Into the Electric Castle
Heavy oder Was Magazine
01-02-1999
As you could read in my 12 points review, 'Into The Electric Castle' to me is the best and most important progressive album since the Marillion-releases featuring Fish - and those have been quite a while ago. The atmosphere of this record is so unique and Arjen Lucassen manages every time again, to drive the storyline with fantastic moments of tension. Rarely a release with the duration of two albums has captivated me like 'Into The Electric Castle' did.
It is admirable that master Lucassen, whom a lot of us surely remember from his days with Party Metal-band Vengeance, is a truly humble, rather shy and incredibly polite person and not one of those guitarsnobs, who want to prove the world how great and what excellent songwriters they are. It makes this whole conversation a lot more sympathetic. Rarely I had a discussion partner as polite as Arjen and my interview with him was really a pleasure.
So, Arjen, please tell us first about the concept of 'Into The Electric Castle'.
Clearly, the story has eight different characters, originating from eight eras in time. They suddenly find themselves in a different dimension. They don't know each other and have no knowledge about where they are. Everything is black and the only things they can see are stars. Suddenly they hear a voice that says: 'You don't know each other, you're coming from different eras in time and there is only one way to return to your own dimension. You must find the electric castle. In this castle you will find a gateway back to your own dimension.' With that, their search for the electric castle, which is in fact just composed of their own dreams and fears, starts. The voice also lets them know, that not all of them will survive the journey. The journey will be very dangerous and they discover many fears hidden in their inner selves. I will not talk about the outcome of course, you should buy the disc to find out, Arjen grins.
Where does one find the idea for such a story or concept?
It was a problem. I had a very simple science fiction story in mind. I didn't want a certain 'outcome' in the story, as I did in 'The Final Experiment'. My first thought was to make a sequel to 'The Final Experiment', but that didn't work out because the story got so complex, that even I didn't understand parts of it anymore myself. I told the story to my wife and when she kept asking me questions about it, I found that I couldn't answer them. That's why I wanted a really straightforward storyline. So I started looking for singers first, that might be within my reach and when I had eight singers available, I wrote a storyline to fit the singers. Fish of course was the perfect highlander. I phoned every singer and asked them whether they could imagine themselves in the roles that I had in mind for them. Almost all of them agreed right away, but Jay van Feggelen couldn't really envision himself as the 'gangster' and he told me he really liked Conan the Barbarian and I said: 'No problem, then you're a barbarian.' Damian Wilson also doubted his role as a knight in the beginning, but after a while he could live with it.
What about arranging the music? Did you write the music first and then the lyrics, or the other way around?
I have a recording studio in my home and every time I watch TV, I start composing. Either I come up with a melody or a riff, that I record right away. This time I had lots of ideas. About 40 or 50 and I wrote them all down. Not in musical notes because I can't read them, let alone write them. I write down that 'this sounds like Led Zeppelin' or 'that sounds like Pink Floyd'. Usually I remember what I meant writing it down and if I don't, it just wasn't good enough. Then I start turning the ideas into sounds, programming my drum computer, bringing the songs into a shape. When the songs are ready, I refine them by adding several keyboard sounds, so a song really gets an atmosphere. After that I call in the musicians, to add the necessary instruments to the song. The drums come in first, then the bass guitar. I could use my first guitar recording this time, because Ed Warby played the drums so precisely, that there was no need for me to re-record the guitars. After that the guest players add their solo parts. Only after all that is done, I start thinking of who should sing what parts of the songs. I can tell you, that this selection is really difficult. After all, they all have to fit the story line. When Fish dies in the beginning, he can't show up again later on the album. Fortunately everything turned out perfect. After I made these choices, I started writing the lyrics.
Was it difficult to get all these singers?
