After John left, we made a conscious decision to drift towards metal/pop
rock, cumulating with Spiritual Physics. Then we changed management and
direction, reverting to neoprog - we recorded half an album which we were going
to call 'This Black Country'. Sadly we never completed it.
Please tell us more about your first bands Kite and
Damascus and why did you choose the name
Ark.
Damascus - that's ancient history! I think Damascus was formed by Tony and
Pete and it went through several incarnations before I joined. I think I played
several gigs with the band as Damascus. At this point the name began to attract
unpleasant connotations and we were casting about for a new name. We were
courting a manager who suggested that we should find a long name then shorten it
into an acronym over a couple of years - his example was 'First Find And Pick A
Pose-ey Name' but since FFAPAPN never struck us as catchy we decided on 'Kite',
which I think lasted three gigs.
Then we had one of those 'we're not leaving the room until we have a name
we all agree on' meetings. Andy (Harris) and I wanted to call ourselves 'Isis'
and Pete wanted to call us 'Nowhere's Ark'. We compromised.
None of these name changes were associated with a change in songwriting or
approach - the only influence here was who was in the band contributing ideas at
the time. Overall there was a gradual and constant movement from 'quirky' to
'anthemic' I guess...
The biography tells the rest of the story so let's
go straight to your outputs, the albums. Please tell us more about the now
deleted album Archives 1983-1990 from 1990. Any chance for a digital or CD
re-release ?
The masters have been lost long ago and even if we could find
them, I doubt they would survive the baking so they could be played. I think
Barbie has some of this material on the Ark Appreciation pages so that would be
the place to look but the quality will be low. Quite a bit of Archives found
its way onto other albums - the best version of Flag Day by far is on WUI.
However I have a not-so-secret desire to do something with 'Feed The Fire' one
day.
I think someone might have digital masters to the part of an unfinished
album that was to follow Spiritual physics. We should try to get those out at
least...
Please tell us more about your second album The
Dreams of Mr Jones from 1988 (or 1991
?)
Dreams was really the cumulation of the entire project from the inception
of Damascus, and contained our best work to that date. My only regret is we
didn't have the budget to put more tracks on it! The recording was in part for
a session on BRMB which we won in a national competition. AFAIR there were
non-Birmingham bands at the start but in the first heat we managed a near
perfect score from the judges and a lot of bands - especially those who had to
drive - just gave up!
Please tell us more about your EP Cover Me With
Rain from
1992
Cover me with rain was part recorded at Rich Bitch Studios where we
recorded Dreams, and in part at the BBC for a Tommy Vance Session. Train was
something John had started to write just before he left, but it was taken in a
new direction by Gel and Paul. Rain itself was a classic 'Ark tries pop
breakthrough'. 'Message' was about a friend of Tony and Pete who took his life
a few months earlier. Celebrate was just fun! If you listen carefully you can
hear Paul shouting 'Wayne, get off the fishtank!' imitating the wife of our
rehearsal studio owner. He's the one that says 'bostin!' at the end too.
Recording in Maida Vale was a real experience - even the security guards on
the door spoke in perfect BBC English. The engineer - who had worked on Jimi
Hendrix sessions - appeared in the control room in black leathers and full-face
helmet, took it off to reveal a huge, thick beard and exclaimed in perfect,
cultured English 'Tally ho and off we go'!!
Please tell us more about the Spiritual Physics (The
White Album) album from 1993
Up until this point, the mood of the band was uniformly upbeat. As we were
writing for Spiritual Physics we rehearsed in a cold, underground industrial
unit and Tony was having real problems in his personal life. The album
reflected this - Stargazer, Today and So What were the only songs that didn't
have intensely personal lyrics.
(Song writing and arrangement in Ark was a completely democratic process,
but the lyrics were always written by Tony once the song had taken form. Listen
to the lyrics on the album - you can put two and two together.)
I suspect 'Stargazer' is written about Barbie. For 'So What' we wanted to
chant the title during the song, but it sounded a bit like a Nuremberg rally so
we left it off!
Then you broke up. What happened
?
It just ran out of steam - sacking our management, failing to find new
management, personal problems and a desire to get on with our lives all took
their toll. Despite wide acclaim and a strong cult backing, there seemed no way
to convince the mainstream music industry to take us on. Pete and Tony wanted
to continue to chase the big break and move in an Indie direction - which they
did with their new band 'Grass', I wanted to return to our prog roots and become
a cottage industry - for several years I played in a three-piece prog-metal
outfit called Red. Paul and Gel were keen to move onto new things. We just
called it a day, I guess.
You have now returned. What is the story behind the
return of Ark ?
JJ! He made it all possible.
We'd considered reforming a year previously but it had petered out. John
had the drive to make it happen. We just turned up in Base Studios and it was
like 20 years had disappeared.
Please tell us more about your new Wild Untamed
Imaginings from last year.
The main driving force behind WUI was to do a proper job on New
Scientist - the engineering on the original was disappointing. We have rhythm
tracks for all of the songs on Dreams and New Scientist - I hope we get to
finish them someday.
Even after all this time we have a huge amount of faith in the music we
made - and can make. The difference today is there is a network of prog fans to
play to.
What is the main difference between Ark anno 1994
and Ark anno 2010, but music wise, business wise and in all other possible
respect ?
None and everything I guess. Its full circle really - we play for the joy
of playing and performing just as we did at the beginning.
How is your creative processes from coming up with a
theme/riff/idea to you got it down onto an album
?
It usually starts with some riff or section from someone. We
knock it into a song within 15 minutes and take a recording. Then we try to
forget about it for a while. If someone likes the idea they'll work on it and
bring ideas to the rehearsal room and it will get another 15 minutes. This
carries on until the idea becomes fossilised or it catches fire. If it catches,
we'll finish the arrangement and Tony will write some lyrics and then we'll gig
it a couple of times and maybe tweak it.
Just to give those of us who are unfamiliar with your music
a bit of a reference point or two: How would you describe your music
?
Unashamedly neo-prog. What the neo-prog bands understood was
that 1971 was about pop songs that were developed with prog arrangements. That
was forgotten even by the big bands which lead to excess and the revolution
against prog that punk stood for.
If you don't have a good song, then all you have is some meandering
instrumental with instantly forgettable lyrics. A good prog album should work
as well on the first listening as it does 20 years later. It should catch your
attention immediately and hold that while you explore its intricacies.
You would have to come and see us live too. Ark is theatre - you have to be
there.
How is the availability of your albums from the 1990s
and what is your experience with the music industry and the new internet music
scene ?
Poor at the moment. We hope to do something about this
Are any of you Ark members involved in any other
bands or projects
?
Sadly
we've had to take a bit of a break - Tony's availability is limited by his
mother and his very young daughter, although you can still see him gig with the
Festivals occasionally. Pete can be caught around the black country gigging in
all sorts of bands, as can Andy.
John is back with Arena, Tim is playing with Dec Burke.
I'm helping Paul Menel finish off his solo album, 'Three Sides to Every
Story', which started out as a pop album but is turning more neo-prog.
Hopefully it will have the kind of balance between pop and prog that AYSC when
its finished - if not the next one will!!
We're also thinking about touring Nomzamo on its 30th anniversary which is
next year, and AYSC two years later. That would be another full circle for
me!
To wrap up this interview, is there anything you
want to add to this interview
?
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