Road Crew Magazine
Music Magazine with News, Reviews, Photos and Video

Over the years Arjen Lucassen has been involved with many projects; most notably Ayreon, and has built a vast following. I got an opportunity to talk to Arjen about his newest musical offering, Guilt Machine and the subsequent album, On This Perfect Day. 

Marcey: The new album was just recently released on Mascot records. Correct?

Arjen: In Europe it was released in September and there are three different versions of the album available. The normal jewel case version, a Special Edition with a Digi-pack with CD and DVD and there was a Limited Edition; which is a Digi-book with CD and DVD. The limited edition was sold out even before the release. This was great. Somewhere between 10 and 20 thousand copies were sold before people even heard it. That’s a great feeling. In the US it has just been released. And the Limited Edition version has sold out. But there is still the Special Edition Digi-pack and jewel case available.

Marcey: You’ve stayed with a lot of the big sound. With lots of dynamic ups and downs. That seems to be something you do consistently as though every thing is purposefully composed. Is that how this came together or was anything off the cuff?

Arjen: Ayreon is even more extreme. You could go from one extreme to another. A little acoustic part to a big bombastic black metal part, to a little folksy part to a huge classic part and this album is actually more consistent. But like you said it still has a lot of dynamic. There’s a lot of ambiance buildup. Atmospheric moods change to this really heavy part and I always liked that. Maybe its songs I heard in the past like Stairway to Heaven and Freebird. I always liked these kinds of epics where you really go on a journey. I think music should be a real adventure. You should close your eyes and dream away. And let the music take you places. Actually that’s what I did this time with Guilt Machine even in the composing process. I went in the studio with these little ideas and just dreamt away. I just let one little part inspire me to come up with the next little part and before I knew it these little ideas turned into ten-plus minute monsters. So they’re all long tracks on the album.

Marcey: And the concept is very different from Ayreon, where the themes were very Science-Fiction. On This Perfect Day is much more introspective. What made you decide to go in that direction?

Arjen: Ayreon is a huge project with so many people involved. There were so many singers I didn’t have space enough to put them all in the songs. So I wanted to make something smaller, to make something with one singer and not so many musical styles. And as you said I wanted to move away from the whole Science-Fiction theme. I’d been going through a depression, which is something you don’t want to talk about when you’re in a depression, but once you’ve overcome your depression you can talk about it. I have to feel good to be able to create music and I guess I wanted some closure as well. All of those things contributed to this album.

Marcey: Who are some of your main inspirations?

Arjen: Well I grew up in the sixties so obviously the Beatles. I think the Beatles are way up there. John Lennon and everything John Lennon did is amazing. Especially their psychedelic period, you know the whole Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, and White Album period. After that it’s definitely Pink Floyd. I think you can hear that clearly in Guilt Machine; my fascination for Pink Floyd. It’s not that I do it deliberately, because I don’t want to be a copy or something. But I love this band so much. And I’m not holding back. I let it inspire me. But I wouldn’t copy it. Definitely Pink Floyd inspires me. And the heavier stuff, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, all of the typical early 70’s stuff. I think when you’re that age; you know in your teens, I think that music has the most impression on you. And especially for Ayreon, which was this musical rock opera kind of thing, I was really inspired by Jesus Chris Superstar. I still think that’s the best musical or rock opera ever. And of course later on stuff like The Who’s Tommy and Pink Floyd’s The Wall.

Marcey: Who do you listen to now when you have time?

Arjen: I listen to a lot of music. Coincidentally today I’ve been listening to Ramstein. I have a very wide taste in music. I can listen to singer/songwriters or classical to progressive music. Basically in the evening I listen to old stuff and during the day when I’m jogging I listen to new stuff. So any new stuff coming out I like to listen to. Well, not any. I’m not going to check out reggae, soul, R&B. But I have a very wide taste.

Marcey: You can certainly hear those inspirations in On This Perfect Day, as well as what the other members add. Did you hand pick this line up? 

Arjen: Yes. They are all first choices. I didn’t want a famous metal or progressive singer. I wanted a singer from a different style of music in order to create something new. Also I didn’t want a big name because I didn’t want people to have any expectations. Just look at this album as something completely brand new. So I listened to a lot of alternative stuff to try and find a singer until a Belgian fan wrote me an email. “Check out this singer, Jasper (Steverlinck), who’s in a band called Arid. And he sounds a bit like Freddy Mercury, and like the singer of Muse or Radiohead.” You know I love Queen, especially the early period. And I heard his voice and I was like, yeah, this is the guy I’m looking for. It was kind of hard to convince him because he didn’t know what prog (progressive metal) was. He did like Iron Maiden when he was small. And I mentioned that I worked with Bruce Dickenson on an Ayreon album and that did the trick. He was like “Yeah, really?” He also said my music was kind of Floyd, and he likes Floyd. So we tried out some stuff and it worked immediately.

