Valensia interviews - Queen Interview 2 - MelodicDotNet

Ancalagon

Link to this interview: http://www.melodic.net/interviewOne.asp?interviewId=12

He was born in the Netherlands but lives in the sunny Spain these days, he has made 7 adorable solo albums (including 2 mini albums),he has also done 2 under the name of "V" with another pianovirtuso from his homeland,Robby Valentine and this year the impressive Tribute to Queen hit the stores and many wondered if Freddie didn´t die after all,if you ask me there´s only one that can replace Mercury in Queen if they should carry on..........and it´s Valensia. This Pomp Guru and intelligent music maker cross new borders this fall with a new exciting project,Metal Majesty is it called so roll out the carpet!

First of all I want to thank you for an impressive tribute to Queen, the best tribute so far but I can guess it took a lot of hard work to get it done, how long did it take from the first recording day to the last?
Valensia: I had exactly 3 months to do this project. I worked the first 2 months solely on Bohemian Rhapsody, so I only had 1 month left for the other 11 songs. Bohemian Rhapsody was a tough nut to crack.

Was it hard to choose songs for the album,I mean you could easily have done a double CD featuring classics such as "Brighton rock","Ogre battle" and "Death on two legs"?!
Valensia: I dont think there is a song which I couldnt do. Time was limited, so it was actually hard to choose. There are so much songs that would be challenging or simply pleasant to cover, but I tried to choose those songs I could work on and -maybe- make them even a bit more Queen than the original itself. Thats why I did Polar Bear. It still would be interesting for me, as with a littlebit of luck I would achieve a kind of new Queen song by doing it. And new Queen songs is what we fans want to hear. There never will be a new Queen song as we know them, so this was being as close to the real thing as possible. Im sure thats why Queen fans like this tribute. Its not about Valensia. Im just using my skills to bring the old Queen back to life. I think everybody is fully aware this is a hard thing to do, and it never will be as good as Mercury, and my intentions are not to show how good I am. I guess the album makes you feel this is just a huge Queen-fan attempting to bring back a fragment of those feelings we all felt when we heard Queen.

How long have you had this tribute in your mind to record,was it recently or have you always wanted to do it?
Valensia: It has been suggested every year. "You must do Queen songs! You have that voice!" since 1994. My first mini album would have featured Killer Queen; a request from Universal Japan. Universal Holland didnt want me to do it because people compared me to Queen from the beginning, since Gaia was a hit. I didnt mind at all; my music should remind one of Queen, Kate Bush, Beatles and those kind of artists. I did Duran Durans A View To A Kill instead.

Why did you do David Bowie´s "All the young dudes" on a Queen tribute, was it to *share a light* over Bowie´s achievement with the band?
Valensia: It was to share a light over Queens achievement. I cant think of one band who has achieved being so recognizable you can have an artist who isnt part of Queen performing a song which isnt even a Queen song, and still have people going: "Oh, thats typically Queen". I chose All the Young Dudes because Queen was support-act for Mott The Hoople in the early days.

The 2 most remarkable versions on the tribute are the odd choices of "Man from manhattan"(recorded by Tim Staffel in 77,but produced by Freddie Mercury) and "Polar bear"(recorded by the first mark of Queen called Smile but without Mercury),they really do sound like new made Queen songs!
Valensia: Thanks, I was hoping to achieve this. Exactly this. Im a huge Queen fan and I would love to hear some new material. Especially from the Queen II days. Like for Beatles fans its so hard on us Queen-fans we have to accept we just cannot have it anymore. Never again. Freddie Mercury and John Lennon; how nice would it be to have them still with us. They surely would have written some very inspiring and enjoyable songs at this very moment. Theyre dead and popmusic as we knew it is dead. The only thing I could do on such a tribute is try to make them a littlebit less dead during those minutes. Its not much, but I thought: "If I only can have some seconds, some moments of capturing this Queen-feel, than its good." Its hard; Im no Mercury, let alone an entire band. But as long as the Queen fans -like myself- can enjoy it as being not as good as, but at least close to, its good.

