Interview with Paul Masvidal of Cynic

After the split from Tymon (guitars, growls) and Robin Zielhorst (bass) in early 2011, it wasn’t quite clear what to expect from Cynic. But 2011 turned out to be quite a productive year for the band, with a new EP release (Carbon-Based Anatomy), a new touring lineup and headlining tours throughout the US and Europe. We caught up with Cynic guitarist and vocalist Paul Masvidal on December 21, 2011, just before the final gig of the European tour in Aschaffenburg, Germany.

This is the last day of the tour, how has it been going?

Good! It’s been really fun … and intense – no days off, 19 shows in a row. It’s required a lot of focus and energy, but it’s been a ride, it has definitely been a solid tour overall, the shows have been great.

What’s up with the two opening bands cancelling today?

Chimp Spanner are from England and it made more sense financially for them to have a friend pick them up in Amsterdam yesterday and drive them back to England. Otherwise they would’ve had to fly with all the gear. And Hypno5e were never on the tour. Not one gig. It was a lot of confusion involving the agent and them and miscommunication. And basically, financially they couldn’t afford to come on the tour. They’re an independent band or something and it was just …

Are you happy with the turnout on this tour?

Yeah! I think for the most part – I mean, some shows weren’t as great as others, but overall it’s been pretty good.

So how are the new guys holding up?

They’re great! Brandon [Giffin, bass] is a kind of road dog, he’s spent five years on the road with a group called The Faceless that he helped form, so he’s very familiar with the ins and outs. And Max [Phelps, guitar and growls] is doing fine, he’s been doing great, so it’s been a really great vibe with the band, we’re really enjoying it.

How did you find them?

Brandon – we toured with The Faceless and Meshuggah. He lives in L.A. and we just knew each other, so we kind of just became friends after that tour – so that was like three years ago. And Max was one of numerous people that e-mailed us with audition videos. It was just after we announced that we were letting the other guys go and that we’re moving forward and everything is fine. And I remember that we got a lot of e-mails, dozens of people, really. And he stood out, he just really seemed natural and he got it, he understood how to play this stuff and he happens to growl which is a special skill that comes in handy for us, too.

It wasn’t really quite clear how things went down with the split from Robin and Tymon. Can you talk a bit about this?

Well, there was numerous reasons why we let them go. I know there’s some confusion about it, but – and I think it was leading to this anyways – but basically, in a nutshell, when we finished this Traced in Air / Re-Traced touring cycle and we got back to L.A., we realized we were in a situation where we didn’t have money to support them anymore and we were supporting them in the states.

I was always wondering how that worked, moving to the US just for a band…

Yeah, we were paying their rent for apartment and everything. It was very expensive to have European musicians in the band cause you have to pay for work visas too and all that. So every year it was a lot of money that … I think there was just a lot of things that it just made sense to not have them in the band. And the big one, then most obvious one was when we said “We can’t support you in the way that we have been”, they – I think – quickly realized that it would be much easier for them to go back to their home country and rely on a system that supports them. And I think Holland in particular is very … they just give money to musicians or something (laughs), cause somehow they end up with money and opportunities to pay for things that is different, I think, for American bands. So I think they decided it was in their best interest to move there. And although they wanted to keep the band going as kind of an internet project and us flying them, I just didn’t want to do that anymore. I wanted to be in the same room as the people that I’m working with. And I think it just had ran its course, it was ready to move on, that’s really it. I mean, things are definitely in a better place now, we have a great band and a couple of guys that are local. I mean, Max is from Maryland, but he has family in Los Angeles, so it really works out perfectly. It’s nice!

So what’s the official status of the new guys? Are they …?

They’re just touring guys right now. I mean, for the last record, Carbon, it was really just Sean [Reinert], myself and [Sean] Malone. But who knows what’ll happen with the next record, I don’t know. But we just needed that, we needed good, solid guys that’ll come on the road and deliver.

How did you come to work with Sean Malone again? He hasn’t been a full-time band member since the mid-90s, and yet here you are working with him again.

I’ve been e-mailing with him on and off over the years and when we were working on this stuff, we just got back in touch and sent him some of the demos and he felt like we had to work out some stuff with each other historically that we were working through, but I think we kinda turned that corner and realized that we’re on the same page. He really is from the same … I don’t know, he just seems to get things on multiple levels in terms of musically, where we’re coming from. I think he’s a real integral part of Cynic as a bass player in relationship to Sean. Especially as a rhythm section, but even his harmonic and compositional sense is insane. I really think Malone is one of the great bass players of our time.

I absolutely agree, I’m a big fan of his – of his writing, as well.

Yeah, beyond just his chops it’s his voice, his melodic voice – it’s incredible. And he approaches bass as a composer. It comes from having a PhD in music theory and composition and years and years of studying and living in music. He’s just one of those guys, he just has it. (laughs)

Which leads me to the question, what is he up to these days? He’s pretty much disappeared off the internet, his website and his blog were taken down…

He’s just teaching. I know he’s still writing a lot, but … he had a few books he was working on and then he’s a full-time professor at a university, for music theory. And he’s really engaged as a teacher, so I think his students are getting the most out of … he kind of closed off the public world and went into just living a normal life and focusing on his work, which is really honorable. I think, cause he does have a real skill as a teacher. So it makes sense that he decided to put his energy there.

You played on the second Gordian Knot album, have you heard anything about about a follow-up, have you been approached?

No, he hasn’t mentioned anything. I don’t know if he’s even talking about it. (laughs)

He mentioned about five years ago that he had the core group together, but, well – it’s been five years and nothing, so… Speaking of former members or collaborators, there’s one thing that I’ve always been wondering about: There was some talk about a Cynic reunion tour in 2006 where the lineup was supposed to be you and Sean with Chris Kringel and then Santiago Dobles from Aghora and I think Tony Teegarden…

Well, Chris joined us for the reunion dates and Santiago was someone that we were talking to, and of course when the news leaked, everyone was like “oh, he’s the new …”, but it didn’t go ever beyond like one jam together, and it was just me and him. And I think it was one of these things when it didn’t work out because he has a lot of responsibilities at home with his kids and his wife there, and it was too much to take off and tour with us.

