interview met...
“We wanted to create something unique to the listener.” |
Danny: “Hi, Chris, let’s start with the obvious question. Why did it take 8 years to release a new studio album?”
Chris: “Hi, Danny. Well, I guess we were in no hurry. We needed to make an album that was going to, not only fulfill our objectives of kind of reinventing the band but also there’s so much great music coming out today, that we felt some pressure, I guess, to make sure that we were absolutely delivering something hopefully unique to the listener. We couldn’t really change any members of the band, of course, because we get along fine and we like the songs we write, but we wanted to take a different approach to a lot of things. I think after ‘Fly Paper’ came out in 2008, we were a little discouraged that it was received okay but it just seemed to fall of the radar pretty quick. So we spent some time promoting that and then decided, we would take our time writing songs. It’s not because you write a song, you actually use it. We were very selective about the songs. And along with that, we had a recession in the US in 2009-2010 and a couple guys in the band lost their jobs. We also had some unpleasant life events. Both of my parents passed away in 2011. So I think time kept creeping by, but we always kept writing songs and we always had this big plan and vision for what our next studio album would be. And of course, we knew there was a growing gap, which is why we took a little time out to do our two ‘Off The Floor’ live albums, just to keep our name out there. We started rehearsing for the album in 2011 and started recording in 2013. It was technically done in 2015. And we hope we wrote something that will interest people out there.” Danny: “And as a gift, you released a double CD” Chris: “So that puts us on a four year average! ;-) ” Danny: “The concept, as you explain it in your description of the CD is a bit vague. Can you explain it more in detail?” Chris: “There’s a basic story but the reasons behind the story are not very explicit. We don’t say what happened to our central character. All we know is that he suffered some kind of traumatic event. In some of the press release material, we kind of zero in on someone that suffered a betrayal of some sort. |
He’s devastated by that event and finds himself retreating into isolation and then the whole album is about the struggle to kind of recover and reinvent his life. And that where pretending to run as a title comes in. Because to various degrees of seriousness, we all face decisions and choices and difficult situations and it’s hard to know whether we’re addressing those head on or maybe we’re avoiding making decision. Maybe we don’t realize we’re dealing with something effectively. That’s where Hugh’s (Hugh Syme, known from artwork for Rush) artwork depicts that. The fight of flight response that all humans have when confronted with danger. Pretending 2 run is a lot about false starts. So, you’re right, it’s vague in a sense that we want the listener to be able to relate to it on personal level as opposed to we tell you exactly what happened. It’s more of an emotional journey as he tries to recover.”
Danny: “I’m used to see double meanings with Tiles between the artwork and the title. For example ‘Fly Paper’ is for me paper to catch flies, but Hugh makes a picture with a paper plane. The same with ‘Presents of the Mind’ when he shows a brain with a gift tied to it. And so on.” Chris: “Well, the turtle signifies wishful thinking, I mean obviously a turtle can only pretend to run. And the little girl on the top of the escalator is she pretending to run after the turtle? Is she brave enough? Well, I guess you’re right, we always had those double meanings and I think inside the artwork you sense more of them. It’s more symbolic and more a concept related to human nature than it was to plan with words. That’s why we have some imagery from the TV show ‘The Prisoner’ from the Sixties. This guy is taken captive in a town from which he tries to escape but he can’t ever get away.” Danny: “I think you lost your Rush sound. Which is good. Do you agree? Of course the producer is still Terry Brown, but Alex Lifeson isn’t a guest anymore.” |
Chris: “It was never our intention to sound like Rush and I always felt that just the fact that we were bass, guitar and drums gave that feeling. Clearly we are Rush fans and influenced by them and a lot of the chord choices I make, the suspensions and the arpeggio’s, which became kind of a Rush Hallmark, I certainly can’t deny. But from a song writing standpoint, we never necessarily been that influenced. I’m actually a bigger Jethro Tull fan. Bands like Kansas and even Elton John from his seventies albums play probably a larger role in what influenced me as a songwriter. I think we covered up a bit of the influences because some of the stuff is still there. If you listen to the title song in the second half, you’ll hear that I’m still using an arpeggio picking pattern and some kinds of chords that are still reminiscent of Alex Lifeson. We always tried to not copy Rush. The bass player Jeff, when he first joined the band, he was more of a Chris Squire influenced bass player. I think that we as musicians shared some of the influences that Rush themselves did. A busy drummer may have been influenced by Keith Moon. When we first contacted Terry Brown, it was because we were familiar with his work with Rush. It was so fun and rewarding to work with him that we kept working with him. And we would have never approached Hugh Syme to do our artwork, just because of the reason he is so identified with Rush. But Terry wanted to bring Hugh on board for the ‘Presents of Mind’ album and we’re glad we did.”
