Notes From The Other Side

It would take a brave soul indeed to disagree that Minneapolis resident Lance King is legendary and could probably retire now with his place in music history secure.

Possessing one of the best voices in all of metal, Lance made his mark with the formidable band Balance of Power (is there anyone who doesn’t think Perfect Balance is, well, a perfect album?), and after recording three sublime albums with BOP from the late 1990s through 2001, left to strike out on his own.

Today, he appears in no less than three bands – Avian (From the Depths of Time, 2005), Shining Star (Enter Eternity, 2005), and Pyramaze (Melancholy Beast, 2004, and Legend of the Bone Carver, 2006) – and even has his own record label (Nightmare-Records).

Lance is preparing Pyramaze to blow the roof off ProgPowerUSA this fall.

Busy guy? You bet. Yet, he recently made time to spend about 90 minutes with ProgPowerUSA chronicler Bill Murphy. Prior to the interview, as Lance and Bill worked out the details, one of Lance’s e-mails revealed that he’s into chess and even coaches his son’s chess team – a fact that struck Bill’s funny bone. A leather-clad, longhaired metal god sitting down to a game of chess? Or doing the Dad thing coaching his son’s chess team? Yup. But those aren’t all the surprises Lance reveals in this interview. Read on.

BM: Hi, this is Bill Murphy.

LK: How you doing, Bill?

BM: Good. How are you doing?

LK: Good. I just got back from baseball practice with my kid. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

LK: I’m coaching that too.

BM: [laughs] Well, see, that I can picture. It’s the chess thing that throws me.

LK: [laughs] I always liked chess as a kid, and my son was a natural. He liked it. I started playing with him when he was, I think, in kindergarten, first grade.

BM: Really?

LK: He took fourth in district this year, and second in district last year. He’s a good chess player.

BM: Wow, that is good.

LK: Yeah, he beats me routinely.

BM: [laughs] Does he really?

LK: Yeah.

BM: Well, what kind of weekend was this? Was this your weekend to hang out with the family and do fun sports things?

LK: Yeah, yeah. Just chillin’. I haven’t done any work this weekend.

BM: Oh that’s good. I bet your family appreciates that.

LK: Yeah. Gotta do that occasionally or there’s fallout if you don’t. [laughs]

BM: [laughs] Well, you know what I’m up to here, right? I’m putting together a behind-the-scenes ProgPowerUSA report to give fans a chance to get to know the musicians behind the music. Glenn gave me his blessing to do that – and in fact, he said I’m the first guy ever that he’s tapped outside of the organization to do this sort of behind-the-scenes thing.

LK: Cool.

BM: So I’m kind of excited about it, and I’ve got interviews lined up for all the band members of people who are playing. But I’d like to chat with you a bit this evening about all the things you’re involved with.

LK: [laughs]

BM: You are one busy guy.

LK: Yeah, yeah. Just call me hyperactive, I guess. Or a workaholic, maybe? I like to be busy.

BM: Well you’ve got at least three bands that I can see, right now at the moment.

LK: Plus a local cover band that I play in. I played last night, actually.

BM: Did you really?

LK: Yeah.

BM: Why are you in a cover band with all of things you have going on?

LK: I do it for a couple reasons. One, I like to play a lot. I really enjoy playing. And the other is it helps me keep my chops up, so when the original projects do have shows, I don’t go out there and suck.

BM: [laughs] What kind of covers do you play?

LK: Everything from Whitesnake to Zombie. We’re doing everything from ’80s melodic metal to more current, kind of 93X stuff. So, some new metal, Godsmack kind of stuff, some Nickelback.

BM: With a voice like yours, I would think you’d want to delve into the Steve Perry, Journey-type thing.

LK: Well, there’s not a big market for that. But we do Queensryche, and some Ozzy and Whitesnake, and some cool stuff from the ’80s.

BM: Cool.

LK: Yeah.

BM: Well, tell me about Avian, Pyramaze and Shining Star. In your mind, does each of those bands have differentiating points? They sound similar in some ways, just because you’re singing, but musically different in other ways. How do you keep them separate in your mind when you think about each one?

LK: Geography. Geography and demographics. Stylistically, I think they’re all quite different. But you know, the…I listen to a lot, and I’ve always been a fan of most music, so it really doesn’t matter to me. As long as it’s heavy and it’s melodic, it doesn’t matter, stylistically what’s going on. And as long as I like the song, you know what I mean? So, I like working with different sounding bands, because it allows me to grow as a musician, it allows me to learn and try new things. It’s really fun when you’re recording with a band that sounds different than the next time you’re recording, because you get to experiment and try new things. And Avian, there were some things that Yan [Leviathan, guitarist] wanted me to try that I never would have done with harmony. All of the harmonies on there I did. So, I mean, when you hear Viking kind of voices going on, it’s me doing them. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

LK: It was kind of fun, you know, doing all these really strange sounds. And different voices for the Shining Star, but that there sounds much more like what I’ve done in the past, than say, what I did on the Avian. There’s a lot more experimentation with Avian, tonally.

BM: Which one of these bands do you find most challenging to you as a musician?

LK: Pyramaze.

BM: Do you really? Why is that?

LK: I wouldn’t say it’s challenging to me as a musician, I’d say it’s the most enjoyable to me.

BM: Really?

LK: Yeah. I like the music. I like the band. I like the players. Mostly, I like the ability of the players. Everybody in the band is phenomenal. And so, when you’re playing with them, it’s awesome. It’s fun. Morten [Sorensen] is such a bad-ass drummer, and the guitar players, everybody’s so damn good. After somebody gets done doing something, you’re like, “Yeah! That was killer, Dude!” [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

LK: Joe [Jonah Weingarten, keyboards] just rips a solo, you’re like, “Yeah, that was awesome!” It’s fun, you know?