Would’ve been an interesting choice, though! I like his playing quite a bit.

Yeah, he’s a great player!

Alright, enough talk about the past for now – let’s talk about the new EP! Ever since Traced in Air has come out, there’s been a shift away from the metal elements in Cynic’s music, and I think it’s even more obvious now on Carbon-Based Anatomy. Is this a permanent change or is it a phase?

I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I think every record kind of develops its own thing based on a process and I don’t really know what it’s gonna sound like until we’re really doing it. I think Cynic was always outside the box and never a traditional metal band to begin with, so we’re probably going further in a direction that’ll sound more like Cynic and less than anything else familiar. Really, it’s too soon to say right now – the material exists, but not as a production. They’re just little songs, so – we’ll see. (laughs)

Personally, I don’t really mind it not being metal, but I do miss the dynamics a bit. Because, especially on Traced in Air with a song like King of Those Who Know, it goes from those really smooth and melodic parts to some of the fastest and heaviest parts you have and it creates a nice contrast and I kinda miss that a bit on the EP. Just my personal comment…

You know, all I can do is stay true to a process and I think if I get caught up in what I’ve done before, I’m gonna try to repeat something and I can’t do that. I think that’s a dangerous place. It’s more just being true to whatever is happening now and trusting in that.

I heard that you want to release a new album next year already.

I think so…

Think so?

Yeah, as long as nothing too crazy happens, hopefully by next summer. You know, we have the material, it’s just a matter of playing and playing and playing. Fleshing it out and recording it and all that. Yeah, I think it’s doable, we’ll see!

So this will be an album, not an EP?

Yeah. I mean, to me it may be like two EPs bundled together or something, I don’t know. But that’s just semantics to me, because Carbon is like a record to me, it’s a mini-album. So it’s one of those things where … who knows! But I do feel like I like concentrated pieces of music, and I don’t wanna just put 12 songs because we have them or have extended solos because it’s longer. It’s just really about the quality versus the quantity.

I wouldn’t mind those extended solos. (laughs)

You wouldn’t, huh? You’re a true classic proggie. (laughs)

I play in an instrumental band myself, so I gotta love this stuff, otherwise I’d be in the wrong place! (laughs)

Yeah!

We touched on this a bit already, but how has the writing approach changed compared to the old Focus days in particular?

Well, the Focus days were different, I think it was four guys in a room yelling at each other. And these days it’s me alone with a guitar or a piano doing little demos and then getting together with Sean, the drummer, and just jamming. You know, we improvise over the arrangement until we get something we like. So it’s more intimate now and personal, and I think it just always comes back to Sean and I cause that’s familiar. We know how to do that.

So how do you feel about the classic Focus material now?

It’s fine. I still enjoy playing some of it.

Some? Only some? (laughs)

Well, sometimes you just burn out on material and we have toured Focus quite a bit. It does have a history and it obviously had an impact as an album, but at some point you do have to move on. With another album under our belts we’ll have enough material to really give people a whole body of new material to focus on instead of the past. But I enjoy Focus and to me it does seem like a record that represented something for us that was really honest. And I think it was a solid album, so it’s cool that it got some recognition.

I believe there was some talk of you guys releasing a live DVD at some point, but it seems nothing came of that. What’s the deal with that?

Live? Well, there was a “Making of Focus” thing, and then there’s been a bunch of stuff. I think it’s the reality for us with doing something like that is saying “we’re just gonna do this now instead of doing a record and tour and put our time and energy into that”, and we just haven’t done that yet, we’ve been always doing something else. So it’s like kinda there, a little bit here and there and we worked it for little moments, but who knows when…

I know there’s material of your early Hovefestivalen performance out there. Did you film any other shows that might be released on DVD at some point or would that have the be a new performance?

The Hove thing wasn’t us, it was just the festival. We haven’t officially filmed anything in a proper way. That would be cool – just to do like a tour and then take the best of it, kind of what Meshuggah did on the US tour that we did with them, that would be really cool.

Well, you have four releases under your belt now, time for some live footage!

Yeah, that would be cool!

Now for something a little bit different – what’s the current status of Aeon Spoke?

It’s pretty much on hold, you know. I was just playing a bunch of it today at soundcheck, but I haven’t really been thinking about it too much. I mean, I’ve got a lot material that maybe at some point in time will be released, but I don’t know – it’s one of those things, it’s kind of there, lurking, but I don’t know when it will reappear. There’s a bunch of projects I have in mind right now beyond Cynic. Like a world music thing that I wanna do. There’s a few things, there’s an ambient record that I’ve been working on it forever with an old friend. So at some point, all of those things will come to fruition, but I think that we’re one of those bands, or at least I’m the kind of artist that works very steadily and fairly slowly. I get very immersed in details and I’m just thinking about each project very specifically, and then I move on to the next one. It’s kind of hard to do five things at once, although I’m always multi-tasking, creatively it’s very consuming to do one thing well, I think. So that’s kind of how I work. So it’s been the Cynic train lately. At some point though, maybe after the next record, we could do another Aeon Spoke, we’ll see.

Why did you re-do so much of the first Aeon Spoke album for the self-titled SPV release?

Cause those were the songs that they wanted when we licensed it. They kinda licensed that album and then they said “why don’t we repackage it and do all this stuff?”, so we did this revision of the album, remixed it and added some songs, put some away, but it was all related to the first album.

Do you have any plans to transform Aeon Spoke material into Cynic material? As has happened with some unreleased songs before…

Yeah, it’s happened with some songs … I don’t know! Right now, all the material we’re working on, all the new stuff that I have is all Cynic-written, kind of. But it’s possible! At this point I realize that any song for me is more about putting on a production cap of the band that we’re in, cause a great song is a great song, regardless of style or genre. It’s like, if there’s a song in the catalog that seems to fit … Cause really, what it boils down to now is shaping an album and creating a feeling and a mood that has one concise theme. Although I kinda think I know it already, it could change. You’re always recording more than what you have. So it’s possible – at the end of the day it’s the same songwriter, it’s just calling it a different name.

