New Marillion/Steve Rothery Interview on Innerviews

[Innerviews]

Hi Everyone,

There's a brand new, in-depth interview with Marillion's Steve Rothery on Innerviews. It's a deep dive into the making of Sounds That Can’t Be Made, the band's latest album and its recent history.

The interview covers:
- The creative process behind “Gaza,” an epic balancing narrative and reportage as it examines the complexities faced by Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip
- Why the band almost broke up during the making of the new album
- Why it remixed and reissued the Radiation album
- Major detail on Rothery's gear and signature guitars
- A look at Marillion's conventions and how they propel the band forward
- Behind the scenes at Rothery's British Guitar Academy
- Rothery's work on Steve Hackett's Genesis Revisited II
- The band's relationship with its fans
- What enables the band to persevere after 34 years together
- His many solo activities

You can read the interview on the Web here:
http://www.innerviews.org/inner/marillion4.html

It's also available on the free Innerviews iPad/iPhone app here:
http://www.innerviews.org/mobile.html

Hope you dig,
A

[Spiral]

This is a good one--a prime example of why I look forward to Innerviews so much more than your standard musician interview. Thanks very much!

I've always thought the structure was a big key to what makes "Gaza" work so well, especially how the ending makes everything fit together so perfectly. It's weird to hear that they tossed it together that way basically by accident. That magic can work in odd ways indeed.

[ChrisXymphonia]

As usual a very very interesting interview.

[JKL2000]

It's really good, Anil, thanks.

So is Rothery saying that some of Brave was written before Hogarth joined the band? It seems like it, but I don't think I've ever heard that said before. Unless he means it wasn't until AoS that Hogarth was really well integrated, and maybe they wrote some of it without him being involved.

[wilcox660]

Very well done, indeed!

[Scott Bails]

Excellent as always, Anil. Thanks for posting it.

So much better than the interview in the latest Guitar Player rag.

[Innerviews]

Excellent as always, Anil. Thanks for posting it.

So much better than the interview in the latest Guitar Player rag.

Which I (cough) wrote as well. :-)

[Scott Bails]

Really? I missed that.

Just to clarify, it wasn't the interview itself that was so bad (now that you mention it, it did cover some of the same ground as the "Innerview"), but it was so brief.

Did they just edit the hell out of it?

[Progatron]

Excellent interview, I thoroughly enjoyed it! Thanks!

[ChrisXymphonia]

So is Rothery saying that some of Brave was written before Hogarth joined the band?.

I think he meant that on a writing level they still had to adjust to their 'union'. And with a band like Marillion where a lot of music is born out of jamming and being recorded on the fly it is likely that they might have used bits and pieces that were a bit older.

[Spiral]

I think he meant that on a writing level they still had to adjust to their 'union'.

I also read it that way. I figured it was really about the degree to which they'd gelled as a five-piece, regardless of which bits & pieces had been written when.

[Wilton Said...]

WoW! Great interview. No idea that tensions were running high enough for a split during the initial writing for the album.

Wilton

[Innerviews]

It's really good, Anil, thanks.

So is Rothery saying that some of Brave was written before Hogarth joined the band? It seems like it, but I don't think I've ever heard that said before. Unless he means it wasn't until AoS that Hogarth was really well integrated, and maybe they wrote some of it without him being involved.

I don't have anything beyond what he said there. I suppose it is open to interpretation, but I wouldn't read too much into it.

[Innerviews]

Really? I missed that.

Just to clarify, it wasn't the interview itself that was so bad (now that you mention it, it did cover some of the same ground as the "Innerview"), but it was so brief.

Did they just edit the hell out of it?

What you have is a case study in terms of the freedom I have with Innerviews versus a tightly-formatted major print magazine that imposes specific guidelines and word counts.

The Innerviews piece is 7X longer than the GP piece. It covers much more ground. It even covers much more guitar ground.

They want to run photos that run two entire pages with minimal copy in the intro. The piece could have been 50% longer just within the pages that were allocated to it.

However, I'm not in control of GP. I am in control of Innerviews. :-)

I think you can see where my real interests reside. :-)

[Innerviews]

WoW! Great interview. No idea that tensions were running high enough for a split during the initial writing for the album.

Wilton

They got over it. All is fine. They are kicking ass at the moment.

[iguana]

It's really good, Anil, thanks.

