Dutch Progressive Rock Pages with John O'Boyle
ProgArchives with Torodd Fuglesteg
Background Magazine with Henri Strik
Interview to Dutch Progressive Rock Pages
DPRP’s John (Jonno) O’Boyle talks with solo & Dorian Opera artist Andrew Roussak
20.07.2011
What follows is a very insightful look at one of my favourite modern keyboard players. A real gentleman in the true sense of the word that has emotion, style and class, that isn’t afraid to challange and loves creating music from the heart. Andrew has taken time out to answer some questions posed to him for DPRP about his work and approaches. For those in the know, will only confirm and agree that Andrew is very passionate about his creations, something that is very evident in how he talks about both solo and band compositions. Ladies and gentleman I present to you Andrew Roussak.
JOHN: Hi Andrew it is nice to speak to you and thank you for taking time out to speak to me and DPRP. You have now got four recordings under your belt – two solo works and two with Dorian Opera. All four being highly regarded by DPRP, three of which were DPRP recommended - something that you must be very proud of?
ANDREW: Hi John, thank you so much for your interest to my music! Of course I feel myself very happy and honoured that my works are so positively reviewed on your site, with the notes given at times being even better than I could expect. Such recognition from one of the leading websites of the progressive world means of course a lot to me.
JOHN: Just so we can get a better understanding of who Andrew Roussak is would you like to tell us a bit about yourself.
ANDREW: I was born in Ufa, Russia in 1968, began to play piano at the age of 7. I had then studied piano at the musical school, later at the State College, and it was all of course very classical. Like many in Russia that time, I was also very influenced by the records of early Deep Purple and Jon Lord’s Hammond work in particular. At my age of about 16, I had for the first time heard The Pictures… of ELP, and The Knights … of Rick Wakeman. So it became clear to me on which way one can put these both worlds – rock and classical – together. In the 90′s, I had worked as a studio musician, also as a musical editor on a broadcast station in my city, and had played with various bands. One can still find on YouTube a video from this period, with the band called Nerve; that video was made by a professional TV-team, and it was then aired many times on a local TV channel, and two or three times even nationwide…
JOHN: You graduated from Ufa State College and then worked in differing musical roles. In 2001 you relocated to Germany, what was the though process behind the relocation?
ANDREW: There was actually no thought process at all – my wife Julia whose is a research scientist (physics of metals), had received an invitation from the University of Ulm to make a research work there in 2001, with a possibility of prolonging of her contract in Karlsruhe. It was a great opportunity for both of us – so we did not think much..)) I became the free-lancer status in Germany as soon as it was possible to do so – concerning that we had to make the language courses first… I had played my first band gig in Germany two months after my arrival here, and at approximately the same time I began to perform solo piano concerts „on various occasions“. So I can’t say that even the first period in Germany was in our case really difficult.
JOHN: One would guess that you moved countries to broaden your musical opportunities. I know that I have reviewed a lot of CD’s from some very interesting Russian bands; at the moment Russia seems to be a hot bed for stunning, intriguing, interesting and amazing bands un-afraid to experiment, wearing their hearts on their sleeves, something that I think makes music exciting and dangerous. Obviously times have changes, what was the music scene like before you left Russia?
ANDREW: I guess you are now speaking of the bands like Little Tragedies, Roz Vitalis, FromUz … I had never heard these names when I lived in Russia, so the fact that they are emerging now, lets me also hope that the things are getting better there. Of course Russian musicians have a huge potential generally, concerning the classical output of this country. Prog rock is not a music for a big local crowd – the targeting audience are truly dedicated fans, people with advanced musical tastes. There must be certainly enough „prog-minded“ people in Russia . The specifics is however, there is a huge market of bootlegs and lots of torrent (illegal downloads) websites based in RUS. I think there are still relatively few people in Russia who are ready to pay for what they are listening to. Furthermore, the band touring is also difficult because of the huge distances between the cities – you would think twice if it would worth it, to make 500 km to your next location.
JOHN: Listening to some of your solo work, it would seem that you have been influenced by J S Bach, Chopin and to some degree Gershwin, a reference that can be heard on Strange Tango on the Blue Intermezzo album. Who else are you musical heroes?
ANDREW: I would first off name Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman and Patrick Moraz; my jazzy influences are mainly Oscar Peterson, Errol Garner and to some extent George Shearing. From the classical world, I would also add Sergei Prokofiev to the „top“ list. I am also a huge fan of baroque and renaissance music, so one can mention various works of Haendel, Purcell, Corelli, Palestrina and John Dowland.
JOHN: Another interesting bit of information I came across was that you put an entry in for the solo spot on The Tangent ’s forthcoming album COMM. How did this come about?
ANDREW: Well, our common online friend Jill Lerner had attracted my attention to the link on the solo contest! Due to Facebook, some really good things are within a mouse click away at times:)).. It was fun to record that solo, because the band had provided such an extremely groovy backing. And as a result, it happened that I made an online acquaintance of Sally Collier and Andy Tillison and then was at their gig in Colos-Saal, Aschaffenburg in May 2011. A really fantastic band, and very nice people. Hope that my entry will find the appreciation of The Tangent’s online fans – I would be of course delighted to be featured on the upcoming release!