What’s your reaction to fans who complain about Cynic becoming too much like Aeon Spoke?

Again, it’s like you’re dealing with the same human body writing the music. It’s kind of like someone saying “Steven Wilson’s solo music sounds too much like Porcupine Tree”. All I can do is stay true to a process. I think fans wanna keep … a lot of times they forget that the artist is growing, too, and that you can’t keep us in the same place, that memory of this band that you wanna hold on to, it’s like “no, wait – we changed also! Life happened to us, too!” – so our music is gonna change! People get very precious about albums and how they want bands to sound and they want them to kinda repeat a certain thing. And I think the coolest thing a band can do, at least for me, my favorite bands take their listeners on a journey and have unexpected twists and turns and new vistas and sounds. I wanna be taken on a ride, so I’m trying to do that with the Cynic audience, too. And bringing in some Aeon sensibility, which is a lot of heart, into it, I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all.

I usually save this for the end of the interview, but now that we’re talking about your favorite artists – name one somewhat recent album that you think everyone should hear!

One that I … it’s kind of recent, I thought it was fantastic. It’s instrumental and it has a lot of interesting elements, it’s called “Small Craft on a Milk Sea”, a Brian Eno album. I really got into it for a while, it was just a really cool … great sounds and a lot of experimental elements and just super like in its own realm. And yet people don’t know it unless they’re big Eno fans. It’s kind of super cutting edge but again, it’s not part of pop culture or any trendy community, so unless people kinda tune into it, they don’t realize … But Brian Eno to me is one of these greats that … he’s kinda responsible for genres and people don’t realize how he’s been this quiet voice in terms of pop culture, but behind the scenes he’s influenced entire generations of music. He’s really brilliant. That’s a great one, I could just say that one for now.

Cool! Just two things left I’d like to talk about – have you heard the recent remix of Death’s Human album? What are your thoughts on that one?

Yeah! I think it sounds really good. It definitely sounds better, you can hear everything better …

You can hear the bass, right? (laughs)

You can hear the bass, yeah! It’s definitely one of those they did justice. Jim Morris did a lot of justice to it, it came out nice. I was really pleased with it.

Back when the expanded edition of Focus came out, there was some talk of maybe remixing that whole album as well. In the end there were just three remixed songs and the rest of the tracks were only remastered.

Yeah, Roadrunner didn’t give us any money for that reissue, we spent everything out of pocket, Sean and I, to do everything, including the remixes that were there, the graphics, everything. We just spent what we had. On a practical level, if we wanted to remix the whole album I think we would have had to spend a lot more money and it was just one of those things where Roadrunner said “We wanna put this out this month. Give us what you got. If not, we’re putting it out like with nothing”, so we had to kinda do everything quickly and just put things together. I think it came out OK. Obviously a Focus remix has been talked about and we’ve been talking about like a box set kind of thing with all the video footage and vinyl and then a remix, which would be really cool, so it’s possible.

Like a 20th Anniversary box set? Cause that’s coming up pretty soon. It’s almost 2012 now …

Yeah, right, coming up! Wow, that’s a good idea, actually! Cause that makes sense, 20th Anniversary. And that’s like a year away …

I’d buy one! (laughs)

I would like to hear it, too. I’d love to hear Focus kind of redefined with modern production sensibilities. As much as I’m ready to let that album go, that might be a good way to wrap it all up and closure and all.

A perfect closing statement. We’d like to wrap up this interview with the Cynic setlist for the gig that followed:

Amidst the Coals
Carbon-Based Anatomy
Evolutionary Sleeper
How Could I?
Adam’s Murmur
Celestial Voyage
Elves Beam Out
King of Those Who Know
Veil of Maya
Wheels Within Wheels
Textures
Integral Birth
Box Up My Bones
The Space For This

About the author: Michael Schetter plays bass in the instrumental prog fusion project Relocator whose debut CD featured former Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherinian as a special guest. Michael is also the organizer of the Generation Prog Festival and concert series.

Haken/To-Mera interview with Richard Henshall and Tom MacLean

Haken’s set at this year’s Night of the Prog Festival in Germany was extremely well received despite the early 12:15 pm slot. I had a chance to talk to two members of the band just a couple of hours later: Keyboardist/guitarist/main composer Richard “Hen” Henshall and bassist Tom MacLean. The idea was to conduct interviews with two bands in one go, as the two also play together in To-Mera, though in quite different roles with Tom as the guitarist/main composer and Hen just on keys. We decided to begin with the Haken part of the interview.

Michael Schetter:
How are you enjoying Night of the Prog so far?

Tom MacLean:
Probably the highlight of our career, I think.

Richard „Hen“ Henshall:
Yeah, we never played to this many people before. And it’s our first time in Germany, so it’s a really big deal for us.

Just so you don’t have to correct me at some point during this interview – how do I pronounce the band name correctly?

Hen:
Haken as in bacon. That’s how we think of it.

What does it mean?

Hen:
There’s no meaning, really. It came from kind of alcohol-fueled gatherings between me and my friend and we thought it’d be a nice name purely from the sound of it. There’s no deep meaning behind it.

You didn’t really think that it might mean something in German when you chose it…

Hen:
(laughs) Yeah, we found out it means “hook” in Germany?

Yeah…

Hen:
Yeah. And it’s a Norwegian king. So it kinda worked out alright!

Tom:
And “knitting” in Dutch or something.

Hen:
We do love knitting, so it kinda worked alright out in the end.

You’re just working on your second album. How is that coming along?

Hen:
It’s very intense. For the last month it’s been non-stop, really. I would be working, coming home, recording the parts. And literally the day before we left to come here, we were recording right until the last minute. So it’s been very intense, but we’re almost there now. We got two more days or so left and it’s sounding pretty good, I think.

