Blowin’ Wind with Arjen Lucassen: “I’m not a politician. I don’t have the answers. As a matter of fact, on this album I’m posing questions.”

Arjen Lucassen is a true renaissance man of the heavy metal world! Responsible for such awe inspiring and ground breaking projects such as Ayreon, Star One, and Ambeon, Arjen Lucassen knows no boundaries. There seems to be no such thing as the word “can’t” in this man’s vocabulary. In 2012, Arjen released his newest solo opus Lost in the New Real and it really hit a chord with me. Arjen reminds me of the hard rock/metal equivalent to Roger Waters as he straddles that fine line between pure genius and absolute madness with his conceptual works of brilliance.

After diving head first into Arjen’s work, I was completely captivated and fascinated. I quickly became a fan and I couldn’t wait for the chance to get to know this amazing individual. I had the opportunity to speak with Arjen on the phone and he was a funny, humble, and very gracious person. We talked about his humble beginnings, his various projects throughout the years, and I FINALLY learned how to properly pronounce his name (even though he preferred me to saying incorrectly). Sit back and get to know the creative genius that is Arjen Lucassen.

Arjen, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me today! I have to say that I was just listening to your new album “Lost in the New Reel” with my headphones on and I got so lost in it that when you called it kind of freaked me out.

[laughs] So you were lost in the new real then!

===============================================

[laughs] I definitely was. So Arjen, I have to ask before we get started. How do you correctly pronounce your last name?

Well, you said “are-jen” and I kinda like that but it’s not the right way [laughs]. It’s “are-yin” but you can call me “are-jen.” Russell Allen always calls me “are-jen” and I like that [laughs].

===============================================

Well, I’m a big fan of Russell Allen so I’ll just go with how he says it.

That’s cool! [laughs]

===============================================

I first heard of you because of the Star One project and your association with Russell Allen of Symphony X. Because of the success of acts such as Symphony X and Floor Jansen’s ReVamp, are you seeing a new wave of fans coming your way?

Oh yeah of course and luckily it’s been the other way around too. A lot of my fans are discovering Symphony X also so it has really worked both ways and its perfect.

===============================================

For those that don’t know, you have a few things going on. You have Ayreon, Star One, Ambeon, and Guilt Machine. Can you give us a brief explanation of what each of these projects embodies?

Of course Don. Well, Ayreon is the mothership of it all. Ayreon has many different styles but sometimes I just want to concentrate on one style. For instance, Star One is the more metal side of Ayreon with the space metal stuff. Guilt Machine is more of the dark, ambient post rock side of Ayreon, and Ambeon is the more electronic side of Ayreon. Then I did Stream of Passion which was more of the female fronted gothic side of Ayreon. I think Lost in the New Real is definitely going back to my roots in the 60’s and 70’s which has also always been part of Ayreon. Sometimes I just like to concentrate on one style but obviously I did not do that on this solo album [laughs]. It’s so eclectic and there are so many different styles on there.

===============================================

Arjen, you have worked with some really amazing singers on your various projects. Are there any other people you would love to work with that you haven’t done so already?

Oh yeah definitely. I mean, the greatest compliment is to work with people that I grew up listening to as a kid. I’ve already had the chance to work with Bruce Dickinson, Fish, and Dave Rock of Hawkwind and all these people that as a kid I looked up to. There are a lot of people I’d like to work with such as Alice Cooper. I’ve been a huge fan of his ever since I was a kid so working with him would be a dream come true. Of course working with Dio would’ve been a dream come true but unfortunately that’s not possible any more. If I could work with Robert Plant that would be another dream come true definitely.

===============================================

Those all sound like amazing people to work with. While listening to Lost in the New Reel, the first person that came to mind as a perfect collaboration for you was Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater.

He was actually going to play keys on the last Ayreon album but at the list minute had to back out because he was doing a tour and couldn’t do it. I ended up work with Derek Sherinian on that album. I hope one day Jordan and I can work together because he seems to really like my music.

===============================================

What I really loved about Lost in the New Reel was all the various influences you boasted. Everything from the Beatles to Rush seem to be present. Being that this was an Arjen “solo” album and not really tied to any of your other projects; did you feel a bit more freedom to spread your wings so to speak?

Oh yeah definitely. With the last Ayreon and Star One albums, I felt like I was really trying to please the fans maybe a little bit too much and I kind of lost myself in it. With the last Ayreon album, I used all these singers that the fans wanted to hear. I ended up with 17 singers and kind of overdoing it a little bit. The last Star One album was a really heavy album because the fans kept saying they wanted a heavier Star One album. I kind of lost myself a little bit. That’s not to say that I’m not proud of those albums. I love those albums but I wanted to get back to the feeling that I had 20 years ago and I thought that the best way to do that would be to do a solo album because people will have no idea what to expect. Is it going to be a singer/songwriter album? Will it be another opera or metal album? It was very liberating for me to do this album and not think about the expectations of the fans.

