Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / You Can't Label Prog Rock Derek Ferguson Explores Refestramus's New Album

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You Can't Label Prog Rock Derek Ferguson Explores Refestramus's New Album · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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  Speaker 1: I am so glad that you are here, whether you're
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  Speaker 1: Enjoy your exploration. How are you doing today?
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  Speaker 2: Doing very well, thanks. How are you?
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  Speaker 1: Doing fantastic. My God, you guys are out on the
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  Speaker 1: road and you're coming through Carolina. I mean, it's amazing
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  Speaker 1: to see what you guys are doing with your music.
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  Speaker 1: What is the reaction and how are people, I always
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  Speaker 1: want to believe, what are they taking with them as
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  Speaker 1: they leave? They have to be mesmerized.
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  Speaker 3: Well thank you um yes the the feedback has been
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  Speaker 3: extremely positive people are digging seeing uh live progressive rock
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  Speaker 3: for uh you know it's what a lot there's not
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  Speaker 3: a lot of it around uh nowadays so um but
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  Speaker 3: i've always felt this is a kind of music that
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  Speaker 3: does best in the live setting so uh Yeah, the
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  Speaker 3: reaction to it has been extremely positive. People love the
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  Speaker 3: melodies and the energy in the live performance, I think.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I'm so proud of you guys for keeping prog
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  Speaker 1: rock out there because you're right. It is a movement
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  Speaker 1: that seems to be kind of in the background or
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  Speaker 1: basically maybe underground right now. But what you guys are doing,
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  Speaker 1: especially with that song, The Lucky Ones, my God, I
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  Speaker 1: am shocked that EDM stations have not jumped all over
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  Speaker 1: this right now because it has got a rhythm to it.
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  Speaker 1: And it's got a story to it that really is
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  Speaker 1: totally EDM.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we see a lot of crossover appeal. It's very
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  Speaker 3: interesting because when we play progressive rock specific events, people
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  Speaker 3: like the music.
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  Speaker 2: And they react to it and it's what they know.
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  Speaker 3: But I think a lot of times with progressive rock bands,
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  Speaker 3: when they play non-progressive rock events, the audiences are sort
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  Speaker 3: of alienated. We don't seem to get that reaction from
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  Speaker 3: non-Prague audiences. They seem to understand it and relate to
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  Speaker 3: it pretty well, which we're very happy to see.
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  Speaker 1: I was going to ask you about that. What is
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  Speaker 1: the Spotify, iHeartRadio, Apple crowd really? Do they know what
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  Speaker 1: Prague music is or is it something that we need
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  Speaker 1: to educate them on?
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  Speaker 3: Well they don't know what it is and i'm not
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  Speaker 3: sure we want to educate them uh because because because
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  Speaker 3: you know like a while back prog was sort of
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  Speaker 3: like a dirty word right like you know you got
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  Speaker 3: you got hard with that as an epithet but now
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  Speaker 3: um you know the kids today they they listen to
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  Speaker 3: it and they're just like hey i like this you
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  Speaker 3: know it's i like this music i don't need to
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  Speaker 3: put a label against it And so we've come out
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  Speaker 3: the other side of that, where it went through a
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  Speaker 3: period where folks knew what it was and they wouldn't
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  Speaker 3: give it a chance because of the label. Now, without
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  Speaker 3: the labeling, kids are hearing it and they're just sort
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  Speaker 3: of like, you know, hey, that reminds me of Pink Floyd, which,
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  Speaker 3: of course, most of our music sounds nothing like Pink Floyd.
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  Speaker 3: But to them in their mind, you know, that's the
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  Speaker 3: closest thing that they have as a parallel to reach for.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Maury's Rock Boutique really does fit into our lifestyle because,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, when I was sitting here and I was
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  Speaker 1: studying Lakeview Samurai, right away I'm thinking, oh, my God,
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  Speaker 1: I could hear this while I'm in yoga class, or
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  Speaker 1: I could do it if I just want to do
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  Speaker 1: something mindful. There's something about this song that speaks a
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  Speaker 1: language of, can you just sit back for a moment
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  Speaker 1: and turn off the world?
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  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Yes, that's, and we brought in real Japanese musicians.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 3: To play that rather than uh rather than just doing
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  Speaker 3: it with synthesizer we felt that was important to the
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  Speaker 3: ethos of the piece so um you're hearing the real thing.
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  Speaker 1: Wow and that's what i love about today's music is
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  Speaker 1: that we are willing to explore was it one of
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  Speaker 1: those where you kind of sent out and they sent
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  Speaker 1: you the tracks.
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  Speaker 2: Back yes that was and that makes it The first
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  Speaker 2: album was all done that way.
