Glad to finally be on tour?

Michael: Oh yes. We have done 7 shows in Europe for this album so far and things are great.

Keeping in mind that Symphony X does not have a record deal in the US, do you tour over there anyway? I mean, is it hard to get gigs?

Michael: We play there occasionally but we don't really tour over there. Getting gigs is not hard but you also have to get people to go to the shows. And since they can not get the cd's in the first place, they do not know the songs... It is a pain in the neck.

Was the band involved in setting up this tour?

Michael: No, it was our record label Inside Out that set it up. Same thing for the opening band (Mindfeed-BM). A guy from Inside Out got it all together.

Has Dream Theater opened any doors at all for progressive bands in the US? Here in Europe they sell out venues that hold up to 2K seats. But when they go back home they are back to playing small bars again and can not even seem to get those packed. Why is it progressive rock just does not hit it off over there?

Russell: Progressive music just is not popular back home. I do not really know why... I don't work for MTV. They pretty much dictate what the kids listen to so I guess it is just not the market right now. I am sure there is a lot of people out there that like the music though, but they have just not heard from or heard of it. We get a lot of E-mails from people on the south part of the States: Texas, Florida, Arizona... They would love for us to come out and play. They say there is a big following of the band there. But until we have a license and a deal in the US it is next to impossible for us to fund a trip and go to any of these places.

But isn't it easier now you have a deal in Europe? Can't you go shop for a distribution deal in the US?

Russell: Yeah, we are talking about that right now. You just mentioned Dream Theater selling out 2K seat places... I think that maybe we can get that sort of comfort zone in this territory, in Europe. Then we would be in a much better position to vie for a US deal instead of getting mom and pop records in the US that would maybe distribute 500 copies.

Doesn't it work both ways though? Obviously, if the album is not available no one is going to hear it. And as a result of that the scene stays small.

Russell: We would opt for the album to be available but without a strong showing in another area the interest of the record companies is non-existant. So you do need a strong showing in other areas such as Japan and this market here. We do not have any of the outdoor festivals that you guys have in the summertime.

Lolapalooza?

Russell: Yeah, Lolapalooza and that is it. Big concert funding even for the major acts is very down. Right now we are getting a resurgence of a British punk-ska thing. That is pretty big right now. But there are still the grunge leftovers, the grunge guitarsounds. A lot of technical things, the production angle of things that came out in the early 90's are still being used but most things in the singing departement are very very Sex Pistols reminiscent.

Kevin Moore his cd's can be ordered through the Internet. It is a service he set up espescially for his fans in the US. Do you think that is somewhat of a compensation or maybe an alternative for a distribution deal?

Russell: That is kind of like the next step at this moment for the band, both for merchandising and to sell the records. But there are a lot of things involved with something like that. We would either need to license the albums out ourselves which we can't legaly do because we are signed to Zero. We have to work out something else. Right now it is still a lot of money out of our pockets to have a good, professional website. But when we get back, we are going to do that. We are on top of it.

Symphony X has released 4 albums in 4 years. For the majority of the progressive bands it is usually more like 1 album in 4 years. What's up with that? Too much coffee?

Both: (laugh) Yeah, cigarettes and coffee!! Michael: Well, a lot of it is because of the label in Japan. I guess the market over there is different. The longer you wait with an album, the worse it is.

So they kind of 'demand' an album every year?

Michael: Yeah, they are on top of us with that. Usually it is not too bad, but with the last album it was pretty tough. There were time limits and stuff. It was not 'that' bad but the last album suffered a little bit because of that. For the next one we are going to take our time. And we are finally touring so it will take longer anyway.

When working on "Twilight In Olympus", did you feel a lot of pressure because of the fact that "Divine Wings" is considered a classic album?

Michael: "Divine Wings" is probably the album we are the most happy with. We wanted to tour but there was a problem with our drummer Jason. There were a lot of things that went down. We did not have a drummer for a couple of months. Jason is back now, but that and the deadline for the new album... There was so much going on that we could not tour for "Divine Wings".

What about the songwriting process? Most of the songs on this album are in the same vein as "Divine Wings". Are there any specific rules you go by when writing songs?

Michael: No, we just get together. Then, if someone has a riff or some lyrics, we will work around that. For this album, we had a lot of the lyrics to begin with.

Is it easier to put music on top of lyrics?

Michael: Maybe not easier, but it was a little more fun. If you already have the lyrics you get to write tonality for the music. And for certain things that happen within a story. That is cool. It was a little different this time.

A challenge?

Michael: A little bit, yes. But there is no real formula. Whatever happens, you know.

Where do you get the ideas for the lyrics?

Russell: A lot of the lyrics I wrote on some of the records were more or less introspective, except for like 'The Templar' or 'The Accolade'. Some historical things I like to give a personal twist, like a first person sort of thing. It is a third person storytelling, but more of a narrative. A lot of the other lyrics helped forming my ideas, phantasy-like.

Do you get them from reading books?

Russell: Yes, from a lot of books and stuff. The history aspect of some of the mythological angles I am really into, so I can't help but add a personal touch to those lyrics. On the last album we had a lot of stuff from our bassplayer Tom Miller. He had written a lot of almost poemtype things down. Some of them weren't singable. So then we worked out everything lyrically to make it fit, make it work. Michael did the music. Actually, in a sense, it got reversed.... again. We had the lyrical idea. The music was written upon the premise of the idea, but when it was time for me to actually try to sing it, all the vowels and consonants were all messed up so we had to go back and rework the words to make them work for the voice. It seemed great to me, but it is a different story when you try to vocalize it.

Do you actually think about the way it sounds when putting words to the music?

Russell: A lot of times I will sit down with Michael and hum out something (hums a tune). You see.... there is an E..... there is an A.... I find these vowels that sound nice in certain spots so we work around that. Sometimes we will change what we already had to fit that nice melody line. Once you have the melody with the consonants and the vowels and it sounds really nice, it flows you just put in the words to make it work. The trick is of course to make the phrasing good.

How hard is it for you to write a 4-minute song?

Both: Very hard. Russell: The long ones are easy....

But don't you feel like you limit yourself in the short songs?

Russell: No, I think we just cram more notes into a 4-minute song. A lot of the times you start out and you say "this is going to be this" but it might turn out something different. There is no formula. We can not think like that. You have to come with some great parts. You have to say: "Okay, this goes here. This ends here". If you can do that within a 4-minute song, it is okay. It can be really hard though, being in a symphonic band.

But even the 20-minute songs never get boring.

Russell: Well, Michael writes them in parts. Michael: I do, but I don't try to write it as a 20-minute song. It's just that... you have all these lyrics, all these ideas, a story, and musical ideas... It is hard to write the short ones. But the long ones, you don't try to write them. It just happens.

Pieces that come together?

Michael: Yes, you have all these themes and stuff. But it is tough to get it right. It might sound cramped, you have to think about the story. There is just so much to tell.

So much to tell indeed. Michael and Russell concluded the interview expressing how glad they are to be on tour. They proved that a few hours later with an excellent gig. You definately need to check them out if they are playing somewhere near you.