With 3 album releases in as many years, The Flower Kings seem unstoppable. Roine Stolt, the band's thinking head, did us the honor of presenting the latest album of the combo, "Islands".
Hello Roine! This is the third time we have the chance to interview you! How is it going for you in these complicated times? Complicated times for people in general, but even more so for artists?
Roine Stolt: Well... I'm almost ashamed to say that I'm doing very well, actually! (Laughs). Some of my musician friends are very touched by this situation, in many ways. Some of them don't make any money at all, others are so used to going on tour that it's complicated for them. Going on tour is something you learn to love after a while. It's exciting. So nowadays, some people spend their time reading, sleeping, others spend it playing music... All of a sudden, you have to live very differently. You have to be serious. For some people, staying at home for a long time is difficult to manage. But for me, personally, I really enjoyed being at home! I did what I liked: writing, producing, mixing, playing, recording music, spending time with my family! Also, I have to admit that I'm not very affected financially because I've been involved in so many albums over the years! So the money from album sales keeps me afloat for a while. I'm doing pretty well!
And I could have guessed it! Because this is your third album in three years with The Flower Kings, which is pretty incredible! How do you manage to be so creative and inspired?
Roine: I don't really know how to answer that because it's something normal for me, but it's also thanks to the other guys in the band! We had a discussion at the beginning of this covid episode. We wondered how we could make the most of the time we were going to have with containment. Most of the members wanted to stay active, make recordings, and so on. We were able to record music from home using our facilities. We can send files to each other, etc. Soon we made the decision to write a new album. Our drummer is Italian, and Italy is one of the countries that was confined first. All he could do was go shopping and rehearse in his room. He couldn't do anything else! For him, it was a relief to be able to go to his studio and record music! I had to help him get a little bit of equipment and set it all up, from a technical point of view, to make his drums sound as good as possible.
In a way, what is happening is a disaster for the economy and for the groups that can't tour in particular, but fortunately it is happening today. 40 years ago, for musicians, I think it would have been much harder! There was no access to computers or the Internet. There were no social networks to interact and so on. But when you were working on a new album and releasing it, you found the best way to use the time you had.
Roine: Even 20 years ago, it would have been very difficult. Home studios weren't as widespread. There were a lot of obstacles on the quantity and quality of the files you could send each other. Sending them took much longer. Everything we exchanged, we couldn't have done it ten years ago. We would have had to send things to each other by mail, whereas now I can record a guitar part and send it to someone in California or Italy, the guys can download it and listen to it. Today, we have access to a much faster Internet connection.
You live in Sweden. Your drummer lives in Italy like you said, but there are also band members living in the US and Austria! It's almost a different country for each musician! How did you manage to release an album that is so coherent from A to Z, when you worked so far away from each other ?
Roine: We sent each other mp3 files. Everyone could listen to them, take notes, say what they liked. It allowed us to see which ideas everyone liked and which ones were not. We ended up having 20 or 25 ideas, and we started working around that. But I still like it better when we're all together in the same room and we talk. If you want to tell your drummer in real time to play in a simpler way on the chorus, or with more energy at the end of the song, it's simpler. It takes a lot more time to give feedback, whereas when we're all in the same room, all we have to do is say what we have to say! That's how we worked when we recorded the album "Waiting For Miracles". The small details are easier to communicate orally, especially since when we're all connected at the same time, the Internet connection is slower and doesn't always work 100%. But it worked well anyway!
And anyway you had no choice! (Laughs). Your new album is called "Islands" and it's about loneliness. In times of global pandemic, this theme has a special connotation. Had you already planned to talk about this subject before the confinement and before the health crisis?
Roine: No, not really. As I told you, we sent each other music, and when we decided to record an album, we started looking at what we had written. When we got to half of the recordings, some songs didn't have lyrics written yet. So we started writing a few songs about that, about isolation. At the same time, it's hard to miss all that. When my wife turns on the television in the morning, I'm still in bed, but when I get up, I know exactly what Donald Trump said! (Laughs). Little by little, we saw the pandemic develop and the whole world go into containment. Automatically, the containment affected all of us, our children, our parents, everyone in every country! So writing about the feeling of isolation was bound to happen somewhere. It was a reality that we were all living. In the word "island" alone, we find the notion of isolation from the rest of the country. The track 'Island', which closes the second record, was called like that because two years ago I was on vacation on an island off the coast of Africa, and even though I usually try to relax when I'm on vacation, I sometimes have ideas when I'm in the car, at the beach, at the hotel or whatever, and I take out my dictaphone to record them. I had my phone on me so I had an idea for an instrumental piece, and I sang it into the dictaphone so I wouldn't forget it. And when you create a voice file on an iPhone, you have to name it. I didn't really have an idea so I called it 'Island'. That's funny! Some members of the band wanted to call the album 'Island'. I wasn't really convinced, I thought it was pretty bland, and I thought a lot of albums could be called like that. There's already a King Crimson album from 1971 or 1972 that's called that, by the way.
