Interviews

In between of the release of the debut album and the second album a lot has happened for Soul Secret. The debut album, Flowing Portraits, was released in 2008. Just before recording this album vocalist Michele Serpico became ill and all vocal duties were done by Mark Basile. Serpico returned for some shows but appeared not steady enough and he resigned.

It’s not ‘every day’ you get a chance to speak face to face with one of the most accomplished guitarists in the world and especially in the genre of progressive rock. Playing live in the Netherlands for the third time in less than two years, Steve Hackett is still on top of his game. Steve remarried recently (with Jo Lehmann, on June 4, 2011) and released another great studio-album (Beyond The Shrouded Horizon) as well as a dvd (Fire and Ice), shot at London’s Shepherd’s Bush.

I had been nagging Frank from RoadRunner since last May and a couple of weeks ago he delivered, interview with Mike Mangini ahead of the Dream Theater NL gig at Zwolle on 1st February. Mike comes across in media interviews and the audition video (The Spirit Carries On) as a guy a little too nice to be real, well I can assure you it’s not fake, he’s the real deal: warm, intelligent, open and caring. Ladies and gentlemen we give you the one-and-only Mike Mangini, “a dumb drummer who hits shit“…

A slight departure from our usual interview format, this week as DPRP’s Phil Chelmsford spends a day in the studio with Jeff Green and Sean Filkins as Sean records vocals for a track on Jeff’s forthcoming CD Elder Creek

Norway’s Leprous have been around for a few years now, but really burst onto the Prog scene with their latest album Bilateral. This release got a DPRP Perfect 10 rating from our radio-show host Andy Read and it’s also my favorite release of 2011. Supporting Finnish prog-metallers Amorphis on a huge tour around Europe, the penultimate gig brought them to Belgium’s Biebeob venue in Vosselaar where I had the pleasure to chat to singer/keyboardist Einar Solberg and guitarist Tor Oddmund Suhrke before the gig.

It has been a rollercoaster time for the Scottish neo-Prog rockers Pallas who came storming back onto the scene last year with their album XXV, the official sequel to their landmark studio album The Sentinel originally released way back in 1984.

In a DPRP exclusive, Alison Henderson chats to both bassist Graeme Murray and lead singer Paul Mackie!

DPRP’s Brian Watson recently got the opportunity to put a few questions to Phideaux Xavier, about his influences, the new album Snowtorch, future projects including the band Mogon, the fabled 7 ½  album and the conclusion of the trilogy that started with Great Leap/Doomsday Afternoon.

It should be noted that we here at DPRP have reviewed eight Phideaux albums, and every single one of them received a recommended rating. Some claim to fame but this fact should come as no surprise for all those of us who were lucky enough to catch their show at last year’s Summer’s End festival.

Islington Academy, London on an October evening. I’m here to meet Symphony X.  With me is my gigging accomplice for the evening, from work, Bill Sharman.

At time of arrival who I will be talking to is still unknown… will it be Sir Russell Allen, Michael Romeo or will it be one of the other guys, Michael Le Pond, Michael Pinnella or Jason Rullo?? While we wait in the catacombs of the venue.. Sir Russell appears and stands in the corner playing with his iPod, various roadcrew members wander too and fro until one turns up with a bag of Nando’s chicken.. at this stage Russell pipes up…. ‘Your not eating more of that shit (laughing)’…   [Phil Chelmsford]