METAL-ZEN

Riverside is mesmerizing. Plain and simple. Case closed. Next?

Seriously, in the span of just three full-length albums (a trilogy comprised of Out of Myself, 2003, Second Life Syndrome, 2005, and Rapid Eye Movement, 2007), plus a couple of EPs (Voices in My Head, 2005, and 02 Panic Room, 2007), Poland’s Riverside has become the new Pink Floyd meets Opeth meets Porcupine Tree meets, well, no one. Although sporting the sublime craftsmanship of the aforementioned bands, they have managed to transcend comparisons to reach the rarified status of being wholly unique.

After a long, two-month process trying to connect with bassist Mariusz Duda, he and I had a lengthy chat on June 18, 2008.

You’re welcome to eavesdrop.

Enjoy!

MD: Hello?

BM: Is this Mariusz?

MD: [laughs] Oh yeah, it’s me. Hi.

BM: Hi, this is Bill Murphy.

MD: Finally.

BM: [laughs] Yeah, this is great.

MD: Yeah, I know. To be honest I didn’t realize how important this is, and I’m very sorry for the last, for the Monday. I had a situation, I had to go and I was waiting a little bit, but unfortunately, some problems. But it’s already fixed, so it’s ok.

BM: Good, very good. Well, it’s great to talk to you. I appreciate your time tonight.

MD: No, it’s ok, of course.

BM: Well, as you know, we’re doing these ProgPower interviews, and they’re kind of highly regarded because they’re pretty in depth, you know. I’ll talk to a musician about his whole career, not just the latest album. So, I appreciate your time. I understand you guys are working on a DVD right now. How’s that going?

MD: Well, we just recorded everything. A lot of tapes. [laughs]

BM: Oh yeah.

MD: Yeah, we started some kind of post-production now. And I think, well, we will finish this I think in September, October, because now we had a few concerts now, and don’t have time to finish this. And of course, the studio is booked for the autumn, so we’ll go back to this. But I have, I think we have very good material, and it will be very nice release, really.

BM: Is there any particular challenge with this? Do you think you’ll have to overdub anything in the studio, or are all the tapes pretty well, pretty solid as they stand?

MD: Well, we will try to do as much, you know, real [laughs] as we can. And but of course there is some kind of troubles with the balance and stuff, and sometimes maybe we have to change some kind of mistakes. [laughs] If it will be. But for sure, we would like to keep as much as we can the whole atmosphere, because that was there during the show, it was very nice, very fantastic. The audience was amazing and we all hope this. So I hope it will be a good release. I hope at the end of this year.

BM: Great. And you chose now to record and release Lunatic Soul, your first solo album.

MD: Yes.

BM: Can you tell me, why did you want to have a solo album? What is it about this album that’s allowing you to make music you can’t make in Riverside?

MD: Well, first of all, it’s a project without electric guitar. [laughs]

BM: Oh really, acoustic?

MD: Yes. Yeah, I am playing an acoustic guitar. All guitars are acoustic in this project. But sometimes it sounds a little bit different than acoustic guitar. But this is first point, so imagine Riverside without the guitar. You know?

BM: [laughs]

MD: So I had to do this, because you know, from the beginning I just wanted to develop myself, develop my style. Not only as a vocalist, but also as a musician. And I think it’s a good, when we closed some kind of chapter in our, if I can say that, career, [laughs] so I thought that it could be a good moment for doing something just at the side a little bit. And this is some kind of my closure of my own personal stuff, and I thought that you know, this year, it will be something like I will have 32 years. So, well, just decided to do something before they crucify me.

BM: [laughs]

MD: All these people around. No, I think you know, Riverside will be my priority, but I think that it’s sometimes necessary to the artist to try to develop a little bit your own ways, and I think it will help for the band also, because you, for the future, you have to do something more original. And it will be better.

BM: Oh, I see. Well, congratulations on playing ProgPower USA this fall. It’s going to be interesting to see you guys. For those who aren’t familiar with a Riverside live concert, what can they expect from yout? Your CDs seem to have a very cerebral kind of quality to them. When you play live, how do you replicate that? How do you capture the headphone thrill of a Riverside album on stage?

MD: Well, I think Riverside has some kind of two faces, you know. The studio face and the live face. And it’s nice because when we are on the stage, we are sometimes trying to change our songs a little bit. And this whole atmosphere and the contact with the audience, sometimes just pushing you to do all this songs you know better. [laughs] If I can say that.

