Oregon Music News

Michael Romeo. Photograph by Danny Sanchez.

New Jersey’s Symphony X have strong following Portland. The progressive metal five-piece was formed by guitarist Michael Romeo in 1994 and has released seven studio albums with the most recent being the critically acclaimed The Odyssey in 2002 and Paradise Lost in 2007. Their eighth studio effort entitled Iconoclast will be released on June 21st in North America on Nuclear Blast Records. The band made a stop in Portland on May 7th at the Hawthorne Theatre and Oregon Music News spoke with Michael Romeo pre-show.

Symphony X has been in Portland on two previous occasions. Have you noticed a bigger turn out with each appearance?

We don’t get to see much of the city unfortunately. We roll in, we do interviews, then we play and we pack up and we’re on our way out of town. Last time we were here it was very good and we’ll see tonight. I hope it will be better, I think it will be. This tour so far has had a better turn out.

I consider myself a new fan of Symphony X. I didn’t get into the band until I saw a review of The Odyssey in Metal Maniacs in 2002. You guys have been at it since 1994 but things have been picking for the band as of late.

Yeah, as you mentioned we’ve been releasing music since 1994. We had success in Japan first, then in South America, we toured a bit in those areas. We didn’t start touring in the U.S. until the release of The Odyssey.

What was it about The Odyssey that started Symphony X’s momentum in the U.S., which then led to greater acclaim and recognition for Paradise Lost?

The main thing was that the album was heavier. It was raw. We have a lot of influences, the first few albums had more of a neo-classical influence to them combined with the progressive thing. As the years went on we got more and more aggressive. Don’t get me wrong the earlier stuff was great, it was fun but as time went on we got back to our roots. I grew up on Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and all that kind of stuff, and on The Odyssey record, all of that was starting to come out.

For progressive bands there’s often the usual suspects as far as influences: Rush, E.L.P., King Crimson, and stuff like that. You’re also mentioning a lot of heavy metal.

I started playing guitar because of bands like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. I also enjoyed bands like Pantera when they came out. I was always about that kind of stuff but I was also into classical music. I also loved early Rush, I was a huge Rush fan. E.L.P., the same thing. I also love Frank Zappa.

Paradise Lost, the follow up to The Odyssey, was the album that took the band to the next level in terms of success in North America. After it was all said and done what do you think you accomplished with that album and the touring cycle behind it?

At that point that was our best sounding album. We had a great balance of the heavy stuff and we concentrated a lot on the choruses for the songs on that album. The songwriting was very strong on the album. The record had a good feel to it; it was darker, it was heavy, good songs and it helped that metal was making a comeback in America. We did Gigantour in 2005, we started seeing an increase in sales not only in Asia, South America and Europe but also in America. So to answer your question it was a combination of the metal resurgence and that fact that the album was good.

You took things a step further with Paradise Lost and did a 5.1 surround sound mix of the record. Whose idea was that and what do you think about it now?

I don’t recall who brought it up, it might have been the label or management. It might have even been the mix guy. When I heard that I was like, “Absolutely, let’s go for broke.” I thought the end result of the 5.1 mix was great, I’m very happy with it.

You’ve co-produced Symphony X albums in the past but on the last two records, and I assume the new album Iconoclast, you’ve been sole producer…

The guys trust me now! [Laughs]

What does that mean to you?

Even in the early years we’ve always done the production at home. I’ve been recording stuff since I was 18. I’ve always invested time in my studio and have been willing to learn more. On the last couple of records I came to a point where I was more comfortable in that environment and in the role as producer. The gear that’s in the studio is top-notch.

What can you tell us about the new album Iconoclast? Symphony X is one of the few bands that I’d rather buy the album on the release date, take the plastic off, and spin the album a few times while reading the liners.

Oh, thanks man. That’s cool. Iconoclast is very similar to the last album, Paradise Lost. It’s in that vein, remaining heavy. The songs are even better than Paradise Lost and there’s a new element on Iconoclast. With each passing album we do something a little different, either in direction or in sound. On The Odyssey it was going back to the raw guitar sound, incorporating some orchestration like on the song “The Odyssey.” On Paradise Lost there was the [English poet John] Milton thing with heaven and hell, darker themes, darker orchestral sounds and males choirs. On Iconoclast we thought, “What the hell can we do?” It was kind of funny how this came about because I had written a bunch of songs, they were similar in sound to Paradise Lost. As with past albums we needed to make this different. I was listening to the soundtracks to the movies 300 and The Matrix. I love that kind of stuff. On the 300 soundtrack there’s some guitar on there, it’s gritty and there’s this mechanical sound to them. The same thing with The Matrix soundtrack, there’s these synth textures to it.