JOHN: How did you get involved with the Decameron Project „Ten Days in 100 Novellas“ something that I am really interested in hearing?
ANDREW: It is a project supervised by Marco Bernard ( Colossus Ry Finland ) in a cooperation with MUSEA Rec. France. There are 33 bands participating, each band had to choose a novel from the first part of Decameron of Giovanni Bocaccio and then to write a song based on it. Marco wrote a review of my first solo album No Trespassing for his magazine some time ago , and possibly he didn’t forget it . So he had contacted me last summer and asked whether I was interested – he needed a prog piece with the 70′s feel, the renaissance touch and acoustic instruments were also welcome. I said yes, of course ! My guest musicians for this work were Hagen Bleeck – vocals, Matthias Richter – guitars ( former member of Alias Eye ), Alan Graham – acoustic guitar ( he played also on No Trespassing ), Wolfgang Fetzer on bass ( Dorian Opera ) and Jochen Blum on drums. Hope the listeners will love the result! And I am looking forward to recording a complete album with this newly formed band in the nearest future, because the experience was such an exciting one.
JOHN: History seems to be a theme that very much interests you. You participated in The Grand Piano Extravaganza album, a concept based on the epic poem Iliad (the Trojan War) and obviously Dorian Opera’s new opus „Crusade 1212“. How do you approach / come up with the idea of writing an album about such an events?
ANDREW: It is indeed a very interesting field for me, European medieval and Byzantian history in particular. Many historians see the Crusades as the most important common venture of the medieval Europe, which contributed a lot to the forming of the European mentality (as a „side effect“ so to speak). The story behind our album is a so-called Children’s Crusade of the year 1212, an event which really took place in the 13th Century. Before writing the lyrics for the songs, I have made myself a bit more competent on the subject – that is, I have read The History Of Crusades of Steven Runciman, and one another – a fictionary, yet historically very good written – book on the events of 1212 especially.
JOHN: On the other side of the coin, instrumentally, writing a piece to convey an emotion, story or scene can’t be easy either. What is the thought process for this? I mean book 6 (Swap Amour) and 8 (Divine Withdrawal), passages layered and swathed with emotion, from the Iliad can’t have been easy to manipulate as soundstages. Where you give free range to come up with the pieces?
ANDREW: Both famous Homeros’ works, Iliad and Odyssey, are anything other than easy reading, they are so long and terribly boring for their most part… But, once you are concentrating on the essence, then you are able to see the real people and their fates behind those long passages. The Trojan war had undoubtedly taken place, so at least the key scenes of it must have been truly represented in the epos. One of the main episodes of the Book 6 is the scene of farewell between Andromache and her husband Hector. Andromache knows that she will never see her husband again – quite like other countless soon-to-be widows in other countless wars. So the central theme of the Book 6 tells the story of passion, love, memories and silent grief of the war widow. This theme comes back again as an echo in the Book 8, whereas the main motive of it is gods’ withdrawal ( on the order of Zeus ). So I thought a solemn and majestic intro would do well in this piece, something working like Bach’s cantatas. I have therefore written a „fuga-like“ opening part to the Book 8, the voices of which are being furthermore varied in a jazzy way throughout the whole piece.
JOHN: How does the process of writing music for your solo project differ from that of Dorian Opera?
ANDREW: As I am working solo I write normally everything myself , so guest musicians are given the lead sheets with ready-to-go chord progressions . The sound choice, solo parts etc. are free , of course – so there is still enough room left for experiment and creativity. With Dorian Opera it is different, because the igniting ideas come very often from Oliver Weislogel ( guitars of DO ) who indeed has written the most of Dorian Opera’s music. Oli is a virtuoso guitar player, classically trained and both at home with classical and electric guitars. He usually delivers the riffs to begin with, or chord progressions for the song, whereas I concentrate myself on the vocal themes and harmonies or I would add some extra instrumental parts to the composition. There are songs on both albums written completely by Oliver and there are others written completely by myself, still I think our best songs are always result of our tandem work (Tell Me Your Lies, Truly Yours, Carthago…).
JOHN: In saying that, releasing your creations as with other musicians, seems to be the hardest process of the creative journey these days. You have had albums released by MALS and MUSEA and Solemnity Music, how do you feel this works for you as an artist / band?
ANDREW: Well, the question „to be or not to be“ signed with an indie label is something that each musician should consider basing on his specific situation. It is anything other than a major deal, because you have to make 99% of your promotional work yourself anyway. Still, a CD released on MUSEA works on a potential customer generally better than a self-released album – to some extent a justified approach , because the customer sees the label as a kind of reference in this case. So I think that, all other things being equal, the signed album will have the better sales than a no-name-self-release given the same promotional effort. The rule is however, the more fans you get, the less you need the backing of the third party.
