Morse, Neal (Transatlantic) (May 2002)

Neal Morse In: Spock's Transatlantic Trip Over The Bridge Across Forever

It seems like just yesterday that members of Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, Marillion, and The Flower Kings joined forces in order to create the progressive supergroup Transatlantic and release an album that took the scene by storm: SMPTe. Since then, however, the band has released a live album (Live In America) and its latest magnum opus, also known as Bridge Across Forever. Proving that one has to believe the hype, and that the excitement hasn't worn down anywhere in the world, this band is just one of those that we felt obliged to interview. Not only that, however, but with Neal Morse only recently having released It's Not Too Late, his second solo album, it was just the right time to talk with the man about both his involvement with Transatlantic and life as himself. Of course the odd Spock's Beard comment managed to shine through a couple of times, as well as an interesting bit of current activity for Transatlantic. Did that get you all excited? Good. Read on...

Part One - Transatlantic

MS: Going back to the first Transatlantic sessions; that is, to the recording of SMPTe, you have mentioned in the past that you were perhaps too uptight during the sessions and didn't trust the others as much as you probably should have. Although this probably had to do with you being the main figure in Spock's Beard, how much did the hype that such a "supergroup" would generate contribute to this mistrust?

Neal Morse: Oh yeah, that had something to do with it. And I've noticed that I actually get kind of uptight always when I'm making records ... a little bit anyway [laughs]. Cause that's like, a lot of people are gonna hear it, and you just want to make sure it's good. You know, I just have to remind myself to relax.

MS: Back at that time, you initially disagreed with the idea of recording Procol Harum's "In Held Twas In I," yet the others chose to go for it and thus it was done. Doesn't that kind of thing keep you from playing the song at the best of your abilities, even if subconsciously?

NM: I don't know ... I don't think so, I mean, I went in for the thing and I was the one who put the strings on it and everything, so I wouldn't think so.

MS: ...And although later on you ended up thinking that recording the song was actually a good idea, how did it feel to have the other members kind of "overrun" your tastes?

NM: Well, it was a little hard at the time; it's hard if you think things are going in a direction that you don't really like. But by that time we'd got the body of the album done - we'd already recorded the rest and I knew that it had all turned out pretty good, or at least I thought it was good. So I looked at it more like a bonus track and just said "Oh well..." And Mike had insisted so much on that thing, you know, so I just looked at it like a bonus track.

MS: Talking about Mike, it is certainly no secret that Transatlantic is made up of four leader types who are bound to clash every once in a while and who are used to playing a very dominant role in their respective bands. And yet it seems that Mike Portnoy is the one who ends up dictating the way things are done a lot of times. Would this be a fair assessment of the way things work with the band?

NM: Yeah, he probably has the most forceful personality; I guess you could say that. He's funny about it though ... I was like, "Is this what you do with Dream Theater?" and he'd say, "Oh yeah man, I've been wearing those guys down for years." Mike is a person that'll never give up, he'll never say, "Whatever..." He'll never do it [laughs]! Most people only have so much patience for arguments, and then they'll just go "whatever ... do whatever you want," but Mike never gives up. I actually think that it's a very admirable trait.

MS: So have you ever conspired to tie and gag him and leave him in the corner while the rest of you get to work?

NM: [laughs] Well, that's easy, because actually we all start working at different points in the day. If we did start working before 3 PM he wouldn't be around! And me, I woke up ... I'm actually working on the Transatlantic live tapes right now ... [Ed. note: It's about 8 AM ... don't even ask how I managed to get up {that was MS not SS - PW ed.}]

MS: Now that we're on the subject of live tapes, the album Live In America was touched up a bit on the keyboard and guitar parts. Although this is common practice among most rock bands, many people will probably argue that they would rather hear the mistakes and bad mixes and thus get more of a "live" feeling. Why is this not done?

NM: Well, I don't know. I figure if people want to hear all of the mistakes we made they can always get a bootleg [laughs]! It's always a dicey thing when doing the tapes ... basically the control you have is to fix your stuff, and then I'm like "well, is that sounding well? Is that bad enough to fix?" You don't want to fix it so much that it's a studio recording; you don't want to fix everything about it or it loses all character. But basically it's just to fix things that are really bad, that's all I ever try to do ... fix, you know, real major things. It's a real judgment call that I actually have trouble with.

MS: Now, moving on to the latest album ... one thing that many people never found out but which you had mentioned: since he was recording at the Dark Horse Studios at one point, did you ever try to get Jon Anderson to do a guest appearance on Bridge Across Forever?

NM: We talked about it; we talked to Robin Crow about it. But we never really got to do it.

MS: Something that would have been particularly interesting (and cool) for Transatlantic fans would have been if you would have used Mike's idea to use themes from SMPTe on Bridge Across Forever and thus make it an inter-album sort of thing. And although that idea wasn't worked on, Bridge Across Forever does have a few recurring themes within itself. Now that there are recurrent themes within a Transatlantic album, can fans expect you to try Mike's idea of linking records on the next one, if there is one?

NM: I have no idea. I wouldn't have any expectations at all ... I mean, we don't [laughs]! Who knows what we might do next, I have no idea about that.

MS: Talking about inter-album themes, although this isn't quite exactly one, "Duel With The Devil" was originally one of your ideas for SMPTe, called "Dance With The Devil" at that time. At some point, Mike heard it and thought it would be cool to try it out on Bridge Across Forever, and the rest is history. How did it feel to see that song come out again and actually make it to a Transatlantic album, although it was the second one?

