A splendidly funny Neal Morse, who is currently recording the keyboards for the third Flying Colors album, explains eclipsed the background of "The Great Adventure". He does not hide the fact that the creation process - similar to "Snow" - was sometimes very laborious. But that doesn't mean that Morse & Co. lacked songs. In fact, there are another 45 minutes of material that were not used at all.
eclipsed: In the press release you could read that you were not planning to write another concept album. And certainly not a sequel to "The Similitude Of A Dream". Why not?
Neal Morse: We had just released a double and concept album, and the guys wanted to do something different, a simple progressive rock album. And so we started. I already had some pieces of the puzzle together, but not very many. In January 2018 we came together for two weeks in the studio and recorded, so to speak, a simple version of "The Great Adventure", without any real concept. It was the first time in the long history of working with my good friend Mike Portnoy that after a few weeks of listening and letting go I thought: "That's not it yet, we're not done yet. We should all go back to the studio and work on it. This has never been the case in any cooperation before. But that's the way it is, every album is unique and you have to follow the process as it evolves.
eclipsed: So you can't force it?
Morse: As musicians we are discoverers, we have to find out what something should be like. We had to go on a journey of discovery with this album as well. I finally wrote a version of "The Great Adventure" that lasted two and a half hours. And the band liked that, especially Mike, who originally didn't want a double album. He said it was an ambitious undertaking, but we should try. We found a small time window in August, and from my birthday, August 2nd, on we spent a few days in Nashville, arranged, and produced.
eclipsed: Your colleagues sang a little more this time, or is that deceptive?
Morse: That's actually the case. I don't keep track of it, but, yeah, I do. At first I sang everything as a model for the vocals - not very well, but no matter. The harmonies, the accents, and so on. Then I asked the others to just do it. We were just talking on the phone for a moment. It turned out quite well, everyone grabbed the part that suited him best.
eclipsed: After all, the boys can actually sing.
Morse: We are really lucky to be blessed with so many good vocals in the band. That takes the whole thing to another level. It was a great adventure to create this album. In the end everyone was very happy. There was a little magic in the game, and I think we also had a little help from above. "Similitude" was a creative milestone for all of us. "The Great Adventure is a worthy successor.