The artwork is magnificent and was created by Roger Dean, well known for having made many covers of progressive rock bands, including Yes. Why did you choice this particular artwork?
Roine: When the album was finished, we were in the middle of mixing. I was talking with the label about the artwork. They said, "why don't you ask Roger Dean to do it? I hadn't thought about it, and for me, Roger Dean was very connected to the band Yes and when I talked to the band members, they were really excited about the idea! So they kind of convinced me! I love Roger Dean, but initially I wasn't very convinced that it was a very good idea. So I contacted Roger and he sent me two ideas that he was working on. He presented them to me, and one of them was the artwork that was chosen. It was called "Island Fairy"! But he couldn't have known that the album was going to have the same name at the time! We had just thought that the album was going to be called "Islands".
It's an incredible coincidence!
Roine: Yes, it was fate! And besides, I liked this artwork better than the other one he had presented to us.
You toured with Gungfly last year, a band led by Rikard Sjöblom. In September, he released a new album called "Alone Together". It's funny because this album is also about loneliness! The eponymous song is about people who feel connected to each other through social networks, but in the end, some relationships are still relatively fictional, so you can feel lonely even if you don't look lonely. That's kind of the paradox of these social networks. What do you think about it?
Roine: I totally agree. That's what I tell people: instead of getting stuck behind your smartphones, put it down and meet people in town for coffee! But don't spend your life in front of a screen, even if that's what we're both doing there! (Laughs). Technology is good and it's important but don't spend your life in front of your iPad or your computer or your phone, because you can connect with people in real life, and that's much better.
Even though the concept and themes behind the lyrics on this album are relatively dark, the music is relatively upbeat. Feeling alone can also be seen as an opportunity to find yourself, to take stock of yourself and to improve. Somehow it can be a bad for a good. Is it a paradox that you were trying to highlight by mixing playful music with more contrasting lyrics?
Roine: I wouldn't say it was planned that way. I like to work on something I like, whether it's instrumentation, arrangement, lyrics, anything in fact. If the lyrics are darker, or if they're lighter, that's the way it is! And you have to find a balance between the two. That's the way life is. Sometimes you have friends who are facing complicated moments, and I tell them, "That's how it is today, but you don't know how things will be next week or even tomorrow! ». Or sometimes people get divorced but they meet a new person a few months later. If things are complicated, don't focus on the present moment. The sun will always shine, you will have the opportunity to get another job, or to make more money later if that's what you're looking for.
Yes, just wait for a miracle! ("Waiting For Miracles" being the name of their previous album, editor's note).
Roine: Yes, that's exactly it! Don't think that every day will be perfect, because it doesn't happen to anyone. There will always be complicated days! And when you're in a situation like this, you know there will be better days. Looking back at the album now, there are indeed some dark or sometimes depressing lyrics, but other songs have a more cheerful and brighter feeling like the song 'Tangerine', or like the song... I can't remember its name ! (Laughs).
There are too many songs! (Laughs).
Roine: Too many songs, yes, 'From The Ground' is one of those songs, too. There's everything. I think there's a nice mix on this album. If you look at The Flower Kings' albums, some were darker than others, and some were more positive over the years! Today, and despite the pandemic that inspired the theme of the album, you can find a lot of melodies that are luminous, that embody beauty. I think it's a beautiful mix.
We were talking about lyrics and music, but what impressed me the most when I listened to this album for the first time was the length of the tracks, which have never been so short. There's 'Solaris' which is 9 minutes long, but most of the songs are 4 or 5 minutes long, which is something very new for you, even if the progressive aspect of your music remains intact. Why such an evolution?