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  Speaker 3: It was all just done through mailings and all that
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  Speaker 3: sort of stuff. This album, Morrie's Rock Boutique, was much
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  Speaker 3: more of us playing together. The upcoming fourth album will
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  Speaker 3: be all in the studio, us playing together as a band.
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  Speaker 2: Because we like that.
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  Speaker 3: But You know, for something like traditional Japanese musicians, you
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  Speaker 3: get the authentic.
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  Speaker 2: Thank God for the internet. That's all I can say.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm so glad that you're open with this
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  Speaker 1: and transparent with it because I was going to ask
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  Speaker 1: you about the song lyrics. Why do they sound so global?
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  Speaker 1: And I'm getting this vibe because you guys are global
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  Speaker 1: and that you're bringing the world to us.
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  Speaker 2: That's there is.
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  Speaker 3: There are all sorts of different influences in the music.
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  Speaker 3: There's Slavic influences and Latin influences. Of course, the way
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  Speaker 3: we describe our genre is we consider it to be
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  Speaker 3: Heartland Prague. It's Prague in the sense of Kansas or Styx.
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  Speaker 3: Or I would even make the case some cheap trick.
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  Speaker 3: It's that late 70s. um, uh, Midwestern, uh, sound that, that,
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  Speaker 3: that we really, uh, adore and, and, and try to
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  Speaker 3: try to do homage to as best we can.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I picked that up on the song storms. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: this one right here, I turned to my wife. I said,
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  Speaker 1: why am I not listening to this one on the radio? Oh,
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  Speaker 1: that's right. I don't go to the radio as often
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  Speaker 1: as I do, but that song right there is a
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  Speaker 1: radio song and radio needs a hero right now. And
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  Speaker 1: God dang, if that one doesn't fit right in.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, the music is driving, and it has
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  Speaker 3: a hook that sort of hopefully catches you. But what
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  Speaker 3: a lot of folks don't realize is the intro to
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  Speaker 3: that song is actually in the Not a Time signature.
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  Speaker 3: There's one little extra beat in there that if somebody
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  Speaker 3: were to try to get up and dance to it,
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  Speaker 3: you would....
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  Speaker 2: You'd find you'd find out.
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  Speaker 3: Very quickly because that one little extra beat just kind
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  Speaker 3: of will throw you off which is what we like
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  Speaker 3: doing is a little bit of experimentation every song we.
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  Speaker 1: Do oh now come on Derek because I was the
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  Speaker 1: guy that was in the studio and because for some
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  Speaker 1: stinking reason one day I couldn't hear my click track
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  Speaker 1: so my wife had to come in there and tap
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  Speaker 1: on my back for the click track I mean you're
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  Speaker 1: one beat off and that's okay but boy they were
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  Speaker 1: having a cow with me in the studio.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, I guess it depends on whether it's intentional
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  Speaker 3: or accidental, right? Oh, my God.
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  Speaker 1: That's studio talk right there. Listeners don't get that. Those
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  Speaker 1: moments in the studio where I'm doing great.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: Let us know when you're doing better.
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  Speaker 3: Good job, buddy.
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  Speaker 1: Now, when you step into a song to explore it,
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  Speaker 1: what does it take to really build a song? And
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  Speaker 1: that's a part of the journey that I wish more
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  Speaker 1: listeners understood. Or do you want the listeners to identify
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  Speaker 1: the wizard behind the curtain?
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  Speaker 2: That's an excellent question.
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  Speaker 3: We have been sort of finding our way over the
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  Speaker 3: course of the three albums we've done so far. And
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  Speaker 3: I think you want to get to a point where
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  Speaker 3: it's never formulaic, but where you have a a general
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  Speaker 3: structure and a process that you follow.
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  Speaker 2: I guess there's a difference between a process and a formula.
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  Speaker 3: Most of the ideas on the album, actually I would
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  Speaker 3: say all of the ideas on this last album.
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  Speaker 2: Start with me having an idea for a melody, which.
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  Speaker 3: I hum into my phone, and then I let it
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  Speaker 3: sit there Or at least a couple of weeks before
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  Speaker 3: I go back to it. In fact, I woke up
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  Speaker 3: this morning with the melody in my head and I
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  Speaker 3: grabbed my phone and I hummed it into there.
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  Speaker 2: Now, I'm not going to.
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  Speaker 3: Listen to that for two weeks because I yeah, I'll
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  Speaker 3: come back.
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  Speaker 2: To it in a couple of weeks along with a
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  Speaker 2: bunch of other ideas. And if I am like, oh,
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  Speaker 2: that's a good idea. Great.
