home back to interviews	Overhearing Distant Sounds Paul Wrightson - 11 October 1998
	Paul had been looking forward to this, but ‘I won’t recognise much, because I have hardly listened to any music lately’, apologises Arena’s frontman before the start of the interview about singers.  YES - TIME AND A WORD (LIVE) Every time we select songs we try to take taste, feel and genre into account. The charismatic vocals of John Anderson in YES were a good opener for the interview as far as we were concerned. A slight mistake, so it seemed. I don’t like this at all… It’s just boring. Which doesn’t mean that anything that Yes or Jon Anderson has done would get the same reaction from me. It just happens with this particular piece. It’s not good for me. I like energy. I work on an emotional kind of level. If I don’t like something I can’t actually say I don’t like it because the chord structure of the song isn’t right or whatever. I don’t like it because it just doesn’t move me. KATE BUSH - WUTHERING HEIGHTS To please Paul, we quickly zap to Kate Bush. Her sharp, atmospheric vocals emphasize the timeless Wuthering Heights. Paul smiles, clearly enjoys it for about two minutes and then softly whispers to us. ‘Topshout…’ The difference between Kate Bush and Yes is an energy thing. I found that particular Yes song very flat, as far as energy is concerned. This Kate Bush song is more soulful, I know it’s not actually soul music but it comes from well within. Other people might say that about Jon Anderson, but it didn’t reach that part with me, whereas Kate Bush in this particular song does. What I think of when I hear this song ? It reminds me of my youth really. When I was young I bought this album, which is magnificent. It was very exciting at the time to see this young lady performing. It was a kind of refreshing style of music. QUEEN - WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER ‘Feelings’ proves to be the magical word of the afternoon. What involves more feelings than a singer who only lives on in the memories of many. A singer with a huge record of services, eccentric and passionate. A singer who moved generations. Freddie Mercury lives on... It’s immediately soul. He really means what he’s singing there. This is one of my favourite songs by Queen. The first time I heard it I cried. Obviously the first time I heard it was with the Highlander film, which just did me in. I’m not a lover of Queen or Freddie Mercury to be honest. But at the same time I respect it because of that energy and the soul, and it’s so powerful. But again, some of the things they did miss the mark for me personally. I must be the only person in the world for whom Bohemian Rhapsody didn’t work. And this may be controversial, but the guitar sound of Brian May on the music by Queen I’ve heard, doesn’t move me at all. I haven’t heard everything they’ve done, but if I did I’m sure there would be pieces of guitar work and vocals I would absolutely adore.  But this song, Who Wants To Live Forever, I like. Absolutely beautiful singing. I think this was when he was at his best.  MARILLION - MADE AGAIN (Live, Vredenburg Utrecht, 22 april 1996) An ever-returning band in Overhearing Distant Sounds is Marillion. With the arrival of Steve Hogarth it’s already more than ten years ago that, partially because of this wayward vocals, the direction of the band changed, first slowly and later drastically. Paul Wrightson meets H and grins. It wouldn’t be Steve Hogarth, would it? A good voice but it doesn’t touch me. It’s the emotional thing; it just turns me off completely. That’s not being disrespectful to his voice, it’s only my opinion. I do apologize if that’s going to upset people, it just doesn’t do a thing for me at all. I have heard some other Steve Hogarth stuff, which I actually quite liked. But what he’s doing there, whereas Freddie Mercury was ‘giving’ it sounds to me that – I might be controversial here – Steve Hogarth is very much into himself. And that’s why I feel shut off from it. That’s kind of how I feel. It’s just self-indulgent and has got nothing to do with the song at all. FISH - THE COMPANY (Live) When we say Marillion, we can’t leave Fish out. The voice of the singer who slowly slipped away into obscurity can or cannot be compared to Paul’s according to some. The latter attentively listens to the Scottish singer and is pleasantly surprised. I like this. This is Fish, is it? It’s great, I like it a lot. Which is interesting because again to be honest I never liked Marillion. And one of the reasons I didn’t like Marillion is because of Fish. Just couldn’t stand his voice. Here I think he’s using his voice fantastically.  What do you think when a magazine compares yourself to Fish? It doesn’t bother me, for the same reason that I’m hoping that my comments won’t bother other people because it’s an opinion. The music is in a very kind of similar style and it also calls for that sort of delivery which Fish was kind of a master in. I’ve been compared to a lot of vocalists and I either find it flattering or unflattering. It’s somebody’s opinion, if it works for them, then I’m happy.  