In fact, I contacted much more singers. I composed a list of all my favourite vocalists and it was clear to me, that only a limited number of them would be within reach for me. There were big names on my list, like Paul McCartney, Robert Plant or David Gilmore. But without taking chances you can't win and I couldn't get more than a refusal. Some of them answered personally and some of them had their managed tell me that they wouldn't participate. Paul McCartney surely receives like 50 CDs a day and I knew my request was without a chance. At least I got an answer. Fish's case was really complicated too, because it took a long time for him to reply. By the time I was ready for the recordings, I told him he had to make a swift decision and luckily he decided to do it. He fits his role perfectly and I love his scottish accent. I had to use a decent amount of persuasion to convince The Gathering's Anneke, because she usually doesn't do any side projects, but luckily that also worked out, because she has a truly magical voice.
What can you tell me about the beautiful artwork of the disc? It looks like it has been painted especially for this album.
That's right. It took me a long time to find an artist able to represent my imaginations. I tried seven artists before him, but none of them did what I had in mind. After that, my brother told me he had discovered a gallery of an artist, who might be what I was looking for. I visited this artist's gallery and I was impressed by his work because it contained exactly that style, that would fit the concept of the disc. The name of this Belgian artist is Jef Bertels. In fact he is quite unknown. I asked him if he'd be willing to paint my images and he said yes. I explained to him, what I wanted to see in the paintings. It had to be the rainbow bridge, the decision tree, the tower of hope and a number of other themes from the album and he transformed them to paintings so well, that I was really enthousiastic. He needed a month to make the painting. I bought the original painting, so I could have this genious work on the wall in my home.
Do you think it might ever be possible to perform this work of the century in a live show?
In my eyes it is impossible. On the one hand all these artists would never be available at the same time, on the other hand it is of course a matter of costs. If we would want to perform this story on stage, we would have to practice. Most of them would have to take a plane, and that alone would trigger a cost explosion. Furthermore you would need a certain atmosphere for this type of music. The electric castle and other stuff would have to be on stage and I don't think anyone would be willing to pay for all that. Finally I'm not that anxious anymore to play live. I have done enough of that in my Vengeance days. I prefer to be at home composing new songs. I just have more fun doing that. My wild days are over.
How are the sales of 'Into The Electric Castle' going?
They're going great. Much better than I ever dared to dream. My latest work has already sold better than 'The Final Experiment' and 'Actual Fantasy' together. I think it is a good thing that the double disc costs only about 5 german marks more than a regular disc. Plus the excellent reviews, especially in the german press. I am very satisfied.
Do you have plans for further work already? Since you don't have any tour planned, you might be able to start a new project right away.
That's right. I am in the middle of songwriting again and I have concrete ideas about the new project. I intend it to be two individual discs, to be released simultaneously. But that doesn't mean that it is a promotional thing like the Guns and Roses two-disc set. I am thinking of one really mellow disc with a lot of atmospheric sounds and only scarcely used guitars. The other disc should be a really heavy metal-disc, with lots of double base drums and heavy riffing. I can imagine a sort of Progressive Metal, combined with old Rainbow-sounds. I intend to have my guitar work a bit more in the foreground again and to emphasise complex and fast solos more than before. I have already recorded most of this music.
And what about guest singers this time? Have you been contacting people already?
Of course I have already thought about it. Elegy's Ian Parry will definitely be one of the vocalists and I am very interested in Primal Fear's Ralf Scheepers. Aside from these two I want to contact Savatage's Jon Oliva and I think we will come to an understanding too. Further names on my list of people I'd like to ask are former Helloween-singer Michael Kiske and Bruce Dickinson, but I haven't contacted them yet. But I can imagine both of them being interested. About the next two discs I can say, that they will not be connected by a concept. They will both have a seperate concept. I also thought of having only female singers on the mellow disc and only male singers on the heavy disc and I think this would be a good idea. But this might be a dangerous way of thinking, because this concept might turn out to be a complete disaster. But I have always been someone searching for challenges and unafraid of experiments. It's for sure that I will never record the same album twice, I have done that with Vengeance more than enough. The new discs will definitely not be released before the year 2000, because they will probably take lots of time and I would like to start the next Millenium with something new.
And that gives us something to look forward to...