About composing, Progressive Rock, me:

One thing I have noticed about most prog-rock bands is that “very few” have strong songwriting skills, so the songs tend to be more of an orchestral proggy jam instead of strong, epic, memorable songs…. One of the very few prog-rock bands that have good songwriting is “Spock’s Beard”, and that is mainly because they HAD Neal Morse who is considered one of the best prog-rock song writers out there. One of my favorite proggie new bands was Transatlantic, and again, most of the songs were written and arranged by Neal Morse, and when he left, they also disbanded… The Flower Kings have their moments, but again, to date they have nothing memorable that stays in people’s psyche(I have all their CDs and I get so angry when I hear something ALMOST get there and not)….

Even the older, venerable 70’s bands suffered in different degrees from that problem:

- ELP: They had Keith who was an outstanding composer in his own right, he could have written straight classical compositions and become famous just in that arena, but I’m glad he went the other route ! One of the aspects that made ELP so enduring is that “for the most part”, they had strong compositions that were beyond just playing well…. “Trilogy” is very Rachmaninovian and Stravinskian, and you could just play the piano parts and it would still sound good. But there were Ego problems with the band and a general lack of interest once they became VERY rich, and I mean they ALL owned castles in England at one point !!!

- Yes: Was such a disappointment for me, I really kept hoping for the next “Fragile” and “Close To the Edge” albums !! Their unique thing was that none of them “alone” was a good composer, but combined they were awesome. All you have to do is to hear their solo albums and realize their strength was writing together, although Rick Wakeman did do well with his first solo albums, and had a huge influence with his Stravinskian type motives and leaning in his Yes parts, particularly in “Fragile” and “Close To The Edge”, every time he left the band, a big black hole appeared in their music… The other albums were OK, “Going for the one” has some moments like Awaken…. But they never had another classic like “CTTE”… Every time Rick came back in the band they did great albums, and I bet if Bruford and Wakeman would have never left the band, we would have had more “CTTE” masterpieces… Perhaps is then our duty to write the next one !!

- Genesis: Believe it or not, they were the “better” composers of the lot, but just not too great as instrumentalists and victims of Ego….. They managed to create a unique sound or style in their compositions VERY epic and grand, like “Pictures at An Exhibition” from Mussorsky, and their arrangements were very tasteful and classic. Albums like “Selling England by The Pound”, “A Lamb Dies down in Broadway”, “A Trick of The Tail”, have some beautiful and memorable moments, and have some of the BEST compositions ever written by proggies, too bad Ego again reared it’s evil head and made Peter Gabriel make his move…. Although “Trick of The Tail” was the first “Phil Collins” excursion, he had not yet decided to make this a pop-prog band, and that album is INCREDIBLE… I honestly don’t know what happened to them, the composition skills were there, but they did not continue to produce the quality material they had in the past… Peter Gabriel did IMHO, follow with that tradition, although he was not the most gifted composer, but had a great ear for modern textures and a finger on the pulse of the upcoming musical trends…

- Kansas: Although a little less proggy and more of southern rock flavor to them, Kansas is indisputably one of the most consistent and talented composers of the prog-rock arena. In every aspect, one of the best prog-rock bands ever: When you count all the blockbusters they wrote until they had a major band breakup, it beats all the above hands down. They had everything you could ever want in a prog-rock (or any band) band: Epic compositions, great musical taste and lyrics, incredible playing, memorable hooks, solos, and melodies, and just perfect arranging, just listen to “Point of Know Return”, not a single flaw in that album I can think of. And they really wanted to be heros, they took their music seriously and understood their resposibility as leaders influencing the psyche of their listeneners ! I saw them once in a very small club live and they brought me to tears through the entire concert, was like a life changing experience for me… I do miss them so….. Kansas had two modern musical geniouses in their wings: Kerry Livgren, and Steve Walsh, and maybe they were too big to belong in one band, but their legacy still lives on as some of the best music on Earth.

