Initially, I simply had some questions for Arjen Lucassen. But know that with this man, one doesn’t make an interview. With Arjen, one chats as you would in high school or at the end of a party. You know, the kind of discussion which, like a Hawaiian magic mushroom, a frustrated professor in politics or like a discussion during a date, sidetracks from a topic to another without you really realizing how it happened. Starting from Arjen’s last productions, namely Guilt Machine and Star One, we managed to discuss about the next Symphony X, about intergalactic laxative and about… the movie Jaws! We did our best to present this interview to you in its rawest form possible, so as to present you the man and to show you that discussing with him is easy, enjoyable and fluent.
Arjen Lucassen is ambitious without being egocentric! It’s with a disconcerting ease that he admits his faults and his musical redundancies and that he talks, nearly embarrassed, about his flaws. Showing a clear sense of self-mockery, he laughs about his inability to write albums without any keyboard nor any guest singer. On that matter, he officially declares that he is currently working on a solo album on which he will be the only vocalist! An open interview full of anecdotes which, I’d bet my bottom dollar on it, will please every Arjen Lucassen’s fan at least as much as I was pleased doing it.
Near the end of the interview, while I was about to hang up, an obvious fact came to my mind. Arjen is a name really close from “Aryan”! That first name must be creating controversy. Arjen Lucassen then tells me about this Ayreon’s fan whose car, having a license plate barring the band’s name, was trashed by some guys convinced that the band had some acquaintance with the 3rd Reich’s ideology. This fan sent the license plate to Arjen as a souvenir. Being myself a vulture-journalist, I asked him if he still had it. A few seconds later, I got its picture in my email.
Ne Obliviscaris – Exul
MAMMOTH WVH : les détails du nouvel album Mammoth II ; vidéo de la chanson « Another Celebration At The End Of The World » dévoilée
Kamelot : ancien monde, nouveau monde
THE DARKNESS de passage à Paris en novembre 2023
EVANESCENCE de passage à Lille en juin
MASS HYSTERIA dévoile la lyric vidéo de la nouvelle chanson « Mass Veritas »
Satan Jokers : mélomane mégalomane
Laura Cox : la tête sur les épaules
GOZU : les détails du nouvel album Remedy ; clip vidéo de la chanson « Tom Cruise Control » dévoilé
La tournée européenne de WHITE WARD est annulée