INTERVIEW WITH ARJEN ANTHONY LUCASSEN
Interview by Angelina Pelova
Arjen Anthony Lucassen is a Dutch musician, progressive metal multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer and lyricist with a career spanning over the course of 30 years. His main act, Ayreon, recently celebrated their anniversary with a massive series of concerts called ‘Amazing Flights Through Time’. His solo album “Songs No One Will Hear” was released a few weeks ago.
Good morning, Arjen, thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. It is an immense honour for me!
No problem; that you for talking to me, too!
Was it a coincidence that your new solo album was released at the same time of Ayreon’s anniversary?
No, that wasn’t a coincidence at all! We have been working on the 30th anniversary for two years and I have been having some side projects, you know, so I thought it would be cool to time my new album with the Ayreon concerts, so people who come to them can buy it there and avoid the shipping costs.
Which are as much as the album usually.
Yes.
How do you organise such an enormous event? Must have been hard work!
Yes, it took us two years. For someone like me who doesn’t go anywhere (I stay at home all the time), I couldn’t believe it: all these people came from 71 counties just to see the concert, and so many musicians took part; how did that happen? It was absolutely amazing!
It is a shame these concerts only happened in one country.
Yes; they are enormous, with so many musicians and instruments, so is impossible to transport.
The only show I can think of at this scale is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I had a chat with Jeff Plate a few years ago and wondered if they had plans to visit Europe, but he explained that shows like this are impossible to transport to other countries.
Unless you make them smaller.
Yes, which would compromise the quality and the entire idea.
Exactly. I know I have my limitations, like, I am not a good singer, so I use all these great powerful singers.
No, you are a good singer!
Why thank you. I love looking for new talents, and, not being modest, one thing I do know I am good at is bringing talent together, knowing what someone would be good for, and working with the best.
How do you find them? Some of them are very famous but others aren’t; how do you hunt them down?
On YouTube. Every evening after watching TV, my sci fi series, I spend an hour watching YouTube and finding new singers, then approach them and offer to work together. Also magazines. I subscribe to all rock magazines and find out about new talents there, too. If they know me, it’s easy, but if they haven’t heard about me, or don’t like prog, not so much. I am well known in the prog sphere, but if that’s not their style, they won’t have heard about me. It is a fairly niche genre; I never went mainstream.
That’s the shame about progressive metal; not many of these bands are popular generally, though on their own they are very popular and have a dedicated following. The only band that is somewhat close to being a household name is Dream Theater. And even they aren’t.
Right. But we do have very loyal fans! But that’s what also makes it cool: discovering these bands that no one else knows about, just you! When I was young, I discovered that band, Sparks, was very cool. Or Queen, when no one knew about it yet, before it became famous.
That’s one of the reasons why I like doing my reviews. If a couple of people learn about the bands I like, that’s what makes it worth it.
Thank you very much for the publicity!
Of course. When I was preparing my review of your album a couple of weeks ago, I was cooking and blasting out your new music. My husband asked, “What are you listening to?”, and now that’s all he’s been listening!
Oh that’s so great! So you’ve reviewed my solo album?
Yes!
And you liked it?
Yes, I loved it, it is very good, with some good humour, too.
I am glad to hear you like it!
So, has anyone said “No” to you?
Oh yes, many. Of course, I can’t get into the names, but some very famous musicians have turned me down. I do have my idols and would have loved to work with them, but how do you get to them?
Like who?
Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Beatles, etc., etc. I did manage to get in touch with Ian Gillan; he hadn’t heard of me, but gave my music a listen and liked it, His response was that it wasn’t a good timing for him.
They were busy in the past few years with tours and a new album.
Yes, I know. Or there’s Robert Plant: how do you get in touch with him??
Presumably he has a management company?
Or Alice Cooper. Apparently, he only works with people he knows nowadays, so it was a “No” from him, too. He did accept the offer from Avantasia though!
Oh no, not fair!
I did get to work with Bruce Dickinson though, so that was good! There was also someone very famous; the first thing he said to me was: ‘If you want me to work with you, you must have a thick wallet!’ No, thanks.
There are so many singers I would have loved to work with. I love Kate Bush, too. I have so many idols!
I have been wondering, are you by any chance a Rush fan?
Oh yes, I am a massive Rush fan!