BM: Yeah.

MD: So I think there’s much more energy in Riverside when we are playing live than in the studio. And because sometimes you know in the studio it’s much easier to sing several voices, you know, at the same time, and you just noticed much more atmosphere, you’re just trying to focus on the atmosphere more than on the energy, if I can say that better.

BM: Oh yeah.

MD: But on the stage, Riverside sounds quite a little bit different, sometimes because of I can’t play bass and acoustic guitar at the same time.

BM: [laughs]

MD: So we’re trying to change our arrangement, and it sounds pretty original, you can tell.

BM: Well, you guys have a trilogy, three albums, major studio albums.

MD: Yes.

BM: How will you choose a set for ProgPower with that? Like a third of each one, or how will you divide that up? How will you represent your career?

MD: [sigh] I don’t know. We will try to choose the best tracks we have. And because this is a ProgPower, and we will try not using only ballads. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

MD: So I think there will be a lot of fire on the stage.

BM: Oh great. Well, let’s start at the beginning. When you first wanted to become a musician, how did that come about? How did you know you wanted to be a musician, and did you dream of being a rock star? Or did you just start wanting to play an instrument and see what happened after that?

MD: To be honest, this was the easiest thing I could do, you know.

BM: [laughs]

MD: Just take a guitar and play some songs. That was much easier than, I don’t know, write something for the lesson. [laughs] Yeah, really. But my sister was into piano, and I remember I was in the primary school, together with my friend. We did some kind of our own records on tapes. And I remember I had a keyboard, and I just recorded in mono, in mono, not stereo, in mono, 90 minutes of some kind of improvisations. It was very terrible, really.

BM: [laughs]

MD: But we’d get our friend, and my friend was better player on the keyboards, but I had I think better ideas sometimes. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

MD: And I remember this moment, you know, where we just, we put also our own sleeves and our own covers. That was very nice. I remember that moment, that would be nice if in the future that would be my job. So I waited 15 years, I think, and I have what I wanted to. [laughs]

BM: Well, your bio on the Riverside website says that you “put music above everything, you hear it everywhere.” It says you “want to enjoy life inside the world you created in your mind. For these reasons, you sometimes appear a totally unreal man.”

MD: Sometimes yes.

BM: Explain that. Does that mean you walk around all the time with a \smile on your face and songs in your head? Sort of out of it?

MD: Sometimes my girlfriend’s always telling me, “You didn’t listen to me again.” And I said, “Yeah, that’s true. Sorry, I was somewhere else.”

BM: [laughs]

MD: I know it’s sometimes hard to be together with that kind of man. I am really trying to learn how to live with second person with that kind of disease, if I can say that.

BM: [laughs]

MD: But to be honest, I’m very happy with this disease when we’re together with friends in the rehearsal room and just doing this stuff. So I can finally, you know, just combine all those elements I had in my mind for I don’t know, two, three days since our last meeting, and just do something with it. So, but I think, well, now I’m learning how to live with different people [laughs] without this undoing when you’re sometimes in front of somebody. But I think I’m going better and better with this.

BM: [laughs]

MD: But I’m really good with that, really. It’s really cool thing, you know.

BM: Well, your influences are great. Your bio says your inspirations are Geddy Lee, John Wetton, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Fish. And I like what you said about Steve Hogarth [Marillion] singing “out of tune” and “through his nose.” [laughs] That’s the way he sounds, isn’t it?

MD: [laughs] That was some kind of joke, you know. I didn’t mean to say something bad about Steve Hogarth, because I really, I used to have moments that I really appreciate this guy, really.

BM: Yeah, it’s true. I’ve got a friend in a progressive rock band in England who says the same thing about Steve Hogarth, he says he always sounds like he’s playing with a head cold. [laughs]

MD: Well, what can I say? But ok, somebody might not like that kind of voice, but I think this Steve has a, he’s very talented if we’re talking about for instance, creating melodic lines.

BM: Oh yeah.

MD: This is very nice, really. And this is sometimes much better and much more important if you know, the sound of voice. Like, just take a look at Rush, for instance. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

MD: I mean, those previous records, well, Geddy Lee is a phenomenal bass player, but I don’t think so if he’s also the same phenomenal in vocal, vocally. But that’s ok, it depends on your mood. It depends on the way you feel. So whatever.

