The Reasoning Interview Wed 22nd August 2007 3.30-4.30

Welcome Matt, and thanks for taking the time to do this interview

What are The Reasoning up to at this moment?

We are writing the second album at the moment, so we've been really busy with that! To date we have completed about half of the new material, and the demo versions are sounding great already - I can't wait to hear the finished tracks myself!
A couple of the new songs were featured as part of our live set recently, and provoked a fantastic reaction, so things are very exciting for The Reasoning right now.

Do you have a working title for the new album?

Yes, we do! Our working title is "Dark Angel" - and the title track is one of those already being performed live.

Who does most of the writing for the new album?

Myself and Dylan Thompson [Vocals/Guitar] do the majority of the writing. I'm now in the music profession full-time, meaning that the two of us can work on a very flexible timetable, which really suits the creative process.
It's addictive, too - we often find ourselves putting in 16 hour days [and enjoying it immensely!] - we're a strong and prolific musical team, and we work really well together.
We've also experimented with the writing on the new material, adding an interesting twist to the end results. For instance, another of the most recent tracks - entitled "Breaking the Fourth Wall" started out as a piano and voice piece that Gareth and Rach were working on together. Dylan and I then developed it into a song for the whole band, and it works beautifully - I think the end result is something really special.

How does the sound of the new CD differ from your first release, The Awakening?

It's very different - at least in technical terms, anyway!
"Awakening" was essentially an experiment - a kind of journey of musical discovery, if you like - during which we learned one hell of a lot. There were line-up changes in the band at several points in the process, and we found ourselves writing, then rewriting the tracks, the adjusting them to showcase the different vocal styles/harmonies, etc. Rachel also joined the band at a late stage, and we found that her lyrics and vocal melodies altered the dynamic all over again.
Of course, we were really pleased with the end results, which speak for themselves in terms of sales!
This time around, we're working from a well-developed, powerful foundation - the band have come together wonderfully as a team, and we've come to know exactly how to challenge ourselves, and to push each other musically quite a bit in order to get the best possible outcome.
Throughout all of this, The Reasoning "signature" is definitely about the three-vocal thing, and that's a strength on which we will always focus. 

I think the vocals are such a strong point of the band, especially on the first CD, they were just amazing, any comments on that?

Thank you - and yes, I agree. I think it gives us something really different, and the musical possibilities it creates are quite unique. In keeping with the live show, the new album will see Rachel taking more of a lead role, which makes for a great contrast with the darker, heavier and more complex overall sound that seems to be developing.
Melody is central to our musical philosophy, though, so some powerful three-voice passages are definitely in the pipeline, too.

I think that the melodies on the first CD are also very good.

Thanks again! Interestingly, a lot of the feedback we receive comes down strongly in favour of the heavier tracks on Awakening, such as Shadows of the Mind, Aching Hunger and the title track, all of which appear to be the most popular.
It also speaks volumes that those are the same songs that we love performing live the most....

How successful has The Awakening CD been for the band?

It has been an amazing success in many, many respects. We still can't quite believe it, actually - especially considering that we're actually a brand new band. Inevitably, there were certain expectations owing to the past musical profile that Rachel and I carry with us, and I'm sure it was widely anticipated that Awakening would be some kind of Prog Rock odyssey! Ironically, although I enjoy listening to Prog now and again, I'm relieved that I no longer have to play it live, which [to be honest] I used to find terminally boring!
We seem to have captured something together that's far more immediate, more accessible and more commercial - and that's reflected in the hugely diverse audiences at our gigs. All of us very much enjoy engaging with an audience on an intimate, emotive level, and getting them really involved in our show - neither of which are a staple of  so-called Prog performances, in my opinion! 

How did you get The Reasoning together?

Ah - the million dollar question! [Laughs]. The abridged version goes something like this:
Dylan and I met through a session at my studio, when he came in to record a couple of tracks with his band of the moment. I loved his voice and his musical style immediately, and we hit it off terrifically from the very start, too. A mutual creative vibe was definitely there, so I suggested to him that perhaps we might get our own band together. He was tentative to begin with, but has since turned out to be a true professional - and has become one of my best friends!
Having written some stuff together, we set about recruiting the rest of the band. I've known Lee [Wright - Guitar] and Gareth [Jones - Vocals/Keyboards] for many years and had worked with them both previously in various separate projects. Vinden [Wylde - Drums] auditioned literally at the last minute - a couple of weeks before we started recording the album - and impressed us into giving him the job.
Rachel and myself are a couple, of course! She'd taken a [much needed] break from the music business for a couple of years, but decided to join the band after helping out with some song-writing and vocal arrangements.
We're all incredibly lucky to have such a brilliant working relationship, which is a rare thing in the music world!

