{"id":17596,"date":"2022-09-11T21:49:50","date_gmt":"2022-09-11T21:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/?p=17596"},"modified":"2022-09-11T21:49:52","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T21:49:52","slug":"mike-ian-the-learning-tree-discussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2022\/09\/11\/mike-ian-the-learning-tree-discussion\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Ian – The Learning Tree Discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
  1. What is the concept behind your conceptual Prog album “The Learning Tree\u201d?<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The concept behind \u201cThe Learning Tree\u201d musically was to combine the musical elements I\u2019ve learned and appreciated over the years, progressive music, symphonic, acoustic, vocal music, into a large-scale, cohesive project.\u00a0 Lyrically it\u2019s about one\u2019s journey to find him or herself throughout this thing we call life.\u00a0 It can best be described by lyricist, Troy Raleigh: “The learning tree of life has many branches. Come experience its growth from its roots to its apex. How a dream in sleep awakened one\u2019s spirit on a journey of reflection, inspiration, exploration, salvation, and love. Embracing the ever changing winds in one\u2019s life with great fortitude\u2026\u00a0 Dream away into reality.\u00a0 And climb the learning tree of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. Why did you decide to record all the instruments and vocals?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Having my own studio and living and breathing music practically all my life, I felt this project was very close and personal to me.\u00a0 Not that I am against other musicians by any means, but I wanted to see how far I could take the self-produced approach for such a personal endeavor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. Where and how did you record this album?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I recorded this album at my home studio in New Jersey.\u00a0 I\u2019ve become quite accomplished as a studio engineer so the task wasn\u2019t all that complicated for me.\u00a0 I\u2019ve acquired pretty decent gear over the years and managed to get a relatively nice sound that I have been happy with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4. Why did you decide to collaborate with lyricist Troy Raleigh?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Lyrics is where I fall short on my projects.\u00a0 This is the main reason this project sat for so long.\u00a0I thought inspiration would just hit me over the years.\u00a0 The music was too broad and grand, I realized, for me to attempt a lyric that was equal to this grandeur.\u00a0 So in came long friend, Troy Raleigh.\u00a0 He managed, very quickly I may add, to assemble a cohesive lyrical tapestry to match the sonics I created.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t be happier with the finished result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    5. The opening title, “A Pirate\u2019s Dream,” conjures up the thrill of the pirate life in the deep seas. Did you have any cinematic inspiration for this track?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The music itself very early on gave me that nautical, sea-faring vibe.\u00a0 Mainly because of that 6\/8, sea-faring tempo.\u00a0 Yes, there\u2019s a cinematic quality to most of my large-scale music.\u00a0 This opening track is a perfect example of how a song can open up one\u2019s imagination to visually place you into another world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    6. Who did the cover artwork for the album and what was the concept behind it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The artwork was done by my daughter, Ivy whom lives in Australia now.  We remotely went back and forth over design and concept for the project.  The concept was simply to convey imagery per song and have a cohesive, visual package to accompany the music experience.  The main image, the \u201clearning tree\u201d, was from a lyric on the album.  It seemed the perfect image to portray the concept for the whole album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    7. Do you have any plans to tour for this album?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    No plans to tour this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    8. How do you feel about the modern Prog scene?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I am not all that up-to-date on the current prog scene.\u00a0 I came from the old Genesis, Yes, ELP scene.\u00a0 I do appreciate what I hear currently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    9. What are the “progressive” elements of the current “rock” scene?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The progressive elements in today\u2019s scene I see are the fact that musicians are still pushing the boundaries of what we can do with our 12-tone musical system. The advancement of the technology plays a huge part.\u00a0 The musicianship level of upcoming artists is really advancing from the original 1970\u2019s era progressive musicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    10. What about your next music plans?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    After this project I am pretty burnt!\u00a0 I say this after every project.\u00a0 Then, out of nowhere, a thought pops up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To purchase:<\/strong>\u00a0https:\/\/mikeian.hearnow.com\/the-learning-tree<\/a>
    For more information visit:<\/strong>\u00a0    www.mikeian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What is the concept behind your conceptual Prog album “The Learning Tree\u201d? The concept behind…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11],"tags":[2190,125,51],"class_list":["post-17596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faqs","category-most-wanted-interviews","tag-mike-ian","tag-prog","tag-progressive-rock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17598,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17596\/revisions\/17598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}