The Human Equation
Louis Koot - Pithfather.com
30-06-2004
Ayreon - The Human Equation is Arjen Anthony Lucassen's new masterpiece. An album that tells an intriguing story in the course of twenty days with the same amount of tracks. This double disc is full of ambitious and adventurous music consisting of a melt-together of different styles.
At the moment when everybody is in anxious anticipation of the performance of the Dutch soccer team I'm in anticipation to speak to Arjen Lucassen himself. To my suprise Arjen calls half an hour earlier than agreed upon because of the upcoming soccer game. Now that is what I call good thinking! So let's find out more about the human behind The Human Equation...
Do you like soccer ?
No, I'm afraid not so much.
Your new album The Human Equation has been received very well. How did you feel about all the reactions on the new album ?
At first I startled a bit from the reactions. I gave a copy of The Human Equation to friends and relatives and asked for their opinion. They gave me a hard time by saying they thought it was different than my other work and had to get used to it first. Luckily after a week or so they came around with their opinions and assured me that they liked it. In fact they thought it was the best album I had ever done. Now I am very pleased with all the reviews I read so far. I saw some 100 reviews and only two of them were really bad. So I'm happy. Apart from that The Human Equation came in the charts (Dutch Top 100) at no. 7. Next to a band like Kane for example this is not bad especially since I don't get so much airplay. I owe this to the fans and to the succes of the Ayreon website.
Are you sensitive about criticism ?
Yes, I am! Very sensitive in fact...haha When the reactions are good of course I like it but when something bad is written it tends to bug me.
How do you compose your music ? And how did the creation of The Human Equation come about ?
I am constantly making music. I always fool around recording stuff on a cassette recorder making bits and pieces. Then for The Human Equation I had some idea's that ended up in about 30 songs! It hurt me that i had to drop 10 of those for this album. I realised I still ended up with 20 so the new album had to be a double album again.... I always come up with the music first and then when the concept idea is there I start writing the lyrics. The lyrics actually come easy to me as soon as the music is finished. When I start writing the lyrics I have no idea where I will end up and how the story will develop....hahaha For The Human Equation I actually wrote the lyrics for the 20 songs in 20 (non-consecutive) days.
How did you typecast the different singers for their role on the album ?
This depends very much on the specific kind of singer. The emotion the singer holds inside his / her voice was dependent for their place on this record. For example Heather Findlay (Mostly Autumn) has the kind of voice that was perfectly suitable for the role of 'Love' ! Ones I knew I had different singers participating on this album I could consider their way of singing and gave them the role that best fits them.
In what way do you direct the perfomance of the singers or do you let them go their own way ?
That depends. I always give them guide-vocals. Those are my own vocals recorded with the songs that will give them an idea of how the melody lines should go. Then they can follow that melody line or use their own interpretation. Some vocalists exactly follow the guide-vocals but others give their own swing to it which might end up with a different result. When it works then it's ok with me!
You play a variety of different musical instruments. What is you favorite apart from the guitar ?
Bass! Definitely the bass. I like to be slamming on that instrument making this heavy sound....haha When it comes to the keyboard stuff I'm very much an anolog synthesizer freak!
Ayreon has a very specific kind of sound by now that is very recognisable. Do you do this on purpose ?
No! On the contrary! hahaha I try to avoid sounding in a specific kind of way. I never wanna repeat myself or do the same stuff again. I guess when it comes to something like an Ayreon sound it is there because of my way of playing the guitar. And because of the kind of instruments I use like the analog synthesizers. But it's not something deliberate.
Since Ayreon has become a big name in the world of (progressive) metal do musicians vollunteer themselves to participate on the next Ayreon ?
Yes, they do! In fact it's the other way around than when I first started out with Ayreon....hahaha! Now some musicians are offering themselves for a place on the Ayreon albums. Like James LaBrie (Dream Theater) who contacted me with the question if he could participate sometime. He had heard some of my older work and was very enthousiastic about it. So it's a fortunate position for me.
Have you ever been very disappointed with the collaboration of some guest musicians ?
It happened a couple of times. Like two or three times that it didn't work out or the performance wasn't what I hoped for. I'm not gonna name any names though...ha! but it happens. What is important to me is that the guest musicians are actually with me in the studio!! Especially for an album like The Human Equation that is very much about emotions. I like to be in touch with the person singing. It works much better than working with tapes. Of course sometimes I can't avoid working with tapes when the singers participation is very minimal or a person is just not able to get here in the studio.
Are there any musicians you would like to have participated but you couldn't get ?
Yes, my own heroes like Alice Cooper, David Gilmoure and Ronnie James Dio. I tried but it didn't work because of course these musicians are so busy with their own stuff. They don't have time nor, I guess, the need to participate in the things I do. But I'll keep on trying to get them so perhaps someday.
Do you see Ayreon as some kind of launch for new undiscoverd talent ?
Yeah, definitely! For this album I put an add on the website saying i was looking for new talent to participate in the new Ayreon project. Well it worked! ha! I got like 150 demo tapes!! I listened to all of them and responded to all of them. Just one of them I choose. That was the Mexican singer Marcela Bovio..... I sent her a mail saying she could participate! She was outraged! She had never been out of Mexico and could go to Holland to sing on a rock opera! So this is a good thing because in this way new talent is put in the spotlight and given oppertunities to follow up their career in the music business.
