Novus Rex
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Topic: Novus Rex
Posted By: toroddfuglesteg
Subject: Novus Rex
Date Posted: December 20 2011 at 17:30
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US act NOVUS REX as of today consist J. R. Fernandez (keyboards, drums, guitars, vocals and his son A. I. Fernandez (guitars, bass, vocals). Initially a creative vehicle for and by the former, also involving the late Anthony Davies (vocals), it is afer the release of their debut effort Plowshares Into Swords (2009), that the junior member of the Fernandez familiy got involved according to the album credits. Their sole CD to date is described as a creation inspired by Bible prophecy, history and current events. As far as musical references go, ELP, Vangelis and Mike Oldfield are three of many names cited as inspitational by the elder Fernandez on the band homepage. I got in touch with the band and
J. R. Fernandez answered my questions.
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When
and by whom was your band formed? Did any of you, past and present
members, play in any other bands before joining up in your band? Why
did you choose that name and which bands were you influenced by? Novus
Rex was formed in 2008 by me, J.R. Fernandez, as a vehicle for
writing and recording my own musical ideas; which were varied and
many! Originally, the goal was for me to play all of the instruments,
as a typical solo project, but about a year into the writing I met
Anthony Davis(drummer and vocalist) and the project took a completely
different turn. I no longer had to worry about playing the drums! At
that point Novus Rex became a two man project with Anthony handling
the drums and vocals and me playing keyboards and guitars and writing
the music.
Anthony
had played and sung in various bands in the southwestern United
States and brought a great deal of experience and enthusiasm to the
project. Unfortunately, Anthony's health took a turn for the worse to
the point where he could barely sit through a recording session
without fainting; never mind having enough energy to play the drums.
He passed away before our first CD, "Plowshares Into Swords",
was finalized. Sadly, he never lived to see its release in 2010.
My
experience and interests are mostly in the recording studio and
that's where I feel most comfortable. Although I've played with a
number of bands during my college days in the early 1980s, none were
serious about wanting to create their own music and instead played
covers of other artists' work. I've always wanted to write and record
my own ideas, so as studio technology became more affordable, I began
to build my personal studio. Now, in the year 2012, I can finally say
that studio technology has reached a point where professional results
can be achieved by most anyone, without having to spend a fortune.
A
third member of Novus Rex came into the picture during the
‘Plowshares’ recording sessions, my son, A.I. Fernandez. He'd
been very busy with other priorities, so it was difficult to
incorporate him into the mix, but as time permitted he played bass
and guitar on a number of spots on that first CD. Now, as of January
2012, Novus Rex is reduced to my son and me.
I've
been asked by a number of folks if Novus Rex will ever be a "band"
that actually plays live. Playing live has never been one of the
goals for the project, since the compositions are very layered and
would require more than a handful of musicians to pull them off
properly in a live setting. It's not out of the question to play
live, but it wouldn't be easy. I've been talking with a drummer in
Denver, Colorado about collaborating and writing music that can be
played live, but that's something that may have to wait a while
longer. It's difficult enough to write and record music. To have to
re-create it convincingly in a live setting is another, totally
different challenge that I may not be ready to take on at this point
in my life.
The
name Novus Rex is Latin for "New King". The name was chosen
because of my affinity for Biblical prophecy and history. I've come
to appreciate, through my study of the scriptures, that God's purpose
is to restore the Earth to its original paradise condition and He
will do that through His "kingdom"; which is mentioned many
times in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures; hence, the name Novus Rex.
As
far as the influences for the music; well, there are MANY! I grew up
in the late 1970s, about ten miles from NY City, and from an early
age I listened to a lot of jazz, jazz fusion, classical, electronica
and, of course, progressive rock and art rock. The radio stations of
that era would play all kinds of music, all day long, so I was
bombarded with great music, from an early age.
I'm
principally a keyboard player and my first instrument was the organ,
which I started playing when I was 12 years old(during a time when
synthesizers were prohibitively expensive!). I dabble in other
instruments, like the guitar and drums, but keyboards and piano are
my first love and continue to be the instrument that's showcased in
the music that I write.
That
being said, my main influences are: Keith Emerson/ELP, Chick Corea,
Keith Jarret, Larry Fast(Synergy), Vangelis, Mike Oldfield, Rick
Wakeman, Patrick Moraz, Tony Banks, Yes, Genesis, Rush, Alan Parsons
Project and my favorite baroque composer, J.S. Bach. I also enjoy
movie soundtracks and to a large degree I fashion my writing style as
if I were composing music for a film. When I write, I not only hear
music, but I see it; if that makes any sense! Composing music for a
full-length film would be a dream come true for me.
