A
day with
...
(Helmond - Nederland, 19th
of June 2003)
Interview & pictures: Danny & Jany
Following Mostly Autumn for a whole day is something special,.especially
when you’re a fan from the start. We got this offer by Louis Rentrop (Classic
Rock Productions
and
Uriah Heep fanclub)
and we took it with open arms. (thanks a lot, Louis). And also thanks to
the members of Mostly Autumn who were very sympathetic to have us a whole
day following their every move.
We saw the band arrive at the venue and we could watch and listen to the
soundcheck. After that we walked through the streets of Helmond with the
band, to find a cosy terrace where we could have a drink and have a chat.
After that we had the oppurtunity to interview Bryan and Heather, without
any time limit, so it all was very relaxing. After the interview they gave
us the possibility to take some pictures of the band. Then they all
disappeared in town to go shopping, so we’ve let them some privacy. We met
them again in a pub before the gig but soon after that they had to go
change backstage. A day to remember and I even forgot to mention the gig
itself. But you can read all about that and see some pictures of the
concert
here
Prog-Nose: Can you explain the difference in style on the new album
compared to the older CD’s?
Bryan:
From the outside, it can seem, there is a kind of change in style. And I
guess that there is on certain songs, but all of the songs happened
naturally as the other songs did. It’s just a band moving forward. It
wasn’t intentional. It’s hard to see from the inside how different it is,
when you’re so close to the music. It’s difficult to get an objective view
on it. But it’s not as different in a way as “The Last Bright Light” was
to “The Spirit Of Autumn Past”.
Heather: We didn’t intend to. Whatever Mostly Autumn has ever done,
has been a feeling of the time. When you compare “Passengers” and “For All
We Shared”, there’s a huge contrast. But if you carry through from the
first album to the second and from the second to the third, and so on, not
forgetting “The Lord Of The Rings”, that was really the bridging gap to me
between “The Last Bright Light” and “Passengers”, you see the evolution.
“The Anthology” was reworking some old material, so that doesn’t show a
difference in styles. I don’t think there was ever an intention to make
“Passengers” different. It’s just the way it came out, with heavier,
darker moments. It all depends on what you’re listening to at the time.
Especially if Bryan, who’s in the driving seat very much, is listening to
music with darker, harder elements then that’s gonna come through, to a
degree.
Prog-Nose: It sounds more progressive, less folk? Was that intentional?
Bryan:
I was more interested in kind of putting the Celtic folk angles inside the
songs, more subtly than before, so the songs have a flavour of the folk,
not as up front. There’s a nice underlying Celtic mood. I don’t think it’s
a good idea to start playing our old folk tunes any more, because we
aren’t essentially a folk band. So it was intentional.
Heather: The folk is still there. There’s never been such a
complete folky song as “Bitterness Burnt”. There was never really done a
vocal song before. OK, “Steal Away” on the first album was very folky,
with the whistle. But it still doesn’t strike me as a folk song, while
“Bitterness Burnt” is a dark, folky track. People are overlooking that.
Prog-Nose: The album sounds more commercial. Is that also intentional?
Bryan:
Again, that’s not an intentional thing, that's exactly how the songs came
out. I can see that, looking at the album now, after finishing it. There
is a lot more commercial viability with it. It’s a little bit more main
stream. We didn’t intend to make songs that could be singles. It’s just
how the songs fell out.
Heather: As we matured, it has become easier to say, what will
normally take 10 minutes in 7 minutes. It comes with learning your craft.
The record company wanted it to be a shorter album. They also found it
hard to have a definitive track to play to record companies or radio
stations. But there were no intentions other than being Mostly Autumn. If
you take “The Lord Of The Rings” album into consideration, there are a lot
of shorter, harder tracks on it, because of the subject matter. Not
everybody has that album, because they feel that it’s an interim
statement. A bit like “Obscured By Clouds”, the Floyd album that got
dropped. But I really like “The Lord Of The Rings” album.
Prog-Nose: “Passengers” turns more to the end as a “classic” Mostly
Autumn, was that on purpose?
Bryan:
I designed the album as kind of going through a journey. You can only
finish an album on certain songs. A Mostly Autumn album always works to
something bigger, something more majestic. But off course, it’s still a
Mostly Autumn album, with a new sound.
