Leonardo Pavković

Leonardo Pavković is an ordinary man who, most of you would agree, is doing an extraordinary “job”. Keeping the progressive rock and jazz (fusion) alive via his own MoonJune Records deserves to be accompanied with a medal. If in all this mess of everyday life there would be a discipline such aforementioned keeping the genres alive, Leonardo’s MoonJune Records would definitely be the defending Olympic champion on several occasions.

Having named his second house after the Soft Machine’s epic “Moon in June”, MoonJune Records since its establishing in 2001 revokes a spirit of the golden era of the prog-fusion rule. Being a producer, promoter and tour manager put this nice man – who was born in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Yugoslavia – to work with some of the most influential, creative and inspiring people throughout the present time.

Nick: Hey Leonardo, glad to have you answering some questions for Prog Sphere. How is the wintertime going for you?

Leonardo: This is probably the mildest Winter since I arrived in New York City in 1990. Maybe it’s age, maybe my love for tropical countries, but I hate winter and cold.

Nick: Most people know you as the man in charge of MoonJune Records. Would you tell us about how it was back then when you were at the beginning of forming a label? What was your main goal? What did you want to reach?

Leonardo: I started by accident, no real plan, really. While running a graphic design and publicity marketing company with a friend of mine, we were involved in a jazz label here in NYC with Jim Eigo, a well known jazz publicist and friend of ours. At Jazz Magnet Records we had big plans and were looking for investors, but somehow after only 8 releases and about 50-60 releases included in our “business plan”, our potential investors changed their ideas and each of us went doing other things. Then I started my own label, but in first 4-5 years I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, since I had plans to relocate from NYC to South-East Asia, but once I decided to remain in NYC, I gave another life to MoonJune Records and have started releasing records more intensively since 2006. My label was strictly built with the music of my personal friends, people I have known for many years, and the first band that came out of that circuit of friends was Mahogany Frog, which with Slivovitz is actually the only band that I have never met in person.

Nick: By looking at the MoonJune Records roster one could tell that you have a pretty colourful group of bands and musicians on your label. I have been wondering for a while in which way you get a band signed? What is the criteria that has to be satisfactory for you as an editor-in-chief?

Leonardo: First of all, musicians have to be my friends, secondly, I have to like the music, and thirdly, we have to fight the beast together. Even with bands like Mahogany Frog and Slivovitz that I have never met in person, we have some sort of virtual friendship. Once I was interested in a band from Italy, a killer progressive jazz-rock band, and had great correspondence with their keyboardist, and was ready, willing and able to support them, but once the bass player came into the picture and started being unfriendly and exercising his own attitude, I decided to cut out. I do not like attitude, I am a friendly geezer, and MoonJune is about friendship and progressively open minded and talented musicianship. I do not have criteria about what to sign and whom to sign, except, I only release things that I really like, and mostly the music of my friends. Now, I will be focusing more on edgy eclectic jazz and progressive jazz with ethnic elements, I would like to release more cds of Indonesian bands, and potentially discover some totally new and unknown bands who need exposure. My modus operandi is unusual and I am an unusual label, and that will never change.

Nick: In the world we know nowadays, how hard is it to cope with standing out from the mainstream and therefore write off any commercial success? On the other hand, do you think that collective musical consciousness as we have it today should be changed and in what way could it could be done? Education? So many young people out there do not recognize real quality and what ”progressive“ music is about, where does this blindness come from in your opinion?

Leonardo: I am glad that I am not part of the mainstream, I do not belong to the mainstream and the mainstream doesn’t interest me at all. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to have a band that sells a lot of records and plays a lot of gigs. My neighbor and guitar virtuoso Warren Haynes sells a lot of records, he plays tons of gigs either with The Allman Brothers Band or with his own band Gov’t Mule, but he is not part of the mainstream either. Keith Jarrett sells a lot of jazz records and he charges $100,000 for solo piano performance, he is not the mainstream either. Also, I am not part of any circuit of progressive rock, fusion, free-jazz or any other self-restrictive ghetto. I am simply releasing some music that I genuinely believe is very good and often excellent, I know all difficulties of today’s market, but I do not run the label to make money, I am just releasing the music and building the MoonJune concept. I wish I could sell much more records, but the music I promote, it’s not the music that sells a lot of records. Today, in order to be successful, an artist must have a very rich patron who would put tons of dollars behind the artist and place the artist in the commercial market and see what would happen. That’s entertainment, that’s business. The other way is for a young band to perform all the time. If they are good and persistent, they might succeed. It needs a lot of sacrifice, which people who are in mid thirties or forties, with decent jobs and family and kids, do not have. Take a look at Marbin. They are young and brave, the whole band is under 24 (when playing live they of course do not use Paul Wertico and Steve Rodby, who appear on the album “Breaking The Cycle”, occasionally they do some local gigs and well paid festivals with the Paul on drums), and in 18 months of their existence, they have performed over 250 gigs. Sometimes for 2 people, sometimes for 10, sometimes for 20, and sometimes for 100-150 people. That’s the way, play, play and play, without complaining. That’s why Marbin is the most admirable “new/young” band I have on my label. They were the opening act for 1/2 of thr recent Scott Henderson tour, which I booked in the USA and in March/April this year (2012), they are doing the whole USA tour opening for Allan Holdsworth, who I manage. Marbin will go very far, Dani Rabin and Danny Markovich are among the most talented musicians I’ve met in the past 20 years, and they are great and smart guys, good people and good friends. They are of course interested in achieving some sort of success, and we both are confident it might happen, it’s a hard work, but doable. And they believe too that playing unconventional non-commercial music they can go very far. Me too. We are not competing with Justin Biebers and Lady Gagas, we know there is so much blindness in today’s world, but that’s not what we do. The world is still big and generous and there is still a place and space for everything and everybody, we have to conquer our own space, and I do not expect Marbin to become the most famous band in the world, that would never happen and it is not our goal. I am more interested in the world of Gov’t Mule, Pat Metheny, Esperanza Spaulding, Mars Volta, Sigur Ros and similar, they all do well, they are all successful, without being mainstream, and they make their fans happy. Unfortunately mass media doesn’t help our cause, but with the advent of the internet and then YouTube and finally Facebook and all other social media, there are many more opportunities for progressive acts then let’s say just 10 years ago. The question is how to reach the audience? My formula is very simple. I am creating a brand name of new and unknown artists associated to my label and they all will be part of this brand. Without MoonJune, bands like Moraine or simakDialog would never have the exposure if they were a self-released artist in Seattle, USA, or Indonesia. My goal is to increase my brand exposure even more. Musicians should be playing and playing, and I should be branding, branding and branding. Easy to say?

Nick: What record from the MoonJune family you are most proud of? At the other side, which band or artist you would love to have signed by MJR?

Leonardo: Difficult to say. I am very proud of my first cd ever released by my dear and much missed friend and British jazz legend, the late Elton Dean (with Mark Hewing) called “Bar Torque”, because it’s a beautiful inspiring record and it was the MJR001, the first one.  I am proud of “Patahan” by simakDialog, for other reasons, because it is the first album of an Indonesian artist on my label, a country I very much love and which I have visited 11 times, and a country where I have so many friends. Riza Arshad is a dear friend and possibly one of the most talented musicians on my label. I am also proud of Marbin’s “Breaking The Cycle”. I was visiting Chicago in 2010, and a friend of mine took me to a loft in Northern Chicago to see a young sax/guitar duo, a private gig for friends and family members, and after just 5 minutes I felt in love with two young Israeli musicians, Dani Rabin and Danny Markovich, and after the gig, I told them, they are on MoonJune, period. I am not sure I am interested in known artists anymore, except my friend Allan Holdsworth. It would be great to sign Pat Metheny or Mars Volta, that’s utopia, but I would sign for instance some totally unknown Indonesian artists, such as Agam Hamzah and his band Ligro, and a young band called I Know You Well Miss Clara. I would like to be able to  release 20-25 albums yearly and to have some artists that are playing live and a lot, that helps. I will go with the flow, whatever comes, comes.

Nick: Besides running a label you also work as a booking agent, and so far you’ve worked with many legendary 70’s progressive rock and jazz fusion musicians, such as Allan Holdsworth, Soft Machine (Legacy), Hugh Hopper, Jan Akkerman, and PFM to name few. You must be feeling privileged to work with these names. What was it like it working with them?

Leonardo: I was and I am booking bands exclusively and non exclusively all around the world, and most of them are or were my friends (R.I.P. Elton Dean, Hugh Hopper and Pip Pyle). It was always fun, and with some I had a lot of fun. I have done over 40 tours of Japan alone and have visited Japan 29 times, I have done gigs all over Asia and Latin America, all direct bookings, and have handled tours all around Europe but using various agencies, and in the USA I only book Allan Holdsworth, I do not have time to book other acts, even though I have started working lately with my friend Scott Henderson.  I am developing a company in Brazil, which is almost my second home (my wife is Brazilian) and I am building an agency and concert promotion company to cover the whole of South America with a main focus on Brazil. My best touring memories were always with Allan Holdsworth, because he is not from this Planet, he is a musical and guitar genius, and my funniest times were with Jan Akkerman, who is an extraordinarily funny man and one of the greatest guitarists I am aware of. He loves sljivovica and lozovaca, how couldn’t you be in love that kind of guy! I have worked with a few rock and prog legends whose attitudes I didn’t appreciate, nothing to do with me, I have never had problems with anyone, but I only like to work with good people.

Nick: What’s your perception of jazz?

Leonardo: I do not frequent fancy schmancy jazz clubs and I do not agree with Nicholas Payton and I do not own any albums by Wynton Marsalis or Kenny G.  Generally speaking, jazz has more progressive and inventive elements on its own than rock.

Nick: As I am familiar with the fact that you love to travel, I guess whenever you visit a country, you are willing to explore its musical legacy in the domains of progressive rock or jazz. That’s how it went with Indonesia, am I right?