I did think you might be, as some of your music reminds me of them. Their lyrics are so deep, too.
Yes, Neil Peart is one of the best lyricists in my opinion! Their lyrics make you stop and listen to what they are singing about.
I’ve been trying to work out if there is any of my favourite singers that you haven’t worked with actually. I don’t think you’ve worked with Ronnie Romero?
No, not yet.
Or Jeff Soto?
I have; he did a song for me on “Star One – Revel In Time”: ‘Back From The Past’.
Ah yes, of course he did! I love that album!
One thing I wanted to ask you is, I hope I am not wrong, but couldn’t find any information about that. Have you thought of writing? Like, books. You are such a great storyteller, when I listen to your albums, I keep thinking they could be filmed or made into comics.
Oh yes, I did do comics, a lot of them! (Goes and fetches some comics to show me.)
Wow, that’s so cool! Do you sell them anywhere?
I think they’ve all sold out by now. Yeah, I love comics, have done lots of them in the past. I am ashamed to admit it, but I have never read a book in my life. Not that I haven’t tried, but just cannot concentrate to go through with it.
Oh that’s interesting; I thought you must have read all sci fi books!
No, I haven’t. I like comics a lot though.
Right. Where do you get all the inspiration for your stories then; just your imagination or sci fi movies?
Sci fi movies and series. I’ve watched so many of them. Started with Star Trek obviously, then Blake Seven and all other sci fi series over the years.
Ah I loved Blake’s Seven when I was young; that was the only sci fi series that was allowed behind the iron curtain where I grew up.
Yes, Star One is reference to Blake Seven actually! Like Enterprise in Star Trek.
Oh I didn’t notice that! You know there is a National Sci-Fi Museum in Milton Keynes, and they have the model of Blake’s ship: very cool, you can see it’s the real thing, very old and chipped. My passion is the X-Files; they have a suit worn by Fox Mulder.
Ah wait, I will show you! (Arjen goes off again and brings a stack of the X-Files box sets to show me). I have them all; my entire wall is full of sci fi series!
Have you got any particular favourites?
No, not really, I love all of them. I also love the humour; there is humour in Star Trek, and in Blake Seven. Also in the X-Files, with the interactions between the two of them.
Your humour is great, too. The ‘doggy style’ references in your new album made me laugh.
Ah yes, ‘Shaggatron’ (track from “Songs No One Will Hear”).
Your sarcasm is cool. I love one particular song from “Star One – Rebel In Time”, ‘Billy Had a Bad Day’ (‘Today Is Yesterday’), that makes me laugh each time; I play it on repeat and my daughter declares me as weird, ha ha.
Alice Cooper would have been a perfect fit for that song!
Yes, he would actually. Oh well, his loss.
OK, so where to next? Do you have any plans, or are you going to take a rest?
Nooo, I never rest, I always have some plans! Here on this phone, I am taking notes about my next project already!
What phone do you have, an iPhone or Android?
I don’t know; I just use it to record music ideas.
If there anything that you feel you haven’t done?
I don’t know; don’t think so. Ayeron has been obviously going for 30 years, and it has pretty much all styles and genres there.
That’s what I love about it: there is no repetition between albums, they are all different.
Yes, and I also have my own side projects, too. My first album was released in 1994, I have recorded so many albums and have worked with all best singers in the world, so I think I have achieved a lot. You can’t avoid sometimes some repetition though; some favourite themes go through different albums.
Of course; once you have done as much as you have, it’s difficult to come up with new stuff, but you still do that!
You mentioned you know your limitations. Is there an instrument you can’t play?
I don’t like saxophone!
Really? Why is that?
I don’t know; its sound is too sharp and screechy.
Have you listened to David Sanborn though, or Candy Dulfer?
Yeah, actually, they are cool.
Do you have a favourite instrument; you play so many, right?
To play or listen to?
I meant to play, but both actually?
My first love is the guitar which was my first instrument. I also love the keyboards; I love listening to all sort of keyboard music, electronic music, too.
How about classical piano?
No, not really.
We could have chatted for hours, but Zoom limits meetings to 40 minutes, so we wrapped it up with some more casual chat. It’s been a pleasure, Maestro! Until next time!
Connect with Arjen: Facebook | YouTube Channel