BM: Yeah. Let’s talk about Pyramaze. Both Pyramaze albums start out with a spoken intro. Was that a conscious decision on your part to do that, or did it just happen?

LK: Michael [Kammeyer, guitarist] wrote the albums. So you’ll have to ask Michael on that. I’m sure it was. [laughs]

BM: [laughs] Cool. Legend of the Bone Carver. That’s a phenomenal album. How is it selling, do you know what the sales figures are for it?

LK: Worldwide, I have no idea. All I know is what I sold at Nightmare, and it’s doing better than anything that’s released in quite some time, so I’m really happy with it. It’s doing very well. We sold out of the first pressing before its release date, even. And I had to reorder and actually was unable to ship many orders for about another week after its release date. Because we were just sold out.

BM: That’s great.

LK: Actually, I’ve re-pressed it, I’m on the third pressing already.

BM: Congratulations, that’s great.

LK: I’m really happy with that. Yeah, that’s great news. And to have that happen in the first two months of a record is – I’m overjoyed. The majority of stuff, I’ll re-press maybe after six months, and some of it I never re-press. So, you never know.

BM: How about the artwork for these albums. How involved are you, with the three groups you’re in, how involved were you with choosing what the artwork looks like?

LK: Well, with the Shining Star album, I actually commissioned an artist to do the artwork. So I chose the images used and the layout, and what they would be. So I was very involved in that. For the Avian album, Yan hired Mattias Noren, but he had also come up with a concept for the cover of the Avian album long beforehand, and had an artist help him with it. It was cool, it just looked synthetically computer-generated, to me. And I’m like, “Dude, this is a neat concept, but it doesn’t look neat.” So he had Mattias dial it in and make it look real. I was like, “Now this looks cool.”

BM: It does, yeah.

LK: It was like, “This looks really cool, now.” And with Bone Carver, Michael had worked with Mattias as well, had him dial it in from his conceptual idea of what we wanted, and the story. And he just revealed it to us one day, and said, “Hey, check this out. What do you think?” And I was like, “It’s cool. I like it.”

BM: It is. Yeah.

LK: It’s very cool.

BM: How important is artwork to CDs these days? Do you see it as being an integral part? or an aside?

LK: Well, for the kind of music that we do, it’s a given. I mean, what we’re doing I figure is a little more artistic than what a lot of music out there is.

BM: I agree.

LK: And consequently, I think it’s also one of the reasons why the fans of the genre buy CD’s instead of download them.

BM: Oh, I agree with that too.

LK: Yeah. So I think the artwork is very important, and so is every part of the package; the content of which you’ve got the lyrics, which I think are important because they reveal a lot about the artist, and they reveal a lot about the intellectual perspectives of the artist. And artistically, the graphics are important because they bring all that to life, and help create more of a visual aspect of the music for the listener. It’s just fun looking at liner notes if there’s cool images in it.

BM: Oh yeah. That’s one of the things I missed when albums became CDs, the artwork tended to diminish a lot. I remember a lot of the ’70s albums, my god, they were big multi-fold out packages, posters, stickers, I mean, it was great.

LK: Yes, yes!

BM: But CDs came along, and album artwork took a back seat.

LK: Yes, and for a long time it did. With Nightmare, routinely we’re doing 16 page, full-color booklets. And that’s a lot of art. That’s a printing expense, so I’m hoping that people are planning to see these rather than downloading them, because we put out a premium package.

BM: Well yeah, I definitely – downloading to me is convenient, but I like touching things. I like the tactile feeling. I like to hold a booklet in my hand and look at it and refer to it often.

LK: Yeah, you have some sense of ownership then. You possess the music in that form, I think. It’s just kind of cooler as a collector, that kind of stuff.

BM: Let me ask you about Nightmare Records, since we’re touching on the subject here. What prompted you to start that label, and has it been as much work as you thought it would be, or less work, or about the same as? Describe what it’s been like.

LK: It’s been a lot more work than I thought it would be. But it’s work that I willingly do because I enjoy the work. It started because I’m a musician and I want to get my music out there, and I wasn’t gonna wait around for some suit to come and pick it up, you know? And you know, I also (as a musician), heard so many horror stories about the major record companies out there and musicians getting the shaft. And I started analyzing what it was that I was hearing, half of it being that musicians were just so excited to get the deal, that they would sign anything, you know what I mean? And then, they’d whine about it later. Because they got what they wanted, but they realized later that what they wanted wasn’t really what they wanted, you know? [laughs]

BM: [laughs] Yeah.

LK: So I really figured that the longer I looked at and heard about that, I thought, “You know, I’m just gonna create a demand by selling my stuff, and then if something comes along, we’ll look at those kinds of deals. I’m not actively going to seek them out at this moment, but I’m going to do what I need to do to get my product out there.” So it started as a venue to get my music out. And it started out simple enough, off the stage. And Jim and I, when we were playing around the midwest, basically we created a fictitious label, Nightmare Records, and put it on our CDs and tapes, at that time, and were selling stuff off the stage – not really off the stage, we got a merch person – but essentially out of our trunk. So yeah, it was doing really well. We moved like many thousand CDs off the stage, with releases in a couple years. So, that was really good.

BM: Yeah, that’s very good.

LK: [laughs] I was really happy with it.

BM: How does your vantage point of being a musician yourself help when bands approach you to sign to Nightmare Records? How does that help the deal, the process, when bands come to you to sign up? Can you put yourself in their shoes? Do they know what it’s like because they know you are where they are? How does that whole process work?

LK: I imagine it’s a positive thing, from their perspective, because I do walk in their shoes, in that type of situation. So…my wife is making faces at me. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

LK: [Talking to his wife] Just get outta here. [laughs] Time out for a minute, I’m being pounded on. She’s torturing me.

