Stealing The Fire |
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timburlane
Forum Groupie Joined: March 09 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 58 |
Topic: Stealing The Fire Posted: January 06 2013 at 17:23 |
The new Album "King of Shadows" is coming along very nicely: Recently we've been working two songs in particular - The Tower, an epic prog track, and Medusa which has a great groove to it as well as a kind of Phillip Glass influenced section. It's all sounding very gratifying indeed! :)tim lane
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never eat anything bigger than your head
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toroddfuglesteg
Forum Senior Member Retired Joined: March 04 2008 Location: Retirement Home Status: Offline Points: 3658 |
Posted: November 21 2011 at 12:09 |
STEALING THE FIRE can be seen as a sort of follow up to Earthstone. Two of the key players on this project were drummer / keyboardist Chris Bond and bass player Chris Phillips. But where Earthstone started as Phillip's baby, this one belonged to Bond. This was also not just a two-person gig. The band also featured guitarist / keyboardist Tim Lane, and vocalist Staff Edye. I got in touch with Chris Bond and Tim Lane for both the story behind the Earthstone and the Stealing The Fire albums and a possible new album. ################################################################################
The Stealing the Fire story starts with the appearance
of the band Earthstone in the UK scenes back in the early 1980s. The only
Earthstone album to see the light of day is the Seed album from
1994. Please tell us more about this album.
Chris Bond: 'Seed' came about because we sent a demo tape of an
unrecorded 'Silas' song to Larry Kolota of Kinesis and he offered Chris Phillips
the chance to make an album as a result of what he'd heard. I'm not sure the
final product was exactly what Larry was expecting since, by neccessity of it
being a solo project by Chris, it became much more machine driven because of the
programmed drums. That's something frequently commented on in reviews and, for
me, the weakest aspect of the music. Chris asked me to help with the recording
and I eventually ended up contributing a few elements to the music as well as
being the engineer.
Given that it's a product of its time, I'm personally
still proud of what we achieved with 'Seed'. We couldn't afford to go into a
recording studio and the whole album was made on incredibly primitive equipment
in what was literally a 'bedroom studio'. If the album was made today there's no
doubt it would be of much higher quality. We were very lucky to have had the
album mastered by one of the top mastering engineers in the States which no
doubt knocked some of the rough edges off it.
Artistically and thematically 'Seed' was also very much a
product of its time. We were very interested in Chaos Theory, Neo-Paganism and
Science Fiction. For example; the UK press was full of articles about the Crop
Circles, which were just beginning to appear, and we were fascinated to find out
whether they were the products of pranksters and landscape artists or if there
was less earthbound origin for them! This all tied in to the English
'art-underground' of the early 90's.
There was talk about a new album to be released in
2008. Please tell us more about this.
Tim Lane: Well here’s the thing: we had every intention of cracking
straight on with the next album (King of Shadows); Chris had lyrics written, I’d
made some demos, we had two pieces we’d worked on in the studio, so we were
ready to go. We worked up these ideas, got them down up to a point (including
live drums from the entirely excellent Gary Wortley) and then stuff started
happening and it all ground to a halt. Ultimately, much as we’d like things to
be otherwise, we’re not pro musicians and we have jobs and families and various
difficulties resulted in the project getting shelved. Chris got on with Army of
Mice, I pursued my interest in folk and country music and Stealing the Fire went
into a kind of hibernation.
But weirdly, just a couple of weeks before you contacted
us about this interview we’d started discussing getting it all under way again.
The album (King of Shadows) is more than half done. Like “Hot Ice…” it’s a
mixture of songs and instrumentals and we like to think that we’ve kept the best
features of the previous album - like the combination of classic prog and more
modern influences and the dense, intricate textures - but we’ve learned so much
in terms of musicianship, composition and production that the new album will be
even better than the last.
For myself I think the next album will also reflect some
other musical influences. My interest in Irish folk music can be heard coming
through on some tracks, and there are hints of King Crimson and Gentle Giant in
places. There’s a proper prog epic as well!
Chris
Bond
: There have also been technical problems transferring the
original recordings for 'King of Shadows' from digital multitrack tape to one
computer recording system and then another. In some ways it would have been
easier and quicker to start again. However some of the original recordings are
really good and we wanted to keep them if we could. It's taken a while to work
out how to transfer the recordings between systems but I've finally figured it
our and am making good progress. So maybe 'King of Shadows' will be released in
2012. It'll certainly be a much higher quality recording that 'Hot Ice...' and
artistically a step up as well.
Earthstone became Stealing The Fire. Why and how much
of Earthstone did you bring over to Stealing the Fire ?
Chris
Bond
: Very little of Earthstone carried over to Stealing the
Fire. The music of Earthstone was mainly created by Chris Phillips as it was
initially his solo project and I was brought in mainly to work on the production
side. My only contribution to the music was the occasional keyboard riff or pad
and the inclusion of some of the samples and sound effect that can be heard. My
main contribution outside of recording and production was in writing about half
the lyrics. To some extent the themes explored in the lyrics of 'Seed' still
interest me today and these have carried over into the lyrics of the StF tracks.
I'd like to think my writing style has improved over the years and, although
there are still references to those great prog standards of myths & legends,
cosmology and magic, the lyrics (particularly on 'King of Shadows') are also
about more everyday human interactions and emotions.
