Quality,ladies and gents! is the keyword when it comes to intelligent progressive rock and it seems drummer/keyboardist/producer/composer Daniel Flores knows exactly the importance of quality when it comes to writing music with parallels to AOR,pomp and progressive rock.
Hi there Daniel! Do you ever find any time off from your busy schedule?
Daniel Flores: Actually I do, right now I am writing new songs for the next Mind?s Eye album so you could say this is my relaxing time as I rather do this instead of resting on the couch. I also spent a lot of time looking at movies? I enjoy a good movie here and then.
I just saw the Metallica documentary about their last album, everybody who has a band should go and buy or rent this film as it really mirror what bands are going trough while making records and working on the road.
I am wondering how you can be everywhere playing on so many cd?s and at the same time working 100% on your material with Mind?s Eye,
isn?t it close enough to get burned out?
Daniel Flores: Close but no cigar!! Well, you are completely correct. In fact if I didn?t have Mind?s Eye I would in fact be burned out. All the session I do with bands like Hubi Meisel, Tears of anger etc?are just stuff that I do for the money?. well not completely true? what I mean is some of it is fun but really it?s also what I do to get food on the table.
It?s a tough life living and breading music and it gets harder and harder to get new kicks out of it every time I record something new. THANK GOD for Mind?s Eye as it?s really what kept me alive for the last 10 years or so. To write my own music is my biggest outlet believe it or not, almost like therapy.
Anyway, I will try to work as much as I can while people still think I am worth hiring hahaha Times will anyway change soon and the new kid on the block wont be me anymore? until then I will at least burn out on 60 more records?. hahahaha
I am really impressed with the sound of your new album "Walking on h20", it doesn?t feel like an independent low budget album, we?re talking a lotta bucks production, how were you able to get the album to sound so big?
Daniel Flores: Thank you for noticing the hard work behind it. How? Well for starters I have to say that it really took me over 10 years to get where I am today sonically. I mean I have been working as an engineer in my studio for as long as I can remember, practicing everyday, testing out all the new stuff coming out, making mixes buying new stuff.
To make it short, just keeping my ears sharp and tuned all the time. That?s one side of it all. The other side is the vision, I really like to stress this as I have said it in other interviews. To visualize things is really important. I mean I have the same tools as everyone, even not as good as everyone, but how come it sounds so big? The Vision + hard work and knowledge, I believe + knowing your tools. If you saw my studio you would laugh your ass off as it?s nothing fancy, on the contrary it?s a rat hole with a mixing console and two computer screens? but the sound coming out the monitors are speaking a different language. One that makes you want to hear more.
I also want to say that a band that doesn?t know how to mix and produce their own records don?t really have the full picture, it?s when you master all these things that you can say that the music is your and yours only, without any others peoples influence.
I feel I can draw parallels to XSavioR?s "Caleidoscope" where you also were a part of the band, but I guess Minds Eye is more of your own baby compared
to XSavioR that was a band or am I wrong?
Daniel Flores: Mind?s Eye is a real band compared to the other ting. I mean we have a career and will make more records in the future. Xsavior was just a phase I had to go trough at the time. I mean I am still proud of my work there, who wouldn?t be! The fact that you and many, many others draw a parallel to Mind?s Eye is just so funny as I was so involved in that album I could easily have called it ?Daniel Flores Xsavior? if I wanted to (I can see the others faces go red now, getting pissed off).
To me that album was a cool way to get to know Goran Edman better and the start of a very good relationship between me and him. You could say that it was a band thing between me, Goran and Benny. I left it for good.
Why keep working with something that is so tough trying to keep on the road? It?s just waste of time. I have better things to do now and Mind?s Eye is stronger than before. I would anyway have to choose as I could have two progressive bands sounding almost the same and my choice would always be MIND?S EYE. I wish things where different but they are as they are.
I hear so many different influences in your music with 70?s pomprock as well as classic progrock and even AOR, I know you haven?t always sounded like this on your first albums, how come you have taken this direction soundwise?
Daniel Flores: I have taken this direction since the making of Caleidoscope and I really fell comfortable with my direction. If you heard the last album ?A work of art? then you would know what I am talking about, because I really started when doing this album. I have always loved this kind of music and feel that I wanted to go this direction after ?A work of art?.
As you can see ?A work of art? was my first steep into this world, then ?Caleidoscope? was another seeping stone and now ?Walking on H2O? is my last stop I believe.
