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OK, we’re here with the Prog Palace –
this is April, and I’m here with Martin Orford
from Jadis and IQ. We’re going to ask him a few questions, some
folks have emailed
me a few as well.
AB: IQ just had their 20th anniversary.
At least.
MO: Actually, it was quite some time ago.
AB: Oh, it was?
MO: Yes, it was, the actual anniversary was, I suppose it must
have been 2001, probably.
AB: OK.
MO: Coz the band actually formed in 1981.
AB: So the band is legal now?
MO: It is, yeah [laughs]. Yeah, we can drink and go to parties.
AB: You can drink and vote [laughs]
MO: [Still laughing] We’ve never done that before!
AB: So what’s next for IQ?
MO: OK, next for IQ is that we’ve got a new album
that’s at a reasonable stage of development. We’ve got I would
say probably 25 minutes, half an hour’s worth of material.
AB: Great.
MO: In no particular order, but there’s some good
stuff there, it’s gonna make some nice material.
AB: Good.
MO: It’s not there yet.
AB: You’re biased, but... [laughs]
MO: No. I didn’t particularly care for the last album,
so I like this one.
AB: I see.
MO: And I don’t like them all.
AB: OK, that’s fair.
MO: I wasn’t a big fan of the Seventh House, and I’ve
made no secret of that. I like this one a lot better.
AB: Good, good.
MO: But yes, we’re looking for release round about
May time.
AB: Excellent! Since you obviously have
ones that you’ve like more or less, which IQ album is your favorite?
MO: Subterranea.
AB: Mine too! Absolutely.
MO: Nice easy one, it’s got a bit of everything
on it.
AB: Yeah, it tells a great story.
MO: Yeah.
AB: Great! What’s the title of the
new album?
MO: Oh, no idea...
AB: No working title yet?
MO: No, we’ll decide that at the last possible deadline
we can!
AB: Oh, right, right. Before the cover art?
MO: The title always comes very, very last of all.
AB: At a moment of inspiration or...?
MO: Desperation! [laughs]
AB: All right, great! Now, 22 years and moving forward.
MO: Yeah.
AB: How has the band changed over the years?
Not just musically, but personally?
MO: Well we work a lot less, because we’re all part-timers,
we only ever do this at weekends, and obviously have band members who’ve
got families and kids and all the rest of it, the weekends that we’ve
got available to do it have become more and more infrequent. So, it doesn’t
work that often. When it does work, we can fortunately throw it back together
relatively easily, and it sounds good pretty much straight away, which
is very fortunate. If it didn’t, if we took loads of rehearsals
to get it back together again, we would probably’ve been better
folding it years ago, but we CAN put it back together at a moment’s
notice.
AB: You would spend time gigging and not rehearsing?
MO: Yes, that’s right.
AB: How do you keep the music straight
between IQ and Jadis? (This was an emailed question) and you’re
solo efforts as well?
MO: Well, I haven’t contributed new music to Jadis in quite
some time.
AB: OK, is that in a writing capacity?
MO: No, that’s right, because when I left the band, I mean,
I haven’t been a part of the writing for Jadis since the first two
albums, because I left the band to concentrate on IQ in about ’95,
I think it was and I’ve never properly rejoined, I’ve only
ever played with Jadis as a session player ever since. So for Gary and
Steve it’s very much their baby, and they’re more than happy
to give me quite a big say in the arrangement of the album, so I don’t
seek to become a full writing partner in the band again.
AB: So you’re major work is with IQ, and this is kind of
more like a hobby?
MO: The solo stuff is all the stuff that IQ don’t
like, basically! [laughter all around] If they chuck it it ends up on
the solo album.
AB: Oh, that’s funny! Do you have
another solo album in the works?
MO: Yeah, I’ve got quite a few things that IQ will be chucking
out. [laughter]
AB: It’s one of my favorite albums. (Martin’s debut
solo effort, ‘Classical Music and Popular Songs’.)
MO: Thank you.
