Bigelf was part of Mike Portnoy’s Progressive Nation this year in Europe, and with a new album under their arm to promote Lords of Metal was given the chance to discuss things. “Elf’ Ace Mark tells all…
First of all, I would like to know how you, as one of the creators of the Bigelf sound, would describe the style of the band. We have you ‘categorized’ on the prog rock shelf... The album ‘Cheat The Gallows’ harbours a sound and feeling that is drenched in 70’s rock, how did you guys came to that sound originally? We're all music lovers, some of us could even be called music geeks. The music that comes out of us can be traced to the music we all grew up with. Even if the members in the band were born and raised on different sides of the world we all more or less had the same exact albums in the record shelf. We don't really sit down and think "OK, let's come up with something that sounds like a crossover between Sabbath, Floyd, Purple and The Beatles, that's just the way it goes. For us music is a feel thing, you write and play it with your heart and soul, not brains. It's just a very natural process, you tend to play what sounds good to your own ears. We're not big in categorizing ourselves. And I guess in a way we're the most selfish band in the world, we definitely play our music for ourselves, first and foremost. But of course other people liking it doesn't hurt either, haha!
How do you think ‘Cheat The Gallows’ compares to the previous albums by Bigelf? ‘Cheat The Gallows’ is way more conceptual and by far more ambitious than anything we've done before. At points the arrangements are really complex on ‘Gallows’, and there's so much more going on musically. It's definitely more layered, more thematic and more "album rock" if you like, but I don't really consider it a theme album. I think the songs on ‘Gallows’ work very well on their own as well.
This is your seventh already... You are part of the Progressive Nation tour of this year and came to Europe recently. How did it go for you? Both the North American leg and the European leg of the Progressive Nation tour were absolutely awesome. One of the greatest thing about them was that everybody got along beautifully, there were no egos or competition involved, just love for music which everybody on the bill shared. The guys from Dream Theater are totally cool, hard-working and down to earth, even if they're huge rock stars and amazing virtuosos on their instruments. Zappa Plays Zappa, who we played with on the US tour, Opeth and Unexpect are all really great guys to hang out with, which is what we were doing even on our days off. In Europe the venues were slightly bigger than in the US, where we were mostly playing theaters. In Europe we did these huge venues, which you don't get to do that often. Also the Dream Theater fans are really cool, they're interested in finding out new bands and new music, which of course makes our job a little easier. And I'm sure Portnoy giving us the thumbs up in just about every interview he's done recently helped a lot too.
I personally think that a chance to go out with Dream Theater and Opeth may offer chances to introduce the band to a large audience but may benefit more by playing the club scene. Agree? In clubs it's definitely easier to make direct contact with the audience. In fact, we did a few shows in the UK while Prog Nation was taking a few days break in October and it was a gas. Playing arenas in of course exciting and great in another way, and you have to remember most bands never get to have that experience. But you really only get to see the few rows in the front, the rest of the crowd is just these faceless figures in the dark. So there are good things to both, I can't really tell which I prefer.
The bands on the European leg of Progressive Nation are all quite different. Did you hook up with each other while travelling, spend some time together? Yeah, the musical styles between different bands are quite diverse, which I think is great. After all there are four bands on the bill, and you want some variety as the night is progressing. I don't think anybody would be into listening the same type of music for hours and hours. Everybody on the tour might share some common influences but all the bands sound very different from each other. Opeth for instance in usually perceived as a death metal band, but they're actually really progressive in their thinking and approach to music. Unexpect on the other hand takes their influences from all over the place including death metal, rock, pop, jazz, classical and folk music and throw it in the same pot. Like I said before the bands and the crews were all such sweethearts as well, so we were hanging out just about every night. Drinking wasn't allowed in the backstage area, so you can imagine how packed all the buses were after the shows!
And if so, would you like to collaborate with some musicians of those bands? I've always loved Opeth, so doing with those guys would be awesome. Mikael is a genius song writer and Ax the drummer is an animal behind the kit. And Portnoy actually joined us onstage quite a few times for a jam on both of the tours, which was good fun. He's such a great drummer and a huge music lover. Plus it's nice to be surrounded by people who can relate to the Scandinavian melancholy, ha ha...
An almost common thing in the current prog scene… Bigelf seems to have some kind of natural creative flow, how is this maintained? Jamming, exchanging ideas, performing live, one mastermind? The mastermind behind Bigelf is Damon Fox and originally the band is his concept to start with. He's the one who usually comes up with the songs, though I do occasionally come in with a riff and write some parts as well. But everybody in the band is of course contributing to the arrangements and song structures, and the way we all play our instruments has a lot to do with the way Bigelf sounds in the end. We love to jam at rehearsals and on stage, that's really good for the communication in the band. It keeps you aware musically and helps you to react to whatever the other guys are doing. In fact, John Petrucci gave me the greatest compliment about the way Bigelf works on stage; he said he noticed there's a very special kind of communication going on between the members in the band while we're playing, and that's really rare. I have to say that's exactly what we're aiming for, I couldn't put it to words any better myself.
Influence check; please choose your favourite/preference please and if you want to tell us why...
Pink Floyd or Beatles? Wow, that's a tough one... But just to be different I have to say Pink Floyd, even if Damon's gonna freak out! I grew up with Pink Floyd, I absolutely love those records. David Gilmour's guitar playing, Rick Wright's jazz influences and Roger Water's song writing work so great together. To use the old cliché, their sound has been copied many times but never duplicated. But I do love the Beatles just like anybody else and have huge amounts of respect for them. They might have been more important in the history of rock and pop, but Pink Floyd was very revolutionary in their time as well. I know I'm gonna get some comments about this one, haha.
Van Der Graaf Generator or Grand Funk Railroad? This one's gonna break Froth's heart, but I'll say Grand Funk. I've always loved Mark Farner and the fact is that Grand Funk had one the best rhythm sections ever.
Genesis or Yes? It took me awhile to get used to Jon Anderson, but I have to say Yes. Rick Wakeman. Steve Howe. Bill Bruford. Any questions?
Black Sabbath or Deep Purple? Man, I hate these questions... Both Purple and Sabbath are part of my DNA, it's really hard to choose. Deep Purple had Blackmore, Lord, Gillan and Paice, all of them are revolutionary pioneers of their instruments. Truly a revolutionary sound. Then again, Sabbath was equally original and a lot heavier, darker and meaner, topped with Iommi's cornerstone riffs, a blueprint for heavy rock. Can't pick one, sorry!
Dream Theater or Opeth? Opeth. Sorry Mike! Before the tour I was already a huge Opeth fan. Having said this I was really surprised to learn how progressive Dream Theater is. They're great and we'll owe them for rest of our lives, but I'm still gonna have to stick with my Scandinavian brothers.
Queen or David Bowie? Another tricky one... But I'm gonna say Queen. You can't argue with Freddie, Brian May or their amazing song writing.
The bands on the European leg of Progressive Nation are all quite different. Did you hook up with each other while travelling, spend some time together?
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