a clue about how much work and money there is behind an album. This change in the whole music scene made it almost impossible to make our last album and we had to find totally new ways of getting the money for studio, producer, mixer etc. For Jaga it’s always been a non-profit band, but this time it was harder than ever to make it happen. That said, we use Internet and all it’s possibilities for all it’s worth all the time, and have been doing that since 1996.

Nick: JJ is an orchestra band, as your line-up is consisted of approx. ten musicians. Would you tell us how the current line-up of the band looks, besides you, Lars and Line? I have to admit that it seems hard to follow all those changes, so let’s make it clear

Martin: The current line-up besides Lars (Guitar, saxes and clarinets), Line (Tuba, glockenspiel and vocals) and me (Drums and drum-machines) consist of Mathias Eick (Trumpet, upright bass, keyboards and vibraphone), Øystein Moen (Keyboards), Erik Johannessen (Trombone), Andreas Mjøs (Vibraphone and guitars), Even Ormestad (Bass and keyboards) and our newest member, Marcus Forsgren (Guitars and FX)
Stian Westerhus (Puma, Nils Petter Molvær, Monolithic) played on the album and a few gigs but he was too busy with other bands and has been replaced by Marcus Forsgren from The Lionheart Brothers.

Nick: During all these years you’ve been involved in other projects beside JJ. Solo work is probably the best way to satisfy your own ego so to speak, do you find it to be helpful for Jaga Jazzist to release your own material on the side? Please introduce us to some of your other projects and contributions.

Martin: In the beginning all the side projects and other bands were struggling with JJ’s busy calendar and plans but after a while we all understood that these bands helped the members to try out other ideas and genres that wouldn’t fit into Jaga’s music. So instead of quarrelling about peoples focus, we started encouraging people to start own projects and solo carriers.
In the early 2000’s I was making a lot of electronic music and were touring a lot with my solo show but after a while I quit because I didn’t like traveling alone. Being part of a huge band with two family members close all the time I often felt lonesome in an empty hotel room or backstage. So besides of a pop group called “The National Bank” I been mostly composing music for TV dramas, radio theatre, short films, dance performances, children’s television etc. It’s too much to go through all of it but it’s all presented on my myspace site: www.myspace.com/martinhorntvethcomposer

Nick: Let’s make a retrospective of your albums, starting from Jævla Jazzist Grete Stitz to One-Armed Bandit. How would you describe every of these albums?

Martin: “Jævla Jazzist Grete Stitz – 1996” was actually a best of album. Our debut album was supposed to be our last. Ha-ha! It’s full of various styles, genres, humoristic ideas but still a lot of serious music. It’s fun, but still a bit embarrassing.
“Magazine EP – 1998” was just an EP that later was released on Smalltown Supersound as full-length release. Also this one is extremely varied and the only red thread is the melodies and harmonies that always has been our trademark. It’s two songs recorded in two different studios and a third song that’s recorded live. It’s also a really quiet, folky song with vocals and a drum&bass remix..
“A Living Room Hush – 2001” is the album that chanced JJ and has always felt like our “real” debut. It’s our first album with Jørgen Træen and he really opened our eyes but musically and sound/recording wise. We came to Jørgen with a lot of songs and ideas but came out with something completely different and we felt that we’d “seen the light”
“The Stix – 2002” is many of the member’s favorite album; because we think we made something unique with this album. We’d been experimenting with sounds, genres and electronics for a while but on this album we felt that we’d made it into our own style.
“What We Must – 2005” was as the album title describes a must for the band to make. We had to go someplace completely different and get rid of most of the things we’d been doing over the last five years. The album is guitar oriented for the first time, it has a lot of “rock band” feel instead of “jazz band” or “electronica” feel. There’s no programming or drum machines and was very inspired by bands like “My Bloody Valentine” and “Sonic Youth”. It also has some early fooling around with prog-rock and “quasi world“.
“One-Armed Bandit – 2010” was sort of a comeback album for Jaga. On this album we wanted to continue what we’d started on “What We Must” but take it to a new level. We also wanted to bring in the electronic sounds from “The Stix” and the madness from “A Living Room Hush”. You can track some parts from early albums but the most important was to have fun while playing the music. We wanted to play complex, sometimes corny, sometimes beautiful but most of all fun-to-play music.

