progressive Interview , progressive band talk

Indisciplined Lucy: Scandinavians between the genres

DURP - eZine from the progressive ocean

Interview

DURP asked Jakob Luttinger

What does the name of the band mean?

Answer: The name came to us before the music. Indiscipline has always been a part of our lives, both musically and otherwise. To be 'indisciplined' for us also means the notion of having to be pressed into certain forms and shapes; again, both in music and in 'real life'. Lucy is our own mythical character, sometimes by singer Pelle considered his alter ego.

How would you describe your music?

Answer: As a mix between the beatiful and the wicked, the concerned and the mindless. An attempt to break out of bonds and shapes. We believe that also music concidered 'progressive' has its own rules and pretermined shapes. We enjoy all kinds of music, both main stream and exclusive.

How does the songwriting work in the band?

Answer: For the album ATBEG the raw material came mostly from Pelle or Micke, the guitarist. From there we then collectively shaped the songs into the typical Lucy feel. Finally, string arrangements were added and gave the piece its final form.

Is it ok to you if people put you in the progressive rock category?

Answer: What harm could there be in being called 'progressive'? In Sweden, the term for the kind of music most commonly referred to as progressive is best translated 'symphonic rock', and this doesn't fit in on our music, we think. The only band we have taken influence from in this genre is King Crimson. We don't like music that has been 'overworked' too much.

What about the decision to do an concept record?

Answer: There was never a decision like that. The lyrics were written over a period of a few years and were never meant to 'tell a story' together. Almost all the songs work on their own. But, as the characters Lucyand the Clown have been used in almost all the lyrics as literary tools, we thought it a good idea to frame the songs, and thus, 'theatre' and 'epilogue' were written, and voila! there was a concept.

Please tell me something about the story of the album!

Answer: The easiest interpretation of the songs put together is that they make out a classical 'rise and fall' tale. The girl Lucy comes on as a messiah figure, convinced that she has the powers and imagination to change the world. In a cynical surrounding, she is being put down, and loses her faith. We don't want to give away too much of the interpretaions however, we want the listeners to make out their own picture. There are a riddles and hints hidden in the lyrics, and the narrative goes on at many levels.

What about the cover artwork? Nice idea to involve your label boss!

Answer: You should really ask the label boss, actually...Angular produced the album cover to fit in with the music.

How did you come in touch with Angular?

When ATBEG was written and we just had finished recordimg, we found out that our Swedish record label had gone out of business! Thus the recordings were locked in the studio and we contacted Angular, who had shown interest for the band. They agreed to release it, but then we lost our drummer and cellist, and moved to Stockholm. With these changes, we felt that we really didn't want to release the album, as we were not the original setup any more. We went on doing all different kinds of music with various influences. In 1999 however, we realised that this album was too good not to be released, and as Angular had shown the greatest interest back in1997, we let them release it.

What about the bonus track? I think this track has nothing to do with the concept part... It could be a little bit out of character?

Answer: It is an old song and Stefan at Angular thought it to be well fitted as a bonus track.

You are playing some instruments like violin and cello - it's rare in this business...

Answer: Violin and cello has almost from the beginning been a natural part of our music. For us, it is just as natural as drums or keyboard. We very seldom think of the stringsection as rare, we just use it to give the music more complexity and beauty.

What do you think about the situation of your musical genre in the presence and what will change in the future?

Answer: We don't confess ourselves to any genre. The music will not go out of time, because it has never been 'in time' except for during the hours we wrote it...

What kind of compromises would you make to push your career?

You name it! We are open to everything. Dresses? Eurotechno? Seriously, we feel that we have done what we wanted to do, and that's what matters. We feel that the record has qualities enough to cross borders between genera and is likeable to almost everyone.

How would you describe the development between the new record and the records before?

The records before...Are you referring to the EP? This was the only record we released before ATBEG. It has a more'bombastic' sound than the album, and we didn't want that sound when we recorded ATBEG. We wanted a narrower, more wicked sound, with rougher edges, and we feel that we succeeded in this.

How would you describe your relation to new media as internet, virtual reality, mp3...

Answer: We keep ourselves uptodate with the media. It is interesting in a way, but at the same time, everything always goes back to the fact that we have to produce thrilling music no matter if we distribute it through mp3, CD or LP. The internet-BOOM makes it possible to distribute information almost anywhere in the world, but it also makes it much harder to get peoples attention. Internet is not helping much in making dramatically better music. art etc., just more.

So you could have the possibility to make this record again. Would you change anything?

Answer: Most probably we would, but it is hard to put a finger on anything special. We have all developed our playing techniques and added more nuances. After all, this recording was made a few years ago, most of us had not turned twenty. It would sound different, but maybe not in positive terms for these songs in particular!


© 04/2000 Renald Mienert
DURP - eZine from the progressive ocean
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