Since 1999, the bald guitarist has played in a band that has brought him as much success as trouble: A Perfect Circle. A cooperation with Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan, who has hardly any time, but all the more whims. Logical consequence: With "What Normal Was," the frustrated Howerdel goes it alone - and speaks plainly.
eclipsed: Do you wish you had recorded more music with Maynard over the last 23 years?
Billy Howerdel: No question about it! If his schedule had allowed it, we would have made more than four albums, guaranteed.
eclipsed: Did you get into a dependency there that you regret? Was it a mistake to get hooked on him as a singer?
The Dutch prog band seems to come out of nowhere. In fact, however, its members are old hands, partly even old acquaintances. Fons Herder's versatile voice, for example, not only lends an amazing intensity to the Inhalo songs, but has also been heard on A Liquid Landscape. The other three band members previously formed the prog band Ivy's Dream (2009-2021), and the genesis of Inhalo's debut "Sever" is closely intertwined with it. "The story of 'Sever' started around 2010 and ended in 2020," recalls guitarist Roy Willems.
After just jamming around a bit with his old friend, drummer Pepijn Gros, the band project Ivy's Dream took off with Peter Cats on bass. They had gigs and eventually so much good material that they wanted to get serious about an album. "We got the opportunity to do an EP in 2013, and after that we wanted to find the right producer to record our music in the best way." That producer was Jochem Jacobs. Roy met him in 2014 at a party ...
It's February 3, 1972, and very few visitors to the Lanchester Arts Festival in the Locarno Ballroom, Coventry, England, know that the guy in front of them on stage once thought about becoming a comedian in his youth. And if they knew, they'd cheer all the more, after every single line of the song. The man at the microphone rolls his eyes, grins, and acts like he can't hold back a drop of water: "This here song it ain't so sad, the cutest little song you ever had." Indeed, sir, the whole thing sounds more like shake rhyme and nursery rhyme than sophisticated rock art. But hasn't rock'n'roll always been a nursery rhyme? And weren't dirty innuendos part of the business model of spontaneous musical entertainment from the beginning, oh, long before rock'n'roll? The singer knows this: "Those of you who won't sing, you must be playin' with your own ding-a-ling!"
Al Di Meola's, Paco de Lucia's and John McLaughlin's 1981 release "Friday Night In San Francisco" is one of the most famous and important acoustic guitar albums in music history. Some 41 years later, "Saturday Night In San Francisco" has now been released, a recording of another concert by the three guitar reros on the following day. In an interview, Al Di Meola told how it came about and what it was like back then
eclipsed: With "Saturday Night In San Francisco" you release a sequel to the terrific acoustic speed metal recorded at the Warfield Theatre on December 5, 1980. Do these recordings really come from the Saturday after that Friday?
That a band records its best live album with a substitute frontman and not with its original singer, who on top of that is one of the main songwriters, sounds unlikely at first. However, if this substitute is named Greg Lake and the whole thing happened almost 40 years ago, then the shoe is on the other foot: Carl Palmer remembers the event at that time, which is now re-released opulently and well restored as "Asia In Asia", and gives an outlook on future activities of the band.
Three gentlemen from the Frankfurt music area: guitarist Harri Gottschalk, bassist Martin Krause and drummer Stehn Raupach have joined forces under the name Hum to present their version of psychedelic rock to the astonished world, garnished with stoner riffs and in garage rock production. One is already amazed by the band name and the cover of "One". There they pose in a kind of extraterrestrial full-body romper suits. What's behind this curious, almost surrealistic psychedelic rock attack, the three musicians explain best themselves ...
eclipsed: Could you briefly introduce yourselves with your musical background?
Harri Gottschalk: The three of us mix many influences, 70s rock, electro, punk, jazz, NDW, indie, noise. Somehow everything finds its way into our songs. But these are actually not songs, but rather dark worlds of sound that spread out.
Dan Bornemark's T-shirt with the "Free Hand" cover motif says it all: The singer, multi-instrumentalist and main composer of Green Asphalt is a huge Gentle Giant fan. This can be heard clearly on his band's self-titled debut album, which nevertheless sounds highly independent and is a found food for all those listeners who like complex prog songs full of playfulness
In an interview with eclipsed, the 57-year-old Swede talks about his soft spot for children's music (he has released several albums for small listeners), his long-standing friendship with the musicians of Gentle Giant and, of course, about the "Green Asphalt" album, whose creation process took 17 years. But as they say, all's well that ends well!
eclipsed: Dan, you come from a very musical family, as both your father Valter and your mother Gullan composed. How old were you when you learned your first instrument?