Nick: Is making music for Jaga a tough task? Where do you find new elements for new tunes? I guess that you and Lars are the most focused members of the band when it comes to creating new songs, but how much are the others in on that process?

Martin: Making music for JJ is extremely difficult, and it’s seldom other than Lars that manages to do it. We all try but it doesn’t go through the needle eye. We don’t want Jaga’s music to sound like anything else and that in addition to writing for 9-10 members makes it very, very hard.
For “One-Armed Bandit” Lars worked really hard and set a goal to write a new song for each rehearsal. It ended up being 99,99% of Lars’ music on the new album and that’s basically because he managed to write enough music and create a “universe” for the whole album.
The other members are very involved in shaping the music into what it becomes but that’s only “done in advance”, meaning that Lars writes music that fits the musicians well. He knows what we all stand for and except for the drum parts the whole new album was composed with written scores. In the rehearsal process we’re all involved in jamming on the riffs with different instruments, rhythm parts, instruments playing the melody, percussion, arrangements, drum programming etc. We’ve never rehearsed as much as for this album and that’s a BIG part of the song writing process as well as the actual composition.

Nick: What does Prognissekongen mean? I’ve tried to translate that using a Google translate tool, and it showed me “Prog elf king”, Is that correct?

Martin: Ha-ha! Yes, for us it’s more like King Of Prog Nerds, but the exact translation would be something like Prog elf king. The title is describing both the music and our love/hate approach to the genre. We like a lot of it very much but something of it is just hilarious and comic, but still we like it because it’s funny… Hard to describe in English, but hopefully the title speaks for itself.

Nick: How much of Jaga’s sound is based around progressive rock? Which bands are your favorites, as well as influences?

Martin: Very little. People have been calling us a prog band for a few years now, but we never understood why. I’m not saying that we weren’t a prog-band, but we didn’t know because we’d never listened to it. We started to check out some Progressive around 2004/2005… Well, over the years we’ve been introduced to some bands but we never liked it, and most of the time we thought the music was really ugly and dull. Around the making of What We Must we heard some bands like “Yes” and “Mahavishnu Orchestra” and for the first time we wanted to dig into this genre. We’re interested in songs and melodies and not so much riffs and jamming so maybe that’s why it took so many years for Jaga to feel the connection with Prog? On the last album we’ve “fooled around” with this genre a bit more and are very happy about being called a prog-band. I guess the influences haven’t been that many prog bands except for the ones already mentioned and a few others like “Robert Wyatt” and “Genesis”. It’s more the way of thinking and the “open mind” that has inspired us. “Over the top” arrangements, sudden key and time changes, corny fanfares, pompous church organ, complex melodies and time signatures etc. Actually, Lars was very inspired by slot machines or One-Armed Bandits when he wrote the songs and that inspired to a lot of the stuff mentioned above plus the title of the album.

Nick: Would you tell us about some funny situations from the tour? Being in a band with so many members probably leads to a lot of interesting situations, such as someone being left behind when the band goes on tour, or something.

Martin: This recent tour has been so far quite calm and under control. Probably because we have some new members, a new crew and just had a fantastic time together. On previous tours we were sharing the same bus for 7-8 weeks and since we’d lived on top of each other for years it became a lot of tension, some aggression, quarreling, leave-behinds etc, but this time it’s been pretty calm. That said, for us the friendship and music is very important, so too much “sex, drugs & rock n’ roll” wouldn’t be acceptable.

Nick: I guess you will probably know why do I ask this, but are you a gentle giant?

Martin: I’m a very gentle giant I think the man on the “Gentle Giant” album could be the “Prognissekongen” that Lars thinks of.
Lately I’ve been thinking about that band and the resemblances with our band. We were watching a live concert with Gentle Giant in John McEntire’s studio and I didn’t know that the members were SO good instrumentalist. It was really cool to see them change instruments all the time and play them all so brilliantly. We have a couple of members doing the same thing and it was truly inspiring to see.

