HW: Brock w/ Ayreon

[K Henderson]

Hi Folks...

As recently announced, the Baron has completed a guest shot on the upcoming
Ayreon album.  Although it looks like it might be released under a different
band-name, i.e., Arjen Anthony Lucassen's 'Star One'...taken from Blake's 7.
The album will be called 'Space Metal.'  (I dunno...it was all rather
confusing, but I think this is right.)

Here's what Arjen had to say in his latest update, from www.ayreon.com...

Grakkl (FAA)

^^^^^^^^^^^
Last week I recorded Ed Warby on drums in studio RS29. Despite the fact that
we had lots of problems with the computer the first day, he managed to
record his drums for the whole album in almost one day! And that's really
unique, for Ed is very critical of himself and I'm only allowed to continue
to the next song until he's satisfied. In fact I've got practically nothing
to say, Ed's in charge!

And again on this album he will continue to surprise you right from the
start with this amazing doublebass powerfill. And once again Ed has shown
that he masters both the most complicated techniques ánd the straight
forward drumming when it's needed. And after all these years of working
together we understand eachother perfectly. I don't have to tell him what to
do, when I record him he plays exactly the things that I hope he will play.
Ed is like a self-thinking computer that doesn't need to be programmed!

This week Dan Swanö will be here and at the beginning of December Russell
Allen will visit the Castle. Man, am I looking forward to recording both of
them! I will of course let you know how it went shortly, so keep your eye on
the site.

I've also recorded a 9-minute medley for this album of one of my favourite
bands, and I managed to get the original singer to sing it!

I have always been a huge fan of the band Hawkwind, ever since the 70's.
Hawkwind were the inventors of 'space-rock' and they have released over a
100 albums (including live and compilation albums) and I've collected most
of them. Now I have tried for years to get their founder member and still
the main focus of the band Dave Brock (vocals, guitars, synths) to guest on
my Ayreon albums, but never succeeded in doing so. In fact nobody has ever
succeeded in having him do a guest appearance on any rock album!

As you know the lyrics of my new metal album are based entirely on space
movies, and I thought it would be very cool to record a Hawkwind medley for
it. So quite spontaniously I sent Dave an email asking him if he wanted to
sing the lead vocals on it, and I sent him the instrumental demo after he
answered that he was interested. To my (very pleasant!) surprise he said he
liked the demo and wanted to do it!

For those of you who don't know Hawkwind, they are an English psychedelic
band who started out in 1969, had a big hit in the early 70's with a song
called 'Silver Machine' (sung by Lemmy) and they are still going strong. In
fact at the moment they are touring the UK with their extravagant live show.
They are a big influence on Ayreon's music; they combine analog
synthesisers/sequencers, Mellotrons and organs with fuzzy guitarriffs, use
spacy atmospheric sounds and write science fiction lyrics. What I also like
about them is that they always stayed true to their style and fans, which
enabled them to build a very loyal fan base and record many, many albums.

A few days before I was scheduled to fly over to Dave Brock's studio, he
called me up and told me that when he was rehearsing with Hawkwind in his
studio, the whole band was infected by some bug and got sick. So he warned
me that he had a terrible cold on the chest and his voice would be quite
croaky, but I decided to go anyway in order to go over the songs with him
and -of course - to finally meet him!

Dave picked me up from the airport and drove me to his huge estate. It was
great to be in the studio where most of the Hawkwind albums were recorded,
the place was full of memorabilia. We went over the songs together, took a
long walk through his huge forest, saw his horses and then Dave cooked me a
great meal. He is a real gentleman and took great care of me. He also gave
me many Hawkwind collectors items that I had been looking for for years. I
found out that we have a lot in common. How great it is to meet one of your
musical influences, and he turns out to be a nice guy as well!

Meanwhile Dave (now 60!) has recorded his vocals on his own in his studio
and he sent me the tapes with his voice about a week ago. I must say that he
did a great job! It's so great to hear that voice that I've been listening
to for 30 years on my own recording. Don't expect a singer with lots of
technique like Ronnie Dio, but expect a singer who sings from the heart,
delivered with a great London accent ;O)

For all you Hawkfans out there, these are the songs in the medley:

MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE
SILVER MACHINE (chorus only)
PSYCHEDELIC WARLORDS (Disappear In Smoke)
BRAINSTORM
ASSAULT AND BATTERY
THE WAR I SURVIVED
(SPACE IS DEEP) (instrumental riff)
SPIRIT OF THE AGE (chorus only)
LOST CHRONICLES (instrumental outtro)

Talk to you soon!

Arjen