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Monday, 15 October 2007 18:12 |
 With their latest album, 'Paradise Lost', which was released earlier this year, New Jersey Prog Metallers Symphony X have far surpassed the success they had achieved with their previous releases, and firmly implanted themselves on the world stage. With support a slot of Gigantour, a support slot with Queensryche and now as the main support to Dream Theater on the bands European Tour.
In a dressing room at Wembley Arena, Mike Elliott sat down with Symphony X's guitarist and driving force, Michael Romeo, with the sounds of Dream Theater rumbling through the walls to find out more.
Mike Elliott: Hey Michael, thanks for talking with us.
Michael Romeo: No problem.
ME: So how has the tour gone so far?
MR: Really good.
ME: How many shows have you played now with Dream Theater?
MR: When the hell did we start? Was it Helsinki? Yeah, it's been going 3 weeks now.
ME: And it's been going well?
MR: Fucking good yeah, most of the shows been loud man.
ME: It's almost 4 months since 'Paradise Lost' came out. How's it gone down?
MR: How do i think it's gone? Well i know this album we just did has done, almost everywhere, what the last album did in 5 years. So this one already has beaten out that one in many territories, some are really close.
ME: That's really good.
MR: Fuck yeah!
ME: Are you looking at material for the next album?
MR: No man, no, we just got done with this one!
This album was so much work man, we're going to enjoy touring now, and doing that, but some time early next year we're going to have think about a new record
 But there was so much shit we had left over from the last album, a lot of parts, a lot of pieces, hours and hours of shit.
ME: Stuff that you can work with build into the next.
MR: Yeah we'll sort of have a head start ya know.
ME: So with Paradise Lost, everyone talks of the Milton influence, but I've also heard there's some Lovecraftian influence in there. Is that true?
MR: Not from me, I don't think so, I mean nah, on the last album there was some... No that was Poe. So not really not that i know of.
I mean it's sometimes we're working on stuff, or we're writing lyrics or working on music, maybe you read a little something, or shit you can even see a movie and it kinda inspires you so you know a long the way there's all kinds of shit.
It might not be a direct thing, but you know there's so many things and even friggin movies, there's always some kinda little inspiration.
ME: You hear something and go wow.
MR: Yeah and that would be cool to put in the music.
ME: So there was 5 years between The Odyssey and Paradise Lost. We're not gonna be looking at 5 years until the next album?
MR: No no it, was only because The Odyssey was a point where in the States we actually got some somewhere, shit was happening for us, and i mean everywhere that album was doing well for us.
In the States it was the biggest jump for sales and interest in the band. We did Gigantour with Megadeth, and we did the tour with Queensryche. There was just a lot of opportunities, a lot of things happening so we just decided to do as much as we could.
ME: Get out on the road, get out to fans.
 MR: Yeah, and do as much as we could, and you know time flies. Gigantour was 2005, and we had already been talking about a new record, but when your on the road it's friggin impossible to fucking write. So we really didn't start working on the album 100% till after Gigantour and that was September/October 2005, so time just goes by.
MR: And Queensryche was a big tour for you guys.
MR: Yeah, I think we just did the east coast run in the states with those guys.
ME: They've been doing really well for themselves lately with Operation Mindcrime II, so that's a good band to be out with.
MR: Yeah, like i said there was a lot of good stuff happening for us in the States and we just decided to do as whatever we could, and those are all cool bands so it's good shit.
ME: There's a lot of talk about a DVD. Is there going be one?
MR: Yeah, I think after we do this tour, we're going to come back for a headline tour, there's one in the States, another here in Europe, and then South America too, so we'll probably just record as much footage as we can.
ME: Any idea when you'll be back in the UK?
MR: We're kinda looking at how the timing of everything would be, 'cause I think we'll look at maybe April in the States, so here, maybe before that, maybe, yeah we're still just trying to figure the schedule out.
ME: You recorded The Odyssey in The Dungeon. Was Paradise Lost recorded there too?
MR: Yeah it's on there. Ever since the third record we pretty much started doing everything at my place. Maybe back then, on earlier albums, it wasn't the best it could be, as far as the gear and the technical knowledge, but I think I've pretty got a handle on everything now. The bands more comfortable you know, we've got our own place, we can hang out.
ME: Work at your own schedule? Do you find that works better, engineering your own record rather than someone else coming in to do it?
MR: Yeah, I mean, someone else coming in would be cool, 'cause it'd be less work for me, but I mean the band has a cool relationship. I know how much I can push Russ, and those guys know how much they can push me, when enough is enough, and when it's time to call it a night, or we can go for three fucking days straight. We have a good relationship.
ME: Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are big in the news right now, having split from their record labels, and releasing albums under their own steam. Is that something you can see yourself doing?
MR: I dunno.
ME: Is it the future of the music industry?
MR: I've heard a lot of talk about that, it could be man, it's hard to say.
 ME: It's almost like bands going back to their roots. When you first start out, you record a demo sell it at shows.
MR: I guess with the internet, I guess you could do it. I mean there's probably a lot involved, probably a lot more work on the bands part, monitor everything. Yeah it could be done, but I dunno for us. Who knows?
ME: Do you think downloads are the future of music? I personally think people will always want a physical item.
MR: Yeah people i think will always want something to hold, the artwork, the package. The download thing is cool because you can get it instantly and you can hear samples. You have your iPod or whatever you have, but i think at the end of the day people want something to hold in their hand. Their going to want that thing.
ME: People often talk about the illegal side of downloading. Do you think it's a good thing, the same as tape trading days, or a bad thing?
MR: The tape days, they weren't to the same degree as the digital thing. I guess in some ways its good because someone who never heard of the band gets to hear something through file sharing, and they hear the band and they go oh these guys are good. 'cause I'm the same way ya know, it's like check out this band, burn me something, but when i hear it, i go friggin buy. It doesn't matter who it is, or whether i can get it for free. If i like it, I want it, I'll support the band.
ME: Like goto the shows, cause this is where music is in its truest form, live.. if it encourages people to come to live shows to support bands that's gotta be a good thing.
MR: Yeah there's definitely a lot of pluses to the illegal thing, but sometimes it does hurt a band. It's like us, we're not a real small band, but we're not a big fricking huge band, so it's like any record sales we can get kinda at least keep us going. So if everyone was just taking shit for free, it's gonna kill us you know. There won't be no band.
ME: Thanks for answering that. It's not a question bands like to talk about.
MR: And only because they don't want to sound like they're pro or anti downloading or that they're greedy and shit. It's not that, it's kind of our job and we're not Metallica, we're not some billion dollar thing and any little scraps we can get we'll take. Sometimes people just don't realise that.
ME: So where next?
MR: Lille, France. Headline show, 'cause these guys [Dream Theater] are taking a little break so we have like 4 headline shows, just to keep busy you know ,try and get a little more money in.
ME: Thanks for talking with us.
MR: Right on man.
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Last Updated on Monday, 15 October 2007 23:24 |
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