BM: Oh no. [laughs]

LK: Ok, leave me alone, woman! [laughs, then turns back to the interview] Ok, I’m back on track here, if she’ll leave me alone. From my perspective, I think it’s good just because I can identify with them, you know, what the positives and negatives are in most situations. I can be totally honest with them and say, “Hey, this is what’s probably going to happen. But there’s always the possibility that this is gonna happen, and this is why we’re doing it this way, and if you wanna be in on that, let’s do it. If you don’t, that’s fine too, and I wish you the best of luck.” So I give them the option. It’s definitely up to the artist to decide if the deal that I offer is the right deal for them. But Nightmare is seemingly…it’s hard for me to know how big Nightmare is out there in the world, because it’s always at the same level to me. From my perspective, I’m always just working to make it bigger and more well known. But I really have no idea how well known it is out there. But it apparently is getting more well known, because I keep getting a lot better bands asking me to be on it. [laughs] And I’ve had some really good bands lately, so I think it must be getting, the word’s getting out there.

BM: Yeah. You’ve got what, 41 records on your label now?

LK: Yeah, I think actually, now it’ll be like 44, 45.

BM: Wow. And you get a lot of demos, people contacting you wanting to be on your label?

LK: All the time. In fact, I’ve got literally a couple of boxes of demos that I have not been able to listen to in the last couple months. [laughs] Yeah.

BM: Well, let’s talk about this kind of music in general. What is it about this genre that really flips all your switches? What do you like about it most?

LK: You know, I dunno. I’ve always liked proggy stuff. My favorite music has always been progressive music. I think it started out when my…well, I’d have to endure my dad’s Pink Floyd moments all the time. It wasn’t tough to endure, you know what I mean, I loved Pink Floyd, and he’d play Yes and he’d play…hmm, brain fart…

BM: There’s a lot of them from that era. Are you thinking Rush, Kansas, ELP?

LK: Well yeah, those were more my era. He wasn’t that young.

BM: [laughs]

LK: [laughs] So I was listening to Rush and Styx and Journey and Kansas and Boston, but they were not progressive. So I was really into the melodic thing and the prog thing. And Foreigner was one of my favorite bands, just because they were all great songs.

BM: Yeah. I’m fairly good friends with Ian McDonald. You know, he used to be in Foreigner and King Crimson. And he used to tell me stories about – it’s almost like what they say about making laws and sausages: you don’t want to know too much about how it’s made. You don’t want to know about the behind the scenes of a band, because it taints your whole view of things.

LK: Yeah, yes. No question.

BM: [laughs] But I agree.

LK: Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

BM: Yeah, definitely.

LK: [laughs] The great and powerful Oz. [laughs]

BM: [laughs] How old are you, Lance?

LK: How old? Here’s what you write. You write, “29, again.”

BM: “29 again.” [laughs] Okay.

LK: [laughs] I’m 29 again. And I’ve been 29 for quite some time.

BM: Well, that’s a good age.

LK: [laughs]

BM: What does it take…let’s say you get a new album, whatever kind it is, from whatever group, even one you’ve listened to a long time. What is it about that album that will blow you away? If it’s an album that you think is great, what is it you’re hearing for the first time that really appeals to you? Is it the vocals, is it the guitar, is it the production? What has to grab you for you to call it a great album?

LK: It’s all gotta be there. I’m anal and I’m picky. I think that the songs have to set in the first listen. Although, I don’t always do that. There might be some that grab me when I’ve listened to it about three or four times, I’m like, “Wow, this is –” But even if that is the case the first time through, they have to be good. They have to give me something the first time through. And by give me something, I mean I wanna hear a good singer, I wanna hear a good riff, good guitar tone, good production, good mix. I don’t wanna have to go, “This needs work. This is not done yet. This needs to be taken back to the studio and produced properly.” Or, “This guy’s guitar tone is terrible” or, “That drummer’s got a bad meter,” you know? It’s all gotta be there. Everybody in the band’s gotta be doing their part and the songs have to be accessible, but yet I like musicians that know how to play really, really well, put in some tasty stuff that will make you go wow, and yet not lose sight of that there are non-musicians listening to this stuff, you know?

BM: [laughs] So you’re somebody should tell Dream Theater, “Hey, you know, maybe you took it too far.” [laughs]

LK: You know, I love Dream Theater. They opened up — the first time I heard them, I remember my band Gemini Nights was playing down in Chicago, and we were on our way back, and I ran into somebody that knew who I was, and I’m not quite sure who he was, but he wanted to play me some Dream Theater. We had just stopped at some Quickie Mart coming back to Minneapolis from Chicago, and this guy goes, “Hey, you gotta check this out” from his car, and he plays me this Dream Theater. I’m like, “WOW.” and he played When Dream and Day Unite, and I’m like, “WOW, I like that!” So that’s my little Dream Theater story. Obviously, at that point when they came out, nobody else was really doing that and hadn’t been for a while, you know?

BM: That’s true.

LK: And they’d taken the Kansas type of vibe and they put balls to it. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

LK: Metalli-Kansas, or something. [laughs] You know, “Yeah, I like this!” It’s just like, “Yeah, ok. I wanna do that.” But I’d been listening to a lot of ’Ryche before that. They were just a simplified version of [Dream Theater], kind of a similar vibe, rock that was tasty and in the pocket, not the technician that Portnoy is, but still, I love that band too.

BM: Oh yeah. I liked them up until about Promised Land. Their latest one [Mindcrime II] I think is pretty good, really.

LK: Yeah, it is. It is. And I had to actually, I stopped listening to them after Empire, intentionally, because I thought that my style was being influenced a little too much by Geoff Tate. So I needed to get away from that.

BM: [laughs] Well you do have some of those soaring vocals on some of these, what is it, “Sleepy Hollow” from Melancholy Beast? You hit those stratospheric notes and I’m thinking, “Gee, that sounds like Geoff Tate.”

