Darkstereo - Dark Melancholic Music Reviews & News

I operate a little website at www.darkstereo.com which reviews and interviews musicians, podcasters, writers and pretty much anyone with something to say about music of a "darker" variety. This of course includes prog!

We've interviewed writers from The Progspace, musicians like Paolo Ballardini etc.

So, if you're ever interested in a review or interview, please get in touch through the site. In fact... I'd really love to interview someone from the Prog Archives team... a founder or regular writer here?

As a new member here, it would great to learn more about your fine work and have a friendly written chat 

Please reach out if this is of interest!

Moshkito said:

"But the ones that need to be asked questions would never get asked ... folks let Jim Ladd know, and he was massive in helping a lot of bands that we consider top 5 in Progressive Music ... his days at KMET and KLOS had a lot of stuff, but sadly either he was paid to not say anything, or we failed and he passed away ..."

Thanks. 

Interviews are a funny thing. In general, I don't care for many of them, and if you want to check out some of the ones we have on the site, you will find a lot of differences, though in the end, not a whole lot discussing "the art" of the creation of the music ... which (apparently) is not important to fans, since they only care about the song, not anything about it. (So to speak!!!)

But it is hard ... a really good interview would show a lot of knowledge about the art itself, and then the interview is about how it comes alive as a song, or another piece of music for the band. And this is hard, since the majority of folks doing "interviews" are (usually) fans, and they want their questions answered. Comparing this to an interview Guy Guden did with Robin Williamson (over an hour of fun!!!), it was tremendously historic, fun and crazy, and it ended up with him telling us jokes and participating in fun banter. Not sure how much you learn about the band and his work, but it explains beautifully how his Merry Band came together and worked so well at the time. The question is, do we care ... but an interview like that is 2nd to none, and totally far out. And enjoyable as heck ... and how he speaks about the old days, makes you feel like it is/was all alive, and you can still fell it all! That is far out and impressive to bring out of a person ... the only other person I ever met that could do that was Daevid Allen (Gong) who was so much fun to interview if you wanted to have fun ... but by the time you ask him for the 5th time how often he visits the loo, the whole thing is done and gone!

It makes things very difficult for a lot of artists. And some of them do know that sometimes they got "lucky" with the right set of words or notes, and there is no explanation there, but, for example, you can try to interview Edgar Broughton, but he is likely to make you feel small accidentally ... in his advanced age, and pristine perception, how he has related to the world, politics, and the art of his music, is way too well defined, for any of us to be able to be clear on it, and then explain it ... try the album OORA, and see if you can come up with questions for Edgar ... and it won't be easy. A better question might be about the musicians that play with him ... they are not exactly beginners, and some of them have had a long time with him (Crane, and also his brother Steve), and are probably well suited to helping interpret Edgar's words!

But, taking a "known" band, is, often, a lost cause. They are too famous to answer any questions honestly, and they want the star part up front, so we know what all this is about ... keeping the name/product up front, and many of these musicians have been taught how to do this to help. It almost ends up as if you are about to do U2, and guess what ... you have no "lead in" to ask a question other than how this or that song is about, and that is something that many bands don't really want to discuss ... it could be a hundred different things.

In one of the films Neil Young is asked about OHIO and how it came up ... he couldn't answer it ... it was just there, and words were showing up. And while that's neat, this is tough for fans to read ... making it look like the only way you can be a part of the rock circus is if you have some parts of yourself "in the magic" ... and the fact is ... we don't, or we would be there! But a question about him being always centered enough to be "on point" would make more sense, but you have to be ready for that moment, since the question can not be popped out of nowhere ... it has to follow something near it to come out correctly. This is not easy ... and it begs that you check out that one interview og Gentle Giant by an Italian idiot ... who ended up LECTURING Gary Green on what progressive music was ... and Gary killed the whole thing ... "we didn't write anything!. We just played!" .... and there was no other question possible ... which was sad, since this would be a perfect time to discuss how they arrived at one point or another in so many places in their music ... and what inspired them to get that crazy ... nope, that Italian idiot was too stuck up to pick up the pieces and improve, and his interview is sad, and in pieces and cuts  off various responses, because they weren't what he wanted to hear and GG was not interested in "progressive music" at all.

It's very tough ... but yeah ... I would love to pick a brain or two, and musicians are not the only ones ... some are writers and we really need to pick their noodles apart better, so we can get a better sense of what the whole thing, and history, was about ... it's not just the song ... it's about their "living" day in and day out.