===============================================

So it’s probably safe to say that this album was very much about and for you and getting back to your roots.

Very much so. It’s very clear that I was going back to my roots. I definitely went into this album thinking about all the stuff that I liked. Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Rainbow, Pink Floyd, that kind of stuff. It wasn’t like I was trying to copy it but I definitely let it inspire me and I wasn’t holding back. I’m not hiding that and maybe that’s one of the reasons that I just called the song “Pink Beatles in a Purple Zeppelin.” Those are my influences [laughs].

===============================================

Some of the material even reminded me of Jellyfish. Have you ever heard them?

Of course. I love Jellyfish. The harmonies that those guys had were amazing and obviously Jellyfish was greatly inspired by The Beatles and Queen. I think that Jellyfish was the perfect combination of The Beatles and Queen.

===============================================

Not only are the songs on Lost in the New Reel fantastic but the album itself is such an amazing sounding album. Listening to this album with my headphones made me see that you really created a listening experience. I’ve listened to this album 5 times and each time I hear or notice something I didn’t catch on the previous listens. Did you work really hard and creating that experience?

Yes definitely. I think an album should be an adventure and that’s what I call prog. People ask me, “What is prog music?” and I just tell them that it’s adventurous music. For me, The Beatles White Album goes from one extreme to another. You go from “Piggies” to “Helter Skelter” to “Revolution #9” or whatever. Queen is another band that does that with the album A Night at the Opera. They go from something like “Lazy on a Sunday Afternoon” to “Death on Two Legs” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.” I worked really hard on all these layers of music. As you said, you have to hear it a couple of times. I love it when you hear an album for the third time and you go, “Hey, I didn’t hear that the first time!” It should be adventurous and eclectic.

===============================================

Lost in the New Real seems to be a conceptual album of sorts. What can you tell us about the concept behind it?

I was really curious about what our future is going to look like. I grew up in a time before computers so I saw how much the world has changed over the last 20 years since computers were introduced. I was wondering if it has changed that much in 20 years, how much will it change in a couple of hundred years and what does our future look like? I also chose all these topics that are already important to me now like illegal downloading or also very controversial topics like euthanasia and what not. I thought that by putting them all in the future and by injecting a very healthy dose of humor into it I could actually get away with these kinds of scary topics.

===============================================

Is it a goal to somewhat share these kinds of lessons with your listeners to maybe make them think a little bit or am I going a little too deep with this?

Maybe. I think my primary goal is to entertain people because I’m a musician. I’m not a politician. I don’t have the answers. As a matter of fact, on this album I’m posing questions. I’m definitely not answering questions. As a kid, I would hate it when people were teaching me these things in songs or where people were forcing their opinions on me. I would never want to do that but on the other hand, making them think is always a good thing. That is also the kind of movies that I like. The kind of movie that when the movie is over you are thinking, “What did I just see? What did the ending mean?” It adds an extra dimension to the music and I think that is very important. I always liked that about music. I hate to be preachy and I hate when bands do that to me specifically with political topics. If you read between the lines on my album you can definitely read my personal opinion in there but I’m not forcing it upon people. I don’t have the answers either. It’s like with illegal downloading. I’m not going to tell people that they are thieves for stealing my music or anything like that. It’s a weird time right now. It’s like we’re living in some transitional phase and we have no idea where the Internet is going.

===============================================

The Internet is something that we have totally lost control of. I remember talking to Russell Allen about this very thing and he said that while the internet is this amazing invention, it didn’t come with a user’s manual or set of rules so it has grown into this thing that we can’t control.

Exactly. We have no idea how to handle this. We invented it but what now? I think if you look in the future, I think there will be some really drastic decisions made that will scare you. There is just no other way. That’s basically what I’m doing on this album. There is some drastic stuff there but I’m not saying that this is the way it’s going to happen and I’m not saying that’s the way I want it to happen.

===============================================

Arjen, I hope this isn’t too tender of a topic but in 2007, you feel into a deep depression following your divorce. I myself have been battling with it almost all my life but I found ways to learn to work with it and aside from my wife and friends, music was something that always seemed to help me through those times. Do you kind of aspire for your music to be that kind of vehicle for your fans?

