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Band page - The Tangent
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What is your name and your current position in the band?
I'm Andy Tillison, I'm the band's founder, keyboards player, singer and main composer.
Tell us about the history of the band. More specifically, when was the band formed, how did you meet, and have there been any particular highlights or low points in your career, any crucial events that have taken you where you are today?
The Tangent was formed in 2002, but was really a simple solo project. As more and more musicians became involved, the album we were working on became less and less like a solo album, and so we decided to change it into a project style band. The first musician to become involved was Roine Stolt of the Flower Kings. He suggested finding a Sax player and so I asked VDGG's David Jackson and he, happily, agreed to make the album.
It's funny that you ask "how did you meet", because the first time the members of the Tangent ever met was after we had finished and released our first album. We'd done it all by post and the internet in 2 different countries. Jonas Reingold our bassist had no idea who I was when he first met me, yet he'd already made an album with me. That was a great moment.
As for high points and low points, I think Parallel or 90 Degrees (my other band) playing a concert to ONE person (who I'd invited to the gig that afternoon) was definitely a low point. We rehearsed for the show, it took 3 hours to set the gear up and one person came. As for high points, the second Tangent tour was fantastic fun, and the highlight was our concert at Rosfest in the USA where the audience was large and very very enthusiastic. It was like coming home, except 6000 miles from home.
Crucial Events? I think it was getting a bad review from a guy called Ian Oakley while our other band was supporting the Flower kings. I wrote to him to say the review was unfair... and he now manages the Tangent, after virtually forming it for me.
Was there ever a time when you wondered if your band would remain just a local outfit and never make it in the industry?
Yes there was, and there still is!!! The Tangent is hardly AC/DC in world fame terms. We certainly aren't a local outfit because we live in
3 countries, but we are still essentially a struggling rock band, trying to sell our music in a very cold climate.
What is your latest album and why should people buy it?
Our latest album is called "A Place in the Queue". People should buy it because it was written to take them on a journey, and there's not enough music that does that any more. It's an album that is actually ABOUT something, and we have tried to be as imaginative as possible in its creation. The cover is fabulous too.
How would you categorize the style of the band? And did you ever consider or try playing other styles of music than the one(s) you are playing now?
The Tangent is a Progressive Rock Group. Some people call us a "Retro"
progressive group, and though I understand this term, I don't accept it when it its meant as an insult. I think that the music we play is, although certainly influenced by music from the 1970s, no more retro than Green Day or many other bands who purport to being "ahead" or "current". I think our use of influences is actually quite a refreshing sound at present. Of course, I've played all sorts of music in the past, from Punk, to New Romantic to Funk to Thrash Metal.
Can you share with us one or two of your favourite moments with the band?
Theo Travis behind stage at a concert where 40 people were waiting to see us, we're just about to take to the stage. he says: "25 years from now, there will be thousands of people who claim they were here tonight, at this legendary performance, of the best prog concert of all time" It was a great moment. I still believe him.
How is the writing process in the band?
I write the bulk of the material for the band. It's usually piano or guitar where I start on the music, but it can sometimes be a sung riff, a bass riff or, well anything really. The lyrics that are already written can be the source of the rhythm and melody too. I usually take the music up to demo stage in my own studio, and then the rest of the band add/take away from the demo until we have a band performance. Sam Baine has written two songs for the band on the past couple of CDs, and Theo Travis has contributed in the writing of the new album, once with his own song "DIY Surgery" and he collaborated with me on the album's title song "A Place In The Queue".
All the musicians play a defining output in how the songs actually turn out, and we are all in communication about the songs from the minute I have a demo for people to hear. I have a very good relationship with Guy Manning, a songwriter of considerable skill himself. We don't actually write a lot together, ("Lost In London" is a rare but good example I think) but I listen to him and Sam very very carefully while writing and recording music.
What brought you on the path to becoming a musician? Did you ever consider or take any other paths through life besides music?
I have loved music since before being able to remember. I started piano lessons when I was six, was blessed by a classical record collection in our house, a Mother who sang and played the piano. She was very encouraging about my playing. I always wanted nothing more than to spend my life playing and composing music. I was composing before i was 10 year old. It was almost certainly crap music, but I'd started.
Rick Wakeman and Hugh Banton were the two keyboards players who made me want to transfer my skills to Rock Music, Hugh was actually at the same school as me a few years earlier, so his example was very encouraging to me personally. I've always enjoyed teaching, and helping young people through education as a technical support guy, but it's always been music that was number one in my career life
Do you have any idols? If yes, who?
The only poster I ever had of a "person" on my wall was a picture of David Jackson from Van Der Graaf Generator. he ended up playing on our first album, which of course was great. Peter Hammill is a major hero, but I learned a lot about myself and my perception of other artists when I actually got to meet him many years ago. How you can put someone on a pedestal in your mind, and how that compares to the reality of the real person you are "idolising". It;s not that there's anything remotely wrong about Peter Hammill you understand. Likeable chap in my opinion, but after meeting him in 1980, no I have no idols. I think he'd be glad to have helped me discover that. I'm glad he did.