Prog-Nose: Are you a fan of Fleetwood Mac? Because “Something In Between”
really sounds like Fleetwood Mac?
Bryan:
I do like Fleetwood Mac. It’s not that I listen to it all the time. I’ve
always thought they were great writers, especially the Stevie Nicks and
the Lindsey Buckingham angle of it. If it sounds like Fleetwood Mac, it’s
pure coincidence. If you look at the first album “For All We Shared”, you
have “Close My Eyes” opening the album, going into “Porcupine Rain”, heavy
songs with lots of harmony and even on the second album with “This Great
Blue Pearl”, it’s not so far removed from that. It’s a rolling chorus with
harmonies, and as soon as you’re doing that you get a sense of Fleetwood
Mac in it.
Heather: I’m a huge fan of Fleetwood Mac, more than anybody else in
the band. Bryan finds them a bit whimsical, which I do too. There’s not
much deepness in their music and lyrics. Not like Pink Floyd or Genesis,
who had subjects to sing about and created these huge fantasies, which is
a complete contrast to the way Fleetwood Mac did things. But I like the
lightness. I love the seventies era. I have the new album, but I loved
Stevie’s voice when she was younger. It didn’t occur to me that “Something
In Between” sounded like Fleetwood Mac until I played it to my mum.
Sometimes when you’re so close to things, you don’t realise what’s
happening.
Prog-Nose: It could be a single.
Bryan:
Yeah! They were thinking about it. We haven’t decided which way to go,
because we are negotiating with other record companies. There’s a lot of
exciting things happening. Because of that, we can’t move on many things
right now. They are holding the release of the record back from the shops.
We don’t know when it will be released and we don’t know what singles to
do. If we sign to larger companies in other territories, they will want to
pick certain songs and we will have to rework it. So we can’t really do
something half now.
Heather: There’s been a lot of talk about that. It’s got all the
elements; it’s harder; it’s commercial; it’s catchy. Maybe.
The negotiating with large companies is quite a scary thing, really. It’s
almost like Lord Of The Rings leaving the shire with the Ring and going
through all these turbulent times to actually reach destiny, whatever that
may hold. I think we could start finding that people are trying to
influence the sound of the band, trying to get you to work with a
producer. Mostly Autumn is now at a stage where we do have a definitive
sound. Hopefully wherever we go, we will be able to regain creative
control. That’s the luxury we’ve had so far. So it’s exciting, but I’m
quite apprehensive about it
Prog-Nose: “Caught In A Fold” is more a Jethro Tull track?
Bryan:
Heather wrote that song, actually. The song just developed. She wrote the
song and then there was that really nice round of the flute. It’s only
afterwards you hear that it sounds like Jethro Tull. I think an influence
is somewhere inside, subconsciously, you’re not aware of it. And then
things come out and they do end up sounding like something else.
Heather: Again, there’s definitely a kind of a folk stroke
seventies interpretation. Bryan loves Jethro Tull, I love them, and we
listened to a lot of Focus recently. I said to Angela: “We need to have
that Focussy Tully kind of flute.” And eventually we came to the riff in
“Caught In A Fold”. This kind of music has been in the blood, since being
quite young. But hopefully we still came across quite original.
Prog-Nose: The production is a lot better than the previous albums.
Bryan:
We had a lot more time and the budget was a lot bigger, because this is
our first real album with the Classic Rock Label.
And
“Lord Of The Rings”?
Bryan:
Well, we had 9 days to record that and two weeks to write it. So that was
a little bit of a rush, but I still like the album. I love the feeling. I
think it’s close to the book and the atmosphere is great. With the
“Passengers” album, they asked what we wanted and I said we needed a few
months in a studio. The recording equipment was a lot better. So that
makes a better production. It took four months to put it together.
Prog-Nose: Was the transfer to Classic Rock Productions a big step for the
band?
Heather:
Every
time we take a step further, we’ve come to the end of where we could go.
We were beginning to lack financially. It enabled half of the band to
become professional. We could concentrate on writing music, which was a
huge help. Unfortunately, some of the band members still have to juggle
work with the band, and it’s not ideal at all. We would be running on full
cylinders if the whole band were full time. I love doing touring, like
every day, for months.
