Rockezine.com interview with Medea on Dec 27, 2005

with Henry Meeuws on Dec 27, 2005

Well, to start off, congratulations with a fine new album! I must admit that I was rather surprised with the high quality of this release. Your debut album ‘Individual Unique’ only got five and a half out of ten points, but “Room XVII” really deserves at least eight, maybe even nine out of ten.
		One of my main criticism of ‘Individual Unique’ was the rather weak sound quality. With the new album things seem to have improved big time. Was there a big difference between the recordings of both albums? At first: Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate that. The two processes of the recording show some similarities, but also some important differences: With “Individual Unique” all vocals and all the instruments (guitars, keys and drum programming) were recorded at my own Wolfsfield Studio by myself. We did the mix and mastering in three days at the Markant Recording Studio. With “Room XVII” I recorded only all guitars and keys at my Wolfsfield Studio. We recorded the real drums (by Fon Janssen) in Belgium and it took three days. We did all the vocals at Custom Recording, except the men’s choir which I recorded on location. Besides I was privileged to use a vocal coach (Edwin Balogh) and an engineer (Peer Rave) for the recording of all vocals. So now I could concentrate myself on producing everything. Meanwhile the co-operation with Peer Rave was growing and now we understood each other much better than the first time during the mix from I.U. I ‘m convinced you can hear it in the end result.
		Artistically you must be really pleased with the end result. Do you expect “Room XVII” to be a commercial success? To get an impression of ‘commercial success’, how many copies of the new album are you hoping to sell? How many I will eventually sell doesn’t really matter to me, because I’ve already reached my goal: To make an album that surpassed my last work. An album that I can support and which I’m proud of. I’m too realistic to say it will become a commercial success. The progressive rock scene in the Netherlands is too small to make a real commercial profit out of it. But of course, the chances are growing a bit now I that have the confidence of Snakebite. I hope with the help of them, Medea will become widely known in the progressive rock scene.
		How important is it for you to be able to release the new album on a proper label (Snakebite) in stead of releasing an album indepentently? For me it is the confirmation that people have appreciation for my music and like to listen to it. Besides that, it opens more possibilities to realize such a project as Medea and get it on a higher level.
		With “Room XVII” you again chose a historic setting as a basis for the concept of the album. Do you have a special interest in history? Yes, the historic settings inspire me to interweave my messages and themes in a real story. I like that combination. Fiction against non-fiction. Past against present. I saw it as a challenge to let the pieces of the puzzle fit in the right places in the theme of the VOC. Regarding this I regret I didn’t pay more attention at my school time during the history lessons. Maybe that would have made it much easier to write the concept.
As far as it goes Ayreon has always been an example for me.		The rock opera concept combined with the use of guest vocalists (and of course the Dutch nationality) makes a comparison between Medea and Ayreon obvious. What is the biggest difference and the biggest similarity between both projects? I don’t know but I think the difference is the budget to make the album. Probably the working method will be almost the same as Ayreon and that’s the way I mostly prefer to work. As far as it goes Ayreon has always been an example for me.
		One thing kept me wondering. Working on a historic rock opera, do you start with the lyrics or with the music? How important are the lyrics for the musician Meeuws? This time I started with both. At first I had some musical ideas and a theme (VOC) for a concept story. The music and the lyrics are united from the beginning of the process. Sometimes I adjusted the lyrics to the music and sometimes I let the music support the lyrics. But now the melodic lines of the vocals took a central place in the writing process and in the whole concept I tried to write the music and the lyrics for the use of the song.
		One of the tracks I particulary like is “Farewell?” a balled with a rough edge. Sandra Peeters (V-Male) is responsible for the excellent female vocals. When did you decide on asking her to participate on the album? Sandra was a guest vocalist before on the “Once In A Blue Moon” album from my band Casual Silence. During the repetitions of the song “Dreamweaver” I was very charmed by her voice and from that moment I thought: “I really want her voice in my next solo project”. My wish has come true and again, she did it so well!
I still didn’t make the perfect Medea song.		Name the three most important ingredients of the perfect Medea song. 1 Melody and harmony, 2, a fine balance between sensitivity and power, and 3, Daniël Gildenlow as guest vocalist. You see, I still didn’t make the perfect Medea song.
		How important and how much fun is it to do interviews like this one, and how important is it to get good album reviews? In spite of the fact it takes some time for me to express myself in English, I like to do interviews like this. It gives me more time to think about an answer and I see it as a medium to let the people know me and my album better, a medium to profile myself and my music. I think good album reviews are important for better sales of the product, but I already noticed that reviews nearly always are subjective. That’s the reason I base myself on my own qualities and my own feelings.
		What is the most hilarious thing that happened during the recording of the album? Rob (Jeurian) thought he had the role of a brave, strong person with a hammock to fight. When I explained the meaning of the hammock he was confused. From that moment he always took the hammock with him and during the repetitions he fought with it. We laughed much about it. Further it was a quite serious job we all did. Everyone took his own part in the concept very seriously, knowing the expectations were high. I appreciate that very much.
		What’s the best Dutch band at this moment? Hard to say. My favourite bands like Pain Of Salvation, Wolverine, Andromeda or Dream Theater come from abroad. For the Netherlands in this rock scene: Kayak and Ayreon. They’re a great example for me.
		Looking at your private cd collection, which album makes you blush in shame? The ‘EK voetbal CD’ with the best football hits, I got it for free with a package of videotapes. I never threw or gave it away. Maybe we’ll need it in 2006 with the WK. (ha,ha,ha)
		What is your ultimate dream profession wise? For now, my dream has just come true. But I know myself and I assure you I‘ll soon shall create a new dream. Maybe with Casual Silence, maybe with Medea.
		The last remaining and obvious question is whether you’re gonna take “Room XVII” on the road. The material on the album could be made suitable for a stage production. If there’s someone with a large bag of money, time and a professional vision about how to realise this, I’ll think about it. But I’ve got a full job, a wife and two kids and as I look back how much time and organisation it has cost me realising ‘Room XVII’, I think it‘s not realistic at this moment to do this. But who knows, never say never…! First it’s time for me to put my energy in the new album of Casual Silence. We expect to release it in the autumn of 2006.
With friendly musical greetz, Henry Medea Meeuws (Geert Oldenmenger)