The Human Equation
with Heather Findlay
Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles - Carl Begai
27-05-2004
In the wake of the positive feedback for Arjen Lucassen's new AYREON album, The Human Equation, BW&BK caught up with one of the many vocal talents on the album, Heather Findlay from MOSTLY AUTUMN. Joining a cast that includes James LaBrie (DREAM THEATER), Magnus Ekwall (THE QUILL), Devon Graves (DEAD SOUL TRIBE), Mikael Akerfeldt (OPETH), Irene Jansen (KARMA), Eric Clayton (SAVIOR MACHINE), Mike Baker (SHADOW GALLERY) and Devin Townsend (STRAPPING YOUNG LAD), Findlay portrays the character Love on The Human Equation, her first foray into the world of metal.
On Mostly Autumn:
"We aren't a metal band although at times we may be considered as heavy rock. Our sound is difficult to pigeonhole. We're sometimes described as Floyd-esque rock with Celtic and ethereal shades. Very '70's influenced by the likes of all sorts from Buckingham Nicks-era Fleetwood Mac to Genesis to Zeppelin and Deep Purple at times. We can be quite folky and even classical at times, particularly in a renaissence/baroque style. We're very diverse!"
On being brought into Lucassen's musical world:
"I met Arjen socially through Damian Wilson (ex-Threshold/Star One) when I visited him at the Electric Castle Studios during a session of his there. Damian had spoken a lot about Arjen prior to this and a number of our fans had often mentioned Ayreon to me. It even transpires that we once met briefly at a CRS awards ceremony many years before that. He came to a Blackmores Night show we opened in Germany too. Small world…"
"I feel I get on with Arjen very well and I think our sense of humour is pretty well matched, as are a lot of our musical tastes. This really helps as sessions can get a little tense, but this one never did really. I just remember having a lot of fun. His place is roaming with animals; cats, horses, chickens etc., which I really love. So, for me the environment itself, which is right out in the middle of Dutch countryside, is wonderful to begin with. The pace was disciplined enough yet very relaxed. Arjen seems very happy to let you decide when you want to begin the day…within reason I'm sure, but I wasn't that rock 'n' roll (laughs). I had my own space, too, which even gave me the opportunity to write, which I loved."
"Arjen has a great ear for pitch, phrasing and expression which is fantastic for any vocalist as you cannot always hear every nuance as they spontaneously go by. I kind of expected that much, having heard the consistent quality of the vocal performances given on Arjen's previous releases."
On being selected for the role of Love on The Human Equation:
"was I wondering if I could pull it off? Oh yes! Like I said, I had heard Ayreon before through friends and fans of ours, and through Damian, of course. I originally wouldn't have dreamed of being invited to sing with Arjen. I did feel quite inadequate as a vocalist around Damian and especially walking into the Electric Castle where all of those flawless performances by all had been created."
"The time I was there with Damian, Arjen kept quizzing me about my voice and I kept playing myself down so as to avoid having to sing for him or something. At that point I had never been given the opportunity to really belt out a rock tune in Mostly Autumn before, yet the album that followed this meeting proved to me that I really could. I think Arjen was working on The Human Equation at the time but hadn't chosen all the vocalists yet."
"When we (Mostly Autumn) had completed our next album, Passengers, I was really pleased with my performances and thought that they were now perhaps good enough for Arjen to hear. It turns out that I worried too much. At the aforementioned Blackmore's Night show a couple of years before (that we opened for), Arjen had already decied that, 'that singer has a great voice'; neither he nor I at that point knew that 'that singer' was me!"
"Ayreon is not just about belting rock tunes, I know, but I did think that this style of singing created some of the required criteria. I didn't hear the other singers work until we got going really which was all so superb and so diverse! All I knew at this point was that what I did had to be really good!"
On working outside Mostly Autumn:
"I knew that the work I had done with Mostly Autumn brought me to Arjen's attention and that he liked my voice for what it does therein. I also knew I would be stretched into areas that I hadn't been with my voice before. He had already said regarding my most stretching performance to that date 'oh and there's more still where that came from!' And, of course he was indeed right. Out came the rack…(laughs).
"Arjen really taught me, more than anything, not to be afraid of pushing out higher notes in my full voice where I thought there were none. I would at first wuss out and attempt them in falsetto and he would just give me this look through his hair… and then laugh. I also found myself whilst learning my lines with the demo's sounding more and more like Kate Bush (whom I adore, as does Arjen). This worried me and I thought it had maybe arisen out of Arjen's request to be as English as I could be in pronunciation and diction and purely the keys that some tunes were written in. When we discussed this in the car on the way from the airport he didn't believe I would sound like Kate. So, for a laugh I really fed him some Bush-isms on a practice run of one of the tunes. I think he was quite freaked out by it (laughs)."
"It turns out that there are some moments that do very much show my Kate Bush influence but, playing the character Love with a very English accent, well…this is something I don't think Mostly Autumn fans will have heard too much of in me so far although others have already made the comparison."
"I think there is a lot of me in this character. I am a very lovey, expressive kind of person and I think Arjen saw this too. It particularly comes over in 'Day 13: Sign', the song that he asked me to pen some of the lyrics for. Songs like this are very akin to some moments in Mostly Autumn. I think our fans will love this record. It has both heart and teeth which I know they love."
For more information on Mostly Autumn go to this location.