Danny: “It’s also due to the changes of vocals by Paul. I never heard him like now on ‘Fait Accompli’.” Chris: “We spent a great deal of time, really figuring out what was best for the song, not just from the instrumentation but from the vocal delivery and that’s why we have some guest vocalists. You know it’s a double album, more than 90 minutes long. Because of the nature of the story as the perspective goes from inside our central character’s mind from first person to third person, kind of a narrator’s perspective, we wanted the vocals to convey different moods and atmospheres. Even I do a little bit of singing. Paul sung on ‘Battle Weary’ and ‘Fait Accompli’, he really worked hard to capture the right tonality and the right range for these songs.” |
Danny: “I see among the credits after your name sometimes ‘field recordings’, ‘hospital recordings’ and even ‘Parisian street recordings’. Did you actually record that in Paris?”
Chris: “I didn’t go to Paris for that specific reason, but I really recorded them where the liner notes say I did. I vacationed in Paris. I also had some street recordings when my wife and I were in Amsterdam, but they didn’t turn out so good. As the album developed, we knew we wanted some different sounds and atmospheres cause we kind of look upon ‘Pretending 2 Run’ as one big long song. A little bit like ‘Thick as a Brick’. It was important to get some sound effects that helped transition from one song to the next. So without getting in trouble with people, I would walk down this busy street in Paris and just pick up the street noise and footsteps and honking horns.” Danny: “Is it easy to have all those guest musicians. Do they want a lot of money or do they play along because they like your music or because you know them very well?” Chris: “They came from different avenues. Ian Anderson, we have been acquainted with over the years because we shared the same publicist, when ‘Presents of Mind’ came out. And we stayed in touch. He really liked ‘Presents of Mind’. He gave us a quote to use in advertising and marketing. We offered him an opportunity, like he was waiting for it, to play on ‘Window Dressing’ and subsequently ‘Fly Paper’. So we’ve been trying quite a while to get him to do a guest part for us. And this time we got lucky. And to his credit, no, he didn’t charge us any money. He did it out of the goodness of his heart, which is really impressive.” Danny: “Jethro Tull had a song on ‘Crest of a Knave’ that was called ‘Dogs in the Midwinter’ and now he’s guest with Tiles for a song called ‘Midwinter’?” |
Chris: “That’s what I meant when I said I was influenced as a songwriter or lyricist by Ian Anderson. His lyrics are always so inventive and interesting. You know ‘Fence the Clear’ was named after a line in ‘Hunting Girl’ from ‘Songs from the Wood’. So we picked more from Ian than we did from Rush.”
Danny: “’Midwinter’ doesn’t sound like an Ian Anderson song or solo.” Chris: “No, but we recorded the string arrangement after his solo. Some of the other guests we know also personally. We toured with Dream Theater in 1999, so we know those guys since then. We stayed in touch and as the ‘Pretending 2 Run’ album grew and grew we called them. The whole reason for the special guests was not to have their names stick on the CD but because we knew some of these great musicians and we wanted to get them to participate so that it made the 95 minutes of music have a bit of variety to it. We could have played every guitar solo and every drum track and not have a flute, but it brought all the other elements into the arrangements. |
We thought it important to expand our horizons. We wanted the music to tell the story, just as much as the lyrics. When Mike Portnoy and his son agreed to do a drum track, it was exciting for me to go to Philadelphia and record that with them. Same thing with Colin Edwin. We met when he was playing in Chicago. Obviously we’re all Porcupine Tree fans. He didn’t play bass but he brought a lot of his programming and textural sound effect stuff. Adam Holtzman, who’s now in Steven Wilson’s band, plays organ and piano on ‘Taken by Surprise’ but he came up with all of those great synthesizer landscapes and soundscapes that we, Terry Brown and I pieced together.”