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  Speaker 3: But more often than not, I'm like, God, what was
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  Speaker 3: I thinking? And I just get rid of that one. And,
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  Speaker 3: you know, you start with like maybe 100 ideas like
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  Speaker 3: that and you get 50 that are worth actually demoing
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  Speaker 3: for the band. And if that maybe, you know, 25 are, yeah, actually,
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  Speaker 3: you know what, let's go ahead and record these. And
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  Speaker 3: then 12 or so make it onto the album. It's
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  Speaker 3: this constant process of whittling down such you hopefully wind
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  Speaker 3: up with just giving folks the real gems rather than
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  Speaker 3: all the muck that you had to go through to
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  Speaker 3: get to the gems.
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  Speaker 1: You know how I'm learning to deal with that? And
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  Speaker 1: this is going to sound so freaking weird. And it's
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  Speaker 1: because I am. So I admit to it. And that
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  Speaker 1: is when something like that happens to me, when I
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  Speaker 1: get a melody or I get an idea, I will
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  Speaker 1: quickly put it on like a little chip of some
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  Speaker 1: sort of memory stick. And then I'll put it in
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  Speaker 1: a container that is plastic and I bury it in
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  Speaker 1: the earth. And I tell myself, you cannot go back
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  Speaker 1: to that for four months. And just because I want
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  Speaker 1: it totally 100% away from me so that when I
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  Speaker 1: find it again, I want to be able to feel
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  Speaker 1: it again.
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  Speaker 2: That's exactly it. You know, I.
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  Speaker 2: I started with the humming stuff.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I'm the drummer in the band, but I took
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  Speaker 3: the same piano lessons as everyone else, so I could
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  Speaker 3: go to a piano and just pound it out instead.
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  Speaker 2: But I do the humming for two reasons. One, if
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  Speaker 2: you compose on an instrument.
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  Speaker 3: I had an early music composition teacher in college who
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  Speaker 3: told me, if you compose at your instrument, you will
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  Speaker 3: never write anything that is better than your skill on
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  Speaker 3: your instrument.
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  Speaker 2: And so, you know, better to just hum it.
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  Speaker 3: And the other thing I find is if a melody
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  Speaker 3: is really strong and really good, just humming it is
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  Speaker 3: sufficient that when you come back to it, you'll be like,
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  Speaker 3: oh yeah, I remember that. I know exactly what I
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  Speaker 3: was doing there. That's almost like an additional filter that if,
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  Speaker 3: if I did it with, if I actually reproduced it
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  Speaker 3: on an instrument, I put it down, it would be, um,
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  Speaker 3: there'd be stuff like the timbre that I chose and,
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  Speaker 3: you know, the, the, the production quality of it that
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  Speaker 3: would put too much glow on it. Whereas if something
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  Speaker 3: survives just having been hummed and you still recognized a
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  Speaker 3: couple of weeks from later.
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  Speaker 2: You know, it's good.
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  Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Derek from Rifa
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  Speaker 1: Stramas coming up next. The name of the album? Maury's
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  Speaker 1: Rock Boutique featuring Hell and NYC, New York City. We
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  Speaker 1: are back with Derek Ferguson from Rifa Stramas. You bring
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  Speaker 1: up that piano and right away I'm taken to Cossack's
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  Speaker 1: dream here. That piano, dude. The drama, the mystique, the orchestra.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my God, where did your emotions go with this
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  Speaker 1: while you were building it?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I have to give major props to. So
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  Speaker 3: on this album, we were joined by a couple of
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  Speaker 3: people from the band Octarine Sky. That is Diane Potter
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  Speaker 3: Voigtland and Jan Christiana. And those keyboards are Diane, who
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  Speaker 3: is an amazing conservatory trained musician. And Jan Christiana, who
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  Speaker 3: is he's our bassist vocalist, but he is also one
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  Speaker 3: hell of an arranger.
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  Speaker 2: So massive props to them for for a lot of
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  Speaker 2: the stuff.
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  Speaker 3: And of course, it's a traditional Cossack song, but they've
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  Speaker 3: taken it to a whole whole new level. So I
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  Speaker 3: got to got to salute them for the for for
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  Speaker 3: how well that turned out.
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  Speaker 1: With what you guys are doing, first of all, the
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  Speaker 1: name you went unique, which I love you for, because
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  Speaker 1: that's how you make things memorable. That's a Gene Simmons ism.
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  Speaker 1: And the thing is, is that you're also out there
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  Speaker 1: at these Prague festivals that are taking place. Do you
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  Speaker 1: find yourself being a modern day scout or pioneer? Because
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  Speaker 1: you are exploring. And that's why I get so charged
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  Speaker 1: up when I hear the mere mention of your name.
