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Interview with Roine Stolt by Jim Harrel
by Jim HarrelOn Feb, 17, 2001, I caught up with Roine Stolt, just a few weeks after the completion of the new Transatlantic recording, and he agreed to do this E-Interview for us. In it he speaks candidly and openly about his involvement in the super-group, and provides some insight into the creative process.
Hi Jim,
Thank you for showing interest in my opinions.
The correct pronunciation of my name is more like Roy-na, or e at the end like in eclectic ......
TRANSATLANTIC
Many of us have become fans of your work through your participation in Transatlantic. I personally have gone and bought Stardust We Are and Flower Power and am becoming a big fan of The Flower Kings. How is it that the leaders from 4 great prog bands from 4 different parts of the world came together?
It was Mike's idea, he wanted a more old school prog outfit than Liquid Tension that is more techno gunslinger prog , and now that Jordan is in DT it's not likely LTE will live on . Mike is a great fan of Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis, Zeppelin, Zappa, Beatles. I was asked because Jim Matheos wasn't available at the time ......
So I'm second choice........ kind of .
What are your feelings about going from lead singer/writer of a big band like TFK, to a bit more passive role as co-writer and guitar player in TA? What kind of adjustments did you have to make?
I'll go carefully here .....
In fact that is not by will, it is simply a fact that Transatlantic is 4 strong "leader" types and I would say "the town isn't big enough for the 4 of us ....."
So last album, maybe Neal was dominating (as that's what he is used to, we all are ...) but on the new album the rest of us did much more in terms of composing and arranging , I really tried to push Pete forward as well . So it's a bit different. But we all are throwing in bits and pieces in a rapid and furious way.....suddenly there is this song /epic ready. Mike being much of the coordinator of themes and the Rhythm motor .....Me being the filter of "cheap tricks " and "already heard boring shit" trying to put more sophisticated patterns and chord structures in, Neal being the provider of his "good sense of vocal melody lines" and the usual Spocksy fiddely bits Pete being positive to a lot and providing some nice melodic things in a style non proggy.
There are stories floating about Neal and Mike being "control freaks". Yet all of you are incredible writers/players. Can you describe the creative process for TA? How do songs get presented? Could you explain the roles you all assume?
Don't know about "the stories", but I guess that's what people love to discuss on the net and mailing lists
We're all control freaks, it is just a case of learning to listen to other people's ideas and the fact that we all need to learn more about cooperative. I think Neal did some progress in that sense on new album, thus making it less "Spocksy". Still I'm a bit puzzled by the fact that the louder you get, the more of your stuff you seem to get into the recording pot. Sometimes I felt I had to push hard to get some of Pete's stuff in, whereas I may have been holding back too much when it comes to promoting my own stuff. My fault, but I'm used to people recognizing the genius I am !!! (kidding ) J I sent them a tape of more than 60 minutes of new music, but there is still lots of great stuff that we didn't even try ...... maybe I didn't scream loud enough, presuming the music would talk to them. Nevertheless what is on tape now is mostly very good, so it's still a progress.
We have to fight some more next time.
Do you have any stories from the recent recording sessions, or from the few live performances that you'd like to share?
Share???? ...Oh my Goodness no ....... I'll get sacked!!!!
No, nothing comes to mind right now. Sorry.
We had fun ..... don't agree always, but we're Transatlantic, hey!!!
Has the work with TA had any noticeable affect on TFK record sales/concert attendance?
That's hard to tell, because sales have been better but it is probably mostly because of our new record deals and better distribution, plus we slowly grow by word of mouth.
GENERAL
You've picked up a Parker Fly guitar recently after playing Ibanez for many years. Why?
I was looking at a few guitars with built in "acoustic" piezo pickups, the Parker simply seemed to be the best.
Light weight, good ergonomics, good tremolo-bar, good acoustic sound .....
And they approved me an endorsement deal after 10 minutes on the telephone!!!!
Can you tell us a little about your song-writing methodology for TFK? What comes first, words or music?
Sometimes words comes first, sometimes or mostly the music, and sometimes simultaneously. I write mostly at the keyboard, (in fact lots of my basic keyboards stay onto mix ) For each album the lyrics comes easier, but I'm very careful doing a good job with it and that it really makes sense and mean something to me. I greatly dislike people singing just to sing any rubbish, or about kings, dragons or nuclear war...!!!
