HEALING ANGELS
What no one expected suddenly happened. British neo-prog band Landmarq released a new studio album in 2012 after
almost fourteen years of abscence. Lead singer Tracy Hitchings was diagnosed with cancer and required
a long and intensive recovery.
The band processed the suffering and hope in their fascinating 'Entertaining Angels'-album. Landmarq
ended the first part of their
tour in The Netherlands during the Rock Ittervoort Festival on april 2013. Lazyrocker
had a short meeting with bassist Steve Gee and the always
adorable Tracy Hitchings just before their
final gig.
Angels exist, you know. Just learn how to
believe.
Landmarq made a grandiose come
back with the well received
album 'Entertaining Angels’.
It's called the best Landmarq album until now. Do you
agree?
Steve: “Yes, I would have to agree.
The albums prior to ‘Entertaining
Angels’ are obviously sounding
a little bit silly, but we
are proud of all the albums
we have done, of course. A new Landmarq-album
is like giving birth to child.
In musical terms is ‘Entertaining
Angels’ the most complete album we’ve ever done. It’s the way the band worked
together in studio and on
stage. There’s a certain
kind of cohesion that there never was before."
Is the
album completely based on Tracy’s recovery?
Steve: “No, it’s not. I must confess that there
are a few things slightly
mixed up. The songs that Tracy has written are autobiographical. The
other songs that our guitarist Uwe Drose or I wrote are purely our songs. For example; ‘Mountains Of Anglia’ or ‘Personal
Universe’ are written by me, but the content of the lyrics
could aply to Tracy. In fact is applies to both
of us in different ways. So it’s understandable
that people think that Tracy has written the entire album."
 |
 |
Where does the song 'Entertaining Angels’ stands for?
Tracy: "Our guitarist Uwe Drose came up with
the idea for the song, actually. I grabbed his idea and wrote
the lyrics and vocal arrangements. You can say that
I stole the song from him. Ha!Ha!Ha!
But straight I way I knew it was going
to be a spiritual feeling, because that's the area that Uwe and I are into. The spiritual feeling is a kind of my faith and
how I live. So it makes sense to write about
that.
I must confess
that I really can't remember what triggered it. It was more a
kind of realising that I know that there's
something more that just a human state. Some strange, odd things
happened to me. But I won't tell you,
because people may think that
I'm a bit funny. Ha!Ha!Ha!"
Would 'Entertaining Angels' be
a different kind of album if Tracy had not become ill
for such a long time?
Steve: “ The funny thing is that we even didn’t know if we would
record another studio album. Landmarq’s
last studio album ‘Science Of Coincidence’
came out in 1998, and that was the first album with Tracy
as lead singer. From that point of view we had to
release a new studio album. A couple of songs from 'Entertaining Angels' were first released on our live cd/dvd ‘ Turbulence-Live
In Poland’ which came out before.
I gues the
album developed as it went along. The band has always a plan
of some sort, but it’s never a hundered percent. Things always change as we go along."
Do you romanticize your spiritual philosophy in the lycrics?
Tracy: "It's a bit
of both that goes into it. The emotional connection between passion and reality is very important. There usually is something that you've experienced
and pulling into it, but you
might add a bit of fantasy around it. All the songs from the album which I wrote the lyrics, melodies, and arrangements
for are really shaped from my
personal experience with cancer.
The writing process went very chaotic. I started reshaping the songs because I had
to deal with the cancer. Because of that Landmarq couldn't
go ahead and record the
album. We had to wait a few
years to get everybody together. Writing, recording, and producing the album was a
major point for all of us. We really came
to a high level of that nature where we came into our own.
I live a very
different way now than I did before. Much
more positively. Because of
that the writing comes more like a gift."
Are there any plans
towards the future of Landmarq?
Steve: “There are some plans, certainly. We hope to come back for
a European tour towards
the end of this year. There’s some new material written for an album, and
plenty ideas are still coming up during the rehearsals. Also we’ve got a lot of music left that
couldn’t be used on ‘Entertaining Angels’. We
also have plans to release a new live DVD from
the concert that’s filmed
at De Boerderij in Zoetermeer. Ooooh…so much things
to do, and so little time left. It’s because we are all spread out around the
country, you know. Everyone has his personal life elsewhere.”
Tracy: "We are hungry to move on. Grrrrrr! Ha!Ha!Ha!"
Thanks for your time and answers, Steve and Tracy.
Michel Scheijen for www.Mostlypink.net
Back to Landmarq.
|
|
 |
 A proud interviewer and Tracy.
|
Symfo-Index.