Also financially it was a big step forward. “For All We Shared” was
completely independent. The second and third CD were a co-funded thing
between Mostly Autumn as an industry itself and Cyclops with Malcolm
Parker. There was always a struggle. With “Passengers” we could afford
more studio time, we could afford more time with an engineer and we could
also afford to spend a month making demos without going to work. From
January to May we stayed in a cottage working on the album. It’s such a
luxury but essential as well. Just before we went into the studio, the
studio we always use was upgraded with digital equipment. Analog tape is
really wonderful, it’s warm and authentic with a seventies sound. But now,
we were able to record some of the vocals in an earlier stage, so I wasn’t
stressed to the end of the session. All the vocals are digital and then
warmed up through analog amps, to give them more presence.
Prog-Nose: Heather and the keyboards are a lot more in front on
“Passengers”.
Bryan:
Heather developed a lot as a singer in the last year and a half. I mean,
the potential has always been there, but she’s really coming together now.
She has more power and more variation.
Heather: Yeah, my voice is developed in a big way. I’ve got a lot
more confidence.
Prog-Nose: I hear Emmylou Harris in your voice, especially in “Caught
In A Fold”.
Heather: Emmylou Harris, somebody said that, yeah. I don’t know
Emmylou Harris. I don’t know her voice at all. Some say my voice sounds
like Karen Carpenter, Joni Mittchel or Ann Wilson, somebody even compared
me with Rachel Jones. (Karnataka)
Prog-Nose: There are a lot of similarities between Mostly Autumn and
Karnataka.
Heather:
I
thought they had gone more progressive, while we are more headed in a rock
direction. Karnataka is a lot more polished. They got more of a Genesis
sound with the keyboards and the rhythms.
Prog-Nose: Do you know Quecia?
Heather: No, not really, I think I’ve met Kirsty, briefly. Angela saw
them in York. I know that people are comparing them to us. They are all
quite young. They still have a lot of time to develop.
Prog-Nose: You have a band with two lead singers. How do you decide who’s
singing which song?
Heather:
Sometimes it’s obvious if the writer is really connected with the song,
like “Bitterness Burnt” about my dad. But there are other songs that I’ve
written that I’ve definitely considered Bryan, because of the nature.
Bryan wanted me to sing a lot more on this album. There was some stuff
that he had been singing during the rehearsal stages, like “Passengers”.
But these tracks were still embryonic by the time we got to the studio and
he gave me the lyrics and made me interpret them. Before that, he’s quite
private about his lyrics while he’s writing them and I respect that. Like
“First Thought”, I didn’t really hear the lyrics before we went into the
studio, so it was nice to sort of tackle them freshly there and then and
they worked. In the past, I’ve not been as strong, vocally. I’ve never
actually felt like a singer until this album.
Prog-Nose: You never thought about singing together on a song. Not as a
duet, but Bryan doing the heavier parts and Heather doing the softer
lines?
Heather:
We did
think about that for this album. And I suppose there’s a little bit of
that with “Answer The Question” and we were really going to try it on
“Pass The Clock” but then we ended up doing that kind of intermingling
overlapping thing, a bit “Mother Nature” but less harmonized, more
separate.
Prog-Nose: Was it the record company who decided to cut the last song into
three pieces?
Heather:
Oh no,
it was Bryan’s idea and I think it was an ingenious idea, because there
are three different shades. You can either sit back and listen to it as a
whole track or you can nominate the tracks that you like.
Prog-Nose: You dedicated “Pass The Clock” to Duncan Rayson?
Heather:
He’s a
very good friend of ours. He co-wrote some of the words in “Heroes Never
Die”. He’s also a very good friend of Troy Donockley (Iona). They were in
a band called You Slosh and they had a great influence on Bryan during the
embryonic stages of Mostly Autumn. Duncan and Bryan also worked on another
project called Under The Ivy. Unfortunately during the recording of
“Passengers” Duncan passed away. He was only 36. Duncan also played the
piano intro for “Goodbye Alone” on the “Lord Of The Rings” album, which
was originally an Under The Ivy track.
Troy was going to play on part 3 of “Pass The Clock” but his pipes were in
the wrong key, so we let him play on part 1 and that was like it was meant
to be
Prog-Nose: Why did you make remakes for the anthologies?
