Intervista Ayreon (Arjen Lucassen)
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Hi Arjen, how are you doing?
I’m doing fine, thank you very much, how are you?
I’m very good, thanks!
Good, how’s the weather there?
It’s awful, very cold, but I’m in Sweden right now, I’m sure in Italy it’s better.
Oh, I like cold, I hate the heat.
How’s the weather there?
Rainy, typical Dutch, windy and rainy [laughs].
It’s great to be talking with you again, we met on the very 16th of September right before the show, and here we are again after I’ve been able to watch it again on DVD.
Right, have you seen the whole thing with the behind the scenes?
Yes, I’ve loved it!
Let’s start talking about that, of course: I think the pre-sales went great, and the first comments and reviews are pouring in. How is it being received, and how do you feel about it?
Well, you know, usually I’m pretty insecure about my releases, it’s like, “Oh, are people gonna like it? What are they gonna say? Oh, they’re gonna hate it!”, but this time I was really, quite sure of myself, I would have been disappointed if it would have got bad reviews, or if it would have sold bad.
Luckily, as you have seen, the reviews are all good, I think I’ve read like one that has one negative comment, but they are all very positive.
Like you said the presales are amazing, stuff has sold-out, I think the vinyl are already sold-out, the earbook is sold-out, so, again, they misjudged it [laughs] the record company wasn’t expecting to do that well because, you know, a live release never does as well as a studio release, so they were like, “Yeah, it’s a live thing so it doesn’t sell so fast..:”, but it does!
I’m proud of it, this time I was sure of myself.
Well, this time it was surely a different thing than the usual live album, a recording of your first live ever is definitely something historical that people want to see.
True, yeah, yeah.
When we talked on the very day of the show you told me you recorded the first one and you were going to record the second one as well; you ended up using the recordings from the second show, how so?
There were just less mistakes [laughs].
The band was a bit better, Ed [Warby] really wanted the second show because he played a lot better, but then is even a worse perfectionist than me, if he just plays one note wrong on the drums he hates the whole show [laughs], and he remembers exactly, “Ah, it was the third song at 2.33 minutes, I missed the tom-tom” [laughs].
Yeah, I think also the camera people said, “Our stuff that we filmed on the Saturday is better than on the Friday”, because on the Friday they didn’t know what to expect yet, they might have missed a singer who came from the wrong side of the stage, on the Saturday they all corrected that.
So, yeah, it was just a bit more fluent than the first show.
What was your role in the production of the release, both the live CD and the editing of the DVD?
I’m a huge control freak, so my role is huge as well [laughs].
The sound I did it all on my own, so mixing, editing and stuff I did it all on my own, and the editing of the video I was very into that.
They sent me every song separately, and then they got this huge list back from me, like “At 33 seconds I want to see this singer, at 35 seconds I want to see what’s on the screen” [laughs], but I warned them before I started working with them, “I’m gonna drive you guys crazy ‘cause I want every second to be perfect, you’re gonna hate me, are you sure you want to work with me?” and they said, “Yeah, yeah, we don’t mind”, and luckily they didn’t, they didn’t freak out at all when they saw that huge list for each song.
They just changed whatever I wanted to change, it was no problem at all and I think in a way they were kinda happy that I was helping, you know, if I would have suggested stupid things maybe they would have said something, or if I would have asked impossible things they would have told me.
They found solutions for everything and they changed everything that I wanted to change, so that was good.
One thing that really impressed me was what Irene Jansen said in the behind the scenes: she’s doesn’t sing for a living and she’s got an office job! From the show I would have never guessed, she seemed so at ease with singing and introducing the band. Was she like that from the get go, or is it something that you saw her work on over the time you rehearsed?
She is a natural talent.
She is so funny, behind the scenes or during rehearsals, she is so funny, everything she says is funny, she is quite sure of herself, so I thought she would be the perfect choice for the introduction; also, I don’t know if you heard, but her English is perfect, she has a totally British accent, it’s almost scary [laughs].