Tom:
There’s only the guitar solos left, I think, which we can record at a later time anyway. That’ll be fine.

After the CD is in stores, right? (Tom laughs) I think it was Allan Holdsworth who supposedly once heard one of his recordings and wanted to re-do one of his solos, but all the producer could tell him was “It’s already in stores, Allan!” Anyway, do you have a tentative release date yet?

Hen:
Hopefully mid-October. We’re playing ProgPower USA in September, so we’re gonna sell some copies there ahead of the release and we’re planning to release it right around the 15th of October.

Tom:
Also, we’ll bring some copies to Generation Prog in Nürnberg the week after. Well, I hope we’ll have some spare copies. We tend to only bring about 10 CDs to every show, so…

Hen:
Yeah, I think we brought about 200 less than we should’ve to this show ’cause we sold out within five minutes, I think…

You had a full album’s worth of demos before your first officially released CD. With Aquarius being a concept disc, obviously it all had to hang together. But did you get to revisit any of the demo stuff for the new disc or …?

Hen:
No, it’s all completely fresh, actually. We decided to write in one bulk so the songs linked together.

So it’s a concept disc again?

Tom:
(nods) Another big, overblown concept disc. Even more epic than the last one!

Hen:
We are still unsure about the concept, you’d have to speak to Ross. I still don’t even understand the Aquarius concept. (laughs)

Tom:
Yeah, we haven’t been briefed on that!

Hen:
I’m pretty sure it’s loosely based around dreams. You’ll have to wait and see. Read the lyrics and you’ll understand, hopefully.

Tom:
Good answer!

The new songs you played today were quite similar in style to the debut, but I don’t think there was any growling in them. Did you do away with that or is it still something that …?

Hen:
I don’t think it’s a conscious effort to get rid of the growling. More that that the sections in the new songs didn’t need growling. We haven’t actually got any growling on the album, but that’s not because we made that conscious effort. We didn’t feel the need for it, whereas with Aquarius some of the themes were a little bit darker in certain areas of the album, so…

You have several members who are or were quite active in other bands, sometimes even as leaders. How does the writing process in Haken work with so many composers in the band?

Tom:
It generally starts with Hen’s basic frameworks for songs. But this time around, although Hen is still very much the principal composer, there’s been a lot more… group editing, shall we say…

Hen:
Yeah, there’s a couple of songs where it’s been more a collaborative effort. One being Insomnia, being the main one where we had an idea for a song, but now, if you listen to it, it truly transformed into something new.

Much worse, obviously…

Hen:
(laughs) Obviously!

Everyone is happy with the song except for the guy who wrote it originally…

Tom:
(pats Hen on the back) He’s gotta compromise on one song!

Hen:
Yeah! So there’s a couple of songs which are collaborative, but obviously it’s the same idea where we bring the basic framework to the jams and everyone adds their own spice to it.

So Tom, for someone who’s a guitarist you play bass quite well! (laughs)

Tom:
Well, sometimes… Today I could hardly remember where I should put my fingers…

So which one was your first instrument, really?

Tom:
Certainly guitar. Bass I took on as a matter of principle after becoming tired with the lack of good bassists in our town. I figured, if someone’s gotta do it, it might as well be me. And my ego wouldn’t have been able to handle it had they found someone else to play bass. I had to step up to the mark. But I’ve been working on it since Aquarius… Whereas, I gotta confess, I was a little fresh to the bass, but I’ve been working a lot harder on my bass chops this time around.

So it’s not an oversimplification to say that you started playing bass for Haken?

Tom:
Yeah.

Haken’s music is very layered and very complex, so when you play live – and even in the studio – you have two guys playing keys, two guys playing guitar. Doesn’t the bassist get a bit lonely sometimes?

Tom:
Lonely? I’m still suffering a bit from bassist inferiority complex, but I’m coming to terms with it. I mean, that’s partly why for Aquarius I decided to get a fretless ’cause I thought if I just got a standard bass, no one’s going to notice it. (laughs) So yeah: Ego, I’m afraid. But this time there’s a lot more six-string bass, fretted bass on the new album. A bit of slap, a bit more tapping. A bit more bass bass. Bass for bassists.

Hen:
There’s definitely a lot more space in certain sections of the album for Tom to lay down some cool grooves.

Hen, you also play two instruments, in your case keys and guitar. Since you’re also a keyboardist in To-Mera, is this your main instrument or did the guitar come first?

Hen:
I was about 7 when I started playing piano and I picked up the guitar when I was 12, so I’ll say I’m pretty more comfortable on the piano and the keyboards. So yeah, it’s my first instrument.

How does your approach to keyboard playing differ between the two bands?

Hen:
I think a lot of time in Haken I take a step back and Diego takes the lead keyboard role, but in To-Mera I’m the sole keyboardist, so I take more of a lead role. And it’s a different style of music, really – it’s more jazz-influenced. So I guess, naturally my playing style is going to be different.

Tom:
He gets to shred more on the keyboards instead of the guitar.

This makes for a perfect segue into the next section of our interview: I am here with Richard Henshall and Tom MacLean – not of Haken, but of To-Mera, for once!

Hen:
It’s been a long time!

Let’s start with a really creative, original question – what does the band name actually mean?

Tom:
Apparently, this is what I’ve been briefed to say, it’s based on the original name that the ancient Egyptians gave to their kingdom which was founded on the belief that science and magic should coexist in founding a civilization. Or something like that, apparently.

You have all of that memorized, right?

Hen:
I’ve never heard that one before! (laughs)

Tom:
That was the original one. It’s changed down the years.

What I think is quite apparent is that compared to most female-fronted metal bands, To-Mera have a very uncommercial style. Was this a deliberate decision or did it just come naturally for you guys?

Tom:
Well, if by “uncommercial” you mean failure to sell CDs, then yes, you’re probably right. (laughs)

I mean, the music is a lot less accessible than bands like Nightwish or Epica.

