Hello, Alan! Congrats on the new album! It took you just a year to deliver a new record! Did you already have some material written for “Distant Shores” when “Feels Like Home” came out? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hi Konstantin! \u201cDistant Shores\u201d was written from scratch, we didn\u2019t have any \u201cspare\u201d songs left from \u201cFeels Like Home\u201d we just knuckled down and used the lockdown period to our advantage, we both have home studios and that makes recording very quick and easy when it comes to exchanging ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s your songwriting method? Do you work on songs even if you are not in the mood for that or do you write whenever you feel you have a melody to capture? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I find it difficult to write any new material if I\u2019m not in the mood but thankfully that doesn\u2019t happen too often. Once I get inspired to write I tend to come up with three or four songs at a time. I often get ideas in the middle of the night and have to either scribble words down on a piece of paper or hum quietly into my iPhone recorder just to get the idea down and come back to it later when I have more time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You write a lot for EDGE OF THE BLADE and play almost everything. Do you feel pressure because of that or do you like to take responsibility? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t feel under pressure to write, it\u2019s not like the old days when record companies were onto you all the time for the next album. That said, I do tend to continuously write, as soon as one albums has finished I\u2019m already writing for the next. I don\u2019t deliberately set out to do that, I just enjoy the writing and recording side of things, I guess. It just comes naturally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you fine with the fact that John doesn’t bring ideas or would you like to see more input from him? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I think it\u2019s unfair to say that John doesn\u2019t bring any ideas, I give him plenty of opportunity to write lyrics etc., it\u2019s just that he doesn\u2019t work particularly fast in that regard and I end up writing them myself as I can\u2019t wait for him to keep up. He does chip in with the odd suggestions musically here and there, why don\u2019t you try it this way or that way, it\u2019s not like he doesn\u2019t chip in at all, plus his voice will automatically bring its own unique melodies to a lot of the songs that perhaps I wouldn\u2019t have tried, so I will always credit John for having a part in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You gained international success as a drummer. Were drums your first instrument and when\/how did you learn how to play other instruments? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, drums were my first instrument. I took up the drums when I was fifteen. I\u2019d always had a keen interest in writing the songs and got involved in a lot of the lyrics and melodies whenever I could, I also sang a lot of the backing vocals in SHY and didn\u2019t see myself as \u201cjust the drummer\u201d. As I got more and more into the writing side of things, I gradually picked up bits and pieces of keyboards and home recording enough to be able to put some basic music ideas down myself, none of them ever got used for SHY although it didn\u2019t stop me trying. Only once I\u2019d moved from Birmingham to Cornwall in 2000 I took up guitar, it was a case of having too as I didn\u2019t know any musicians in the area that I could rely on to come and record guitar parts for me. It was a slow painful process but I\u2019m glad I stuck with it as now I\u2019m able to grab a guitar and record my ideas as and whenever I get them and even put some lead guitar on if I want to, what a joy it is to be able to do it all yourself without having to rely on anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What do you think about programmed drums? Are they appropriate for you? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As a drummer obviously I want to put real drums on recordings whenever I can, however this is not always possible, we don\u2019t always have the room to facilitate a full drum kit to be bashing away at all hours so it is inevitable that program drums is a sensible option on many occasions. I like to do any drum programming myself to make sure that the parts are realistic and are genuinely something that I would want to play on a real kit and they have \u201cfeel\u201d and \u201csensitivity\u201d as you would if you were actually playing them and are not just off the shelf preprogrammed patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Feels Like Home” was done basically by you and John Francis with help from Danny Beardsley. Why did you decide to add guitarist Miguel Angel Lopez to the ranks? How did you get in touch with him? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well it\u2019s not strictly true that Danny Beardsley helped us with lead guitar parts on \u201cFeels Like Home\u201d. I had previously paid Danny to record lead guitar parts for 7HY, he never actually recorded anything for \u201cFeels Like Home\u201d. I recorded all the lead guitar parts for \u201cFeels Like Home\u201d and used snippets of Danny\u2019s fast runs on the odd tracks and interlocked them with my own solo parts to make a complete solo. I had to tune them up or down here and there to make them fit but with a little skill on my part I think I did a good job. I\u2019m getting better at lead guitar all the time but Danny is just a \u201cwhizz\u201d at sweeping runs etc., I couldn\u2019t hope to try and emulate them. I told Danny that I was doing that with his solos and he was fine with it, he said as I\u2019d already paid for his solos it was up to me what I did with them. On \u201cDistant Shores\u201d I was initially aiming to do more or less the same with the guitar solos but there is only so many times you can use the same runs before someone starts to notice!