BM: Yeah. Well, your voice is, I can hear a bit of John Wetton in your voice sometimes. You have a really pleasant, smooth voice that’s kind of a cross between John Wetton and Steven Wilson. So it’s real pleasant to listen to. What do you think of vocals these days that are becoming really popular, that so-called growl, the death-metal, cookie-monster sound?

MD: Well, to be honest, I know that it’s, now it’s quite popular. I think that this some kind of contrast thing is very popular.

BM: Yeah.

MD: [laughs] Ok, let’s talk about Opeth. You know, their last album I think is very progressive, so it’s quite nice balance. But to be honest, I think it’s because you know, people wants to look for something original. And it’s I think sometimes nice when you want to express yourself out of limit, you know?

BM: Yeah.

MD: It’s the same we wanted to do on our first record, when we just did, when we recorded “Out of Myself’ it was two moments, in “Out of Myself” and “Loose Heart.” I remember, about “Loose Heart,” “Ok, we did quite nice ballad, let’s destroy this now.” [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

MD: “Let’s do something completely different at the end.” And we used a little bit harder vocal, and I noticed that that’s quite popular stuff. But to be honest, we started before all this happened, you know. Ok, it was Opeth maybe first, but I feel that what we did in that time, it was quite original. And if now this is very popular, so ok. Maybe within a few years, somebody says, “Ok, one of those bands that started singing like that was more or less Riverside also.”

BM: Well, when you first started Riverside, did you envision how it would eventually sound? In other words, when you look at Riverside as it is now, is it what you wanted it to be when you started out?

MD: You know, if I would like to turn back time, I’m not sure if I wanted to change something. Because it was very natural. All we did, it was just very honest. It was a quite original mix, you know, our drummer used to play death metal for 10, 15 years. So when someone like him just trying to play in a very mellow song, it’s always a little bit different. It’s not, [laughs] normal. You can hear that this guy has something with his legs and arms, you know.

BM: [laughs]

MD: [laughs] Very, also some kind of troubles with, I don’t know, just playing very fluently. But no, I mean only that this means it’s very original. I don’t know if you will take someone else who is play exactly what he has to do, what he has to.

BM: Oh yeah.

MD: Well, Piotr [Grudzinski], the guitar player, just played just from the bottom of his heart, all those things. And what we could do, what we could change, only we wanted to have Michal [Lapaj], our second keyboard player, earlier that we had. Because Riverside became a band on Second Night Syndrome, when Michal joined us, because now we have exactly what we wanted to.

BM: Oh yeah. That’s a great position to be in, great for me to ask the next question. One of the things I always ask all these ProgPower musicians is if I mention the name of an album, I ask them to tell me what they remember most about that time, recording that album, something going on in your life, the easiest songs in the studio. So for example, Out of Myself, what’s the most important thing or most vivid thing you remember about recording that album?

MD: Well, I think it was the song, “I Believe.”

BM: Oh yeah.

MD: Because when we recorded Out of Myself, first we recorded demo. And it was five tracks. It was “[The Same] River,” “Out of Myself,” “[Reality] Dream,” [Loose]heart,” and “The Curtain Falls.” And that’s all. We started with this demo, and people liked it very much. And well, we said, “Well, now we have to do whole album. We need to add a few songs and do something with that.” And I remember that I had two songs, like “I Believe” and “In Two Minds” played on acoustic guitars. And I remember that “I Believe” was some kind of signal that we’re on a good way to finish this album on a high level. So I remember I enjoyed it very much. A lot of vocals, a lot of guitars, that was nice moment, very nice moment for me.

BM: What was the most difficult song to lay down in the studio for Out of Myself? Was there one that just gave you a lot of trouble, or were they all fairly quickly and easily done?

MD: More or less, you know, it was on the same time, we did everything at the same time. I didn’t remember if we had some kind of problems with the track. I remember that I always wanted to change the position of the tracks, you know. This track should be first, this one should be second. [laughs] I had the biggest problem with that later, when we have finished everything.

BM: Oh really?

MD: Yeah, but it was very quite continuous, you know. We had a lot of fun during the session, and I think you can hear this on this album.

BM: How about your next one, two years after that one, The Second Life Syndrome came out. What do you remember most about that?