Danny: “And then there are the jazzy contributions of Keith Kaminski and Mike Stern.” Chris: “Mike Stern has a special sound. If I could take lessons with Mike Stern, I would. He did his sessions in Detroit, when he was in town for some shows. He’s a super nice guy and he was really open to play on our album. He liked the whole concept, the progressive rock and the general framework within which we operate. So we got to sit in the studio with him while he recorded his solo and it was just amazing to watch the notes flow off his guitar. I’m not a bad guitar player, hopefully, but I’m not Mike Stern by any stretch. It was like having Alex Lifeson playing the guitar or Kim Mitchell. We’re not a very ego-driven band. Nobody is so territorial that they wouldn’t say: “This song could use a different approach.” It’s just fun to have coming In and see what they do with a certain song.” Danny: “Are you planning some live show?” Chris: “We are. We’re playing in some record stores in the Detroit area, in the next couple of weeks.” Danny: “And Europe?” |
Chris: “We’re looking at opportunities to get over to Europe. Obviously it’s been a very long time. We really like to get back there. We’re talking to some promotors and booking agents and hope that we can find an opportunity to get to Europe to support the new album.”
Danny: “How about the choir?” Chris: “I had written a couple choir pieces while we were already working on the album. As the story developed, the songs got put in the right order. We are always paying attention to what’s happening for the listener and that’s where Terry Brown is really helpful. He’s an expert in listening from the outside perspective. And there were just a couple of places in the running order where we needed to bring down the emotional level of the story and make it more contemplative or somber. So that’s where the choir came in. It was really fun to arrange all of those. I also got help from the choir master. He changed the key to make it better. We recorded in a church in Michigan and it was really great to watch him get the most out of the choir. It was a great thrill, just as it was to have the string quartet on a few of the songs. We were worried a bit about the choir, because it’s a rock album. I don’t know how many guys that are looking for progressive music will be willing to sit through 2 or 3 minutes of a choir but if there’s any listening audience that’s more open to experimentation and diversity, I think it’s the progressive music fan.” |
Danny: “You’re composing every song? You write songs at home or at rehearsals?”
Chris: “It’s a combination of both. Some I write at home or some I write on the beach with my little acoustic guitar and songs actually get written there. Some songs, most notably ‘Taken by Surprise’ that was written by myself and Jeff and Mark. Mark came up with some drum patterns that made me play certain things on the guitar and Jeff added a certain bass riff, so that was really written as a band. Adam was doing the organ and the Fender Rhodes. Jeff usually gives me a tape of little bits and pieces. A song like ‘Weightless’ which was written 70% by me, still includes some stuff that Jeff contributed. Even the songs that I write have to pass the filter and interpretation of the other guys.”
Danny: “Yes, Jeff has some great and inventive bass riffs.”
Chris: “Yeah, he sure does and he writes on guitar too. ‘Taken by Surprise’ has a lot of his ideas and ‘Small Fire Burning’ and ‘Weightless’. In fact, it’s his little bass pattern that you hear in ‘Pretending 2 Run’ and ‘Midwinter’, that actually got the whole ball rolling. We really wanted to re-invent what we do. We really didn’t want the same album that we did with ‘Fly Paper’ for as much as we like it and I actually still like listening to it. We had to do something different and when Jeff came up with that two note bass riff, it opened up the opportunities to add the loops and electronic effects and percussion and things. That kind of launched the whole project.”
Danny: “OK, thanks for the interview and I hope to see and hear you in Europe.”
Chris: “Thanks very much. Bye.”
Chris: “It’s a combination of both. Some I write at home or some I write on the beach with my little acoustic guitar and songs actually get written there. Some songs, most notably ‘Taken by Surprise’ that was written by myself and Jeff and Mark. Mark came up with some drum patterns that made me play certain things on the guitar and Jeff added a certain bass riff, so that was really written as a band. Adam was doing the organ and the Fender Rhodes. Jeff usually gives me a tape of little bits and pieces. A song like ‘Weightless’ which was written 70% by me, still includes some stuff that Jeff contributed. Even the songs that I write have to pass the filter and interpretation of the other guys.”
Danny: “Yes, Jeff has some great and inventive bass riffs.”
Chris: “Yeah, he sure does and he writes on guitar too. ‘Taken by Surprise’ has a lot of his ideas and ‘Small Fire Burning’ and ‘Weightless’. In fact, it’s his little bass pattern that you hear in ‘Pretending 2 Run’ and ‘Midwinter’, that actually got the whole ball rolling. We really wanted to re-invent what we do. We really didn’t want the same album that we did with ‘Fly Paper’ for as much as we like it and I actually still like listening to it. We had to do something different and when Jeff came up with that two note bass riff, it opened up the opportunities to add the loops and electronic effects and percussion and things. That kind of launched the whole project.”
Danny: “OK, thanks for the interview and I hope to see and hear you in Europe.”
Chris: “Thanks very much. Bye.”
‘Pretending 2 Run’ is released on 15 april 2016 |
Danny Focke
Special thanks to Anthony D'Angelo for his photo’s: © |
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