Leonardo: I have travelled to over 70 countries worldwide. The most important aspect of those travels is visiting the places, meeting new people and eating the local food. Food comes before the music. Countries like Indonesia and Brazil are musically very rich. My legacy with Brazil is profound, I’ve spoken Portuguese for almost 30 years, and it is a country that I will explore more and more in terms of music. For some unknown reasons, I do not have any artist on my label from Brazil, but no worries, there will be several Brazilian artists on MoonJune Records starting later this year and especially in 2013. Indonesia is a “new country” in terms of progressive music, there is so much talent there that it is so impressive. I am expecting another 10 Indonesian albums between this and the next year.

Nick: How long has it been since you were last in what we used to call Yugoslavia? Have you had any opportunities to listen to something from the Balkans that really captured your imagination? Maybe some bands from Serbia that you would gladly have on MoonJune?

Leonardo: I left the Balkans in 1983, and the last time I visited the former Yugoslavia was in 1989. I wish I can soon visit my native Bosnia and also visit Belgrade (Serbia) and Dubrovnik (Croatia), two cities where I have lived for a number of years. So far I wasn’t very lucky to know about artists from any of countries that were in the former Yugoslavia from the past 30 years, I am sure there are great musicians, but I didn’t have chance to find them. My memory was stocked with Indexi, Korni, Time, Leb I Sol, Yu Grupa, and many more from ol’ good days. The most interesting new musician I know of is Damir Imamovic from Bosnia, the grandson of the legendary sevdah master Zaim Imamovic, he blends sevdah with jazz and blues.  I also like Dusan Jevtovic, a great Serbian jazz-rock guitarist who lives in Barcelona, Vasil Hadzimanov, Bojan Zulfikarpasic, Marko Djordjevic, The Tavitjan Brothers and lately I have discovered Matija Dedic, a fantastic jazz pianist from Zagreb, Croatia, whose parents are Arsen Dedic and Gabi Novak, very famous Yugoslavian/Croatian singer/songwriters. It would be nice got have an electric jazz band from Serbia or Bosnia or Macedonia, something in the vein of simakDialog, that have a very strong ethnic element in their music.

Nick: What is the most important factor in establishing and preserving a jazz scene or progressive rock scene? Of course I am talking about the countries in progress, the way most of the Eastern-European countries are.

Leonardo: Young musicians should play and play without any fear, engage with other people, create a “scene”. People like you are very important, so young and so knowledgeable, and perhaps, you should run a version of ProgSphere also in Serbian. I’m not sure everybody speaks English in Serbia.

Nick: What are your plans for 2012?

Leonardo: Upcoming releases on MoonJune Records:

ALLAN HOLDSWORTH – “None Too Soon” (MJR043, re-mastered)

ALLAN HOLDSWORTH – “Hard Hat Area” (MJR044, re0-mastered)

TOHPATI BERTIGA – “Riot” (MJR045, Indonesia)

AGAM HAMZAH LIGRO – “Dictionary 2″ (MJR046, Indonesia)

SHTGN – “Camera Obscura” (MJR047, Belgium)

plus

COPERNICUS “Victim Of The Sky” (USA, first time on CD)

COPERNICUS “Deeper” (USA, first time on CD)

and later in 2012, new albums of MAHOGANY FROG (Canada), I KNOW YOU WELL MISS CLARA (Indonesia), simakDIALOG (Indonesia), DOUBT (UK/Belgium), THE WRONG OBJECT (Belgium), MARBIN (Israel/USA), S.A.D.O. (Italy), SOFT MACHINE LEGACY (UK), TOHPATI ETHNOMISSION (Indonesia) and more ALLAN HOLDSWORTH archival re-issues, and much more…

Nick: As a man who has heard thousands of records, I can’t avoid asking, what are your favorite albums of all time?

Leonardo: I have several hundreds of favorite albums, it depends on the mood and day. I have listened to a lot of albums, but still there are thousands and thousands of albums that I have to listen to, albums from previous decades, recent albums and future albums. I would always choose “classic” albums, whatever that term means:

Robert Wyatt – Rock Bottom; Soft Machine – Vol. Two & Third; Hatfield & The North – Hatfield & The North & Rotter’s Club; Terje Rypdal – Odyssey & Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away; Pink Floyd – Ummagumma & The Dark Side Of The Moon; Miles Davis & Gil Evans – Sketches of Spain; Miles Davis – Bitches Brew & Kind Of Blue; Cream – Disraeli Gears; John Mayall – Bare Wires & Bluesbreakars (w/Clapton); Colosseum – Valentyne Suite; The Doors – The Doors; Jan Garbarek/Bobo Stenson Quartet – Witchi-Tai-To; King Crimson – Island, Lizard & Red; Van Der Graaf Generator – Pawn Hearts; Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath; Allan Holdsworth – Wardenclyffe Tower; Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced, Band Of Gypsies & Electric Ladyland; Chick Corea – Return To Forever; Traffic – Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys; Il Balletto Di Bronzo – YS; Gentle Giant – Octopus; Pat Metheny – Travels & The Way Up; John Coltrane – Love Supreme & My Favorite Things; Frank Zappa – Hot Rats, Waka Jawaka & Grand Wazoo, YES – Close To The Edge; Genesis – Selling England By The Pound; Albert King – Born Under a Bad Sign and many many more….blues, rock, prog, jazz….Oh man, difficult question, where are artists like Astor Piazzolla, Milton Nascimento, Gong, National Health, Mahavishnu Orchestra, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, Keith Jarrett, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, E.L.P., Jefferson Airplaine, Spirit, The Allman Brothers Band, Eberhard Weber, Ralph Towner, Focus, P.F.M., Banco, and more and more and more…. I like many new bands and albums, but I would always go for the classic stuff….

Nick: Is there anything you would love to add at the end of this interview?

Leonardo: Srdacni pozdravi i nadam se da cemo se upoznati jednog dana, pa na pice, klopu i dobru muziku…

Nick: Thank you very much for having some time to answer questions for Prog Sphere. Keep up great work!

Leonardo: Thanks for the opportunity and I wish You and ProgSphere all the best and a lot of success…

MoonJune Records on the web:

http://www.moonjune.com/
http://www.facebook.com/MOONJUNERECORDSNYC

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.

Devin Townsend. Who? DEVIN TOWNSEND!

Devin Townsend is- put simply- a legend in metal.  From his work with legendary extreme metal act Strapping Young Lad, to his ambitious solo material, the man has put forth some of the most innovative and unique music I have ever heard. Being a personal musical hero of mine, I was lucky enough to speak with him a few minutes about his creative aspirations, his techniques, his hopes for the future, and cheeseburgers.

Conor: So, how have you been lately?

Devin: It’s been an interesting month because we’re trying to get ready for these four shows in London right, so it’s like we’ve been on tour without actually being on tour and now I’m back in Vancouver and it’s like being home without really being home.

Conor: Because you just got back here, and are heading straight back out again…

Devin: Yeah, then we’re gone.

Conor: So, has it been a good tour so far?

Devin: Yeah, yeah! I think so, yeah.

Conor: Have there been any highlight shows?

Devin: Well, hopefully tonight. It’s hard for me to pinpoint them, because- again- I’ve been so busy doing other things… LA was good, Denver was good… It’s a tour right, I’ve been doing it for twenty some odd years, so the moments that are good are good, the moments that are bad, are just work, you know.

Conor: For sure. So, tonight, you’ll be playing with The Ocean.

Devin: Yeah!

Conor: I saw them in April with Between The Buried In Me; they are fantastic live. How did you get hooked up with them?

Devin: Well, we were gonna go out with Protest The Hero, and they had bought tickets to come out from Switzerland, and they had to postpone their tour, but they already had tickets, so they were kinda shit outta luck. So, we needed an opening act and they were available and I really think they’re killer, so one thing led to another, so there it was.

Conor: Do you have any personal favourite songs or albums from them?

Devin: You know, I’ve toured with so many bands, and what happens alot of the time when you tour is that you recognize songs, but you don’t have any idea what the song name is. Songs 1, 3, 5, and 7 are killer, you know!

Conor: Yeah! So, this has been a big year for you; you just completed the second half of your Devin Townsend Project series. Do you have any preferences out of the four albums, and is there anything you would have done differently?

Devin: Uh, I think in terms of preferences, I think they’re all kinda cut from the same cloth, in terms of me liking them. In terms of what I would do differently, I think that if I had the time, I would have loved to have mixed Deconstruction, although I think the mix has turned out well. I think other than that man, it turned out exactly as I was hoping.

Conor: I was told by someone who went to you show in San Francisco about Ziltoid hand puppets that you’re selling at the shows. What inspired those?

Devin: Well, I’ve always liked the idea of the Ziltoid character being a mascot or whatever, there’s definitely an element of doing this over the years where I’m not as interested in myself being the focal point, as I once was, but unfortunately; “Devin Townsend” project, so what are you going to do, right. I think Ziltoid is something for people to focus in on, I think it’s kinda creatively interesting. It’s fun for people to engage in it, it’s a stupid alien thing right, and I think the catalyst for that was probably quitting smoking weed…

Conor: So, Ziltoid is the manifestation of that addiction?

Devin: I think so, yes. He’s almost like a projection of that side of things.

Conor: I’ve heard that ‘By Your Command’ and other songs from Ziltoid (The Omniscient)  are the highlight of the show.

Devin: Well, I hope we play them tonight then, if that’s the case!

Conor: Are you using the puppets live, or incorporating Ziltoid’s character into your live show?

Devin: Yeah, we got a screen that goes behind the screen there, so while we’re playing, he’ll just talk alot of shit. The whole intro is just ludicrous, so hopefully people will get the joke, rather than think it’s like, functionally retarded.

Conor: And there’s that Ziltoid comic book, and the upcoming sequel album, Z2…

Devin: Yeah, alot of it is merch-oriented, we have a new management company, and they’re looking for new merch ideas, and because Ziltoid’s kind of like comedic in the first place, there’s alot of options for it.

Conor: That’s why there was a Cars sequel!

Devin: Heh, yeah! But in terms of why it’s being done, it’s just fun, and hopefully people enjoy it.

Conor: And… ‘Epicloud’. A while back you posted something about new material.

