Morse, Neal (Transatlantic) (March 2000)

How To Transact The Transatlantic Way...

(a transcript of a transaction of a transfer of the transfiguration of four of today's prog-giants without transgressing, transship or being transient; a transillumination of a transit of today's prog kings; a translation of transmigration of translucent music, transmuting into prog transpiration; a prog transplant transported, transposed into world class, transudatory by means of the debut album SMPTe)

Transatlantic. It sometimes can be a nuisance especially where timetables are concerned. Imagine my surprise when I called Neal Morse at 1 PM my time only to get the man on the phone half-asleep. "What time is it over there," I asked. "It's uh, let me look ... it's 6 AM here, John, but hey we're early risers anyway, so why don't you call me, say, in an hour's time?" So I called Neal "transatlantic," me having had my dinner, Neal still having breakfast. It would be a very nourishing interview!

When Jim Matheos joining the project looked like impossible, did you come up with Roine [Stolt]'s name from the word go, or were there other names on the list?

Mike [Portnoy] told me about this idea he had way back in the spring of '98. Jim Matheos saw a possibility at the end of '98 to record with us, but when we got to this stage, it looked like Jim couldn't make it because he had so much on his mind. Of course if we would have recorded an album with Jim Matheos instead of Roine Stolt then obviously things would have sounded much different. So when I talked to Mike again and we both knew Jim couldn't do it, I suggested Roine Stolt. I guess Mike knew some of the Flower Kings material so he said yeah, why not give it a shot. So I sent an e-mail to Roine and was surprised he accepted straight away. In fact, I was very surprised that everyone was able to get some time off to start recording in the summer of '99. I mean it's not that obvious for four individuals to break free from their band and get together at such short notice. I only knew Roine because we met briefly in the dressing room during Progfest, I guess it was '97. Mike I had never met before although we talked endlessly on the phone and Pete [Trewavas] was an all-time hero whom I'd never met either.

Did you have discussions at first as to what kind of music you wanted to produce?

Because it was mainly Mike's baby, of course I asked him what he really wanted. And as soon as Roine came aboard he said: "well it's obvious with people from Marillion, Spock's Beard, Flower Kings and Dream Theater in the band that this is going to be one hell of a progressive outfit, so we'll have to write some heavy prog stuff." If Jim would have been aboard then this collaboration would have sounded much more different, harder, maybe more LTE like, I dunno.

Did you meet prior to entering the Millbrook Studios?

No we didn't. All we did before was send each other DAT tapes with songs and ideas. In fact when I was on a small American tour with Spock's Beard around April/May '99 I wrote practically all of the long epic "All Of The Above." "Camouflaged In Blue" did not exist at the time as I had a Latino kind of thing, which the rest of the guys didn't like. The only thing that remained from that session was Pete's bass line and we took it from there.

What was the very first thing you set out to do once you entered the studio? Did you play a cover version in order to "get the feel" to work together or did you stick your teeth into an original composition straight away? On the limited 2CD set there will be some outtakes and also some cover versions. Can we e.g. expect "Honky Tonk Women" sung by Mike?

We all sat down in the lounge and discussed what we all wanted but it was obvious from the word go that we all wanted the same thing: a major prog album! It might well be we jammed for a while just to get the feel of things, that I don't know anymore, but the first thing we set our teeth in was "All Of The Above." There were various things we tried for that song but sometimes it didn't work so we had to look out for something else in order to link the major ideas. "Mystery Train" I had just written and I played it to the guys in Millbrook Studio just on acoustic guitar. As it was brand-new, I only could play it on guitar so they might have an idea. 'We All Need Some Light" was an "old" demo for Spock's that had been gathering dust for nearly 3 years. If only I knew everything that was recorded would also be released then I would have sung much better on "Honky Tonk Women" because I just fooled around and sang in a crazy way whilst Mike was doing solos on his double bass. Far out man! I understand this song will be on the limited edition. It's on there just for a laugh, so don't you ever hold it against me! [laughs]

Did each of the various members contribute equally regarding the material given? When do you know a certain idea has to be reserved for Spock's Beard, when for Transatlantic and when for your solo career?