AB: I listen to it a lot, and get a lot of positive comments
from friends as well. I tend to, like, ‘evangelize’ with my
favorite albums.
MO: I’m very fond of it too, but a lot of that stuff is
far too bright and sunny and happy for IQ – I mean, IQ is a dark
band..
AB: Yeah, it can be, I don’t know if they’re ‘sinister’
though!
MO: Oh they are, they’re a death-prog band, IQ [laughter
from both]
AB: You’re far from sinister, Martin.
MO: No, that’s why I do bright, sunny solo albums that
you can put on and go to the beach.
AB: There you go! Well, they’re fun, but there’s
a place for both!
MO: Good. I hope so.
AB: So how have you changed over the years,
aside from pulling back from Jadis and concentrating on IQ? I would assume
that 22 years ago you had a family... didn’t have a family?
MO: I’ve never had kids, I basically sort of carry on doing
what I do and let the whole world revolve sort of somewhere slightly to
the left of me.
AB: I’m in the same position!
MO: No, I haven’t changed very much at all, I still live
in the same part of Hampshire that I’ve always lived, and I do quite
alright, really.
AB: Do you have any furry children? Dogs?
MO: Oh yes, yes!
AB: I thought you had a couple of dogs.
MO: We’ve got one dog. Yeah, Chris and I have got a dog
called Pipkin, who’s a little Jack Russell terrier.
AB: Oh, they’re fun!
MO: Yeah, she’s great.
AB: They’re hyper but they’re fun.
MO: Yeah, but she’s quite a little.
AB: How old is she?
MO: She’s seven, she’s been with us quite a long
time, ever since she was a little puppy.
AB: I have a terrier mix at home that’s sixteen years old.
MO: Wow! They do sometimes go on forever, don’t they?
AB: The terrier mixes are great because they go on and on.
AB: I’m excited to see you on the
bill for Baja Prog. How did that happen?
MO: They kept asking us and eventually we gave in! [laughs]
AB: You weakened?
MO: We did! Well, I mean, Jon Jowitt and I have always wanted
to do gigs like that.
AB: Baja’s a great gig.
MO: I know it is, some of the members of IQ are more difficult,
ah, some of them have got more commitments than others.
AB: Sure.
MO: However, we could all do that one, so we’re gonna do
it this year.
AB: It’s a good gig – there are some really good
bands this year.
MO: It is – I’ve done it with John Wetton and with
Jadis before.
AB: Right, right!
MO: So I know the good places to eat and drink.
AB: Well see, we’re gonna come and hang around
with you then!
MO: Absolutely. We’ll show you where to go.
AB: I’m going to make a concerted effort to go simply because
IQ’s on the bill. I missed the first NEARfest, didn’t get
to see you play, been to all the other ones but I’ve never gotten
to see IQ, and you guys are one of my favorite bands.
MO: Baja should be good. We’ll have some nice new material
by then.
AB: I’m definitely looking into doing that one. Will it
(the new material) be premiered at Baja?
MO: Ah, some of it may be. It could well be, it’s after
the gig in London next week, which is actually our next gig.
AB: OK.
MO: So yes, there could well be some stuff that hasn’t
been heard before.
AB: That’s a nice little tease for anyone listening
to this!
AB: You may have already partially answered
this, but why don’t we see IQ more often in the States? Or Jadis
as well?
MO: Well. Because US Immigration won’t let us in. We’re
not allowed to come in.
AB: How’s that?
MO: They don’t like overseas bands. They say it takes the
work away from US bands.
AB: I’m speechless.
MO: If you turn up to a US airport with a guitar, they’ll
put you on the next plane back home.
AB: Well, that’s just nuts.
MO: The only people that manage to do it are the Scandinavian
bands, and they’ve got
sponsorships from their own governments.
AB: So how do these festivals get bands to come over? Well, Baja’s
in Mexico.
MO: You can do Mexico. But the only way that you can play the
States is to get work permits, which basically they don’t give to
people whose main profession is not being in a band. Our main profession
is not being in a band, so there’s no way we’re going to get
work then to be in a band. The only way that we can do a gig in the States
is not-for-profit.
