With The Sea Within, Roine Stolt has gathered a veritable all-star ensemble - with members of The Flower Kings, Pain Of Salvation and The Aristocrats. Names like Daniel Gildenlöw, Marco Minnemann or Jonas Reingold raise the expectations of fans of progressive music. The band initiator is aware of this and therefore tries to keep the ball flat. What would not be necessary at all, because the self-titled debut is a stylistically versatile double album between prog, art pop, jazz rock and film music, in which the joy of the participants is clearly noticeable.
Although the conversation with eclipsed is part of an interview marathon, Roine Stolt doesn't get stressed. Calm and concentrated, the friendly Swede talks about his latest project The Sea Within. By the way he even mentions his next solo album, which should be in the tradition of "The Flower King", but was recorded without the FloKi colleagues. But for now it's all about getting The Sea Within fit for the stage, because in July the band will perform in Germany for the first time as part of the "Night Of The Prog".
eclipsed: The Sea Within is your latest supergroup. What prompted you to found another"transatlantic" prog band?
Roine Stolt: (laughs) Well, as a child I played with classmates, later with people from my city and finally with people who lived outside my home country. Suddenly I realized: I don't necessarily have to find musicians in my own country. This is exactly what happened to Transatlantic about twenty years ago. As far as The Sea Within was concerned, inside-out boss Thomas Waber suggested: "Why don't you put a band together and find people with whom you can do something interesting?" I talked to Jonas Reingold and we ended up with Tom Brislin, Marco Minnemann, Daniel Gildenlöw and later Casey McPherson.
eclipsed: Maybe Inside Out needed a new prog-supergroup, because Transatlantic are just pausing again.
Stolt: Yes, that's possible, I haven't even thought about it. I was a little afraid of the term "Supergroup", by the way. When Inside Out put together an info sheet, they talked about "Supergroup", and I immediately said: "No, no, no! Don't use that word!" (laughs) Only time will tell if we are a supergroup or just another band.
eclipsed: Were there other musicians you wanted to be part of The Sea Within or is this the line-up you had in mind from the beginning?
Stolt: At the very beginning Jordan Rudess was also supposed to play, but he had to back down because of his obligations with Dream Theater. He is also very busy developing apps for iPhones and iPads. But the door is still open for him, anything is possible!