Nick: Besides being a musician in an eminent band, you also have a serious role in your life, that of a father. How do you find time to balance between these “two worlds”, if I may?

Martin: Being a father has been a fantastic change in my life. I’ve been used to work 14 hours a day, 7 days a week except two-three weeks holidays and it was absolutely about time to prioritize my son and girlfriend. I love touring and living in a bus for weeks, but nowadays I miss my family after two weeks. I think that’s a good thing.

Nick: Is there anything you’d like to add now that I’ve run out of questions?

Martin: I’d like to add that if it was up to the band we would have traveled all over Europe including you country, the states, Australia, Africa and all the other places we haven’t been before. I hope the most eager JJ fans will travel to the nearest cities to see us all though it can be a bit far away. Traveling with this band is very expensive and promoters struggle hard to make it work so it’s not that we don’t want to come to all the places we’re invited.

Nick: Thanks for the interview, Martin. We wish you and your family all the best.

Martin: Thanks and hope to see you some time in the future!

Rikard’s Questions (In an Infinite Universe)

Lalle Larsson, A Man with A Vision

Lalle Larsson is a pianist/keyboardist, a composer, a workaholic and just a generally great dude. During his career he’s been involved in many different projects. Read on and find what Lalle has to say about Weaveworld, his collaborations with Jonas Reingold, Richard Hallebeek, his musical beginnings and so on.

Nick: Hello, Lalle. Thanks for agreeing to this interview, I have to say that it’s been an honor for me to have a chance to speak with one of my favorite pianists/keyboardists- composers. How’s life these days?

Lalle: Wow thanks, I appreciate the support. Life is good at the moment. I am excited about my new material for the next Weaveworld album. We have just finished recording all the drum tracks for that and it sounds really amazing! I will spend this summer finishing everything off. I will also be a part of some other creative projects that will happen later this year, so I´m not complaining.

Nick: 2009 has been very successful year for you I would say, as you have released an album called “Weaveworld”, as well as a DVD called “Seven Deadly Pieces”. And also you’ve had time to participate on another project, this time playing fusion jazz with 3^rd World Electric. But it seems like all that wasn’t enough for you, haha, as you also took part in the Karmakanic & Agents of Mercy collaboration, which recently released “The Power of Two”. How do you feel after all this?

Lalle: Yeah, 2009 was a very creative year for me. It feels good. You know, ever since I quit my day job as a music teacher two years ago a lot of doors have opened. Now that I work fulltime with my music I get more things done and I can really delve deeper into my artform. I also think that the time was right for me to reach a bigger audience with my music and I am very fortunate to be able to share my vision with guys like Jonas Reingold and Reingold Records.

Nick: Is it difficult to create such music presented on Weaveworld? I see that project as a big house which has rooms filled with jazz musicians, a classical orchestra, a heavy metal band and you in the middle of that all, as a conductor.

Lalle: It´s always difficult to create good, authentic music I think. I do write a lot of music that I reject, I am very picky when it comes to my own music, it has to feel right – have a certain atmosphere. I start out hearing the music in my head and I get a vision of the overall feeling and what I want to say with an album. Sometimes the vision comes out the way I want it to and sometimes it becomes something else. Not neccessarily worse, just different. There are a lot of parameters to get right, arrangement, performance, sound, etc…

Nick: What is it that makes a musician authentic? What musicians have the best reputation for authenticity, in your opinion?

Lalle: Everyone has their own interpretation of what authentic is I guess. I don´t know… I think anyone who can communicate who they are and what they are feeling through their music will resonate with other likeminded souls. Music, like emotions, is a very universal thing.

Nick: Let’s talk about your musical beginnings, as well as your musical education. How did it all begin? Why did you choose to play piano? I believe you also played drums for a while, right? What other instruments do you play?

Lalle: My parents were both musicians so I was practically born with a piano in front of me. I don´t really have any memories of not playing. It wasn´t really a choice, music was more like a natural part of the environment and playing with sounds was as natural as anything else. Although I didn´t really get serious about practising and all that until I was about 14 years old.