JOHN: Obviously the intent is to hit the biggest audience possible maximizing the impact of each release?
ANDREW: Of course, one should use all the opportunities possible to promote his music. CDbaby alone offers about 300.000 albums of indie artists – the competition is simply enormous. The present situation of any indie musician is : you have to be able, to deliver a world-class production basing on a pretty low budget – and then you have to be ready that you will be compared by reviewers with the top artists having the backing of the major labels. On the other side, Internet gives enough opportunities of building an own fan-base – provided that you can offer to your fans something at least a little bit special.
JOHN: It would appear that your solo albums allow you to indulge more in your passion of classical work, where as the band environment appears to be more restrictive in that role per se, although the influences are still there, but just appear more subtle. Is this by design you operate these two differing identities separately, which allows you to do this?
ANDREW: Well, I think I simply write down what comes out and then look what I can do with it…)) Classical influence is something what will be always there by me (which is good), and some ideas grow and work better as a piano music, whereas others sound better in a band context. I am also a sound freak to some extent – I would dig in my Kurzweil K2500′s endless external libraries hours long, which inspires me to some new pieces in turn. On the other side of this, many classical pieces work just brilliant being performed on Moog, or Hammond, whatever. You can destroy the piece with this, or you can give it a new shine - it is only the matter of your taste and skills. At the end of the day, all great composers of the past were always keen to use the newly invented instruments (like a hammer piano vs. harpsichord).
JOHN: What was the thought process for re-recording All Good Things for the Blue Intermezzo album; the original version was really good yet the newer version certainly felt like it had more depth and soul being an almost unplugged version, for the want of a better description?
ANDREW: This is a piece telling a story about the good things that stay in our memory after someone dear to us is gone. This composition is very personal to me, because I had written it as my grandmother had faded, back in 2004. And as I was working on Blue Intermezzo in 2009 , an incurable form of cancer was found by my mom. Though it was not the reason why I have revised the piece. The original version was recorded with a grand piano plug-in, and the version on the Blue Intermezzo is a live grand piano performance recorded with two mikes. Of course this remake works better and deeper – no plug-in can ever come close to a real instrument.
JOHN: It must be difficult to decide when such creations are the completed piece; I guess as a musician you are always trying different ways to enhance the feel or tone?
ANDREW: My work flow is pretty similar to that of many others today – my host software is Cakewalk Sonar , at the project stage I use the most „light“ plug-ins, such as Steinberg’s Hypersonic. You can make a pilot track with it within minutes. At this stage , it all sounds pretty flat and cheap – but if the piece works and grooves well with such sound already, it simply can’t fail when the real things come. So the next stage , when the song gets flesh and blood, is of course the most exciting one. For the final mixes – both me and Oliver had made a lot of improvements after having listened to the rough mix on the car’s speakers. It is weird, but the mix that might seem to you pretty well balanced in a studio, may reveal some serious drawbacks when being played back on your car audio system. So it is always worth it, to burn a couple CDs more for such a „reality check“…
JOHN: Dorian Opera your band, tell us a bit about how the band came into being and a bit about each band member.
ANDREW: Oliver Weislogel (guitars), Joe Eisenburger (bass) and me had already had an experience of playing together in a local cover band in 2005-2007. In 2006 me and Oli also took part in a (failed) attempt of a comeback of Stormwitch – a melodic metal band which was pretty famous in the 90es. Later that year my first solo album No Trespassing was finished, and Oli had a lot of his own prog compositions still unpublished – it was only natural that we had decided to record an album together. Then we needed an appropriate drummer, and I had contacted Harry Reischmann – who was probably the most fantastic drummer I had ever played with and whom I knew from one another band back in 2003. Harry said – yes! – and so Dorian Opera was born, our debut release No Secrets was published in 2008 by MALS Rec., Russia.
In 2010, Joe Eisenburger decided to leave the band in favour of his career as a classical musician. He had to be replaced as a lead vocalist and as a bass player, so we had managed to won Sven The Axe on mike ( the founder and leader of Solemnity ) and Wolfgang Fetzer on bass, with whom Harry and I had also played before. The band had really grown with these both changes. We had also Alexandra Goess featuring as a female vocalist on the Crusade 1212 – her wonderful performance was mentioned by many reviewers already.
JOHN: Your latest opus Crusade 1212 is a dark concept based on a true event. Tell us a bit about the concept for those who may not be familiar with the story.
