INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Brian, thanks for spending some time talking with The Fuze! Your latest album, ‘Voyage’, is actually your third album.  How would you compare the experience of recording ‘Voyage’ to the recording of your earlier albums?

Starting with the song production side of things, “Voyage” is very different than the others.  While there are some three and four minute songs on this release, many are longer – there are extended introductory or coda sections and some songs have more than one bridge section, because the lyrics are dictating the musical form and not the other way around.   This is particularly true with the songs that tell stories, like "Normandy", "Legend", and "Patriot Dreams"; in order to tell the tale, they play longer than the average rock/pop song.   Also different in the song production – musical influences from the 1960's and ‘70's that weren’t there on the first two albums have made their way in.  And you’ll hear keyboard/synth solos in some places where I might have set guitar solos in a few years ago.

From the performance side of things, there are some differences – strings and horns for example, are prevalent, as well as a bit more focus on the lead vocals.  The lyrics for many of the songs this time out were somewhat of a departure for me, the lyrics dominated the form and melodic/harmonic structure of the music.

In many ways ‘Voyage’ is a heavier record than 2000’s ‘Wind It Up’.  Was this a conscious decision, or did the material take on that edge as you were recording it?

I think it's heavier in a lot of ways, but not because the guitars are more prevalent.  When you have songs with serious subjects, the music can support the lyrics with a heavier track and that ranges from choice of harmonic progressions and changes to a bigger backbeat and crunch (for example, “Normandy”)  But I think also even songs like “Out Of Time” and the others constructed primarily of simpler melody lines and simple underlying harmonies, I think you might get the sense that they have a bit more grit than some of the songs on “Wind It Up”.  I think the difference is in the vocal performances, there seems to be something extra . . .

Let’s talk a little bit about the musicians appearing with you on the album.  Many people will recognize the name Reb Beach, from his work with Winger, Dokken and now Whitesnake.   How did Reb come to be such an integral part of your records?

Way back in 1987, while I was recording the first album for CBS, Reb was brought in to record some tracks by producer Beau Hill. Producers like Arif Mardin and others had been making good use of young Reb on several albums for major acts.  I was skeptical when Reb first showed up to play. I was thinking, “Who is this guy?”  After listening to the playback of the first guitar tracks he laid down, it was obvious that Reb was a monster guitarist with innate abilities to make the music move rhythmically using counter rhythms and guitar grooves, and of course, the solo work was so excellent.  It was like the difference between listening to a song in mono and then stereo – the difference he makes on a track is astounding.  I’m sure you'll hear him play on the next album and when he came through town last month, we talked about co-writing some music later this year . . .

 Who else appears on the album with you?

The Mozart Force ensemble, a group of awesome string players, M.W. Horns covering some brass.  Also, Sam McDonald, a fine percussionist (and my son) plays on a few tracks as well and there is some nice bagpipe work by Liam McKenzie on “Unfinished Bridges”.

I think a good word to describe the tone of the album would be “inspiring”.  There is a very noticeable tendency to put an uplifting, thoughtful spin on even the negative subject matters on your album – war, heartbreak, etc.  How hard was it to write some of the cornerstone pieces of the ‘Voyage’ album, namely “Normandy”, “Patriot Dreams” and “Unfinished Bridges”?

“Normandy” was a challenge – I started out with the intent to create imagery in the lyrics that didn’t focus on some strong message, because the story speaks for itself.  Then some of the last lyrics that came were the words at the end of the final chorus “truth against the darkness, your shores were reviled; for the hope of our future – every man, every woman, and child.”  At that point I realized that each chorus had to have different lyrics to achieve the momentum of moving forward in time – you’ll notice in the final version the lyrics for each chorus are varied.  In the second and last rewrite – I found myself reinforcing the choruses with the line, “With the power of heart and the will of man.”  After I lifted the pen on that line, I thought, “Another song with a message, I’d better rework this.”  You try to make sure the song doesn’t come off in a way that you didn’t intend.  But I think in the end, the song works and I'm hoping it's heard as more of a series of reflections from one vantage point and not the vehicle for some unintentional political message to the listener.  The song “Patriot Dreams” was easier because the lyrics are all about capturing personal experiences and emotions I know very intimately . . . this song actually ends on a sad and more serious note, so I guess it lands in what you are considering “thoughtful”.   “Unfinished Bridges” on the other hand was a challenge in a different way; the song came quickly and was easy to write, but I had to convince myself again and again not to touch the lyrics whenever I had the thought that the song should be shorter or subscribe more to some structural form.  The initial idea had the words sung as if they were prose and not set to some rigid preset rhythmic meter. So where an extra line needed to go in a verse, for example, the music was extended a few beats here and there.  And with the intro and out sections that set the emotional context, suddenly the song was seven minutes, but any edits would have sacrificed meaning for me – and that meaning provides a feeling that the ending marks the new beginning.  The cannon fire at the end of the song is half of a 21-gun salute - the future is filled with new choices . . .

Your musical background has enabled you to bring a lot more to the table than a series of catchy riffs and melodies.  Go all the way back to the beginning, if you would, and share with us how you got started in music?

