Arjen A. Lucassen

[StarbreakeR]

Znaci sramota...da se niko nije setio da ponovo otvori temu...dobro drago mi je da je cast pripala meni...

Mislim da je ovo dovoljan razlog za ressurection ove teme :

 

AYREON: New Album In The Works

 

AYREON, the brainchild of Dutch guitarist Arjen Lucassen (ex-BODINE, VENGEANCE), has posted the following message on its official web site:

 

"Finally, we are able to bring you some news about Arjen's next recording project.

 

"At the end of September 2006, Arjen's new studio was finished and ready to use. The very next day, Arjen went in with his trusted little tape recorder, and papers with dozens of song ideas that he'd been working on for the past year.

 

"He has been in his studio nearly every day (and night) since then, getting the ideas translated into songs. The musical ideas are so extremely varied that only one project could possibly hold them all: AYREON.

 

"Arjen has already been in contact with some very interesting and talented people to help create a new dimension of the AYREON Universe. Of course, we'll keep you informed on Arjen's progress over the next months!"

 

AYREON's last CD, "Ayreon: The Human Equation", was released in 2004. It contained guest appearances by a number of acclaimed vocalists, including James LaBrie (DREAM THEATER), Mike Baker (SHADOW GALLERY), Mikael Åkerfeldt (OPETH), Eric Clayton (SAVIOUR MACHINE), Devon Graves (DEAD SOUL TRIBE, ex-PSYCHOTIC WALTZ) and Devin Townsend (STRAPPING YOUNG LAD).

 

 

Znaci...jedva cekam!!!

[gavrosaurus]

E da, i ja sam video ovu vest danas i hteo da je postujem i ne nadjem temu, pretraga je takodje ne pronadje...

Dobro da si otvorio.

[StarbreakeR]

Naravno......jedva cekam da cujem sta ce da bude od toga...ago moze da nadmasi The Human Equation onda je neosporno najveci muzicki genije ikada!

Nego bih bas voleo da cujem novi Ambeon...sta sli se desava sa Astird...

...a nisam jos uvek ni odgledao Star One DVD...sramota...

[gavrosaurus]

Ne znam ni da je Ambeon II u pripremi, covece!

To bih cak i pre nego Ayreon, da budem iskren, mnogo mi se dopada njeno pevanje ali mnogo!

[StarbreakeR]

Ma znam da nije u pripremi, ali kazem da bih voleo da cujem...mislim da Astrid nije vise za saradnju, inace bi odavno odradeli jos par albuma...

[gavrosaurus]

Ali tako pateticno se radujem kakvih ce sve zvukova biti na novom Ayreonu!

Joj!

[Mr. Horrible Gelatinous Blob]

Odgledah Stream of Passion DVD i ne ide. Nikako mi se ne dopadaju SoP stvari. Jos odavno sam rekao, ja cekam Star Two!

[Elldamar]

Ja nikako da se dokopam SoP DVDa...prva tri su mu extra,tako da sumnjam da cje ovaj biti losh...

[Apeiron]

Razgovarao sam sa Arjenom ranije, i pomenuo je da nista od Ambeona u doglednom periodu, jer je Astrid zauzeta privatnim stvarima (recimo, zavrsavanjem srednje skole ).

 

Ambeon je fantastican projekat.

 

Stream of Passion ima duha, ali ipak mi odabir glavne pevacice ne odgovara. OK je njen glas, OK je i njen bend (Elfonia), ali u Ayreon/Arjen slucaju, "OK" nije dovoljno, mora da bude SAVRSENO. Na SoP ima par pesama koje su odlicne, ali generalno, to je najtanji Arjenov projekat.

 

Star One bi vec bilo lepo cuti u buducnosti, ako bude ista od toga, mada Ayreon u principu uvek ima prednost, i taj novi jedva cekam.

 

p.s. Naravno, Arjen je jedan od najboljih muzicara svih vremena, to je verovatno suvisno i pominjati.

