Continued from Part One…<\/i><\/p>\n
Novum<\/i> stands on its own as an excellent album of new material. Can you tell me about the circumstances leading to making the first new Procol Harum album in many, many years?<\/b><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/procol_live.jpg\")
Well, that\u2019s a very nice comment, I must put in there. Thank you very much. Because that is something which you constantly think of when you make a new album. We haven\u2019t made that many in the last few years, so it was quite important. But we are aware that we\u2019re Procol Harum and you can\u2019t, certainly, come out sounding like Lynyrd Skynyrd or something like that. People will go, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on? That\u2019s not Procol Harum.\u201d<\/p>\n
So we are Procol Harum, but we\u2019re Procol Harum because I\u2019m singing, because of the instrumentation we\u2019ve got. That will always be there, but this time, we just had a different outlook on things. We were inspired. We suddenly found out that Procol Harum had been going for 50 years, so we thought we\u2019d better do something.<\/p>\n
But also, the band as it stands today has been together for 11 or 12 years playing live, and we thought, \u201cOh, hang on. That\u2019s a long time, and we haven\u2019t actually made a studio album in all that time.\u201d So, it was time to go in, and we had a very good producer. We had a concept song-wise. We also had a concept for the production of it, in that we wanted to play it all live in a studio, not overdubbing and spending six months doing it. We actually probably recorded for about two weeks and then mixed it for about two weeks. It was quick. And there\u2019s not an overdub on it, I don\u2019t think. It was all played live with the five people, me singing live in the studio and trying to get that effect into the album.<\/p>\n
I found it fascinating that Cream lyricist Pete Brown is the lyricist for the album. While he\u2019s not, I don\u2019t think, in any way trying to copy Keith Reid\u2019s approach, there\u2019s definitely the sense of poetry about the lyrics.Tell me about choosing to work with him.<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u2019ve known Pete Brown since his Cream days, since \u201867 or whatever. We\u2019ve seen each other now and again, and we have congregated because he also worked a lot with Jack Bruce. Because I worked with Jack Bruce in Ringo\u2019s All Starr Band for about two or three years. I got to know Jack and saw Pete now and again, and\u2014I think it was at Jack Bruce\u2019s funeral\u2014when I saw Pete again he said, \u201cLook, if you ever want any lyrics for Procol, I\u2019d be honored to be given a chance.\u201d So, a year or two after that, we\u2019re suddenly thinking we\u2019re going to make a new album and I thought, \u201cRight, okay. Let\u2019s get Pete Brown in and give it a go.\u201d<\/p>\n
This tour that you\u2019re doing in North America includes a lot of City Winery gigs. Do you and the band approach those sort of performances differently than you would a larger hall?<\/b><\/p>\n
I think it will be a different approach. I think that sometimes if you\u2019re in a very big situation\u2014with two thousand people\u2014then you can crack on; they like it to be noisy, big, and fast even. But I think if you were listening to that in a City Winery, your ears might get blown out halfway through. So, I think that this will give the opportunity to play a lot of songs that are a bit more chill.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/procol_now.jpg\")
Procol Harum today<\/p><\/div>\n
How does touring in 2019 differ from when you were doing it in your early 20s?<\/b><\/p>\n
Well, I can\u2019t remember that far back! But it\u2019s really not like that. My memories of that, particularly in the USA, are of playing to a lot of colleges and university audiences back in the late \u201860s and \u201870s. Now we play to the converted, and their children and grandchildren. There are a lot of younger generations that they are very interested in a group like Procol Harum, a group that\u2019s got history and that\u2019s done big things, and yet is still there. And I think they sometimes come to see, \u201cWell, why<\/i> are they still there? What do they do?\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve just done a tour of Europe and it was very, very successful and the audiences were fantastic. But we haven\u2019t played in America for about four years now, at least. We we haven\u2019t been there since Novum<\/i>\u2019s been out. So, it will be interesting to see what\u2019s changed, what\u2019s different, who\u2019s coming to see Procol Harum today. It\u2019s nice to play some new songs for people.<\/p>\n
I mean, we always play some standards and we always play some repertoire that perhaps people won\u2019t expect or haven\u2019t heard before. There\u2019s always, let\u2019s say, six songs in there out of 18 or 20 that we won\u2019t play tomorrow night and we won\u2019t have played the last night. That keeps us alive and interested, and it\u2019s also good for people that come. If you don\u2019t happen to hear your favorite on the night, then you just came on the wrong night.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/procol_novum.jpg\")
Once the tour is over, what\u2019s next for you and the band?<\/b><\/p>\n
We\u2019re doing quite a few festivals around Europe in the course of the summer. Then, we\u2019ll probably sit back and think, \u201cRight. What\u2019s next?\u201d Once we finished making Novum,<\/i> writing new songs and recording it, we said, \u201cLet\u2019s do this again very soon.\u201d And time really catches up with you pretty quickly. What we would turn our minds to next, is actually just making another album, something that will mean something to us. Therefore, we hope means something to the people that hear it.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m very unhappy that there\u2019s not the CD in shops anymore. I like to make a product that, \u201cThere it is, it\u2019s in your hand.\u201d We make it, you\u2019re meant to put it on and listen to it loud until the end. I think I\u2019ll still stick with that formula. I just can\u2019t think of streaming two tracks from an album; that doesn\u2019t mean that much to me.<\/p>\n
Fifty-plus years on, what do you think explains the enduring popularity of Procol Harum?<\/b><\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know the answer to that. I\u2019m very pleased. I love the fact that we are still in demand, let\u2019s say. I have to sing these things, right? And if I was tired of singing them, then I think everybody would be tired of listening to them as well. And I think that a lot of Procol Harum stuff over the years has not been out of fashion and it\u2019s not really got dated. The lyrics always seem to be fine today as they were 50 years ago, and the music is the same. A Whiter Shade of Pale<\/i> was our first record and that was completely different from the time. And yet if you hear it on the radio now, it still has the same effect on you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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