How did Neal Morse follow-up an epic double-album concept project? Why, with The Great Adventure, another epic double-album concept project! Preston Frazier caught up with Morse as he prepared for his latest appearance on Cruise to the Edge, the all-star Yes-sponsored concert at sea. He also discussed the challenge of creating a sequel and his five most important albums in this new Something Else! Sitdown …
PRESTON FRAZIER: You’re about to take The Great Adventure of the road.
NEAL MORSE: Yes, we are starting off in Nashville [on Saturday, February 2, 2019]. I’m also finishing up my keyboard parts on the new Flying Colours album. I’m trying to tie up all these loose ends. I’m finishing up [Morse’s progressive rock opera] Jesus Christ, The Exorcist and getting it to the label. It’s going great. I’m really enjoying it.
PRESTON FRAZIER: It seems to me you just released The Similitude of a Dream.
NEAL MORSE: Well, that was November 2017 when it came out. Then we started touring for it in in February of 2018. It’s been over a year.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Is The Great Adventure a continuation of The Similitude of a Dream?
NEAL MORSE: Well, it’s more of a different view of The Similitude of a Dream. It’s the journey of the abandoned son who was left behind in TSOAD. After the guy who is left behind has a vision, he tries to convince his wife to join him, but she won’t. So, he takes to the trip on his own. It’s based on The Pilgrim’s Progress book which tells her story. Lyrically, it didn’t work for us to tell the story from her perspective, so I thought, “Why not sing from the perspective of the eldest son who was angry to be left in the city of destruction?” Lyrically, that was the key that unlocked things for me.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Would you talk to the writing process for The Great Adventure? It’s your third project with this high-powered band.
NEAL MORSE: Actually The Similitude of a Dream came out in late 2016, so it’s been two years. Back in the winter of 2017, I started with the concept. I wrote “Vanity Fair” and a few pieces that were not used. The way it usually works is everyone in the band seems to get pieces of the puzzle. It’s hard to figure sometimes what the big picture is supposed to look like when you are in it and creating it. I had little pieces of it, but the other guys had ideas and we kicked them around in August of 2017, and then we got together in January 2018 to make the record. We wrote a lot of it in the room, all together. [Keyboardist] Bill [Hubauer] has some pieces, and [guitarist] Eric [Gillette] had some pieces. That’s kind of how it worked. We got to there in the room, and went from there.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Musically, the band brings in pieces and you collaborate. Lyrically, do you have the foundation done before you get in the studio?
NEAL MORSE: No, most of the lyrics come later. A lot of times in my progressive rock writing it’s like that. I may have a fragment – like “Welcome to the World,” I have a chorus. I know I want to start the song with that and end it with it, but I didn’t know what went in between. Sometimes, it’s like a puzzle where you have the corners and you’ve got to fill in the middle. A lot of times, I’ll do that later.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Do things like the “Overture” and “Overture 2” come later, after you have an album’s overarching theme?
NEAL MORSE: Yes, we did that later. There was some minor overture things we worked on but once we went, we had to decide how to fit them all in. One of the challenges with this one was there were quite a few really good slow themes and we couldn’t fit them all in the overture. Eric’s theme, which was the quiet guitar passage after “Welcome to the World,” didn’t make it into the overture because it didn’t fit. That’s OK. There are three or even four versions of this album. I have at least another 2 1/2-hour demo version of the album. We did the final editing in August of 2018, cutting down a version of over 2 1/2 hours to under two hours.
I’m really pleased with it. There were some great riffs, solos and songs we lost. That’s the nature of collaboration.
PRESTON FRAZIER: I’m amazed how prolific you are. You have so many projects going on at once and produce such high quality and levels of musicianship. You were finishing this around the time you were doing the live performances of Jesus Christ, The Exorcist.
NEAL MORSE: Yeah, that was a real challenge. I talked to the band and said, “Let’s debut this on Cruise to The Edge,” so I really had to get all my stuff done in August. The final writing wasn’t done until August 10th. I was still replaying and re-singing things at the last minute. I have this whistle in the studio next to the microwave. I kept seeing it and I said “There’s a place in the album for the whistle.” When I was listening to the mixes, I heard a place for it and the day before the mastering I added it and sent the file to [longtime mixer] Rich [Mouser] and we got in on the album.
PRESTON FRAZIER: You recorded the album in your studio in Nashville?
NEAL MORSE: Yes, and I have a drum room with a permanent Mike Portnoy drum kit in it.
PRESTON FRAZIER: It must be massive!
NEAL MORSE: [Laughs.] I got tired a paying the cartage. It’s really a blessing. I have a Hammond organ and a Leslie all miked up. I have a couple of amp rooms. It’s very functional. Of course, everybody does their own recording too. Bill Hubauer, Eric Gillette and [bassist] Randy George can do their own overdubs at their studios. We really do the writing and drums here, and I do my stuff here in Nashville. We leave with finished drums and a full arrangement and a scratch track. Then we hone the songs that need additional work. Sometimes, we have a basic track pretty much done. The album took about 18 months. It was a long one. It was the first time I’ve worked on a record with Mike where I thought the album isn’t quite done.
PRESTON FRAZIER: What was missing?
NEAL MORSE: I don’t know. It just wasn’t what it was supposed to be. It was really good, but I think it didn’t go where it needed to go. The more I prayed about it and thought about it, I felt it needed to be a follow-up to Similitude. That’s what it wanted to be. It wasn’t easy because I knew the other guys didn’t want to do that. I didn’t either, but that’s how it ended up. I sent the other guys a sketch of it and they liked it.
PRESTON FRAZIER: You don’t have to have Similitude to love The Great Adventure.
NEAL MORSE: Thank you. I really want it to stand on its own.
PRESTON FRAZIER: You’re about to do Cruise to the Edge again?
NEAL MORSE: Yes. We will be playing this album, mostly.
PRESTON FRAZIER: I’m looking forward to seeing this tour.
NEAL MORSE: Yes, I’m getting my head in the live performing space now. I did the guitar solo to the song “Welcome to the World.” It’s nice to occasionally step forward with a solo. Eric had gone away before doing a solo. He said “I don’t feel anything,” so I gave it a shot. I didn’t know what to play at first, but it built upon itself.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Before I let you go, could you tell me your five favorite albums?
NEAL MORSE: Yes’s Close to the Edge; Return to Forever’s Romantic Warrior; The Who’s Who’s Next; John Mayer’s The Search for Everything; and the Beatles’ White Album.
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