Edited November 28, 2006 by Apeiron

[StarbreakeR]

Respect

Setio se neko da odgovori...ja nisam gledao ni Star One ni SoP DVD...ali verujem da je sjajno...

...nazalost dok se finansije ne poprave moracu samo da verujem

[Sinstrel]

p.s. Naravno, Arjen je jedan od najboljih muzicara svih vremena, to je verovatno suvisno i pominjati.

 

Vaistinu!

 

 

[Apeiron]

ja nisam gledao ni Star One ni SoP DVD...ali verujem da je sjajno...na zalost dok se finansije ne poprave moracu samo da verujem

Vrede oba DVDa svake pare...

 

[StarbreakeR]

Verujem, ali se para nema...Therion, HammerFall, Kamelot, BG...ja sam vec na pola puta do bankrota...ako nadjem nekoga voljnog za razmenu...(apel) bice mi zadovoljstvo da ih odgledam...

[Elldamar]

Respect

Setio se neko da odgovori...ja nisam gledao ni Star One ni SoP DVD...ali verujem da je sjajno...

...nazalost dok se finansije ne poprave moracu samo da verujem

 

Star One je super DVD,THE je jedan od najboljih DVDa koje sam ikada gledao,ali je zato Actual Fantasy glupost na kub...nadam se da je SoP bar neki prosek...

[Stormlord]

i SoP i Star One su vrhunski koncert.Odusevila me je ona riba iz SoP-a kako svira gitaru.

[zile_kondic]

Ne znam...Ambeon je neshto extra...da ne pominjem opet malu lujku...kakav glas...

Nazhalost ostale projekte nemam, samo Ayreon, al moram da ih skinem sudeci po onom shto sam prochitao ovde...

[StarbreakeR]

...apel... Edited November 30, 2006 by StarbreakeR

[zile_kondic]

E, jel zna neko gde mogu da dodjem do nekih tekstova pesama sa objashnjenjem shta stoji iza textova, na netu sam nashao lepo objashnjen text prvog i treceg albuma AYREON-a i odushevio sam se celom koncepcijom, jer tek sam pre par meseci nabavio muziku. ajd ako neko zna, nek mi shibne na mail ili PP, ako neko ima neshto o tome, nek mi poshalje na mail, jako me zanima shta je poenta pesama i kakva je pozadinska pricha, i ceo koncept. Ajren je stvarno genije.

 

Poz sa marsa

Edited November 30, 2006 by zile_kondic

[StarbreakeR]

Auuuu...imao sam to negde na kompu...u medjuvremenu proveri wikipediu...nisam gledao tamo nikada ali moguce da tamo mozes da nadjes to sto trazis

[Mr. Horrible Gelatinous Blob]

Upravo slusam "Live on Earth" CD, nakon duze pauze. Mnooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogo mi se vise svidja od "Live in the Real World". Zbog izbora pesama, naravno.

[Stormlord]

The Final Experiment:

THIS IS THE VOICE OF MERLIN. LISTEN WELL,

FOR IT CONCERNS YOU. THIS CHRONICLE COMMENCES IN THE YEAR 2084 A.D.

MANKIND HAS VIRTUALLY DESTROYED ITSELF.

IT'S SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON 'THE FINAL EXPERIMENT'.

SCIENTISTS FROM THE 21ST CENTURY HAVE DEVELOPED

A NEW COMPUTERPROGRAM CALLED 'TIME TELEPATHY'.

BY USING THIS TECHNIQUE THEY HAVE SENT VISIONS OF HUMANITIES'

DECLINE BACK IN TIME. THESE TRANSMISSIONS HAVE BEEN RECEIVED BY THE MIND

OF A BLIND MINSTREL WHO LIVES IN 6TH CENTURY GREAT BRITAIN. HIS NAME ....

IS 'AYREON'.

Ovo je okusnica price na prvom albumu.

 

Drugi album Actual Fantasy jos vise ide u svemir priblizavajuci se Marsu.Ceo album je nastavak price sa prvog.

