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Progfreaks.com's interview with TransAtlantic's Neal Morse (also of Spock's Beard) 26/02/02 It seems like just yesterday that members of Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, Marillion, and The Flower Kings joined forces in order to create the progressive supergroup TransAtlantic and release an album that took the scene by storm: SMPTe. Since then, however, the band has already released a live album and its latest magnum opus, also known as Bridge Across Forever. Proving that one has to believe the hype, and that the excitement hasn't worn down anywhere in the world, this band is just one of those that we felt obliged to interview. Not only that, however, but with Neal Morse only recently having released It's Not Too Late, his second solo album, it was just the right time to talk with the man about both his involvement with TransAtlantic and life as himself. Of course the odd Spock's Beard comment managed to shine through a couple of times, as well as an interesting bit of current activity for TransAtlantic. Did that get you all excited? Good. Read on… part one | part two
1) Going back to the first TransAtlantic sessions, that is, to the recording of SMPTe, you have mentioned in the past that you were perhaps too uptight during the sessions and didn't trust the others as much as you probably should have. Although this probably had to do with you being the main figure in Spock's Beard, how much did the hype that such a "supergroup" would generate contribute to this mistrust? Neal: Oh yeah, that had something to do with it. And I've noticed that I actually get kind of uptight always when I'm making records…a little bit anyway (laughs). 'Cause that's like, a lot of people are gonna hear it, and you just want to make sure it's good. You know, I just have to remind myself to relax. 2) Back at that time, you initially disagreed with the idea of recording Procol Harum's "In Held Twas in I," yet the others chose to go for it and thus it was done. Doesn't that kind of thing keep you from playing the song at the best of your abilities, even if subconsciously? Neal: I don't know…I don't think so, I mean, I went in for the thing and I was the one who put the strings on it and everything, so I wouldn't think so. …And although later on you ended up thinking that recording the song was actually a good idea, how did it feel to have the other members kind of "overrun" your tastes? Neal: Well, it was a little hard at the time; it's hard if you think things are going in a direction that you don't really like. But by that time we'd got the body of the album done - we'd already recorded the rest and I knew that it had all turned out pretty good, or at least I thought it was good. So I looked at it more like a bonus track and just said "Oh well…" And Mike had insisted so much on that thing, you know, so I just looked at it like a bonus track. 3) Talking about Mike, it is certainly no secret that TransAtlantic is made up of four leader types who are bound to clash every once in a while and who are used to playing a very dominant role in their respective bands. And yet it seems that Mike Portnoy is the one who ends up dictating the way things are done a lot of times. Would this be a fair assessment of the way things work with the band? Neal:
Yeah, he probably has the most forceful personality; I guess
you could say that. He's funny about it though…I was like, "Is
this what you do with Dream Theater?" and he'd say, "Oh yeah
man, I've been wearing those guys down for years." So have you ever conspired to tie and gag him and leave him in the corner while the rest of you get to work? Neal: (laughs) Well, that's easy, because actually we all start working at different points in the day. If we did start working before 3 PM he wouldn't be around! And me, I woke up…I'm actually working on the TransAtlantic live tapes right now… [Ed.note: It's about 8 AM…don't even ask how I managed to get up] 4) Now that we're on the subject of live tapes, the album Live in America was touched up a bit on the keyboard and guitar parts. Although this is common practice among most rock bands, many people will probably argue that they would rather hear the mistakes and bad mixes and thus get more of a "live" feeling. Why is this not done? Neal: Well, I don't know. I figure if people want to hear all of the mistakes we made they can always get a bootleg (laughs)! It's always a dicy thing when doing the tapes…basically the control you have is to fix your stuff, and then I'm like "well, is that sounding well? Is that bad enough to fix?" You don't want to fix it so much that it's a studio recording; you don't want to fix everything about it or it loses all character. But basically it's just to fix things that are really bad, that's all I ever try to do…fix, you know, real major things. It's a real judgment call that I actually have trouble with. 5) Now, moving on to the latest album…one thing that many people never found out but which you had mentioned: since he was recording at the Dark Horse Studios at one point, did you ever try to get Jon Anderson to do a guest appearance on Bridge Across Forever? Neal: We talked about it; we talked to Robin Crow about it. But we never really got to do it. 6) Something that would have been particularly interesting (and cool) for TransAtlantic fans would have been if you would have used Mike's idea to use themes from SMPTe on Bridge Across Forever and thus make it an inter-album sort of thing. And although that idea wasn't worked on, Bridge Across Forever does have a few recurring themes within itself. Now that there are recurrent themes within a TransAtlantic album, can fans expect you to try Mike's idea of linking records on the next one, if there is one? Neal: I have no idea. I wouldn't have any expectations at all…I mean, we don't (laughs)! Who knows what we might do next, I have no idea about that. 7) Talking about inter-album themes, although this isn't quite exactly one, "Duel with the Devil" was originally one of your ideas for SMPTe, called "Dance with the Devil" at that time. At some point, Mike heard it and thought it would be cool to try it out on Bridge Across Forever, and the rest is history. How did it feel to see that song come out again and actually make it to a TransAtlantic album, although it was the second one? Neal: Oh, I was really surprised. I wasn't really expecting that; I was expecting to start off working on one of Roine's things, and when it came to…when Mike suggested bringing in "Duel With the Devil," I was a bit surprised. I don't know, I'm happy with the way it turned out, but it really wouldn't have been my choice of the first thing to work on. At the end it came out cool though, so I feel good about it. 8) Something that is quite curious about TransAtlantic is the way that everything about the band seems to be done half haphazardly, with no one knowing what the song titles, artwork, etc. will be until the very last second. Even tracks recorded by Roine in Sweden or by yourself at home seem to be in risk of being changed without any chance of turning back! Is this part of the fun of being in TransAtlantic? Have you ever tried to perhaps plan things a bit more (apart from rehearsing before entering the studio this second time around)? Neal: Well, it's like that sometimes in Spock's as well. Sometimes it's just like that creatively - as you're working, a lot of times you don't know what the lyrics are gonna be like, they just haven't been sort of planned out yet, and sometimes you keep changing things up until the last minute. I think it's like that with all creative projects and that kind of thing…kind of a danger of creativity. 9) Quick question: why did you decide to have Daniel Gildenlöw help out on the Bridge Across Europe tour? Why him? Neal: He fit the bill, I guess. We were looking for somebody that was a bit of a multi-instrumentalist, who could sing, and that was available. And he worked out great! 10) Last question of part one: How irritating exactly is it to realize that you know "Firth of Fifth" in A when the song is actually in B sharp and you have to relearn it? Neal: (laughs) Oh yeah, B flat…oh, that was really irritating, I was trying to get Mike to let it go, but you know Mike, he just can't let things go (laughs)! Although he really wanted to do "Heart of the Sunrise" on this last tour, and he finally did let that go, thank God (laughs)! 'Cause we all had our hands full with just doing TransAtlantic! For more information, visit the official TransAtlantic website
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