ANDREW: In the year of 1099, the 1st Crusade had conquered Jerusalem and some other cities and fortresses on their way from Constantinople southwards – but in 1187 Jerusalem was lost to Saladin, and all succeeding Crusades had failed to win it back from Moslems. The so called Children’s Crusade was one of such attempts – a pretty weird one, though. It was supported neither by the official Church, nor by any European court – thus the records about it are rather sparse. It is known that in the year of 1212, some thousands of French and German young people made their way to the Holy Land in order to take Jerusalem not by the sword, but in a hope on the God’s wonder. They were led by a boy named Stephan ( the German Crusade was led by Nicholas ) who had envisioned that the waters of Mediterranean sea would make a passage for them when they reach the shore. Many of Crusade’s participants were frozen to death as they were crossing the Alps in Winter of 1212; and when the survivors reached the harbour of Marseilles and the waters did not part, two local merchants had offered to Stephan, to bring the Crusade to the Holy Land on board of their ships. The merchants had something other in mind, though, and in the open sea the children were sold to berberian pirates, so the Crusade had taken its end on the slave market of Carthago. This is a story without any happy ending, of course, and we have tried to see it all through the eyes of its two participants – young people Jan and Constance.
JOHN: Can we expect to see Dorian Opera or Andrew Roussak touring in the not too distant future?
ANDREW: Dorian Opera has now better chances, because our live set is already being rehearsed. We hope to get it onstage coming Autumn – some club gigs are now being planned. We have brought out 2 really good releases as a studio project, now we must grow together as a live band. I will shout out loud on Facebook when it comes to the gigs – because I am waiting with anticipation for this moment....
Thank you so much John for reaching out, and thank you to all DPRP readers for taking the time to stop on this page!
Interview for DPRP by John (Jonno) O’Boyle
Interview to ProgArchives, UK
July 28th 1968 saw the birth of Andrew Roussak in the Russian town of Ufa, and from the age of 8 he started an education at a governmental music school, specializing on the piano. Later on private tutoring was called for, and in 1993 his formal education ended.
Eight years later, after playing in numerous bands and getting quite a lot of experience as a studio musician, Andrew Roussak moved to Germany, where he has established himself as a professional musician.
Andrew Roussak released his new album earlier this year and I got in touch with him for his story.
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Please tell us more about your background. Your home city Ufa is far east of Moscow, but not in Siberia proper, I guess. How was life in Ufa, musical education ?
Ufa is about 1500 km from Moscow eastwards – it is still Europe, not Siberia…It is a big industrial city, with population of more that a mln. people . There is a high school for music there,a state musical college, an opera theater, a state philharmony with an organ hall etc. That is, it never was something like a cultural province in Russia. On the other side of it, it was all about the classical music in the Soviet times. Rock was completely underground, of course; jazz was not forbidden though, but still was regarded as a somewhat exotic thing.
So, I was born in Ufa and began to learn piano at the age of 7, later graduated as a pianist from the Ufa state college of arts. I happened to have a great piano teacher at my late stage of studying…It was all very strictly classical, but actually nothing can be better for the proper piano technique, and having received a solid theoretical basis you are free to go in any direction.
Who were your musical inspirations, and why did you want to play this type of music instead of any other form of music ?
My all-time favourite composer is J.S.Bach, two other main classical piano preferences are Chopin and Gershwin. I was also always tending to improvising and to composing pieces of my own, even as I was exercising some classical works. And I was blown away as I had first heard Pictures From Exhibition of ELP – the idea to combine classical music with such instruments like Hammond and Moog was alone striking enough for me. Then, the piano technique of Keith Emerson itself is actually a mix of classical, blues , jazz and even boogie piano, all on the edge of perfectness. This is a very unique blend, and I guess I have simply first heard it at exactly right time – so it was the initial push in the prog direction…))
Let's go to your releases. Please tell us more about your first album No Trespassing from 2006
NO TRESPASSING was a collection of pieces I have composed for various occasions or projects I was playing with over years, that’s why many reviewers said it was an eclectic album. Indeed it was…)) It is built up of ten compositions, five of them are instrumentals, among them there are two renditions of Bach’s pieces, and my own three works. Exactly due to these five numbers album had received its stars by some prog reviewers who found that it sounded similar to the works ELP or Rick Wakeman…
I had lots of fun experimenting with various synthesizer sounds; I also had invited some of my friends and band's colleagues to help me with other instruments, because I didn’t want to have something like the programmed drums or midi-guitars on my album.
So finally it sounded like a band production. I had firstly published the album myself in 2006, promoted it myself and then in 2008 received an email from MALS Rec. with a deal proposal, so the CD was republished in 2008.
You are currently a keyboarder of a prog metal band Dorian Opera, and you have played on their No Secrets album. Please tell us more about this album and your life in Dorian Opera.
Actually I have grounded Dorian Opera together with my friend, a virtuoso guitar player Oliver Weislogel. In 2005 Oliver had invited me to join a cover band he was leading. Joe Eisenburger was another professional musician whom he invited. After a while it became clear, that the music we wanted to play just did not fit in the frames of a cover band, and Oliver had already many musical ideas ready-to-go which had later found their way to our first release. But then we needed an appropriate drummer.
So, I have contacted a really fantastic drum player Harry Reischmann whom I knew from a blues band we had both played with in 2003. Harry had just said - yes, of course! - and so Dorian Opera was finally born, that time as a quartett.