Devin: Yeah, I wrote a mess of songs, but what always seems to happen with a record is that there always seems to be a song on a record that defines the theme of it. Like, when I was doing ‘Terria’, there was a song ‘Mountain’ and then I was like: “The album will go in this direction.” But, with the ‘Epicloud’ stuff, we haven’t yet found a song that’s like, the definition of it yet. So, I’m still writing alot of material, and it’s pretty melodic stuff and I think that if I was to record it now, it would be a little too commercial for my tastes, but I feel that the next bout of writing that I’m going to do is going to be a little more left of centre.

Conor: So, ‘Epicloud’ now is currently in the vein of something like ‘Addicted’?

Devin: It’s alot less heavy than ‘Addicted’. I put up a YouTube clip of it just the other day, but I mean, that’s just the current demo of it. What it’s going to evolve into, I don’t really know yet.

Conor: Of course. As for creative process… Over the past few years, the Devin Townsend Project has represented a new side of Devin Townsend in terms of songwriting. You no longer have the pink elephants to turn to for inspiration, now that you have abstained from all drugs. What’s your new procedure for writing material, how do you get new ideas now.

Devin: I think in the past, I used to play guitar alot more, in a way that didn’t involve just rehearsing. Songs would just sort of manifest themselves while I was doing this, that, or the other thing, and other months and months, it would just develop into something. And nowadays, it seems that my life is so active that when I start to have a moment to put my thoughts down onto paper, and the riffs and the series of notes have been ringing in my head, it just sort of happens now. I think it’s cool now, that sense of immediate creative output is very gratifying, because I find it alot easier for me now not to second guess it, and if it is good, then I will just go with it, instead of trying to argue with myself as to whether it’s worth pursuing. It’s now a matter of “that’s cool, let’s go with it”, or “that’s shit, let’s not go with it”.

Conor: Does that way of thinking reflect in your recording process as well?

Devin: I think so. I think recording’s maybe a little different because I have been recording for so long that my recording process is basically on autopilot, for the most part. So, when I have an idea, well I do this, and I do this, and I do this, I just keep sorta picking away at it until it’s right. It’s not like there’s a series of things that I do that’s the same every time, but there’s my techniques and my command over ProTools or whatever that’s at the point where I’m turning knobs and changing levels and eventually if the song’s any good, it starts to take shape. But it’s a slow process, I don’t understand how producers and engineers can throw up a record that sounds great in no time. For me, there’s so much trial and error involved.

Conor: Actually, one of the things that I first really liked about your music was the (Phil) Spector wall of sound technique you use. Can you say a few words about how you get these massive walls of sound in your recordings?

Devin: I think I try to separate frequencies, that’s probably the most important thing. Like, for example, for the guitars, if I want an echo-ey sound for a guitar, I won’t add an echo effect, I’ll just add another layer of guitars, so then if I want echo, I’ll bring that in, so that keeps the dry guitar solid, as opposed to adding stereo delay and letting the sound get mushy. And it’s the same thing with vocals, I tend to multitrack my vocals alot, and I tend to edit them so it sounds like one vocal, but pad them so it sounds like one really epic sounding vocal. Um, there is alot of smoke and mirrors with it involved, to be honest. But at the end of the day, what I do and how I do it is like, pretty much just something I’ve been evolving over the years, you know.

Conor: Out of personal curiosity, how many tracks are usually involved, say in ‘Terria’ for example?

Devin: I don’t really remember! I’d say, in certain parts- if you separate it all, drums, guitars, and all- you would probably have a few hundred, but I mean, for the majority of the record, I’d say maybe forty. But it all depends on what the music needs, right? If it needs layering, then I keep adding onto it until its the way I’m hearing it in my head.

Conor: For people like myself who are getting into making music themselves and want to get their material out there, what advice might you have to give, based on your own life experience?

Devin: I would think, you’ve got to be prepared to deal with yourself, I think that’s the biggest thing, because the more intense this gets, and the more tension that’s put on me, you’re confronted with alot own personal issues in ways that are unexpected, like, how you deal with boredom, how you deal with notoriety, how you deal with criticism, all of these things become more of a focus point in my career than any of the music. I mean, I love writing music, it’s awesome, but it’s only maybe five percent of my life, you know. The rest, there’s interviews, and there’s performances, and for example, take this show; it’s the last show in a tour, it’s a hometown show, and there’s alot of people, blah blah blah. But we’ve been singing non-stop, your throat’s taken a beating, we’re all tired, and there’s things behind the scenes that would be causing everybody stress, yet how do you manage yourself, so that you can get up there and not let that affect people’s perceptions about what you’re doing. I think that’s what separates the men from the boys, right. I mean, it’s easy to be a decent musician and play decent shows, but to cope with this bizarre lifestyle that has no set of rules can bring some people down…

Conor: Favourite brand of coffee?

Devin: Well, I mean, I go off and on with the coffee, right. I mean, I don’t really have a favourite brand, I think an Americano of some kind is good, but I don’t necessarily miss it if it’s not around. I like it when it’s there.

Conor: Well, I was also going to ask your favourite place to get a cheeseburger, but Paul (the tour manager) told me…

Devin: …that I’m a vegetarian!

Conor: So I guess cheeseburgers are a moot point now! How long ago did you make the change?

Devin: Twenty years ago, I guess? I mean, you know, there’s alot of vegetarians I know that are a pain in the cock, because there always just on some sort of high horse about it, right. For me, I don’t smoke weed, or drink or anything, but because I have a very addictive personality, not eating meat is a little discipline for me that can help me stay away from the things that are really going to fuck with me. You know, a little bit of discipline won’t hurt, and I don’t necessarily like the idea of eating animals, they’re cool creatures, however I think they’re delicious, so it’s a strange dichotomy.

Conor: So, I guess ‘Deconstruction’  (the concept album about cheeseburgers) is sort of autobiographical then?

Devin: Everything I do is autobiographical, man. Everything. So, alot of the time when people think I’m just writing about something crazy, it’s not crazy, it’s just a metaphor for something real that means something to me. It might strike other people as being sorta off-the-wall but, you know, I’m pretty sane.

Conor: Any artists or bands you’ve been listening to lately?

Devin: Uh, John Hopkins put out a record recently that I thought was really good. What else… A band called Stars Of The Lid I thought was kinda cool. Alison Krauss and Robert Plant put out a record that I thought was really good…

Conor: Raising Sand?

Devin: Yeah, I liked that alot. Deadmau5 has some cool stuff, I like Gojira, you know. It’s kinda like.. Mute Math has got a new record out that I thought was really cool. Alot of what I listen to has little to do with what I do.

Conor: What do you have in mind for the future, besides the two albums? (Z2 + Epicloud)

Devin: Well, I got the Ziltoid TV thing going that I’m working towards…

Conor: Oh?

Devin: It’s going to be an interview show where I interview bands, do videos and shit. It’s either going to be really cool, or really stupid. I’ve got a ton of work to do, in all honesty man, I’ve been working my balls off. If I had, like four or five days of doing fucking nothing, I would be really happy. But as far as I can tell, that’s not on the horizon! (Laughs)

Conor: Any final words or other things you want to say?

Devin: No, I think if you have something important that you want to say, and no one else thinks it’s important, or very few people think it’s important, I don’t think that makes it any less important. I think you should just keep doing it until people at least get the impression of what you were trying to say.

Conor: Cool! Well, thanks for taking the time to talk; you’ve been great to interview.

Devin: Thanks, it’s been a pleasure to meet you man.

Radio for the Daydreamers

Radio for the Daydreamers is a three piece experimental band hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their visual identity stayed unrevealed since the band’s formation in 2009. Since then they released two albums, one being the part of the triptych called “Praying for the Be(a)st”, which second part is due in this December. I talked to Aki Srivastava about the band’s tendencies and future.

Nick: Hello Aki, Radio for the Daydreamers is a pretty new name on the scene, mind introducing us to the band’s work?

Aki: Hi Nick. Certainly, Radio for the Daydreamers (RftD) was formed in 2009 with the best of intentions towards experimental music. We wrote our first album in the same year called “Clouds of Smoke and Poison” but it was more of a compilation of singles than an album. That record followed a dramatic change our approach to music and we have since been working on a triptych called “Praying for the Be(a)st”. We released the first part of the triptych called “Mother Superior and Her Fields of Migraine” in July, 2011 and are going to release the second part called “Praying for the Be(a)st” on December 2,2011.

Nick: It seems like your main interest is exploring the wide range of experimental music that threads through different subgenres. Have you reached the point beyond these subgenres that you can say “That’s it! No further“?

Aki: Actually, we don’t think that is possible at all. One should never have limitations when it comes to music. If we just keep following the same ideals then we are never going to be ourselves, which is why we try to keep an open mind about all music (mostly) and try to learn as much as we can about it.

Nick: The identity of the members of Radio for the Daydreamers has not been revealed so far, but on the other hand you keep up the interactions with your fans through social networks. Do you think that music reached the level where people do not care about the band’s identity and visuality due to the ever-growing presence of the Internet in daily lives?

Aki: I think the reason that we are so secretive is that we are trying to make our art define us as human beings instead of the other way around. It seems that most of the recent art, especially music, is treated like a medium for an autobiography. People like to write songs about their personal lives and that is what we avoid. We try to make our art abstract to the point where you have very little external evidence to it, and you can focus on our art instead of on us. A preoccupation with the artists takes much away from their art. However, I don’t think that people have stopped caring about the identity of the bands but since it is more accessible, it has definitely lost its value.

It also depends a lot on what kind of music you are talking about. It seems like now there are a lot musicians that want to be just that, Musicians. And that is not a new concept at all. We have always had a glaring dichotomy of artists and performers. So when you talk about musicians and performers (For instance, Ella Fitzgerald, who was mainly a performer and Oh! what a great one at that) people like to see who the band’s lead vocalist is and so on, and that makes sense. But as artists, we would rather make our art be the spectacle.

Nick: Your first album “Clouds of Smoke and Poison“ was released in 2009. There was an accent placed on post-rock and ambience with some influences from electronica. Compared to your newer works (Praying for the Be(a)st triptych), you made a significant step changing the pace towards a more avant-garde sound. Did it come as a natural progression or simply as a tendency to change to something different?