Tom:
When the band started originally, it was kinda supposed to be quite an avant-garde kind of thing. It was actually founded by Lee Barrett, who’s no longer involved, but he was the label manager for Elitist Records and they signed a lot of very extreme technical, out-there avant-garde bands. I met him and Julie through a random coincidence, but I happened to know both of them through their individual backgrounds. Julie had just left her previous band and wanted to form a new band, Lee wanted to form a technical metal band, we all just get together and wrote riffs on a laptop and produced some songs. I don’t know if there was any deliberate intention to be inaccessible.

It doesn’t have to be a negative thing, it can make you stand out from the pack in a way…

Tom:
It has pros and cons, because we did want to try to be an original and technical female-fronted metal band. But it does create problems when the bulk of the audience and the media are kind of looking for the next Nightwish and Within Temptation. So the bands we tend to play with quite vary. Something we just play with goth bands and it’s a bit odd, because we take whatever comes, really.

You parted ways with Candlelight Records after two albums and released your next EP independently. How did that work out for you?

Tom:
It was a steep learning curve, really, because in some ways we got signed so quickly, we didn’t even know where we were or what we were doing. We were kinda mothered by this label, who at the same time were very distant and hands-off, and we weren’t really sure what we were supposed to be doing. And we reached a point where we realized they weren’t really that interested in the direction we were taking. They basically expressed disappointment that we wouldn’t pursue a more commercial vein. We thought “This is not gonna happen”. So we did the EP in the space of about a week a couple of years ago, put it out there on our own, and it was obviously a lot different from when you’ve got a label pushing things. Suddenly we were there without any muscle, but it’s kinda seeped through gradually.

Are you going to try to hook up with a different label for the next album?

Tom:
We got a few ideas and I think the main thing is to actually have a product that we’re all gonna be happy with and agree on and kind of take it from there. Rather than try to find a label first, which in this day and age without a product in the first place is not very likely, we’re just gonna try to put something together and see if it’s worth marketing.

Are you already working on new material these days?

Tom:
For the last couple of months everything’s kinda been on standby ’cause we’ve been finishing off the Haken record, but there’s plenty of stuff to work on when we get back to it. So yeah, there will be plenty of new stuff.

I thought the EP was quite different stylistically from the previous albums. What kind of further development can we expect?

Hen:
Well, Tom has written a lot of the ideas already. We’ve had a couple of rehearsals about four months ago or so and I’d say the songs are flowing very nicely and if anything, it’s taken a softer approach to the music. But you still have the hardcore riffs and the jazz harmony, so it’s still in the same vein.

Tom:
It’s gonna be recognizably the same band, but I think there might be a few more hat tips to the earlier style as well, the darker stuff, eventually. But we still got time to flesh that out.

Hen, as the new guy in the band, which of the old To-Mera tracks is your favorite to play?

Hen:
Well, I love Delusions. I’ll say Hourglass for me, it seems to have a great energy, it’s a really good crowd pleaser. But the whole album is really fun (Tom pats Hen on the back).

Did you incorporate another guitarist into the To-Mera live sound now that you’re in the band? Do you play both instruments on stage?

Hen:
We’ve tried it once, didn’t we? We did a cover of…

Tom:
Queensryche… (laughs)

Hen:
Yeah! I kinda messed that one up a bit. “Is this my spot?” And I missed my solo, so that didn’t really work out too well. But who knows, in the future…

Tom:
I think there’s scope for it, we just have to work out how to bring it in. We still got the same musicians that we had for the Earthbound EP, we’ve gotta consider how to make our sound continuous between the all the different albums whilst trying to bring in new things at the same time. Hopefully, Hen will be doing some guitar work, but not making me look like an amateur. (laughs)

Hen:
That’s never going to happen!

Tom:
We’ll just cut out some of his notes. (laughs)

Hen:
And then we’ll put them on your solo! (laughs)

To-Mera has been around for six years and in other countries you’ve already opened for bands like Dream Theater, Emperor and Pain of Salvation, but you’ve never played in Germany. How did that happen?

Tom:
It was funny, really. When Transcendental came out, the German press completely trashed it, to be frank. Basically, I remember the first Metal Hammer Germany review we got and I think it was a one-line review and it went something along the lines of “Where are the choruses? 1 out of 10” or so. We didn’t get off to a good start with the German crowd, unfortunately. I think over time our music might have become more pleasing to the German ear, but unfortunately everyone was looking elsewhere…

Now to my favorite question: You’ve put out three CDs and you’ve had three member changes. Who’s next?

Hen:
(laughs)

Tom:
Probably me…

Hen:
Me, man. I’m out!

Tom:
It’s a good question. (laughs) No, seriously, I’m not gonna give you the answer you expect that I’m gonna give. We’ve kind of been thinking slyly that we’re gonna incorporate a lot more guest musicians on this next thing. Because so far the basic sketches we’ve got down are quite diverse and in some ways would benefit from having a mixture of different people whilst retaining the same core band, getting a mixture of auxiliary musicians to kind of add to it.

What kind of instruments are you thinking of?

Tom:
Well, I mean anything from something as conventional as a piano to things like ethnic instruments and percussion.

Some jazz instruments like saxophone…?

Tom:
Possibly. We’ve done the saxophone thing once before. We had a few guest musicians on Delusions, it made it quite quirky in places. I think that’s something we’d like to try. I’m not saying we’ll turn into some Ayreon project or something, just flesh out this… This comes from having been so heavily involved in Haken for so long where everything is so multi-multi-multi-layered. I mean, the average track has about a hundred different instruments on it or something. You realize there’s a lot more scope for additional parts and such. So we’re probably going to use some extra singers. Julie has some talented female singer friends who may well feature… I mean, we haven’t thought as far ahead as actually doing it live yet, but in terms of recording we are thinking about adding some extra singers and whatnot. I can’t say who they are yet, but some of them are quite well-known.

OK, to finish this off, name one somewhat recent CD that everyone should hear!