As we simply had no proper vocalist in sight that time, one of us had to grab the mike, and it was Joe who had made this job on No Secrets. I think it was pretty well done, especially regarding it was Joe’s debut as a vocalist! The album was published by MALS Records, too.
Later in 2009, Joe had left the band for some private reasons, and we had found some new prog metal forces – a lead vocalist Sven „The Axe“ and the bass player Wolfgang Fetzer. A female vocalist Alexandra Goess had made a great job featuring on our new album. The CD is called Crusade 1212 , it will be released no later than in March 2011…So be alerted – Dorian Opera is back! )))
Please give us your long or brief thoughts on your new album Blue Intermezzo.
It is my solo piano album built up of 12 original pieces, among them two renditions of Bach’s arias, one rendition of an English traditional song – Greensleeves, and the rest is my own music. I would generally describe the style as a neo-classical, with many elements of jazz technique in it. It is conceptually close to some solo piano works of Emerson, Moraz, Wakeman – some even call it „prog piano“. I want also to especially mention a wonderful artwork made by Martin „Man In The Mountain“ Kornick – it is not simply beautiful , but it perfectly fits the music and accomplishes the overall impression of the album.
The CD has been published by MUSEA Rec. in October 2010, and can be purchased worldwide via many online retailers like Amazon…Whereas a purchase on CDbaby or on my website would be more appreciated..))
How is your writing and creative processes ?
I work with the DAW called Cakewalk Sonar. Normally I would try to fix any coming idea in a new project, simply playing it down using something like Steinberg’s Hypersonic…As I am working on this concept later, the composition is growing and it may finally have nothing to do with what it sounded like in the beginning. This is a creative and always very fascinating process!
Your music is somewhere between a concert pianist and the likes of Rick Wakeman. What in your view is the difference and similarities between a concert pianist and the likes of Rick Wakeman, John Lord & Co ? Both technics wise and the approach to the music.
Well, pure technically there can be even no fine line in between, I believe. Think of Emerson’s 1st Piano Concerto, or Modular Symphony of Moraz. These are extremely challenging works, whereas the traditional classical technique might even be not enough – you have to also to be at least acquainted with jazz scales, licks, you have to be able to improvise etc. It all belongs to the contemporary piano technique in some respect.
I guess that Emerson, Moraz, Wakeman, Rudess are more likely comparable in this context to the big names of the past like Chopin, Liszt or Rubinstein . Because each of the latter had also performed their own compositions, which were very innovative that time, and they also used the full arsenal of the compository and technical means available to them. At the end of the day, what counts is the overall level of performance and composition.
Do you do solo concerts or is your solo work only confined to the studio ?
Actually I have always played on various piano events and have given private solo concerts "on demand" in my area. Now as I have Blue Intermezzo finally released , I am planning to perform the pieces from it as a live program, and there must be a lot of promotional work ahead to be made for it. To organize a piano event is not the same job as to make a gig for a rock band - the venues, the promotion and the audience itself is very different.
What are your plans for next year ?
There are lots of! First off, the new release of Dorian Opera in February-March of 2011. Then, my solo piano program and DO live set must both go onstage.
I am also working on a piece for Decamerone - an international studio project of Colossus Finland - MUSEA France, with 33 bands participating. As the recordings are proceeding, the result sounds more and more promising...Looks like this recording and the collaboration with my guest musicians may lead to the next solo album, like No Trespassing.
There are also some videos planned...So the year of 2011 may be very exciting.))
Interviewer: Torodd Fuglesteg, ProgArchives
published on 25/12/2010
Interview to Background Magazine, Holland
Interview Andrew Roussak
http://www.backgroundmagazine.nl/ ( in "Specials" )
"To Impress Anybody With My Playing Was Never My Primary Aim"
(April 2010. Text Henri Strik, edited by Robert James Pashman., pictures provided by Andrew Roussak)
Lately, I‘ve discovered a fantastic keyboard player from Russia while browsing the internet. You can hear his excellent playing on his first solo album No Trespassing. It reminded me of people like Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman. However, on Dorian Opera’s debut album No Secrets, he shows that he can meld his classical influences with prog metal without any problems at all.
You were born in Russia and moved to Germany in 2001. Does this mean that you also have witnessed the change in Russia yourself? How do you look back at that period in your life and will you someday write some music about your heritage?
In my school days, the country I lived in was still called Soviet Union, then, it became the Russian Federation as I was a student. What followed were the 90’s - a very turbulent period. I am not sure about music, but it is worth a book, of course. Briefly summarized, the end of the 80’s - beginning of the 90’s were the years of the great hopes in Russia, generally a very creative as well as financially difficult time, for me and for many other people. But it was never boring anymore.
Is Andrew Roussak your real name or just an artist name? Because Andrew does not sound very Russian to me.
In Russian it would be “Andrei”, the rest is real. I have changed only one letter, because such a name as Andrew raises less questions, especially when one is so active online as myself...