When I became a teenager I wanted to be a rock star (laughs) so I began learning the drums and not long after that I formed my own band and I also took drum lessons for a couple of years. Apart from piano and drums I have also played the guitar for many years now.

Nick: What’s your opinion on putting labels on music? I guess that we’d both agreed that music doesn’t have any limitations; everything is based on feelings, right? Also, when you play, do you try to establish some kind of connection with your “soul”?

Lalle: Yeah, a label is obviously something you need if you want to sell a product so that the consumer knows what to expect.  I´ve read that my music falls somewhere between progressive jazzrock/fusion and symphonic metal. I don´t know… I mean some of my favourite artists like John Coltrane and Allan Holdsworth fall under the jazz and fusion labels, still I think they sound very different from anything else I´ve heard in their suggested genre. But they need to be put in a genre so that us consumers can find them.

I don´t think that you can “try” to establish a connection to your soul when you play, either you are present or you are not. It´s like saying “do you breath when you talk?” Either you do it or you don´t, if you choose not to – it won´t take long before you die… while trying to talk… (laughs)

In my music improvisation is all about expressing myself and the way I feel. If I feel that I have nothing to say then the music will sound dead. Every note you play should feel important, that´s what I like in a musician, you know, if I hear a drummer for instance and I can hear that he is present and that every single hit on the drums is equally important, all played with conviction, then I usually dig it.

Nick: You are both a solo artist and an ensemble player. As a solo artist, I guess that you have many more possibilities while you play, as you can do different things. What does a musician need to have to make them a good solo artist?

Lalle: Well, I can only speak for myself. As a solo artist I am usually also the composer so the music is all my vision and I pretty much have a clear picture of how I want everyone to play that music. If I am playing in a band it is usually someone elses material and someone elses feelings that I have to try to understand and capture. I become an interpreter, that´s the biggest difference to me. As a solo artist I´m just doing my thing, playing that which comes natural to me.

Nick: Your first solo adventure was an album called “State of Mind”, and it’s interesting that this one was actually promo release, never released as a full-length. Why is that? Please tell us something more about this release.

Lalle: This is a recording I did after I had been doing a couple of solo piano gigs playing jazz-standards. I don´t even consider this a release. It´s more of a personal document. It is obviously not a typical “Lalle Larsson” album as I am playing in a more traditional jazz way.

I´m not saying it is bad but I feel that it is not 100%  me, it´s a tradition. Even though it has some highlights. My first real official solo album is the teenage recording Ominox – Contemporary Past from 1993 (Liquid Note Records). All original material. So to be correct Weaveworld is actually my second solo album.

Nick: Electrocution 250 comes next, a very nice and successful combination of avant-garde and metal, which was made in the 90’s. What have been inspired you to make this?

Lalle: When I studied at the “American Institute Of Music” in Vienna in 1992 I did some really insane demos together with guitar virtuoso Todd Duane. These demos were passed around all over the world and it became something of a cult item in the underground shred community. We were even offered a record deal by Shrapnel Records but for some reason that never happened. Then many years later Liquid Note Records wanted us to do something in the line of those demos, and that became Electrocution 250. We didn´t quite manage to capture the raw energy of the demos but it became something else. We were influenced by Todd´s early demos but also by cartoon music, Looney Tunes and that kind of thing. We just wanted it to be as insane and funny as possible, play as fast as possible and with a lot of humour. (laughs) It became an underground classic and was fairly successful in Japan etc.

Nick: Next in line was The Richard Hallebeek Project with Sebastiaan Cornelissen, Brett Garsed and great Shawn Lane, who unfortunately passed away soon after that. This was an excellent fusion project, I think.

Lalle: Thanks. Me, Richard and Sebastiaan each wrote three tunes for that album and then we called in the guests. It was a fun album to record. I lived at Sebastiaans place in Holland and we had a lot of fun hanging out. Rich and Bas are both great friends and wonderful musicians.

I dedicated my song Enigma to Shawn Lane who sadly passed away. He was a true original and one of my all time favourite musicians.