<\/p>\n\n\n\n So here enters Miguel! Could you introduce him and tell us a bit about his music background, please? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n John Ward, another former singer for SHY, was doing his own recording project in Spain and I offered to put some backing vocals on his album for him. He sent me over his stuff and on listening to it I became very impressed with the guitar solos played by his guitarist Miguel Angel Lopez. He is also a guitar teacher in Spain. I remembered his name and then gave him a shout when we were doing \u201cDistant Shores\u201d and asked if he would like to record some solos for us, initially it was just going to be a couple of songs but it ended up being the whole twenty two songs that we had as demos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lead guitar work on \u201cDistant Shores\u201d is great. There are a lot of sharp yet melodic solos on the album. Did Miguel write them alone or did you supply him with some guidelines? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d like to think I influenced Miguel as all twenty-two demos that he got sent to record already had my solos in place, but, I can\u2019t honestly lay claim to that as Miguel is such a unique player. I love his style and his melodies, he seems to get exactly what we are looking for, he reminds me very much of the late great Steve Harris, the former lead guitarist for SHY, and that is high praise indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you have plans to find a bass player and start gigging with EDGE OF THE BLADE? And what would be your role on stage: a drummer, a rhythm guitarist? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Having learned the rhythm guitar there is no way I\u2019d go back to playing the drums live, I like to get out there, see the audience and interact with them, not something you can really do behind a drum kit. There has been some talk of us possibly playing some festivals next year which would be absolutely brilliant if that was to come off. I\u2019m sure we\u2019d have no shortage of bass players who\u2019d want to fit the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new album has more rocky songs like “Killing Me”, “Can’t Wait” or “How Long”. Is that why you called the album “Distant Shores” after feeling like home on the previous one? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n John Francis came up with the title \u201cDistant Shores\u201d. It came about because he lives in Wales and I live in Cornwall and Miguel lives in Spain, we all kind of live on or near the beach so it seems to fit with what we were doing and the locations we were in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Angels Fear to Tread” sounds very aching, almost like a scream for help. What inspired you to write it? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAngels Fear to Tread\u201d was inspired by two things that are slightly connected at least the theme is. In my early twenties I had a friend who had a motorcycle accident and ended up in hospital. And I recently watched a BBC TV series called \u201cLife on Mars\u201d which basically became the subject matter for this song. Imagine lying in your hospital bed, not being able to move or communicate with anyone but still being able to hear every word that everyone is saying, and there is talk of them switching off the life support machine, you desperately want to shout out and let everyone know that you are in there but remain unable to do so, what an awful situation to find yourself in hence \u201cWhere Angels Fear To Tread\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Life Is for Living” is such a positive song with a very simple motto. What do you think, why do people tend to forget about these words and waste their time on silly things? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The song was written by Judith Randall and I believe it started out as a poem, Judith had cancer and these were her last words to her daughter (at least this is my understanding of it). Robin Randal and Bill LaFeur decided to put the poem to music and recorded a rough demo together. John Francis is still good friends with Robin Randall and she asked him if EDGE OF THE BLADE would like to record this song, so I took the demo version and gave it the EOTB touch. Robin Randall and Bill LaFleur were very pleased with how it came out that they gave us permission to use the song on our album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, there are gentle and beautiful songs: “Love Me Again”, “Lonely To” and my personal favourite “Every Beat Of My Heart”. They are so emotional and personal, so was it easy for you at first to show your feelings and share them with the whole world at first? I guess when you do this you become defenseless in a way\u2026 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t set out to write a ballad or a fast song, whatever comes out comes out. I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m writing about my own personal relationship in my lyrics either, again I just write whatever comes out. I can see why people might get that impression but here again I want the songs to be personal to anyone who is going through those feelings, they can relate to the lyrics etc. I find it\u2019s easy to write about life\u2019s lessons and these are subjects that I return to time and time again, it never hurt The Beatles!