You never know for sure although you adopt a certain feel for it over the years. I wrote another great epic called "The Great Nothing" but that has been used for the forthcoming Spock's album. "A Whole Nother Trip," which was used on my solo album, was initially written for the first planned Transatlantic with Jim Matheos. But then I started to work on it, fine-tuning as it's called, and I thought it would fit nicely on my solo album. If I'm honest then I have to say I wrote [the] most for the album, then Roine and Mike and Pete just contributed their skills to the ideas. I do hope all of them will write stuff whenever we decide to record a second album.

Was it also agreed upon that no, or at least very few, acoustic instruments would be added? I am referring to real violins, cello, oboe, flute, choir, etc...

During the actual recording you just look at [it] track by track and you start to record the basics with what's available at the time. As we all knew that overdubs would be made we could always add acoustic instruments later, which is what happened with "My New World" where cello was added in my studio in Nashville. You have to know that what was recorded in Millbrook was the basics: organ, bass, drums and backing vocals. All of the rest was recorded later.

The actual recording took place between 26th June and 6th July '99. I believe the "main" parts were then recorded, such as drums/bass/guitar/organ. No vocals recorded there? How do you know where certain overdubs have to go? Was that mapped and discussed beforehand or did everyone have a freehand to add whatever he felt necessary?

We just trust each other; so as I already said, only the basics were recorded in Millbrook. Roine later on added Mellotron and some of the weirdest samples you can think of. If you listen at the end of the a capella piece in "Full Moon Rising," you'll hear some wah-wah guitar. The first time I heard it I thought of Isaac Hayes and "Theme From Shaft!" It's so cool. Then I did my overdubs in Nashville, which were organ, piano, synths and all the vocals

Is it always like a surprise once you receive the material after someone else has added his overdubs?

We did send DAT tapes to one another and, yes, it is always a surprise when you receive the tapes back after someone has added their bits and pieces. But then again, because we trust each other, we knew it would be OK. In the beginning of "We All Need Some Light" Roine had recorded some guitar parts and left enough room for me to add some 6-string as well, so it works very well, even when he recorded his parts in Sweden and I did mine in Nashville. But when you listen to it, it's as if we were sitting next to each other during the recording. It's so strange.

There were two mixes of the album and, in the end, the one Roine did was not used. What were the main differences?

I have to admit I liked Roine's mix a lot. Some of the stuff he did was much better than the finished record! He had a better mix on the vocals, on most of the instruments. Unfortunately, his mix of the drums wasn't too good, and we all felt the drums should be LOUD in the mix. I felt very sad for Roine because he put so much time into mixing it all and then it wasn't used. Pity we couldn't use a combination of both mixes but that didn't seem possible. Especially Roine's mixes of the spacey parts and of "Camouflaged In Blue" were ace!

Whilst all of the big prog names have been mentioned to typecast Transatlantic's music, also the name of The Beatles has been mentioned. Are the Beatles prog?

Dunno. Beatles are in my blood, I guess. They are my musical parents. What's nice is that all of the people I work with seem to be into the Beatles! Some of their material on Sgt. Pepper and White Album are very experimental indeed.

Is it possible that the album might have sounded different should you have been given more time to record?

Definitely. It would also have sounded differently if all of us would have been present during the mix. In the end none of us was there. I was the last one with the mastertape before I handed it over for the final mix. As I'm a control freak myself, I could add as many backing tracks as I wished, I could decide what I wanted to erase. It was all up to me.

Imagine Transatlantic really hits the roof and the rest of the members agree to leave their respective bands in order to make Transatlantic their fulltime commitment, would you disband Spock's Beard?

No way. Spock's and I are bloodbrothers. Man, we have been through so much together; there's no way we could leave the band in favour of other things. We are like glue! We worked so damn hard, we sometimes played lousy venues but we got there in the end!

There are some live dates to be expected. Will the foursome get together to rehearse prior to the gig(s)?

So far only NEARfest has been definite but there's also talk of Progfest in LA in September. We'll get together to rehearse for two days and, like you suggested, I would love to take the opportunity to lay down some ideas for the second Transatlantic album whilst we're together. In fact, I'm really looking forward to it all.

Now that you all know each other better, including each other's weaknesses, do you think the second album (which undoubtedly will follow) will be easier to record?

I don't know about the rest but I only have one weakness and that's ... Italian food!

Can you give me a top-five of what you are currently listening to?