AB: Which is how you did NEARfest.
MO: That’s right, but you can’t do a tour like that.
AB: No, heavens no.
MO: Except for possibly Libya and North Korea outside of the
US, it’s the most difficult place to come to if you’re in
a band. I mean, somewhere like Russia is probably a lot easier. It is
the most unwelcoming place that you could possibly find if you’re
in a rock band.
AB: I work for the Federal Government, I’m thinking of
going to work on this! [laughs]
MO: It’s unbelievably difficult to get an overseas band
through Immigration.
AB: I had no idea. That’s amazing.
MO: You can’t do it. The only way you can do it is do it
not-for-profit and lie through your teeth when you come in.
AB: And lie through your teeth.
MO: That’s all you can do.
AB: I’m flabbergasted by that; That’s the biggest
news I’ve heard in years.
MO: Nobody in the US knows about this.
AB: It’s nuts.
MO: Yeah.
AB: Well, we need to get some cultural exchange going
on here.
MO: That’s why you get all these festivals in the States
that has all bands from Sweden, because their government pays for them
to be there.
AB: But yet our bands can go over there and generate revenue
for other countries?
MO: Yeah.
AB: That’s just backwards.
MO: But there is a very aggressive policy to stop overseas bands
from coming into the US.
AB: That’s so backwards; that’s amazing to me.
MO: So that’s why we don’t come over more often.
AB: I’m speechless. That’s amazing. That’s
just so dumb.
MO: Yeah. That’s why we’re playing Mexico and not
the US. We can land in a US airport if we’re going, if we’re
in transit to somewhere else, but they won’t send us on with our
guitars if we’re going to a US destination.
AB: It’s going to be interesting to see the reactions we
get to that when this hits the airwaves.
MO: Oh, print that, absolutely.
AB: Oh yes, this is definitely going to be on the station for
that reason alone.
MO: I’m here to spread the good news! [laughs]
AB: Spread the joy! [laughs]
AB: We commented on ‘Classical Music
and Popular Songs’ (Martin’s debut solo album), and you have
another one in the works. How long does this stuff gestate in your psyche
before it gets out there?
MO: Well, it’s more a question of whether I can fit it
in between other projects. Because obviously it’s ( Door slams)
like an IQ project, it’s bigger I suppose for me personally, for
GEP Records it’s (IQ) is the frontline project, so only when I’ve
got something like an IQ album done and dusted can I look at the solo
album and say, ‘Right, let’s sort that out.’ And really,
it’s the last thing to be done when all the other work is kind of
out the way.
AB: Is it easier or harder to work on your own stuff?
MO: Oh much easier.
AB: It is?
MO: Yeah. I don’t easily work with other people.
AB: OK. Sometimes it’s harder to put your own personal
projects out there. You’re more vulnerable.
MO: Oh yeah, but given the choice I mean I’d much
rather work as a solo artist. I think that writing music with other people
is just the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard of.
AB: It’s gotta be tough. Creative egos get in the way.
MO: I mean, you didn’t get Beethoven saying, ‘Oh,
I’ve got this riff, I’m just going to play it for the
tuba player and see if he’s got anything that he wants to say’.
[AB laughs] You know, music would never have been written like that. It’s
only in the 20th-21st Century that writing music by committee has become
the norm.
AB: You either wrote or you played.
MO: That’s right. And I find writing music by committee
is completely weird. I’ll always think it’s completely weird.
AB: I’m sure it’s frustrating.
MO: And it works in the case of something like IQ, but I’ve
never found it easy.
AB: Do you have a favorite song on ‘Classical
Music and Popular Songs’?
MO: It varies, I like ‘Days of Our Lives’, because
that’s a nice little song.
AB: You know we have a daytime Soap Opera in the States called
‘Days of Our Lives’ ?
MO: Do you? I didn’t know that! [laughter from
both]
AB: Just a little bit of trivia for you.