It was pretty daring to jump over one of the best songs ever written namely "Bohemian Rhapsody",your version is spooky close sounding but was it like your climb to the top of Mt.Everest ?
Valensia: It was one of those traps I always fall into, due to myself. I have to do something daring and impossible, otherwise its boring. This came back with a vengeance, because when I was recording the intro-piece (is this the real life..) I was listening back to what Id done after a few hours and then decided to erase it all and start from scratch as it was not good enough,recording Bohemian rhapsody made me realize how detailed this song was recorded. Unbelievable. That was a good lesson. Im used to lots and lots of work; I add lots of layers to my music, so Bohemian Rhapsody wasnt that much work. But the way it was played was something else. I had to carefully place each note in order to make it sound good. I started recording this song because I loved the intro so much, but -as usual- I didnt really think about what laid ahead: the opera section in the middle. Reality kicked in when I was doing the first layers of vocals: this was done by 3 individuals, one of them being the greatest harmony and leadsinger on the planet. That kept me busy for a while. At one point I was actually getting worried, as I knew my layered vocals could never be as strong as three. Another problem was the incredible high voice of Roger Taylor. It wasnt the height only, it was the sound of his voice. I tried it with my normal falsetto, but it sounded silly. I ended up screaming bloody murder at 4 am in the morning, waking up the whole neighbourhood. It took me 2 months and then some. But it was an amazing experience.

Is this your Best of Queen if you would do your own collection or which songs would you choose?
Valensia: No, I chose these because of the new versions I could make out of them. My favorite Queen tribute would be: Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, Somebody To Love, Fairy Fellers Master Stroke, March Of The Black Queen, Millionaire Waltz, Flick Of the Wrist, Mustapha, Jealousy, You take My Breath Away.. all Mercury stuff. I didnt do it simply because there was nothing to add for me. Just like with Bohemian Rhapsody. When I started the recordings for that song, I thought: "Lets see where this is going to", but I pretty much ended up being really close to the original. Its nice to have one song like that, but a whole album would be strange.

Speaking of tributes,I know you won´t be doing some for a while but I´ve read that Kate Bush and Queen are your musical parents,I have always felt like there was a lot of Kate Bush influences in your solo work but have it ever crossed your mind to do such a tribute to her?
Valensia: The Queen Tribute happened because many people were asking me to do it since the start of my career. I myself actually never thought about covering other artists. Just because I was being too busy with my own works. But a Kate-Tribute would be nice to do, too. As Im writing this Im thinking about it, and there are some Kate Bush songs that are quite interesting to work on. Maybe, if people would be interested, I would rise to that challenge at some point in the future.

Would it be the dream of your life to do a duet with Kate Bush?
Valensia: Well, in the past is certainly was a dream. I would have liked it quite a lot if she would have asked me to do some harmony-vocals on one of her new songs. I guess that would sound very nice. I dont see a duet between Kate and me happen. Im the fan and shes the idol.

If Queen should continue to do tours and albums,who would you rather see as the new singer if you couldn´t choose yourself ofcourse,one of those who have sang with the band on different occasions- Robbie Williams or George Michael or someone else completely different?
Valensia: I dont know. Maybe Paul McCartney?

Your voice is very similar sounding to Freddie´s in the earlier days and you also write songs that very well could have been written by Mercury in the 70´s, are you trying to carry on the inheritance?
Valensia: I used to say Im trying to put some of the artistic values that I have learned from the older generation into the next generation. There arent too much artists doing it. The music business always was about money, but at least it was exploiting talents. Now its exploiting non-talents. What will be the legacy of legends from the nineties, like for instance Oasis? . A friend of mine once said: "You cant have the music industry go on for decades to come. Over the past 40 years there has been written and recorded so many songs that one human cant possibly hear em all in one lifetime. By the end of the eighties the market was sedated. Now we might as well have a huge jukebox with all songs ever written available. And thats the internet. It is over." As I write this, the music industry is collapsing. Not too positive signs. Meanwhile the WWRY Musical tells the story of a future with basically no popmusic at all; a very realistic vision. The only thing I can do is try to keep the art alive by throwing my stuff on the market too.

