we would first like you to introduce yourself, because most of our readers will not be familiar with you and European stuff is hard to get in the United States (well at least not as cheap as US releases, ed.)
SL: I am Steve Leigh and I play keyboards
UR: I'm Uwe D'Röse and I am the guitarist
SG: Steve Gee, bass guitar
IG: Ian Gould or some people call me Moon, I'm the lead vocals.
Landmarq: And we are Landmarq. We are missing Dave Wagstaffe, the drummer.
SL: He's not here (emphasized). Ehm...
First question: you're from Tamarisk right?
SL: That's correct yes
You're from Quasar
UR: Yes
And you're from Pendragon?
SG: No, that's Pete Gee. We're not even brothers. My progressive rock band was in the early seventies. That was Artemis.
Artemis? I've never heard anything about Artemis.
SG: You probably wouldn't have. We didn't actually record ah released anything initially, but we played with Camel and various other bands. But it faulted a long time ago and I've done some other things in between. So I've come full circle if you like.
Coming back to Quasar now.
SL: I actually joined Quasar after I left Tamarisk. I played keyboards on tour with them after their album. Dillon Tonkin, the original keyboardplayer left, and I joined and Dave Wagstaffe just got there and we then went on to record the second album Lorelei and then their was a second break-up there. And ehm it ended up just being Dave Wagstaffe, Tracy Hitchings, Keith Turner on bass and Toshi on guitar. And when we left, then we actually started to work on Landmarq and eventually Dave came round again. Uwe did a couple of tours with us with Quasar and it basically all sort of come together like that.
You've all been busy with progressive rock for quite some time.
SL: Yeah, Ian probably not.
IG: I've only just recently joined. Before this I was in the South of England, in a kind of a rock band which was called Big Silence which blew itself up have way through the way on one of its tours. Basically Damian left, you know Damian the previous singer, and to cut a long story short I basically joined. And eh I've..
SL: been in love again ever since.
About Damian Wilson. I believe I heard that he eh went off to the United States?
UR: He's gone to California, to gig there. He joined a band called Lasalle. I don't know if you're familiar with that name.
No.
UR: He did join them. He did go to America, apparently very well received and all that and he's currently back in England?
SL: Yeah, he's over in England recording an album. They have got quite a good support, quite a financial backing. So, what he received was a deal that he couldn't afford to put down. So he's gone on to do, they are like a stadium rock outfit, if you like and that's the closest you can descirbe them. But they are very good at what they do, very good.
I heard that Damian Wilson originally wasn't in the progressive scene. That you were the first progressive band he joined.
SG: He knew actually nothing about it when he joined. It was all new to him, but he he had a lot of enthusiasm for it. I don't know whether he would have stayed any longer than he did. But you know, he gave us his best at the time.
SL: A lot fun
SG: Yeah, but eh Ian is definitely the man.
SL: The MAN
SG: We can keep an eye on Ian a lot more actually. Damian was always doing other things, with other bands. It was hard to pin him down. But we feel that this is a slightly more stable line-up. Ian is more a Landmarq family man (which makes Ian laugh).
SL: Ian is a Landmarqer, definitely.
Do you mean to say that Damian Wilson was not really part of the band?
UR: No, no but he was very busy with other projects.
SL: He always had a lot of things to do.
UR: It was very hard to pin him down. To say: come to this and that wherever you are.
You mean for gigs, practising, rehearsing, recording?
UR: Well, up to a point. He was always there for gigs and stuff, obviously. He has never missed one.
SL: He did almost miss one once (laughter). We was playing and we went on and he disappeared and we started to play and we went through the first part of Killing Fields, which is on the first album incidentally and as we were going through we realized someone was missing; it was Damian. And he comes rushing in the doors and we had to stretch it up instrumentally to give him a chance to get in...to go 'Hi I'm Damian Wilson'. It was we were a bit panic stricken at the time.
Maybe he was at the toilet or something?
UR: Wasn't it some kind of girl?
SL: A girl he met (laughter)
How would you describe your music?
UR: I suppose we could describe it as
SL: Landmarq music.
UR: Landmarq music. We are melodic, progressive, light, heavy.
SL: We do not really like to put labels on ourselves.
What I mean is, do you want to create an atmosphere or are you more into the melodies themselves?
L: Do you think we create an atmosphere?
Ehm, depends on the song.
UR: That's right.
If you take a song like The More You Seek The More You Lose, that's a song it's short.
L: Yeah
Take Ta' Jiang for instance. That creates an atmosphere and that's usually what you do in longer songs.
UR: Basically, obviously we are creating an atmosphere. We play pieces like Forever Young and Ta' Jiang or the Suite St. Helen for instance. They are very ehm mood inspiring, you know.
SG: Still, the melody is also foremost in the writing you see.
SL: But it's not really how we do it. We do not conciously say 'Oh we're going to write this melody', or 'I like this sequence'. It's something that just develops and it seems to work. It develops naturally as well, it is not contrived. And I think that comes across and I think that's why there is quite a contrast between certain numbers. I think it has to do with the writing as well, but there are differences. There is a different ehm approach to every song. We don't want to stick with the formula if you like, like a lot of bands do. That they think we take the same thing and package it in another case. We do definitely try to move on.