Sounds industrial…

Almost! I don’t want to use that word but yeah you’re right. The next day I went to the studio and I pulled some of the riffs that I had from the new songs and incorporated some of these new sounds. I used some sound effects and some mechanical keyboard sounds. When I heard that I thought, “Wow, this could be something.” The next time I saw the guys I said, “What do you think if we went with this man vs. machine thing?” It just grew from there; it’s a little bit of sci-fi, a little bit of everything lyrically. I think a lot of the song titles give you an idea like “Dehumanized.” “Children of a Faceless God” is about kids and their use of technology with their texting and gadgets. It’s a little play on words.

When you’re recording, are you mindful of how what you’re laying down in the studio will be replicated live?

Man, that’s a good question because in the past we didn’t think that far ahead. I think it wasn’t until we did The Odyssey that we started becoming more conscious about not overdoing things. I remember during the rehearsals for the song “The Odyssey” I kept on thinking of how we were going to do that in a live setting. We didn’t want to have to use tapes. Now we do think about the live thing a little bit. We still want ours albums to be something more and something special, but we’ve been able to reel things back a little because it may not come across well live.

Any new gear that you used on the new album Iconoclast?

No, my rig has pretty much been the same. I’m using these Caparison signature models they made for me. They are great guitars. I’ve been using Engl amps since we recorded The Odyssey and live I use this TCG system with all the effects. It’s pretty minimal. When we are in the studio recording it’s very minimal, just the guitar and the amp. I spend quite a bit of time working on the orchestral pieces. I have so much software to play around with.

It was announced a few months ago that Soilwork and Nevermore were also going to be on the bill. Soilwork dropped out earlier on due to a member’s personal issues, then a few weeks ago Nevermore imploded. How frustrating was it for you to have this happen?

When the tour was put together I was excited because here were three different but very good bands, playing bigger venues and exposing each other to their respective fans. I thought it was a win-win on everyone’s part. Like you said, Soilwork dropped off early on and that sucked. We still had the Nevermore guys and we’ve know them for a while, great guys. We were in Europe last month doing a series of festival shows; Nevermore were also there. We were hanging out with them. You could sense a little tension. Sure enough we get back home and I spoke with a couple of the guys in the band and they didn’t know what was happening. A week before we left for the tour they said, “We’re not going to do it.” That sucked for us, we already had what we wanted in the setlist, we had rehearsed it and we had 70-80 minutes of music. We said to each other, “We can’t bail, we’re going to see this through.” We pulled something together with two rehearsals remaining and four days before we left we went for something big. We decided to do “The Odyssey,” we haven’t done that song in 5-6 years. We camped out and learned it and we’ve been doing it in the set. It’s something special that helped extend our set.

You’re on the road touring behind the new album, which is due on June 21st in North America. After these series of dates wind down, what’s next?

We’ll finish this tour in about a couple more weeks, we’ll be home for a couple of days and then we’ll head for South America. We’ll do two weeks there and by that time the album will be released. In the months of July and August we’ll get together and start putting together a set that feels right and that includes some of the new material. We want to have a good production too; we’ll go to Europe first and we’ll be back in the U.S. in September. So we hope to be back in Portland later in the year.

Russell Allen (Symphony X singer) has done outside work with Jorn Lande and his solo album. Have you thought about doing another solo album?

I make appearances on other people’s records, but as far as a solo album… I’d like to do another one. I get so busy writing, recording, producing and then touring with this band that I do not have time. I’d love to do one but Iconoclast has been a year in the making. I’ve got to be there from the beginning, writing most of the songs, recording drums, recording guitars and then working with Russ. It’s hard. I’ve got a wife and kids and I have to do stuff around the house.

Have a killer show.

Thanks man, we love Portland. We’ll see you again in the fall.