Nick: In 2005, you joined forces with Sebastiaan Cornelissen again with addition of Gary Willis, forming Timeline. Why do you think this project stayed almost unnoticed?

Lalle: The record label Munich Records didn´t know who we were and they didn´t care about the album enough to do any promotion at all, so it just got lost unfortunately. It´s probably really difficult to get a hold of that CD now. I think that album deserved more recognition.

Nick: During your career you’ve been collaborating with many musicians, including Philippe Ansari, the already mentioned Sebastiaan Cornelissen, Virgil Donati, Phi Yaan Zek, and latest one, but not the least, Zoltan Øbelisk. Would you tell us something more about these people you’ve worked with? Who was the most fun?

Lalle: I have done a lot of different sessions over the years and every one of them have been a great learning experience for me. Most of the studio work nowadays is done by sending wav-files via the internet. It´s a lot more fun to actually meet the musicians and record together live in the studio. In March I did a great studio-session with Agents Of Mercy – Roine Stolt & Nad Sylvan´s new band. That was a lot of fun, recording the oldfashion way.

Among the guys you mentioned Phi and Sebastiaan are both very close personal friends of mine so we are always having a lot of fun together. They are like brothers to me and we have been doing a lot of hanging out in London and Holland. Unfortunately we don´t get to meet too often since we live in different countries.

Nick: 2008 brought you into Karmakanic (although you joined the band in 2006 as live support, if I’m not wrong), appearing on “Who’s The Boss In The Factory”, an awesome album, which, by the way, I quickly put on my list of “top albums of 2008”. How did you get in touch with them? Also, what’s it like working with Mr. Reingold? Seems that he’s pretty busy these days.

Lalle: Jonas called me in 2006 because he needed a a keyboard player for an upcoming Karmakanic tour and I accepted. I ended up playing on their third album “Who´s The Boss…” and I´ve been a part of the band ever since. We have done several tours and albums together now me and Jonas. He is great to work with, a true professional. Bass-player, composer, producer, record label guy, studio engineer, you name it… Jonas has become a great friend of mine and he is a musical kindred spirit. He is also very funny! We have a lot of fun together. I really can´t say enough good things about him

Nick: In the recent interview with Nad Sylvan of Agents of Mercy, he told that Karmakanic is in the process of making a new album. Would you tell us something more about that? What can we expect this time?

Lalle: Yeah, Jonas is in the middle of working on the next album. He is sending me demos of new songs that he is working on and some of the stuff is already my favourite Karmakanic material. It will be released sometime early next year I believe.

Nick: Speaking of Karmakanic, what’s your favorite album? Few days ago, I was talking with my friend concerning the same question and we’ve agreed that every of three albums is way different in comparison to its predecessor and that’s what we like. How difficult is it to create something different, but at the same time to keep all of those basic “Karmakanic” elements?

Lalle: Yeah, all three albums are different. If I had to pick a favourite I would say “Who´s The Boss” and the live album.

Karmakanic is Jonas vision and the first two albums feels to me more like his solo projects done with a lot of studio/guest musicians, “Who´s The Boss” was beginning to sound more like a band I think, and the live album is definitely unique. The new album will also have more of a band feel to it. By now Jonas knows our strengths so when he writes he can for instance write with Göran´s voice and my keyboard playing in mind.

Nick: Why did it take so long for you to release “Seven Deadly Pieces”? I remember I was looking forward to it several times, but it seemed like it was never going to be released! In the end, it was worth waiting for, surely.

Lalle: Mostly because we didn´t have a budget. I paid for it all myself  and when people are working for free things take time. Plus we had some technical problems in the end.

But it was amazing that we managed to pull it of after all. It just shows that you can create something like that with hardly no budget. it took me ten years to realize that project.

Nick: What bands/artists do you listen to the most these days?