I knew beforehand that she would like it, so I asked her and she didn’t even hesitate, she said, “Oh yeah, thanks for asking me, I would love to do that!”, she’s just an amazing talent, just like her sister, they’re creepily [laughs] talented those two.
When she’s in my studio, Irene, it’s so fast working with her, like you said, yeah, it’s weird that she has no experience whatsoever, she just has it in her.
It’s kind of a shame that she doesn’t do more with it.
Oh yeah, she should definitely do something more with a voice like that!
I think she looks up to her sister a little bit, like, “Ah, I could never be that good”, but she is!
You know, they are both equally good.
I remember how stressed and kinda scared you were of going on stage, what did you do once the third show was over? Did you celebrate that it was finally over?
[Laughs] I celebrated every time I came off the stage and I survived [laughs].
The weird thing is, I was incredibly nervous, but I was most nervous about talking, really, I said it on stage, “Talking in public is really…”, oh my God, even during meetings I’ve got problems talking, I hate it, and I was so nervous for that, I wasn’t really that nervous for the playing, that went really well during rehearsal and stuff.
But then we had the first show and my playing was awful man, [laughs] that’s another reason why we didn’t take the Friday, it was full of mistakes, it was awful, but the talking was perfect [laughs], it was strange, I just stepped on stage and I didn’t see 3000 people, I just saw one big, happy smiling face, that’s all I saw.
I started talking and at the beginning it was a bit hard, but then people started laughing, I saw people enjoyed it so…yeah, that was a lot easier than I thought, but I prepared it well.
For a month while walking my dog I was doing my speech [laugh].
I’m sure your dog was happy about it.
[Laughs] Yeah, people must have thought, “Who’s that weirdo talking to himself?” [laughs].
Back then when we talked you didn’t exclude the possibility of future shows, and in fact it was announced you’ll play at Graspop. Can you tell me something more about it? You had a super production in Tilburg, will it be the very same at the festival or are you working on something different?
We want the same, we want a big production and that’s what we told them, “We want to do it, but we want the big led screen, and we want the pyros, and explosions and shit, lots of musicians on stage, a crew of 40 people” and they were okay with everything!
So, yeah, it’s not gonna be a new show, which is impossible, you know, we would have to rehearse for months and months for just one show, that would not be logistically and financially possible, but of course there will be new elements, there will be different singers, of course, ‘cause not all the singers are available, like Nightwish are playing at the same time in Finland and Hansi [Kürsch] can’t come, so there will be different singers and there will be one new song as well.
So it will be slightly different, but basically the same.
Talking about the singers, can you reveal something about them?
We are waiting to confirm them, we will confirm them I think one or two months in advance, because you never know until the last moment, anything can change.
It was the same with Ayreon Universe, there were also singers, or at least one singer, who cancelled at the last moment, so we decided to wait a bit more before divulging all the singers who are going to be there.
I was curious because I saw that at the festival will be playing the bands of musicians you worked with, Iron Maiden and Lacuna Coil, so seeing Bruce Dickinson and Cristina Scabbia would be surely interesting.
I asked Cristina, she was like, “Oh, I’d love to do it, I’d love to do it!”, and then she asked, “When are you playing?”, “Well, Friday, when are you playing?” “The Sunday”, so she’s not there, it’s a terrible shame, she really would love to do it.
And Maiden, I think the play just before us, I think like half an hour after Maiden, and I think they’ll jump in the plane as soon as they finish, so that’s not possible either.
Weirdly enough there aren’t other bands playing of people I worked with so, yeah, we would have loved to combine something, but it was impossible.
Talking about the future, what’s next for Ayreon? Will you start working on the next album after that show, or are you already working on it now?
I’m already working on something new, but just in my mind, just thinking of new things, writing down a few chorus, writing down a few story ideas and stuff.
