Alan Morse

Interview with Alan Morse - Spock´s Beard

Mads @ Revelationz
After talking with Neal Morse a couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to talk with one of the band members of Spock's Beard. This is Neal's brother Alan Morse, and it was a fun interview to do. Here is what we talked about.

It's Alan Can I speak to Mads...

That's me...

How are you doing?
Well Great how about you?

Oh great...

I talked with Neal A few weeks ago
Neal Who? (hahaha)

Ahh Neal Morse... (hahaha)
Oh That Neal (hahaha)

And it sounded like he misses you guys,
I bet (hahaha)

I guess you miss him too,
Well, You know I talk to him a lot...

I mean with in the band, can you tell a little about that?
We did a little semi-casual gig out here a couple of weeks ago, at this prog west thing, and it was really weird not having him out on the stage, I don't know, It was really bizarre. I was running over there and nobody standing there you know... (hahaha) so it was pretty unusual...

It must be after so many years together?
Yes you know, we have been playing together for many years... but I don't know... he is coming out here we are supposed to have dinner on Friday I guess...

Well Say hi to him for me... (hahaha)
Ok...

The tracks are mostly written by Neal, but I know that you all are very creative and productive, so there will be no problems in writing the next album?
Well it will be different that is for sure, you know, it's kind of exciting in a way, fun but different you know... It makes you a little nervous. We have some high standards to live up to you know... I am pretty positive about it. I went and did some writing with a friend of mine last night, pretty cool stuff, I think it's pretty cool...

I read on your home page that you would be changing the style a bit on the new album...

Is that what it says?
Yes, or you are trying to do new things, but it is kind of what you always did wasn't it?

You never want to the same thing over and over again, we are always trying to break new ground, trying to come up with something new, and figuring out what haven't we done yet... We also like this kind of music and want to keep doing it...

And by the looks of it so does a lot of people around the world.

Apparantly yeah,that's a good thing (hahaha)

But who will do the vocal work and why?
Nick will proberly end up doing the most of it, he is a great singer...

Ok so then there are no new members?
Not really, we are not really planning on adding anyone. We will have to have some people to flush it out when we go on tour then... but probably just keep the four of us for the time being... been together for a long time.

You really know each other well then?
Yeah you know, it's been a couple of months on a tour bus with some other guys, and you get to know them very well (hahaha) for better or worse, but we all get along you know... That has always been one of the coolest things about the band, the guys are fun and really cool to hang out with... Nobody complains too much...

Not more than you should have too?
Yeah (hahaha) every once in a while one of us will go "look man I just want a dressing room" you know or something like that (hahaha). We all understand it

Are you currently writing for a new album?
Yeah we have pretty much some stuff ready to go, at least demo wise, and we are just working on the edges you know...

Well I am looking forward to that!
Me tow huh? (hahaha)

It's going to be interesting to see...
Yeah well you know it's going to be different, go get around that, it won't be the same but eh...

What's next for Spock's Beard, I know that the Dvd is out now; can you tell us about that?
Yeah it just came out; I think it was a couple of weeks ago... I think that it's mostly this live show we did years ago in Holland. We did a lot of fun things... There was this part when I decided to run up to the balcony and play the guitar solo, and I hadn't told the camera guy, so he was trying to find me, and at the end of the solo he went like "oh there he is", and I was told that I had to tell them these things before I do them...

There is also the making of the "V" album isn't there?
Yeah we also talk about making one about the "Snow" one, because there is a lot of footage of that one as well, but the "V", but I don't know I can't really explain it (hahaha)

Moving on from the new situation, I know that this is a very old issue but, I was wondering about "Beware Of Darkness", why did you chose to name the album after a cover song?
I don't really know why. We wanted to do the song because it's cool, and we had some really cool ideas of how to do it. It is a kind of weird thing to do, it just seemed like a cool idea at the time...

Yeah at fisrt I didn't even notice that, and then I was going through my fathers old records and I found that track and thought hey...

Hey they stole that from Spock's Beard (hahaha)

Yeah they went back to the future and stole it hmm (hahaha)

Right (hahaha) have you heard the original version of that song?
No but I am planning to next time I visit my father...

Right yeah (hahaha) It's a lot different you know. Our version is a lot similar to Leon Russell did a version if it in the 70ties, and it is similar to that... It's way different than the original by George Harrison's version...

I really like your version of it...

Yeah thanks I do so too, that is one of my favourite albums of ours...

Still moving in the older albums, how did you decide to only do a 4 track album as the first release. Is this the sign of believing in the band that much, or was it because you wanted to stand out from the normal structure of an album?
We didn't really think about it, we sort of figured that no one would buy it...

The album "Day For Night" was the first Spock's Beard album I bought, and I am still amazed by the genius of those last tracks that create a long track. It sounds brilliant, why did you choose not just to make it as one long track?
It is really just one piece and I don't know why we did that... You can look at it either way, as separate songs or as one big track...

I saw on a live record that it was pieced together as a single track, so I was just wondering why...

Yeah I guess that was to sort of break it apart, I don't really know why, but they are distinct pieces as well so you can look at it either way...

The style on Snow in my opinion got a bit harder at times, yet it's also very calm at other parts, is this the new style of Spock's Beard?

Yeah, yeah it's pretty extreme huh?
I really like it, and I told all my friends to go out and get it, because it's a masterpiece...

Oh thanks... It's kind of cool that way there are some raging parts in there and the quite parts are really quite...
On the second cd when I heard the first two tracks on that one, I was just blown away, did they put a Dream Theater cd in my cd or what...

Yeah (hahaha) it is sort of a Dream Theater style to it... Not as many notes as those guys can throw out... I really dug that part, and that's my favourite part of the whole album all that raging stuff...

Yeah so maybe that's the new style of Spock's Beard?
Hey I hope so man, I'm in to that, let's hope so... We are doing some cool stuff, and getting so different hipper textures and so on...

What album is your favourite album by Spock's Beard and why?
Oh that is a tough one... I really like "The Light". I mean that to me, the material is so cool, it's just so fresh and that's cool. I remember making it and recording the guitar in my living room and stuff... and part of it is that it was the first record, and you always have a soft spot for that one...

Are you going to tour again?
Yeah we are going out next year hopefully, and put a record out and go out and tour for it...

So are you going to come to Denmark?
Oh yeah I love Denmark, I had a lot of fun up there. It's great I have fun there...

Well we love it too here so...
Yeah I bet, it's a really great place, and I had a great time. I just can't tell you, nah just kidding...

Oh it's too X-rated? (Hahaha)
Yeah (hahaha)... Well that's the play hopefully we'll go to Scandinavia next year, that is definitive the plan, we'll keep on cranking it out...

Well if you come here I'll go see you so at least there will be one in the crowd...

Oh great we got one then great...

I'll be the one going hi it's me...

Hey it's you... cool... good we'll do some stuff of Snow and the older records as well, and some new stuff so it's going to be good...

When I listen to your songs I always discover something new and exciting about the song, that helps to keep the track alive for a long time. And I think that is why that tracks on "The Light" still amazes me when I listen to them...

Yeah I know what you mean, it's like "oh I didn't notice that bass line before" or whatever, cool.

Well I guess that's all for me now, and I would like to thank you for taking time to talk to us, and I was wondering if you had any final words for the fans...

Well uhm, thanks for sticking around and hanging in there and we'll see you next year...


Written by Mads - 11/22/2002 =>>>>>>>>>>>

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