Because I have been so busy both with Transatlantic and Spock's Beard I hardly had any time left to listen to music, but lately I've been into Veggie Tale, and I also got the second Platypus [album Ice Cycles]. I have to admit to playing a lot of vintage Genesis material lately. Albums like Selling England By The Pound and Genesis Live have been in my CD player all the time. It's amazing how up front the mellotron is. In fact, on the new Spock's album there's this amazing keyboard solo with unbelievable mellotron. It's unreal!

There will be a new Spock's Beard live album out soon. Isn't this a bit much seeing the already released official bootleg and the 2CD on Radiant?

The 2CD set of Live At The Whiskey and NEARfest is there mainly for the fans. We still lose money when we go on tour so we do need to sell merchandise in order to recuperate some of our losses. That's the main idea behind the Radiant releases: they're cheap to make so we can recuperate some of our costs easily.

Wasn't the date in 013 in Tilburg, Holland also recorded for video purposes? Will the Transatlantic date for NEARfest also be recorded for possible release on video and/or DVD?

The Spock's material recorded in Holland will be released on VHS. We haven't talked about recording the NEARfest thing but we should really. Haven't thought about that one so far, but yeh, we should record it both on audio and video. As you say, not everyone will be able to make it to the gig, so it's nice for those who can't make it. We'll definitely talk about that one. Thanks for pointing it out!

Can you tell us something about the forthcoming new Spock's studio album? Proposed release date, titles, feel of the music...

There is no definite title for the album yet, but as I have just finished mixing the album in LA, I can tell you a little bit more about the songs:

· "At The End Of The Day" is a 15 minute epic that you could see as "Crack The Big Sky" meets "June."

· "Goodbye To Yesterday" is one of my older songs which the rest of the guys wanted to release for some time now. You can compare it with a mellow Peter Gabriel from the So period.

· "Revelation" is very hardrock-ish in Soundgarden vein

· "The Great Nothing" is, with its 25 minutes, sort of Spock's Beard's very own "Supper's Ready"

· "All On A Sunday" is a bit of prog-pop

· "Thoughts Part 2" is sort of a sequel to "Thoughts" on our Beware Of Darkness album with a lot of Gentle Giant influences.

The release date for the album is May this year

Rumours also have it that you have two musicals in the pipeline. Any news on that front? Or did parts of it filter through on Transatlantic?

The second musical I have just revisited. It's called Hit Man and in fact has nothing to do with prog at all. It's a Broadway musical based on the music industry and it should be done properly with actors, props, etc... Someone should hire a director and work on the script. Nothing of the "musicals" will filter through for something of my prog involvments. In fact, I should say I need those musicals to free me from certain musical ideas I can't put into Spock's Beard or/and Transatlantic. But I'm working on it, but don't ask me when it'll be finished.

Neal's coffeepot is empty and so are my digestives. The SMPTe album will be on general release soon and for the real addicts we can certainly recommend the limited edition 2CD set including a bonus disc with outtakes, cover versions and even a multimedia segment. The contents list for this disk are:

· My New World (alt. take, Neal lead, different lyrics)
· We All Need Some Light (Roine lead voice, alternate mix)
· Honky Tonk Women (studio jam)
· Oh Darlin' (studio jam)
· My Cruel World (original demo)
· Interactive segment

I bet Portnoy has been using his handycam again to show us what really happened at Millbrook studios. However, from what I hear on the album, regardless of the tons of pizza and lasagna being thrown in Neal's direction, there certainly wasn't enough time to fool around.

ProgressiveWorld.net wishes to thank the [now defunct] Official Transatlantic Fan Website and its [former] owner Ian Oakley for the photos accompanying this article. Read also John Silverwood's interview at the Transatlantic site, and, of course, our own Roine Stolt interview

Discography:
SMPTe (2000)
Live In America (2001)
Bridge Across Forever (2001)
Bridge Across Forever - Special Edition (2001)
Neal Morse - The Transatlantic Demos (2003)
SMPTe - The Roine Stolt Mixes (2003)
Live In Europe (2003)
The Whirlwind (2010)
More Is Never Enough (2011)
Kaleidoscope (2014)
KaLIVEoscope (CD +DVD) (2014)

Live In America (VHS/DVD) (2001)
Live In Europe (DVD) (2003)
Whirld Tour 2010 - Live At Shepherd's Bush Empire (DVD) (2010)
KaLIVEoscope (DVD/BR) (2014)