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1) The Prog: When you go into the studio to record do
you all come in with complete songs, a small melody that worked in until
it becomes a song or do you find that it is easier to just get together
and do a jam session and write the music as you go?
Ed Wynne: Generally we get
together and jam and see where the music takes us. A lot of the tracks
seem to almost write themselves - we begin the process with some riffs
and ideas and things take off from there. Soundchecks are a great opportunity
for jamming and a lot of the ideas for new tracks come from those.
2) The Prog: What influences your writing and at what
point in the writing process do you decide whether to have vocals of any
kind?
Ed Wynne: We never have vocals!! There have been one or two tracks
in our repertoire that Jumping Jon has sung or whispered, but never any
vocal arrangements in the conventional sense. We do have a lot of people
asking when we will include vocals but the answer is simply that we won't!
That isn't the point of what we're doing. We may include some middle eastern
voices on the next album, but that will be sounds rather than words....
Influences aren't easy to define. We like ethnic music which has an influence,
but it's more to do with new technology. Give us a new synth with some
bizarre sounds and effects and that will certainly influence a track!
3) The Prog: It’s been a long road for the band
has any pop music changed your music or style in anyway?
Ed Wynne: No - generally
we don't listen to pop music nor follow it's fickle trends. We have always
made the music we are making now and will continue to do so, no matter
what is currently perceived as fashionable. We were fashionable once and
will probably be so again one day!
4) The Prog: As a band is there anything you feel you
haven’t accomplished over the years?
Ed Wynne: Well it would be nice to sell more records!
Getting our music heard by a wider audience is always a challenge. We
find a lot of people have heard of us but haven't heard the music. Also
touring some of the countries we have yet to play in would be nice - Australia,
Japan, South America.... Musically we're doing everything we've always
wanted to do.
5) The Prog: Listening to the "LIVE AT THE PONGMASTERS
BALL" CD which by the way sounds awesome for a live recording, is
there anything that you did in the studio releases that isn’t present
when played live? Have you added something to a song since the original
recording when playing live?
Ed Wynne: Oh, absolutely. The live versions are different all
the time as we tend to enjoy jamming sections of songs.
6) The Prog: Are there any plans to come to the states
in the future?
Ed Wynne: Yes - it's long overdue and the intention is to tour
extensively next year to support the new album. We're currently looking
for a suitable label to help us with that.
7) The Prog: When in the studio are you guys relaxed
and have a party or do you have some sort of structure in which to start
with and try to stay strictly focused on writing?
Ed Wynne: It's both really. We're not there partying
all the time, but the atmosphere is always relaxed. We are very focused
in the studio however and tend to work long hours to get things finished.
8) The Prog: Are you planning another studio release?
If so when?
Ed Wynne: Yes, the next album will be our 20th anniversary
release so we're planning some special guests to join us on some of the
tracks. It will be out in April 2003.
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