When I was very young, my family lived in Wiesbaden, Germany and I remember my folks would always have either the radio on or my father’s old Telefunken reel-to-reel deck playing all this great music.  He would record songs from the German stations, whose play lists consisted mostly of European pop of the day and Classical music.  What started me playing and writing was the chance to study under a great pianist by the name of Johann Franz when I was between the ages of five to ten, that probably had the biggest impact on how I listened to and played music.  So, Classical music was the first music I played and performed – it was much later when my ears opened to rock music.  I started listening to some folk artists in my teens, but I think I was maybe 16 or so when I woke up and really understood rock music.  The guitar work of Jimmy Page really moved me;  I remember thinking “This was unbelievable, how can he could do all that with a guitar.” So in my late teens I began understanding all of this rock music that had been coming across the radio and I was finally hooked like all my friends around me.  It was more like an additive thing though, I never stopped thinking of piano and orchestral music as that different – when music hits you as a listener, it doesn’t matter what genre, time period it’s from, or form it takes, the lightning strikes the same place inside your thoughts and emotions.

I think the phrase ‘classically influenced’ can scare some people away.  And while that certainly has been a major part of your background, its influence is felt more in the arrangements of your songs than in the performances themselves.  One thing that struck me as I read your track-by-track synopses of the songs was how closely intertwined the musical themes were with the lyrics.  When did you start writing this way?

Once you start really listening to music from the angle of figuring out what makes it tick; what holds it together, you start noticing patterns, shapes, and methods in the music you love.  Each genre of music has its own language, every classification of music type has it’s compositional triggers and foundational elements that set the stage for the listener’s experience. And this seems to hold for almost all music from old to new.  So thinking along these lines I set out to study this at university in the 1990’s to understand these things better. You know, I thought: “Now that I get it, I’m going in to find out the “formulas”.  The truth turned out to be something much different.  There were forms that composers used, true, and still do, particularly in film scoring and formula pop writing.  But what made the music resonate with me came from the abilities of composers like Beethoven in the 19^th Century and Stravinsky at the beginning of the 20^th, to make the form and compositional components submit to the music and not the other way around.  Both of these composers overtly and absolutely mangled the preconceived forms of their times to create masterpieces (Beethoven and his epic symphonic works and Stravinsky with Le Sacre du Printemps.)   This was a revelation for me, and it affects the way I hear, write and think about music more and more every day.

Have you had ideas for songs that you’ve been unable to find the right music for?

Lately, words and music come together in the initial concept or one is never far away from the other at the beginning.  Otherwise, if I have either a strong lyric or musical idea, I’ll keep editing in my head until the pieces fit or I create new parts to either match the strong music to the right lyric or vice-versa. If I can’t make that happen, it usually means that both ideas weren’t strong enough to take either forward.

“Out Of Time”, from the new album, brings back some familiar sounds from the 70’s.  The song actually sounds like it could have been a new version of an old tune.  Were you a fan of groups like Electric Light Orchestra and Boston?

I remember listening to tapes of ELO in the 1970’s and hearing songs like “Telephone Line” and thinking “there’s a great bit of pop writing.”  But Boston really hit me as something special.  I thought “there’s orchestral writing for rock guitar if there ever was any.”  Not so much in that Tom Scholz played Mozart riffs or anything, it was more in the way he took his own melodic style and wrapped that sound around it.  Brad Delp’s voice seemed to be the perfect rock voice too, unique and perfect for that sound.

You know, for as much or as little as they might have been an influence, you just don’t hear groups like Chicago and Kansas singing songs about time travel (“Voyage”) or world history (“Patriot Dreams”).  Could you be taking a cue from Al Stewart, who did so back in the 70s?

Time Passages / Year of the Cat  were very cool.  I remember those songs that would kind of sneak in on you, then you’d be humming them for weeks.  But I hadn’t thought of his work when writing any songs for “Voyage”.   I’ve always had this voracious appetite for any books or stories about the subject of time, and that seems to make its way into the writing.

There’s an author by the name of Stephen Baxter who wrote a bit of revisionist history about the US space program of the 60’s.  The title of that book, interestingly, is ‘Voyage’.  Given your lyrical slant, is revisionist history of this kind something that’s of interest to you?

Thinking back on the song’s beginnings, I wasn’t going for historical revision, but instead running with the idea of a fictional story presented as one of those Errol Flynn swashbuckler movies (with a time machine to give it a wrenching plot twist).  Though I haven’t thought too much about revisionist history – you could consider all written history revisionist to some degree, you know, there’s always this feeling when reading about past events that historians have missed the best bits.

Are you doing what you set out to do back in the 80’s, when you started out?

Yes, I feel like I am anyway.  Looking back, I really never set out to do anything but write music.   A lot of people around me in the past were very excited about the prospect of success and fame for whatever reasons.  And to be sure, there is always this feeling of excitement and anticipation when you release something.  But for me, the whole idea of playing a song for a friend or for a lot of people or recording music – they’re all are on the same level.  The songs remain at the center and that doesn’t change, so I’m still doing what I set out to do.