LK: Yeah.

BM: That’s great.

LK: Yep, well, you know. Every band I’ve ever been in has always wanted me to get those out, because I think that most bands haven’t – well, a lot of them don’t have a singer that can hit those notes, and they’re like, “Do it all the time. Do it all the time.” [laughs] And it’s like, “Dude, it’s really annoying all the time.” [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

LK: You gotta give them a little of that, a little of this, and save that. You can’t do that all the time, or it’s annoying. It annoys me to do that all the time.

BM: Yeah, the beginning of Melancholy Beast has that. It reminds me of like, “Queen of the Ryche.” That’s a killer song! I love the Melancholy Beast album.

LK: Yep, that one, that wasn’t actually my idea for that note. That was Michael. He goes, “Dude you gotta really wail right here.” [laughs] Again, the guitar player with the new toy, you know? “Do it right here!”

BM: [laughs] Earlier you had mentioned the suits, or the music industry. If that’s one thing I’ve heard from…I’ve talked to a lot of these people, in fact a lot of the ones you mentioned – the guys in Yes, ELP, King Crimson – and they all said the same thing to me. They all said, in about ’79, the suits moved in and the music industry’s gone downhill since.

LK: Well, you know what it became, it became a business of numbers instead of music.

BM: Oh yeah.

LK: And it is a business. So it’s understandable it could go that route. But I think that the earlier execs were truly music fans and when you’ve got people like Adrian Belew saying it, you know he’s on the…what’s the term I want to use – the scrim, for lack of a better one. He’s on the outs of accessibility. So they’re going to be going, “This guy’s a little far out. Why don’t we go with something that’s going to make us a little more money?” [laughs] You know? Instead of going, “What is just really cool and unique?” I don’t always have the luxury of going, “What is really cool and unique?” I usually just go, “What do I really like?” when it comes in.

BM: So in terms of your Nightmare Records position? You look at what you like, rather than –

LK: What I like. And I figure, if I like it, other people will. And that’s really all I can do, is go from there. I could second-guess it, and go, “Well, it’s played well, and everything’s there.” I think what is happening far to often in the main, larger company is that they’re formulating a sound, or they found a new band that has done really well, and they’re going, “Ok, we’ve got to cookie-cutter a few more that sound just like that, and put them out there.” You know what I mean?

BM: Yeah. You know John Wetton, the musician? He was in Asia and King Crimson?

LK: Uh-huh. Yeah.

BM: He told me once that what record labels are looking for these days is the musical equivalent of Lethal Weapon 4.

LK: Yeah! [laughs]

BM: They just want the thing that sounds like what they did before. [laughs]

LK: [laughs] That’s classic, that’s classic! That’s perfect! [laughs]

BM: But you know what, if it wasn’t for the record companies, the industry being the way it is today, do you think Nightmare Records would exist?

LK: Probably not. Well, it may, it may not have been so successful, because I’m filling a void, I’m filling a niche. What I consider the majors have just left untapped, just walked away from it. And what I consider, from my time, where I come from, the ’80s are gone. What that music has turned into now in the new millennia, where the new musicians in metal lie. When you’re listing to current radio, I’ll give credit where credit is due. There are some bands, some newer bands, that do have talent, are able to play. And are getting more prolific. I mean, some of the newer bands like Hoobastank. Terrible name. But I like the band. And they write good songs, they’ve got a good singer.

BM: You know what’s going on out there as well, is you’ve got the record labels complaining that the internet is ruining sales, either downloads or iTunes –

LK: Oh boy!

BM: — But you’ve got other labels, other bands or labels such as yours that seem to thrive on the internet. What is the difference in perspective, here? Why do you use it to your advantage?

LK: It’s numbers. It’s simply numbers. They’re complaining and their complaints are probably justified for what they have set up – their sales chain, if you will, their model, their business model, how they had it set up – this put a huge damper on it. The Internet came along, people get on, they can rip a CD and upload it and people can download it. And boy, they didn’t have control over that early on. They had no idea how to control that, and nobody really did, and it just changed the face of music again. It’s constantly morphing. And then, you get the fact that people digitally copy the CD at home, and take it back if they want, you can burn the CD and take it back, you know, “It has scratches in it.” And there are a lot of stores that have changed their business thing on that. But originally, you were able to do that if there was a problem. A lot of stores won’t take back CDs if they’re opened now. But anyway, I think that those kinds of things have changed the scene quite a bit and now you look at overall sales figures for major labels to where they used to be millions. Look at Michael Jackson.

BM: [laughs] I’d rather not.

LK: Good example, right? It was 1986 or ’85 or whatever it was. Anyway, he sold millions and millions and millions of CDs, right? Like 20 million copies or something of that album. Well, ok, you take an artist now, like a well-known artist like Mariah Carey. She comes out with a brand-new CD, and she’s been out of the picture for three or four years. You know it’s gonna be big, right? Big now is 350,000 copies, or 400,000 copies. That’s the difference it’s made in their sales, their bottom line. It’s huge, Dude!

BM: [laughs]

LK: Huge! Because as soon as that CD comes out, it’s all over the Internet. It’s all over all kinds of talent sites. If somebody uploads it now – every day, there are more web sites popping up in Russia, or you know, offering your downloads for 30 cents instead of a dollar or five cents instead of a dollar, whatever. They’re everywhere. So every day, it’s changing. You don’t know. You just do the best you can.

BM: I know. You’ve mentioned that you’re in front of the computer a lot. You’re on the internet a lot. You’re on MySpace at least three times that I can see, with your own thing, and Pyramaze, and Nightmare. You post to the ProgPower forum. How do you manage to stay in shape while sitting in front of that damn computer all the time? What do you do?

LK: I, well, I do a couple of days of Muay Thai boxing.

BM: Oh really?

