Information

Transatlantic US Tour interview by Ian Oakley

July 2000 - Transatlantic have just finished their debut tour. Roine and Pete return home to Europe while Neal and Mike immediately start a new tour with their own bands. I managed to get a quick few words with both Pete and Roine before they both return to their normal bands recording and tour schedules. -Ian Oakley

Our great thanks go to William J Schoch II aka "Xmas" for the two back stage photos, Jim Cornall for the live photos and Brian Dorbuck for the large Roine live photo.

So how did the tour go?

Roine: Fine, but we surely needed some more rehearsing.

Pete: The tour went well and I had a lot of fun, which is really what it's about. It was very challenging and was good for me to stretch out a bit.

Do you have a favourite concert of the tour?

Roine: Toads place in New Haven and 930 club in Washington DC.

Pete: I think the last show in DC was probably my favourite show as we were playing as a good tight band at that stage.


A favourite track?

Roine: Strawberry Fields ... as I got to play it ... finally.

Pete: Live, "All Of The Above" is pretty impressive as we play the whole 30 minute piece and it covers just about all of the musical tastes of the band.

How much rehearsal was there before the first concert?

Roine: Two & a half days ... approx 15 hours.

Pete: Well we should have had 3 days but in fact after our tour manager showed up late on Wed afternoon we had 2 and a half days, which was nowhere near enough, and in fact looking back it's surprising we were at all ready.

Were you at all nervous at the first ever Transatlantic concert?

Pete: Oh yes this was very under rehearsed as we had never played the songs from start to finish before and were still learning how to gel together. I feel it's something we got through as opposed to actually performing.

Roine: No I wouldn't say nervous ......but maybe not 100% relaxed, had a few sound problems

How was the audience reception?

Roine: Very good ... guess they loved us just because of who we were.

Pete: The reception was fantastic they really enjoyed the whole thing and I think the sense of occasion was also with everyone, it being our first ever show.


How did you decide upon the set list?

Roine: Oh , we have dozens of e-mails sent before we finally had it down.

Pete: Well playing the whole CD was always on the cards although we eventually left out "In Held..." And we always knew we would do some other material, so the Beatles were always an obvious choice as we are all such fans, and then Mike suggested "Firth Of Fifth." The actual songs were batted back and forth by Email for weeks before hand and even when I landed we had various things we may or may not do.

Who suggested the "classic" Genesis medley?

Pete: Well Mike suggested "Firth," and I think Roine put "Watcher" in and I came up with "Hogweed" which I always thought was a really good heavy ending that is not what people remember Genesis for, so I thought that it would be cool.

How was it decided which of your own groups track(s) to use in that sequence?

Roine: We went very much on Mike's initial suggestion, apart from the fact he wanted to do "Circus Brimstone" and Pete and Neal wanted "There Is More To This World." We ended up with "There Is More...," "Go The Way You Go," "The Great Escape" and "Finally Free."

Pete: I didn't know too much of the other bands material so couldn't make to much of a contribution but I was asked which Marillion bit I would rather do out of "Heart Of Lothian" Or "Great Escape" and chose "GE" as it is newer and just a classy piece. When we were all together we decided on a running order. We narrowed it down to two choices of Flower Kings songs and went for "There Is More To This World" because Roine's voice was a really good contrast to Neal for the following Spock's bit. And "GE" went really well before "Finally Free," which had always reminded Dream Theater of Marillion anyway. So it fell in to place you could say.


You end that sequence with The Beatles "She's So Heavy" - a great riff - How did this occur?

Roine: Don't remember ... but I think it was Mike again.

Pete: One of those things, Mike mentioned that the heavy riff at the end made him think of the "Abbey Road" riff, and that was all we needed, before you new it we were there.

The album is a great success, maybe the biggest "Prog" album since Misplaced Childhood. Has this surprised you?

Roine: No not really. It was obvious as we've been offered a lot of money to do this and it must have been because they expect their money back.

Personally I feel it's a good album lots of great vocal melodies and good energy. But compared to say the best of Dream Theater or Flower Kings it does not really stand up to that level. I don't care about sales figures if we are talking real quality, these are different things really.

Pete: I'm not sure how big it really is but it is being viewed by progressive fans as the biggest album for years, and it's nice for the recognition, but doesn't surprise me really, we are all well known musicians and I think the collaboration is seen as a serious move in progressive music. And although it's not perfect, it has a lot old style charm and musical quality. The hard part will be trying to do it again.

If you could record that debut album again would you make any changes?

Pete: There are always things that aren't quite finished when you look back on a project, but apart from one or two minor moments, the last chorus of "My New World" springs to mind, I wouldn't change a thing. But I do know that Roine wasn't happy with the final Mixes, I enjoyed them even though they didn't sound modern, in fact I liked the sound and thought it gave the whole thing an atmosphere.