Lalle: Lately I have actually listened mostly to my own music since I´ve been working several hours every day with the new Weaveworld. When I listen to other music for inspiration I tend to always go back to my old favourite artists and recordings. Now when Ronnie James Dio so sadly passed away I have listened a lot to Rainbow, Sabbath and Dio.  I also always come back to the old Shawn Lane demos/bootlegs and Holdsworth live bootlegs. Early Yngwie stuff and some Coltrane live stuff. Apart from that I listen to classical music and filmmusic a lot.

I dig Ennio Morricone, John Barry, that sort of stuff. Now that I think of it I guess the latest “current ” album I listened to was Jeff Beck´s latest CD.

Nick: Do you have a clear image/vision of your musical career? Can you see that far or simply you will make album based on your feelings of the moment?

Lalle: Yes I have a pretty clear vision of where I´m going with my music. My plan is to release one solo album every year, this fall the second Weaveworld will come out and the third album will come out next year. I have only planned for a Weaveworld trilogy then I´ll see where the music leads me, but I will continue to build my catalogue with my own sound, I have only just started.

Nick: Do you have any hobbies or are you fully devoted to music?

Lalle: I guess that music is both my work and hobby. I do very little else than practise, compose and record. That´s my life. I do enjoy reading and watching good films for relaxation and I work out sometimes to stay fit, but that´s about it.

Nick: As I think that I’m done with questions, is there anything what you’d like to say to our visitors?

Lalle: Yeah, thanks for your interest and for taking time to read this interview. Don´t forget to check out my solo album Weaveworld and my DVD Seven Deadly Pieces if you haven´t already, ha,ha, promotion, promotion…. I have a second album coming out this fall so look out! Don´t forget to check out the new Agents Of Mercy that will also come out this fall! Some inspired music for you I promise!

Nick: Thank you very much for the interview, Lalle. I hope you enjoyed in giving answers to my pretty standard questions. All the best!

Lalle: Thank you! I enjoyed your questions

Alan Morse, An Engineer of Arts

Is there any need for me to introduce one of the men behind one of the most important prog bands in recent years? I suppose it wouldn’t hurt: Alan Morse, ladies and gentlemen! I had an opportunity to ask him some questions about SB’s new album, some previous releases, his connection with martial artist Chuck Norris and so on. So, put your favorite Spock’s Beard album in the deck, get comfortable, and read the words of Mr. Morse.

Nick: Hello Alan. Thanks for agreeing to this interview. How are you doing?

Alan: I’m doing well, very busy. It just started raining, very strange for LA! I’m really excited about the new CD, people really seem to be liking it. And I like it too!

Nick: So, Spock’s Beard is back on track, with brand new album “X”, which is by the way your 10^th album. What can we expect from this record? 4 years since your previous selftitled album, what changed since then, and what are the reasons for taking that long to releasing a new album?

Alan: Wow, has it been 4 years?! No particular reason to take so long. It does take a long time to make a record, but not that long! There have been a lot of changes since then, we’re on a different record label. In fact, we didn’t even have a label until this record was done. Our awesome loyal fans preordered enough CDs to finance making it, so off we went!

Nick: How long did the recording process take? Please, tell us something more about the technical side of the new album.

Alan: I guess it was about 6 months or so since we started really recording. We already had pretty good demos of everything. If you count the time demoing everything, it was probably 2-3 years in the making! And if you count writing, 5-10 years, since some bits were written long ago!It’s a long, and frankly often tedious process making a record these days. There’s a lot of tweaking, getting everything sounding right. One of the most fun parts is recording the strings and horns. It’s so cool to hear the real thing, the sounds you heard in your head actually coming out! But then there’s all the EQing and processing, seems to take forever!

Nick: Did anything change in the process of creating a song/album in Spock’s Beard? Or have you used some formula that has been in place since the early era? How much has Neal’s departure changed the recording process?

Alan: It’s pretty much the same process as we’ve always done, except that the technology is very different now. We used to have to all huddle around the mixing board and tweak knobs as it went along. Now you can do most of it in the computer, so if you don’t like something, you can go back and fix it. This is both good and bad, because now it’s hard to know when to stop! Before you’d just have to live with stuff that was “good enough”.As far as Neal leaving, the difference is that it’s more democratic, also a blessing and a curse! It’s much more difficult when you have four or five guys with more or less equal say weighing in on something, rather than one guy pretty much having the final say. Now mostly the writers on the particular song have the final say, but we all have much more input in general.