LK: Yeah, I take my son, and we started – well, before he was born, I had started a little. I think I was only going for about six months or so, then he came along and life changed dramatically. I had to find my balance. But by the time he was just before his fifth birthday, I think we started about two months before that, we started going in. And so we were doing that two or three times a week, and I would go sometimes, more, earlier on. Right now I’m just too busy, I can only make it in two times a week. But that’s how I maintain, anyway. I’m not getting all ripped up. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

LK: But I’m able to maintain, anyway. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a wicked lot of fun, I love it. I love kickboxing.

BM: Well how important is the Internet to the things you’re doing, like your MySpace connections, your ProgPower posting?

LK: Well, these days, you know, I don’t know.

BM: Are you doing it for fun, or is it more of a business decision, or what is that?

LK: What’s that?

BM: Just being all over, like MySpace, posting a lot.

LK: It’s definitely business. I mean, the web presence thing is huge. I could be spending all my time on e-mail and my AOL box, if I wanted to. Because the more messages you respond to, the more you get. It is a vicious cycle. So I’ve had to kind of balance it out and I tend to spend a little too much time online, I think. “No, I’m doing an interview. It’s not working, honey.” [laughs] “I’m really not working.”

BM: No, this is the fun part of life. [laughs]

LK: Yeah.

BM: Is your son sort of following in your footsteps, the way you were following in your dad’s footsteps regarding music? Or does he like the stuff you make, or does he have his own sort of taste?

LK: You know, I could let him tell ya.

BM: Oh really.

LK: He’s right here. [laughs, then speaks to his son] You wanna talk to this guy?

BM: Sure! That’d be great.

LK: [Talking to son] It’s just a simple question about your music taste, Tommy. You can just answer me. He wants to know if you like the kind of music I like, or do you have your own musical tastes. [pause] Yeah, do you like the kind of music that I make and the kind of music I listen to? or would you rather listen to the radio stuff? [pause] Oh, ok. Is there any other kind of music you like? [pause]

BM: What did he say?

LK: He started playing classical violin.

BM: Oh really?

LK: Just last year. And so he kind of likes classical violin as well, but he likes the prog metal stuff. And he also – we got him a PlayStation game, Guitar Hero. That is just wicked fun! It is so cool to play. I love playing it myself. Anyway, he just got totally addicted to it, and he was playing along, so he says he likes that kind of music too. And there’s a lot of more current and classic stuff on there. I mean, there’s Iron Man to – [speaks to son again] What’s one of the newer bands on there, Tommy? Zombie and – and what’s one of the newer bands on there? Oh, Queens of the Stone Age kind of stuff. Actually, they’re kind of a cool band. Pink Floyd meets new metal.

BM: [laughs] But at least it’s not to the point where you start taking abbot Pyramaze and he’s like, “Oh Dad, cut it out with that stuff.”

LK: No, no, he loves it. He loves it. He was a huge Balance of Power fan. He really likes that stuff, which is nice for me. You don’t really have a choice in this house, though. You have to hear it. [laughs] Mary says, “The recording is painful.” [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

LK: “You have to hear him sing the same line too many times sometimes!” [laughs]

BM: [laughs] Let me ask you about ProgPower itself, the festival. What does it mean for Pyramaze to play at ProgPower? Is this a big deal for you guys, or is this just another gig?

LK: Well, we haven’t had enough to have it not be a big deal for us. Pyramaze hasn’t played that many times to where it’s just another gig, so ProgPower is gonna be a big deal for us.

BM: What do you think audiences can expect from Pyramaze?

LK: What is it that they can expect from us?

BM: Yeah. What are audiences gonna expect from Pyramaze at ProgPower?

LK: Fast, ferocious metal played with intensity and emotion.

BM: [laughs] Really!

LK: Well, yeah, I mean that’s what we are. That’s what we do. That’s the kind of music we are. What I really like about this band when we play live is that there’s – that energy is a lot of fun. ’cause we have a lot faster songs than any band I’ve ever played in before, and that translates really cool live, ’cause it creates this neat energy in the crowd, where they’re really pumped up. I remember doing the Balance of Power music that was fun to listen to. But it’s kind of introspective and you’re kinda grooving and you’re laid back, kinda being mellow, and consequently, the band was kinda like, “Are they getting it?” There isn’t that huge energy. You know what I mean? You’re not like, “Oh YEAH!” With Pyramaze, you’re like, “YEAH!” [laughs] So that’s more fun to play to, I tell ya.

BM: Is it gonna be a strictly Pyramaze set, or are you going to have any surprises of songs from somewhere else.

LK: We only have about 40 minutes, 45 minutes, maybe. So it’s all gonna be Pyramaze, Baby!

BM: [laughs]

LK: No filler! [laughs]

BM: No filler. [laughs] What band besides your own are you looking forward to seeing and hearing at ProgPower?

LK: I like Jorn a lot. I’ve been a huge Jorn Lande fan for a long time. I love his voice. There are quite a few bands that I have actually never heard before, believe it or not. Thunderstone, and a few other ones. Seems like a lot of people are interested in Mercenary, so I’m gonna check them out too, because it seems a lot of people are digging on that. And then Evergrey, I’ve played with before, so I know what they’re about. And they’re a good band too. Who am I really – I’m curious about Savage Circus, ’cause a lot of people have been talking about them.

BM: Do you like Blind Guardian?

LK: I haven’t heard them, so I’m gonna have to find out what they’re about. But I’ll be checking them out. Am I a Blind Guardian fan, is that what you said?

BM: Yeah. That’s what they sound like.

LK: Is that what they sound like? Ok, well yeah, Blind Guardian’s good. I mean, that’s a pretty straightforward Power Metal thing though, isn’t it?

BM: Yeah. What is it you like most about playing live?

