Life On Mars – Shadows in a Prog Jar
1. Your new album “Shadows in a Jar” has just been released, featuring contributions from members of Yes, Paul McCartney, and Wings. Can you tell us about the collaboration process and what it was like working with these musicians?
It was a tremendous honor to work with Denny and Billy.
Denny Seiwell (McCartney and Wings) plays drums on two tracks, “She’s Already Gone” and “Only One”. Billy Sherwood (YES) plays bass guitar, drums and sings all the vocals on “After All”.
I felt their talents were well-suited to the specific songs they are on and was thrilled when they agreed to play on the songs. Their tracks were recorded at Stairway Studios in California, USA. Some other special guests on previous Life On Mars albums are: Scarlet Rivera (violin/Bob Dylan), Jamie Glaser (lead guitar/Jean-Luc Ponty Band), Durga McBroom (bv’s/Pink Floyd)… and others. Working with each of them was great fun and their contributions to my songs are dearly appreciated.
2. Your album cover art is very distinctive and eye-catching. Can you tell us more about the concept behind the artwork?
“Shadows In A Jar” is our 6th album. I create the art concept for all the albums and the basic designs for all of them. For the first 6 albums I worked with Jim Pedersen who did album covers for Warner Bros. Records for many years, he would execute my concepts and that’s how the album covers were produced. The concept for the “Shadows In A Jar” album are derived from lyrics in the title track of the album, those lyrics are…
“You silly humans standing shaking in the dark, we’ll take your souls heaven knows they’re only shadows in a jar.” And we incorporate the Mars planet image in every album cover.
3. Your album features a variety of guest musicians. How do you approach collaborating with other artists, and what do you look for in a potential collaborator?
I have written over 700 songs and I have written all the songs on the six Life On Mars albums (except one song.)
The songs I ask special guests to appear on are complete in regard to their structure and arrangements. So, we record the basic tracks of the songs and then have the special guests come into the studio to record their tracks. It’s a fairly simple process. I never give them instructions because I already know that whatever they play is going to be fantastic and I try not to influence their playing at all. I just let them do their thing and it’s wonderful. The results are fantastic doing it that way.
4. Your music has a very distinctive and atmospheric sound. How do you go about creating this atmosphere in your recordings?
For each specific song, I am after a specific sound. I describe what I’m after to Fernando Perdomo who is a brilliant musician and recording engineer at Stairway Studios in California. He has a great gift for getting the exact sounds I’m after. He would be better suited to describe how he does it, all I know is that he is brilliant at understanding what I want and achieving it.
5. The album includes a range of different tempos and moods. How do you decide on the pacing and sequencing of the songs on the album?
I focus intently on having versatility of the songs on all the Life On Mars albums. In a way, the Life On Mars sequencing and style are all based on the versatility of songs on The Beatles “White Album”. The songs “Blackbird”and “Helter Skelter” both appear on The White album and those songs are miles apart from each other in regard to their styles. And yet, the album as a whole is fluent and… it’s The Beatles. Same goes for all the Life On Mars albums..;. they have that same versatility of songs but it all sounds like Life On Mars in the end.
I want people to come away with the impression that Life On Mars is a rock band, above all, but… with amazing versatility and sensitivity as well. I sequence the songs to accomplish that goal.
6. What advice would you give to someone who is just discovering your music for the first time, and wants to explore your back catalogue?
Over the eight years Life On Mars has been making albums, I believe each album gets better as we go along. But there’s many great recordings on every album.
Recording is an unending learning process. My advice would be to listen to the albums in their entirety because only then can you understand the full impact of the songs as a grouping, as a singular work (the album.)
A lot of my songs start out one way and end another way so… hopefully that makes them interesting.
My songs are lyric-based songs. I have written over 700 songs and I write the lyrics first every single time, the lyrics are as important to me as the music is. The music I write is actually derived from the lyrics.
7. Your music has been described as both progressive rock and psychedelic pop. How do you see your music fitting into these genres, and do you feel that genre labels are important or useful in describing your sound?
I am good with that assessment. But we are more than that. too. I love progressive and psychedelic.
They are on all the Life On Mars albums for sure. I guess applying a genre indication is an easy way to explain something to people who have never heard a band’s music, I understand that but you will never completely understand Life On Mars just by mentioning genres. I am OK with progressive and psychedelic. I love them both but there’s more to Life On Mars than that.
8. What can fans expect from your live shows, and how do you adapt your music for the stage?
We are hoping for support from your readers and that the new album “Shadows In A Jar” does well and then we will come to Greece and show you what we can do. Even though the albums are all studio albums, I think they have a “live” feel to them, in many instances. Fans can expect us to rock with the best of any rock band and have the nuances I described in the versatility of songs earlier.
9. What do you hope audiences will take away from your music and your performances, both in terms of emotional impact and intellectual stimulation?
I hope they see an intelligence and versatility and tremendous musicianship in all of it.
So many of my songs/lyrics are easily related to by millions of people. My songs are always a form of communication of the feelings we all share as human beings and we also have songs that are just designed to smash on guitars and have a great time. The musicianship on the Life On Mars albums is second to none.
10. Your band has been active for several years now. How has your sound evolved over time, and what have been some of the key milestones in your musical journey?
We’ve learned a lot about recording and getting a specific sound for the band. If you listen to the songs/albums you will see they are pretty straight forward. We DO NOT manipulate vocals with autotune, we do not use click tracks to record songs, we do not use an insane multitude of tracks to accomplish our sound. They are mostly simple recordings made to sound real big with minimal tracks. Sort of like “live” recordings.
It’s a simple approach with fantastic results. I think your fans are gonna love it.
Thanks so much for your interest in Life On Mars and it was a great pleasure to speak with you today.
To purchase: https://linktr.ee/shadowsinajar
For more information: https://www.facebook.com/LifeOnMarsTheBand
