Interview
(Progressive Newsletter Nr.34 02/01)
excerpts from an interview with Martin Orford (Keyboards, Vocals)
I think it's unlikely that so many releases will happen in such a short space of time again. Because the prodution of the Subterranea Live project took much longer than we expected, it ended up happening in the same year as the new studio album, which wasn't originally the intention. Even so, we do try and get something released every year, even if it is a rarities or a live album.
The new album IQ "The seventh house" will officially released in February, but you already sold it on the concerts last November. Which reactions did you receive so far and do you have any idea how successful it may be in comparison to its predecessors "Ever" and "Subterranea"?
We have had very good reactions so far to "The Seventh House" even though the album is not officially released until mid February. People that liked "Ever" and "The Wake"generally seem to like this one, and I am genuinely surprised how many people like it more than "Subterranea" which I thought would be a very difficult album to follow. We have had to delay the release in the shops until February becuase the music industry concentrates mainly on Christmas and novelty records between November and January, and it's not a good time for a new rock release. However selling a limited number on tour has been a nice reward for our diehard fans that travel miles to be at our gigs, and it's helped us offset the high costs of recording an album like "The Seventh House".
Do you have any favourite track on the album and are there even passages or a whole song which you don't like?
My favourite track is the title track "The Seventh House" which I think has some great sections in it. There are inevitably parts of the album I'm less keen on, particularly some of the heavier and more sinister sounding sections, but then again, I'm not particularly a rock fan anyway. The heavier stuff seems to go down well with most people.
For that you were involved with your solo album, Mike and John did mainly compose "The seventh house". Do you think if you would have participated more, it would have sound different or do you had the chance at least to influence the direction of the album?
I must admit that I had already made my solo album my number one priority for the year 2000 before writing commenced on the IQ album. Having put off recording the solo album for several years to give priority to band projects, I thought that it was time to finally make it happen. Although I did offer quite a lot of the material to IQ, it soon became clear that most of my material was too classically orientated for a band album, and the others were not very keen on it. "The Seventh House" sessions soon began to evolve quite a hard sounding album, and although I was able to contribute some ideas, John and Mike seemed to be taking the lead this time. The easiest thing to do was to let them get on with it, and put my more gentle and pastoral music on the solo album.
How can someone imagine the development of a IQ song? There a various musical influences in the band. How do you manage to fit them all together? Is there a special secret IQ formula mixing everything together or is the idea or song taken from those person who shouts the loudest?
The writing process is hideous, and it always has been. Loud shouting is most certainly a regular occurrence. When we wrote "The Last Human Gateway" in the early days, Mike was so furious with my interpretation of the end section that he reversed the van straight into some woman's car and shouted at her as well. People have sometimes asked if they can sit in on writing sessions, but I always advise them against it. It's like a war zone in there, but if we can avoid actual fatalities, we come up with some great albums!
The last IQ "Subterranea" and everything involved with it like extensive touring, video, live CD and the anounced DVD was the ambitious band project so far. Are you satisfied how everything turned out, e.g. touring, the optical presentation and the reactions from the audience?
"Subterranea" was a great project but it was incredibly expensive and demanding. We couldn't have carried on touring it or we would have gone out of business! It put a great deal of strain on people's health and personal relationships, and though I'm glad we did it, I wouldn't want to do it again. Weeks of production rehearsals and staying up all night dismantling scaffolding are not my idea of fun! It's nice to have the video out so that people can see the show without having to take the whole production to them.
Did you on the other hand reach a financial break-even or was it more like a dream that you were willing to finance?
I dare not analyse whether we made money on or or not, it just had to be done, so we did it! I would guess that overall we made a pretty big loss, however we did offset it by releasing the "Seven Stories Into 98" CD which raised a lot of much needed finance.
You are also deeply involved in the work of the label GEP. After more than ten years of work, was it a right decision to establish this label and being more independent from the major labels?
There is no future for progressive rock or jazz, folk, and many other kinds of music on major labels, so there was no alternative than to set up GEP. When IQ was with Polygram they did some terrible things. We had a huge radio hit in Germany with "Promises", but no-one could buy it as the record company never pressed any for record stores. Faced with incompetence like that, it was hard to see how we could do any worse with GEP, and we haven't! The major labels have given up on so many kinds of music, but it doesn't mean that nobody buys them anymore. GEP is now up to 29 releases, and with great names like Spock's Beard and John Wetton, I think we've done really well.
For that Mike is much involved in Dance music, did he had the idea of doing remixes of some IQ songs?
Yes, we did a rap/hiphop version of "No Love Lost" for a fanclub single a few years ago. Suffice it to say that many people were horrified and expected the "Ever" album which followed it to be just like that! Mike produces all the IQ albums, and he is always keen to introduce contemporary sounds and production techniques into our music. Nobody seems to have noticed that the title track from "Subterranea" has a synth dance loop running right through it, but that was my idea!
Last year you also released your first solo album "Classical music and popular songs". Did it for you turn the way out, you wanted it or are there still some ideas undone that maybe will find place on another soloalbum?
I am 100% pleased with that album, it turned out exactly as I wanted. The sales have been really good, and I haven't seen a bad review. I have plenty more ideas that don't really fit with IQ and I will be starting work soon on writing a new solo album as a matter of priority.
Are there also plans for a live presentation of the songs of your album with some of the guest musicians?
I am in discussion with a number of gig promotors who like the idea of that,a nd I may try it out with a band at the Whitchurch Festival in the UK this summer. If that works, I may think about a tour, although it would be nice to have another album's worth of material to play first.
Kristian Selm © Progressive Newsletter 2001