MD: Well, first of all, Michal just came out from the shade. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

MD: And we, I from the beginning wanted to do the album that will be more darker, more heavier. We wanted to play more natural, just it sounds more live than studio. And Michal brought with himself more piano and more Hammond, so it’s also sometimes sounds like you know, from the ‘70s. I remember that first of all, of course we wanted to do trilogy, but we wanted to do more or less the same mood, but with different sound. And I think we did it on The Second Life Syndrome, because this is a very dark record. I think it’s sometimes too dark. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

MD: I mean, you know, there’s not so much treble. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

MD: When you hear this, so you need to add this on your equipment.

BM: [laughs] How about the most recent one, Rapid Eye Movement? What do you remember most about that period of time?

MD: Well, Rapid Eye Movement, the second chapter, the third chapter of the trilogy, I remember that I wanted to do album which is totally unprogressive. I mean, not not original, but we didn’t want to do something like you know, the solo of guitar for 15 minutes or very complicated written for I don’t know, 7:30 or something.

BM: [laughs]

MD: We just wanted to do simple tracks, simple short tracks, and more rock, more rock-ish. And that’s why we did things like “Rainbow Box” or “[02] Panic Room.” I think it’s fresh because it’s not sound like, I don’t know, something from progressive rock, typical progressive rock. So I remember during this session was always the troubles if it would be accepted. Because we knew from the beginning that all the fans loved Out of Myself and all those romantic solos and a lot of keyboards, will be a little bit disappointed, because it’s not in the same mood a little bit. But it was the third chapter, so we had to do something in a little bit different way.

BM: Well, there’s one track on there that I really enjoy a lot. All the fans that always said you guys sound a bit like Pink Floyd, you actually do two or three minutes from “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” What was the idea behind that? Is it a nod to your fans, or was that a tribute to Pink Floyd?

MD: Well, we are huge fans of Pink Floyd, you know. Of course, I also like a little bit different bands, but Pink Floyd is kind of a band that sometimes three sounds are more important than 10 or 12. So it’s very important I think, in Riverside’s music. And I remember that we played some kind of instrumental track, which is by the way, we took the solo from “Back To The River” to this track. And just in the middle we started to play this [laughs] just for fun. And later we just realized that it sounds very nice, so maybe we can just keep it. Why not?

BM: [laughs]

MD: It will be only very short moment, but I think people will realize that it’s some kind of, you know.

BM: It’s a tribute.

MD: Yeah, yeah. So it stayed. And I think yeah, I’m very happy of the “Back to the River.” This is quite nice track, very nice intro on our shows.

BM: Well, you know what’s really cool, and you mentioned with Pink Floyd, sometimes two or three sounds are more important than a whole lot of them, and one of those sounds is David Gilmore’s guitar.

MD: Yeah.

BM: And I think Piotr did a phenomenal job of sounding like David Gilmore on that track.

MD: Yeah, yeah. I sometimes have a lot of fun, you know, Piotr just playing sometimes one tune, sometimes how he plays one tune for I don’t know, 15 seconds, you know. [laughs] And this is his style, very long, long, long sounds. But I have to say that of course when you are listening to Piotr, you can listen to a shade of David Gilmore, but Piotr also has his own style. He’s very specific. And that’s why for instance, he just couldn’t play on a solo album, because every one would be Riverside again. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

MD: So yeah.

BM: What was the idea behind the trilogy, by the way? Did you plan to do that right from the start? Or after you made the first one, did you think, “Wow, let’s make two more that are the same theme?”

MD: Yeah, it was in the middle of Out of Myself, I remember that when I started to write the whole story, I thought, “Alright, let’s write a story which will be a little bit different because there will be a lot of space for your own interpretation about looking for your own personality, looking for yourself.” So I thought, “Well, we probably have to do two albums more, because we need to complicate this a little bit.” [laughs] So no, I think it’s quite nice, when the band just starts from the trilogy. It always looks nice on the shelf when you have three albums the same. [laughs]

BM: [laughs] Where do you go from here? This is almost like Spinal Tap going to 11, where do you go from a trilogy this cool? I mean, what do you think you’re going to do next?

MD: Well, we’re working on a new album already, maybe not in the studio, but in our rehearsal room. I think it will be a little bit more, how can I say it, I think I will leave this reality dream and dreaming, and just flitting around stuff for another times, and now I would like to focus on some kind of social stuff. Maybe it will be some kind of voice of my generation now. You know, this sort of specific part when you don’t want to grow up, but you have to. [laughs]

BM: Oh yeah, yeah.