 

Into The Electric Castle:tema price je sledeca;svi likovi(Varvarin,Hipik,Egipcanka,Vitez...)se bude u jednoj nepoznatoj dimenziji,neznajuci kako su tu dospeli.Svako pokusava naci objasnjenje sa njihovo gledista:Egipcanka misli da je umrla i da ide kod Amon Ra,Indijanka da je u vecnim lovistima...Sve sto cuju je glas koji ih navodi kuda da idu i govoreci im da nema cega da se plase,da bi se na kraju nasli u Electric Castle-u.Na kraju se ispostavi da je sve to bio eksperiment naprednije vrste vanzemaljaca koji su pokusali da prozru u ljudsku psihu i raznolikost iako slicni poseduju.

 

The Universal migrator 1 i 2:1-Ceo album se okrece oko planete Mars i opisivanju desavanja.2-o putovanju jednog coveka kroz vreme kako bi video nastanak planete zemlje.A koliko znam planeta zemlja je unistena.

[zile_kondic]

Nahsao sam poneshto na njegovom sajtu, dosta stvari mi se razjasnilo, chovek je stvarno genije...

[Mr. Horrible Gelatinous Blob]

Evo delova jednog starog intervjua sa Arjenom, povodom izlaska Star One, a dotice se i Ayreona. Verovatno ce ti biti zanimljivo da procitas.

 

Kostas: Why is “Space Metal” a STAR ONE release and not an AYREON release?

Arjen: Because AYREON is more varied, while STAR ONE is more metal oriented. In AYREON I have many influences. For instance, pop music, because I grew up in the 60s, with BEATLES, and in the 70s I was influenced by PINK FLOYD, all the prog stuff and also all the hard rock stuff, like DEEP PURPLE and LED ZEPPELIN, and I love a lot of the folk stuff and I love electronic bands, like TANGERINE DREAM and all these styles are always on AYREON. It’s always a big story that I make myself, like a rock opera, and this album is just the metal side of AYREON. It is a part of AYREON, but for an AYREON album, it would have to be more varied, more styles and more singers and more musicians and, of course, my own story.

 

Kostas: Yes, but there is a topic around the songs of the album.

Arjen: There is a concept. The concept is that all the separate songs are based on space movies. The movies had to be set in space. But that’s just a concept. There is no ongoing story throughout the album.

 

Kostas: So, how did you came up with the idea of writing an album whose songs refer to your favorite sci-fi movies?

Arjen: For one, I have always been a huge sci-fi fan. The first time I saw Star Trek on TV I was like: “Wow! That’s it!” I really like sci-fi and I have seen a lot of movies in my years. So, I was doing this metal album and I knew it wasn’t going to be AYREON, so I didn’t want to make up one of my own stories. So I thought, the easiest thing would be if I just based the lyrics on sci-fi movies, because that’s the thing I know the best. And it was a good reason to buy a DVD-player (laughter). I thought it would be easy to base the lyrics on sci-fi movies, but in fact it was really hard. Much harder than I thought. You just can’t copy the movie, you can’t just say: “Here comes Darth Vader and he says: ‘Luke I am your father’” or “Yoda says: ‘You have the Force Luke’” (laughter). You can’t do that. You have to stay away from the original characters and you cannot use names or quotes from a film. So that was hard, to make the lyrics are trying to give my view of how I see the movie.

 

Kostas: Why not use quotes from a movie?

Arjen: Because for one I don’t think that this is interesting; that people should go and see the movie and secondly, of course, the copyrights, won’t permit that. I am sure that Mr. George Lucas won’t be so happy when I quote stuff from his movies. But on the other hand I think it would be a bit cheap. Just quote things from the movie. To make it more mysterious. People are not sure what song is which movie and that have to find out. Keep it a bit mysterious.

 

Kostas: So, you have Alien, you have Star Trek, Star Wars and other sci-fi movies passed into your songs. Which one of those is your favorite?

Arjen: I love Alien, the first episode. It was really really great. Great actors and it was a very ‘real’ film.