BEETHOVEN - SYMPHONY NO. 9 ‘Alle Menschen werden Brüder' resounds through the small room in Tivoli where the interview takes place. Probably one of the world’s most famous classical pieces. Soprano, alto and baritone resound while Paul makes drum rolls. Again, he waits until he has heard the final notes. Yeah, I love it. It’s the energy thing again. I don’t understand a word of what they’re singing though. But you don’t need to. It makes me feel good. I can’t say more than that really. I’ve got no idea what it is, I don’t really care, I just like it.  Do you listen to opera a lot ? No not a great deal, maybe one or two. In what kind of mood would you put on this kind of music ? Good question. It’s almost as listening to some very hard rock. I find it very uplifting, it fills me with energy. SHADOWLAND - MEPHISTO BRIDGE When you say Arena, you’ll inevitably say Clive Nolan; undisputedly the seventh world miracle on piano, mellotron, organ and synthesizer. Not a vocalist, you might say. But he is when you take into account his vocals for Shadowland. Mr. Nolan! I like Clive’s voice a lot. In a lot of respects I think Clive is a much, much better vocalist than I am. That’s my insecurities and stuff kicking in, as much as anything else. So during recording Clive’s sitting there at the control desk and I’m feeling very insecure behind the fish bowl of the studio. You never suggested when John Carson left that he should do the vocals himself? I did actually. I did say to Clive ‘how come you didn’t want to do this, because you’ve got a great voice for it’. He went all bashful, bless him. He just said that he couldn’t concentrate on playing the keyboards and do vocals as well. When I first joined Arena I wasn’t a very good vocalist at all. I think I had the potential and that’s why I got hired for Arena. But everybody within Arena, all the way back to Keith Moore and Cliff Orsi, everybody was very supportive, right through to the present day. I’m always very insecure and I need that support around me. I had some very good coaching and assistance, vocal production work. That belongs to every member of Arena. I now consider myself to be a reasonable vocalist. Clive is multi-talented and a damn fine person. DREAM THEATER - ANOTHER DAY Like Marillion, Dream Theater is also a recurring theme in Overhearing Distant Sounds. The five conservatory schooled musicians try to come close to musical perfection with their typical creations. Whereas the other members of Arena shrugged to this music, Paul has a different opinion. Cool yeah… This is a great album. Again, I heard some other stuff, which I felt, had lost it for me. It got a bit impersonal, too many time changes, too mathematical. But again, a great voice. At times it reaches and touches me, but at times it’s that Jon Anderson thing. With Dream Theater I find it a little bit too clinical. Just as I think that Deff Lepard are at times too perfect; that loses me.  MC HAMMER - PRAY 'Hip Hop meets Symfo'. Unlikely but Paul almost swings out of his chair during MC Hammer’s 'Pray'. Paul is delighted. Great vocals, it’s the groove. I remember it as a single in the charts in England and I loved it then. I don’t have a problem with different styles of music at all. There is good music and there’s music that I don’t like so much. It doesn’t matter what it is and where it comes from. But hey, I dance very badly. ARENA - SOLOMON Arena will always be remembered from the early days with John Carson. The vocalist who played one marvellous gig as a support act for Marillion in Tivoli. Paul nods, knowing that Carson would be included in the interview. After hearing barely two notes he tells us… I honestly think Jonn Carson was great. I felt very sorry for him and the circumstances surrounding his departure. Bless him. His loss was my gain and I really wanted this job. Fortunately it wasn’t at his expense because he’d already left the band before they found a replacement.  I just thought he was great on this album. At times lacking in full voice range. His falsetto voice was great, whereas mine isn’t, so I deliver the songs differently. He made it easy for me. Again I can hear Clive’s and Mick’s coaching and giving direction. They’re great songs, John performed them very well indeed, so that gave me the ‘platform’. That helped me an awful lot, it’s a great template to work from. The song is the important thing. I just happen to be the voice who delivers it.  Have you ever met John? I’ve never met John Carson, no. Would I like to? It’s kind of difficult, that’s like the old boyfriend-girlfriend scenario, isn’t it? So, ‘no’ is the answer to that one. I wouldn’t have much to say to him. If I said to him he had a great voice and such he might get the wrong messages, and I wouldn’t like that. But I do honestly believe that he sang very well on this album and I wish him all the best with whatever he’s doing now.  IRON MAIDEN - BRING YOUR DAUGHTER TO THE SLAUGHTER (Live) Those who know Paul, know which musical style he prefers. To sum it up: hard, heavy and with feeling and energy. We crank up the volume when Bruce Dickinson kicks the good-old Bring your daughter to the slaughter into the room. Ah yeah ! It took me a while to get there. I love Iron Maiden. He’s not the best singer in the world but he uses his voice very well and it’s exciting to hear. I met him a couple of times. When he left Iron Maiden, didn’t you consider sending a tape? I did, along with thousands of others.  