The Englishman Steve Thorne is a headstrong, non-conformist spirit, but also a strange contemporary. Strongly rooted in the progressive, he combines different styles like folk and indie with it without blinkers, but lets the holy (puristic) Prog-Gral pass by. With his latest album "Levelled - Emotional Creatures: Part 3" he follows up his debut "Emotional Creatures: Part One" (2005) and "Part Two: Emotional Creatures" (2007). Musically, it's definitely an exciting new work - but in terms of content he addresses highly controversial, even strange topics, criticizes science as an authoritarian religious community, considers the moon landing a "fake" and discusses long outdated theories such as the one that the earth is flat ("level") and does not revolve around the sun ...
eclipsed: Stylistically you move on "levelled" from Indie and Folk à la R.E.M. to Prog in the tradition of Pink Floyd and Genesis. A desired mix?
Steve Thorne: I never consciously write in a particular style, but let everything flow out of me as naturally as possible. But what is important to me is the order of the pieces, so that a completed "journey" is created
eclipsed: "Monkey Business" is reminiscent of "A Trick Of The Tail" by Genesis, bleating sheep are a reference to Pink Floyd, and "Word Salad Surgery" is a pun with ELP's "Brain Salad Surgery" - deliberate prog quotes?
Thorne: I'm just like any other songwriter, the sum of all the things I love and have absorbed over the years.
eclipsed: Would you please explain the concept of "Emotional Creatures"?
Thorne: The point is that science is not an institution of people in white coats, but a method that allows statements about reality to be made solely on the basis of repeatable and measurable experimental arrangements!