Nick: Have you started to use a pick, haha? By the way, how come you don’t use pick while you play? I suppose that you’re tired of answering this question, but I’m sure people would like to know it. Also, isn’t hard for you to play a tour without using the pick, doesn’t it hurt?

Alan: Nope, still pretty much pick free, although sometimes I will use one in the studio – reluctantly – to get a particular sound, especially on acoustic bits. On tour I get an acrylic finger nail put on – I get some interesting looks at nail shops! That makes it a lot easier. I used to bleed on my guitar, it was messy and painful. I started playing fingerstyle because I started out playing upright bass and learned to pluck the strings on that. Then when I learned guitar I learned fingerpicking. So it was just a lot easier to keep going that way than to learn a whole new way of playing.

Nick: Let’s get back to the music. I’d say “Spock’s Beard” was a pretty heavy album that had a lot of hard rock elements. Does the new album follow the direction of the previous one, or there will be more classic stuff, consisted of the elements from your early records? Some kind of retrospect to “The Light” or “The Kindness of Strangers”, maybe? Where would you place “X” in comparison with previous albums?

Alan: I was trying to go for a more “classic Spock’s” thing, like our earlier work. I’m not sure if we did that, but I’m really happy with how it turned out. I think it’s one of our best, I really like it. There’s more stuff that really gives me chills on this record than there has been for a long time. I hope people out there agree, so far it seems to be going that way.

Nick: I guess this would be tough question for you, but what’s your favorite SB album? Also, do you have a favorite song, which you play live with some specific emotion? What’s the most difficult song of Spock’s Beard to play live for you?

Alan: Surprisingly,The Light is still pretty hard to pull off, mostly because of all the sound changes I have to do – switching between loud & clean & really effected stuff on the fly. Also The Doorway has some acoustic stuff that’s just out there on its own, that’s pretty challenging.  Especially if the lighting isn’t good, I can’t see what I’m playing!

Nick: There’s a part in “As Far As The Mind Can See” called “Stream Of Unconsciousness”, maybe it will be silly to ask, does this one have anything to do with Dream Theater’s instrumental from “Train of Thought” called “Stream of Consciousness”?

Alan: I don’t think it really has anything to do with that. It’s sort of a pun or play on words. John (Boegehold) likes to do that sort of thing. I don’t think I’ve heard Stream of Consciousness, I should check it out, DT’s awesome!

Nick: I notice “Octane” is probably the album that polarized critics the most. Some consider it to be a weak album, while others think it was a huge hit. Why is that? Seems like “Octane” is a record which is deeply under the shadow of “Feel Euphoria”.

Alan: I liked Octane, but I can see why people might not have liked it so much. Maybe too much straight ahead rock? That’s partly why I wanted to go full Prog on this record, get back to what we’re known for. I guess we were trying to grow beyond the Prog niche a bit, reach some new fans. Plus I personally like straight ahead hard rock. But this time, we went proggier, if that’s a word! I’m really pleased with it.

Nick: Speaking of “Feel Euphoria”, this album was compared by many to Genesis’ “A Trick of the Tail”, as Nick D’Virgilio took all lead vocals after Neal’s departure. How do you see this situation now?

Alan: Well, it just seemed the right thing to do at the time, and actually, I think it was. Nick’s got a great voice & wanted to go for it, so why not? We weren’t trying to “do a Genesis”, it just worked out that way.

Nick: More parallels can be made to Genesis because “Feel Euphoria” is an album which has been welcomed and received very well, similarly to how “A Trick of the Tail” is one of the albums which has reached top positions on chart lists all around the world. Was that hard to continue without Neal on lead vocals, as well without his presence in the process of creating?

Alan: Oh yeah, it was a shock. But I actually really enjoyed making that record, it was kind of new and exciting. But was a big adjustment!