On your early solo albums between 93-96 it was two music styles that dominated your music,two styles that doesn´t feel that related to each other namely melodic rock and some sort of artistic hip-hop,I´m fascinated over your mix, what´s your relation to Hip hop?
Valensia: I hated hip hop. I think the names stupid; "hip hop", I dont like the sounds, the beats and the vocals. I dont like the way it wiped rock music from the globe. I disliked hip hop so much I really had to use it for my music as some sort of theraphy. I really did have ambivilent feelings regarding pop-music. I hate being old fashioned and I hate doing whats hot today. Theres only 1 conclusion: or you do nothing, or you do it all. I prefer doing it all, in that case. Normally I got my inspiration from something I loved. For the first time I got inspired from something I hated. And the mix -to my surprise- was equally interesting.

Freddie Mercury also mixed two different styles in his writing,symphonic rock and music hall pop,was it that mix that inspired you to do the same thing but with another mix?
Valensia: No. If it was up to me, I would have mixed about every style on the planet on my albums. Thats what I find interesting to do. When I do something twice, it bores the hell out of me, and I feel Im boring the audience. But if youre working in the music-industry, you have to fight over one million things with one million people in order to get something on you album which comes close to your original idea. In the most ideal case the record company wants: Valensia-style, Valensia-voice or even better: a Second Gaia. "We want to have a wet ballad in the vein of Valensias Nathalie, with the intro like Valensias My Heart Is In Your Hands and the easy memorable tune of Valensias The Masquerade.", "We want the originality of your first album, combined with the production of your second." When youre lucky. It also occurs that people want "..a stripped down version of Jelly In A Haysteck by Pete Cornwell with some Johnny Ray Miller guitarriffs,these are all things youre dealing with when recording an album. The mixing part just happens as you go.

Speaking of your earliest albums,the song "Thunderbolt" from your 2nd album in 96 feels like a part 2 of the song "Scaraboushka" from your first one in 93,was it meant to be like that?
Valensia: Yes, thats typically Valensian style of the nineties. Influenced by Kate Bush, Sparks, Queen, rock, pop, opera, tecno and worldmusic. Songs like Inshallah and Bombardon or Bonen Hood are written using that recepy.

Did you try to break the record of the longest album title in the world on your third album a.k.a Valensia III?(the title is- "Valensia 98 Blue Paraphernalian Dreams Of Earths Eventide Whiter Future & Darker Present Soundspheres From New Diamond Age Symphonian Artworks To Yesterdays Westernworld Rockcraft Under The Raging Nineties Silver Promise Of The Happy Hundreds On The Break Of The New Millenniums Hazy Misty Dawn")
Valensia: I hold the record for Longest Album Title since 1998. But I still have to call Guiness.

I really did appreciate your work with Robby Valentine on the 2 "V" albums from 99 and 2002,however the first one was more of a project you did together compared to the latest effort where you recorded and wrote each part on your own hand,how come?
Valensia: The first album was mostly written by me, but we had agreed to share the credits. We agreed to work seperately on the second album and credit the tracks individually as he wrote some Valensia-styled stuff and was worried that people might think I wrote it all.

