Interview
(Progressive Newsletter Nr.37 11/01)
excerpts from an interview with Paul Foley (Vocals, Guitar, Recorder, Synthesizer)
We don't know really! People are very positive in all the feedback that we've had, and we are selling more copies of "Earth Zero" than we did of "Tales" at a corresponding point in the release. However it's very hard to judge international impact from Australia. We certainly get the feeling that this is a more consistent and accessible album than "Tales", and we're certainly very happy ourselves with the sound of the album. It's something I listen to myself despite having heard it a thousand times. Without being silly about it, most people seem to like it.
Which bands have influenced your music?
Everyone in the band has had different influences, coming from different backgrounds and representing different "musical generations". I believe the music that has the strongest influence on a person is that which they are listening to when they have their "awakening" - on many levels - personal, musical, artistic, etc. - usually when a teenager. For me this was about 1973 - I was 16 - so my most influential input has come from Yes - easily my favourite band - 50% of all the music I play in the car and at home is Yes - Jethro Tull, Beatles, Tangerine Dream and Hawkwind. It's important to note that others in the band would say very different things about their own beginnings, and I'll forward this email on to them so they can answer this too.
Which culture has more influence on the australian music scene, the american or the european? And which bands ever come to Australia to perform live?
There is virtually no Oz prog or spacerock scene. We don't have the demographic of a large population to support it, no promoters or venues with a specific focus beyond making money. They don't take risks. Therefore we don't play to a common "prog/space" audience base, sharing "theme" venues with similar bands and a common audience. We play to the people who like us, and the few other bands who do similar or comparable stuff play to their own audiences. Getting a venue to give you a gig on any terms is a very big achievement. Likewise, radio and other media have no interest in breaking the mold of commercialism, including those in the cool-looking "independant" scene, who copy the US, UK and European markets with no less blind ardour. So there is no common forum or stage for us or others like us. Very few bands come to Oz. Tull used to, right up till Ian Anderson nearly died in Sydney a few years ago. Hawkwind toured last year for the first time ever, and I understand that they're keen to return. But other than that, we see very little in the way of overseas bands.
What did Brainstorm do before Brainstorm? Where there any other bands?
Not for me. I am what Ian Anderson called in "Minstrel in the gallery" - what a great album! - a "one-band man". I spent from 18 to 31 sitting round getting stoned, and then Brainstorm. The others have all been in bands of various types in their younger days, Vittorio loves jazz and does jazz gigs with various people. Craig played in the early 80's in bands.
Talking about music and its contents: Is Brainstorm one of those typical prog bands that use nonsense lyrics, written and sung because of their sound and not of their meaning or is there any supposed impact in your lyrics? I'm asking you this, because I'm not quite sure when I listen to your music wheather your lyrics are serious or just ironic.
A leading question! On one hand yes we do try to make our lyrics intriguing to people, to do what good poetry does in putting triggers and evocative phrases and images into our lyrics where people can find their own meanings. We don't believe in avoiding personal or emotionally revealing subjects, and hope that people will identify things in the music that they can relate to on a deep level. We use alliteration also, where words and phrases are chosen for their sound and evocation rather than their strict meaning. Things like "I killed a man working the steal of the land, packed wi'in their fat kin there under the sand, no break in the airline, was nothing I planned", and so on. No apologies for that. On the other hand there is a lot of irony in some songs, in "Slow train" for those political animals who talk in such a code, so loaded with special meanings, that no-one else can understand them. I think most bands are serious about communicating meaning in their songs, but are reluctant to talk about it.
Your new album "Earth Zero" has a tremendous longtrack on it - "Armageddon". Is this the direction where Brainstorm is heading musically?
Ironically "Armageddon" was actually invented long after writing the individual songs comprising it. The songs were written as separate, unrelated pieces and peformed as such for some time. Only when we were working out the song-sequence for the album did we decide to string them together with little ambient instrumental segues and pretend they were all part of one big story. I suppose I should have kept that a secret, and make it sound deliberate and all pre-planned, but it's an example of how the lyrics and direction of a song can take over and do things which we as musicians never intended. But we've certainly moved onto longer and more complex songs in recent years, and would like to do something really spectacular in that direction. Our new album, due out later this year, will have a lot of longer tracks on it.
The Internet has helped a lot of bands to present themselves in front of a global audience. Did the Web help Brainstorm?
It's not too much to say that the web gave us our big opportunity. Prior to the web we were a local Melbourne pub band, playing to small audiences without a lot of hope for anything bigger in the future. The music was different. We believed in that, and enjoyed what we were doing and where we were headed thematically. But until we gained international distribution, reviews, radio play and interviews, we had no way of connecting with people overseas who might like what we were doing. Certainly the local Oz scene - promoters, venues, radio and print media, both mainstream and so-called "specialist/independant/underground" people - is completely disinterested in anything that the UK/US MTV music-police don't endorse. The best Australian Prog band for decades, Aragon, work entirely overseas! It's ridiculous to say, but Les Douggan of Aragon lives about 12 km from me but I've never met him and, although I have his albums, I've never seen them play.
What do you think - will the new wave of Prog help bands like Brainstorm or will the merchandising machinery of the big prog labels and bands establish themselves as state of the art without leaving any space for small, independent acts?
A moot point. The influence of promoters and big companies on bands has slipped a lot with the web, because it has meant that people like us can put a couple of samples on our website, persuade someone with a secure credit card facility to distribute us, and not even need to talk to the big record companies. We record our albums for maybe a few thousand dollars total cost, plus another $1500 or so to make 500 copies with 12 page full-colour covers. Even on a production run of 500, we can sell them wholesale for ten or fifteen bucks and still make an embarrassing profit. The Napster affair is just a symptom of the loss of control by the big players. Thanks to the web there are so many channels now by which we can get past them, and not have to impress their talent scouts or abide by their timetables or bullshit rules. Also, they have been so greedy for so long with their 1500%-plus profit margins, that even without their economies-of-scale we can undercut them. I think the whole world is changing in this area, and that although sooner or later the fascists will take over again somehow - by buying up all the domain names or controlling the navigators or something - for a while still we will see a period of fairly free exchange of musical material with not much of a problem from the big companies.
Oh, my last question. Will the B-Storm car be on every BS- release? And whose dog is on it?
The dog was Craig's, and is now dead after 15 years of faithful companionship, having attended nearly every band meeting as an honorary member of the band for the last 12 years of its life. The car looks promising as an ongoing logo. It's 40 years old next year and still on the road, still going very nicely. My own car is also an option for the next cover, but is only 35 years old. It depends on getting the photo done in time.
Sal Pichireddu © Progressive Newsletter 2001