Interview
(Progressive Newsletter Nr.59 05/07)
excerpts from an interview with Chloe Alper (Vocals, Bass, Keyboards)
Our main influences vary all the time; every member of the band has a wide, eclectic and sometime cheesy taste in music. We obviously love our prog and vocal harmony groups (The Beach Boys needless to say and Jon’s University thesis was on Brian Wilson) but we don’t tend to just stick to one certain style because of this I feel our style is always expanding and changing.
You have a musical style that seems to appeal to a wide range of listeners combing the sounds of 70's with a fresh alternative rock approach. Do you know from the reactions so far, from which musical background your fans come from?
Because we don’t try to fit into a certain genre we’re pretty lucky to be able to attract a wide variety of fans. We’ve played shows where the average age of our fans have been the whole bands ages combined (well almost!) But luckily those gigs don’t happen to often!!
Do comments like "The missing link between Pink Floyd and the 21st century" make you proud or don't your care that much about what the critics say?
I think we would be lying if we said we don’t care about what the critics say, but you do have to take a lot of what’s said with a pinch of salt. It’s really nice to be used in the same breath as Pink Floyd but I think we’ve got a long way to go before we’re anywhere near Pink Floyd.
Were you surprised about the positive feedback you've received so far?
It’s really nice and surprising to have such positive feedback, especially outside of the UK. We have had fans all over the world sending us emails. Argentina, Brazil, USA, Canada, India, Japan and we are Number 15 top played for 2006 in Poland, that’s before the album is even released!
Is there a concept or story hiding behind "The Dark Third" and if yes, what's it all about?
As a band we’re fascinated with the questions raised about the origins & meanings of dreams. By the time we die we’ll have spent more than six years of our lives dreaming & a third of our lives asleep. So The Dark third is essentially a concept album that investigates the supposedly sharp boundary between dreaming & wakefulness. And that perhaps the two states aren’t actually so very different! In life, as in dreams extraordinary things happen that do not seem so extraordinary at the time, and after all, waking & dreaming states are both products of the same brain.
How did you manage to find the right mixing and production for your album?
With "The Dark Third" we met up with and interviewed a whole bunch of different producers with various degrees of experience but Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree/Blackfield mentioned Paul Northfield who had produced bands such as Rush, Porcupine Tree and Gentle Giant. We met up with him and immediately wanted to work with him.
One of your trademarks are the multi-vocal harmonies. How do you decide, who sings which part and that everything works together perfectly?
With all of our decision-making we try to settle it with a good old-fashioned pistols at dawn. But if we don’t have any pistols to hand we usually just look at where our voices are strongest and who can sing the part better in their range. There aren’t usually any big fights happening over musical parts.
How do you reproduce all the sounds of the album on stage?
On stage we have an abundance of equipment set up which we run around trying to play. We try to stick closely to the same sound we have on record but with our live shows we try to up the tempo and give the set a little more of a raw edge. We don’t want people to come to the shows and leave feeling like they have just listened to our album.
Where do the ideas for all these kind of "out of space" sounding song titles come from?
The song titles just come from the subject matter of the songs, it’s kind of in an indirect way. I suppose because our songs and lyrics aren’t so cliché with the musical scene at the moment we try to do the same with our song titles too.
In advance of the album release of "The Dark Third" you've also released several Mini CD albums and vinyl albums (like "The bright ambassadors of the morning", "Intention craft", "Cautionary tales of the brave". "Apprentice of the universe"). What was the intention behind these releases?
Our intentions behind all of those releases were to get our music heard Bright Ambassadors, Intention Craft and Apprentice of the Universe were all singles that came out in the UK. Cautionary Tales for the Brave was a kind of warm up to The Dark Third again in the UK.
Why did you release your album in the U.K, U.S.A. and now in Germany with different artwork and for the German release also with an additional CD?
The reason behind releasing the albums with different artwork in different countries was because all the albums are a little different from each other. The American album is the original album we recorded; the UK album is the original album minus the tracks that are on Cautionary Tales but with some additional tracks. And the German release is the U.S album with a bonus disk of the extra tracks. So the different covers make the difference in the albums. That gave me a headache just thinking about it.
You've played as a support act of Mew above others, but also did some shows as a headliner. How did the people react, that haven't heard you before in contrast to your fans?
Touring with Mew was amazing; they are a really nice bunch of guys. Playing shows, as a support band is always a daunting task for any band, you never know if anyone is going to go to the show to see you and if they do will actually care when they watch. Mew was a good match for us, they are in a similar genre and their fans are amazing. We can’t wait to tour with Blackfield this month in Europe. There will be some great shows along the way.
Kristian Selm © Progressive Newsletter 2007