MD: So turning 30.

BM: You’re turning 30 and all of a sudden you feel that way? [laughs]

MD: [laughs] I know. So I am thinking of maybe it will be nice because a lot of people of course in my age can realize what exactly I am feeling now. So but if we are talking about music, of course, we would like to sometimes go a step farther, of course. Experiment a little bit more, but we would like to keep our own style, because I think it’s now, it’s doing better and better, and it sounds Riverside. We sound like Riverside, more and more. So it will be worth to keep it.

BM: Well, one of the things I did is I asked the ProgPower forum, I asked all the posters there if they had any questions for you that I could ask you. One of them, a guy whose screen name is King’s Gene asked, “Does the depressing anxiety-based lyrics come from the personal experience of someone in the band, or is this strictly novels or fiction? Where do these angsty and anxious lyrics come from?”

MD: Well, I’m quite a sensitive person, I think. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

MD: Sometimes maybe too sensitive.

BM: [laughs]

MD: I always liked little shades of grey much better than just regular colors. So I maybe, I don’t know, maybe I have depression and I don’t know about it. I need to just take and maybe I should just go to the shrink. I don’t know.

BM: [laughs]

MD: Maybe, but I’m just saying when you’re doing sad sounds, [laughs] when you’re doing that kind of music, it will stay with you sometimes more often than just funny songs. So maybe I just wanted to do something beautiful. It would be nice if in the future Riverside would create a really beautiful album, and it’s really hard to just record beautiful album when you’re just trying to play only funny songs.

BM: Oh yeah. [laughs]

MD: But ok, I agree, maybe it’s sometimes a little bit too depression. So on the next album will be more, I’ll try to focus on a different level of my mental problems.

BM: [laughs] You mentioned that the next one would be more socially aware, like maybe turning 30 and not wanting to grow up. Do you think your lyrics will ever look out into the world to the point where you’re commenting on politics or religion or some of those other things, rather than being internally focused?

MD: I don’t know. I would like to avoid things like, ok, maybe religion is more personal, but I would like to avoid things that are connected with a politician and stuff, because I would like to just leave it for others. I think in Riverside, we’re very specific band, because we are trying to focus on ourselves, I mean, on our own personality. In the lyrics I would like to, you know, solve some type of problems connected with myself, with a personal mental problems.

BM: Right.

MD: And you know, politics, it’s something which is I think on the other side of the line. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

MD: So I would like to keep it for those guys who just scream, who just are very angry. I think metal bands, the strict metal bands doing this much better. [laughs]

BM: Warrell Dane of Nevermore comes to mind. [laughs]

MD: To be honest, I don’t want to waste time writing lyrics about, I don’t know, some kind of presidents.

BM: [laughs]

MD: I don’t know, I just leave it to the journalists or something.

BM: [laughs] Yeah.

MD: But of course, sometimes in the middle of the lyrics, you can put something, but the great thing is when you write it, you know, on the first look, you don’t notice that this is about politics maybe.

BM: Yeah.

MD: It’s about love, ok. [laughs] For instance, but when you listen to it three, four times, oh, I think this is not about love. [gasp] This is about hate. You know? [laughs]

BM: [laughs] One of the things I like, and you said you’re kind of a sensitive person, I noticed in the liner notes to all your albums, you always thank your parents, your mom especially. What is it about growing up, what kind of advice did your parents give you, and why do you always thank your mom for the music that you play?

MD: My parents always told me, “Don’t drink too much, don’t smoke cigarettes.” No, I had very good parents, and I still have, but now they’re living in a different town, so I had to change a little bit in a different way. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

MD: But I think my parents just learned me a lot of, I think I’m a good person, you know. If I can tell that. Of course, it depends on the interpretation, what is good. But I think I can find a balance between the bad stuff and the good stuff, and I think I owe this to my parents very much, and I appreciate it. And I love for this. And I hope it will help me with my future life, and with future, for instance, records which I’m really excited for.

BM: You know you mentioned a good person, a bad person, that kind of stuff. It seems to be, when you wrote another part of your bio, you said, “What’s important in your life: Love, friendship, being square with my conscience, audio/visual stuff, just a small obsession which makes me feel alive.” But being square with your conscience seems to imply a good head on your shoulders. Kind of knowing the balance between right and wrong.