LK: Well, it’s just the exchange of energy with the crowd. Bottom line, it’s all about the energy. All about the live, loud volume, immersing yourself in that music and focusing it out like a magician would, just blast the audience with it, and then having them send you back a lot of this, “WUAAAAAAH!” you know?

BM: You like that, really?

LK: The band picks up on that, and then we send it back to them, and they send it back, and it’s just this big reciprocal kind of thing, that’s really cool.

BM: Well, have you ever been in a situation then, where the crowd was too exuberant, too wild? Did you ever worry about a situation, or was it always pretty –

LK: Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah.

BM: Well, see what you do? [laughs]

LK: It comes down to the song so much, and how much the band is enjoying what they’re doing with it. But yeah, I remember, there are certain songs. I haven’t had that, really in an original band, I haven’t written songs that have gotten people so out of control, but in the cover band, there were a few bands that we would play, like Rage Against the Machine. And you’d play like, I don’t know what the name of the song was, but there was a Rage Against the Machine tune that would inevitably always end in a fight. Both getting kicked out of the bar by the bouncers. Every time we did it. [laughs]

BM: [laughs] So did you just do it to watch that happen? Or did you hope for a different outcome?

LK: No, no. They actually stopped letting us play it.

BM: Oh really.

LK: Yeah. They actually said, “You know what, you can’t play that song because it creates too many problems.” But it was always fun to watch the audience just go nuts. [laughs]

BM: I’d like to see you guys over here. Do you ever jump the pond and come over to Michigan?

LK: Yeah, well you know, we’ve been talking about doing that. We’ll see. There seems to be a lot of people interested in helping us right now, which is nice. The buzz is out there, and there’s an excitement about the band that’s really gratifying. People are starting to get onto it, and wanna spread the word. So it’s very possible, that we’ll be able to do that soon.

BM: Good.

LK: ’Cause you know, it’s supply and demand. If there is the demand, then you really expect to go out and supply it and be able to not starve.

BM: Well, you ought to be able to hit Detroit for sure. But Grand Rapids is a pretty major metal town, as Tammy Z has probably told you. Evergrey’s going to be here, so you could probably bring your band over pretty easily.

LK: It would be nice, like Evergrey hooked up with Iced Earth and did that tour, and that helped them a lot. We need to hook up on a tour like that.

BM: Are you looking to be a supporting band, then, to a larger one?

LK: I think it would be the best to do that, in my perspective. Because you get in front of a lot of people that way. You need to, we’re in a building stage, and you can’t really expect a band that’s as young as us to go out and — at least I don’t expect it, and I don’t think we’re quite there yet, to where we could go out and be a headliner and do really well. But, things change quick, so who knows? It might be that way soon.

BM: Let’s talk about Pyramaze for a while. Where did that name come from? And am I pronouncing it right – PEER-a maze? Did Michael bring that name to you, or did you guys come up with it together?

LK: Yeah, it’s PEER-amaze. Michael came up with that himself, and it’s just a combination of words, you know. It’s something that nobody else is using. He combined pyramid and maze. And wanted to come up with something that was different than anybody else had.

BM: Well that’s always the best way to pick, like, business names too. Just put strange words together. That’s cool.

LK: Yep, so that’s what he did. And I like it. A lot of people, because of the first album – the first album had the flaming guy on it…so the natural association is –

BM: Something to do with fire.

LK: – pyromaniac. Yeah. PIE-ramaze. But that’s a natural association, and I’m pretty used to it. It’s normal.

BM: [laughs] Well, your band’s web site bio page just simply says, “Lance was approached with the material and he agreed to become the new vocalist for Pyramaze.”

LK: Uh-huh. Is that all it says?

BM: That’s all it says. I wanna ask ya, what was it about that material that made you say Yes?

LK: Well, that’s not completely accurate. [laughs]

BM: [laughs] Well good, give me an explanation here.

LK: I was approached with the material and I said yes I would sing on the album. I didn’t say I’d become part of the band, as far as that goes. They gave me an offer to sing on the album, which was very attractive, and I liked the material, and I just basically said that I would sing on it. And by the time I finished with it, there was such a – I mean, I knew I liked the material to begin with, but I didn’t realize what it was gonna become, how good it was really gonna gel. And by the end of it, I was really impressed. I was like, “Wow, I like this. I could do this.” And they were equally in the same mode, and they offered me a – they wanted me to become the full-time vocalist for the band. And I said, “Well, you know, I think I can do that. I like this stuff.” [laughs] But there was quite a lapse of time in between there.

BM: Well, the web site made it sound like it was instantaneous. It’s like, “Oh, I like this. Count me in.”

LK: Which web site is that on?

BM: It’s the Pyramaze site.

LK: Yeah, they must have changed that bio around quite a bit, because that’s not the way it used to read. [laughs]

BM: [laughs] Well, it’s down in a section called “the Debut Album”. So, I don’t know. I printed it out. I was like, “Wow, that was fast. He must have really liked it.”

LK: Yeah, you should check – there’s a bio on me on the instrumental site too. And then I actually have a bio here that I redid, I could e-mail to you.

BM: Oh, that would be great.

LK: Let me just see here, where that is. Hold on a second. I’m going to bring that up, and put down the cell phone for a second.

BM: Sure.

[pause]

LK: Photos, lots of photos. Flyers, one-sheets, which has an edited version of the bio in there probably too. Why don’t I just send you the one-sheet really quick.

BM: Yeah. Thanks. Well, what do you remember most about the recording of Melancholy Beast? What’s your most vivid memory of that time?