Bryan:
It was nice to revisit those songs with more time and to do them how we
would have liked to have done them in the first place. We were always up
against the clock. The first album was done in 10 days, that’s recorded
and mixed. The second album was not much longer than that. So, if you have
more time and the band has developed, as musicians and people and the
togetherness of the band, the whole thing gets better.
Prog-Nose: Was the double anthology done in the same session?
Bryan:
No, we did the first one and then they wanted to do a second one, but then
it was decided to put in a double. So it were two different sessions. We
swapped the order a bit.
Prog-Nose: Was the subscriber edition of “Passengers” a success?
Bryan:
Oh yeah! We didn’t know who was gonna buy that, but they only pressed
3.000 and they have all gone already. And it will not be repressed; it has
to stay a limited edition. There might be a few kicking about in the
office.
Heather: I must admit, I didn’t particularly like the way it was
put out. I felt it was a little bit too pushy, but as a business move, I
think it was successful. I just thought it looked a little bit desperate.
Prog-Nose: Do you have any idea how many copies of a Mostly Autumn album
are sold?
Bryan:
I don’t
know. I think about 80.000, but I’m not sure.
Heather: No idea. I tend to stay away from the business side. I
think it’s interesting to know but I don’t know if I want to.
Prog-Nose: You should know, it’s your profession now.
Heather:
I know,
sorry. Damian said it too. (She’s talking about Damian Wilson and ... no,
sorry, we promised, we can’t tell any more. It’s just when she hears his
name there’s a twinkle in her eyes,...) I’m not business headed and I do
get stressed out with that side of things. It’s probably not the best
thing to broadcast. We got record companies that are interested in us and
they will think now: “Oh, they will be a push over”. But the financial and
business side cloud the creativity for me.
Prog-Nose: What are the plans for the future now?
Bryan:
We have plans to sign up with a large company. A lot of exciting things
are going on. The least that can happen is that the band will grow into a
cult band. Mostly Autumn is already a nice industry, you know, we all get
paid, there’s the royalties and all that. Mostly Autumn is a quite healthy
entity. If we go for the other companies and the other territories then we
could become a lot bigger, within a year, I would imagine. There is Japan
and America and a lot more of Europe. There’s a lot of interest from a lot
of really big companies. It’s dangerous at the same time, because you
don’t want anybody to get hold of it and to loose the magic and the
honesty of what Mostly Autumn is about. So it’s very promising. I’d like
to get more of a stage show, to put a light show on and some theatrical
projections to show more what the songs are about. I think it deserves it.
Prog-Nose: How’s the tour going? Do you get more fans than before?
Bryan:
Every time you go back somewhere, there are always more people. It
develops. In the UK we had twice as many people as the last time. They say
it’s a bad time to tour Europe now, that every one is on holyday, but even
now it has grown.
Heather: There’s definitely an evolution. Except for last night (De
Boerderij), but Louis Rentrop told me the reason. We played there last
time and I don’t think the sound was particularly good because we didn’t
have our own engineer. It must be a struggle for an in-house engineer to
pick up Mostly Autumn. Then the tour with Caravan was cancelled, so we
upset a few more people. And apparently it’s difficult to get people in
venues in June over here. I don’t know if that is the case. In England we
have doubled our audiences since last time. In London, there were 500
people and I really have stage fright.
Prog-Nose: Is it tiring for you?
Heather: Oh no, not at all. You see, there’s person A and person B.
I’m person A now and on stage I’m person B. I love to be bubbling with
enthusiasm and exhilarate right from the beginning, exactly like it was
last night. That boosts your confidence. You get a fifth element to the
performance. That’s the difference between a good and a great show.
Prog-Nose: A little detail, every CD starts with the last bit of the
previous one. Is there a special reason?
Bryan:
I don’t know really. It was my brother’s idea. I listened to a lot of his
records. He was playing Pink Floyd when I was seven years old. And he said
it one day, out of the blue. And I thought about it and it was a nice
idea. It just sort of ties it all together, like a journey. “Passengers”
is our fourth album. “Lord Of The Rings” doesn’t really fit in. That was
more done for some television documentaries. It was more a project. The
DVD’s are available now. It was music for documentaries that were shown on
Horizon or Sky Channel. They are selling a lot. The first one already sold
300.000 copies, so it’s good for the music, it gets out there. There are 3
DVD’s and a separate one. We get a lot of response from people, especially
in America.