What kind of music did you listen when you lived in Russia and was it easy to get the Western orientated music?
One can actually write a book about it. In my school years, my faves were at first The Beatles, later Deep Purple and more later ELP, Yes, Focus and Ekseption. The original vinyl was exactly – an absolute exception and rarity, normally pretty well used already and rather expensive too. So each music fan got his own collection of tapes, very often the second or third copies dated back from the original, with a black-white photo of the band attached to the box. But music was still accessible, and the music fans were generally helpful to each other. Which practically meant that if you wanted to get a record of, say , Relayer of Yes, you had to find a guy who had a copy, to contact him and to offer him some exchange – and that’s how it worked.
At the age of seven you started to play piano. Was it difficult to learn all the classical stuff as a child?
I was grown in an atmosphere of classical music. My uncle was a gifted pianist, and the sonatas of Beethoven played by him were very possibly the first musical impression in my life. On Sundays, as the family gathered together in a flat of my grandparents, their best friends (a concert pianist and an opera baritone singer) came also to visit quite often. And then the evening would spontaneously turn into a house concert with the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Russian 19th Century classics performed. So actually it was never a question that I would learn to play piano one day as well, and - no, it was not difficult.
You graduated at the Ufa State College of Arts as a pianist. You never had any plans to become a classical pianist?
The Russian (at that time Soviet) musical educational system generally requires a pretty strict discipline, and its goal from the very beginning is to make a professional of you, whereas the most advanced students are potentially seen as the future concert pianists. I surely have invested lots of time in my technique, but I also had a great interest in composing from the very beginning, later to improvisation technique, jazz was absolutely accessible in the 80’s, and a little bit more later to all those new electronic sounds. When I was 15, I had stumbled on ELP's album Pictures at an Exhibition, and I think it was the turning point.
You also became a studio musician and a chief musical editor at the local broadcast station. Did you record for famous Russian artists in those days and can you mention some names if possible?
My hometown is called Ufa - it is a big industrial city in the Urals region, some 1500 km from Moscow to the east. This fact was crucial, because if one wanted to make it really big in Russia at that time, then he had to move to Moscow or to St. Petersburg. I had many friends who went this way, and some had really managed it, and to work with the stars later. The constant clients of our studio in Ufa were mostly local bands and artists - almost all genres, pros as well as amateurs. I also had to record jingles and ads for the radio, to make compilations for thematic radio shows, etc. All in all, it was a creative time.
You recorded a solo album 'No Trespassing' in Germany later on. But I believe that the origin of this release was when you still lived in Russia. Right?
Yes, some pieces like Vivace Furioso were already there for years, but generally I could not seriously think of recording and releasing a complete prog studio album in Russia in the late 90’s, because prog rock was not somewhat popular there. Recording as such was still supposable, but then you had to come out with your album somehow. Almost nobody had used Internet privately that time, so one could just not even think of something like a worldwide online promotion, digital distribution etc.
What made you decide to move to Germany at the time?
Well, there were some family and private reasons for it...Looking back and summarising everything that has happened in the last few years to me here, I think it was a correct decision-though you always leave something behind, of course.
Did you find work right from the start when you lived in Germany?
My daily, reliable and easy bread are piano and keyboard lessons, and I had first to learn German from literally zero just to be able to begin with them. Also a certain time was required to gain a free-lancer status in Germany. But, I had almost at once found a cover band with a gig schedule, and I also could play piano on the candle-light dinners in two restaurants on a more or less regular basis, and even to give some private piano concerts. So, the beginning was of course not very easy, but for sure not as difficult as for many others in the same situation.
After a while you met a guitarist Oliver Weislogel, and together you grounded the prog metal band Dorian Opera. Can you tell me how this happened?
Yes, in 2005 Oliver had invited me to join a cover band he was leading-it was called Black Forest Project. Joe Eisenburger was another professional musician whom he invited. After some while it became clear, that the music we wanted to play just did not fit in the frames of a cover band, and Oliver had already many musical ideas which had later found their way onto our first release. But then we needed an appropriate drummer. So, I had contacted a virtuoso drum player Harry Reischmann whom I knew from a blues band we had both played with in 2003. Harry just said “yes, of course!” And so Dorian Opera was finally born, that time as a quartet.
The already mentioned solo album 'No Trespassing' was recorded before the first Dorian Opera album was released. Is that correct and why did you decide to record a solo effort?
Yes, it's true. But actually your question should have sounded like - why so damn late, Andrew? (smiles) As mentioned earlier, some pieces on the album were composed already in Russia. But for a long time I still had thought of the whole adventure in the good old major-label-deal terms, because I had no idea about MySpace, CDbaby and generally of all possibilities the internet might give. Once I have discovered the opportunity to release and to promote my music myself, the idea of a complete solo album became to look attractive to me, and then it was pretty quickly done.
Unfortunately I have to tell you that the production of 'No Trespassing' could have been done a lot better. But it’s all a matter of money and how large the recording budget was. Am I correct?
