The blending of different voices of Floor Jansen, Dan Swäno, Damien Wilson and Russell Allen give Star One a unique and innovative approach. Calling from Holland, mastermind Lucassen talked about his fascination with time travel, the idea behind the new album and a period of depression he went through, and ultimately overcame.
Kelley Simms: Victims Of The Modern Age is a bit darker, heavier and more guitar-oriented than the previous Star One and Aryeon. What was your mindset while writing it?
Arjen Lucassen: Each album I make is the reaction to the previous album. The album I made before this was called Guilt Machine. It was kind of an atmospheric project that had really long songs with long intros. It was a difficult album. Most people who heard it said, “I like it, but I had to listen to it a lot to appreciate it.” After hearing that next to 60 times, it’s just a polite way of saying it sucks (laughing).
So I really felt like doing an album that’s more to the point, shorter songs, catchier, heavier ... just so people would hear it and either love it or hate it. That’s the reaction I really wanted this time. So I felt like just plugging in the guitar and not be careful, just to make a heavy album.
The theme of the album is sci-fi and space, which you seem to love a lot, but this time the songs are based on earth. What gave you the idea and concept for this album?
The first Star One album, all the songs were based on movies set in space, hence the title Space Metal. This time I wanted to stick to the concept of basing the songs on movies, but I wanted a different concept of movies. For instance, time travel. I’ve always loved those time travel movies like Star Trek and Back to the Future.
The other option was dystopian and post-apocalytic movies. But I think, like you’ve already said, the material is darker, it just sounds darker. I see images of destruction and images of movies like Blade Runner and A Clockwork Orange. I think movies like that fit perfectly to these songs and to this style.
As always, you have an array of great vocalists and musicians. Do you have the singers already in mind while writing a certain song?
For a moment I was thinking of working with different singers and instrumentalists because I’m always afraid of making part two or a second album. So I was thinking maybe different singers, but these singers are irreplaceable, Russell Allen is the best singer in the world, how can I replace him? I can’t. Same goes for Damien (Wilson) with his unique voice, or Floor (Jansen) with her high power voice or Dan (Swäno) with his huge, big low voice. These voices compliment each other so perfectly.
So I felt if I did another Star One it should be the same singers. I’ve got Ayreon for all the different singers, so let’s keep Ayreon more of a band. So, while I was writing the songs I knew that I would have these four awesome voices. Which is great, because you can build up with these voices. You got Dan’s low voice starting and then you got Damien on top of that with his clear voice, then you got Russell with his awesome power. And just at the moment when you think this can’t get any higher, you got Floor with her big voice. So, definitely the songs were written with that in mind.
Did this one take longer than any of your other projects?
I always work about a year on a project. An Ayreon album might take a bit longer because often they’re double albums and often there’s loads and loads of guest musicians that takes a while to arrange and fly them over. An album like this is easier to write for me. It’s just plugging in the guitar and the riffs come out.
I’ve grown up with the whole metal thing, since I was 18 I’ve been in bands like Bodine and Vengeance, which were hard rock bands at the time. I’ve done it for like 15 years, so that music is in my system. So this album was not a hard album to make. But in the end, I’m such a perfectionist that I work on it for about a year on it anyway.
What’s the main difference between Aryeon and Star One, Stream of Passion and even Guilt Machine? What did you try to bring to it to differentiate between all your other projects?
Basically, Ayreon is the mother ship. Ayreon has all the styles. All the styles I like. Sometimes I feel like doing a project that doesn’t have all these styles. So I concentrate on one of the styles in Aryeon. Star One is based on the metal side of Ayreon. Stream of Passion was based on the gothic side of Ayreon. Guilt Machine was more based on the atmospheric or Pink Floydian side of Ayreon. Project Ambeon I did was based more on the electronic side of Ayreon. My solo projects were based more on the psychedelic side of Ayreon.
So it’s mostly like let’s concentrate on this style and dig a little bit deeper. I can expect people who like metal and then they listen to Ayreon and have to go through all this weird folky and electronic stuff. A lot of those fans have said, “Yeah, we like it, but do another Star One” (laughing). So I can’t do another Ayreon after each other or I would drive myself crazy. So in between, I need to blow off steam with other projects.
With Guilt Machine, you turned from your usual sci-fi and space themes and focused on more human elements and a darker side. Was this a real eye-opening or self discovery experience for you writing it?
I had been through a period of depression. I was married for 13 years and got divorced, so I was on my own. What do you do? Start partying again like you’re 25 again? Unfortunately you're 50 so you’re body doesn’t really agree with living like that. I got very depressed and had to start taking anti-depressants. It was a horrible period. When you’re in a depression, you can’t talk about it. You don’t want to talk to anyone.
Luckily the music saved me on the last Ayreon album. And then of course, at some point, you want to exorcise your demons, at least tell people that it’s possible to get out of depression. Because when you’re in that depression you feel there’s no way out and you’re starting thinking of ways to end it all. Luckily I didn’t, and I got through it. I felt the urge to at least share that with people.
Having said that, I didn’t write the lyrics on Guilt Machine. My girlfriend and manager Lori wrote the lyrics, but she’s been through similar circumstances so we talked all about the lyrics and what she was writing about. It felt really good to do that. People didn’t really get it, unfortunately. Guilt Machine, I have to be honest, didn’t really sell very well. I think it was too difficult and a bit too deep for most people.