Aki: It was definitely a more natural progression. We learned a lot since we wrote “Clouds of Smoke and Poison” about music, music theory, life and literature. “Praying for the Be(a)st” is a collective effort of all that. We did not make an active decision to change our sound to what it is now but as we listened to (and understood) more music, this is just where we ended up.

Nick: In July you released first part of the “Praying for the Be(a)st“ trilogy named as “Mother Superior and her Fields of Migraine“. The second part of the trilogy is due in December, so it comes naturally to ask you where these two records stand in comparison.

Aki: Well, the two records are incredibly different from each other since we used a different approach to tell the story in each section. In “Mother Superior and Her Fields of Migraine” (MSAHFOM), all the songs were written as a narrative, while “Praying for the Be(a)st” is a narrative of the character’s internal (and sometimes infernal) monologues. Hence, the second part of the triptych is written from the perspective of the protagonist and is therefore a lot more chaotic and delusional. The approach to song writing was different for this record too. While Mother Superior gradually brought the listener in to the story, “Praying for the Be(a)st” is more direct but also very dark. One major progression is the sound. MSAHFOM had a melancholic feel to it but it still had moments of calm secrecy and detached ambience. We took all that away and what is left is something far more personal and therefore a lot darker.

Nick: Which bands/musicians have influenced your work with RftD?

Aki: It is hard to say what bands inspired us because we have picked up something or the other from a lot of music we listen to. We draw most of our inspirations from jazz, classical music, metal, and a lot of trip-hop. But we try to learn from all music, so it is hard to be specific without doing disservice to the artists we might forget.

Nick: It’s a tough task being authentic today, but your tunes carefully form an entity of hi-quality work. What’s your secret?

Aki: Haha, I don’t think we have a secret. We are just lucky to be living in a time where we can find great music, new and old, written by artists a lot more skilled and people a lot wiser than us.

Nick: In the biography, you say that Praying for the B(e)ast is the band’s live inauguration. Judging by what can be heard off the studio releases, I’m sure Radio for the Daydreamers will be a nice experience to see live. What are your plans for having the band rolling its wheels on the stage?

Aki: The live shows are going to be exciting because that will be a time where we get to truly experiment with our music. The shows will be based on the studio versions of the songs but will not be limited to it. We have kept a lot of room for jazz improvs and other experimentations so it would be a great experience for us and hopefully for the people who share it with us.

Nick: Which albums released in 2011 left the best impression on you? And which albums disappointed you to the point of disgust?

Aki: Unfortunately, we are quite behind in discovering music, somewhere in the 50s when it comes to jazz and a lot longer before that when it comes to classical music. So 2011 is a long ways away still.

Nick: To summarize, what comes next for RtfD?

Aki: We are currently working on our live shows and are writing for the final part of the triptych. The next immediate step in RftD world is live music though.

Nick: Is there anything you would love to add at the end of the interview?

Aki: We would like to thank all our fans for supporting us and we hope our art continues to impress them.

An interview with Brendan James Hayter of Truthseeker

Truthseeker hails from Boston, Massachusetts and is all about explorations beyond the instrumental side of progressive music. Their wide spectrum of influences set them aside as one of the promising bands for which the world will already hear about. I hooked up recently for an interview with the songwriter and the man behind the Truthseeker story, Brendan James Hayter.

Nick: Hello Brendan, thanks for having time to answer some questions for Prog Sphere.

Brendan: Of course. My pleasure.

Nick: How did you guys go about forming Truthseeker? Did you have any exact plan for what kind of music you want to play back when you decided to form the band?

Brendan: Yes, there was a specific idea of what kind of music the band would make. The band was formed to play slow, atmospheric hard rock with a psychedelic and progressive edge. The intent was to transcend all subgenres though, which inherently happened without much effort; what I mean is, the psychedelic rock influence was initially much more obvious on the songs, and as we began to record them they took on a life of their own, and the more obvious coats of “prog” or “psych-rock” became less visible.

I suppose the number one intent of Truthseeker was to make the most emotionally and atmospherically profound hard rock possible. I want it to inspire people, to make positive decisions with their life, and seek their own respective truths, leave their fears and complacence behind and fulfill their lives’ potential.

Nick: Two months ago you released the EP called “Weightless at Dawn“ and according to what can be heard out of it, your influential spectrum is pretty wide. Tell us about this.

Brendan: I suppose the spectrum is pretty wide, but it was not premeditated. I tried to be inspired by nothing other than my own musical visions, the vague music that floats through my head at night that sounds like no pre-existing band. With that being said, there are a couple bands that inspired the writing in the sense that their purity and originality inspired me to hold on to my own purity and originality, and be true to the sounds in my mind, if you know what I mean. Those bands are (in no order) Alcest, Katatonia, Agalloch, Earth, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and early Metallica actually. Cliff Burton was the sole inspiration for me to become a musician…and still now, his song “Orion” inspires me in Truthseeker.

Nick: The sound presented on Weightless at Dawn relies heavily on its atmosphere, trying to reach out to extreme depths in a multidimensional soundwave exploration. What makes you take this direction?

Brendan: That’s the way I always thought heavy music should sound. I think the idea with atmospheric music is to let yourself put on the headphones and fall into a miniature world that reflects your own unique impressions of life, dreams, and even spirituality at times. That’s why the song titles and poems are kept simple. For example with Daybreak, the song is simply about watching the sun rise and watching the day form and feeling inspired and happy. The record is called Weightless at Dawn because with that song I imagine floating in the sky while morning rises and the atmosphere fills with sunlight. Also, that’s just how I feel at Dawn anyway, is weightless. Unencumbered by the stressful things in life, just savoring nature’s beauty and nothing more.

Nick: Did it intrigue you to bring a death metal drummer to play slow rock beats? How did Alex fit into the whole story?

Brendan: It was intriguing, yes! It was Dan’s suggestion to bring him in, because he knew Alex was a very professional drummer with one of the strongest drum sounds and techniques in town, and that he was a Berklee School of Music grad that would be interested in session work. Even in his fast music he kept a strong groove, which was one of the things that made his bands some of the better metal around. It was enticing to see how much groove he could provide in slower tempo songs. That’s what he provided, power and groove! He liked the music enough to want to work with the band further, so that is the plan.

Nick: Weightless at Dawn is a fully instrumental record, but you decided to have the lyrical segment covered for each of the songs on the EP (except Submerged) in the form of poems. Why is that? Is it to be expected that at some point in time you will have a singer? Would you still attach poetry if you have a singer?

Brendan: We currently don’t have any plans to recruit a singer. There was an intent to have vocals in the formation of the band, but as the music took on its own life there left little opportunity for vocals. It works in my opinion. As for the poems, it was an idea that was at the very beginning of the band if I remember properly. I’ve always loved writing poems, and I liked the idea of having one for each song that sums up the visual and emotional content of the track. It is also an opportunity to present little concepts on life and further inspire people.

Nick: The mastering duties of the EP were completed by New Alliance East (Isis, Morne, Converge, Cave-In). How did you come to point to work with them? Speaking of the production, I find it pretty impressive for a completely new band to have such a well-produced release. Would you mind telling us something more about this?

Brendan: The production was really important for this kind of music I think. It had to be a wide, 3-dimensional type of sound, in order to bring the listener’s imagination alive in the way I wanted to. I also knew that it had to be a professional-level production, in order to make the impact on the music scene that I imagined it could. Dan Gonzalez was/is a Berklee student majoring in Music Production & Engineering. He really knew what he was doing, and took advantage of all resources available to make this the best sounding EP possible. We had access to a real mixing console and some great microphones, which brought the sound into the realms I had dreamed of!

I knew New Alliance East from my last band, After My Own, we had them master our full-length. They do good work and they happened to have a last-minute opening in their schedule right when I e-mailed them about doing the EP, so we got it done pretty fast.

Nick: What equipment did you use during production of the recording?

Brendan: The bass guitar was recorded directly into the recording program with a tube preamp, using a vintage Big Muff distortion, as well as chorus and delay. Distorted bass will probably remain a staple of the Truthseeker sound. I used a Steinberger 5-string and a Fender Jazz Bass 4-string. The rhythm guitar sound is a Peavey 5150 combo amp, which can be very harmonically rich and textural with chords if you set it the right way. The lead guitar is a Marshall Mode-Four, which may come as a surprise to gear-heads, because this is a solid-state amp that Marshall made in the early 2000’s! No tubes on this one! Nevertheless the “Crunch” channel had a very unique voice and a perfect amount of sustain. We could have used a JCM-800, but there are thousands of records driven by that Marshall sound. I thought it would sound more unearthly with this obscure and frankly unpopular Marshall head. I used Dan’s awesome rare Schecter Stiletto guitar for all the guitar tracks, because it had a locking tremolo that kept the guitar in tune throughout the sessions.

Alex plays Trick drums, which are aluminum-based drums that are very resonant, boomy and loud. They drove the record’s sound perfectly.

Nick: In the biography, you give a clue of how the upcoming album will sound, saying that the emphasis will be placed on much longer and more progressive songs, as well as a much stronger metal presence. Introduce us in the whole story, what can we expect?

Brendan: I’m afraid I may have over-estimated the length of the new songs when I made that statement. I have timed the songs, and they’re actually not that long! There is one song that nears 8 minutes, but the others average around 5 minutes. The songs are much more progressive though, and heavy.

All I can say is that it is the full manifestation of the Truthseeker sound. It is lush, emotional, nostalgic. I can’t wait to record and release it!

Nick: You are also the member of other bands/projects, Obsidian Tongue and Blood of the Gods. What are these all about?

Brendan: Obsidian Tongue is the other hemisphere of my creative world I guess you can say. Truthseeker and Obsidian Tongue are equally important to me and I spend the equal amount of time and energy on them. While Truthseeker is positive and dreamy rock, Obsidian Tongue is cathartic black metal that is pretty atmospheric in its own respect. I have a huge amount of passion for it and a very big vision that we’re just getting started with manifesting. People can listen to that here: http://www.myspace.com/obsidiantongue666

Blood of the Gods was Greg’s other band that he drummed in when he joined Obsidian Tongue. It’s old-school death metal with a crust-punk twist, reminiscent of Entombed and Bolt Thrower and all those guys. Earlier this year they were in need of a new guitar player, and we were all good friends at this point and the band only does shows occasionally, So I joined and it worked out for all of us. I can focus a lot on Truthseeker and OT and then get together with some friends and let loose with some really cool death-metal! http://www.myspace.com/botgcrust

Alex also plays in two death metal bands, Scaphism and Forced Asphyxiation. These bands are very respected in the Boston scene for having nothing trendy or annoyingly technical about them, just a classic 90’s vibe and some great riffs!

http://www.facebook.com/Scaphism

http://www.facebook.com/ForcedAsphyxiation

Nick: Do you plan to set Truthseeker on a stage at some point in future?

