When and by whom was your band born ? Did any of
you, past and present members, play in any other bands before joining up in your
band ?
Netherworld was created by me, Randy Wilson and Kirk
Long when Kirk responded to an ad I placed looking for a violinist and a cellist
for a large rock band. Kirk played neither instrument but had a unique guitar
style. He convinced me that with the technology at the day we could create the
orchestrated sound we were dreaming of. Eventually the Mellotron, synthesizers
and Kirk’s guitar parts created some great orchestrated textures.
Kirk and I both played previously in copy bands
where we played the music of bands we admired but didn't compose original music.
I had worked with the guitarist Robin Belvin who joined as a second guitarist in
Netherworld. Robin also played oboe. Kirk brought in his drummer Dave Kump who
was Netherworld's original drummer. We found singer Denny Gorden soon after.
Netherworld spent several years with the rotation of different musicians before
finding the final group that made the record. The addition of guitarist Scott
Stacy, bassist and cellist Pete Yarbrough, and drummer Thayne Boland brought a
lot of additional energy to the band and these were most of the musicians who
recorded the album released in 1981.
Why did you choose that name and which bands were
you influenced by ?
Kirk thought up the name Netherworld. We meant the title
more to invoke a sense of fantasy and wonder rather than the more demonic side
that bands who came later might have promoted.
Our singer Denny had sung in several hard rock
bands, but he also enjoyed Yes very much. I had many classical and jazz
influences but perhaps my favorite prog-rock band was Gentle Giant. Peter
enjoyed many of the innovative English bands like Hatfield and the North, Henry
Cow, and Brand X. Kirk had many influences from Pink Floyd to classical. Scott
enjoyed Genesis a lot and I guess that's a band that we all agreed was enjoyed
by us all-- Genesis.
Your debut album Netherworld (In the Following
Half-light) was released in 1981. Please tell us more about this album. How
would you describe the music ?
Netherworld worked very hard and had a lot of
lineups of different musicians before that album is released in
1981.
As the years went by and the popularity of
progressive rock began to wain, Denny who had been with the band for a long time
shifted his musical interests away from progressive rock. He was in the band for
years. I don’t blame him for changing. He wanted to move Netherworld into newer
styles of music. You can hear some of that influence in Maybe if They Burn Me
and Son of Sam. On the album some tunes have that approach, others were more
traditional prog-rock, and some are more experimental approaches within the
genre like Sargasso.
How is the availability of this album ?
The album is available through Musea Records in
France and also the music is posted on the iTunes store. The availability of the
CD and the release on iTunes have promoted a lot of popularity increased
interest in the band and led to some very nice reviews and interviews with great
progressive sites like yours. The CD would probably not have been re-released
without the help and encouragement of Jerry Van Kooten, a lyricist and reviewer
for the Dutch Progressive Rock Page.
That's thirty years ago. What have you and the
members of your band been up during the last three decades ?
During the last three decades most of us have stayed
active with music am going in and out of different original and copy bands.
Scott went into psychology. Many of the rest of us who stayed in California
became involved in the high tech companies that are in our Silicon Valley area.
I went on to help develop small parts of music and digital audio tools like Pro
Tools at Digidesign and the legendary Opcode. We all continue to work on music
in one way or another to this day with the exception of
Denny.
Any recordings in the vaults you may release
digitally or on an album?
There are some tapes of Netherworld’s final music
done after the Netherworld album was released. This is where Netherworld was
striking out in new directions and not so much progressive, but really quite
innovative and interesting. Certainly those tapes need to restoration and I'm
not sure when or if that work will be accomplished.
Is there any plans to do anything more under the
Netherworld name now or is this it?
I doubt any new music will come out by us under the
name Netherworld. But Scott Peter, Kirk and I all continue to work on different
music projects. Pete, Kirk, Dave, Thayne and I still get together occasionally
to play some Netherworld, but mostly other music. I continue to try to release
innovative and original music that often involves a driving beat. I've embraced
many new electronic ways of composing and recording music (some of which I’ve
help shape and develop) that don't fit into the original progressive genre. They
would not be considered traditionally progressive, but I am
progressing.
To wrap up this interview, is there anything you
want to add to this interview ?
I just want to thank the ProgArchives for what you
are doing. When the Netherworld album was released long before the internet with
no advertising or promotion we still got letters from all over the world telling
us how our music had reached folks with completely different lives across
cultural borders. That was such a compliment! Now the internet, through sites
like yours, allows fans of more unique styles of music to communicate their
interests and support the music better. If this method of communication was
available to Netherworld, we certainly would have been able to continue longer.
So thanks!
Thank you to Randy for this interview
Their PA profile is here and their homepage is here
Randy's more recent work is here and here
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Netherworld
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