progressive Interview , progressive band talk

Triangle: Geometry meets prog

DURP - eZine from the progressive ocean

Interview

The name of the and is Triangle, of the record "Square The Circle" - you must love geometry?

- Actually the name of our band was Square the Circle from the saying "Try to square the circle" The problem was that already a Canadian band exists with that name and they are working on their fifth CD. So we decided to change our name and Triangle seemed to be a logical follow-up and a nice name. Secondly we thought it would be a good idea to call the CD Square the Circle as we have been walking a long and difficult road to get this product as good as it is now.

Are the same songs on this CD as on the previous demos? Are there different versions of tracks on the demos and on the CD?

- The last song "Natures Window" comes from our first demo and for us it is a sort of a classic one; Chasing the Shadows, Saddest Show and Pygmalion our from our second demo but we rerecorded them. The demos are live-recordings. Chasing the Shadows is very different because of the piano parts at the beginning and the end of the song. The middle part of Saddest Show is changed because we had more time to experiment with this part. On the demo there was already a sound collage in it, but on the album we tried to make something more of it.

How would you describe your music?

- Symphonic rock-music with no use of couplet/refrain-songs but a sort of a chain of different parts of music in which it is a challenge for us to make it work as a complete song.

How does the songwriting work in the band?

- Mostly we start to work with an idea of Roland or Jan-Willem that they wrote for themselves and we work that out with eachother untill it is finished. We all write or fill in the music of our own instrument.. Martijn writes most of the lyrics.

How did you come in touch with your current label?

- We thought that the best way of getting interest of a label was taking care of a recording of good quality and with our best songs. So we went to the studio by ourselves and made it happen. After that we sent this recording around and that gave us a couple of possibilities of which we chose the best one.

How would you like to develop in the future? Do you think about changing your style?

- We are working on new songs and we want to try to make a new work even better. We want to do something with the critics that we have got up till now. We would like to work with more of a concept. We sort of tried to make a start with that on Square the Circle but we would like to improve that. We notice a slight change of style ourselves but we do not want to say anything about that because we want don't want to be pinned down by remarks regarding our style.

What about your success in different countries?

- Thanks to Leon Zelissen and his connections it appears people are taking interest from abroad and we have had some nice critics. Like from you guys from Germany. Some weeks ago we were surprised by a large order from France and that really gives us a warm feeling.

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

- Music is e very serious hobby for us and the four of us have our daytime-jobs but if there is a possibility of earning money with our music we would certainly change those jobs in doing them less time but since symphonic rock is one of the less popular kinds of music we can only dream of that so far.

Can you tell me something of the process of creating/recording the new record? Were there any problems or went everything well?

- It was our first studio-recording so of course some problems came up during the recording. For example with the long during tracks that we had to record in different parts. So it cost us something to put it all together including the sounds that we have used. Another problem was the lack of base-parts in the lower frequencies. Jan-Willem plays a lot of nice base-riffs which means a shortage in the lower tones. After the pre-mastering Martijn added some synth-base-parts to make it all complete.

Can you give me some liner notes to the songs of your record?

- The first song is more or less a musical introduction to the album, in sound and style. Chasing the Shadows is about how hard it can be to accept help from someone. The Center Shines is basically a love song, but (of course) not in a I-love-you-and-want-to-stay-with-you-forever way. It's about what happens to a relation after a few years. The Saddest Show is about the worst television shows you can imagine. Amy is the central song of the album, it's about the "you" in your mind to whom you always tell everything first. This "you" will always listen and understand everything you say. Pygmalion is based on a Greek mythology about a man who makes a image of his loves but when it's finished he likes the image better than the original. Natures Window is about freedom and beauty. Roland found his inspiration for that one in Australia.

Where did you get your inspiration?

- We have it from ouselves, the reality of live, things we have learned and of course the music we like as different members of the band.

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

- We thank a lot to internet and mp3 because of the advertising it gives us internationally. Thanks to this media we can make ourselves known in foreign countries and give people the opportunity to learn to know our music.

So you could make a choice, with which band would you like to play live on stage, for example as support?

- It would be nice to play with IQ . We think it's a very good symphonic rockband at the moment. They have a spectacular show and it would give us a way to play for a larger audience.

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

- We would surely add the base-parts as said in question nine in an earlier stadium. Well, it is easy to talk when it is done. We have had some great experiences by which we can work the next time a lot quicker. Which will give us more time to work out some more details.

Is each member of the band absolute satisfied with each song of the record?

- Yes, we can honestly say that. Each song has its own charm or sphere and that gives the power to this consisting total. We would rather talk about the complete work than the songs apart.

What about the fact that a lot of people mean a good prog song must be a long track?

- We think that is not really necessary. Chasing the Shadows and Amy are good prog-songs and they are the shorter ones. We do not agree on a certain during of a song in advance. It just happens during the writing-process. Sometimes you need more time to tell a musical or lyrical story but that still does not make the shorter song less nice.

Is it more difficult to write a 15 minute epic than a three minute radio hit?

- That is hard to answer. It is difficult to make a 15 minute song interesting to listen to and at the same to keep up a certain line or structure in the song . We are far more comfortable with writing songs the way we do now, which means that sometimes a song happens by itself but most of the time there is a lot of puzzling and discussing between us to make it all work for everyone. The length of a song is never an issue in these discussions.

Do you have a most favourite track on the album?

Besides our answer to question 15 there are of course favourites. Those are different for us bandmembers. So we would like to refer to our internet-site at www.vuurwerk.nl/bands/triangle for the answers.


© 06/2000 Renald Mienert
DURP - eZine from the progressive ocean
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