Firstly, how has the new album been received?

DM: So far very well. Much better than any of them since “V”. So I guess we’d better stick to the Roman numerals, that seems to work out well for us. ;-)

(Side topic: You might think it’s strange that I said “V” instead of “Snow” because people are considering that one of the Spock’s Beard masterpieces these days, but I remember quite well that “Snow” was received with very mixed reviews)

JY: Who came up with the album title ‘X’? Is there a hidden meaning? Or is it just a celebration of the fact that you’ve put up with each other for ten albums(!)?

DM: I’m not sure who came up with that. Actually it might have been me, but it’s such an obvious title requiring so little creativity that there was never one of those “OH, GREAT IDEA!” moments.

When we named our fifth CD “V” we thought that was cool because it was simple and effective, but in reality it created zillions of questions and a massive amount of confusion. So hey, what would be more fun than to do it again this time, where we once again have that golden opportunity to use a single Roman numeral that can be easily confused with a letter of the alphabet? Ha ha.

JY: What lay behind the idea of self-funding the album through fan’s preorders? Were you influenced by what Marillion did a couple of years back?

DM: We were free agents after SB9. Our label was totally willing to re-sign us, but the advance was to be far less than it had been due to lagging performance in the record industry in general, and also specifically with Spock’s Beard.

I don’t think any other label would have given us more at the time either. Unfortunately this amount was not enough to properly record the CD given the history of how much we usually spend recording and mixing a CD.

So we had to either cut corners (not good) raise our own money. One of our message board members made the suggestion that we do what Marillion did and take pre-orders. Out of all the suggestions, I thought that was the best one, so we went for it.

JY: How well did this work?

DM: It worked quite well. We raised exactly the amount of money that it took to record, mix, and master the CD and manufacture the 5,000 Limited Edition copies.

And we have a ton of them left in stock so when they eventually sell we’ll be able to put a little money in our pockets.

It also allowed us to sign a licensing deal with Mascot with very little encumbrance so they won’t have to sell a massive amount of money before they recoup their expenses. . .which in turn means that we might actually see royalties someday!

JY: Will you be doing it again?

DM: If we suddenly become super successful and our CD sales of SBX go through the roof we won’t need to do that again.

But then I woke up. . . so yeah, we would probably need to do that again.

JY: In the same way that it is more of a ‘fan’s’ album due to the funding, would you say it is more of a group effort also, as ever member contributed to the song-writing process at some point in the album?

DM: All of us have actually been contributing since Neal left after “Snow”, and the percentage each guy has been contributing has been fairly consistent over all of the post-Neal CDs.

JY: How do you feel this new (I say ‘new’, it has been in place for the past four albums now) song-writing has affected the band’s music?

DM: Well, Neal is Neal and no one on Earth will write the same way he does, and he wrote nearly 100% of everything when he was in the band, so him leaving was THE major effect.

I think since then the biggest thing we’ve had to sort out is for everybody in the band to realize what exactly it is that makes up a Spock’s Beard song. Whereas in the past our CDs have been a little too diverse, this CD is more consistent from song to song.

JY: Even Neal [Morse] managed to co-write a song on this album, ‘The Emperor’s Clothes’. How did this come about?

DM: About four years ago when Alan was writing music for his solo CD he thought he’d put out a CD with half instrumentals and half vocal songs.

At that time he co-wrote “Emperor’s Clothes” with Neal, and it was a straight ahead rock song.

But, he later decided to make his solo CD entirely instrumental, so he had that song left over.

He changed it around to be more proggy, and had one of his friends Larry Kutcher come in to write that middle piano section, and it was eventually morphed into the Spock’s Beard song that it is today.

JY: Do you think he missed, and misses, being a part of the group?

DM: I don’t know and I would feel really awkward asking him that. I think he probably misses it to a degree, that would be only natural I would imagine. At least in a nostalgic way.

JY: We are accustomed to having one long song on your albums, but there are two leviathans on this new release, one of which you had a part in writing (‘Jaws Of Heaven’). Is it harder, easier, or just plain different writing these epics, and how do you go about putting together the parts?

DM: I would put it in all three of those categories.

Writing a short song that is meaningful and makes a satisfying and complete statement is pretty difficult, just like it would be difficult to write a profound piece of literature in 500 words or less.

So in that way, writing long is easier. If I need to go somewhere else musically, I can just go with no limitations.

On the other hand, much more effort and imagination is needed to craft part after part, section after section in a longer composition where nothing ever repeats exactly the same way. It’s much more difficult than writing two or three modules of music and plugging them into a simple order (remember the Genesis song ABACAB? That is sort of the arrangement of a standard pop song, with the verse being part A, the chorus being part B and bridge being part C).

But then again, if I write one 15 minute song, that takes up the space of 4 “normal” songs on a CD, so instead of coming up with four completely new concepts for different songs it’s only one big one with a few movements.

I guess I’d straddle the issue by saying that it’s harder to write long format songs in some ways, but easier in others, so the net effect is that it is just different.

The underlying idea though, is that basically a short song is usually written with concise repeating sections and a long song is more apt to be written linearly.

See, this was the “long song format” answer. Ha ha!

JY: What are your touring plans for the next year? Might I impart from my professional neutrality for a second (ahem) and say that a UK tour would be much appreciated?

DM: I know, we would have really liked to come to the UK this time but we have some really specific time constraints on us this year. We actually had three UK dates pencilled in, but they were exactly when our rehearsals needed to be. We tried to shuffle things around but the dates couldn’t be moved, so we had to make the unfortunate decision to let the UK dates go.

The UK dates we’ve done in the past (particularly London) have been brilliant, so we’re just as sad about that as anybody.

JY: I hope you have enjoyed answering these questions as much as I have writing them (that is, painstakingly with a slight sense of foreboding…). Do you have any last words for the readers of MetalteamUK?

DM: First, thanks to you for printing this interview! Next, heartfelt thanks goes out to everybody who has written or spoken kindly about us over the years and about this CD in particular.

Check out our tour schedule at www.spocksbeard.com and if you can make it over to Europe to catch a show or two, we’d love to see you!

For more on the band check out http://www.spocksbeard.com
http://www.myspace.com/spocksbeard

Interviewed by James Young

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