MD: Yep. That was very old text. [laughs]

BM: Yeah. [laughs]

MD: No, what can I say. I’m trying to be honest with myself, first of all. And if I’m trying to be honest, and if I first of all, I am doing things that I feel that I have to do. So it’s, everything is connected with positive vibrations, so I think all people that I have together, that they’re around me, are also satisfied. [laughs]

BM: [laughs] Yeah. The audio visual stuff. First of all, is Riverside your full-time work now? Or do you do things, do you have a so-called day job?

MD: Well, I’m just now trying to finish Lunatic Soul, it’s only one track left. I think in the beginning of July, I will have the whole record, and well, it depends on the conversations of course, with the labels, but I hope it will be, I will release this album in September, October. And I’m very happy because only when I finish Lunatic Soul, I’m trying to take again be involved in Riverside, and we are just starting to compose new songs for the new album. We had a lot of drafts, so it’s time to combine all these elements together and do what we have. I hope it will be a nice album, because there’s a lot of new, fresh ideas. I think good melody is back, so we have to keep it.

BM: Riverside’s music is very visual in one’s mind, like when I listen to your albums, I really love them, and I can almost picture things, you’re painting pictures with your music. And yet, you guys haven’t done a whole lot of music videos. Why is that?

MD: Why we what? Why we don’t have videos?

BM: Yeah, even though your music is very visual mentally, you haven’t really portrayed that in a lot of music videos.

MD: Well, yeah. I agree, we have only one video so far, to “Panic Room.” No, you know, I hope it will change in the future. [laughs] We, to be honest, we didn’t, I don’t know why we didn’t do this. I think we wanted to keep our music only for ears. It should change, yeah, I agree. Maybe, we started from the Rapid Eye Movement, together with all next albums, we would like to add more and more visual stuff. The same we started on our DVD, for the first time, it was the first show with a visual effects. So I think it was a good beginning, next beginning. [laughs]

BM: [laughs] Next beginning. You’re credited with writing the lyrics, and Riverside is credited with writing the music. How do you put the two together, and which usually comes first?

MD: Well, ok, I’m always trying to bring most part of the music. But I realized at the beginning that if we have to be a band, so we have to be a band. And sometimes it doesn’t matter if you’re teaching all songs at the rehearsal and all songs are yours, you have to name that “music by Riverside.” Because it’s, I think, everyone feels very important. And when we are doing things, we’re always doing only those tunes that satisfied everybody. So if there is something like one of us saying that this is not so good, we just cancel this, because if this music just don’t satisfy each of us, it’s not so good. [laughs] So I think we’re trying to always be in, we’re always trying to get as much compromise as we can. Of course, sometimes if there are problems, so I have always two votes, because I am playing the bass and I am singing.

BM: [laughs]

MD: So it’s sometimes very comfortable.

BM: [laughs] Are you a perfectionist in the studio? Do things have to be absolutely perfect and you drive your fellow musicians nuts with that?

MD: Uh yeah, I think so. Yes. Of course, when I’m just hearing this now, when I’m hearing out of myself, I’m trying to hear Second Life Syndrome, I try to realized how all these things happened. Where was I at those times? Because it sounds totally, you know, unprofessional. I mean, some kind of things. And where are all those details? I spent a lot of time for just corrections, and I can hear this now. [laughs] No, I’m trying to do all these things the best I can, of course, each of us. And trying to always find that kind of solution that will be as much perfect as it could be.

BM: Oh yeah. Do you have, is there an all-time favorite Riverside song that you just really love to play live that you could never do without, maybe?

MD: Well, we had a moment that we really like to play “Second Life Syndrome.”

BM: Oh yeah.

MD: And yeah, and we played it and played and played. And now, this year, we decided to not play it, and this because we have this limit, and we probably played it too much. But now I’m very happy when I’m playing, for instance, “Rainbow Box.” This is very simple track, but full of energy on the stage. And the same with “Panic Room” which is a good arrangement and very powerful. But of course, there’s a lot of tracks that we can play with a smile on our faces. Everything depends on the mood, everything depends on the day. So we never know what we will play on ProgPower, but I think it will be all those tracks we wanted to play.

- end part one

NOTE: The entire interview can be found in the ProgPower USA IX program given to all attendees at this year’s metal fest.

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