Sure. I had no financial backing from any label at this stage, as well as no idea whether anybody, reviewers, fans, web radios etc, would have an interest in my music after all was done. On the other side, I was not satisfied with something like programmed drums or synth-guitars, so I was very grateful to all my guest musicians who had helped me along the way. I had also happened to win four studio days as a result of the German Pop and Rock Award as the best keyboard player of 2006, and I used this time for the drum recording sessions and for the mastering.
I believe that on this album all orchestral sounds were made with your synthesizers. They sound very realistic, like a real orchestra. Can you tell me what kind of keyboards you have used on the album?
Actually the workflow is: I would first prepare a MIDI track for each voice of the score, and I would take care of the certain classical principles, no parallel fifths, no same-directional movement of the voices, already at this stage. That's what makes the strings sound so authentic. Then, I would use several different samplers to record the sound, layer them and then enjoy the result... Normally, I use the string samples from my Kurzweil K2500 library and two software plug-ins: Garritan Orchestra and the Silver Orchestra of East/West. Final proportion is always the matter of experiment.
On this album I could hear that you are a classically trained musician. Most of all, the two pieces of J.S. Bach reveal those influences. Are you afraid that people might say: “Here is another classical trained wonder kid that tries to impress the outside world with his classical pieces” or “Don’t give me that classical bullshit”. Don’t get me wrong I loved it all the way but I know how people sometimes think.
Hey, but then it seems that many people love it too, because I got the most of my points by reviewers exactly for these two renditions! I have always enjoyed baroque music, and the works of Bach in the first line, of course. It is a music of immense depth, and as you are working on your performance, you are actually exploring this depth, finding something that’s personally yours in it. It is amazing how different the same pieces sound in the performances of Richter, or Gould, or now of Martin Stadtfeld. I have tried to find something that is mine in these two pieces and the result had just happened, so to impress anybody was not the primary aim.
Your solo album also reveals that you like not only classical music but also blues music. Most of all the track 'Do Without Me' has all those jazzy and blues influences. How is it that a lot of classical trained musicians such as Keith Emerson or Jon Lord still like to play that kind of music?
I think that every musician has his own roots and history, and they influence the style, of course. I have played in a blues club in Ufa , from 1997 to 2001, two evenings a week, with the band and solo. That is...Otherwise, I was always thrilled by Emerson's boogie technique. His version of the Honky Tonk Train Blues and his Barrelhouse Shakedown are a challenge for any pianist - of course I have tried to learn something from his playing as well.
It’s also strange that a lot of classical trained piano players end up playing in a prog metal band like yourself. Good examples are Vitalij Kuprij who plays in Artension and Michael Pinnella who plays in Symphony X. They also both released solo albums that reveal their background. Why is that do you think?
I believe that prog and classical music come at times very close to each other. Prog - in its best examples - is no less sophisticated and technically very challenging. New Age is another good example. Tarkus of ELP performed on a grand piano works just like a contemporary classical piece you would expect to hear in a concert hall. And if you listen to Bach's Goldberg Variations performed on a Kurzweil 250 like Joel Spiegelman did, you would call it a new age. So, where exactly does the borderline lie? The immense choice of sounds today is another attraction, of course - all in all, it provides a nice option for some creative guys with the classical background to shift from one camp to another time after time (smiles).
On your solo album you have an excellent singer by the name of Henrik Plachtzik-he reminded me of John Wetton a lot. He is also a very gifted drummer. Why did you not use him for Dorian Opera? Instead bass player Joe Eisenburger had to do the lead vocals-which he did rather strong I must admit.
Hendrik is indeed a very cool singer with his own style, and indeed he was a candidate considered for Dorian Opera. But, prog metal is simply not his music - imagine Phil Collins as a frontman of Symphony X. And we four were actually pure instrumentalists, and for that time absolutely no name. So, one of us had to grab the mike, and in my opinion, Joe did more than just a good job, considering it was his debut as a lead vocalist!
Yes he did a great job! Can you explain the band name Dorian Opera?
Dorian is the name of the scale very often used in rock and jazz compositions for improvisation - so, it has nothing to do with Dorian Gray or with ancient Greek architecture in this case!
And Opera just points in a classical direction. We wanted herewith to stress both our classical and rock roots, so to speak.
Why did you include a classical piece from Vivaldi as a bonus track on the first Dorian Opera album 'No Secrets'? A piece which I loved very much!
I believe the initial idea of making a classical remake as a kind of a "topping" for a CD came from me, because I was in a process of making recordings of two Bach's pieces for No Trespassing. Oliver had suggested he would try it with the Summer Storm ( L'Estate Presto ) of Vivaldi - and he had made his rendition and had performed it solo on the Frankfurt Music Fair, he works as an endorser for Siggi Braun Young Guitars. And his version sounded just stunning! All I had to do then was to add keyboard tracks to it. Performing this piece live with the band is huge fun.
What was your set-up for the recording of this album?