MO: No, it’s a nice little song way back for me girlfriend
and me dog, you know.
AB: That’s good.
MO: Coz I like being around with them, they’re
good.
AB: Cool. That’s great. Besides the
members of your current bands, who are some of your favorite people to
work with – given that it’s frustrating to WRITE with other
people?
MO: Do you mean people that I HAVE worked with, or that I’d
like to work with?
AB: Both.
AB: Speak to the people that you’ve already worked with
first.
MO: Oh, they’re all impossible.
AB: Well, of course, we know some of the same people!
MO: And the ones that I haven’t worked with are probably
impossible but I haven’t found out yet! [laughs]
AB: Which may be why you haven’t worked with them yet?
MO: Yeah, probably! No, musicians, they’re all difficult,
but you know, you can do good things with them. I don’t know, I
mean I shouldn’t name any names, really.
AB: That’s fine! Who would you like to work with?
MO: I regret that I never had more chance to work with
Andy Latimer when I had the chance.
AB: He’s in LA now, isn’t he?
MO: Well no, he’s nearer San Francisco.
AB: I thought he was on the West coast.
MO: But no, I had an opportunity to do some stuff with Camel,
it unfortunately would have meant canceling absolutely everything else,
so I couldn’t do it, and I wish I’d had the opportunity to
do it, but I had too many ties with other projects so I just couldn’t
do it in the end, but that would have been good.
AB: You know that Camel had a bit of a problem before NEARfest
this year, when they lost their keyboard player?
MO: Yep.
AB: Were you in the running for that gig?
MO: Not that I’m aware of. [laughter from both]
AB: Well they pulled it out in the end, it was a great set.
MO: I heard, yeah. I saw them in London last week. As it works
out, if they had offered me the European thing I might have been able
to do it, but I couldn’t have done the US bit of it as well.
AB: Tom Brislin stepped in as well for the Yes Symphonic tour
2 years ago. It was a good gig.
MO: Yeah, that’s right.
AB: Couple more questions here and we’ll
let you go. I’ve had a request to ask IQ to do
some shows up North in the Liverpool area.
MO: OK.
AB: Just so you know.
MO: Well, what I do have to say is, lots of people say to us,
‘Why don’t you do a show in such-and-such place?’. Now
the fact is we don’t have any connections in this country –
we don’t have an agent, we don’t have a manager. Basically
the only places we play are places that phone us up and say, ‘Can
you come and play here?’. We can’t yet decide if we’re
going to play Liverpool because, unless a venue in Liverpool comes up
and says, ‘Can we have IQ?’, we’ve got no way of getting
into those venues. We don’t have a team of people on the phone getting
gigs for us.
AB: So maybe the fans can get on these venues and say, ‘Hey,
call these guys and get them.’
MO: Yeah, in actual fact though, I mean we do have a regular
gig up in that way. We do play at the The Met in Bury, which is probably
only, I don’t know, 20-25 miles from Liverpool, so we’ve kind
of covered that area.
AB: OK, we’ll pass on that information.
MO: We don’t play there very often, but then again we don’t
play anywhere very often! [laughter from both]
AB: So, that’s actually about it.
Where do you think you’d be now? What do you do? What’s your
day job?
MO: I sell records. I run the record company.
AB: OK. GEP?
MO: My life hasn’t changed at all. I used to work in a
factory and I used to spend all day packing boxes. Now I run a record
company and I spend all day (both say together) PACKING BOXES!. So nothing’s
actually changed.
AB: If music wasn’t an entity to
get involved in, what do you think you’d be doing now?
MO: Packing boxes!
AB: Packing boxes !! [laughter from both]
AB: Martin, thanks a lot
MO: I just pack different boxes!
AB: Great – thanks a lot.
MO: No problem. If you’ve got any more, give us a shake
on email.
AB: Absolutely – all right, we’ll pass it on.
We would like to thank Martin for taking the time for
the interview.
A recorded version of this interview will be aired soon.
For more information on IQ, Jadis and GEP Records visit:
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