Tom:
I’m just gonna have to say Jasmine by Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden, ’cause it’s a very beautiful album of jazz ballads. Just piano and bass, acoustic bass.

Hen:
I recently discovered a new band, they’re called Shaolin Death Squad. I really like them. It’s kind of like a mix between Mr. Bungle and Pain of Salvation. And what I like is the album Five Deadly Venoms, so check that one out, it’s a really good album!

About the author: Michael Schetter plays bass in the instrumental prog fusion project Relocator whose debut CD featured former Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherinian as a special guest. Michael is also the organizer of the Generation Prog Festival and concert series.

Resurfacing – an interview with James LaBrie

We got to meet James LaBrie on the day of Dream Theater’s performance at this year’s Night of the Prog Festival at the Loreley, Germany. The popular DT story these days is that of the band who lost its star drummer and carried on without missing a beat, and it’s a good one. But we decided to try to tell another story – it’s not about the guy who left or the guy who replaced him, it’s about the others and how that change affected them.

Michael Schetter:

How does it feel to be the undisputed frontman of the band for the first time in 20 years?

James LaBrie:

The undisputed frontman? You know, I mean… it was such a weird dichotomy, if you think about it. It’s funny, you mentioning that, because we, the guys in the band, we were talking about that everything is much more balanced, everybody is in their role or in their position. So it’s where things should be on stage, where it’s not somebody in the background trying to grab the limelight when maybe they should just be grooving or whatever. But I mean, that’s just Mike’s character, that’s just his personality. He’s big and he wants to be in the limelight. But unfortunately the problem with that is that it takes away from the bigger picture – and that is the band as a unit. And a lot of people have been commenting on that since we started out on this tour, saying „it feels more like I’m watching a band, with somebody up front singing and interacting, everybody else just back there and (makes drumming and guitar playing gestures). Everyone kind of assumes what they’re doing. And then there’s always moments in the night when there is the spotlight on these other members and it should be. But it creates more a balance. And we were talking about this, we were saying „you know, this is really cool“ – it feels like a unit. So it’s a lot better.

How is the tour going so far?

Excellent. M’n'M is just… Not the rapper Eminem! Mike Mangini – or Genie, as we call him. Although I do love Eminem, believe it or not! I love his stuff. But… It’s going great! Mike is playing amazing. He’s a gem of a drummer, he’s a phenomenal drummer. He’s very musical. So he just fits in and he’s just driving us, he’s like a a driving force, a monster backbone to the band. So it feels good, it feels very natural and we’re having a great time!

I don’t want to dwell on this for too long, but several people have asked me to bring it up: Are you still in touch with Mike Portnoy?

No.

Have you talked to him at all this year?

I haven’t talked to Mike since the announcement he was considering leaving the band. And then… Actually, I should say the last time I verbally spoke to him and I heard his voice was on the conference call when he finally said „Yes, I’m leaving the band“. So that was it.

Let’s move on to more positive things. How has the songwriting approach changed?

Most notably there was four of us in the studio – there was no drummer there. Any of the drumming was… John Petrucci would do drum programming as we were writing the songs.

I read that you were playing drums at a young age. Did you get to play any drums with the band now?

No. I played drums from 5 years old till I was 17. But I haven’t touched them since, really. Well, I did, my son has a set at home and I got behind it and I quit very quickly. I was like „Oooh, I forgot everything“, so…

Dream Theater have been known for pretty much writing in the studio and the last album was the first time in a long time that John brought in a demo – for Wither. Did you have any demos this time?

There was one song that John brought in called Beneath the Surface. But he had… he had written a song and he thought it would be… Just because of the way that this album seem to unfold musically, it was an afterthought. And he was like, „You know, guys, I was thinking… There’s a song that I have and I think we can make it beautiful, make it Dream Theater.“ So we did – and it just came out beautiful, it’s a great tune.

You’ve been around during the writing of the music this time.

Yeah, absolutely.

Have you been involved in the writing?

I was making suggestions here and there and definitely very much involved in all the melody structuring for the vocals.

Was that something new for you?

I’ve always been involved to a certain extent with the melodies of the song, but not to this extent. So that was new. And also, suggesting riffs and stuff like that. But, I mean, minimal, because… Here is the truth of the matter: The main composers of this band have always been John and…

Petrucci…

Yes, let’s make sure of it – John Petrucci and Jordan have been the main contributors with riffs and stuff. John Myung really stepped up to the plate this album, contributing a lot as well.

This was something that kinda leaked out around Black Clouds: Jordan kinda admitted that John Myung hasn’t really been around when they were writing albums.

Well, he was around, but he wasn’t…. He was around, he was there, but he wasn’t involved. So…

How long has this been going on?

Put it this way: When Dream And Day Unite, he was very much involved. Images, very much involved. Awake, involved. From there it started to kinda like… (indicates steps) a little less, a little less, a little less. To the point where in Black Clouds and Silver Linings, it wasn’t… probably anything. Same with me! I was kinda like sitting back, going (gives an annoyed look) „What’s going on here?“ And that was a lot of the reasons why I needed to do my solo albums. Because I needed to get my ideas out and let people see that I write music. I write riffs. I write like this. I write lyrics like this. And so on. And it did me well and it did just the whole perception, so that people don’t think I was like (in a spoiled singer voice) „When am I singing?“ – I didn’t want that coming across, so it was very important for me to do that.

John Myung wrote lyrics this time. How many songs?

Just one.

What has changed? There was a lot of talk about this infamous rule that he has to bring in lyrics in a song format and that’s why he had stopped.

I think because of the internet there’s a lot people that just start these rumors and they say „supposedly, John is doing this“ or „John isn’t doing this“, or „why is he doing this?“ or „why isn’t he doing that?“ – the thing is that he never felt connected. He just got away from it, he just lyrically got away from it. He didn’t feel that, 1., he was being invited to write lyrics, and 2., he didn’t feel that he was connected enough to want to write a lyric. With this song, there is a particular song that really struck him when we were writing and he was like „I’d love to do that song“. And it came out great, he came up with some beautiful lyrics, very nice lyrics. That song is called Breaking All Illusions and it came out great, it came out very cool.