That could turn into anything, as always I keep changing my mind, it could be this project, it could be that project, I always leave it open, that’s better, to be spontaneous, to keep changing.
But, yeah, I’m working on new material always, basically, but I’ve also gotta work on the 20th anniversary release of [Into the] “Electric Castle”.
Yeah, it’s been 20 years and it hasn’t been on vinyl for 10 years now, I think if you check on eBay copies are going for 200€, it’s crazy; so, yeah, I’d love to do something special for [Into the] “Electric Castle”, do a vinyl, maybe a new mix, I’d love to do a 5.1 mix, a beautiful new package and stuff like that.
So that will be the next thing I’ll work on.
Will it have some bonus material, maybe a documentary on how you made it or something like that?
The shitty thing is that it was 20 years ago and you didn’t have a camera, you just didn’t have a camera.
Of course you didn’t have phones, iPhones and stuff like that, so nothing was filmed, and we didn’t even take photos; it was such a different time and it’s such a shame, nothing has been documented of those recordings.
Also, we recorded on tapes, it wasn’t on computers, so we had a limited capacity to record stuff, so there is no bonus material, really, that’s a shame but we can’t do anything there.
Ayreon’s lyrics are always about science fiction. So far, they’ve always been original material, have you ever thought of doing something based on already know stuff, like a concept album on Asimov’s Foundation series?
Basically, I did that with Star One, in the Star One albums every song is based on a movie, like in the first Star One album all the tracks were based on movies set in space, like “Stargate”, “Star Trek”, “2001” [A Space Odyssey] and stuff like that; the second album was based on dystopian movies like “A Clockwork Orange” and stuff so, yeah, I did that with Star One, but Ayreon will always be original stories, my own stories.
You’ve worked with so many amazing musicians, both from recent bands and from legendary bands from the past, and now you’ve even managed to bring Ayreon live. Do you feel like you’ve achieved everything that you wanted to, or do you still have new goals for yourself and Ayreon?
Yeah, I’m not sure if I should say it, though, ‘cause [laughs], ‘cause it might not be possible, but of course I would like to do some kind of a movie.
That would be great, and I’m thinking about it, but the thing is that doing movies costs at least a million, especially when you do a big movie, a full length movie, it’s expensive, so I really have to look into that to see if that’s possible.
That’s a dream that is still open, to see not just a 3 minutes videoclip, but a full movie, that would be great.
Is it just a concept, just the idea of a movie, or do you already have ideas for this hypothetical movie?
I already have ideas, yeah, I already have ideas and I’m just talking with people now in the business, what is possible and what is not possible, and how you can get funding from the government and stuff like that.
How the filming goes, direction, so I’m just thinking about it, nothing is on paper yet, so it would be just another challenge.
Would it be something related to Ayreon, or something completely new?
It would be different, of course Ayreon has these huge science fiction stories about whole worlds dying [laughs], other worlds and space travel, and if you want to do that it won’t cost you a million, it will cost at least 10 or 20 million to make a sci-fi movie, it’s really expensive with all the effects…so, it would definitely not be related to the big Ayreon story.
It would be something like “The Human Equation”, that would be possible to make a movie out of it, ‘cause it’s in the man’s head, so something like that, a little bit of a smaller story.
I wouldn’t even know if that would be Ayreon or anything else, and that’s just an idea, that’s basically why I not making anything official yet, ‘cause I want to know what’s possible and what’s not possible.
That was my last question, thank you very much for your time and I’ll leave you the last word here.
I’m very proud of this live show and this DVD, I just hope people will like it and that the people who were there will be satisfied and they can have the same feelings that they had when they saw the shows.
I hope it will be, as we say in Dutch “a band-aid for the wound” for the fact that some people couldn’t be there, I hope they’ll be able to catch a little bit of the feeling and of the emotions that were on stage, I really hope so.
So, yeah, I hope people will enjoy it.
Davide Sciaky