On January 14, 15 and 16, they will be playing at The Iridium in New York City. “There will be lots of different sets as we plan to change them for every show and there are four of them,” he said.
Regarding the song selection process for The Other Side, he said, “We had a lot of music left from the sessions we did at my house in Chatham, NJ in 1978. We took them a piece at a time and wove them together into what became the final album. We added a lot of pieces to make them what they are. Once we were done with the music we wrote the final lyrics. In the past, that was me and Mick working on the lyrics and skat vocals Roye would sing. Some we did with the two of us and then we worked with Ryche as well and we loved working with him on lyrics. We generally listen to the music and the lyrics come to us without prompting, it is an unusual way of doing it but it works for us.”
When asked which is his personal favorite song on The Other Side, he said, “I like all of them for different reasons. ‘I’m on Fire’ is a song I wrote for my wife before we married over 40 years ago and it sounds better than ever. ‘Sky Pilot’ is a song I wrote at that time and we worked on it as I was not really happy with it. Ryche added a verse and we added lyrics and it became ‘SkyWriter’ about a man who loses his wife, mother, significant other and is up in the sky writing letters to her hoping she sees it. If I had to pick one it would be ‘The Other Side,’ an 18-minute piece of music about the trip to the ‘other side.’ It’s a beautiful piece of music that we are very proud of.”
He acknowledged that their music and songwriting is inspired by “everything in life.” “As I said, we let the music and lyrics happen and they do readily,” he said.
Regarding their future plans, he said, “Next, we take the music on tour, we have 31 shows so far and its growing. We have three hours of music between the new album and the old classics which we have been polishing up ready to take them with us. We expect to change the sets often so they remain fresh. Can’t wait.”
On being artists in the digital age, he said, “It is very different but I like it. We recorded digitally for the first time. We did the basic tracks live as we always did, it maintains the feel that way, it does not sound clinical. ‘Drifting’ had no overdubs and was basically live in the studio, a great feel. Some tracks had as many as 64 tracks and it grew but as we had recorded the basic tracks live, it still maintained the live feel.”
Regarding the impact of streaming services and technology on the music business, he said, “It gets the music out there which is positive but it is readily available for free which is not good. Luckily our fans ‘get it’ and support the band by buying the CD and albums. Our Nektarines (fans) are the best.”
For their fans, he concluded, “Come prepared, hold on to your hats we are pulling out all of the stops to make the shows outstanding for you. Mick is back with his lightshow so flashback to the seventies is inevitable. Most of the show is now digitized.”
To learn more about the iconic progressive rock group Nektar, check out their official website and their Facebook page.