Nick: “Spock’s Beard” contains “As Far As The Mind Can See”, which is a more then 15 minutes. Is there such a long epic on “X” or maybe even longer than “The Great Nothing” from “V”? I am sure a lot of fans will be expecting something big on the new album.

Alan: There are a couple of pretty long ones one the new one, but I don’t really care about that so much. I mean, it’s not a contest who can write the longest piece. For me it’s much more about writing something good, that flows, that makes some sense. That has some structure to it, a beginning, middle and end. If it wants to be long, then cool, but I don’t set out to write any particular length, although it seems to be a very big deal to some people…

Nick: You released your first solo album “Four O’Clock and Hysteria” in 2007, and it seemed like no one expected you to make a jazz fusion album. It showed a side of you that we’ve never heard before and I consider this album as a homage to classic 70’s fusion albums. Tell us something more about this album. Where did you get the idea to make this?

Alan: I decided to make a solo record, and after a while I thought it would be fun to do all instrumentals and not have to worry about vocals. I don’t sing all that great, and my favorite parts are always the guitar solos, so why not? Plus I always loved all those old Jeff Beck records, so I guess I decided to make my own.  I really love that record, it’s one of my favorites!

Nick: “Four O’Clock and Hysteria” is an album where you gathers best of DiMeola, Zappa, Vai, Lukather with addition of your own recognizable touch. What musicians influenced you in its creation? Did I get any of the right names?

Alan: Well, you missed the most obvious one, Jeff Beck, but yeah, I like all those guys. Zappa especially. There’s maybe some Satriani influence in there, and a bit of Adrian Belew. So yeah, all of the above!

Nick: Can we expect second solo album from you some time soon?

Alan: I’ve been thinking about it, but it’s a big commitment. I may have to do another one. I went on a lyric writing binge a few years ago & I have notebooks full of stuff. It would have to have vocals on it, which would be fun. Who knows?

Nick: This would be probably interesting for our visitors: It’s known that you have worked with martial artist Chuck Noriss. Would you please tell us more about that? As you probably know there’s a joke told about him somewhere on the internet every two minutes, would you say any of them are based on reality?

Alan: Well, I played on a track for him but I never actually met him. I guess that’s why I’m still alive! It was interesting. He’s better at martial arts than music. But he’s better at music than I am at martial arts!

Nick: You’ve also worked on a couple film-related projects/soundtracks. What was that experience like?

Alan: Mostly really fun. I really enjoyed doing that kind of stuff, it was creative and fun and challenging. I’d love to do it again, but it’s not very likely!

Nick: You are mainly a guitarist, but also you played several more instruments. What are they, which one is hardest to play, and which one is the most fun to play?

Alan: Oh, I play a bit of a lot of things – cello, saw, theremin, ukulele, whatever! A friend gave me a handmade 4 string banjo I really like playing. It might make an appearance on a record sometime!The Theremin is probably the hardest to play. Those things are really a bitch to control, very hard to stay on pitch. It took a million takes to get one decent useable track. I like stuff with frets, it’s way easier. I don’t know how violinists do it, very hard to play in tune.

Nick: Aside from being a musician you also happen to be an electrical engineer. Is it hard to manage being part of a decently high-profile band that does a lot of touring as well as a job like this?

Alan: Sometimes it’s tricky, but we don’t really tour that much. There are long periods where we don’t do much of anything, and then flurries of activity, like right now! It’s good having both, because I can make a decent living and still go off and play rock star now & then. A good balance.

Nick: Would you name 5 albums that have influenced you throughout your career?

Alan: Gosh, pick any five Beatles records! Or five Bowies. I guess I’d have to pick Sgt Pepper, Alladin Sane, A Night at the Opera, Blow by Blow, and a Charlie Parker record.

Nick: Do you have anything to say for our visitors?

Alan: Thanks for indulging us all these years, it’s really been a great ride. Couldn’t do it without you all. And please buy the records, it’s a lot of work to just have people pirate them, that’s really uncool.

Nick: Thank you Alan for being part of this interview. All the best with upcoming album and tour, hope to see you some time on the European tour.

Alan: Love to see you, everybody come out & say hello!

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