Brendan: Absolutely! We are auditioning guitarists right now to get the live band ready to go. This music is definitely meant to be played live. I will be playing bass, so Alex and myself will be accompanied by 2 guitarists.

Nick: As we are getting closer to the end of 2011, what are some of the albums you enjoyed at the most in the year? The highlights and disappointments?

Brendan: Boston natives Morne put out their second LP “Asylum” this year, and at the moment I’d say that’s my favorite record I’ve picked up this year. Timeless, epic music. Although there are probably a lot of albums that were put out his year that I simply forgot about or haven’t picked up yet, I am happy with the new offerings of Opeth, Mastodon, Burzum and the re-released Dark Side of the Moon with that unbelievable live recording on the second disc. Also, Enslaved released the digital EP “The Sleeping Gods” which I thought was fantastic, they are one of my favorite bands! Steven Wilson’s “Grace for Drowning” sounds beautiful although I haven’t heard the whole thing yet, just a few songs. I also discovered a project called A Midnight Odyssey who put out a double album this year, which is one of my favorite recent black metal releases.

Nick: Is there anything you would love to add at the end of the interview?

Brendan: Thank you for having us on your website! Keep in touch with us online as we get closer to the recording of the full-length.

Nick: Thanks a lot, Brendan!

Haken’s Visions

If you have been keeping a close enough eye on the modern scene in prog rock, you have no doubt heard of Haken, a virtuosic group of musicians who took prog by storm in 2010 with their opus ‘Aquarius.’ Now only a year later, these talented artists are back with another excellent record. Richard Henshall and Ross Jennings from the band were kind enough to take some time out of their schedules and give us some insight into the band, their music, and their ‘Visions.’

Conor: How are all of you doing?

Richard Henshall: All is good in the Haken camp. It has been an exciting and eventful year for us, so our spirits are high. We’ve had the opportunity to play at Night of the Prog festival along with likes of DT and Anathema, and we were also lucky enough to perform at Prog Power USA, along with many other great acts. They were huge gigs for us and were a step up from anything we had done in the past.

On top of all the gigging, we’ve been working hard on our second album, ‘Visions’, which has just been released. Individually and as a band we have tried to push our boundaries with this album by expanding upon the ideas laid down on our debut album, ‘Aquarius’. We’ve poured our hearts and souls into this album!

Conor: How would you describe your music to someone who has not heard it before?

Richard : I have always thought of Haken as a celebration of music, and feel that our sound is too broad to be pigeon holed into one specific genre. We have songs that juxtapose zappa-like quirkiness with extreme metal riffage, as well as Dixie land jazz sections with sweeping solo classical piano. Our music travels through various soundscapes and different emotions, taking the listener on a journey. There is also a strong cinematic vibe to our sound, which acts like a harmonic thread that binds our music together and compliments the conceptual lyrics.

Conor: How did you get started with music? How were you led to join/form the band?

Richard: My Mum’s a piano teacher and my Dad’s a music enthusiast so I was introduced to music from a young age. Being in this environment sparked my ambition and led me to start playing the piano at the age of 7. I also experimented with playing the drums and clarinet for a while until I discovered the guitar when I was about 11 and haven’t stopped playing since.

About ten years ago, Matthew Marshall (ex guitarist), Ross and I used to meet on a regular basis to have casual jams in our bedrooms; this is when the idea of Haken was born. Over time we began to take our chosen instruments more seriously and formed a pact that we would each go and complete our studies before persuing the band any further. So three year later, we returned from our universities and have gradually built the band into what it is today.

Conor: What is the creative process of Haken? How do you first get ideas for a song, and how are they then fleshed out into larger compositions?

Richard: I’ll usually get an idea for a melody, riff or chord progression whilst practising, which I’ll then play around with for while to allow it to grow naturally. When I feel it’s ready to be developed further, I’ll program it into Logic and begin constructing a song around it. This is the part that takes the most time; for example, the title track on ‘Visions’ took me about a year to write!

Besides strong melodies and emotive progressions, one of the most important things to me, whilst writing, is the overall flow of the piece. I feel it’s crucial to have a healthy balance of light and shade within each song and also the album as a whole. Therefore I dedicate a lot of time in creating smooth transition between the contrasting sections.

Once the framework for a song is complete, I send it to the rest of the guys who provide feedback. We then take the songs to the rehearsal room and begin adding flesh to the structures. This is when everyone adds their personality to the tracks which brings them to life. I feel blessed to be working with such a talented group of musicians.

There were also a couple tracks on ‘Visions’ that were more of a collaborative effort. For instance, Diego and I wrote ‘Premonition’ together. We met regularly over the space of a few months, bouncing ideas of each other until the piece was complete. A lot of the ideas from this track were built around the main themes that appear throughout the album. ‘Insomnia’ was pretty much a song we wrote in the rehearsal room as a band. It’s a great representation of all our eclectic tastes.

Conor: Highly conceptual lyrics are a trademark of Haken. What is Ross’ inspiration and process for putting these stories together? Do lyrics come first, or the music?

Ross Jennings: Conceptually, the process for both Aquarius and Visions were similar. Richard would have some musical ideas and share them with the band. At the same time I would be mapping out some themes and narrative ideas and discuss them with Richard so that the music and lyrics would be coherent. As the arrangements come together, the lyrics will be written with more attention to detail and edited to lock in with the music. On occasion, the vocal melody ideas that I come up with will influence the direction various sections take, that’s all part of the team-work that shapes the final piece.

On Visions, the verses and choruses on the first half of the title track were among the first lyrics written for the album and the story evolved from there as the music was written, whereas Aquarius was pretty much mapped out before any music was written.

Aquarius is purely fantasy. That was the sole intention, to be all-out prog cliche, but at the same time, you can find deeper meanings and themes within the songs such as love, death, and sacrifice.

Conor: Last year, you released your debut album ‘Aquarius’, which met some wide acclaim and excitement from the prog community. What are your reflections, looking back on the album? Is there anything you may have wanted to do differently?

Richard: We we’re completely blown away by all the positive feedback we received for ‘Aquarius’, it was beyond our wildest dreams to get such great critical acclaim for essentially something we love to do, we couldn’t have hoped for a better start to our career. When looking back at any work you’ve done in the past, I guess it’s natural to find points which you’d like to improve, as tastes change with time. However, I feel ‘Aquarius’ has a certain charm that represents where we were at that time, and successfully built the foundations for where we are now.

Conor: Haken’s follow-up album ‘Visions’ is now upon us in 2011. What is different for Haken this time around?

Richard: I came up with a lot of the initial ideas for ‘Visions’ on the guitar, whereas the majority of ‘Aquarius’ was written on the piano, so naturally each album has its own vibe. Generally, ‘Visions’ feels heavier than our previous work and leans towards the metal side of the prog spectrum. However, there are still plenty of nutty keyboard breaks to keep the listener entertained. There are two instrumental tracks on this album, which gave us the opportunity to build some of our wackier and experimental ideas into whole pieces. There are also a few shorter and more digestible tracks which help the overall flow of the album, they’ll hopefully give the listener a bit of respite between the lengthier songs. I’d say our Piece de Resistance is the closing title track, which has many of the themes that occur throughout the album. It’s a lengthy beast that combines many of the elements that make up our sound; there’s plenty of riffage, Zappa-like-quirkiness and even a west end inspired theatrical section. If someone asked me to describe our sound to them, I’d save my words and point them in the direction of this track.

Another important thing to mention is that we have a live string quartet in various parts of the album, which was an effective way for us to reintroduce certain themes in a different context. The quartet did an amazing job of enhancing the pathos within our music; there are a few moments that really tug at the heartstrings. In the spirit of including live orchestral instruments, we decided to ask a friend of Ray’s, Joey ‘Dah Lipz’ Ryan, to double all of the brass parts with his French Horn, which turned out to be very effective and made our grand sections even grander!

Conor: Briefly describe the concept of ‘Visions’. It appears to be a little more complex than ‘Aquarius’…

Ross Jennings: The concept of ‘Visions’ spawned from a dream I had where I saw my own demise that felt insanely real! The idea of confronting one’s own death fascinated me, so that was the initial inspiration. Throughout the writing process it developed into a more complicated story exploring themes such as the nature of consciousness, the transience of life and a couple of the tracks on the album explore the concept of dreams within a dream. Our narrative is told through the eyes of an innocent boy, who has a nightmare in which he is murdered – it seems so real that he convinces himself that it was a premonition and spends the rest of his waking life trying to track down his killer, whilst mentally preparing to meet his death, perhaps leading to his psychological undoing. All is revealed in the closing 22 minute title track, but ultimately it’s up to the listener to decide how much was real and how much was imagined.

Conor: How did Haken record their material for ‘Visions’?

Richard: We recorded ‘Visions’ in the same way as ‘Aquarius’. Ray recorded down his drum parts first, which were engineered by John Papas at Hardbeat Studios in Wembley. Each of us then took the drum tracks home to our personal studios and recorded our instruments over the space of a month or so. We then hired a microphone and recorded the vocals, over a two week period, within a makeshift vocal booth in my loft.

We decided to ask Chrsitian ‘Moos’ Moschus to mix ‘Visions’ as we were extremely impressed with his work on ‘Aquarius’. In my opinion, he has surpassed himself with his work on this album. We sent him dry signals for all the guitar and bass tracks, which he later re-amped through an Engl Powerball amp.