Do you have any regrets looking back at your career? For example any songs or even full albums that you regret recording? If so, what made you regret it?
No... no regrets. I did it my way. Except for a re-release of the 1959 number one hit single by Emile Ford and the Checkmates "What Do You Want to Make those Eyes at me for?" Emile Ford himself asked me to help him remake the single. It was released with a picture disc of the man reclining on a sofa in a red sequinned jump suit tantalizingly holding a banana and two apples uncomfortably close to his crotch. The record was released under the name "Emile Ford and the Synthesiser Kid". This is the first time I have ever told the truth about it. Which is the kind of thing that happens when you do interviews too late at night.
Are there particular songs in your catalogue that the fans love but you're not particular fond of yourself?
Actually it's the other way around. Most fans tend to actually prefer the ones I DO like. In the case of one of my personal favourites, "The Winning Game" a lot of people don't seem to like it. It's odd, but that's how things turn out sometimes. I always thought it was by far the best tangent song of the first two albums.
How important do you rate the lyrical side of your albums?
For me personally, it's crucial. I grew up listening to Peter Hammill, Roger Waters, Joni Mitchell and their kind and I was hanging on to every word. Even the less real lyrics of Jon Anderson always managed to move me albeit in a different way. Songs always have to be about something.
That something does not always have to be deep heavy and politically aware. Songs can be jokey, light hearted, sad, joyous. Getting the right lyrics to convey these emotions is of course every bit as important as the music which accompanies the words. It's part of the final deal.
There are those who don't listen to the words, and I have no problem with that at all. I just want to get it right for the people who do!!!
What do you think about the state of the music industry today?
We don't really have one. We have an entertainment industry, a media industry, but not much of a music industry. Small pockets of real care still exist even at high levels, for example EMI still try to reach for excellence through their support of artists like Radiohead. Although many other bands are producing quality output in today's world, it seems to someone cynical that they are successful DESPITE being high quality rather than BECAUSE they are high quality.
As the focus of mainstream popular music moves more and more towards the manufactured artist and band, the reality TV tie-ins and the fact that mainstream artists simply have to look good, well, we have lost a lot of the clout that Rock & Roll originally promised. Nothing could really highlight this more than the fact that, in the Iraq conflict, no real positive protest songs came out of the mainstream music industry. There was no Dylan on CBS against Vietnam this time. Such protest as there is, is manifested through the kind of compromised "charity" projects which kicked off with Band Aid /Live aid in the 1980s.
As Chumbawamba pointed out on their 1986 album "Pictures of Starving Children sell Records" - "Charity is like parking an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff instead of building a fence across the top". The world is faced with two choices on this issue, Charity, or Change. At present, it is quite obvious that our music industry, such as it is, is much more in favour of supporting the former. None of this means that I don't respect the Geldofs, Stings and Bonos of this world.
They are nice guys doing good things. Dylan wasn't a nice guy. he didn't do nice things, but he really really made people think about the world we live in. In this respect he created a real movement of feelings that no charity credit card hotline could subdue with a feeling of "paid off guilt"
What do you think is the best way to fight music piracy?
My answer to this question is MY OWN and does not in any way represent the policies of The Tangent's management or record company.
The Music Industry as we know it has not existed yet for 100 years. At the moment it is clearly under threat for its very existence by what the industry likes to refer to as "piracy." This piracy comes in many forms, but they are all lumped together by the industry as equally bad. I think I committed my first act of piracy in about 1976 when I taped Pink Floyd's "Animals" off the Alan Freeman Saturday Show.... he played the album in its entirety. I got a very good copy of it from a stereo receiver onto a high quality Sony reel to reel recorder at 15 inches a second. It lasted me for years. This action was very similar to "downloading" music from the "peer to peer" or torrent sharing systems that the internet now offers. Now, as a musician, I am faced with the fact that 6 weeks prior to the release of our album, you could download it in its entirety at high quality from more than 40 sources. There is little doubt that the sources of this "leak" were Journalists and reviewers who had been sent promotional copies. Yet I am not either annoyed, or (like Metallica) trying to hunt down and sue the people who did this.
The reasons for this are simple. Firstly, the fact is I don't have a great deal of sympathy for the mainstream music industry. It has never really helped me at all. As a progressive music FAN, the industry has let me down, spurned me, encouraged an attitude of ridicule towards me in the various journals and media that spin around it like Satellites.
The industry has replaced the true independence of artistic impression with designed bands, auditions and game shows all of which reinforce company policies rather than true resonance. As a musician, the music industry has betrayed me. The proliferation and support of Discos, Raves and other Record/CD playing events has quite simply destroyed the ability of a musician to work for a living. Although the record companies are quite keen to go about claiming that downloading a Madonna CD is actually stealing Madonna's money, they neglect to point out that their unfair domination of the wider musical world actually prohibits musicians from even making enough money to break even. When our band goes out, we have to work out how much we can afford to lose. A DJ is so much cheaper, with so few logistical problems, that to make the DJ the star rather than the artist inevitably was a major coup for the record companies. We have reached a situation where an unsigned/non celebrity musician can only find actual real paying work by forming a group in "tribute" to one of the groups that is supported by the record companies and publishing houses. The record companies stole my ability to make money from my trade many years ago. Why should I care for them?