As a result of my studying this genre(and I mean years of studying, buying prog-rock research books, collecting every prog-rock album there ever was, studying the composition methods), my philosophy with writing progressive rock music, is that you must first have a strong composition that stands on it’s own before you add complexity or any instruments, and the songs must be memorable, not just a fast jam… The closest thing to a band jam I would write would be “Sherwood”, and if you listen to that, it still has a charm to it that makes it more than just a vehicle for jamming. If you can play the piece on a piano and it sounds good, that is a START !

Why do I LOVE Progressive rock you may ask ?? Because prog-rock, IMHO, IS the PERFECT music genre; Jazz is nothing but an empty EGO MASSAGE for good players who know great chords, and have some composition skills, but are too caught up in themselves to write anything except vehicles for their own playing. Classical suffers from high roller snobbery, the rich would love to steal this genre for themselves, as evident as it was while I played in many halls and saw nothing but rich debutants there !! The other problem with “most” classical music, is that it is thoroughly pedantic and pedagogic; mostly about all these “Rules” you should follow in the music, what is correct orchestration, voice leading, all the shit they rammed down my throat at school that now I can laugh at !! Interesting Anecdote: When the “Impressionistic” movement started in France, most musicologists blasted it pretty much the same way prog-rock was blasted by rock purists: the impressionists threw out all traditional composition rules out the window and did not care for “tried and true” forms of music, nor did they follow traditional tempos, meters, or even musical notation, the critics hated them !! BUT the most beautiful and compelling composers and music ever, came from that very group !! In there you had giants like Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Eric Satie, all following the painters like Degas, Van Gogh, Monet !!! That is why; PROGRESSIVE ROCK WILL LIVE FOREVER, it contains the energy of rock, and the best qualities of those impressionistic composers..

Allow me to share some of my background with you; I have been wanting to be a composer and writing music since the age of ten !! I STILL REMEMBER my first tunes I wrote then, my mom used to think I would copy them, until my biology teacher(where I went to play, the only acoustic piano around) went home and told my parents I had written all these pieces and they should place me in music school long term… Well, they were NOT thrilled about that, my dad had already been in many pro bands as a percussion player, and knew first hand about all the drugs and the money problems musicians had(even the successful ones), so although they did enroll me in private lessons, they never encouraged me to pursue music (until I grew up and my mom knew I was not going to be a bum, so now she wants me to pursue it full time !). I auditioned at the Julliard Academy of Music in NYC, and although I did not get a scholarship, they wrote a very nice letter to prospective sponsors about my skills and promise. At that point I auditioned for a recording progressive rock band looking for a keyboard player and got the gig, I moved to Florida because they were recording their first album there… (long story).. The band finally broke up and I found myself in a new place with no money or friends, so I tried getting into the local colleges while my wife worked… I finally won a music scholarship to a major music college in the area (University of Central Florida, and Stetson), so I embarked on a music major in composition for two years and went as far as giving recitals of my original work plus doing years of study with Alan Mason, a well known Carnegie Hall pianist and music professor.

At that point I was already 25, and had a daughter, and I knew I would have to do more than just music to make a living, so I talked with my professors who suggested I changed my major to computer programming instead, but if I stayed in the symphonic and jazz bands, and kept a few music credits, I could still keep my music scholarship… At the time that was such a defeat for me, it hurt a lot, I took it personally, but looking back it was the right advice….. And to make a l-o-n-g story short, at one point I decided to drop out of playing live with bands although I continued to write music in every genre, I have written hundreds of country, classical symphonies and sonatas, ethnic folk music, jazz, latin salsa, ballads, sambas and bossanovas, hard rock, electronica, pop, prog-rock(of course), fusion, pieces I am really proud of.

I hope this tells you a “little more” about my “big detour” in my life, but, if I am to “Awaken” and become a hero again, it will be doing the only thing I do best in life, that thing that flows through my veins and feeds my heart and soul, and that is to write and perform music, and in doing so I pray and hope my ultimate destiny will unfold. Know that when you follow your purpose, the Universe will open all doors….

Here hoping you join me for this wonderful ride… -Steve

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