 

Kostas: Very dark.

Arjen: Yeah, very dark. I love that and I love the Gigger, the artwork and the actors. Everything about that movie was great. I think that must be my favorite, but, on the other hand, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ was the first. It was so great! It was like RUSH! RUSH were the first to do that kind of music. There are many bands who sound like RUSH or even pay better than RUSH, but still RUSH is the original. That’s the way I feel about ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. That’s the original, that’s when it all started, although when you see the movie now, it’s like 3 hours of nothing. I think there is only half an hour of dialog in the movie. But it’s the tension. When the movie is over, it leaves you with a lot of question. It’s not like when you see an action sci-fi ‘Total Recall’, which is nice for 2 hours but then the movie is over and that’s it. But with ‘2001…’, you think about it afterwards. I like that.

 

Kostas: You also wrote a song about ‘Dune’. Did you base it on the original film or the remake?

Arjen: I haven’t seen the new version yet. Some people told me it was good, some people told me it was not so good.

 

Kostas: I have seen both the original and the remake and I didn’t like it. It was not such a big deal for a 5-hour movie.

Arjen: Nobody liked the original, the one David Lynch did, but I loved it.

 

Kostas: Same here.

Arjen: It looked so great and it was really dark at times. I thought it was a great movie. And most people said it was so hard to understand but it wasn’t. When I go to a James Bond movie, sometimes I don’t understand what it is about (laughter). But I did understand ‘Dune’, so that’s strange.

 

Kostas: There is also a second CD in the special edition of “Space Metal”. Since I don’t have it can you give me some info about it?

Arjen: That’s too bad you don’t have it. It’s really special. It’s not just leftovers. It’s a really special CD, I think. Mainly of course because I have the “Hawkwind Medley” there. I was a huge HAWKWIND fan and I have always tried to get Dave Brock on AYREON but he never said yes. And now I finally managed to get him and I think… no, I’m sure, I’m the first one who’s ever succeeded in having him guest on an album and he is 60 now. I’m so proud of that. He did such a great job and he loved what I did, with the HAWKWIND songs and I am very proud about that. Inside Out told me: “Let’s do an extra CD with some extra stuff”. Then I had 2 songs that I thought they didn’t fit the other songs on the “Space Metal” album. I didn’t want them on the original album, so we could put them on the bonus CD. Then I thought that 3 songs won’t be enough, because people are going to pay extra money for this double-CD. Let’s do some extra stuff, let’s do some cover versions, because I’ve got no more songs of my own. And of course, the cover versions had to be set in space and the first thing you come up with is (Arjen sings): “Ground control to major Tom” (laughter). This is one of the first space songs ever made and it’s a great song. So I made my own version of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and I made it very different from the original. That’s was good. I like a cover when it is really different from the original. I made it very spacey, because the original is quite acoustic. I am proud of that.

 

Kostas: I like covers from metal bands when they are not based on another metal band, but on a non-metal band or artist.

Arjen: I agree. Or a simple pop song put it into metal. I think you should do something weird with the cover. And this Bowie version is weird, because it is all soft and suddenly in the middle there are heavy guitars, just for a few seconds.

 

Kostas: I have to check it out, since I haven’t listened to it (yet).

Arjen: it’s a shame. You should. Try to get it. And then there is a hidden track, which is really funny. I don’t know if you remember DONOVAN from the 60s. Do you remember him? He was a hippy.

 

Kostas: Well, I can’t remember him since I wasn’t existing not even in the dreams of my parents. (laughter)

Arjen: (laughter) Well, he is a hippy dude from the 60s and once he made a song about how astronauts shit in space (great laughter). And this song is called “Intergalactic Laxity” and I did a cover version for fun. Just with an acoustic guitar, I sat in front of the mike and I thought: “What the hell?” and I started recording it. (laughter) The guys from Inside Out thought it was too strange and I told them to put it on as a hidden track. So, it’s the 7th track. And number 6 is “Spaced-Out” with different vocals. And then is “Starchild” and it has a prologic mix. But that’s already outdated because, nowadays, everybody is going on 5.1 or DTS, but it’s nice nevertheless.

