interviewpage
Neal Morse - interview October 2001 |
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Victory: Hello Neal! You are kind of living legend
in the progressive rock scene, please tell us about your music career, how it all started...
Well....my Father was/is a music teacher and choir director so music was THE THING in our house when I was growing up. My brothers and I were always competing on who could figure out a guitar riff the fastest and we all learned very difficult harmonies at an early age. Then, I got into rock when I was about 10 years old. Bands like Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple occupied my mind. But when I saw Yes OPEN for Black Sabbath at The L. A. Forum in 1972 (I was 12....I guess you can figure out my age now!), it really changed my life. I realized you can have the beauty and complexity of classical music along with the power and simplicity of rock. I've been trying to re-create it ever since! :) Actually, I didn't try to record any progressive rock stuff 'til I was in my 30's. I was trying to get a record deal as a singer-songwriter Billy Joel type guy for years. I only started doing prog rock because I decided that if I was going to fail in music I could at least fail doing what I truly love! It's funny that that was the beginning of my actual success! Victory: You play a lot of instruments, have you always been playing, guitar, keyboard, piano, bass, drums and so on, or is it something that you just recently have started to do? No, when I was growing up we had a music room (thank you Mom and Dad) with all the instruments set up and we'd jam for fun and trade off on the instruments...which wound up being great because we all gained a knowledge of what it takes to play all of them. I love to mess around on anything. Victory: The band Spock's beard, how did it start? Tell us about it, you have released some awesome discs (V being the one I love most). I also recognize that the lyrical contest in the debut was kind of harch. In contrast to most of your other release the song "the water" contained a lot of words you don't often find in your other songs. Was it some kind of expression of your anger or why did you write it? Yeah, I was angry during that time. Living in L.A., playing in the corner of a restaurant for tips or whatever. It was a hard time. When I wrote FU it was from the heart!!! Scary huh? It's amazing I could have that in me and 'Go the Way You Go' at the same time. Victory: Is Spock's beard releasing some new stuff in the nearby future? We're working on it. This one's different. It may take longer. Look for a new release around March/April. Victory: Over to your fantastic solodisc, "It's not too late", I've had it in a couple of months and I am still listening to it at least twice per day! Where did you get your inspiration for it? Some of those songs (Leah, I am your Father, etc.) are from my singer-songwriter days in L.A. I wrote "I Am Your Father" in 1980! So, some are very old and some are newer...like the song I wrote for my friend George was written last February just before the album was mixed. So, all of these songs were influenced by different things. "THE EYES OF THE WORLD" is obviously about George's death...uh..."IT'S NOT TOO LATE" is about finding God and that it's never too late for that...."THE ANGELS WILL REMEMBER" is about my kids. I remember playing in the backyard with them and thinking "Man, I hope this moment is captured somewhere". I guess that's a weird thought but it's not to me. Anyway, it's inspired by lots of different things....like life! Victory: The lyrics is much about the "fallen society", such as "Leah", "Broken homes" and "Someting blue". Is it personal experiences that made you write those songs, cause they seem to be very personal? Actually, those ones aren't...I made them up. I seem to be good at making up sad stories. Victory: You are also a member of the supergroup, Transatlantic, which band do you prefeer, Spock's beard or Transatlantic. Oh, don't make me take sides now! I love both bands, but SB is my first love. Victory: When we are talking about Transatlantic you could tell us about your latest release, how is it compared to the debut? Longer. It's more cohesive...I think it holds up better than the first. There's more vocals and involvement from the others this time and I think that's a very good thing. I tried to lay back more so it was a lot more fun for me to record than the first one. I hope it's more fun to listen to as well. Victory: Finally you have also started a christian label, are you planning to release christian progressive music there as well as worship music? I don't know...I'm letting the Lord lead me and I'm not sure where that's going at the moment. I'm deep into writing the new SB record so....one at a time, right? Victory |