What do you think about Blaze Bailey? It’s very difficult. For me, when I took over from John Carson, John Carson hadn’t established a persona within the band too much. He only played one concert, and that was the acoustic thing at the Marillion convention. Therefore I could pretty much stamp my personality unto Arena. People didn’t have too much to compare, the recordings of course, but not live work. With Blaze – bless his little cotton socks – he’s got a huge mountain to climb in trying to fill Bruce Dickinson’s place. Bruce totally transformed Iron Maiden when he joined them, although I’m sure Steve Harris wouldn’t agree with me on that, but he did.  That’s kind of the front man’s job. You take the songs, you take the band and you carry it forwards into the audience. And that’s what Bruce Dickinson is a master about. I’ve met Blaze as well and I liked him a lot, but I also think he is a little bit out of his depth. And again, that’s not being disrespectful to him, it’s my own opinion. Maybe with this Virtual XI album people will start to accept him a little bit more, hopefully for him. [Joking] I could do it and I could do it bloody well. There’s no two ways about that. I had this conversation with a bass player friend of mine who is giving up playing. So I said ‘why?’ and he said ‘because I want to play Wembley stadium and I’m not doing that’. So I said, that goal I is a rather long way off, you’d want to aim a little bit lower, achieve that and then you move on to the next thing.  You don’t think Arena is your final step? Might be. What a blast, playing Wembley stadium with Arena. I’d love that to pieces. But I’ve got to also tell you that for me there’s no difference in performance level if I was playing for just one person or a hundred thousand people. It doesn’t matter to me. If somebody’s there to listen, they’ll get my best. Might not be very good on the night, but I’ll give them my best.  You never had a reaction on your tape when you sent it to Iron Maiden? Oh no, it was rubbish, it was absolutely dreadful. As I said before, I wasn’t a very good singer. Would you do it again if they decided to get rid of Blaze? Well hopefully for Blaze they won’t decide to get rid of Blaze. Yeah, I’d send a tape. No two ways about it. Everybody wants to better themselves and you can never tell what’s going to happen in the future. But certainly, as a preference I would prefer to move forward with Arena and get to that level with Arena. They’re great friends.  PINK FLOYD - COMFORTABLY NUMB Great, again it’s a soulful thing. A lot of vocalists are not the best vocalist in the world but use their voices so well. You can tell that he means the words he sings. I really like Jimi Hendrix; he was never the best vocalist in the world, but he uses his voice so well. A great non-singer basically.  U2 - WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME (LIVE) When you say Dublin, you say U2. And when you say U2 you cannot deny the phenomenon of Bono Vox. A band who’s been at the top for nearly two decades, partially because of the charismatic vocals of the Irish singer.  I like U2 but this particular song doesn’t do anything for me. It just misses the mark. I liked Sunday Bloody Sunday, that was great. New Years Day was also a great song. That era, that particular album. It had a fantastic album cover too, come to think of it. Some of their stuff I really enjoy, others I forget. That’s probably a failing on my part. I don’t know if it’s something like the melody, they just turn me off basically. Some of the songs that you played, if it was on the radio I would actually turn it off or change to another channel. That’s how much I don’t like it. That’s the truth of it. And this is one of them. ORFF - CARMINA BURANA While Paul cuts down one reputation after another, he sits up straight when hearing the drum rolls of Orff’s Carmina Burana. After two minutes and forty seconds of silent listening, the enthusiast speaks. I really like this piece of music. Don’t know what it is though. It’s that ‘powerful’ thing. This is heavy metal. That sets it apart. For me this always conjures up a very juvenile picture of an army and being a soldier in that army. Fantastic, absolutely brilliant. Top. PETER GABRIEL - STEAM (LIVE) Gabriel is like God to many. Not only because he made Genesis big, but his solo career also brought one hit after another. Peter Gabriel is a reputation and Paul smiles, nods and cuts again. I guess this is Peter Gabriel. I don’t know much of his work at all. Years and years ago I heard the first one or two Genesis albums. It was just too soft. As a result I kind of shut off to it. Again, that’s not the right thing to do with any band or music because there are some fantastic songs that these people recorded.  CIRCUS – JACKO THE CLOWN Circus, who are Circus then? Paul meets himself. I recognise it, great. I’ve got to be honest, I love this song. It has a kind of dark side. The audiences at our concerts really adopted the character of Jacko the Clown. Before we went on stage they were singing the song. It was absolutely magnificent. I had some great times with Circus. It’s a kind of a dark sense of humour I have as well and that was reflected in the lyric.  