I read that Terry Bozzio, Neil Peart and Rod Morgenstein are a few of your favourite drummers, you could easily have far worse to look up to, how do you feel the drummer?s role should be in a band coz I believe those just mentioned plays the drums like they were musical instruments with important parts of the songs where you actually can
remember the exact beat to a specific song when maybe other progrock drummers
just show off with virtuoso technique which I find boring.
So what?s your opinion on this?
Daniel Flores: Some of these guys really overdo it? I agree. I must admit I love this kind of drumming more than I like traditional drumming, if there is such a word as traditional. For instance if you take a band like AC/DC, these guys are really monotone in peoples ears and drumming wise it all sounds the same, the same beat every time just changing the tempos...
I think something in between is cooler, to mix the kind of drumming done is Ac/dc and bands like Rush, that?s what I do I think? So we live in a different world today and versatility is a must for all musicians coming out today.
What I?m trying to say is that extremes never work, as you have to find a middle ground to meet your listeners, depending on the kind of listeners you want to have? and the amount of course.
I have taken a big steep away for the technical aspect of my drumming and going directly to the heart of the music, I do what the song demands, nothing more nothing less.
There are certainly allot of guys out there who need to mature in them selves and a good way is to hide behind big kits and allot of drum patters, never repeated. It?s just a shame that these guys are making records because it?s just a steeping stone and doesn?t necessary need to be flaunted on an album, rather it working perfectly when practicing in the rehearsing room when nobody hears you.
There is a big difference in making interesting playing and or being a bearded lady in the circus. Only those who do it from heart get away with it..
What?s in store for 2006 more than promoting the new album?
Daniel Flores: I hope for some gigs to pop up for us, especially in Asia, we would love to go to Japan and play.? Let?s see what will happen. Other than that we are writing the last parts of the new album, which will be very, very dark and much heavier than our last. Another concept album about a assassinator and his tragic life.
What cd?s are spinning in your cd/mp3/iPod these days?
Daniel Flores: Many cd?s. Here are some: Allen and Lande ? The battle, Depeche Mode ? Songs of faith and devotion, Soilwork ? Stabbing the drama, the best of Tchaikovsky and also some score music: The Predator by Alan Silvestri and E.T - The Extra terrestrial by John Williams
I read you were born in Chile, how is the music scene down there, do you follow up on South American rock music?
Daniel Flores: Since I left Chile when I was a child (7 years old) I haven?t got the smallest clue of what makes my old countrymen tick. I guess from what I heard there are allot of rock music listeners down there. You know I check out the Latin awards when I can and that?s how I keep my self posted of the South American music. I have to add that South American music is not my cup of tea?
My mother listened a little bit to this music when I was young and I developed a small hatred against it back then? I even erased some of my mother?s old salsa tapes just because I was sick of it hahahaha
Today I feel its ok when I hear something, the problem is that most south American music like salsa, samba, cumbia is so damn repetitive and unbelievable boring musically? There are always three chords going around and around again.
I haven?t got a clue if there are enough metal or progressive rock bands down there either, I would love to check out the scene though, when time permits?
If you would focus on another style of music than progrock, what would you like to do if you had the chance of doing a solo project?
Daniel Flores: Wow, I never thought of doing something solo? Well, musically I would do a kind of a mix between Tom Petty and Kip Winger.
I would make a solid rock album with deep end vocals, because I have low range voice.
Though, I think this won?t happen in a near future as Mind?s Eye is my ultimate outlet and so I don?t need anything more right now. Wait until I?m 40 or so, maybe then.
Are you playing any festivals this summer?
Daniel Flores: We are actually talking with some promoters and seeing if there is a chance of making a couple of festis, so far so good but nothing is written in stone yet. I think we have a bigger chance to play the arenas in fall or even next year as most summer festivals are already booked by now?
Thanks for taking the time answering my questions, finally name a movie everyone should see!
Daniel Flores: People should go and rent the Metallica movie. I don?t really like these guys music but the movie ?Some kind of monster? is a great glimpse of what bands go trough when working together in the studio.
A great movie I recently saw was ?M?nchen? by Steven Spielberg. That was a great movie, a movie about what happens with people when killing in the name of the president or your country, a sad end.
Thanks for taking time to speak with me.
Please check out www.roundrec.com for more info on the band and sessions regarding the members.
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