Your latest solo album "The blue album" is your best album up to date, when I wrote about the album I mentioned the peculiar song "Life is a killer" which feels like Nik Kershaw meeting Wham! Tropicopop in a charming way, You are the only guy who can get away with it in this genre without beeing crappy,do you always do what falls into your mind?
Valensia: Whenever I get the chance. I recorded The Blue Album in an ideal situation. I didnt make any demos. If I would have delivered all the songs for the Blue Album as demos firstly, then probably none of them would have appeared on the album itself. I had the luxury of recording my debut album this way. The recordcompany only knew Gaia, and i could fill the rest of the album with whatever I wanted. Perfect. But when success kicked in, the second album had to be measured, weighted, turned upside down.. Every song I wrote wasnt good enough. I wrote songs like The Mercurian Mystery March, Waltz Of The World for my second album KOSMOS, which ended up being on the first V album. Life Is A Killer is one of those songs which never can please anyone until its put on an album. I love that 80ies Tropicopop. Songs like Bruxelles or The Sun on my previous albums are typically "Tropicopop". I actually never heard of the term "Tropicopop". Nice name.

If I should complain about anything,it is why you overproduced some of the songs on the 2nd "V" album,the songs are really fantastic but feels like they have been overdone just a little too much,do you love to use every track there´s available?
Valensia: Yeah, thats typically a young, over-enthousiast guys thing. I think I will calm down when Im 80. I guess my problem is that I get bored easily. So while Im working on the songs, I keep adding thingies hether and yonder until its actually too much. Im aware of that. It never was mixed and produced properly: I did it myself. I cant.

So now,you´re going in a completely different direction with your new Metal project, What´s the story behind this interesting upcoming project,how come you thought of doing a metal album?
Valensia: Again this is something people have been suggesting for quite some time. Valensia has always been catagorized as being Heavy Metal in Japan. I never understood why. When I visited Japan for the very first time I really was puzzled by this. You had your Nuclear Assault, your Slayer, your Death Corpses Carnival and Valensia! Young Noble Knight, as my advertisings state. I said: "Look, Im not heavy metal at all, Im not even hardrock. As a matter of fact, Im not even rock!" They explained that the Japanese market labels the genres slightly different. Im still labeled as heavy metal. I might as well make the music to fit in with this genre. Plus I was doing a first-time Question & Answer on the internet for my Japanese fans. They gave me all these ideas. The Queen Tribute also was suggested by one of the fans during that week. As this year is Valensias 10th anniversary I promised to do all ideas suggested this year.

How far have you come in the making of it?
Valensia: Im halfway through. I only have 2 months for the writings and recordings. Normally it takes 2 or 3 years from A to Z. But Ive got some very old and some very new stuff on it. Some pieces were written in 1987, some written last week or still unfinished. Good thing Im still tuned up from having done the Queen Tribute.

Can we recognize anything from your past in the Metal Majesty album,will there be a totally new sound to Valensia or can we hear traces of your typical pompous background in the metal you´re making?
Valensia: The band is called Metal Majesty, it will be loud, but dont expect Slayer. It will be something which certainly will appeal to the lovers of AOR and symphonic hardrock. There are quite some hardrock fans who appreciate Valensia, suggesting I should make a heavy album. They write me like: "You are the guy that plays the fast guitar, does the symphonic thing and the songwriting we want. So how come youre doing that pop-stuff!" I got a whole list of things they requested: catchy chorusses, keyboard and guitarsolos, symphonic pieces and opera sections, harmonies and the whole deal. This year was kinda like producing by request. My 10th anniversary: Gotta have some gifts.

When will it be out?
Valensia: Around november this year. Pretty soon.

I´m really looking forward of hearing it because when you let Valensia loose in a studio,anything can and will come out of the speakers in the most unexpected way. Good luck with completing the album and thanks for your time!
Valensia: Thanks! I like the way you put it; anything can and will come out of the speakers in the most unexpected way. Im about to lock myself in the studio again, and it occured to me I havent got the faintest idea what Im going to do. I never have. Thats probably why anything comes out of the speakers in the most unexpecting way. Sometimes I really dont know what to answer when people ask me: "What kind of album are you making?" How the hell should I know? I havent heard it yet! Thanks, Valensia