Oh yes. That is why I did the Guilt Machine album. That album is all about depression. That is me exercising my demons. The lyrics were written by my girlfriend Lori Linstruth who also played the lead guitar. We both have problems with depression and when you’re in a depression, you don’t want to talk about it. I think when I was doing the last Ayreon album that’s when I had my last bout with depression. I got divorced after 13 years and then suddenly went back to my old place and my old lifestyle and it was all wrong. I really didn’t want to live anymore and like you said, music got me out of it. I started creating music again and once we started feeling better, we both decided that we wanted to make an album about this to show people that it is possible to exercise these demons and it is possible to master depression. It is possible to get out of that place and that’s what we were saying with the Guilt Machine album. I get quite a few letters from my fans telling me how my music helped them through some dark times in their lives and that still brings tears to my eyes and gives me goose bumps.

===============================================

Thanks for discussing that with me Arjen. What a beautiful thing to be able to be a positive force for your fans.

To know that I am able to do that with my music makes it all worth the while.

===============================================

Arjen, let’s go back in time my friend. Can you tell me what point did you know that you wanted to be a musician?

It was when I heard Made In Japan by Deep Purple. That’s when I got interested in music and I actually was in a playback band at school wearing my mother’s wig [laughs]. We were called The Flying Potatoes. Don’t ask me why [laughs]. It was back in 1973 or something. We played at a lot of schools and one night one of the students came up to me and said, “The music you’re playing is for sissies. Listen to this.” He gave me Made In Japan by Deep Purple and hearing Richie Blackmore play I just said, “Oh my god. I have got to really learn to play guitar now because this is what I want to do.” That was a huge turning point for me.

===============================================

Were you always a guitar player or what instrument did you start out playing?

I started out playing an acoustic guitar that I got from my Grandmother. I think it only had one string on it so all I could really play on it was “Smoke on the Water” [laughs].

===============================================

What was the first concert you ever attended?

It was Blue Oyster Cult in 1973 and it was a great show. It was when they had all the lasers and back then lasers were something special. They made this whole ceiling of smoke and lasers and I was impressed as hell. It was exciting. Then after that I saw Bad Company and a few Rainbow gigs with Dio singing. Those Rainbow shows made the biggest impression on me.

===============================================

If you could form a band with any musicians alive or dead, who would be in your band with you?

Oh my. On drums I would have either Cozy Powell or John Bonham. On bass I would have either Phil Lynott or Geddy Lee. Guitar would have be Richie Blackmore of course and David Gilmour. I’m naming two each because I can’t choose just one [laughs].

===============================================

Hey, it’s your band Arjen. You can have whoever you want!

[laughs] On keyboards I would have Keith Emmerson and Rick Wakeman. Those are two prog guys who really inspired me and on vocals I would definitely bring Dio back to life and I’d have John Lennon and Robert Plant. Yeah, I think I have a pretty good band there [laughs].

===============================================

What is the greatest concept album of all time in your opinion?

Oh that would have to be the first Jesus Christ Superstar album with Ian Gillan singing. That album is just 100% perfect and that’s the big one. I would never even come close to that one. That’s the biggest one for me. Aside from that one, I would have to say stuff like War of the Worlds (Jeff Wayne), Operation: Mindcrime (Queensryche), The Wall (Pink Floyd), and Thick as a Brick (Jethro Tull). The list is endless.

===============================================

You have quite a body of work behind you. Looking back on all the works you have released, what one piece would you like to be remembered for and why?

I think it would be a tossup between Electric Castle and Human Equation. I think Electric Castle is a really honest album. Everything was real and transparent. There were no samples or anything. It was all done with analog instrumentation. When I hear that one I always think, “Oh I wish I could that again.” Human Equation was a very personal album and everything just came together on that album. Also the story was one that a lot of people could identify with so yeah. I think it would be either of those definitely.

===============================================

After a long day, what does Arjen like to listen to as you wind down?

I jog every day and when I’m done I like to listen to just about anything. I try different music everyday. In the evening I love to listen to whatever is on my iPod. Mostly 60’s and 70’s stuff as that is my favorite stuff.

===============================================

Arjen, please finish this sentence. If I wasn’t a musician, I would be ___________.

Dead as door nail [laughs]. Without music there’s no way I could go on.

===============================================

Arjen, do you have any plans to tour at all for this album?

Oh no. I toured and played live for 15 years and it’s just not my passion. I love creating music and being in my studio. I became quite the recluse but I’m a happy recluse. There’s a song on the album called “Social Recluse” and that’s definitely me. It’s just not my thing anymore.

===============================================

Arjen, thank you so much for taking the time to talk. I really enjoyed getting to know you and hearing your stories!

Thank you so much Don and I hope you have a great evening.

For more on Arjen and all his amazing projects, head over to http://www.arjenlucassen.com

Discover more from Southeast of Heaven

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading