Orford, Martin (IQ) (July 2004)

Getting To The Heart Of Dark Matter

IQ probably need no introduction to the readers of these pages. Even if prog never truly died (and thus no "neo" to be born ... a term the band will readily say they hate), these English musicians certainly brought some attention to the prog rock genre, along with Marillion and Pallas, to name a couple of others. And though there have been personnel changes over the years, this is a band that has been together and making music for some 20 years, kicking it off with their 1983 release Tales From The Lush Attic. Few mainstream artists can claim more than a few years before they become just a memory, putting IQ in a class with some of the bands of old (you know who they are, they've been celebrating their anniversaries over the past couple of years). Dark Matter is the IQ's eighth studio album, and just by the accounts published here, is turning out to be one of their best. We had an opportunity to talk with keyboardist, and sometimes flautist, Martin Orford.

Davide Guidone: Dark Matter will be available in the stores on the 21st of June. What are your opinions about it. Are you satisfied?

Martin Orford: I think it's the best album we've ever done. I can't really be any more satisfied than that.

DG: In my opinion, it represents a return to the past, to The Wake atmospheres for example. Do you agree?

MO: It is certainly a more aggressive sounding album than most of our recent output, and I think that's why some people think it's reminiscent of The Wake. IQ in the early days had a lot of raw energy, and I think we've managed to recapture that.

DG: Also Peter Nicholls seems to come back to certain Gabriel influences in his voice. Why?

MO: I don't agree with that - Peter Nicholls sings like Peter Nicholls and Peter Gabriel sings like Peter Gabriel. Pete's performance on the album was completely natural and he certainly wasn't going out to sound like Gabriel or anyone else.

DG: On the album we can find a dark atmosphere from the beginning until the end. And the artwork is the demonstration of it. What would you say to the audience about it. And what will the fans feel, listening to it?

MO: We're not saying anything specific to the audience, there is no hidden message there. A CD is there to entertain the people who listen to it - nothing more than that. I hope that people who buy the album will primarily enjoy some of the beautiful music on it.

DG: I believe that an important part of the album is the rhythmic section, as always, but this time John Jowitt and Paul Cook are in great shape, more than usual. Do you agree?

MO: Yes, IQ has a great rhythm section and it's great to hear Paul playing much more complex and intricate material these days. At around the time of Ever he really stripped his style down to basics and simplified everything, but I personally prefer the more technical approach he's taken with this album.

DG: Dark Matter also sees a great work by an unknown keyboardist, Martin Orford. Do you know him? Of course, I'm joking. But I can declare that in this album there are more keys solos and layouts than in The Seventh House. Maybe the last time you were involved more in other projects. Am I wrong?

MO: Yes, I make no secret of the fact that I was not greatly involved in the writing of The Seventh House, as the majority of the IQ members wanted to do that album in a period that I had already put aside to do my solo album. I was much more involved again with Dark Matter and I think I managed to contribute some good things to it.

DG: Why did you choose some vintage keys for the record, like Hammond and Mellotron?

MO: Whenever we do a new album I always look around to see what's new and interesting in terms of keyboards. This time I really couldn't find a single keyboard manufacturer that was offering anything startlingly different in terms of new sounds, but there were lots of companies that were producing instruments that were perfect digital re-creations of "classic" sounds. As that's what's hot at the moment, it seemed like a good time to give it a try, and I went ahead and bought a Korg CX-3 organ, which does great Hammond-type sounds. As soon as the CX-3 arrived in my music room, the material just started to flow - I normally write on piano, and suddenly writing on organ resulted in material with a much harder edge. I think the CX-3 shaped the direction of the album in a very major way. The Mellotron sounds all came from a plug-in module called SampleTank which lives within Pro-Tools on the Apple Mac computer. I used to have a Mellotron, but as soon as the tapes deteriorated it never really sounded any good. The SampleTank Mellotrons sound like the brand new original must have sounded, and they are really spot-on. My only concession to "real" analogue gear was the Moog Taurus bass pedals. I have an original set that I bought from John Wetton which he used to use in UK and Asia. The Moog Taurus are about the last thing that I haven't heard a good re-creation of from a new synth or sampler, so it had to be the original. In addition to the vintage sounds, we did use an incredible new synth plug-in called Atmosphere, which is responsible for quite a lot of the textures on "Born Brilliant."

