Elegant Simplicity |
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toroddfuglesteg
Forum Senior Member Retired Joined: March 04 2008 Location: Retirement Home Status: Offline Points: 3658 |
Topic: Elegant Simplicity Posted: August 14 2010 at 02:38 |
This English neo prog band has so far released 19 albums since 1992, without making much of a splash in the scene. Their music is pretty good though. They have just released a free compilation album called As It Was and I got in touch with their mainman and founding member Steven McCabe for their story. -----------------------------------------
I was born in Leeds, over here in the UK and I started Elegant
Simplicity around 1992. I had played in a number of bands up
to that point, one of which was a fusion trio a bit like BJH neets the
Mahavishnu Orchestra! Between the release of the first cassette and the
first CD, I played guitar, keyboards and mandolin in a covers band
where we occasionally did our own material - some of which was released
on the Nature of Change. Anyway, after the band
folded, I effectively gave up live work and concentrated doing my own
thing. Besides of yourself, is there any other regular members of
Elegant Simplicity ? The main regulars are Ken Senior on vocals and Christopher
Knight on drums.
You have been releasing albums since 1992. What is the
inspiration and motivations for your music ? I was a very late starter to music, both as a listener and a
performer, so when I was bitten with the music bug and learnt how to
play in some rudimentary fashion, I couldn't find anything like the
music I was already writing and hearing in my head. I was a huge heavy
rock fan at the time, anyway - mostly Sabbath and Heep - and I was
never entirely sure what to call the stuff I was writing! It certainly
wasn't heavy rock! Anyway, after getting some songs together and having
some feedback from friends, Elegant Simplicity was
born. As far as motivation is concerned, I just love to play, love to
compose and record. I can get inspired by what I see, hear or read
about. I doubt I will ever be bored with or of music. Let's run through your releases. Please write whatever comes
into your head about each of them, starting with Improper Advances from
1992 and finishing with Too Many Goodbyes from 2007. That's a lot of releases to consider, but here goes:
Some of these albums has been released on cassettes only and
are probably out of print. Do you have any plans to make this material
available again on CDs or digital downloads ? Yes, now that digital downloads are going really well for me, it
would be silly not to release this stuff again. The first seven were
released on CD some years ago but sold out straight away and I never
got round to re-pressing them. As ever, it all comes down to time! You also have a free compilation album called As It Was out
on a free download from your website. Please tell us more about this
album and where we can obtain it from. As it Was will eventually be two albums worth of
material. The current release features tracks from the last 10 albums
and the next one will be tracks from the ones before that; so, all our
albums will be represented across these two releases. For years, I have
had 40 second clips available on the jukebox at the website, but the
nature of my music makes it really difficult to judge if you would like
it or not. So, after much research on the subject, I figured I had
nothing to lose. The album is absolutely free. It is in ultra high
quality, with full artwork @ 320kbps. All you have to do is create an
account at elegantsimplicity.com,
add it to the shopping basket and you can download it straight away. How would you describe your music and who would you compare
yourself with ? I consider it to be melodic progressive rock, with jazz and folk
undertones. I guess, if I really had to find a comparison it would be
with BJH, Camel and Tull. Fans of those bands would likely disagree,
though! Are you involved in any other bands or projects ? No, not for some years. I have done work in the past as producer /
artist and you can read about this stuff on the website, as it is far
too dull to go into here! I guess music is not your main occupation. What is your main
occupation ? As I like to say to anyone who asks, by day I am a mild mannered
database applications developer and by night an undiscovered rock god! What is your latest update and your plans for this and next
year ? This year, it is to get the new CD completed and to compile the next
free album. Next year will be all about getting the new CD out to as
many people as possible. To wrap up this interview, is there anything you want to add
to this interview ? Yes, to all music fans out there, whatever genre floats your boat,
keep supporting independent artists like Elegant Simplicity
- help stop the world from being homogenized into oblivion! And to you,
Torodd, and Progarchives.com,
thank you for the questions and keep up the great work. Thank you to Steven for this interview. Elegant Simplicity is well worth checking out. |
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memowakeman
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: May 19 2005 Location: Mexico City Status: Offline Points: 13032 |
Posted: August 20 2010 at 11:19 |
Interesting band. IŽll download the free album. Nice interview.
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