An acoustic album by Saga? This is unexpected and can be seen as a small sensation - the Canadian melodic-proggers usually work fully electric, with a real synthesizer fleet and up to three keyboardists at the same time. Nevertheless, they present a convincing work with "Symmetry".
Many rock bands nowadays present their songs live in a small, fine acoustic set. Saga, too, have done this more often in recent times. After their short hiatus in 2019, the Canadians used the corona-induced forced break to record a sparking work entirely without synthesizers and electronics.
In this interview, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Michael Sadler talks about the album's musical approach and the challenges of minimalist delivery on tracks like "Wind Him Up," "Images," "The Perfectionist" and "Tired World."
eclipsed: Saga is certainly not one of those bands where you immediately think of a pure acoustic album. How did this unusual idea come about for you?
Sadler: It actually evolved straight out of the 2017 tour where we were our own opening band with an extended acoustic set. Originally we were going to put out a live recording of that, which didn't work out. But that was the starting point for developing a concept like that. Even before that, every now and then we had performed one or two well-known songs minimalistically with just acoustic guitar and percussion, but never on such a level
eclipsed: What makes up your acoustic concept?
Sadler: It's important to us that people don't think of the well-known "MTV Unplugged" format and fluffy acoustic versions, because it's more than that. We radically change arrangements or combine several songs into a completely new one. I also sing the songs completely differently. Let's just take the epic "Wind Him Up": I can't just sing that as soaringly anthemic as I'm used to. In a way, it's a reinvention of the melody lines. That was a big challenge for all of us. Especially for Ian [Crichton, note], it was very frustrating at first not being able to use the electric guitar. "Symmetry" is not an intermission filler album to bridge the time between two regular studio records. It's one that can stand on its own. It's songs that have been re-created.
eclipsed: There was some good news for fans: bassist and songwriter Jim Crichton, who left during the 2018 tour, is back on board.
Sadler: Oh yeah. He describes himself as our "caretaker" (laughs), who pulled all the strings together, organized everything, played acoustic bass himself and of course mixed it in the end