 

Kostas: You released STAR ONE with another label (Inside Out). Why was that? Aren’t you satisfied with Transmission Records anymore?

Arjen: The moment I started working on the STAR ONE album I thought I wanted to do something different. I really felt like working with different people. I think I’ve already made about 10 albums for Transmission and I felt it was time to approach another company. And strangely enough, another company approached me. I went to a progressive festival or gig, and Inside Out came to me and said they knew I was doing an album and we’ll really like to have it. So, I invited them to my studio and they listened to it. And they loved it.

 

Kostas: Of course they did!

Arjen: Well, you never know (laughter). They heard it and they really loved it and they wanted to have it. I’m really glad I made this decision, because they are working great for me and have no problems. They do great promotion. The booklet is really expensive but they didn’t mind. So far it is going very well.

 

Kostas: How did you came up with the idea of starting AYREON in the first place, making rock operas, something nobody had ever done before?

Arjen: It was done in the 60s, the album “Jesus Christ Superstar” and I have always loved this album.

 

Kostas: Yeah, but this wasn’t a full-time band.

Arjen: No, it was like me. 2 guys, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, one guy wrote the lyrics, one guy made the music with lots of guests musicians like DEEP PURPLE’s Ian Gillan and I was always so impressed by this album. It was such a great album. I’ve always wanted to do something like that. But then, I didn’t realize I could do it. I got to be in a hard rock band with a crazy singer throwing beer over his face and raping women on stage (laughter) and of course, that doesn’t allow you to do a rock opera or something serious. In VENGEANCE it was mostly all fun and rock ‘n’ roll on stage and the moment I stopped with VENGEANCE I felt I wanted to do my own thing. I want to do all the styles that I like. I like THE BEATLES, I like PINK FLOYD, I like EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER, I like URIAH HEEP, DEEP PURPLE and all this stuff. I want to throw all these influences with my own style and make an album, make it a rock opera, make my own story, with a lot of singers. Already when I was first working on this I was thinking that nobody would be interested in this. Who’s going to want to listen to all these styles? But I didn’t mind. I had made so many albums and I am not proud of any of them and want to be proud of one album.

 

Kostas: You weren’t proud about any of them?

Arjen: Certain songs. But definitely not whole albums. There is not one album before AYREON that I say: “Yeah, this album is great”. A certain songs are ok, but then there are silly songs like “Rock ‘n’ Roll Shower” or “She Is The Woman” (laughter), these really silly songs that you write for a live show. But there were some great songs in VENGEANCE like “Arabia”. But when I look back at the AYREON album I am 100% behind them. There is not one song or part that I think I should have done it differently, because that’s 100% me. And when you are in a band you are always compromising. You are compromising with the other musicians, you compromise to the record company, to the fans… And when I stopped compromising and started doing my own thing, strangely enough, people started being interested in me and I’m selling 10 times more than I did with VENGEANCE who toured the world for 9 years. And indeed, when I finished the AYREON album, no one was interested. All the record companies were like: “Hey man, go away! What? Progressive rock opera in the 90s? You must be crazy! We are listening to NIRVANA right here you know” (laughter), which is great too, I liked that too, but that’s another story. I thought it was great. It took me a year to get a record deal for AYREON but finally I got a record deal in Japan and there was some crazy guy in Holland who believed in it. To my amazement the album started selling. At first 2.000 then 4.000 and the 8 and then 12 and then 20 and then 30 and I was like: “HUH?! What’s happening?!” (laughter) I really didn’t understand.

 

Kostas: So, is there anything you haven’t done and you would like to?

Arjen: There are some musicians I would like to work with. And they are getting older and older so I should be quick or they’re dead (laughter). I would love to work with Ronnie James Dio for instance and Alice Cooper and David Gilmore. And I am just going to keep trying.

 

Kostas: You are trying to get in contact with them and they don’t answer back or is it something else?