I know that you and Rachel were involved in previous bands but were any of the other  band members involved with previous projects?

A couple of the guys had been involved with some local outfits, but nothing on the wider radar, so to speak.

How did you come to set up the record label?

I felt strongly that I wanted to oversee the whole project myself, rather than handing over the reins to anyone else. I figured that I'd rather not wind up selling my soul to the corporate musical devil, as it were, having done exactly that in the past!
Having decided to build a serious business out of this, I was determined to put in the hard work. I'm thrilled at the way things have developed so far, and am very excited about the future. It has always been a powerful goal to have my own studio, my own company, and a band I truly believe in...so I'm a happy man! 

How involved are you with recording, mixing, producing?

I'm 100% involved with everything - writing, arranging, sound recording, engineering and production - the only thing I prefer not to do is the mixing, which I believe is better left to a pair of "un-biased" expert ears!
A few weeks of listening to the same tracks in minute detail can leave you feeling a bit aurally challenged, to say the least!

Ok, looking back to one of your previous projects. Why did you leave Magenta?

Quite simply, because I genuinely didn't want to be a part of it any longer. Relationships were breaking down within the band and I wasn't getting any enjoyment out of it.
To give credit where it's due, the music is very accomplished, but it certainly isn't my thing! In the end, I'd had enough of performing someone else's songs. There was nothing to connect me with the music, and absolutely zero personal satisfaction to be found in the experience, which left me feeling creatively numb.  

Did you not have any inputs into the music of Magenta?

Magenta was always quite idiosyncratic in that respect - it was always one person's band, and Rob made it clear from day one that this was the case. Every band does things differently, of course, and if that works for him, then I respect that.
To begin with, I thought that I could deal with the whole strategy, but as time passed and I began developing further as a musician, I really started to need a creative outlet of my own. Trying to establish even a little musical freedom, however, became a wholly pointless battle, which was [obviously] dreadfully frustrating for me. I reached the point of no return quite quickly once relationships [personal and professional] started to collapse, and decided to walk away.
The decision is still one of the best I have ever made, and it opened many new and significant doors for me. Ultimately, I have no regrets whatsoever. I had some good times with Magenta but I don't miss it at all.

Did you write any of your own music when you were with Magenta?

No, not really. Myself, Martin and Allan had a little side project on the go for a while, but I never felt particularly committed to it - I was just hell-bent on finding something - anything! - that would allow me to make a creative contribution.
Invariably, though, any long-term oppressive situation is the worst enemy of creativity [I know that Rach has experienced the same], and although it's always easier to stay put in the short term, life is just too short not to start over. I owed it to myself.

Another project that you were involved with was Erasmus, can you tell me about that?

Erasmus turned out to be a studio-only project, which never actually generated any live performances! I did a certain amount of song-writing then, and was fairly pleased with the resulting album, even though it didn't make much of an impact.

Erasmus' only release, Voyage in 2002, was critically acclaimed as a fine piece of music, why didn't Erasmus get developed more?

It came down to a bad working relationship, really. Jayde [co-writer, Erasmus] was living in Carmarthen with no transport and no income, and relying on me to organise and/or pay for everything.
Unsurprisingly, my patience wore a little thin when things didn't change after a long period of time!  

So why didn't you develop Erasmus more, maybe change the music?

In hindsight, I'm fairly certain that my heart was never really in it - I was also far from musically mature at the time, and very unsure of the direction I wanted to take.
My role in Magenta was largely that of business mouthpiece - doing interviews, organising gigs, promoting the band, etc - skills that I hadn't fully developed whilst I was involved with Erasmus, but were to come later.
It was a formative stage of my musical career, I think, but certainly not an enormously significant one.

Do you have your own recording studio?

Yes, we have a complete digital studio with a full logic setup, a live room, and a control booth all at our disposal 24 hours a day, which is superb.

Ok, moving onto gigging. You have had a few support slot gigs cancelled, do you think at this time that you are very unlucky?

No not at all - luck had nothing to do with any of those cancellations, all of which were a result of other people's problems! Support slots are always at the mercy of the health/ego/organisation of the headline band and/or their team...so we had no control over the situation in question.
I am a realistic optimist, but definitely a 'glass-half-full' kind of person, and from my perspective, things seem to be shining for The Reasoning. We've been together just over a year, the album has only been on sale for six months, and we've performed a tiny handful of gigs so far... yet we've already managed to work with Steve Rothery and Dave Meegan in the studio, and to share a stage with Marillion at a sold out Bristol Colston Hall.
A lot of bands are far less lucky than that, I'm sure...