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I realize that you are proud of the entire album but are there particular songs\/lyrics which still give you a feeling of total satisfaction when you roll your eyes and think \u201cOh, yes, this is it!?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a few songs on this album that have done that to me, the feeling of \u201cIt just ain\u2019t going to get any better than this\u2026 it deserves to be a hit\u201d. I think \u201cLove Me Again\u201d is right up there with one of the best songs I have ever written. I think it just hits all the right notes and John\u2019s vocal performance just couldn\u2019t be any better. It is the ultimate AOR ballad. And you\u2019ve already mentioned \u201cAngels Fear To Tread\u201d, I like this because it\u2019s an up-tempo single that isn\u2019t about the usual subject matter and yet still has you tapping your feet and singing along. In my own humble opinion It\u2019s a winner but hey\u2026 what do I know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is there something you haven\u2019t tried with EDGE OF THE BLADE but definitely would love to? A cover song? A collaboration with some musician? A song with an orchestra? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, all of the above, but just on a basic level I would like to play live with EOTB. I want to see if we can deliver the songs like they are on the album. The older you get the more commitments you have which limit the chances to be able to just go out and play, but ultimately I would love to take it out on tour and see how it all goes down with a live audience. I would love to write a song with Michael Schenker, he is my all-time favorite guitarist and I could die happy if I\u2019d had any kind of collaboration with him. I met him once, he came to see SHY supporting Gary Moore at some gig in Germany. He came backstage and asked me about the MSG patches that I had on my leather jacket, he\u2019d seen them on a poster of SHY in \u201cMetal Hammer\u201d that for some reason \u201cMetal Hammer\u201d had printed backwards! He said something like \u201cWhy are the MSG patches backwards on your jacket?\u201d He was my hero at the time, and still is, I was a gibbering wreck! Here was the man himself right next to me asking about my jacket! What did I say? \u201dt\u00a3@$%\u201d is what I said, total gibberish! I was dumb struck and couldn\u2019t speak!! He must have thought I was a right twat! My big moment and I couldn\u2019t speak!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new album seems to have a bit rougher, or let’s say less polished, sound compared to the previous one. Is it just my reception or was it done on purpose? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well I\u2019m hoping it\u2019s just you as we didn\u2019t set out to have it sound \u201crougher\u201d than \u201cFeels Like Home\u201d. We used the same mix\/master engineer, Iraklis Deligiorgis as on \u201cFLH\u201d. The only real difference recording-wise is that all the guitars rhythm and lead were re-amped on \u201cDistant Shores\u201d whereas the lead guitar on \u201cFLH\u201d was the sound that I had recorded it with. Miguel wanted his lead sound to have more \u201cumph\u201d so that meant re-amping all the lead guitar sounds including my own parts. I have to agree with Miguel on that one though, I much prefer the re-amped sound on \u201cDistant Shores\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why did you sign a one-off deal with AOR Heaven for “Distant Shores”? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, it\u2019s a pity that it\u2019s only going to be a one-off deal as I believe EOTB and this record company are a match made in AOR Heaven! Lions Pride Music who we are still signed with were not able to release \u201cDistant Shores\u201d as soon as we would have liked because their roster for the year was already full, and they very kindly agreed that we could seek out another company to release it if we wished, otherwise it wouldn\u2019t see the light of day until late 2022. It is unfortunate that AOR Heaven will be turning into a mail order-only company after our album has been released as we would really liked to have continued working with Georg on future products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is the story with the missing tracks from \u201cFeels Like Home\u201d? Why didn\u2019t you release them digitally at first? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well we had already finished the album when John Francis played me some demo songs that his band AFTER HOURS had recorded some years before but they had never been released, these became known as the Randall tracks (three in all). I really liked them so much so I decided to re-record them and use them as EOTB tracks. It turned out that these tracks had been previously released before by Marc Free and that meant that Lions Pride Music had to purchase a license to put them on our CD album, a separate license was going to be required to put them out digitally. So the decision was made to keep the Randal tracks on the CD and take them off the digital release, as it was going to cost too much, and use the original tracks we had in their place. As it turned out, Robin Randall did give us her written permission to use them for digital release and so they eventually got released as three separate digital tracks from \u201cFLH\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The band started out with “The Ghosts Of Humans” (2015) which had a dark vibe, something that people didn’t expect from the artists who were involved with SHY and AFTER HOURS. How come?