My
son's guitar playing is influenced by Al DiMeola, Carlos Santana and
other jazz-rock guitarists; as well as Alex Lifeson. We're both Rush
fans and part of our writing style in the upcoming album, although
not readily apparent, is based on Rush-influenced themes. Listen a
bit closer and you may notice that ;-)  Your
debut album Plowshares into Swords was released two years ago. Please
tell us more about this album. 'Plowshares'
was an experimental album, in every sense of the word. We were
working with song structures that are not very common; even in
so-called progressive music. Some reviewers of the album understood
what we were trying to do, and were very complementary of our
efforts. A few thought that the idea of adding vocals to
keyboard-heavy symphonic/electronic rock was a bit too risky if not
downright wrong!
'Plowshares'
is not nearly the end product that I envisioned, but nevertheless an
album that I'm happy with. The original idea I had was to create
music that would sound very close to a movie soundtrack, but without
the video. A completely instrumental album; a sort of rock opera but
without the lyrics(some of Camel's work comes to mind). I wanted to
paint very vivid images for the listener without having to use words.
Well, that quickly changed when I met Anthony!
Soon
after he and I met, he asked me to burn him a CD of the music I'd
been working on. He took the CD to his home studio for a few days and
came back with lyrics and vocals to the first piece('Look, It's
Coming!'), which quickly changed from the "intro" to the
suite I'd envisioned to a full-blown "song"!
I
never envisioned 'Plowshares' being an album of "songs",
but instead a suite with various movements that would evolve without
having to rely too much on the typical intro-verse-chorus-verse
approach. Instead, we now had one song with lyrics so the rest of
the album had to have at least "some" lyrics. Otherwise it
would be kind of strange to only have ONE piece with lyrics and the
rest instrumental.
Most
of the music had already been written and nearly finalized and the
vocals were added later on; so I had to make changes to the structure
of the pieces, just to be able to fit in the vocals. More work than I
bargained for. This is not to say that I don't like the lyrical
content, because I do, since it describes the concept of the album
rather clearly and succinctly. Nor do I necessarily dislike my voice
or that of Anthony's. It's just that the music doesn't lend itself
real well to "rock" vocals. If I had to do it again I would
have looked for someone with an operatic voice that would have added
a "cinematic" quality to the music. But, finding an opera
singer is easier said than done! For
those of us unfamiliar with your music; how would you describe you
music ? For
someone unfamiliar with our music, the best thing would be to visit
our web site and listen to some samples:
http://novusrex.net/samples-1.htm" rel="nofollow -
Progarchives
has Novus Rex listed under Crossover Prog; which is a fair
classification, since our music "crosses" many lines: from
rock, to classical to electronic and with other elements like ambient
and fusion. One reviewer of our CD hit the nail on the head when he
categorized Novus Rex's music as "symphonic art rock".
Another
reviewer said that Novus Rex reminded him of Mike Oldfield's work,
but with much more emphasis on keyboards. Not a bad description of
our music, since Mike is one of my main influences.
First
and foremost, the music is keyboard-driven. If you don't like
keyboards(organ, synths, piano), and LOTS of them, you may not like
Novus Rex. There's guitar(acoustic and electric), bass and drums in
our music, but it's mostly dominated by keyboards. Another
reviewer(Jerry Lucky) said that Novus Rex's music may appeal to fans
of Patrick Moraz's solo work. I could see why he said that. Moraz,
too, is one of my influences.
The
music on our first CD, 'Plowshares', is on the heavier side. One
music magazine who interviewed me suggested that the music on that CD
contained a "metal" undertone. The guitars were heavy, and
with an Ayreon-like quality. But I wouldn't say that all of our music
is that heavy. The next CD we're working on doesn't use nearly the
same heavy tones as those on 'Plowshares'.
In
short, the most accurate classification of our music is definitely
"keyboard-driven symphonic art rock". The keyboards will
continue having a lot of the spot light while the guitars may offer
varying colors and textures from one part of a piece to another. If
someone is looking for constant heavy guitars, or constant light
guitars, then our music may not be to their liking. We like to
present a variety of tones and textures and sometimes within the same
theme.
What
have you been up to since the recording of that album and what are
your plans for next year ? We've
been VERY busy writing and recording our next album and having a
blast doing so! What I like most about what we've been doing is that
A.I. and I have been involved in equal parts during the writing and
composing of this album. It hasn't been like on 'Plowshares', where I
had to handle the bulk of the writing. On this next album you will
hear a TRUE "collaboration" in every sense of the word. Thank you to J.R for this interview Their PA profile is http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=6860" rel="nofollow - and their homepage is http://www.novusrex.net/" rel="nofollow -
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Replies:
Posted By: memowakeman
Date Posted: December 25 2011 at 11:37
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These kind of answers are really worthy, what the readers must do is listen to and support them. Thanks J.R. ------------- Follow me on twitter @memowakeman |