PROGTALKS by The Progspace

Teddie Burton, drummer of French avantgarde prog punkers !GeRald! talked to us about his love for everything that makes noise, the rare infusion of a punk ethos into proggy music and the making of their debut album “The Lost Tapes”. Dive into the spectacularly eclectic world of !GeRald! and listen to “The Lost Tapes” now. After finishing this episode of the Progtalks of course… Chapters: 02:00 Who or what is !GeRald! ? 05:00 The line-up of !GeRald! 10:00 Prog Punk: channelling an...

3/4 of UK Newcomers Giant Walker joined the Progtalks today to reveal the origin of the band name, their primary influences and how important it is to have music that gets you through hard times. Their debut album “All In Good Time” is out on Friday, May 13 - and it’s a good time for it! Chapters: 01:00 Introducing Giant Walker 06:26 Where does the band name originate from? 10:48 The songwriting process for All In Good Time 13:00 How would you describe the sound of Giant Walker? 20:50...

Pure Reason Revolution guitarists/vocalists Jon Courtney and Greg Jong called from Berlin and Portland/Oregon respectively to talk about the European tour with Gazpacho they just finished, the new PRR album “Above Cirrus” and what makes their vocal arrangements so magical. Chapters: 01:50 European tour with Gazpacho: how was it? 06:30 continuing the new era of PRR with Above Cirrus 12:45 arranging vocal arrangements vs. arranging instrumental tracks 15:20 translating studio arrangements...

Norway’s Delvoid take their time with their studio albums. So we took some time to talk with vocalist Alex Delver about their third full length offering, “Swarmlife”, vocal influences and of course the meaning behind the band name. We also had a nice nerd-out on single-song albums, (multiple) album-spanning multi-part songs and all those kinds of proggy songwriting shenanigans. Chapters: 01:00 three different types of bands on The Progtalks 01:55 welcome Alex of Delvoid from Oslo 04:00...

Songwriter John Boegehold keeps churning out the music with Pattern-Seeking Animals. Their third album “Only Passing Through” is out since April 1st, so we called him up in his home studio in L.A. to talk about his influences, the perfect album length, a bit of prog history and why he’s not part of the P-SA live line-up. Chapters: 00:58 Welcome (back) John Boegehold 02:30 ‘accidentally’ forming a band 04:00 logistical challenges recording the new album Only Passing Through 06:00 initial...

French disney djent phenomenon Soledad is back as a full band 3 years after “Catharsis”. Our guests on this new episode of the Progtalks are Bandleader Lola Damblant-Soler and producer Lucas de la Rosa. They talk about the new album “XIII”, their favourite classical composers and the difficulties of transcribing guitar solos. Chapters: 01:00 welcome back Lulu, welcome Lola 02:55 from Soledad - a solo project to Soledad - the band 05:45 the songwriting process for XII - what was different...

One week before the 2nd edition of the Prognosis Festival will finally go down, we rang up Paul van Berlo (Loudnoise) to talk about the challenges they had to face such as having to postpone twice due to Covid and last minute band cancellations as well as plans for the future of Prognosis. See you April 15/16 in Eindhoven! Prognosis #2: April 15/16, Effenaar, Eindhoven (NL) with: Katatonia, Leprous, Enslaved, The Ocean Collective, Long Distance Calling, Cellar Darling, Focus , Klone, Magic...

Alyson Blake Dellinger & Max Mobarry from Tennesseean genrefluid metal gang Flummox talk about their “heavy, queer sounds for the strange & nocturnal”, how they reworked old songs into what would become “Rephlummoxed” and how simply being a transfem frontperson will automatically make you an icon. Chapters: 01:00 welcoming back Max, introducing Alyson 02:44 the Flummox story so far 06:25 the origins of Rephlummoxed 13:17 what does Flummox sound like? 22:00 what does Flummox write and...

Drummer/composer Iago Franco Gonzalez and producer/vocalist Lucas de la Rosa from Berlin based international prog metal project Aquae Furtivae tell us everything about their debut album “Road to Square One”. From the emotional concept of dealing with Iago’s father Alzheimers diagnosis and how it affected his family, all the way to how much fun they had sending files back and forth when writing and recording the album. Chapters: 01:00 Introduction 01:55 The Road to releasing Road to Square...

In this new episode of the Progtalks, Stefan Altzar of Swedish Prog Rockers PreHistoric Animals talks about his love for It Bites, the importance of humour in music and of course their brand new album “The Magical Mystery Machine - Chapter Two”. We also reminisce about fun past tour shenanigans at ProgPower Europe as well as look at upcoming concert plans. Chapters: 00:55 Introducing Stefan 02:10 The new PhA album is about to drop! And the artwork is gorgeous! 04:00 The journey from...