Our recording schedule was incredibly tight as we wanted to make the disc available, ahead of release, to everyone attending Prog Power USA, so you can probably imagine that it was pretty agonising at times. To add to the intensity, we had to prepare for our performance at Night of The Prog festival, conveniently placed right in the middle of the whole process. Thankfully the gig was a success!

Conor: What prog rock or metal bands have you been listening to lately?

Richard: I recently came across a great band called ‘Shaolin Death Squad’. Their latest album, ‘The Five Deadly Venoms’, is a superb album that was released last year. To me this band sounds like an interesting cross between Mr Bungle and Pain of Salvation. The album also shares its name with a classic Shaw Brothers kung fu film, which is what initially grabbed my attention.

I’ve also been listening to a lot of Gentle Giant recently. To me, they are the epitome of prog, they represent everything that is right about this vast and colourful genre. I just wish I could travel back in time to see the whole line-up in action, I’m sure it was a joy to behold!

Conor: What advice would you give to someone first starting music and trying to ‘make it’ in the prog world?

Richard: Back in the day, when Haken was in its embrionic stage, I used to practise for many hours, preparing myself for when the band would actually become a reality. I used to tell myself that practice, patience and perseverance would equal success. Practice is crucial for building your technique andmusicality, without it you’re not going to progress at all. Patience is alsoan essential tool; no one will be able to play like Malmsteen in a week! And lastly, you must persevere at everything you do; it’s about having the resilience to keep pushing yourself to the next level.

I guess everyone’s musical journey will be different as each individual has their own dreams and aspirations. One thing I’m certain of is that to achieve anything worthwhile you need to retain a certain level of self discipline; I guess the level of your discipline should depend on the size of your dream. There’s nothing more satisfying than fulfilling your ambitions.

You can apply the same philosophy to running a band. It is important that the group rehearses regularly to build chemistry and comradery. Bands need to be patient, not only when writing songs, but also when waiting for their break; it will eventually happen if you persevere. I think it’s important for bands to have aims, so they have a clear idea of where they’re heading. Back in the early days of Haken we set small realistic targets which over time turned into big dreams; to this day, we’re still working towards achieving them.

Conor: Any final comments?

Richard: Thanks to everyone who has already purchased the album, and to those who haven’t… what are you waiting for?

Accordo dei Contrari

Dan: Hello Giovanni, would you mind introducing yourself and the rest of the band?

Giovanni: Hi Dan & ProgSphere, I’m Giovanni Parmeggiani, keyboard player and composer of most of the music of AdC. Cristian Franchi is the drummer, Daniele Piccinini is the bass player and serves as the manager of the band for he deals with website and merchandising, and Marco Marzo is the guitar player and also composer of some of our music. We are an electric-acoustic quartet who plays mostly instrumental music, sometimes filled with vocals too.

So far we have released two albums, Kinesis (AltrOck productions, 2007) and Kublai (self-production, 2011). Since 2009, we have been playing in several festivals in Italy and Europe, most recently together with Richard Sinclair, the vocalist and bass player of seminal groups of the Canterbury scene like Caravan and Hatfield and the North. In addition to performing our music, we have also performed some historical tracks of these two magnificent bands (e.g. “Winter Wine”, “Waterloo Lily”, “Share It”, “Fitter Stoke Has a Bath” and others). Richard has also singed on “L’Ombra di un Sogno”, a track that I composed for AdC and we recorded in Kublai. We had also been invited to perform at the NEARfest but unfortunately, as you may know, the 2011 edition of this prestigious festival was cancelled.

Dan: Would you mind telling us something about the band’s origin and history? I understand you’ve gone through a lot of lineup changes.

Giovanni: AdC lineup has changed so many times! Probably too many, but that’s life, you see: it is never easy to find the right people to play with. Anyway, the band was born in Bologna, Italy, in 2001. I had many musical ideas and I was lucky enough to meet Cristian, the drummer, who was crazy enough to play with me. We worked initially as a trio—I used to play the organ, the electric and acoustic piano, and also the bass parts by synth because of my propension to bass lines, together with Cristian at the drums and Alessandro Pedrini at the guitar. After that, in 2004, AdC became a quintet: Daniele joined in on the bass, Marco on the guitar and Vladimiro Cantaluppi played the violin. One month before the recording of Kinesis, our first album (June 2006), Vladimiro left the band—he was very busy with other projects, but principally he didn’t feel confortable with the kind of music we were playing. AdC thus became a quartet. Since then, we have been a quartet. We’re very happy with our current setup.

Dan: I really like the band name, how did you guys come up with it? “Agreement of Opposites” is the English translation, for those readers who don’t understand any Italian.

Giovanni: It was by some chance. At the beginning we were three different people (now four), each with a distinctive view on things. It was not simple to work together, and after an initial discussion Cristian said: “Here it is the band’s name: Accordo dei Contrari!”. It’s a fun circumstance, as you see. Interestingly, our music is, indeed, an harmonic agreement among very different—sometimes opposing—moods and musical styles. “Accordo dei Contrari” happens to be the right name not only for the band, but also for the music we play.

Dan: Let’s discuss your first album, Kinesis, for a bit now. You told that just before recording began your violinist left the band. Apparently having violin on the album was a big deal to you (not that I can blame you) because you got some onto it in a few months. This must have been a rather annoying process; do you have anything to say about it?

Giovanni: You are right. We were very discouraged when the violinist left. I was particularly disappointed, because most of the music I had composed was perfect for violin (you see, I love music for string quartets, especially Beethoven, Bartok and Shostakovic, and I still compose music that involves strings). We had no time to find another permanent violinist. However, a friend of ours, who incidentally plays the violin, helped us by playing some of the violin lines that I had composed. Fortunately, the music in Kinesis works even without violin (what a great surprise!), but I have to admit it, if all the violin parts had appeared, the whole music would have had a rather different—perhaps even better—impact.

Dan: Kinesis’ style is rather dark and heavy, with almost a metal vibe (especially from the guitars), but I certainly get the feel of lighthearted jazz fusion even if it perhaps isn’t the “traditional” Return to Forever/Weather Report kind. What do you have to say about Accordo Dei Contrari’s playing style?

Giovanni: My compositions often have a dark feeling. The “heavier” vibe in Kinesis depends on the guitars for sure, but also on the distortions that I apply to the organ. The organ produces a sound that I love, as it is also evident from our latest album, Kublai. All of us play always rather powerfully, and this explains why the distinctive feature of Kinesis, alongside with dynamics (i.e. fluid changes in time-signature), is strength.

Nevertheless, if the music of Kinesis had been played as it was originally conceived, i.e. by acoustic piano, one would have had the perception of contemporary chamber music. The fact is that at the time of the recording of the album, we were not mature enough to properly interpret the music, respecting its original inspiration. It is also true that electric jazz is part of Kinesis, but in a particular way, as you rightly point out. I think this is because of my approach to jazz music, which was self-taught and heavily influenced by rock music on the one hand—progressive rock in particular—and contemporary music on the other hand (Messiaen and Shostakovic, for example). The result is a “magma” where one feels the presence of many artists at the same time, like Soft Machine, National Health, King Crimson, Miles Davis, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Zappa, Steve Coleman, Tim Berne. . . These are indeed among my favourite artists.

Dan: What about Kublai? Tell us about the similarities and differences to Kinesis.

Giovanni: Kublai is, in my opinion, a more mature undertaking than Kinesis, in performance as well as in composition. The original ideas of Kublai have not been “betrayed” by the actual performance. As for Kinesis, we recorded Kublai live in a few days, but instead of sounding consistently powerfully as it happened in Kinesis, with Kublai we succeded in finding a subtler and deeper balance among us. This is the welcome effect of several years of rehearsals and gigs together: we have definitely grown up as a live group.

On the one hand, Kublai moves in the same direction of Kinesis: we always look for natural, fluid changes of time-signature without altering the whole homogeneity of every track (this is indeed a feature of AdC’s aesthetic in music). On the other hand, Kublai surely represents a strong step forward, because of its variety of musical forms, better arrangement and improved instrumentation and recording. We have also expanded our musical language—see the use of oud in “Arbesque”—looking for new, exotic atmospheres. And what was new for us at the time of Kinesis, namely improvisation, became a standard at the time of Kublai.

Dan: Could you tell us about the band’s gear? I’m particularly interested in the keyboards, but I’m sure our readers would be interested in the instruments the other members of the band play.

Giovanni: When I first arrived at Mauro Pagani’s Officine Meccaniche (Milan, Italy), the studio where we recorded Kublai, I was impressed by the many instruments I had at my disposal (an Hammond C3 in perfect conditions, Leslies, every kind of vintage synths, amps and electric pianos, two Stainway pianos, one of which played by Duke Ellington [!!!]). I asked: “I need a gong”. The staff answered: “No problem, here it is”. There we could find every kind of instrument for orchestra: it was incredible!

While recording Kublai, I used my own Minimoog and Arp Odyssey (mark III, i.e. black-orange face), and also played a Rhodes mark I with Fender Twin Reverb amp, an Hammond C3 with Leslie 122, a Stainway mezzacoda (you hear it in “Battery Park”), and a Stainway coda (you hear it in “Dark Magus”, “L’Ombra di un sogno” and “Più Limpida e Chiara di Ogni Impressione Vissuta part I”). Cristian played his original Gretch drums; the other guys used their own instruments (Marco and Daniele played a Gibson SG and an Alembic bass, respectively) with amps from the studio (Hiwatt 50 for guitar, Hiwatt 200 for bass). A dream, for sure, but real!

Dan: I’ve watched some of the videos on the band’s YouTube channel, and I must say they’re very good quality for YouTube. The quality really helps to show how awesome you guys are live, so my question is: What’s your secret? How do you bring that energy from the studio to the stage?

Giovanni: Thank you, Dan. Actually, several people, who have seen us in concert, argue that we are better live than in studio (!). I don’t really know the source of our energy: probably it’s friendship, but also the fact that we always interact and see ourselves as a living rock group.

Dan: I think I’m out of questions, is there anything else you’d like to add?

Giovanni: We are currently working on a third album. I hope we will record it in June 2012. We still have several pieces that we have not included in Kublai, and we are still composing as of today (Marco and I have just composed a new track together). But abundance of ideas is never a problem . . .