UR: Yes, if you listen to a Landmarq album there are different things on there. I mean there is no Landmarq song that sounds the same.
SL: I don't think so.
I do think that with Gaia's Waltz you put a realy waltz in there and for instance at the end of Solitary Witness, it has a kind of a danceable intermezzo, but always a bit slow, never really up-tempo. Those are parts that I usually can't find with other bands.
SL: Yeah, yeah
They are melodies that do not come easily it seems.
UR: That's a fair comment.
SG: It's really just what Steve (Leigh) said. It's just really down to the way that we craft the song. It might me Steve coming up with a particular cord sequence or a melody.
UR: I think that from the very beginning there is a very definite vision atached to it. There is a sort of making it happen, I suppose.
SL: We have an image, what the song is all about. We have an image and then it simply seems to fall into place.
I think this is particulary good with Ta' Jiang, because the beginning of the song is quite up-tempo and I feel like I'm on a boat going through the water and you see the landscape sliding by.
UR & SL: That's the whole idea.
SL: I'm glad you saw that. I'm pleased because it obviously works.
I did have some help from the SI review, because I knew it was about a river.
SL: Right.
Maybe if I didn't know about the river at all?
SL: Yeah
Still, the feeling has to be there. Especially, the tempo and the singing makes you rush through that river. I believe that you were actually there?
SL: No a friend of mine went there. Actually she went to Thailand and she took some photographs. She went all over Asia and she took this photograph. It was actually a river near Bangkok, all these boat people. When she returned I saw this photograpg and I got the inspiration to write the music. But I actually got the lyrics from reading a book about the Jang-tse-kiang, which is a river in China, sometimes called the Yellow River. But they do not call it that; they call it Great River or Ta' Jiang. And that's where the lyrics developed from. So the inspiration is from a completely different country.
You are recording a new album now. It should be released around November. How is it coming about?
SL: Well, we do not know who we will be recording it with. That depends on Thin Ice's schedule (studio of Clive Nolan and Karl Groom, ed.). We recorded the last two albums there. And it depends on the budget I suppose.
And the songs?
SL: The songs are already written. We are always writing and we have got lots of material.
What about the songs? Are they more in the line of say Ta' Jiang or more of a shorter song format?
UR & SL: It varies very much.
SG: There's a possibility that eveyr song might be seven minutes. This is the truth, but I guess you'll have to wait and see. The first three are very close to seven minutes each.
L: It's an actual fact, a sign...
SG: That's the working title of the album at the moment The Signs Of Coincidence. That's an exclusive (laughter all around).
Landmarq: But it still can change, like changing socks.
You might call it Moon for instance (laughter again)
Solitary Witness, I heard had a theme, Eternal Youth. Does Infinity Parade have a...
UR: You mean the album? Yes, it is.
I couldn't discover one in Infinity Parade. I mean I do not have the booklet anymore, so I couldn't find one.
SL: There is one actually. It's about Man's effect on the environment.
UR: You could also say it's about life.
That's very vague. Let's look at some songs. Gaia's Waltz for instance. If I'm not mistaken the she in 'She dances..'. Is that Earth.
SL: That's pagan ritualism.
UR: Gaia is Earth yes.
SG: 'with a comfortable passage of train'
SL: Yes, it's about a person getting to work or coming home from work.
So that's where the train comes into this song.
SL: And the other disguise is that she's reversed back to her pagan ritualism.
You could make a beautiful clip out of this one.
SL: Yes, you could.
Someone stepping into a train, into a field.
SL: Haha, you have just thought the video out. We might make and release it, haha. Yeah this a this one about Tailspin is about whales and dolphins and effects there from the dolphins point of view. They've all got things about..
it's all environmental?
SL: Sort of yes. It's a cross between that and observation. I mean Ta' Jiang is about China's effect on a great river.
Well Embrace, which is in our opinion about the best song on the album, that's more of a love song.
SL: That's a love song, yes. You see Landmarq do write love songs, because love is part of us (laughter and everyone joining in for All you need is love...)
I think together with Ta' Jiang it's the best on the album
SL: Nice of you to say so. All people have their favourites.
SG: It's always interesting to hear different people's favourite songs. Embrace, that's proven to be very popular.
SL: There's a new number that's might have the same effect. It's not quite the same, but it will have the same effect. It's for the third album.
You talked about a tailspin before. What is a Tailspin?
SL: That song is about dolphins.
Yes but what is it?
SG: This is when the dolphin or whale leaps out of the water and the tail actually spins, but again it's an enviromental kind of thing.
But The More You Seek The More You Lose that's more a..
SL: A philosopher's song.
Yes, more abstract.
SL: Yes definitely. You'll have to ask Damian what he was thinking off when he wrote that, but..when I first heard it I thought that is odd, but it works.
UR: It's very topical.
SL: It was very topical at the time, because there's reference to certain incidence in the world at the time.
UR: It is when he attacks them, a shoot-out at the luncheon.
SL: That's the line. People in the United States catch on to that very quickly because that's where it happened.