So is Rothery saying that some of Brave was written before Hogarth joined the band?

the story of the girl found wandering on the severn bridge dates back to 1988. initially it was steve hogarth who had the idea of creating the story for an album. and that was shortly before he joined MARiLLiON. it is possible that some musical ideas also date back to this. i think most bands keep an archive of good ideas that yet have to find a home.

they probably reached a stage where they felt that they couldn’t take things further artistically. that happens and a split may have been the most honest statement. however, as rothery points out, they are too ingrained into this professionally and cannot just trail off and do something else. they are not only bandmates but also business partners now and it is to their eternal credit that they have managed to remain close friends throughout this, too. doing the DEEP PURPLE support and the joint tour with SAGA obviously worked well for them. i, however, remain slightly unimpressed by “sounds that can’t be made”.

as ever, a sumptuous effort and a useful interview, anil. cheers! all of MARiLLiON’s members remain a pleasure to pay attention to.

[N_Singh]

From the interview:

"The two main things that drive me nuts are, first of all, the guitar sounds. There are so many really awful guitar sounds out there. People say “Hey, why bother with the amp? Let’s just plug it into the Pod.” Some people will get great sounds that way, but a lot of the time, you’ll get very tinny, fuzzy, horrible sounds that have no weight or guts. Having a choice of great tones and the right marriage of instrument and amp are all fundamentals. If you’ve never played through a great amp, it’s such a revelation to hear how the guitar responds, as opposed to playing through a Pod directly through your computer."

Sorry, not true. Well, at least not any more. The POD HD series has some incredible emulations. I tended to believe the above mantra (and I absolutely LOVE my main amp, Henriksen JazzAmp, which I wouldn't trade it for anything).

But the Canadian jazz guitarist and luthier, Jim Soloway, has absolutely convinced me that the POD can be a viable option-for a clean, pristine, jazz setting--perhaps THE setting where tone and clarity are absolutely paramount. He created some incredible patches that sound great. It can be a very viable musical solution for situations where lugging a lot of gear can be problematic.

Check out his Soundcloud page:

https://soundcloud.com/jim-soloway

http://www.jimsoloway.com


Here is an accomplished bebeop player from Holland taking about the POD. I would be hard pressed if anyone can classify his playing an sounds as "thin".

http://dutchbopper.blogspot.nl/2013/...pressions.html

Here is Jim Soloway testing out the "Twin" speaker cabinet settings on his POD:

https://soundcloud.com/jim-soloway/twinspeakertest

https://soundcloud.com/jim-soloway/s...reenbacktwin-2

[Reach]

Cool read. Thanks for that.

[Scott Bails]

What you have is a case study in terms of the freedom I have with Innerviews versus a tightly-formatted major print magazine that imposes specific guidelines and word counts.

The Innerviews piece is 7X longer than the GP piece. It covers much more ground. It even covers much more guitar ground.

They want to run photos that run two entire pages with minimal copy in the intro. The piece could have been 50% longer just within the pages that were allocated to it.

However, I'm not in control of GP. I am in control of Innerviews. :-)

I think you can see where my real interests reside. :-)

I figured as much.

You know I'm a fan of yours, which is why I was surprised to learn that the magazine interview was yours, too. Your interviews are always so in-depth and always seem to get info out of the musicians that you don't find anywhere else.

Anyway, thanks for the explanation and excellent Rothery interview.

[Innerviews]

Sorry, not true.

Excellent. I look forward to your teachings about this topic at your guitar school. ;-)

[Innerviews]

You know I'm a fan of yours, which is why I was surprised to learn that the magazine interview was yours, too.

Appreciated. The word "fan" makes me wretch though, but glad you like the work. :-)

[N_Singh]

Excellent. I look forward to your teachings about this topic at your guitar school. ;-)

My school? ha! Not happening. . Which is why I left to a great veteran player/teacher/luthier like Jim Soloway to demonstrate, via his soundcloud gear samples, that modeling amps can be a viable option.

[Innerviews]

Are you seriously arguing that amp simulation can be the equivalent of the real thing?

An option, yes, but nothing -- absolutely nothing -- can compare to a real amp.....

[PotatoSolution]

Enjoyed the interview!

It must be exhausting to continually have to innovate new ways of generating income as the music industry bottoms out, while still trying to be creative and make new music. I hope Marillion continues for as long as the lads can manage it.