OK, let’s talk setlists. Who’s in charge now?

It’s kind of collaborative. What we did is we all wrote down our favorite songs and then we took all of everyone’s favorite songs and we kind of broke it down. OK, this would be A, this would be B, this C and D… And that’s how we figured out what made sense for the setlist.

Not sure if you realized that when you were putting it together, but the setlist doesn’t feature a single song where the lyrics were written by Mike Portnoy…

That’s coincidental, that’s very coincidental. Yeah, I know. We were saying that, too. We were saying that everyone’s gonna think we’re throwing that stuff away. No. That’s coincidental.

The setlist is pretty varied, but kinda safe – it’s all album tracks. Are you going to add some B-sides or really rare stuff like Speak To Me, Eve or Space-Dye Vest, which hasn’t been performed by the full band yet?

At this point there’s no talk about that. The fact is that this is a whole new chapter for us, obviously. We have a new album coming out September 13, so the focus is really on making sure that that is set up properly, that that is going to get the attention it deserves because we’re extremely proud of it. At this point anything like that, any of the b-tracks or whatever you want to refer to – any extraneous parts to Dream Theater are still going to remain in the background – right now! I’m not saying it’ll never happen – right now!

Are there going to be any B-sides for the new album?

No. Everything that was written is on the album.

You haven’t had any B-sides since 1999…

What does that tell you, huh? What does that tell you? Haha! I think that if the opportunity avails itself, then it would be something that would definitely make sense. But at this point, too, I think the reason it hasn’t happened since 1999 is that when we’re writing an album right now, it’s very concise. „Let’s write! This is how long we’d like the album to be approximately, with this many songs“…

How long is the album?

Well, there’s nine songs… I think it’s 80 minutes?

So did you have a specific goal what you wanted the album to sound like, …

Yeah, we definitely knew where we wanted to bring it.

…was there something that you wanted to avoid that has happened in the past?

We just wanted to make a very classic Dream Theater album and to us a classic Dream Theater album would be the progressiveness with the metal, but very balanced and very complementary of one another, not one overtaking the other and not one seeming predominant throughout. So it was kind of a very conscious effort to make sure that we were touching upon some of the really classic moments in our history that really spoke loudly to us, saying „you know, that was cool when we did something like that, or when we had that kind of vibe or that direction musically going. That’s what we need to recreate, but make it sound like it belongs today.“

On the Backs of Angels sounds very much like classic Dream Theater, especially since it doesn’t sound like any other bands. There are no bits that sound like Metallica or Muse, for example. Many people complain about these things - does this ever get discussed within the band?

No, we don’t sit down and go „we can’t sound like Muse, we can’t sound like…“ – we don’t do that. But I think that we’re all  subconsciously thinking „Whatever we’re doing here, we gotta feel right about it – that it sounds like us, first and foremost”. And especially with this album, because we knew there was going to be a lot scrutiny, there was going to be a lot of room for skepticism. So we knew that the best thing we can do here is be true to ourselves, first and foremost – which we always have been –, but let’s bring it to another level. Let’s really push the envelope here of who and what we are and really make it something that is undeniable, that it’s definitely who and what we’ve always been – but better.

The way it was communicated to the outside world was that when Mike and John were producing the albums together, John would take care of the acoustic side and Mike would do more of the arrangements and the conceptual stuff.

Yeah, a lot of that was true.

So how is John’s approach different now that he’s doing most of it?

Well, he produced the album – he was the producer and I think he did an exceptional job. He was extremely dedicated, very focused.Endless hours spent making sure that everything was going exactly… I mean, we were all together, we were all unified. Constant conversations just making sure that everything was going exactly where we wanted it to go. But he’s very specific, he’s very particular, he is extremely connected to who and what we are – obviously, being one of the main composers. So I think he was in a perfect position to really oversee everything and the thing is that it wasn’t from a dictatorial standpoint. It was like, „Hey, I’m a bandmate, but you let me produce this, so I’m really going to be doing that the best I can.“ – so I think it was great in that sense. I think, too, just him approaching that field and knowing that there were all these other elements to Dream Theater, that we were also saying „if the music is saying this and the lyrics are saying this, this really lends itself to a lot of visually exciting things to be done and to be added to the whole presentation.“ So, like I said, it’s very transparent what we’re dealing with now as a band. If we have something to say, we’re gonna say it. We’re not worried about offending someone or being defensive or walking on eggshells. It’s all about „you know what, I’m gonna be honest with you. If I really don’t feel something or don’t like something, I’m gonna tell you. And I expect the same from you! And I wanna know where everything is going and I wanna know what’s going on“ – and it’s working out amazing.

Do you think it makes sense to talk about future live releases?

It doesn’t make sense… I mean, do we wanna do another DVD? Absolutely! Is this tour gonna be the right one to do that? I would think so personally, but nothing has been taken further than to say „Maybe this is the album to do another DVD, a really cool one.“ It hasn’t been taken any further at this point. But there is a strong possibility.

It would be cool if you would discuss releasing previous DVDs like Budokan and Score on Blu-ray Disc because they were filmed in HD and they’d be great on the new format.

Yeah, absolutely. There is a lot to be considered, for sure.

Speaking about older live releases – did you ever consider, because it’s been so long, doing another semi-acoustic gig like Rotterdam in 1998 ?

Yeah, I would love to do another acoustic setting. I thought that was very cool and our fans really appreciated it, it put us in a whole new light. I can see that coming back. I think… whether it would be this tour, I doubt it. Because I think this tour is all about „It’s a new beginning, it’s a new chapter,“ and I think once everyone hears the album, they’re gonna be going „Frickin’ give me it! Play it! We wanna hear it!“ – but it would be nice consider that maybe the next world tour. Or if not that tour, the next tour. But I think it’ll definitely come around again where it will make perfect sense. And it would have to be something that is really very well thought out, it has to be planned. Cause I don’t want it to just be „hey, let’s get up there, guys, with a little low lights, and let’s keep it really cool, like show up in our street clothes“… It has to be something that creates excitement and that makes for a very incredible evening, a memorable evening.