Arjen: I have spoken to Dio and I gave him the album and he knew about me and he said he would love to do it and he gave me his email address. I have sent him 4 or 5 emails and in each email I offer him more money (laughter). Maybe that’s crazy because he’s waiting for another year and the price would go up. I haven’t heard from him back. And Alice Cooper is my childhood hero. I grew up with him and he is so funny, his lyrics are great and I had the chance to meet him a couple of times, but what do you say to this guy? “Hey, I’m a big fan, I have all your albums”. He hears that 10 times a day maybe. And I am so afraid that I would be disappointed. Imagine if he has a bad mood or something and say: “Hey, fuck off man, I’m busy”. But I had some journalists give him AYREON albums so I’m sure he knows about it but I haven’t heard from him yet. And David Gilmore, I actually spoke with him, because I interviewed him for a magazine and he’s clearly not interested. He was very polite and he took the album and said: “Yeah, I will listen to it” but I could see on his face that he is not anymore interested in music.

 

Kostas: In music generally?

Arjen: Yeah, because I asked him about a new PINK FLOYD album and he told me that he is working on songs now and then. So, I’m sure I’m not going to get David Gilmore. It’s not his kind of music. He hates prog. He said that if that puts him in a category with bands like YES or GENESIS, then he doesn’t want to be there (e.n.: isn’t he .already in such a category?:-|)

 

Kostas: There is a story with you and Bruce Dickinson. Can you give me some info about that?

Arjen: The STAR ONE album was originally going to be a Bruce Dickinson solo album. As you know, he sang on my last AYREON album, and he really loved that. He really loved the song and he wanted to work together. So he asked me whether we could do an album together. I was busy working on STAR ONE and I thought that maybe Bruce is interested, so I sent him the songs and he loved it. He said: “This is great! I want to make a concept album with you, which must be somewhere around the middle of HAWKWIND and DEEP PURPLE”. After listening to the songs he told he would start writing the lyrics for the first 4 songs. And then I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and I told a couple of fans about it. Well, the next day it was all over the Internet and Bruce’s manager got to read it and he was really angry. So he told me that it was very unprofessional of me to talk about it and he cancelled the whole project.

 

Kostas: Why was it unprofessional? Everybody knows that musicians tend to write albums, so talking about a cooperation isn’t anything really bad. Instead it would be a good advertisement.

Arjen: I think he had planned the whole year for Bruce. He has to do this with MAIDEN and then he will do this and then he will do that and so on. But the strange thing is that they never told me to keep it quiet. They never said: “Don’t talk about it”. What do you do if you are busy for half a year working on an album that Bruce is going to sing on it? You can’t keep quiet about that (laughter).

 

Kostas: You are a workaholic?

Arjen: Definitely! When I am on vacation, I miss my guitar. I could bring my guitar. We’ll see.

 

Interview by Konstantinos “BattleRageR” Vasilakos

Edited December 2, 2006 by Mr. Horrible Gelatinous Blob

[zile_kondic]

E, care, bash ti hvala! Sad ga josh vishe gotivim...i Ayreon, ali takodje i ostale projekte.

[zile_kondic]

Znachi...Human Equation je neshto najzanimljivije od Ayreona do sad! Nisam skontao da nemam taj album pa sam ga tek juche skinuo sa soulseek mrezhe...zvuk albuma je fenomenalan, a da ne nabrajam ko je sve uchestvovao u snimanju...LaBrie, Devy Townsend, ovaj pevach iz Opeth-a, fenomenalna postava! Bio sam na sajtu i odushevio sam se konceptom albuma, kao lik se slupao u sred nedodije, pao u komu, pa mu se polako otkrivaju emocije, od kojih je svaka rezervisana za drugog pevacha/pevachicu. Meni lichno najjache zvuchi ludi Devin Townsend(njega znam od ranije, radio je jedan slbum sa Vai-em) i zhenska koja peva ulogu strasti, kako ima divan glas!

Bash mi je krivo shto sam tek nedavno nabavio sve od njega...