DanGoodbye Giovanni, and thank you for taking the time to do this interview with ProgSphere.

Giovanni: Goodbye Dan, many thanks to you and ProgSphere for your excellent observations and questions.

Buy Accordo dei Contrari “Kinesis” from:

Interview with Jan Erik Liljeström of Anekdoten

Roger: Thanks to Jan Erik Liljeström of Anekdoten for giving us his time to do this short interview, no doubt taking time off from rehearsing for the upcoming European tour. (Go here for full gig listing) Speaking of which how are the rehearsals going, as I assume it is some time since you played together?

Jan Erik: Normally we meet regularly, typically once a week, but the focus for quite some time has been on trying to come up with stuff for the new album. We had a long summer vacation and the last thing we did on stage was a support gig to Meshuggah on Easter Sunday. We only played 6 songs then, so we had quite a lot of catching up to do. We have rehearsed 18 songs from our back catalogue and some of it haven’t been played for more than 3 years. This was evident in the first rehearsals, but now we are back on track and ready to rock!

Roger: Will there be any of the new material in the set? When do you think the new album will be ready?

Jan Erik: We discussed how we should go regarding this, but we came to the conclusion that it would be better for the overall quality of the shows if we concentrated on getting our old songs to sound really good, instead of dabbling with the final arrangements of new songs. The situation today with things surfacing on Youtube also made us reluctant to present our most innocent little babies to the world in an uncontrolled way.
There won’t be a new album in 2011, but we will hopefully start recording by the end of this year.

Roger: I suppose you can’t really answer this beyond Yes or No, but will the encores contain any surprise cover versions? Your version of Easy Money was great!

Jan Erik: No. It would have been great to do a surprise cover or two, but our own material will be prioritised.

Roger: Nicklas has been busy with the fab My Brother The Wind project, and his El Ultimo soundtrack, but what have the others been up to musically since the band last played together, day jobs allowing of course!

Jan Erik: Well, I’ve had 2 kids since “A Time Of Day”, so that’s what has kept me busy!

Roger: I’ll bet!

Roger: I’ve followed the band since Nucleus, which of course led me back to Vemod, and in that time you’ve released some mighty music, and played all over mainland Europe and Japan and the USA, but you’ve never, as far as I know, played in the UK before. I hope you’re all looking forward to visiting London’s Camden Underworld on 6th October (Go here for tickets – quick, before they sell out!).

Jan Erik: England is actually the white spot that we are most eager to finally explore. We’ve played in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Paris etc, but it’s been nagging us that we’ve never come over to England. We will most likely lose money playing in London, but when the opportunity came we felt that we had to do it this time around.

Roger: In my humble opinion the double Official Bootleg, Live In Japan CD is one of the best live albums I’ve heard, the sound is simply immense! Any plans to record the shows of the upcoming tour? A lot of bands now make live recordings of gigs available as downloads, it would be great to think you would do the same.

Jan Erik: No, we won’t do it on this tour. What has been discussed is a dvd at some point, but that project will also have to wait a while longer.

Roger: Have you got any plans for future vinyl releases? I really liked the Vemod LP reissue, it was a high quality piece of work.

Jan Erik: This year we’ve put out Vemod and Nicklas’ soundtrack album on LP and they’ve both been very successful so there will definitely be more vinyl releases on our label in the future. Regarding re-releases Nucleus feels like the logical next step.

Roger: Is the songwriting a group effort, or do individual members bring their own songs to the band? I think it’s always interesting to read how a band construct their songs.

Jan Erik: Nicklas comes up with all of the basic ideas for songs, but all members contribute with some riffs and melodies.

Roger: What music are you into at the moment?

Jan Erik: Not that much prog actually, but I like Fleet Foxes “Helplessness Blues” a lot.

Roger: Yes, they are rather good – a sort of 21st Century CS&N!

Roger: I seem to recall reading a while back that another group had “borrowed” your Mellotron and forgot to return it! Did you ever get it back?

Jan Erik: No, we got it back

Roger: Glad to hear that…:)

Roger: I always like to end on a food related question, so what culinary delights will you be looking forward to sampling in multi-cultural Camden when you come over?

Jan Erik: I’d love to go to a really good Indian restaurant if possible. London marks the end of this small tour, so hopefully we’ll have time for a few pints as well.

Roger: I’ve a good mate in London, I’ll ask him if he can recommend anywhere, hopefully we can meet up. In the meantime good luck with the tour and we all look forward to seeing you and the band in Camden on 6th October!

Bruno Pitch

Bruno Pitch is a Chapman Stick player, originally guitarist coming out from France. We talked about his musical background, as well as his work on the Crystal Garden album, the instrument and future plans.

Nick: Hello, Bruno! Would you mind telling us more about your musical background, your early beginnings in music?

Bruno: Hello, talking about my beginnings in music is an interesting thing as I’m not considering myself as a conventional musician. I started to play guitar at the age of 14, at this time I had no idea of what was a metronome or the fact a guitar must be tuned! Instead of caring about these things I just started to compose my own tunes, and the first thing I played was a creation. As you can imagine listen today to this music can be horrible, but the most important thing was the creation process, not the technique.

Nick: For many people you are known as a Chapman Stick player, but originally you are a guitarist. What is it that pulled you off to start playing and composing on the Chapman Stick? What this instrument in particular provides you comparing to the „classic“ guitar?

Bruno: Well, I’ve never been a cover specialist, so I always preferred to compose on guitar than practicing famous tunes, and the big frustration in this process was that I had to record guitars chords, then bass lines, and finally the melody. The first time (in 1993) I heard some Stick music was from an album of Jim Lampi (one of the best players in the world), and I thought… incredible! A string instrument with you can play bass and guitar simultaneously!  And the sound was so unique… At this time I was considering playing this kind of instrument was for me an impossible thing, so I didn’t think about looking for one. Finally in 2004 I decided to buy one, and it radically changed my way in playing music. Now it was possible to play simultaneously chords on left hand and melodies with the other hand. Another fact with this instrument is the natural sound you get, just straight to the amp with or without effects it sounds great. Since this time I don’t play guitar anymore, I’m filling at home with the Stick.

Nick: As you might’ve mentioned above, during late 80’s and in early 90’s you was involved in a hard rock band called Wisdom? Are there any recordings from that period? What were your main inspirations at the time?

Bruno: Unfortunately we didn’t go to the necessary level for recording an album, but it was for me a great period, we were composing in a heavy metal atmosphere, our influences were Metallica, Rush, Loudness, Van Halen… We loved to insert some prog parts in our songs but at this period I didn’t know the ‘progressive’ naming.

Nick: Later, you expanded your musical sights and, let’s say, you progressed coming to the jazz subgenre which is today a significant part of your music. Where does it come from?

Bruno: Well, in 1993 I went to a French music school (the actual M.A.I. in Nancy) to improve my ‘metal’ guitar technique, and there I met many musicians coming from various genres like metal, jazz, song, funk and so more. At this time I started to practice some jazz standards and continue now on the Stick, of course I’m not a real jazz player, but with a single jazz song you can work on all of the aspects of an instrument: chords, accompaniment, melody, rhythm, soloing… So in my music I think a natural jazz color can appear in the way I play, but it comes naturally not intentionally.

Nick: Would you tell something more about the tapping technique used on the Chapman Stick?

Bruno: There are so many things to tell about tapping. First when I started 7 years ago, I thought it was limited in the variety ofsounds you can produce, now I can say that every week I discover new way to play ,it’s infinite, one life is not enough to learn to play this instrument! Then the Stick is not the only tapping instrument, these last years many tap-guitars were produced by other great luthiers, but the Stick is something special, an unique sound. Tapping players’ community is like a family, we are not so many, so it’s very easy to meet a famous player, I often go tapping seminars, where I can learn, play and talk with great players, each one has developed his own technique, each one is unique, that’s impressive. There are people coming from bass world: they can play crazy bass licks on the Stick, people who play keyboards : they are easy with the independence aspect…

Nick: Magic Street, an instrumental funk project originated in 2007 and it came up as a collaboration between you, the drummer Guix Hure and the bassist Boris Nicolik. Was that sort of a tendency to do something new and try new musical subgenre in an ever-evolving process or you strictly knew what do you want to produce?

Bruno: Magic Street was first created by Boris with Guix, they were looking for a guitarist, I called them and said: “I’m a guitarist but now, I play only on a Stick “, so they said “Ok why not , but what’s a Stick?”. The goal of this band was to produce funk music, but it quickly turned into a prog band, it was a very intense period, we were composing together mixing various influences from funk, psychedelic, metal, rock genres. The funny aspect for me is I was playing with a bassist, so I didn’t have to use the bass side of the Stick and try to use it as a guitar.

Nick: Crystal Garden was released in 2010, signed by yourself and as it’s stated in your biography it’s an album dedicated to the Chapman Stick. How was to work on the album? What inspired you?

Bruno: In first I only wanted to record some ideas coming on the Stick at home, so I thought to use some drum loops libraries to make recordings on my computer. Then after the Magic Street experience I contacted Guix saying him I wanted to try my compositions with a real drummer, and after some rehearsals I discovered the tunes were sounding really better than I could suppose. So I decided to record with him, and the project became more serious at the point I chose to record in a real studio. We attached great importance in the drums recording process, Didier Lamaze (the sound engineer) did a great work. The inspiration is an easy thing for me, I always compose, it’s natural. But the more difficult aspect is when you have to choose what to keep or what to throw out, that’s where the presence of another musician is important, he can bring a new fresh ear on your sounds and suggest you to develop things that would not do alone.

Nick: There is an omnipresent feeling that on the Crystal Garden you are flirting with different elements, but the core of the album is rooted in progressive rock. Where does it come from?

Bruno: I guess the rock aspect come from my metal past years and the playing of Guix. For the progressive thing, I think it’s something personal, I’ve got a fanciful attitude inside me. I think we should not keep away our childhood in the past, to have a little crazy attitude is a secret of balance for our lives, Franck Zappa knew that, he was a master.

Nick: I can’t avoid a question about the song Karachi, which is personally my favorite track off the album, adorned by Mid-Eastern influence weighed excellently on the Chapman and Tabla. What do you think about employing such Mid-Eastern motifs in the genres such progressive rock / fusion jazz? I find it as absolutely something that could be described as the crown in the making of music.