Let's go way back to the dark ages of 1995! What made you decide to put life again in the dead phenomenon of the rock opera and make Ayreon - The Final Experiment ?
This is something I always wanted to do. Ever since i first got into rock opera's like Tommy by The Who and Jesus Christ Superstar I always had the idea's to try something like that on my own someday. Then when things started to turn out bad for Vengeance and we weren't able to get a new record deal for that band i thought what the hack then i might as well do my own thing. Do something I really like to do and make a rock opera! At first it was very hard to get the interests of the record companies to go along. It took me a half year to get the thing going but then I find the Double Dutch label (now Transmission records) very enthousiastic and from then on things started moving and The Final Experiment became a success!
In this way you provoked a whole new generation of rock opera's like Avantasia, Genius, Nostradameus, Aina etc... to follow you up ? How do you feel about that ?
Of course that is a great feeling. Although some of those are more metal opera's. Like Avantasia is quit different from what I do as it focuses more on the metal style while I try to put all different musical influences into Ayreon.
The public does tend to get spoiled with all these different singers participating on one album!
Yeah, I see what you mean. I have it myself as well when I listen to a new album and there is only one singer on it i feel a bit disappointed. Where is the variation and interaction between different singers ? ha! I ruined it for everybody! hahaha! It's something that is interesting for the record companies as well to put different guest singers on an album and put a sticker on it with the names of participants to push the sales. I remember Transmission wanted me to use different singers too. But i would never ask somebody to participate just to have another famous name on the album. Like for example Glenn Hughes is someone who appears almost everywhere. That is a bit too much. I only ask people for Ayreon that have voices that i=I like and fit into the music context. Not because they are big names and push the sales or whatever....
How about you yourself participating in another person's projects like you did on The Hound Of The Baskervilles from Clive Nolan and Oliver Wakeman. How do you feel about that ?
I get asked a lot to participate on other projects. I usually like to do something for the others but not so much for myself. It's not like I have to do it for myself. But it's only like two hours out of your life and your name is on the record! So that is cool. And when I participate on other projects musicians help me out on mine as well. So in return Oliver Wakeman did a key solo on The Human Equation. Actually on The Hound Of The Baskervilles I played my best guitar solo ever in the song Seldon!
What do you think about the current rock scene in Holland ? Is it very much different from the time you were touring a lot with Bodine and Vengeance ?
In the times I was touring I knew exactly what happend in and around the Dutch metal scene. I guess it was a bit restricted to a Dutch rock movement of hard work and touring. There wasn't so much possibilties to get outside the scene and have success abroad and so on. Nowadays I lost contact with the scene as I live in a place very separated from the outside world. Of course I read all the rock magazine's and keep informed but I'm not really in the scene. I think with bands like After Forever, The Gathering and Within Temptation a lot of good things are happening.
And seeing concerts ? How about the Arrow Classic Rock Festival for example ?
Yes, I was there! I went to see Alice Cooper of course!! I was all in front singing along the songs with tears in my eyes. It was great!!! He is amazing! Blue Oyster Cult is another old favorite of mine but I was very much disappointed with their performance. But of course I saw The Scorpions and Judas Priest as well. My old heroes but somehow they were less overwhelming as I expected. It is like it doesn't make this huge impact on me the way it did in the old days. And with Robert Halford back in Judas Priest it's great. Eventhough previous singer 'Ripper' Owens is technicaly very strong and Halford of course is getting a bit older....well the Priest is back....
Don't you agree the Arrow Classic Rock Festival shows that the old rock scene is very much a male dominated world in comparision with the rock scene nowadays ?
Well maybe on The Arrow Classis Rock Festival but don't forget about the rock scene in the mid eighties! It was very much crowded with women! In that time the Vengeance fanclub consisted half of women. So don't be mistaken there were a lot of women around in those days. ha!
Well when i saw Symphony X playing I suddenly spotted a much higher attendance of the female than with the other performances on the Arrow Classic Rock Festival !
Must have something to do with the very macho singer Sir Russel Allen!!! hahaha!
So for Star One you did a tour playing songs from Ayreon as well. Any possibility for this to happen in the future again ?
Well, I don't know. It is very expensive to arrange a tour like that. For Star One I had to put up all the money and luckily I was able to earn back through the sale of merchandise. And it was a good thing we had live recordings to make a dvd. But next to the expenses the logistic part is very hard. How to get all the singers to be available for a tour is very problematic. Of course I could use other singers but then the Ayreon fans wouldn't wanna be confronted with all different people.
How about your next project ? Any plans ?
I never plan anything upfront. In this period after the record I keep myself busy with interviews and all. At this point I haven't the faintest idea what I will do next. But I do know it won't be an Ayreon.
So by now, Arjen Anthony Lucassen stands for quite a lot: Bodine, Vengeance, Strange Hobby, Ayreon, Ambeon, Star One. With which one of these you feel most at home ?
Ayreon! Definitely Ayreon. That is my main project. In Ayreon i can put in everything from myself because it is very diverse. I always like to do promotion for Ayreon because everything I want to say musically is in there.
Thanks very much for the interview and thank you for all the great music!
You're welcome!!