The Internet and piracy have changed the notion of music as a product a lot the recent years (from mainly albums to mainly singles, music as a free (as in no-cost) art form for many people, digital/downloaded, massive music collections due to cheap storage space and piracy etc etc), but it has also changed how musicians work.
Here’s a snippet from an interview with Russell Allen of Symphony X (etc). Interesting setup. I was sure they recorded it all in the same studio and simultaneously.
Blowin’ Wind w- Symphony X’s Russell Allen- “I work with so many different people because it jus
You have done some great side projects outside of Symphony X in addition to Avantasia such as Star One and Ayreon, but the three albums you’ve done with Jorn Lande are stellar.
I’m really glad you like those albums so much. I really don’t know Jorn personally. I was asked to do that by Serafino Perugino of Frontiers Records. He said, “It would be really great to have my two favorite vocalists get together.” Magnus Karlsson is a wonderful songwriter and he kind of put that together. I worked with Magnus on some other stuff, but he pretty much wrote everything on those albums and I just sang my parts. I work with so many different people because it just makes me a better artist.
So I take it that you did your parts here in the states and Jorn did his overseas?
Yeah, I did my parts in my studio.
The way you guys sang together on those albums I’d swear you were not just in the same room, but the best of friends.
Jorn is very talented and we’re just working with each other’s talent. I listen to how he articulates the words and how he sings them and I can get it and do it. It’s actually pretty cool to work that way because you’re not bogged down with the personal stuff. You’re just working with talent. You’re just doing it for the song and who knows, we might have been killing each other in studio [laughs]. It just worked out really well and a lot of people like it.