Heather: “The Lord Of The Rings” doesn’t fit in because of the
stressed time. The guys from the documentary asked: “Can you do an album
in 2 weeks?” and we said yes. We already had a few songs and Bryan has
grown up with Tolkien. But we knew that it had to be a step up from “The
Last Bright Light” somehow and in the given time it was quite a successful
achievement.
Prog-Nose: You used a few pieces from previous albums on “The Lord Of The
Rings”?
Heather:
Did we?
Well, the intro to “Heroes”, that Angela plays on the flute, that was
always the intro to “Goodbye Alone”. These songs are very connected. The
last one used to be called “Goodbye” and then it became Frodo’s leaving
the shire. But I don’t know of any other pieces.
I can talk about “Lord Of The Rings” like that because I was quite back
from it. It was Bryan’s project and I came in at the last stages and sang
a bit. At that time, it was the easiest album for me to listen to. That’s
new about “Passengers”. I can listen to it without cringing. I’ve always
been very critical on myself. I hadn’t achieved anything that I was
vocally happy with until this album.
Prog-Nose: I noticed two new live albums on your site, “Fiddlers Shindig”
and “Live in the USA”. Are that official bootlegs?
Heather:
Yes,
they are. It’s a way of offering people some live shows with a better
sound then bootlegs normally have. I prefer “Fiddlers Shindig”, it’s a
better representation then the “Live In The USA”. Your vocals rely on your
sound engineer off and on stage. You can be singing your heart out, but
you can be completely out of tune if you can’t hear yourself. And there
were a few problems in America, being a festival as well. We didn’t hear
the albums before they were released.
Prog-Nose: How was it to work with Blackmore? Is he really that difficult?
Heather:
I’ve
never been in his band, although we have been on stage with his band and I
think he just knows what he wants. He a real business man and he’s
ruthless, but he’s a great guy. They always looked after us on tour. We
really clicked as people and I understand why he can be easily
misunderstood. He’s a magical, mysterious character and so is Candice.
When they enter a room, it’s as if royalty has walked in. Some people feel
intimidated by that. But he’s a really funny joker.
They were doing some promotional shows for “The Fires At Midnight” and
this involves eating with them on big banquet tables. We played football
with them, we went to a local Chinese together. It’s all very down to
earth. And they asked me to do some artwork for them.
When we played in America, I called Candice to ask if she wanted to sing
with us. We had a three way telephone conversation, Candice, Richie and I.
And Richie said: “Yeah, we both come up and play”. He asked how Bryan was
and I said it was his birthday and that he was in a restaurant. So he
called the restaurant to wish him a happy birthday and Bryan was over the
moon.
Prog-Nose: What’s your opinion about mp3’s and copying?
Bryan:
Well, it’s a difficult one. In one sense, it’s killing the music in a way
and in another sense it creates a lot of awareness. The people who are
genuinely into music and the band would want to buy the package, the
actual CD. But there are a lot of people who will copy it. So it has pro’s
and cons, I haven’t decided about that really.
A lot of people, especially in America, know us through downloads and the
internet. So a tour over there is inevitable. Maybe towards the end of
this year, but at least next year. But again we must wait for the company
we will sign up with. And we surely would like to tour Europe again around
October, November this year.
Heather: I think there’s a lot in being able to listen to clips of
music to decide if you’re into that music or not. But I never thought
about copies as being the real McCoy. I consider mp3’s as a nice
introduction for a band. It’s just sad that bands don’t benefit anything
from all those mp3’s and copying.
Prog-Nose: No festivals on your agenda?
Bryan:
We got a few festivals in the UK and one in Germany in August. But we’re
holding back a bit and see what happens. I think next year, we will do a
lot of festivals, especially in Europe.
Prog-Nose: Do you play the same set list every night on a tour?
Bryan:
It depends. We have a general set list. Some songs might change, here and
there. We’re still sort of rehearsing the new songs, so we have to keep
playing them, so they have to stay in the set. But the old songs, we
alternate, from time to time. The band starts to get used to the set.
Prog-Nose: There’s no improvising?
Bryan:
Sometimes there is. Some songs are more structurous than others, so
there’s not a lot of room to improvise. But there are different versions
of some songs each night.
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