Bruno: Well this song was originally played with my friend Breme Coumarin who is born in South of India where he learned the tabla playing. I listen to many different genres of music and like to mix these influences coming from other cultures, sometimes when people see the Stick for the first time, they ask me: “Is this an traditional indian instrument ?” probably due to his aspect remaining the sitar or something like that… Personally I can’t conceive music in only one restrictive genre, for me it needs to mix influences, cultures and genres, it’s like cooking, in France we have a famous cooking,  but this traditional cooking include many influences from other continents most of them were brought by the past conquerors.

Nick: What are the latest news coming from the Bruno Pitch camp? Are you working on any new projects? Can we expect a new album some time soon?

Bruno: We are now recording demos for the next album, it will be more produced. There will be strings arrangements by Célia Picciocchi a french violinist and keyboards, parts by Steve Gresswell an english musician. So it will not be a Stick focused album, but it will sound more like a band. We tried to find a singer for this project but didn’t find the right person, so it will be another instrumental album, I’m not disappointed for that, I like the instrumental aspect too.

Nick: Is there anything you would love to add to this interview that I didn’t cover in my questions?

Bruno: Yes just a message to everyone: be creative, be yourself!

French TV

French TV is a great band from Louisville, Kentucky, USA, who have been dispensing their twisted brand of avant-jazz-prog since as far back as 1983, and I e-flurried (©Robert Fripp) with founder and leader Mike Sary to come up with this doggerel….

Roger: Hi Mike, and thanks for giving us your time for this chat. For those unfamiliar with French TV tell us a bit about the history of the band.

Mike: We came, we saw, we forgot to conquer. Sorry to be so flippant, but we’re talking 20+ years here!

Roger: OK folks, just go buy the CDs here - http://www.frenchtvonline.com/orderingdistributors.htm – if you only buy one, get the 2CD version of FTV 10 – it really is good!

Roger In those 20+ years French TV has released ten albums of massively complicated and at the same time hugely enjoyable music. Would I be right to assume a Zappa influence with a large helping of the more convoluted end of Canterbury prog, and possibly a soupcon of Gentle Giant with some European RIO thrown into the blender?

Mike: Yeah, that about covers it, but I have to say I’m equally influenced by the more “traditional” prog bands like Yes, ELP, Crimson, etc, to say nothing of a lot of the 70s fusion bands, particularly Weather Report and Brand X, even if it’s not so obvious in the writing.

Roger: You’ve just reissued last year’s album I Forgive You All My Unhappiness with the great bonus disc Live At ProgDay 2009. Was this down to fans requesting more live recordings?

Mike: Nah, I can’t say we get much in the way of fan requests to begin with. It was more a matter of Mike Potter, the mastermind behind Baltimore’s ORION STUDIOS, offering to record us [as well as the other bands playing ProgDay that year] using his mobile recording truck. I’d working with Mike before, and knew this would be recorded well, so I expected it would be good enough to put it out eventually. MALS RECORDS wanted to re-issue FTV10 and suggested bonus tracks to make it different, and I countered with including a live cd.

Roger: Judging by the accompanying pictures, ProgDay 2009 looks like an idyllic setting. Where did this happening take place and was there a good party?

Mike: In Chapel Hill, North Carolina. As for the party, it was okay, except for the part where I was trapped between two 70s rock trivia experts who spent the evening correcting each other. My head was about to explode, much to FTV drummer Jeff Gard’s delight.

Roger: Your music, to the non-musician at least, sounds like it is rather complicated. How do you manage to reproduce it live, as I would imagine trying to remember all the twists and turns is no easy task. Is any of it scored or is it all in the head? And, I wonder if the band could play a 12 bar blues “straight” without veering off into another far more interesting universe?!

Mike: Drummer Jeff Gard and I devise the basic structures for the tunes, and I generally allow the other contributors a lot of leeway in coming up with parts that compliment whatever’s going on in the tunes, although my preference is to be sitting with them coming up with parts. But for the last few years, I’ve had to work with long-distance collaborators, so I have to allow them some autonomy. I rarely, if ever, need notes or scores when I record my parts or perform live, but the others guys generally have to have some sort of notation.

Roger: Do you hope to play outside of the USA any time soon? The UK beckons so yours truly (and my mate!) can finally get to see French TV.

Mike: Nothing concrete yet, but it feels pretty inevitable. It helps to be invited to a larger-scale festival somewhere, then we can organize 5-10 dates surrounding that. I’m DYING to return to Europe!

Roger: I’ve got this far without mentioning song titles, so what is your favourite make of bass guitar  (heheh)?

Mike: Generally models I can’t afford! My two main “problem-solvers” are a 5-string fretless Steinberger “Spirit”, and a 5 string fretted Ernie Ball Music Man. Would dearly love to find a nice inexpensive Warwick P-Nut or Streamer, or a 4001 Rickenbacker [had one back in the day, but foolishly traded it away]! Or a Lakland…or a vintage Wal…or Alembic…or…

Roger: OK then, let’s get it out of the way – You have mentioned to me before that the bane of reviews of French TV’s CDs are those that are so nonplussed by the music they spend most of the time musing on the origin of song titles like With Grim Determination, Terrell Dons The Bow Tie. Your song titles seem to this Brit to have a strong Zappa/Anglo influence. My favourite is 801’s “Mummy Was An Asteroid, Daddy Was A Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil”. Any that make you smile?

Mike: Captain Beefheart titles: “Ashtray Heart”, “My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains”. Lots of Zappa: “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing” [if only for the sentiment], “Bamboozled By Love”, “I’m a Beautiful Guy”. But the undisputed king of song titles has to be the fellow from FOREVER EINSTEIN, with classics such as “It’s A Good Thing I Don’t Have Super Brain Powers Or You’d Be In A Thousand Little Pieces Right Now”, “I Wish I Had Me Some Of Them Miracle Smart Pills”, “With a Car Like That You Must Be Knee-Deep in Whores”, “The Iron Boot of Stupidity Will March Across Your Face”, and my all-time fav, “Hercules Pushes Giant Goats Over The Cliff And Watches As They Fall Into The Canyon Below”.

Roger: Haha! That guy should write a book! A sense of humour is an important part of life and obviously important to you, but why do you think most prog bands come over as po-faced and oh-so-serious, particularly it seems to me in the prog-metal fraternity?

Mike: I wish I knew! But I blame Roger Waters and Pink Floyd.

Roger: So do I! Is there anyone in the current prog scene that you are into? Another great and underrated American band that I love is NYC’s Frogg Café whose music has a similar feel to yours in places. Have you ever crossed paths?

Mike: Guitarist Frank Camiola and I DO have a mutual admiration society. I remember in the “National Health Complete” booklet notes, Dave Stewart mentions that he, Mont Campbell, Alan Gowan, and Phil Miller were constantly trying to “out-complex” each other on the compositions, and if I were in a band with Frank, I suspect it would be a similar situation. Also met violinist Bill Ayasse at a festival once. Oh, and FTV10 keyboardist Steve Katsikas guests on the next Frogg Café cd!

As for other bands, there are TONS of them I love and many of whom I’m friends with (in fact, I have a section of our website devoted to recommendations): PANZERPAPPA, ACCORDO DEI CONTRARI, CAMEMBERT, FINNEGAN’S WAKE, NEOM, OCTOBER EQUUS, FLAT122, PHLOX, TEE, GARGANTUA, ARGOS, RITUAL, SANHEDRIN, AMOEBA SPLIT, LOST WORLD, OUTRE MEASURE, SENOGUL, EVIL GIRAFFES ON MARS, TIME TRAVELLER, AGENT MOOSEHEAD, LILLIPUT ORCHESTRA, anythingMICHEL DELVILLE does, DJAMRA, FORGAS BAND, GUAPO, KLOTET, PLANETA IMAGINARIO, UNDERGROUND RAILROAD…plus “old-timers” like UNIVERS ZERO/PRESENT, MAGMA, HAMMILL/VDGG….it’s amazing that as shitty and unprofitable as the music biz is these days, there’s an INCREDIBLE amount of quality music/bands plugging away.

Roger: In my review of IFAMU/Live At ProgDay 2009 I made the observation that French TV seem so obscure that even a Chilean mountain rescue team may have difficulty locating them. Maybe an exaggeration I know, and a tad cheeky to boot, but as you have been going nearly 30 years, presumably this is a situation you’ve come to accept?

Mike: I’m not sure whether it’s acceptance or not, but I guess I regard it as living with some sort of disability-some combination of resignation and bitterness, and it’s probably never going away. All you can do is hold onto the expectation for that moment when something magical pops out of your fingers in combination with other musicians having similar moments.

Roger: What’s coming up for French TV gig-wise or recording-wise?

Mike: Well, we’ve got a new keyboardist from Greece, and we’re having quite a bit of fun improvising together as a trio. We have skeletons & frameworks of tunes for the next album, but trying to get the 3 of us together at the same time has been a pain. We DID play our first gig together about a month ago, with promising results-we’ll see what happens!

Roger: Finally a bit of levity – I hope you are a Monty Python fan (if you’re not then this question is pointless, and I pity you!), so which Python sketch would you have liked to appear in?

Mike: UPPER-CLASS TWIT OF THE YEAR!!! Also once dressed for an FTV Halloween gig as one of the Gumbys. Of course, the other members wimped out of dressing up for this particular gig, despite being thrilled at the prospect during rehearsal.

Roger: Finally, finally a bit more levity – Do you know what Cricket is?

Mike: YES. Do I understand it? NO. Do I WANT to understand it? NO.

Roger: I have a similar view of American “Football” and Baseball! We can’t go without mentioning food, so, a curry or a pasta dish? Washed down with a good beer or wine, or possibly a cup of tea?

Mike:  CURRY (Thai)! A nice Gang Keow Wan (eggplant + beef), with a bottle or two of WOODCHUCK DRAFT AMBER CIDER!

Roger: Good choice of grub there. Thanks again for your time Mike, and if you ever plan on coming to Europe, be sure to let me know.

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