Interview
(Progressive Newsletter Nr.39 03/02)
excerpts from an interview with Tony Clarkin (Guitars)
Our agent Derek Kemp called me up and suggested it really, Bob was doing his solo stuff, I was just writing songs, so I thought about it and called Bob up, he jumped at it so here we are !
What were the reasons in the mid 90's to put Magnum to an end and what has changed between today and then?
I was fed up with writing songs for Magnum to be quite honest, I'd been writing songs for the band for about 20 years, there were other things I wanted to try, I needed other challenges, I knew I could do other things, the only way I could do that was to quit Magnum back then.
Was it a big difference working together after all the years and or did it felt right from the start like "in the good old days"?
No it just felt totally natural, we've got such a great working relationship it was easy to get back into it again, we've both been working with different people since Magnum and Hard Rain split up, yeah it's real good - better than ever I'd say, I think we've been able to use our experiences working with other people to bring fresh ideas to Magnum.
For me "Breath of life" is building a bridge between the albums from the 80s and modern sounds. So concerning the new studio technologies of these days, was it easier to give this album a perfect sound and are you overall satisfied with the final result?
Oh yeah definitly, I listen to them and hear bits of "Sleepwalking" bits of " Rock Art", and little bits of the first Hard rain album. I wouldn't say it goes as far back as Storytellers night though. What it is to me, every album we did, was so different to the previous one, but everyone would say" Oh yes its off the Magnum album" which seemed strange as to me they were all so different, they were all quite unique in there own way, but yes there are certainly elements of quite a few Magnum albums in there, so yeah we are very satisfied with the result.
"Breath of life" has everything from a typical Magnum album. Songs that truly rock, ballads and with "Night after night" also an anti-war song. Do you had a kind of masterplan when composing the album or did the mixture just came out naturally?
No, it's just a bunch of songs, no masterplan, each song is individual, they are just great songs ! I didn' set out to write any sort of concept album, there are so many of those about already.
Do you have any favourite track on "Breath of life" or a song with a special story behind it?
It's hard to pick one really, maybe 'Everyday' you're probably asking the wrong person, I'm far too close to the songs, they all become very personal to me, I'd rather leave them open to interpretation by people, you hear what you want to hear really.
What can the fans expect from your tour this spring and the festivals in the summer? Do you still have a few surprises for the setlist left or do you rely on the usual perfect mix between the well known songs of the past and some newer material?
There will be all the classic Magnum songs in the setlist that everyone will want to hear, we hope ! it's impossible to do them all, there's so many to choose from, and of course we will be putting some of the new songs in the set too, we just hope they are going to go down as well as the old ones!
Is it hard for a "real" band like Magnum, to get the right media attention in these days of faceless "musicians" and recruited, constructed "bands"?
Oh definitly, 'real musicians' aren't fashionable at the moment, not for the charts anyway, but there are some great new bands coming out, there's still a market for what we and other bands like us do, I don't think it's ever really gone away and never will, it's just a bit underground at the moment, but things can change so quickly in this business, maybe this could be just the right time for us to make a comeback, I hope so!
Kristian Selm © Progressive Newsletter 2002