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This was very much an experimental album for EOTB and again I\u2019m quite proud of, at least we gave it a try. OK, the AOR audiences were not quite ready for it but I still love it. We were trying to be something like Avenged Sevenfold or Alter Bridge, hats off to us for at least giving it a go, it hasn\u2019t always got to be tried and tested, has it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In one interview after \u201cThe Ghosts\u2026\u201d you said you and Andrew Chick had around 20 songs for the next album but it took five years to deliver another record. What happened? Did you use those songs you mentioned in the interview or did you write brand new songs for \u201cFeels Like Home\u201d? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of those songs got used on \u201cFLH\u201d but as Andrew wasn\u2019t involved with the album I was able to keep them more melodic and bring them into the overall feel of an AOR album, something that myself and John would be more comfortable with. We did add a couple of new songs in the end plus the Randall tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your relationships with John Francis go back to the time when SHY and AFTER HOURS toured together and then you tried out John as a singer for SHY. Why didn’t that plan work out and what happened to the demos SHY recorded with John? Did you think about releasing them or re-recording them with EDGE OF THE BLADE? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, unfortunately John caused some upset within SHY, not with me it has to be said, and he was asked to leave. This was a pity as I believe we had something special going on as a group, Steve had written some excellent songs for John and we roughly demoed them on our own eight-track Portastudio. These demos got shelved and basically were never heard of again that is until I rediscovered them while we were writing songs for \u201cDistant Shores\u201d. I played the songs to John and he agreed that they were too good not to be heard so I set about re-recording them. I think there were about seven or eight all together. We have managed to record all the ones that we could find and to me they sound great and Miguel has done Steve proud with the guitar solos. We recorded 22 songs altogether for \u201cDistant Shores\u201d including Steve\u2019s songs, we struggled to pick what we thought were the strongest eleven tracks and hopefully the remaining eleven songs will go on some future album. The two Steve Harris tracks that made it onto \u201cDistant Shores\u201d are \u201cHow Long\u201d and \u201cEvery Beat of My Heart\u201d. I hope that we did him proud with our versions of his songs. We tried to keep them as true to the demos as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2021 has been a busy year for you as you released an album with 7HY as well. Could you tell us a bit about it, please? As far as I understand, it\u2019s a collection of the songs from previous records, so what\u2019s the purpose of releasing it? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It seems to be a theme with me to write twice as many songs for an album than actually required. The acoustic 7HY \u201cRogues Gallery\u201d album was meant to be a double album with \u201cNo Going Back\u201d (2019) but when it came down to it, it was going to be too expensive to release it like that so Lions Pride Music decided we should treat them as two separate albums. And I\u2019ll be honest with you it had been so long since we recorded \u201cRogues Gallery\u201d that I\u2019d almost forgotten about it, out of the blue last year Chris Siloma told me that Lions Pride Music were going to release it as a CD. I\u2019m more than happy that it has eventually seen the light of day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When can we expect a proper new album from 7HY? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Never say never, I guess. I liked working with both Shawn Pelata and Andrew Chick, as we had done five 7HY albums together and I have enjoyed all of them so if the opportunity came up again and everyone was willing I\u2019m sure I could be persuaded. However, I\u2019m currently working on yet another album with EOTB, as I mentioned we already had eleven songs ready to go after \u201cDistant Shores\u201d plus we are currently seven songs into the album after that so I guess I\u2019d like to see where EDGE OF0 THE BLADE and AOR Heaven take us first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Konstantin Chilikin<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2021 has been good for the fans of AOR and melodic rock: ECLIPSE, HEARTLAND, STAN BUSH, GROUNDBREAKER, THE NIGHT FLIGHT…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-interviews-interviews","wpcat-5-id","wpcat-20-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aormusic.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aormusic.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aormusic.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aormusic.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aormusic.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2002"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.aormusic.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2008,"href":"https:\/\/www.aormusic.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2002\/revisions\/2008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aormusic.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aormusic.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aormusic.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aormusic.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.aormusic.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Edge-Of-The-Blade-450px.png\")
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