So you are actually earning money out of The Reasoning?

Yes we are, but we are working our arses off to do it! The most important thing for me is to know that people are enjoying what we do - that's what success really means to us.

So the gig at Colston hall was with Marillion?

That's right, and it was a truly incredible opportunity - one which I know many bands would give their eye teeth for. We were fortunate to get to know Steve [Rothery] through Rach, and we had the best time working with him. It was the experience of a lifetime on that stage at Bristol, and we will treasure the memories forever.
The response to our performance on the night was fantastic, and has certainly raised the band's profile immeasurably, too.

Do you think that you will maybe come to Glasgow sometime?

Of course we will! Gigging is top on the list of our priorities as a band, and our live shows have garnered excellent reviews. We're investigating suitable venues, and I'm confident that 2008 will allow us to draw a good crowd north of the Scottish border. We're looking forward to it very much.

Have you played any Festivals this year?

We've just come back from the Cambridge Rockinbeerfest, actually! It was a very enjoyable - if hectic - weekend. Rach and myself have performed at lots of festivals with our previous bands, but the experience was a collective first for The Reasoning. As is standard for these kind of things, the situation was literally a plug-in-and-play type of thing [no sound check, minimal line-check, make-it-up-as-you go!], but we handled it professionally despite a few on stage sound gremlins.
The merchandise sales suggested that we made a really excellent impression, even at midday on a Saturday!
We're looking forward to some more festival slots next year, and to performing to some new crowds in different parts of the UK and Europe.

Are the songs difficult to play live?

Some are more difficult than others. Strangely, it's often the simpler sounding songs that are the hardest to play live, because it's so crucial to get the dynamics and the subtleties exactly right. It takes quite a lot of precision to get the very best out of a live sound, actually.
For example, the new track Dark Angel is quite deceptive - it sounds fairly straightforward, but it isn't anything of the sort...as we've discovered during rehearsals! The transition from rehearsal room to live stage also changes things an awful lot, and it takes a while to fine tune everything into shape. The challenge is where it's at, though - the thrill and anticipation of performing live are unlike anything else.
We're going to have our work seriously cut out on another new song 'A Musing Dream' - and I can't wait to get started! 

What are your musical influences?

I was brought up with Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple...all of those sort of bands. I'm definitely rooted in that heavy - yet very melodic - side of rock, and still feel the same sensations today when I listen to their stuff. Later on, I discovered Marillion in 1986 and have been in love with them ever since! Steve Hogarth and Steve Rothery really are just about the most amazing vocal/guitar combination on this planet.
I also have a long standing adoration of Dream Theater - I am repeatedly fascinated at their technical musicianship and melodic sensibility - and they are mind-bogglingly powerful live, too.
It's not all rock and metal for me, though - I do love folk music, and, well, anything that moves me, I guess!

What is currently playing on your CD player?

In the car I'm playing the new Within Temptation CD - and before that it was Lacuna Coil. At home, I've got Systematic Chaos by Dream Theater on repeat, and play a lot of stuff by Karine Polwart [an incredible Scottish folk singer/songwriter], which is beautiful.
I recently bought the remastered version of Made in Japan by Deep Purple, which is getting a lot of attention on my iPod lately....

What is next for The Reasoning?

Album number two, without a doubt! The band are in that zone now where the writing process is flowing beautifully - we feel confident and really excited about everything we can achieve.
On a personal note, Rachel and I are also getting married in November - and that's one of the biggest things that's happening for me this year.

So for anyone who hasn't heard The Reasoning, describe the sound?

It's virtually impossible to make a "sounds like..." comparison - we sound like The Reasoning - it's as simple as that! If I had to summarize what we're about, then, well, we have 3 great vocalists and 6 musicians who really know their stuff. All of us have very different styles but it comes together beautifully, with a powerful melodic undercurrent that's at the heart of everything.
We're...melodic...heavy....happy.

Finally.......Do you have any message for the fans of The Reasoning?

Just a sincere and heartfelt enormous THANK YOU to everyone, for everything.
We've had so much love, support and encouragement from so many people, and it means the world to us.
Without the wonderful guys and girls who come to our gigs and buy the albums, we're nothing at all - and we're constantly very aware of that. It makes for some exceptionally special moments, which are often very moving indeed. 

Matt, it has been a real pleasure and  thanks once again for taking the time to do this interview and good luck in the future

Thanks Tam, it was a pleasure.
 

The Reasoning