Final Experiment
Aardschok Magazine
01-08-1995
FOR TWO YEARS ARJEN ANTHONY LUCASSEN HAS BEEN WORKING ON HIS LATEST PROJECT. AFTER A PERIOD OF LOTS OF RESEARCH, WRITING AND TAPING DEMO'S, THE FINAL RECORDINGS COULD BE STARTED IN THE STUDIO OF FORMER VENGEANCE-COLLEAGUE OSCAR HOLLEMAN. THESE RECORDINGS TOOK THREE MONTHS INSTEAD OF THE PLANNED TEN DAYS. AFTER THAT, SOME TIME WAS NEEDED TO PICK THE RIGHT RECORD COMPANY. BUT ON OCTOBER 23, 1995, THE MOMENT IS THERE: 'AYREON: A ROCK OPERA' IS BORN. MAYBE AN AMBITIOUS NAME, BUT THIS PIECE OF WORK MAY BEAR IT WITH PRIDE.
The Idea
'Ayreon' is a complete piece of work, a concept with an intriguing and a well written story. In a nice country house, that somehow reflects the atmosphere of the album, Arjen speaks exhaustively.
"I've always had the idea to make a concept story, I already wanted to do that with Vengeance. At the time I already had some mini-stories, like 'Cry of the sirens', about Odysseus, or 'Arabia', about slaves. With Ian Parry in the band we wanted to create a concept album called 'Sleepers Awake', but we didn't get a new record deal. On my first solo album there was the track 'Crescendo', that in a way can be regarded as the beginning of this story, a Nostradamus-like thing. Before that album I was already thinking about this, and as soon as it was finished I devoted myself to it completely. First I wrote the music, well, almost all of it, later on a few tracks were added- and I sat down to listen to it. I asked other people to listen to it and asked them what the music reminded them of; every one of them was thinking of the medieval times. I wanted to tell a story about one main character and his thoughts. When I finished the lyrics of the first two songs, I still didn't know the entire story line. I was looking for a rhyme and asked my girlfriend Jolanda for suggestions and she said 'could it be a future world that's warning us through me'. That remark got me thinking and then at once I had the complete concept in my head. Of course things had to be polished and worked out and the question was who would do the singing. It was all a process of evolution. I wanted something both modern and old-fashioned. That's my view on music. I wanted to make music that would be really great, and in the old days music was really great, Zeppelin and stuff. And if you record it the right way, it just sounds modern."
In the end it has become a story with a clear message: humanity is messing up. Have you become a Greenpeace fanatic?
"I didn't intend the message as it turned out to be. It's just a fact: things are going the wrong way in this world and if that continues it will all be over soon. It's up to people to change that, but I'm not a fanatic."
The Story
Though some things have already been said about the story, you might want to tell us more about the story line of the concept, before we start talking about the creation of this ambitious project.
"The story begins with a prologue in 2084: earth isn't a nice place to be anymore and the majority of humanity is dead. Scientists have developed a computer program, 'Time telepathy', which enables them to send images of wars, disasters, etc. back in time, hoping that people would learn from them and choose for a different future. It's the last possible way to survive and therefore it's called 'The final experiment'. Ayreon, a blind minstrel, in 'Act I', is receiving the images. Of course he doesn't understand at first, but slowly he starts to realize that he's seeing images from the future. In his village however no one believes him and he even gets banned from the village. In 'Act II' he arrives at Camelot, King Arthur's court, where is appointed as a minstrel. After a while he sings there about the images - 'Act III'. Merlin, the court's magician, doesn't believe Ayreon and thinks he just wants to attract people's attention. In 'Act IV' he is turning the court against Ayreon and casts a spell on him. Whether Ayreon dies or not is in fact not revealed. Later on Merlin has a vision from which he concludes that Ayreon was right after all and he foretells that Ayreon's story will be told in the 20th century. And that is in the form of this CD."
The Creation
The most unbelievable rumors are being spread about the financing of this project, among them the one that says you sold your house to do it. Can you tell us how it really went?
"At first I thought I could finance the project myself, but it grew bigger and bigger. My father gave me a very large amount of money, to be able to do so he sold the house I lived in in The Hague. People must be thinking I'm a poor man living on the streets with just a few cents in my pocket, haha. But I'm glad to say that the money I got in advance for the album covered the expenses."
You have a large need for perfection; you even went on a trip to England to investigate Arthur-legens over there.
"It was clear that the story would be placed in the middle ages and the first thing one then thinks of? King Arthur. And before I write something.....I want to be sure I'm not making any mistakes. That's why I went to England, visited some places, read some books. Though that's just a small part of the story. But I did similar things for the rest of the story; I investigated it all."
Every 'Act' in the booklet has its own symbol: what do they mean?
"The eye is the symbol for the images that blind Ayreon sees. The second symbol, the Round Table, is obvious. By the way, it is known that this is not the real table, but one reconstructed in the 11th century by a king who wanted to have the same status as Arthur. The third symbol is also obvious: the atomic bomb. It has happened before and might happen again. The fourth symbol is the clock, symbolising sending imags back in time, but also: our time is running out. You can hear it at the end of the album."
You did almost everything yourself: lyrics, music, production, CD-cover, PR. A father guarding his child?
"I had everything in my head, the way I wanted things to be, and for the CD-cover for instance you just start doing research and designs yourself. I know the complete story and the atmosphere it should breathe, I couldn't give this job to someone else."
At a certain time everything is finished, but then you have to bring it to the public. Considering the style of music and the concept-idea that might not have been very easy.
"I did the mastering myself. Twenty-five pieces had to be glued together, that took me three days. The guy who worked at the mastering gave the tape to a record company. They asked me to visit them the same day to talk about a deal. I was thinking: if it's this easy, I want to look around a bit more. I got a lot of positive reactions, but most of them found the investment too large. The music isn't commercial enough. Finally I got a deal in Japan with JVC, thanks to Aardschok. In the Netherlands I'm with Double Dutch. Until now they mainly did re-releases, but they wanted to start a new label, Transmission. Actually I was getting ready to sign a deal with a German label when that guy gave me a phonecall and asked me if he could listen to it. I sent him a tape and the same night he was on the phone again, increasing his bid over and over. Well, I just couldn't refuse anymore."
The Future
Ayreon has become a project, unique in Dutch rock history. A lot of people gave their best to create it: during the recording sessions eightteen people were involved, among them thirteen vocalists. Can a project like this ever be done on stage?
"You can only do that if you're certain that it will be a success. That means money on the one hand and an interested public on the other hand. It might be possible to get these people together to do a show for four or five days in a row in a theater.....that would be great. But there are lots of possibilities...musical, CD-I, film..."
The enthousiasm is reflected in Arjen's eyes. Whether there will ever be more than the album or not, the future will tell, but the CD itself is absolutely a beauty. We will continue this conversation in the december issue when we will talk about the participating musicians, with well-known names like Ian Parry, Leon Goewie, Lenny Wolf, Jan-Chris de Koeijer and Barry Hay