Roine: There was "Paradox Hotel", which was released 10 or 15 years ago now (the album was released in 2006, editor's note). And on it, there were quite a few 3 or 5 minute songs. But you're right, most of the time, our songs are long, which doesn't pose a problem for all that. We just wanted to do things differently this time. We chose themes, and we chose not to totally connect them to each other. There are still some melodies that come back from one song to another, or phrases that come back several times in the album, to create a whole. The Beatles did a similar thing on their album "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (released in 1967, editor's note). Same for Genesis with " The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway " (released in 1974, editor's note), with rather short songs but with ideas that came up several times throughout the album. It's still part of the progressive spirit.
Today, we are in the era of the playlist, and most people won't listen to a song longer than 5 minutes. Was there in you the idea to try to reach a wider audience, by having shorter tracks ?
Roine: Right, you're right, but that idea didn't cross my mind.
So much the better! (Laughs).
Roine: I think you have to keep an open mind, and so much the better if it doesn't sound like progressive rock. People expect us to make long songs, so we wanted to give them something a little bit different, otherwise it can get boring. We have to surprise them! I asked the other members to write songs in different styles of music. I think you have to keep an open mind, and so much the better if it doesn't sound like progressive rock. It's still prog, because you make things progress by starting from one universe and arriving somewhere else. You progress from point A to point B.
Yes, you have to keep experimenting!
Roine : We can play these long melodic pieces with guitar solos and so on. We can do it! But by trying to do something that we've never done too much, we bring something new. I think it's interesting.
And by the way, the songs are sung alternately by you and by Hasse Fröberg. How do you choose who sings what ? Do you try to take into account everyone's voice to try to serve the song as well as possible? Or for example, do you tend to sing the songs you have written while Hasse sings the ones he has written on his own?
Roine: I'm the main composer, so Hasse often sings the songs I write. Sometimes I write a song and typically think it will be for him. I can already hear his voice singing the song. He also has a higher voice than mine so he can reach higher notes, notes that I can't sing. Usually he comes to my studio, he listens to what I've written, he tells me what he thinks about it, and what songs he can see himself singing about. We try to get the right balance. Sometimes we sing alternately: I sing one verse, he sings another... We try to stay open to proposals and try different things to see what works best. Sometimes there are songs that you feel close to, and you feel like singing them. In any case, we try to reach the right balance so that everything is interesting to listen to and sometimes unpredictable.
The first time we interviewed you was in 2012. You had just released your album "Bands Of Eden", your first album after 5 years without an album release. You were telling us that after releasing a lot of records in a short time, the magic was gone. Does it mean that after having released 3 albums in 3 years, you could put the band back in brackets for a while ?
Roine: Oh it's impossible to say at the moment. At this point, I feel like we're going to continue on our way. Last week, we exchanged on Skype, and since we still can't play concerts, we talked about the possibility to start writing new songs right now and to start writing nicely, to see in which direction we can go. I would say that's an indication. In any case, for the moment, there is no resumption of tours.
By the way, do you have any plans to tour in 2021? Are some things already in place?
Roine: If things get better, we will surely play in the "Cruise To The Edge". We also have plans for Canada and other places. Maybe we'll come back to South America, too, but I think it's too early to talk about that. I think we have to stay open to the different scenarios that will come our way. We could release an album like this again!
You are also involved in other projects. Since you're not going to take the concerts again, can we hope to hear a new album from Transatlantic or The Sea Within for example soon? I heard that you are preparing something with Transatlantic.
Roine: With Transatlantic, the album is already recorded in reality! The recordings started about a year ago. The album is being mixed right now in California. It's going to be great! It will probably be released in the spring of 2021. As far as The Sea Within is concerned, it's harder to say. There is no activity at the moment. I wouldn't say that there won't be another album, but right now there's not much to say in truth. We are all active musicians: Tom (Brislin, the pianist, editor's note) has just released an album with Kansas. Marco Minnemann is surely at home recording music for different projects. If there's a sequel, it has to come naturally. There are no concrete plans to make a new album but I guess it could happen if the conditions are right.
In any case, I hope you will have the opportunity to get back on stage as soon as possible. Maybe in the spring of 2021 with a bit of luck. Fingers crossed!
Roine: Yes we always keep our fingers crossed, but we don't know. Today, scheduling a tour is not easy. Twenty-five years ago, you could plan a concert and play it two weeks later. But today, everything is planned and you buy a ticket to see Roger Waters in a year's time. It's crazy! I can understand it, in a way. In any case, if we want to do a tour, it won't be before the fall of 2021 I think, in one year's time. But you never know, maybe next summer will be good!
Thank you very much Roine! Good luck for the rest and thank you for taking part in the interview!
Roine: Thank you, see you soon!