Where do you see the prog music scene heading? What are the hot spots? What groups are you interested in?
Ooo, that's really hard to tell, When asked this question, I always tell people that we need good (!!!!!) EVERYTHING. A good line up with hopefully a few good soloists, a good rhythm section , one or two good lead singers, good writing with lots of technical playing AND sing along catchy melody hooks, a good production, experiments, good artwork and a good record company that believe in the band, plus a good management and agency....... piece of cake. Easy ...???!!!
Hot spots are maybe at the present: Spocks Beard, Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater and FlowerKings. I still think groups like Crimson, ELP, Yes and Jethro Tull are good. The "new" prog bands I like are fellow Swedes: Samla Mammas Manna, Ritual , Anekdoten, Isildurs Bane, Mats & Morgan and worldwide Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater, Marillion, Kenso, Planet X , Bozzio, Levin, Stevens........Kula Shaker, But I tend to go back to more original groups like The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, The Nice , The Mothers,.... old Crimson, Yes and Genesis. I love Pat Metheny !!! And I really loved Tony Levin’s new solo album, Water Of Eden.
Any thoughts on the effects of the internet on the music scene?
It helps, I'm sure .... bands like flowerkings have had great help by the internet .... I've almost booked entire tours on e-mail basis. I don't spend hours surfing ...but If people get happy discussing the latest change of members in Yes or what's the favourite fanclub Marillion song , I'm cool with that. I'm happy for them.
What do you think of the newer technologies like midi and sequencing? Are they helping or hurting musicianship?
In general I know it's helping people get their music out.... but some always abuse it and do boring stuff. We record all FlowerKings stuff with sequencers but we have taken it to a level of perfection where it actually reverse to sounding like we don't use sequencers....... that's one thing I'm extremely proud of. I don't think people understand what it takes to achieve that level. We're all computerized but it really sounds like a band playing, jamming, at the same time and we actually convert bit by bit with real playing, all the way up until mix. On the other hand looking at our live recordings we emulate the recordings quite well, don't we?? We are heavily into hi tech and hard disc recording, editing and stuff but also I start collecting old school tube and hi end audiophile recording gear to achieve the glamorous sounds of the 50-60's. I've been lucky having sponsorships from some of the finest makers of such gear like "Millennia Media" in California, they construct the finest (and most expensive ) gear on the planet for anyone from The Eagles, Steely Dan, Celine Dion, Madonna, George Lucas Skywalker sounds + most of the rest of Hollywood film recordings!!!! The owner used to be in a prog band in the 70's and he loves FlowerKings!!!! Lucky me......
You have two sons, Johan Sebastian and Peter Gabriel. Have they shown any musical inclinations? As a parent, what are your thoughts on helping your children cultivate musical interest/talent?
I don't cultivate them (yet). I think it is important that they get into it by own will and interest.... However I'm here to support them with tons of gear whenever they need me.
Lastly, I have it from a reliable source that a tour featuring The Flower Kings and Spock's Beard may occur in the near future. This prospect has MANY prog fans drooling with anticipation. Would you care to confirm or deny this rumor?
.......... to update tour rumours....
We are NOT going to tour in USA in March with Spocks.......it's all down to money.....
The "double bill" tour was a suggestion from our record company, actually booked by The Agency group in USA.
I had a bad feeling about it already in January, but now it got even worse...ending up a bit "different" with the proposal that we (flowerkings) would play "little time for little money"!!!!.???? ..........back in the support slot then........
This leaving Inside Out America / Jim and my company to pay for ALL tour support needed but getting little exposure. I cannot read the mind of a presumptive Flowerkings and/or Spocks fan , but I feel this is not what they want. As you may already have guessed I had the impression that we would go on equal terms or at least somewhere close to equal......
Coming from Europe and with the fact we never ever played USA "for real" we cannot accept this scenario. I was irritated about the rumour starting on the net that Spocks and Flower Kings would play US in March..... before we even started discussing conditions!!!!
Our fans have heard it soooooo many times before..... but we never arrive. Agency, record companies and our fellow band politics made it hard again this time, in the last minute. We're truly sorry but we promise to make it up WHEN we come to USA.
all for now.
best
Roine.
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