Roine: I would have liked to spend more time on composing and getting the backgrounds really good. Plus having us all present at mix.


There has been some backlash starting on various "prog" internet sites almost accusing the success of Transatlantic spoiling the (their) perceived vision of the current "prog" scene. Almost an accusation of a "sell out". What do you think about this reaction?

Pete: Well I haven't read any of it so I'm not sure what they're getting at, but selling out sounds to me like we must have contrived the whole thing and that couldn't be further from the truth....

Roine: Well in fact I don't care that much, as long as I like the music and we've been honest. Don't we all want our records to sell???

Everybody is free to play whatever music they want, but please don't blame me if they are not having the success they think they deserve. I have nothing against pop music, still nothing against avant garde art rock or whatever.

A lot of fans are in some ways afraid about the success of Transatlantic with the thought that it might mean you leaving and effectively the end of your own bands. Have you any thoughts on this?

Pete: Absolutely no chance of us leaving our respective groups. I was asked in Classic Rock about this and I think my answer was taken the wrong way slightly, but it made good copy at the time. When Transatlantic does carry on and there is no reason it shouldn't, it will always be when we are all free enough to get together. Always a logistical nightmare but possible.

Roine: It won't happen, no matter the sales. I guess we all agree on that.

The one thing that everyone agrees about after seeing you live last week is that you all seem to enjoy yourselves on stage, perhaps more than when you play with your own bands. Is this because perhaps Transatlantic is really more of an enjoyable "hobby" than a full time career?

Pete: I think that has a lot to do with it. We all take our own bands and their music varies seriously and with Trans we could let are hair down a bit. If these gigs had been Marillion I would not have been able to stand some of the things that just weren't perfect, but Trans is new and untested and we just had to have a different attitude about it, or go mad.

Roine: I have no idea, but it's always fun to play.


What does being in Transatlantic mean to you?

Roine: A possibility to play with other musicians, make some decent money and travel a lot ... and learning more as always.

Pete: Well it does give me scope outside of Marillion, to write pieces that I couldn't see working with Marillion. And although I've done work with other groups of people, this is the most well known line up I suppose. This also has the feeling of being a band some how; I suppose doing shows has a lot to do with that.

Does it allow you to do anything that you couldn't do in your own band?

Roine: No, not really.

Pete: Well Transatlantic is at a different level and time. So yes there are a lot of things we can approach differently, and being new helps with media. We can also put into practice things we have all learned from are experiences within the business, and vice versa.

Is work progressing on the next album and are we likely to see any major changes in style and content?

Roine: We haven't started yet, just discussed the topic. No idea about style and changes. I just hope it gets better.

Pete: We have only discussed when we could all be available, and it doesn't look like being before next year, I'm afraid.

Any anticipated release date at all?

Pete: As yet no, but if we record early next year, you might see a release before Christmas 2001, but I suspect that the next album will take longer. I'm sure now we know, the potential we will want it all to be thought over a bit more. With this CD there was a lot left up to luck which just happened to be on our side.


Could be see a Transatlantic tradition starting of recording one "classic" cover track per album?

Pete: You must have read our minds. We already talked about doing just that while recording "In Held..."

Is there any particular track you personally would like to cover?

Pete: I would love to cover something by Greenslade, or Caravan, but can't tell you which one, in case some other bugger does it first.

Roine: Any Beatles stuff.. Moonchild/King Crimson, Peaches & Regalia/Zappa.

Other than an obvious shared love of The Beatles and Classic period Genesis are there many other shared musical influences?

Pete: I think it goes deeper than just those two bands, it seems to be a love of quality music from the sixties up. You can include Who, Zeppelin, Jellyfish, Yes, Radiohead. And a ton more. But Beatles and Genesis probably some it all up pretty well.

Roine: Yepp and Yes, Crimson, Gentle Giant, Steely Dan, ELP, Zeppelin...

Are there any further Transatlantic concert plans yet? How about Europe?

Roine: Maybe a short Euro tour in mid November.

Pete: We are talking about doing 4-5 shows in November after Dream Theater finish touring in Europe, but again nothing confirmed

Would the set change at all by then? Perhaps a live presentation of "In Held"?

Roine: Maybe ....

Pete: Well if we had some time to rehearse we might, I would like to, but then people in Europe haven't seen the current set - apart from the Webcast.

Finally, is there anything else you would like to say to the many fans out there?

Roine: Thank you,for supporting us in every possible way. We are, because of you.

Pete: Thanks for the support it really does mean a lot to us all, and gives us the chance to do it again. We will always do it for the right reasons, and keep it fresh and fun, for us and for you.

Thank you both very much for finding the time to talk to us

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