DG: You performed across the Europe before the release of the album. What was the response of the fans?

MO: It's always a good response from IQ fans - it's the people that don't like us that we have trouble with!

DG: What kind of prog bands do you like now?

MO: I spend so much time working on music that I really have very little interest in listening to other people's music, prog or otherwise. Music is work to me and though it's work I enjoy, it's not anything like a leisure activity for me. I'm not a music fan and I rarely buy more than about 1 CD per year.

DG: And speaking of prog bands, as you also are the owner of GEP Ltd label [Giant Electric Pea], is it possible to send to you demos for an eventual signing?

Not really; GEP is mainly just a label for IQ and related projects now, though I would never rule out doing an outside project if something completely fabulous turned up. Generally speaking though, we've got enough releases now, and a catalogue of nearly 40 products is a lot for one person (me) to manage. There's no point in taking on lots of small acts because it just leaves me with no time to do my own musical projects, and those are generally the label's best sellers! To break a new band you need a great deal of money and manpower and GEP just doesn't have either of those. However GEP does have a good infrastructure of distribution around the world, so it has become a popular label choice for name acts like John Wetton and Renaissance. Those artists already have a fan-base so they make better projects for GEP, as it's really just a case of getting the CDs into the shops.

DG: Let's return to speak about IQ. Dark Matter follows three great albums like Ever, Subterranea and The Seventh House. Do you think that it is of the same worth as the other ones? Or maybe is it better?

MO: Dark Matter is currently my favourite, though I think that Subterranea has a lot to commend it, too.

DG: Are you thinking to insert more experimentations for the next album, or the sound of the band will always remain more or less the same as now?

MO: I have never been keen on experimental music, as I think most of what I've heard is completely shit. I mean, who ever plays John Cage, Stockhausen or Einsturzerde Neubauten CDs for fun? Experimental music is fine for people at universities to muck around, with but it's generally not entertaining or pleasurable, not to my ears anyway. I write melodic tunes that I hope people will whistle on their way to work and I don't have the slightest interest in whether they are pushing back the barriers of music or not. So no, I'm not interested in experimentation, just good tunes. However Mike Holmes and John Jowitt are more interested in that kind of thing, so you might get a different answer from them.

DG: I read some time ago that IQ didn't find any promoter for Italian dates. Why? But most of all, can we hope to see you here soon or not Italians still like prog rock, I assure you!?

MO: We really struggled to get any interest at all in IQ when we tried to book the recent May tour, and none of the promoters we tried in Italy responded to our communications. Many venues we had played before had changed management since the last time we were there, and most of the new people in charge had simply never heard of IQ. We did eventually manage to get a tour arranged, but it involved a huge amount of travelling and was not really how we would have liked it.

Ironically, there is so much interest in the band now that Dark Matter is released, that we could get a great tour arranged really easily now. Unfortunately nothing is easy in IQ and as we all work in full-time professions outside of music, we cannot take any more time off work to tour this year. Many IQ fans find it difficult to comprehend that IQ is just a part-time thing that we do occasionally at weekends, and as we have no plans at all to become full-time musicians, there are never likely to be more than about 10 IQ gigs per year. We would like to come back to Italy at some point, but that is obviously dependent on someone there wanting to promote a concert for us.

DG: That's all the questions I have, Martin. Would you like say something to all the people who will read this interview?

MO: Not really - those kind of dedications always sound really corny!

Discography:
Tales From The Lush Attic (1983)
The Wake (1985)
Living Proof (1986)
Nine In A Pond Is Here (1985)
Nomzamo (1987)
Are You Sitting Comfortably? (1989)
J'ai Pollette D'arnu (1991)
Ever (1994)
Forever Live (1996)
Subterranea (1997)
Seven Stories Into 98 (1998)
The Lost Attic (1998)
Subterranea: The Concert (2000)
The Seventh House (2001)
Dark Matter (2004)

Subterranea: The Concert Video (DVD) (2000)
Subterranea: The Concert DVD (DVD) (2002)
IQ20 - The Twentieth Anniversary Show (DVD) (2004)
Stage (DVD) (2006)