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  Speaker 2: We try.
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  Speaker 3: You know, you mentioned Gene Simmons, and he's an underrated bassist,
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  Speaker 3: by the way.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, sure, he didn't fly all over the.
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  Speaker 3: Fretboard or whatever, but just the bass parts he chose
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  Speaker 3: and continues to choose are just very tasteful and complement
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  Speaker 3: the song.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And obviously hugely.
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  Speaker 3: Influenced by Paul McCartney, who I also think is an
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  Speaker 3: underrated bassist just because he's so good at everything else.
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  Speaker 3: But something that I heard Paul McCartney say once was
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  Speaker 3: in every Beatles song, they tried to do exactly one
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  Speaker 3: thing differently. That was new and innovative and super interesting.
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  Speaker 3: And when you think about the Beatles songs, you can
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  Speaker 3: go through and say, oh, that's the song where George
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  Speaker 3: Harrison has the volume pedal and it's gone. You know, or, oh,
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  Speaker 3: that's the one with the orchestra crescendo at the end.
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  Speaker 2: Or, you know, that's.
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  Speaker 3: So I try to remember that with every song that
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  Speaker 3: we do. I like it to be approachable. I like
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  Speaker 3: it to be stuff that folks can understand. But in
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  Speaker 3: every song, I try to put in one thing which
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  Speaker 3: is unexpected and different and doing that whole scouting thing.
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  Speaker 1: Concept the street scene in hell or new york that
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  Speaker 1: had to be one of those where you guys were
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  Speaker 1: in there going it's setting up it sounds good you
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  Speaker 1: know what we need we need something that's going to
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  Speaker 1: put them in the mindset of oh my god this
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  Speaker 1: is the street this is new york we're in hell
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  Speaker 1: or we're not in hell what was that one of
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: those situations.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah it was i um um so coming up Bear
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  Speaker 3: Stearns and a legendary sort of Wall Street firm that ultimately,
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  Speaker 3: you know, got into issues and all that.
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  Speaker 2: Sort of stuff.
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  Speaker 3: And it was not uncommon in that sort of environment
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  Speaker 3: to have traders screaming stuff when they had trades going south.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, it's set.
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  Speaker 3: On the street outside, but really I was thinking about
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  Speaker 3: the Wall Street trading desks of the 2000s and some
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  Speaker 3: of the stuff I saw and experienced there.
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  Speaker 2: Wow.
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  Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about what
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  Speaker 1: you guys are doing? And please tell me you've got merch,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: because here in the Carolinas, as you're going to find
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: out or you have found out, we love our merch, dude.
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  Speaker 2: You can go to rifastramus.com.
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  Speaker 3: But the one thing I would say is we just
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  Speaker 3: got Maury's Rock Boutique on vinyl. And we did the
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: gatefold sleeve. So when you open it up, you have, uh,
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: this beautiful piece of additional artwork that was done by
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: the same person, uh, actually a couple who've done all
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: of our album covers and, um, the lyrics are in
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: there and it's multicolored, uh, vinyl itself.
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  Speaker 2: When you pull it out.
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  Speaker 3: Um, I wasn't skeptic if I'm, if I'm honest, cause
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  Speaker 3: I'm sort of like, Oh, vinyl is the sound quality,
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: all that sort of stuff. But, Oh my, Goodness, this
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: is just a gorgeous, gorgeous thing. We're going to be
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  Speaker 3: bringing plenty of those with us on the road.
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  Speaker 2: So we've got CDs and T-shirts and all that sort
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: of stuff, whatever you want. But I have fallen in
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  Speaker 2: love with them.
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  Speaker 1: It's reminded me of the Electric Light Orchestra, the way
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  Speaker 1: they used to do the same thing with their vinyl.
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  Speaker 1: And to this day, when I walk into somebody's home
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  Speaker 1: and I see that dang album up there, I'm going,
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  Speaker 1: I knew they knew what they were doing. They knew
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  Speaker 1: exactly I would live beyond that moment.
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  Speaker 3: It's, yeah, you know, it's because with streaming, you just
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  Speaker 3: don't have anything to hold in your hand and look
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  Speaker 3: at while listening. So I will raise my hand and say, yes,
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  Speaker 3: the folks in the band who said we should do
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  Speaker 3: some vinyl, they were right.
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  Speaker 2: I was wrong.
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  Speaker 1: You got to come back to this show anytime in
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  Speaker 1: the future, dude. The door is always going to be
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: open for you.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, sir. Tremendously appreciate it. Always a pleasure talking
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  Speaker 2: to you.
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  Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant, okay?
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Thank you, sir. Have a great day.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Thank you.