Your first solo album ‘Desperate Business’ came out in 1987.   Was the title a reference to the music industry?

The title of that record was a reference to the life of an ordinary guy working away at a job that didn’t mean anything.  The original demo had a lot of humor in it; unfortunately, the producer and I seemed to have ironed out all of that humor in the album version!  And the album took the title from the song entirely with no additional meaning behind that choice.

How do you feel about the health of the melodic rock scene?  After all, a few of the groups we’ve mentioned are still around, but the level of support just isn’t there like it once was.

I knew a few successful people in the boom days of melodic rock in the 1980’s, and believe me  - it was not a healthy environment. (laughs)  But you’re talking about business and radio support of this type of music . . . I try to stay away from thinking about these things, because I’m not sure if the presuppositions are correct.  In a way, you could see it from the angle that some have put forward – that melodic rock has come back strong on the charts for a few years now – it’s just in different forms.   But then again, if “health of the scene” is equated to the actual strength of the music itself determining who and how many rock artists dominate the charts, I would say we’re way behind the 70’s and 80’s. But that’s my subjective call. There’s a lot of great music being made now coming from major labels and from independents.  In the 1970’s it seemed that radio ruled the day and the success of artists and groups could be ignited by anyone who had some great songs.  I’ve heard some artists complaining about how everything is starting to seem a bit prepackaged and similar sounding again.  I guess I don’t know what to think about all of that.  Right now there is so much great music out there, and we have the web to help us find it and bring it to our door.  Maybe it has something to do with the amount of music available increasing exponentially over the last decade and the perception that the industry is obsessed with the cult of personality rather than with the music itself, I’m not sure.

When you write a song – given your background – do you just compose a riff on guitar or piano?  Or do you sit down and write out the music?

If I have to provide parts to string or horn players, I might write out the music, but other than that, it’s better for me to leave ideas in their liquid form moving around my brain in edit mode until the last possible second before recording.  Some of the best changes come at the moment right before or when you’re in a session.  Sometimes ideas come while you are in the final mixing stages!   This happened to me on the song “Intimate” on this album.  Half of the bridge vocals came from a last minute idea (the lines “Have you ever wanted any thing so much ...”etc.)  It’s a major part of the section, but it didn’t come until the last hour and was added as an overdub.   So, because of things like this, I usually don’t do a score or copy until after everything is finished and then its done primarily for publishing purposes.

Is it usually a lyric or a melody that is hardest to come up with?

Yes. (laughs)  What you’re searching for is the spark of the two joining and it’s a great day when this happens.  But I don’t think one is harder than the other – both seem to be equally elusive.

Do you have any plans to release recordings of your orchestral and piano work?

I might do this in the future though it would be a herculean effort to do an album on the scale I would want to do with an orchestra.  It’s not something I’ll be able to tackle single-handedly like a rock album.  Hopefully in my lifetime. (smiles)

Which areas of the world seem to have embraced your music more than others?

There’s this little island off the coast of Alaska, you see, that loves . . .  really, there was great response in both Europe and Japan for the last album, and the expectations are high that Voyage will surpass “Wind It Up” along those lines.  So ask me that one in six months and I should have a more up-to-date answer after we see how Voyage fares around the world . . .

What’s sitting on your back burner now – any live dates?   A return to the recording studio?

The economy is making decisions for artists these days as far as touring is concerned  But, if sales are strong enough, it would be great to get the band together and go out for this one.  But as you know, when you have a band and crew whose living depends on income from your music, you had better be sure you have everything in place to make it real.  A lot of successful artists are out on the road just breaking even right now.  As for returning to the recording studio, I really never leave it, I’m there every night listening, sketching or putting something to tape or disc . . .

Are there any fundamental reasons your albums have been billed as Brian McDonald Group, Brian McDonald and Brian McDonald Project?

For the first one it was CBS that wanted a group name.  For “Wind It Up” on MTM Records in 1990, I just held out for Brian McDonald.  For “Voyage”, again there was a call from the label for a group name, so there it is; as long as they spell the “Brian McDonald” part right, I’m okay with it. (laughs)

As you sit back to celebrate the release of ‘Voyage’, the fruit of your labor, what’s your drink of choice?

A pint of Guinness will do the trick nicely . . .

Here's a Fuze bonus request:  Name an album or two by another artist that you consider to be ‘classic’.  It can be a golden oldie, or a modern classic.  Whichever it is, please describe WHY it is a classic, and essential to a music fan’s collection?

Beatles: Abby Road and Let It Be  - Albums that marked the end of an era; and the songs . . .

Led Zeppelin II – Just listen

Yes: Close To The Edge – The seminal thematic album from the fathers of progressive rock that influenced  so many that followed

Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark – From the most masterful songwriter of our time, this is one of her finest

That’s what I have for you, Brian.  I certainly do appreciate you taking the time to do this interview.   Cheers!

Thanks Todd . . .

The above transcription is taken from the May, 2003 interview of Brian McDonald by Todd Seely of The Fuze (www.the-fuze.com)