LK: Now we’re talking two years ago, now. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

LK: Longer, actually. It’s like two and a half years, three years ago now, almost, I would have started recording that. You know, what I remember most about it is a lot of technical problems with my new rig. I had gotten a really light version of ProTools. And the computer that I was working on was not really set up for it. It wasn’t even a light version of ProTools, I think it was the free version that they have, downloadable, on their web site. So I only had, I think, eight tracks that I could record with. And so, what we did, is have them do some rough mixes, just stereo mixes that I flowed into ProTools, and then I had like six tracks that I can record on. And what I’d do is, after each song was completed, I’d have to kind of start all over again with everything, with a new session, because, for some reason the computer was giving me grief. It just was not set up properly for it, mainly because I think I had so many programs on it, and there was so much in its system, that it just wasn’t digging what I was trying to do with it. It was having a hard time mixing eight tracks.

BM: Just kind of memory overload?

LK: Yeah. It just wasn’t handling it. It was an iMac with like, a 300 MB processor in it, you know. And it just wasn’t really the right machine for that. But it did end up doing what I needed it to do in the long run, it just took a hell of a long time to do it. And I was on a learning curve with ProTools, because I had never used it before.

BM: Oh man, that’s doubly bad!

LK: Yeah, so it was one of those things, to where, “AAAUGH!” And Jacob, the producer, was giving me all these technical things that he wanted me to do, which actually were not that difficult to do in the long run, and helpful, because it allowed me to give him what he needed, so it would take him less time on his end of it. But you know, it took me a long time to figure out a lot of it. So, when I finally got a real computer for ProTools, and I got a real version of ProTools, with really great plug-ins, it was SO nice! [laughs] So nice! So working on the new Pyramaze was just a dream in comparison.

BM: Well, looking back on the whole thing now, do you think fondly of Melancholy Beast, or did it seem like a pain in the ass to you?

LK: Oh no, I still think fondly on it. And my wife thinks it was a pain in the ass. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

LK: I was away a lot longer than she would have liked, working on it all the time. And it was at a bad time, too, actually with just family stuff. My father-in-law was in the hospital and ended up passing away during that time that I was working on it. So that was really not a good thing.

BM: I’m sorry to hear that.

LK: That made it slightly a negative in that aspect, but you don’t remember that until somebody asks you about it. Then you go, “Oh yeah, I guess there were some tough times in there.”

BM: Oh great, I’m dredging up some bad memories for ya, aren’t I?

LK: [laughs] All in all, when it was completed, I was really happy with the work.

BM: What’s your favorite track off the album? The one you really just enjoy playing?

LK: Melancholy Beast? It depends on if you’re talking about listening – you know, there’s a couple that I really, really like. I like “Mighty Abyss.” I like “The Journey.” “The Journey” is a lot of fun to play live. And you know, I like the whole album, but those two were ones that stuck out to me, for whatever reason now and again. And “Power of Imagination” also. I really like that track. Yeah.

BM: Tell me – let’s do this exercise with Legend of the Bone Carver. What do you remember most about recording that? What’s your most vivid memory of it?

LK: Well, it was a lot easier. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

LK: [laughs] I had had a lot of practice with ProTools by that time, doing the Avian album. Recording and mixing, so I’d gotten really pretty good at ProTools by that time. So yeah, it was easy breezy in comparison and I flew through it, really, in less than half the time. I guess with Bone Carver, it wasn’t all that different than most of the albums I’ve done. You start with something, and you start recording your ideas, and you go through the album. By the end of the album, you kind of get a vibe, a groove going, so you go back to the beginning of the album, and you kind of start again and kind of go through everything, make sure it’s up to snuff with what you’re finishing with at the end, so the album doesn’t progressively always get better. [laughs] Starts out weak, gets stronger all the way through. No, no, that’s not a good way to write an album. You want the album to hit you in the face right away, and be really strong at first. Even if you have a few weak songs, it’s better to put them at the end of the album, not in front.

BM: [laughs]

LK: In regards to anything really that stood out, I’d have to look at the album cover and see if anything sticks out. Or the song list, see if something sticks out at me here.

BM: Great songs. It’s a great cover and great songs.

LK: Yeah. I’m really happy with it. What I liked about it is it’s the first concept album that I’ve ever worked on, that I consider to be a concept album. Jan loosely called the Avian album a concept album, and I guess I just didn’t. There are some tie-ins there, but it was more of a loose association, whereas this is really, really tied together. So I consider this one my first concept album.

BM: What’s your favorite track to listen to, and what’s your favorite track to play live?

LK: I haven’t played any of them live yet.

BM: Really? Ooh.

LK: Right. So we’ve got shows coming up, actually next month in Denmark. We’ve got three shows in Denmark in June, and then we’re playing a couple of clubs and a festival in Denmark. And then in July, we’re doing the Headbangers open air in Germany, and also the – ok, I’m getting a mind fart here – the big open air in the UK, and then also doing ProgPower this year in Atlanta. You know, we were looking at doing a US tour and kind of after ProgPower, trying to put something together, but the guys had gone and bought all their tickets already. I’m just like, “What? What are you doing?” [laughs] “Oh, it was a really good deal.” “Well, yeah, I’m sure it was. But guess what…” [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

LK: So, I don’t know. We were looking at that, and that can still happen. It’s going to cost us more to do it, but not any more than it would have cost to book the tickets later on. So they just didn’t get the great deal that they thought they were going to get. [laughs] We knew that. And we do have some other club show offers after ProgPower, so we’re thinking about that. We’re trying to round something up in New York. I don’t know if it’s going to happen or not. We would have loved to work with Epica and Kamelot, and get on that and tour around.

BM: Oh, that would be great. I hope you do, because they’re going to be in Detroit. We’ll be there.

LK: You know, it’s probably not gonna happen. We could have gotten on it, but it would have cost us a lot of money. There just wasn’t any money on the tour left in the budget, between the bands and what their expenses were and what they were getting on the clubs at the shows. We talked to the actual guy that books the shows. Fortunately, I’ve got a friend in town that’s a promoter, that actually hired that tour to come through. So they’re coming to Minneapolis, too. So he was talking to them about getting Pyramaze on there, and he said, “Yeah, you could do it, if you’ve got deep pockets.” [laughs] “If the guys can afford to stay over here and pay their own way around the countryside, then we’re all good.”