Do you still see the other band members? No I don’t see them at all, except for Alex, the bass player. We’ve remained very close friends and we phone each other. He lives in Manchester, which is like 300 miles from where I live. In fact, Alex is putting Circus back together again with another guitarist, the original guitarist of Circus who is heavily influenced by Richie Blackmore. A different drummer, a different vocalist, I think from Sweet Addiction, a Manchester band. Great singer. I’m looking forward to it happening. Alex deserves a break.  Was it your first band? No, not my first band. These little goals I was telling you about, set your sights reasonably low and you’ll get there. I’ve been in little local bands where I lived for ages and played The Marquee a couple of times, did some major supports for Saxon, FM with a band called Ironheart, but never actually been on a UK tour, which was my next goal. So I ended up in Circus in Manchester and that was the next thing.  Did you quit Circus to sing in Arena?  It basically fell apart by inactivity. We finished the tour and nothing much happened. So it was local bands again but that just wasn’t happening. Not all local bands are the same but a lot of them have this very small mentality. We used to come to Manchester, which was like 300 miles, which took a lot of dedication to play anyway. Local bands however, if they have to play 2 miles down the road it’s too much trouble for them. I was absolutely dreadful back then. I was sacked from so many bands for being rubbish. At the time you just scream it out, but playing the tapes, they were absolutely right. I was dreadful. But at the same time it fired my determination to succeed. So anybody out there, just keep going. If you want it bad enough it will happen. AYREON - DEATH GRUNT One of the best records of 1998 is Ayreon’s Into The Electric Castle. Two hours of music of unprecedented quality. The CD is especially remarkable for the presence of the many male and female vocalists like Damian Wilson, Fish and Anneke van Giersbergen of The Gathering. We took the most unusual part: the death grunt. Growling grunters from the darkness. Doesn’t do it for me. That’s not like devaluing it as an art form if you put it that way. Musically I like it, but not the voice. I much prefer this to the Yes stuff though. If somebody gave me the choice I’d take this, please. I don’t have too much of a problem with this. The style just isn’t my favourite style. It makes me tired after a while. Take one or two songs in isolation and I could really get off on them. Too many after that it gets sort of weary.  QUEENSRYCHE - EYES OF AN STRANGER Queensrÿche is one of Paul’s favourites. Operation: Mindcrime is one of the most mentioned albums of this almost legendary rock band. A monologue. Absolutely magnificent. It comes from way within. Geoff Tate. Thousands and thousands of singers out there would love to be in his shoes with such a powerful and emotional voice. Great performer also.  Do you learn from such singers?  Yes, very much so. Along with Clive’s coaching, listening to the way Geoff Tate delivers songs. He’s an absolute master.  Did you know them from the beginning? No, I caught up with them with Operation: Mindcrime because everybody in the band Ironheart was raving about them, as well as a friend of mine who did a rock show on Radio 210. My favourite album though is Promised Land, which isn’t everybody’s cup of tea but it’s dark and I like it. Whenever I’m in a really dark mood I put Promised Land on. Great.  Is it your top band? It’s probably my top band although not my top vocalist. For me that’s Glen Hughes, ‘The Voice Of Rock’, as he likes to call himself. Glen Hughes played bass and sang with Deep Purple with David Coverdale. Soul, blues, rock, the guy has got it all. Magnificent performer and I was privileged to see him when he did his From Now On tour. There’s a live album recorded in Japan with exactly the same sound. ‘Absolutely monster’. DEEP PURPLE - SMOKE ON THE WATER Okay Paul, the dessert. Talking about legends. Deep Purple with Smoke On The Water. Satisfied..? Ian. The man who made me start singing. When Black Night came out on single I locked myself in the bedroom until I learned it all. I was kind of fortunate at the time because some of my school friends were already in a band and I sort of hung out with them until they let me sing. I kept on nagging them. I had the privilege to meet Ian a couple of times. A very nice man indeed.  He indeed influenced me. You are influenced by everything you hear. Even now, when I listen to new vocalists; you learn from everybody, you really can. If I do go to gigs and stuff and listen to some new things you might say I don’t look very happy. That’s because I’m analysing what’s going on. It’s like, ‘well, what can I nick, what can I use from them to make me better?’. I heard Deep Purple is playing in Ahoy tonight. What would you rather do, sing here or watch them? What’s the most passionate thing for you? It’s totally different. I’m a performer, I have to sing. It would definitely be singing. As I said to you before and again for those people out there, I do it totally without any alcohol or any other external influences. Just do it on your own, it’s a huge buzz. It’s the best thing. I used to drink to be able to perform, which was totally wrong. I just made myself look stupid. Now I don’t need any  alcohol to make me look stupid [laughs]. By: Jaap Mulders and Bram Verweij