NM: Oh, I was really surprised. I wasn't really expecting that; I was expecting to start off working on one of Roine's things, and when it came to ... when Mike suggested bringing in "Duel With The Devil," I was a bit surprised. I don't know, I'm happy with the way it turned out, but it really wouldn't have been my choice of the first thing to work on. At the end it came out cool though, so I feel good about it.

MS: Something that is quite curious about Transatlantic is the way that everything about the band seems to be done half haphazardly, with no one knowing what the song titles, artwork, etc. will be until the very last second. Even tracks recorded by Roine in Sweden or by yourself at home seem to be in risk of being changed without any chance of turning back! Is this part of the fun of being in Transatlantic? Have you ever tried to perhaps plan things a bit more (apart from rehearsing before entering the studio this second time around)?

NM: Well, it's like that sometimes in Spock's as well. Sometimes it's just like that creatively - as you're working, a lot of times you don't know what the lyrics are gonna be like, they just haven't been sort of planned out yet, and sometimes you keep changing things up until the last minute. I think it's like that with all creative projects and that kind of thing ... kind of a danger of creativity.

MS: Quick question: why did you decide to have Daniel Gildenlöw [Pain Of Salvation] help out on the Bridge Across Europe tour? Why him?

NM: He fit the bill, I guess. We were looking for somebody that was a bit of a multi-instrumentalist, who could sing, and that was available. And he worked out great!

MS: Last question of part one: How irritating exactly is it to realize that you know "Firth Of Fifth" in A when the song is actually in B sharp and you have to relearn it?

NM: [laughs] Oh yeah, B flat ... oh, that was really irritating, I was trying to get Mike to let it go, but you know Mike, he just can't let things go [laughs]! Although he really wanted to do "Heart Of The Sunrise" on this last tour, and he finally did let that go, thank God [laughs]! 'Cause we all had our hands full with just doing Transatlantic!

Part Two - Neal Morse

MS: A curious track on your first solo album is "A Whole Nother Trip," which was originally written for Transatlantic when Jim Matheos was still supposed to be part of that project. When one looks at the rest of the album, the song seems to be miles apart from what otherwise is pretty direct pop. Why didn't you save the song for later on with Transatlantic?

NM: Well, because it was my first solo album and I thought, "well, basically everybody who buys this album is pretty much a prog fan, so I should have one prog thing on there." And I was actually so excited about it that I just wanted to do it; I didn't want to wait at that point. It looked like it was gonna be a while before what was to become Transatlantic was going to happen. You know, I'm just impatient!

MS: Something that I remember reading was that the instruments on the song "The Eyes Of The World (George's Song)" were recorded entirely by you at home. Was playing it all by yourself very important, as the song was quite personal and touched upon the delicate subject of George Pappanostas' [Ed.note: who played bass live at one time with Spock's Beard] sad passing away?

NM: Oh, no, not really, it was just kind of a timing thing. We were about to mix some stuff on that record, and I was just home. I didn't really intend to necessarily have it be on the record ... I just cut a bunch of demos. I decided that I liked that one and I wanted it to be a tribute to George, and it was just done that way.

MS: When one looks at both your solo albums, what immediately calls one's attention is the fact that the songs on both releases span quite a long period of time, that is, from the eighties until now! Considering the length of time that you've worked with music, just how many songs do you have in the backburner?

NM: I don't know ... a lot [laughs]. I lost track - I don't know - maybe about two thousand or something. When I was writing I used to write about three songs a day ... most of them weren't any good, but I used to write a lot of songs when I was young. When I was in my twenties I wrote tons of songs, a lot of material, most of which I don't even remember how it goes. They're all in storage somewhere [laughs]. But like I said, most of them were not really good.

MS: You have already recorded Merry Christmas From The Morse Family with, for the sake of being redundant, the Morse family ... why not record another album with the other Morse family? That is, with both Al and Richard? Or is working with Al in Spock's Beard already too much?

NM: (laughs) No, it's not too much! I don't know ... that's an interesting idea ... doing a Morse Family record with Richard and Al; doing a Christmas album. That's an interesting idea ... we'll do that for next year, ok?

MS: All the members from your former band in the eighties are currently working in the computer industry, which means that you were the only one who really stuck to music. When you consider that, and the fact that it took you a long frustrating time to finally reach some success, are you glad that you stuck to your guns long enough to see something finally work out? Or better put, how would your life have been if you had kept working at Richard's restaurant instead of working with music?

NM: [laughs] Where did you read that? That's funny ... well, of course now I'm glad I stuck it out for many years. But that's just one of those things I never thought of ... "what else would I have done?" for me it's like "Well, what choice do I really have?" So yeah, I'm glad now, but I wasn't glad for many years. Who knows what life would have been like otherwise? I can't even imagine...

MS: Quick question: Really short one that you might already be getting tired of: any news on the Hitman musical?

NM: Oh no, I don't get asked that very often! No, it's just kind of sitting around, gathering dust ... I haven't really thought about it for a while...

MS: ...I guess it's kind of complicated with all the resources involved?

NM: Oh yeah, putting a musical on and everything is very complicated. Somebody with a lot of money would have to get very excited about it!

MS: Last question of part two: We've seen both your Beatles and progressive influences come back by means of your music. Are Black Sabbath and Deep Purple ever going to resurface?

NM: What about "Into Fire" man?

MS: ...Oh well...yeah...I mean, more often...

NM: Right ... I don't know, yeah, there's some heavy things on the new Spock's record, I'm sure you'll be pleased!

[Originally published, sans the corny title, at Progfreaks.com in February 2002. See also the very brief interview Stephanie conducted in early September (published October) and Keith's and Steph's from November 2003 - ed.]

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)