"Hang On" you might say, "what about companies like Inside Out and Cyclops, they aren't the mainstream record companies... it's not fair to them either"... and of course you'd be right. these companies have done nothing other than support the creation and performance of high quality imaginative and independent output. I'll tell you straight.... in 5 Parallel or 90 Degrees albums and three Tangent albums, NOT ONCE have either record company intruded into the recording process, never sent the tapes back saying "you need to change this". They have been totally supportive, and their belief has been 100 percent. They have never told any of us to get a new image, never made any of us visit anything as horrible as a Style Guru, or to change a member of the band for someone better looking. It is totally unfair to steal from them, because they are not only friends of the musicians, but they are also the friends of the fans. This is because both these companies and others like them are themselves, just fans who want to see the music out there too.
Although this seems as though I am saying. it's OK to download Madonna, but not The Tangent, that's actually not the case. 15 years after I taped the Pink Floyd album, I found myself as a well paid teacher instead of enthusiastic schoolkid with only pocket money. I've bought "Animals" twice now, on vinyl and CD. I have all Pink Floyd's stuff, paid for in my collection. I've just come from a forum site where a guy happily proclaims that he's downloaded the new Tangent album, likes it so much that he's bought it. The internet has undoubtedly helped progressive rock music.... given as much to us as it has taken away from us. People will always share their music like they will always share their jokes. A joke is no fun until you tell it to someone.
To finish my very long answer to this question... I guess I believe that, despite all my hard work that nobody owes me a living. But nobody should STEAL my living. As far as I am concerned, you download a copy of our album from someone who is sharing it, well fair enough. maybe one day you'll buy the album if you like it enough. But there are places that look and seem OK, sites which will SELL you our music, either as downloads or as counterfeit CDs. (Allofmp3.com is one such download site) You will give them your money, and they will take it from you, and give us nothing. That is really stealing. Counterfeit albums of our first two titles already exist. A guy simply sits at home with a CD copier and a high quality printer and has a few beers while he copies our CD. Then he makes more money out of our music than we do, after we worked for 6 months to make the album for you. Counterfeiting and pay-for downloads are the real problem to the real musician.
Do you have a life philosophy? If yes, what is it?
This is not a rehearsal.
Even though that IS my guiding philosophy I did ignore it by foolishly waiting until I was 44 years old to make an album I thought nobody wanted to hear. It was "the Music That Died Alone" and more people heard that than anything else I ever wrote.
Can you describe a typical day in your life?
Not really. A motorbike ride perhaps, a few phone calls, listen to a couple of albums, write some music, play instruments. I'm not doing a job outside music at the moment, but I think I will again in the future and I hope it's teaching people stuff. I'm enjoying the freedom to concentrate on music full time for the first time in my life.
What do you like to spend your time with besides music?
I like to potter about with computers and radios. Love walking and cycling and motorcycling. Interested in world affairs, good cinema, art.
What's the craziest thing that has ever happened on a tour?
Sitting for two hours waiting to do a soundcheck because the headline band's roadcrew at a festival wanted to get their three video projectors aligned correctly. Result, the audience who came to hear music got a nice video show for one band who sounded great and three others (including ours) who sounded terrible. Value for Money eh?
You're heading off to live on a deserted island for a couple of years with your portable entertainment system... Which albums, movies or books would you bring?
(Max. 3 of each)
Albums
Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans. my musical companion for my whole life past and future. A never ending resource of wonder and fascination
Peter Hammill - a Black Box. All my hopes and dreams for everything I am or want to be "locked in a black box deep inside, encoded there somehow"
Roger Waters - Amused to Death. A grim reminder of where I've come from, and where I might be going to if I, and We are not careful
Books.
I like to travel, so I'd probably take "The Lord of The Rings"
Can I have the complete works of Shakespeare please.... so much to find Asimov's guide To Science. This would help me understand a bit better.
Movies.
"2001: a Space Odyssey" is a challenge every time I see it. "Back To The Future" because my kids loved it so much.
What is your favourite joke?
The Cat on the Roof joke, as told by the soon-to-die fake astronaut in the film "Capricorn One" The performance of the actor in question (forget who it was) is comparable with the finest Olivier performance of Hamlet's soliloquy. It is the best joke ever, and can only be appreciated by watching the film itself.
Can you tell us about any future plans for you and your band?
Having just released our third studio album it's early to be talking about our next plans. However we do intend to play live this year, and all of us want to record together again in the future. I think it's always best for a band to come together when it has something to say, rather than come together becuase it feels it has to. I hope the Tangent can remain this kind of band. I am working on a real solo album at present which i hope to release later in the year.
Thanks for answering these questions. Now you are free to write a few lines to our readers.
Thanks to all who care for and write about progressive rock music. All of us are dependent on you in a world that doesn't care much for our work. It remains a pleasure and an honour to make music for you all.
Added by Steen - 3/1/2006
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