Cologne's Hilton, not far from the main train station, is the obvious place for interviews. Here you are undisturbed and yet right in the middle of it. The journalists have a comfortable journey, the musicians a perfect starting point to explore the city. While Mick Box sips a Coke, Phil orders his fourth Kölsch before four in the afternoon. Mick comments: "He thinks it's rock'n'roll", which encourages Phil to note that these test tubes are not really beer at all. Once this detail has been clarified, Phil enjoys the eclipsed cover of the current issue with the cover story for the 1968 musical year:"I got married there, but only lasted seven years. I never made that mistake again after that." Mick, on the other hand, regrets that his German is not enough to read the story. "Jeff Beck's'Truth' I have to listen to again, one of my absolute favorite albums."
eclipsed: "Living The Dream" surprises with many vintage organ sounds and more backing vocals.
Phil Lanzon: Is there really more organ on it than on the albums before? I don't think so. The impression is probably caused by the fact that we have relied on very old heep song structures for many songs.
Mick Box: When Phil and I wrote the songs, we knew we wanted to have all aspects of the heep sound on the album, from hard rock to beautiful melodies to prog.
eclipsed: Is the slight progression of some songs due to the fact that you played a song like "The Magician's Birthday" live again?
Box: No. Heep were never a thoroughbred prog band, but in the early seventies it was something that suited us well. Recently, Prog has moved back into the spotlight, and we have of course noticed that. That's why we're playing a longtrack live again. On the new album we left ourselves the freedom not to limit the songs from the beginning, but to send them on a musical journey in a good progma manner. Even if no real longtracks came out except for the eight-minute "Rocks In The Road", hopefully you can notice their free spirit. And they're still typical heep.
eclipsed: While Ian Gillan calls Deep Purple an instrumental band, this cannot be said of you because of the many formative choirs. Did you always pay attention to the fact that a new bassist or drummer can sing during the many changes on Heep?
Box: That was never really the question at the auditions. They could all sing in the background without us demanding it. But I have to ask Davey (Rimmer; heep bassist since 2013) and Russell (Gilbrook, heep drummer since 2007) if they hadn't been able to contribute backing vocals.