Most of my sounds come from the library of the Kurzweil K-2500, which has a few thousands of samples of everything. I also still use Roland XP-80 as a sound source, and lots of plug-ins of Native Instruments, Spectrasonics, Arturia. The sound which lands in a final mix is almost always the result of layering of what comes from various sources. The whole process is therefore experimental, creative and very exciting.
Most tracks on 'No Secrets' were written by Oliver. On four songs you contributed as a songwriter. Did you use most of your songs for your solo album or what was the reason?
Yes, that's exactly how it was with No Secrets - Oliver had already lots of ready-to-go ideas, we only had to produce them together. As a virtuoso guitar player, he can deliver you any riff you want, he has a very powerful style - much in vein of Symphony X. I have tried to add a bit of ELP-spice to it, and all in all it came out as a good mix, I believe.
Why did Michael Brettner play a guitar solo on 'Dead Or Alive'?
Michael is a friend of Oliver’s and another endorser of Siggi Braun . The idea of this featuring was, to add another new colour to the recording, and Michael had delivered a great solo. And he did not forget it, to tell his fans to check out our album, of course (smiles).
The next album with the band will be called 'Crusade 1212'. It will probably be released later this year. You managed to find two lead singers for this release. Can you tell me more about them and tell us more about the theme of the album?
Our upcoming release is a thematic album, not just a collection of songs like it was on No Secrets. This CD is dedicated to a so-called Children's Crusade, an event from medieval history which is believed to have taken place in 1212. There is still no historical consensus on this event, because the movement was supported neither by the church nor by nobility, so the sources available are rather poor. The traditional version of the story is: In 1212, some thousands of children from France and Germany led by two self-proclaimed prophets had tried to reach the Holy Land hoping to win Jerusalem back from Muslims. They also believed to do it without any armour-by peaceful means only. But, most of them had frozen to death as they were crossing the Alps, and the rest were then sold to slavery by two merchants from Marseilles. It looked like a very dramatic story to us, and we had tried to tell it from a perspective of two participants, a male and a female.
For this release, we have managed to win two really fantastic vocalists. Sven the Axe is a front-man of a power metal band Solemnity, he has a vast experience in studio recordings and live performances. His singing on a CD-preview speaks for itself, I believe. Alexandra Goess is the new female voice of Dorian Opera and the band's youngest member. She has a classical vocalist’s training behind her, and she has done an amazing job in recording her tracks for the album in a pretty short time. I am sure that playing live with this new line-up will be an amazing experience, and I am waiting with anticipation for it.
Will it be released on the same Russian label or are you looking for a new label?
Mike Lanin (MALS Rec.) had done a lot for us by promoting No Secrets online, so it was nothing wrong to sign a contract for a debut album in 2008. But a label from Moscow cannot help us get into festivals and to other live events here in Europe. And that is the point, because playing live and even rehearsing with such a band is more than just fun. So yes, we will now look for a label with some possible connections to the live events here in our place.
Your next plans as a solo artist are to record a solo album with only pieces performed on the piano. Can we also expect an album made with a real orchestra someday?
Something in the way of Seven of Tony Banks? Must be a fascinating project, of course, the only problem would be to hire an orchestra for such a job…But let’s see what will come up in the future.
Your next plans as a solo artist are to record a solo album with only pieces performed on the piano. Can we also expect an album made with a real orchestra someday?
Something in the way of Seven of Tony Banks? Must be a fascinating project, of course, the only problem would be to hire an orchestra for such a job…But let’s see what will come up in the future.
You also recorded two piano compositions for Colossus in Finland. Can you tell me more about this project?
It is an idea of Marco Bernardo’s of Colossus Magazine in Finland. The project is called Iliade – Progressive Duels on Piano and it is based on the epos of Homeros about the Trojan War. The epos consists of 24 “books”, so Marco had invited 12 pianists–all with the prog background– to participate, each one had to compose and to record 2 pieces based on the books of his own choice. It is an international project, and I happen to be a part of it. The double-CD box will be released by MUSEA Rec., France later this year.
Can we expect another solo album in the near future that contains mainly music inspired by your two keyboard heroes Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson? I would love that very much!
I hope there will be more to come – I have lots of musical ideas which are only waiting to become prog or neoclassical albums!
Any other future plans which I did not mention?
I am generally open to everything that is new, creative and professional and things change fast. For now, both releases of Dorian Opera and my solo piano album are the primary tasks, and the next job is already waiting. As well as another Caribbean vacation after all of this is done, of course (smiles).
Can you name any websites for those who might like to know more about Andrew Roussak and Dorian Opera?
Please visit -
Andrew Roussak:
www.andrew-roussak.com
www.myspace.com/andrewroussak
www.cdbaby.com/cd/andrewroussak
Dorian Opera:
www.dorian-opera.de
www.myspace.com/dorianopera
www.cdbaby.com/cd/dorianopera
Andrew, thanks for answering my questions!
Henri Strik for Background Magazine , April 2010