As for the drummer, he used to be in Porcupine Tree. Which a band that I really like and I went to see them live quite often and I always loved his drumming, because he’s having fun behind his drums. He’s very technical but he’s also very groovy. And that combination was perfect for this album. I needed a very dynamic drummer.

And Lori (Linstruth) is one of the greatest guitar players, I think. And she showed a new talent this time by writing all the lyrics for this album. She’d never done it before, to that extent; with a whole album. All my Ayreon stuff is all this Science-Fiction and that’s the stuff that I’m good at. I could never have written lyrics like she does. They’re very cryptic, very open to interpretation and you really have to use your imagination to know what she means or to at least give it your own interpretation. And she wrote one lyric for one song and I that was it. I said, “Do you want to write the whole album?” Luckily she did. We’re getting a lot of fan mail now from people who have been helped by these lyrics, people who could identify with certain situations. And it’s great to get those kinds of emails.

Marcey: I’m a fan of Lori’s. How did it come to be, the two of you working together?

Arjen: She was a member of the Ayreon mailing list. And we were talking about breaking stings. And she sent me a link to video of her breaking a string. So I watched it. But before she broke a string she played a solo and I was like “Oh my God! This is so good!” Not because she’s a girl, but because she’s a great guitar player. So ever since then I’ve been in touch with her. And a couple of years ago I did a side project called Stream Of Passion. And I asked her to play guitar. Which she did, and we did a little tour. Then I got divorced from my wife of 13 years and I went to a new place. I asked her if she wanted to be my manager. So she came over to Holland and one thing led to another really. And now we are partners.

Marcey: Tell me about the fan messages in the album. What made you decide to do that?

Arjen: Well I’m very close with the fans. I don’t play live anymore. But I answer all fan messages. The MySpace and Facebook and whatever, there’s lots of these sites. And we’ve always somehow involved them with the music. For instance, the last Ayreon album we did we had seventeen well known singers. Each time I recorded a singer we put a sample online so people could guess who it was and they could win something. This time we couldn’t do that because we had only one singer. And we were thinking how we could involve the fans in this. We thought maybe they had experiences regarding this concept we had of guilt, regret and depression. Maybe they have something to say. Maybe they should send in a message. One idea led to another and it was decided they can leave it on an answering machine. And they can even speak it in their own language, which makes it even more authentic. It would really add to the atmosphere of the album. And we got, I think, over two-hundred messages. Of course it’s heartbreaking to hear all these messages be sad messages. And it’s even sadder to choose. We only used nineteen of them on the album. But I think it really works on the album, really adds to the whole concept.  The only bad thing about it was the fans that weren’t chosen were really heartbroken. They were so sad. Some were like, “This was my most inner secret and I told you and you didn’t even choose it for the album.” I just felt horrible. I laid awake a couple of nights over that and decided to put at least a hundred of the other messages on the Special Edition DVD. So it has the other fan messages to bits of music. So yeah, almost all of the fan messages that we got can be heard.

Marcey: Do you have plans to continue with Guilt Machine and put out more material?

Arjen: We would love to. We would all love to, because it was so relaxed making this album. For me it was really sit back and enjoy the ride.

Again, for my Ayreon project, it’s a pain in the ass really, because you have to arrange all these singers and fly them all over. It’s logistically and financially a nightmare.

But this was so great to go in the studio and just go for it. No limits. The singer lives in Belgium which is like an hours drive from here. So he’d come over and record and if he didn’t finish he’d come back the next day. We would love to do another album. But as always, the next album we do will be in reaction to this album. It will be a different project. But I do hope in the future we will be able to do another one.

Marcey: Now if you do will you keep it the same line up and format? Or will you expand on it and make it a larger production like you have in the past?

Arjen: No. It will definitely be Lori writing lyrics and with Jasper singing. I’m not sure about the drums because the drummer wasn’t that involved in the whole thing. He was very involved in the recording of course and he had a lot of ideas for the songs. But no, I would keep it like this. The only thing is you have to keep it spontaneous. I had been going through this depression and that’s what sparked the album. And we’re perfectly happy now. So how are you going to make another dark album when you feel really happy? 

I have no idea what it would sound like or what the concept would be. I think it would be a challenge.

A lot of people who know my stuff from Ayreon often think that Ayreon likes to do these big rock operas, these Sci-Fi’s about dragons and kings and monsters and whatever, you know its cheesy stuff. They might not even give Guilt Machine a chance. And that would be a shame. 

All the time we were listening to this album, we were listening to the mixes in the car really loud and we were like, “This is so good. I hope everyone will hear this. I hope this project will get the chance it deserves.” So that’s all I’m thinking. I hope this album and project will get the attention it deserves. Because Ayreon does get that attention because of all the big names that are on it. So the danger is people might not take this seriously. But for us it’s a very serious project. I just hope as many people as possible will hear it and, of course, will like it.

www.myspace.com/guiltmachine