"Ihave to be honest with you, I’m not really a prog musician,” confesses Nick Beggs. That’s a disarming proclamation from a musician who has played with Steven Wilson, Steve Hackett, led the prog power trio The Mute Gods, and who recently filled in for Pete Trewavas with Marillion on Cruise To The Edge.
“I’m really a pop writer,” insists the bassist and Chapman Stick player. “That’s how I learned, that’s what I schooled myself in, that’s how I started out and I’ve had some success doing it. But I think it runs pretty deep in me. Old habits die hard and when I start thinking about material, I start thinking about three-minute pop songs.”
That leads us to The New Normal, the second album from Trifecta, the trio of Beggs, keyboardist Adam Holzman, and drummer Craig Blundell, veterans all from Steven Wilson’s live band. Their latest release is a double album of delightfully wonky prog fusion, but the compositions are concise, filtering their flights of fancy through the discipline of pop songcraft.
“Adam is the one who will help to expand things into the more progfusion idiom,” says Beggs. “I do like that way of working, but the kernel of the idea has to be a song format for it to work, unless it’s a piece of a more surrealist idea, which is just throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.”
The New Normal is the follow-up to 2021’s Fragments, which is a surprise to Beggs, who hadn’t expected Kscope to want another Trifecta album.
Bu hikaye Prog dergisinin Issue 150 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Prog dergisinin Issue 150 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
JAKKO M JAKSZYK
King Crimson's vocalist and guitarist shares anecdotes from his revealing new autobiography, discusses his lost career as a footballer and reveals what he said when he met the former king of pop.
A Part & Yet Apart
Sheffield-based 80s proggers Haze have returned with a new studio album, The Water's Edge - their third since their 2013 comeback record, The Last Battle. Prog catches up with threequarters of the band to discuss Haze's DIY ethos, the curse of prog and playing to Cumbrian sheep farmers.
CONTROLLED AIRSPACE
He's about to embark on Dream Theater's 40th Anniversary Tour, but keyboard maestro Jordan Rudess has taken time out to discuss his soaring new solo album, Permission To Fly.
On The Wing
Birds, break-ups, big choruses and the Charlie Chaplin effect can all be found on In Murmuration, the ninth album from Finland's Von Hertzen Brothers. But as they embrace their power pop influences, have the Finns cast off their prog wizard cloaks once and for all? Mikko von Hertzen talks about the Seattle influence, songwriting secrets and sax solos.
Fourth Dimension
The stock of melodic Northumberland-based proggers Stuckfish has been rising since they formed six years ago. Their fourth studio album, Stuckfish IV, represents an important watershed in the band's musical evolution. Co-founders Adrian Fisher and Phil Stuckey tell Prog about the diverse influences that have helped to shape it.
Symphly The Best
In the 70s, Barclay James Harvest almost bankrupted themselves by performing with an orchestra, but, several decades on, they’re celebrating last year’s performance with the Slaithwaite Philharmonic, captured on their latest live record, Philharmonic! The Orchestral Concert. John Lees reminisces over the band’s ambitious early years and bassist Craig Fletcher fills Prog in on JLBJH’s upcoming “progtastic” double album.
We've Not Been Expecting You
The unpredictable Frost* are back with Life In The Wires, a bold double concept album that revisits the mood of Milliontown. Bandleader Jem Godfrey tells Prog why he rolled out the solos on a record he describes as the most fun since their dazzling debut.
FAR HORIZONS AND PANORAMIC AMBITIONS
Dutch five-piece Lesoir have been steadily gathering momentum over the last 15 years, and they hope to build on that with their latest release, Push Back The Horizon. Vocalist/ instrumentalist Maartje Meessen and guitarist Ingo Dassen discuss the creation of their sixth album, working with Muse's production team, and their dream of bringing their intricate music to new audiences.
'I mean, what is classical nowadays?'
Tony Banks reflects on his role as a 21st-century classical composer.
There Can Be Only One!
Never meet your heroes, or so the saying goes, but Opeth have had a blast working with Ian Anderson on their latest, The Last Will And Testament. Bandleader Mikael Åkerfeldt and guitarist Fredrik Åkesson discuss the band's proggiest album to date, the return of the growl and why blood isn't always thicker than water.