You sounded very happy that you got to record your vocals in Canada. Why didn’t you do this in New York with the other guys around? Were the lyrics just not ready at that point?

No no no… What happened was I said to… everyone! I said to everyone: „You know, I wanna record the vocals, first and foremost, with Richard Chycki“. Because him and I have a long history and we work amazing together. And just by the way that the schedule was unfolding, I said „you know, this makes sense for me to start singing, the first couple of songs that we have ready, I’m gonna start doing them in Canada“. And everyone was like, „Yeah, man – you know what you’re doing!“ So I started doing the first two songs and then we said „why don’t you come down and finish the rest of the album in New York?“ So what happened is, I went down to New York, thinking „sure, we’ll all be together, be a big happy family and whatever.“ So I got down there and the one day that I was there, the first day that I got there to start singing, it just didn’t feel right. And I said to John, cause he’s the producer, a bandmate, I said to him, as a bandmate, I said „this isn’t working. I’m going back to Canada and I’m gonna sing up there and finish my recording up there. Because I’m in my zone, I know exactly what I wanna do, I don’t need anybody guiding me. I never did, really. Ever. I never did with my solo albums and I never did with Images and Words or Awake – so, I rest my case! But anyways, the fact is that this album lent itself to everyone really being able to start anew, really being able to be who and what they are, right? That’s what this album also signifies: We are who we are and this is our moment. This is our resurfacing, so to speak. So I recorded the rest of the album up in Canada. The very last song we did, John came up cause he just wanted to be there because he had some specific ideas – Build Me Up, Break Me Down. So he came up, he flew up and he came to the studio and we hung out. It was great, we had a great time. Everything’s great!

Speaking of your solo albums, the US tour got cancelled. (James rolls his eyes.) Will you do some other tour once the Dream Theater tour is over or is that…?

Well, tell you what, I’m only gonna agree to do another tour if everyone else that is involved in the business side of things really picks up and really gets organized. Because it was so disorganized last time. That’s why I basically said, „you don’t have the visas yet. Where we’re at this point, by the time you get the visas processed, we’re gonna have one rehearsal and then we’re gonna go out.“ And I said, „I’m not doing that. I’m not compromising myself in front of my fans. With one rehearsal? We’re gonna go out and do an hour and 45 minute show?“ So I said, „No, I’m pulling the plug, sorry!“ But it had to go down a certain way, that’s it.

Here’s a question that a fan asked me to bring up: What are your favorite and least favorite songs to perform live?

Uuuuuh… Least favorite… I would say, probably… I don’t know… New Millennium. That song, I just didn’t feel it. There were some cool moments in it, I just didn’t… whenever we performed it, I didn’t feel it. The favorite song for me is… I love Scarred, I love performing that live. And… well, Octavarium, that whole frickin’ thing… Ministry of Lost Souls and that… I don’t know… Octavarium in itself, this song, I loved performing. I thought it was an amazing song. It’s kinda hard. That’s a hard question to answer cause there’s so many moments that I know… cause 99 percent of the songs, I love singing.

I think it’s a question that lends itself more to an e-mail answer, really…

Yeah. The fact is that I also have to consider where I’m at at this point in my career. You know, it’s great to sing the older material, but let’s face it – the older material is very demanding because I’m singing in the frickin’ stratosphere. And the newer material is more… it shows more my mature voice. So it depends. And we know we’re always gonna play the old stuff because that’s what’s dear to our fans, but at the same time we have to be very selective and we have to make sure that it’s in a balanced way.

You’ve been shortening some of the old songs on recent tours, like Voices and Take the Time. Whose idea was that?

Yeah… I don’t know! (gives a sarcastic look) Heh! Wasn’t mine, but… You know, I’m not saying… That’s what Mike wanted and he was partly right, because to sing those songs every night and all those sections would’ve been extremely taxing on my voice. But the way we like to work it out now, like doing Learning to Live and doing all these songs where I’m singing like F#s and stuff like that, is, „let’s put that in the set, but I’ll sing it one night here and I’ll sing it another night here, but I won’t sing it every night.“ – and that way, I can do the whole frickin’ tune.

So you’re not doing rotating setlists right now because Mike is still new to the band, but you will keep changing songs from night to night…

Yeah, we’ll keep saying, „OK, let’s take that tune out and let’s put this tune in“, but I don’t think it’s ever going to be like it was, where it’s like, here’s one set and you come tomorrow night and it’s completely different. No.

It’s too much…

I think it is. I think this way we’ll be a well-oiled machine and we’ll be just like (assumes aggressive pose). And we’re already feeling that now. But there will be some substitutes. There will be like, „OK, that song’s tonight, but I’m not singing that song tomorrow night. I’m gonna sing this other older tune tomorrow night. And this other older tune the next night. And then we’re gonna come back to that one.“ So it just kinda floats it around, but it helps me. My voice healed and I’m back to normal, but I’m also cognisant of what I’m capable of doing. And if I keep it balanced then I can do it. So I’m not gonna try to be Superman and prove that (in a cheesy voice) „I’m gonna go out there and sing these songs like hell!“ – no, I’m not gonna do that. I’m gonna be mature and I’m gonna say „I can do these songs only if we do this, and we scope it out and we space it out“. And there you go!

Let’s just wrap this up with one more question: Name one somewhat recent CD that everyone should hear.

Well, I was talking about it for quite some time, but Soundgarden – their last album I loved. Just cause Chris Cornell blew my mind. But… Sevendust? I love those guys, so check it out!

About the author: Michael Schetter plays bass in the instrumental prog fusion project Relocator whose debut CD featured former Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherinian as a special guest. Michael is also the organizer of the Generation Prog Festival and concert series.

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