I'm currently giving a lot of deep listens to the new project from Ayreon's Arjen Lucassen, Guilt Machine. I'll have a full review of this impressive disc in a few days. In the meantime, Arjen was kind enough to answer some questions for me about the debut from Guilt Machine, "On This Perfect Day." He had some very interesting things to say about the new album, his previous work, and what's in store for the future. Check out the full interview below!
Progressive Melodies: This has been spoken about briefly in other places, but I'm interested to hear more about the goal of this project. What did you set out to achieve with Guilt Machine?
Arjen Lucassen: Each album I make is a reaction to the previous album, in this case the last Ayreon album 01011001. In my view that album, although I do really like it, might have been a bit too much over-the-top; it had too many guest musicians, no less than 17 singers and the whole sci-fi saga was getting rather complicated. Expectations of an Ayreon album have become very high over the years, so I guess I tried a bit too hard to satisfy everybody's needs and impress the fans. So this time I wanted to take a step back and get my feet back on Earth. Do something purely from the heart. I wanted to work with a small cast of musicians instead and abandoned the sci-fi rock opera format.
PM: Working with a much smaller cast of musicians, how did you find the songwriting and recording process to be different?
Arjen: Oh yes, it was a lot easier. I didn't have to write the music with many different singers and a complicated story in mind. I just entered the studio with a few ideas and then I let the inspiration flow without any limits. I guess that's why the tracks became so long! And of course recording just one singer who lives close by is much easier as opposed to arranging 17 singers and flying them over. Jasper was also really easy to work with.
PM: Did you walk away from the recording preferring the band format, or are you eager to return to large-scale projects like Ayreon?
Arjen: Guilt Machine isn't really a band format, I still composed all the music on my own and played most of the instruments. But I certainly prefer not having to arrange all the guest musicians and such, the logistics are really the downside of doing an Ayreon. But then again working with some of the best musicians in the world makes it all worth it!
PM: The inclusion of fans' messages is a very cool idea. What made you pursue this? Is there something specific that you wanted to achieve for the fans and listeners?
Arjen: We wanted to do something to make the fans feel like part of the project, and thought that having them submit some kind of cathartic personal message would be a meaningful way to do that. We considered several formats (text, drawings, photos, etc.) but they all seemed logistically impractical. We wanted to use some kind of spoken-word samples in the songs anyway (a la Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon") and had people submit their messages as audio files that we could use as samples on the album. That instantly felt right, and was actually do-able! After some more discussion, we decided that it would be most authentic to have people speak their own native languages.
PM: With such varied musical backgrounds, what was the experience of playing together for the band members? I personally love Jasper's style mixed with the style of the music, and I can't imagine Chris being wrong for any project, but did everyone leave feeling happy about the collaboration?
Arjen: We never rehearsed together, so the musicians were basically recorded separately in the studio. But we all really enjoyed working on this album, everything just fell into place this time. It was particularly interesting for Jasper, because he has a completely different musical background. He didn't even know what prog was! And Chris came up with some very interesting ideas in the studio, he was glad that it was possible for him to be so creative. And Lori did a great job on the guitar solos and wrote all the amazing lyrics, which was a first for her. So yeah, I'm sure everybody is up to doing another Guilt Machine.
PM: Though the album has been out for a while elsewhere, we're still waiting patiently in the U.S. How has the response to the album been so far?
Arjen: As you may have seen the internet reviews are very positive so far! The good thing is that people who don't like Ayreon that much, do like this album. That was something we were hoping for. And the limited edition was already sold out before the release! We entered the charts here in Holland and so far everything looks good for us. We hope people in the US will like it of course, it has always been my biggest market!
PM: The album's cover seems very representative of the overall theme of the album. Tell us a little bit about that theme and how it came about.
Arjen: As Lori worked on the lyrics she noticed that it came most naturally to draw from our experiences with depression and major life upheavals from the past couple of years. So the theme grew from the lyrics, not the other way around. You could sum up the overall theme or message by saying that it's all about the inner turmoil of trying to recover from depression: On the one hand you're desperate to get better, while on the other hand, getting better means making difficult (or terrifying!) changes and facing the ugly sides of yourself, the sides you'd much rather pretend didn't exist.
PM: Many projects like this release one album, and the musicians return to their regular projects. Is there a future for Guilt Machine? If so, how do you envision the course of the band?
Arjen: As I said before we would all love to do another one. I guess a lot will depend on the reactions we get to this, our first album. Indeed we all have our other projects and bands, but I'm sure we can find the time to get together again.
PM: Lastly, is there anything else that you'd like readers to know about Guilt Machine or future projects?
Arjen: As I said, each album I make is a reaction to the previous one. Guilt Machine is an atmospheric album with long tracks that build up to a crescendo. I would love to record an all-heavy album with more compact songs and multiple singers again now, it could very well turn into a second Star One album.
I want to give a huge thanks to Arjen for his time and to Jodie Wilson for organizing the interview. Be sure to check back soon for a full review of "On This Perfect Day."
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