You have to diversify yourself if you’re working in the music business: Karcius’ Sylvain Auclair on their new album “Grey White Silver Yellow and Gold” and surviving the pandemic as a full-time musician. We also talk about the songwriting ping-pong game, embracing heaviness with age rather than growing softer and we also touch on the chances for new material from his other band, Heaven’s Cry. Chapters: 01:00 Introducing Sylvain 02:20 The Karcius story so far 05:33 Grey White Silver...

Guitarist Michael Kotsirakis and keyboardist Orestis Zafeiriou from Greek post-proggers Playgrounded talk about the production of their massive new album “The death of Death”, out on March 18 through Pelagic Records. We talk about the concept behind sound and lyrics, how the pandemic affected the release of the album and their upcoming live plans. Chapters: 01:10 Introducing Playgrounded 02:32 How The death of Death came to be 06:20 Greece or The Netherlands? 07:48 Spending time on...

Returning with their sophomore effort “Connection” after the highly acclaimed surprise 2019 debut “Salutogenesis”, German prog collective Soulsplitter talk about line-up changes, string arrangements and confronting your inner toad on this new episode of the Progtalks. Chapters: 01:10 Introducing Soulsplitter 04:00 Incorporating Sami as main vocalist after “Salutogenesis” 06:00 Writing and recording process for “Connection” 08:50 Changing pianists 11:40 Incorporating real string...

A true virtuoso on piano and synth, Vikram Shankar talked to us about how difficult it is to write shorter songs, how you definitely can’t unburn a piano and making Raphael Weinroth-Browne’s Cello-playing a little less pretty. Silent Skies’ sophomore album “Nectar” is out right now via Napalm Records and Threads of Fate’s debut full length “The Cold Embrace of the Light” is coming through Layered Reality Productions on March 11. Chapters: 01:08 A wild day in Silent Skies land 02:00 2021...

After some busy years with Ayreon on both the album and live front, the tall dutch hippie Arjen Lucassen returns to his Sci-Fi metal project Star One with “Revel in Time”. Reason enough to invite him for a relaxed Progtalk. We chat about some of his old and new guest vocalists, Star One’s arrival in a contemporary earth setting thematically and how many cymbals Ed Warby broke during the recording sessions. Chapters: 01:45 The third Star One in 20 years! 03:00 Revel in Time! 03:50 The...

Gearing up for EUROVISION - Australia Decides on Feb. 26, Voyager’s Alex Canion and Scott Kay join our host Dario for a full hour of good prog, pop and Eurovision banter! Nerding out on Symphony X and Textures, musing about the evolving progscene and evaluating their chances against stiff competition in the heavy department this year. Don’t miss out on them before they might go to Italy as the next step of their (World) Domination Game! Chapters: 01:25 Why did we invite Voyager to the...

In the new episode of the Progtalks, founding member, keyboardist and clean vocalist Miguel “Moe” Espinosa talks with host Dario about the songwriting process, lyrical themes and guest musicians on Persefone’s new opus “metanoia”. Chapters: 01:25 from Aathma via In Lak’Ech and The Truth Inside the Shades to metanoia 05:50 Merkabah and Katabasis vs. the rest of the album and the evolution of Persefone 11:00 Spiritual metaphysic journeys vs. the material process of change through...

French composer Vivien Lalu finally returned with his 3rd studio album “Paint the Sky”. We talked about all the amazing musicians he invited to play this time, the departure from the melodic prog metal sounds of his early work towards a modernised, heavy progressive rock style and much more in this newest episode of the Progtalks. Chapters: 01:30 The story so far… 02:20 Changes 04:48 Songwriting process for Paint the Sky 07:09 The core band line-up 10:44 Band? Project?...

In the newest episode of the Progtalks you can learn how to pronounce Wilderun properly - from Evan Berry himself! How about that? We also talk about their new album “Epigone”, going back on tour after such a long time and some of his songwriting influences from outside the prog world. Chapters: 01:33 How do you pronounce Wilderun? 02:20 Epigone, being picked up by a label and the initial reception of the new album… 04:15 From Veil of Imagination to Epigone: the songwriting...

Welcome to the Second Season of the Progtalks! Fitting in nicely with the relatively young tradition of stellar Greek prog bands, Thessaloniki based 5-piece Within Progress is the current rising star in that scene. So we sat down with keyboarder/guitarist Tasos Platanionis to talk about their debut album “INNER”, influences from outside the Prog world and more on our first Progtalks episode of 2022. 🎵 Within Progress is: Giorgos Charalambidis - Bass Polydoros Dardogiannos - Drums,...