Your only album so far is the Hot Ice and Wondrous
Strange Snow album from 1999. Please tell us more about this
album.
Tim
Lane
: Chris’ Bond and Phillips had worked together very closely
on “Earthstone” and for whatever reason had decided to take a rest. This was
about the time that Chris P had joined my comedy band Doomweasel and Chris B was
became our sound engineer. Bondy was looking for someone to work with on a new
album; I think he’d done a track with Neil McNabb who’d also been in Doomweasel
but Neil moved away so I said I was interested. The first track I played on was
the first track on the album “Stormwing” which Chris had more or less completed.
I added some guitars, Chris liked it so we went on to do more
together.
The second track we did was “Unknowing Angel” – but not
the version on the album! Ultimately we did that song THREE times before we got
it right! With most of the songs they were composed in the studio – one or other
of us would come in with an idea and we’d develop it. Our modus operandi was to
do all the composing and sequencing, then add the guitar and bass and finally
the vocals – the icing on the cake!
“Sirius Rising”, the most neo-prog track of the lot came
out of a desire to do something in an “It Bites” sort of style with a big, big
sound. Saff’s singing on that track is just fantastic and utterly transformed
the song. I’m particularly proud of the guitar and synth duet in the
instrumental section on that song. “The Moriarty Cube” was initially Bondy’s
idea, that sort “snake-charmer” riff…
Looking back on the album I think we did an extraordinary
job with what seems quite primitive gear to me now! Steinberg Pro-24! An Atari
computer! A beaten-up old Squier Strat and a crappy transistor amp! But it
sounds really good to me now.
For those of us unfamiliar with your music; how would
you describe you music and which bands would you compare yourself with
?
Tim
Lane
: Ha! This’ll be interesting! One of the things that makes
STF interesting is the Ven Diagram of our influences. There are bands that we
both love who influence our material – Porcupine Tree, Kraftwerk, Flower Kings,
Ozric Tentacles and classic seventies symphonic prog bands like Camel, Floyd,
Genesis etc. And then there’s the other stuff we bring individually: Chris can
speak for himself but I’m a massive queen fan, I like a lot of folk music and
heavy rock and metal.
I think when you hear the new album you’ll hear a band
which can be edgy like King Crimson, spacey like Hawkwind, thoughtful like Floyd
and Porcupine Tree and rocky like Zeppelin. But I also think you’ll hear the
echoes of electronica, folk, minimalism and even pop – whatever lights our
candle and serves the song.
Ultimately, whilst I wouldn’t presume to myself in the
same godlike league as Roine Stolt and co we strive for that rich, open-minded
sound that the Flower Kings do so beautifully.
Chris
Bond
: I currently listen to a lot of electronica, 'folktronica'
or Scandinavian bands like 'The Deer Tracks' or 'Fever Ray' as well as Bat For
Lashes and Imogen Heap. Some influences from those bands with female vocals are
bound to creep over into Stealing The Fire, though I'm still hoping that it'll
sound something like early Camel in places!
When it comes to availability for both the Earthstone
album Seed and your own Hot Ice and Wondrous Strange Snow, how is the
availability of these two albums now.
Chris
Bond
: I believe 'Seed' is now out of print
although copies sometimes surface on ebay etc. It might be worth making
enquiries with Kinesis if anyone's looking for a copy. I don't think Kinesis
releases CDs under their own label any longer but, as I'm sure many readers will
know, Kinesis is still an excellent source of prog cd's of all kinds. 'Hot
Ice..' should still be available from Fossil Records (http://www.fossilrecords.net/) for a
short time, or if anyone would like to buy a copy at a discount price they can
drop me an email at armyofmicemusic(at)googlemail.co.uk.
Hot Ice and Wondrous Strange Snow was released twelve
years ago. What have you been up to this century, what is your current status
and what are your plans for this year and beyond ?
Tim
Lane
: Twelve years! Well, I got married again, and rather more
successfully… but I assume you mean musically. I wrote a musical, “The Fall Guy”
with music by the incomparable Joe Sanger, played in a couple of funk bands,
became a music and music technology teacher. I composed an electronic soundtrack
for a hi-tech production of Macbeth, played in Celidh bands and then a “country
and Irish” band called The Rum Brothers and a Rock Covers band called Elton
Goodlady. In the last year or so I’ve taken to playing solo country folk and
blues gigs under my own name www.reverbnation.com/timlane
whilst at the same time working on a space-rock album
which I’ve just finished called “When the Twelve of Wands is in the Six of
Nodes” http://soundcloud.com/ubermodo/sets/when-the-twelve-of-wands-is-in
under the name Ubermodo. You can buy it as a download from my reverbnation page
www.reverbnation.com/ubermodo
but I’m currently trying to get a wider release sorted
out.
Chris
Bond
: I been involved in several recording projects since 'Hot
Ice...' Currently I'm in a band called 'Army of Mice' who play
electro/electronica/trip-hop (so possibly of less interest to Prog fans than
Tim's project!). We've released a CD and done some pretty good gigs. Anyone
interested can check out the tracks or buy/download our cd from Bandcamp (http://armyofmice.bandcamp.com/).
Chris Phillips is still making music in a space-rock band
that includes Chris Hylton of 'Silas'. You can hear their music here: http://iron-sun.soundawesome.com/. Thank you to Chris and Tim for this interview The homepage is here
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