BM: Gee. Well, how does it –

LK: In the right situation, maybe that would make sense. I don’t think that was quite the right situation.

BM: Well, how do bands do it then? How would it be practical for you to do a tour? What would have to happen?

LK: Really, it comes down to supply and demand. I think there is a lot of demand for the band now, and that we wouldn’t necessarily go with that grouping of bands, because they’re going to be drawing a lot of the same people that we would be drawing anyway. It would be better for us to market ourselves with another type of metal band that would bring in a little different crowd so that it would bolster the show and support each other that way. I’m not sure that we really need to do a tour like that, unless it would be with Dream Theater or Queensryche or Megadeth or a band of that caliber, then it would make a lot of sense. With these guys, we could go out and we could do just as well on our own, I think, and pay a lot more bills. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

LK: I can’t say we’d do just as well as those two bands together drawing on our own, but I know if we get it right and we did the right marketing and we had another good band with us that would also assist the draw, we could do pretty well.

BM: Well, let me ask you something about your singing a second. Are there any songs on either of these Pyramaze albums that really challenge you as a vocalist? Or are they all just sort of a cake walk for you because you’re so good at it?

LK: I think everything I sing is a challenge for me. I do it that way kind of intentionally. I like to create stuff that isn’t boring and isn’t easy and isn’t something that just anybody could sing. So yeah, they’re all challenging in their own way. They’re all challenging and fortunately, I can reproduce them live. [laughs] They stretch my range entirely and there’s a lot of dynamics in them. I’m going from pretty low notes to pretty high notes frequently, and it’s a lot of fun.

BM: [laughs] If there’s any similarity between Pyramaze and your other bands, it’s that they’re all very energetic and upbeat. You know, they’re powerful, but not bone crushing. Is that by intention? Is this your personality, the upbeat, energetic sort of thing? ’Cause that’s the common theme I hear in all the bands that you’re in, is that they’re energetic and upbeat without being overly heavy or oppressive.

LK: Absolutely. I’m not into the bone-crunching dirge crap, that’s just depressing to listen to. I like stuff that makes me feel the power of the music, but yet is laced with lots of melodies that you feel like singing along, and I don’t know, doing a work out too if you want. [laughs] Something you can get out there and get behind on stage, have a good time. I like the Pyramaze ’cause it’s faster than most of the stuff I’ve done in the past, and that’s a lot of fun when you’re doing it live. Balance of Power, for instance. I use that a lot as an example of the differences between the two bands, because there are similarities in some ways. But Pyramaze is faster and heavier, and when you play that live, it really translates to a different energy. It’s kind of the difference if you were going to see Maiden vs. Queensryche, you know? Queensryche is going to be more you kick back in your seat and you’re gonna listen to it, and enjoy it. You know what I mean?

BM: Oh yeah, sure. I’ve seen both bands. Yeah.

LK: And Maiden, you’re gonna be up there, and your hand’s gonna be in the air and your head’s gonna be banging.

BM: Yeah.

LK: It’s totally, totally different energy, though both bands are awesome. That’s a much better example than I’ve used in the past.

BM: [laughs] Let me ask you about ProgPower. What is it that makes ProgPower so popular and successful? What is Glenn putting together that everyone seems to really love?

LK: There’s a lot of different aspects to what Glenn does that works. I haven’t analyzed it entirely, so I couldn’t tell you what all of them are. But in essence, it’s kind of a coming together of a lot of like-minded individuals, in a nice environment, in a safe, friendly kind of vibe, where it’s not too many people there, and most of the people are all kind of – well, because they’re all kind of kindred spirits, I think it’s like a big family. And everybody’s really cool to each other, and they’re all really excited to be there and meet the bands, and because all the bands do interact with people on different levels and are just wandering around a lot of the time watching other bands, because it’s kind of a mutual admiration society.

BM: [laughs]

LK: It is, you know! It’s like this cool, cool vibe. It’s not just a concert, it’s an event.

BM: Can you describe the typical Pyramaze fan?

LK: Our fans, I’ve been finding, are changing a lot. They’re a lot of teenage boys, and even some teenage girls that are really starting to dig it on the MySpace thing. But typically the nice thing is that it’s bordering quite a span. We have a lot of old lady fans, people that are in their mid forties and late thirties and twenties. I’ve got a guy on the street team that’s a huge Pyramaze fan, and he’s 54 years old. So I’m talking probably 15-50 is a pretty big demographic. I was kind of surprised, because that’s a new spread, really, for me. In the past it hasn’t nearly been that big. So music lovers, people are getting bored with what they’re getting spoon-fed by the major labels right now on the heavy end of the spectrum. There isn’t any melody left anymore. Other than the stuff that’ – I mean there’s really brutal stuff, and then there’s Nickelback and Godsmack and Disturbed and a lot of these other bands, and some of them are very good, but not very many of them are very original anymore, because everybody sounds the same. You’ve got Disturbed, you’ve got Korn. Those two bands stand out as being original. But there’s a slew of Nickelback-sounding bands out there.

BM: Well, I appreciate your time, Lance. I’ve kept you on the phone long enough. Take care. Have a great evening.

LK: You too, bye.

Lance King can be found all over the web, but most notably by visiting these sites:

www.pyramaze.com

www.nightmare-records.com

www.myspace.com/pyramaze

www.myspace.com/nightmarerecords1

www.myspace.com/avaianband

www.avaianband.com

www.myspace.com/shiningstar7

To order Lance King CDs, visit Nightmare-Records or my favorite online indulgence, www.lasercd.com. Tell Ken Golden Bill Murphy sent you.