{"id":27046,"date":"2025-04-24T09:28:57","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T09:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/?p=27046"},"modified":"2025-04-24T09:30:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T09:30:21","slug":"brass-camel-on-camel-and-prog-funk-pioneering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2025\/04\/24\/brass-camel-on-camel-and-prog-funk-pioneering\/","title":{"rendered":"Brass Camel \u2013 On \u201cCamel\u201d and Prog-Funk Pioneering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1.\u00a0Your new album Camel blends prog rock ambition with deep funk grooves. How did the term \u201cprog-funk\u201d come to define your sound, and how do you keep it fresh and surprising across such diverse tracks?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all love prog and we all love funk. In this band they don’t show up in equal parts but when the project was getting started we wanted to convey that this wasn’t the type of\u00a0modern prog band\u00a0<\/em>that I believe a lot of people picture when they hear that “P” word. While technically mesmerising, for a lot of the listening public prog shows aren’t\u00a0fun.\u00a0<\/em>We found that at our shows we were seeing both gearheads who wanted to talk tech and count the bars of 9\/8 as well as college students who just wanted to rock out and dance. It’s been tough figuring out a way to sell the band to newcomers in a short, succinct way which let’s ELP fans know they won’t be bored at our show and also lets AC\/DC fans know they can still put up the horns and rock out, or Little Feat fans know there’ll be pocket and groove. Prog-funk is the best pitch we’ve got!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.\u00a0\u201cZealot\u201d opens the record with a tense, swinging epic inspired by The Pit and the Pendulum. What drew you to that theme, and how did it shape the musical direction of the track?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I quite like choosing a theme for a song and writing a story about it, in the Rush\/Metallica vein – “here’s the spaceship song, here’s the atomic bomb song” – and I had been reading about the inquisition when I started writing the music for “Zealot”. I had a couple of the verses and the choruses figured about and felt it was missing a piece so I started looking up poetry and old stories about the inquisition and in doing this discovered the Poe poem. The imagery of the swinging blade and burning candles painted a picture that was both vivid and bleak; I thought it fit the song quite well and incorporated those scenes into the track. Public domain strikes again! Musically, we wanted to use the extended mid section of the song to imagining the different states of mind someone might be going through in the throes of torture at the hands of religious zealotry – fear and anger and the occasionally bit of sunshine and hope that that keeps people going in adverse circumstances. With that said there may be a degree of looking for meaning in retrospect now that the question has been asked – perhaps the real answer here is that we just\u00a0love to riff<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.\u00a0The album closer \u201cAnother Day\u201d is a deeply personal piece dealing with grief and peace. What was it like channeling such raw emotion into a three-part composition, and how did you approach balancing vulnerability with musical complexity?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wouldn’t say I took any particular approach, at least not one I was conscious of. When I was 19 I lost one of my best friends to suicide, and in 2017 I lost another dear friend who unknowingly took fentanyl. My sibling took their own life in early 2022 while we were in the middle of recording our debut\u00a0Brass<\/em>\u00a0and after taking some time to be there for my parents we got right back at it and hammered out the rest of the album. Afterwards I just put my head down and wrote music which was when Another Day was finished – the first verses of the song were written before I lost them, while I was watching them and another friend dealing with severe depression and not knowing exactly how to help beyond letting them know I was there for them. The song took a darker turn as life took a darker turn. There wasn’t a great deal of thought put into the balance between subject matter and complexity. I do not read music and don’t know much about music theory – Aubrey is a schooled musician and Dylan knows his fair share of theory but for the most part we are ‘feel’ guys. This is how we ‘felt’ the song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.\u00a0From \u201cPick of the Litter\u201d to \u201cChain Reaction,\u201d the album doesn\u2019t shy away from humor or groove. How important is it for Brass Camel to balance seriousness with playfulness in your music?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best thing about this band is just making whatever kind of music we want to play at the time. Sometimes it’s heavy, sometimes delicate (maybe not so much on this album), sometimes funky and sometimes rigid and technical. Music should be fun- take liberties, do the silly song if that’s what you want to do, enjoy yourselves and hopefully others do too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.\u00a0You recorded Camel at the legendary Hipposonic Studios. Did working in a space with such rock history influence the vibe or performance during the sessions?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a fabulous vibe in the there and the studio owner Rob is a gem of a human. We were on a tight time schedule – other than vocals and a couple keyboard parts which we tracked at our rehearsal studio, we tracked everything in 6 days at Hipposonic so no time to follow in the footsteps of the clients of yesteryear by filling up the tub with pink champagne and calling down the local talent from the No 5 Orange. But maybe next time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.\u00a0Ben Kaplan\u2019s production has shaped some big records. What did he bring to Camel that elevated your vision, and how collaborative was the recording process?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the classical sense of the term we produced this – the Camel did 100% of the creative work in terms of arrangement, instrument\/tone choices and songwriting, as well as lot of direction when it came to unconventional techniques (for example the swirling chords in the dark half time section of “Zealot” were played with three ebows on three strings through a cab we’ve got with a blown speaker). Where Ben came in was with the execution of our production ideas. He is a wizard in the studio and with protools. We didn’t have to touch a computer and although we recorded the drum\/bass\/guitar beds as a live three piece there was inevitably a certain amount of comping happening to bring all the best takes together. He put in an incredible amount time “off the clock” and really poured himself into making this sound the way it does.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7.\u00a0You\u2019ve played over 120 shows in two years. How has that relentless touring schedule impacted your chemistry as a band and the energy captured on this new record?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were a chronically unrehearsed band for some time – went from 3 or 4 shows a year in 2021 and 2022 to over 40 in 2023 and over 70 last year. Finally getting that\u00a0time<\/em>\u00a0in made a huge difference in how we play together – it was a blast getting into the studio fresh off the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8.\u00a0There\u2019s serious musical ambition here, especially in tracks like \u201cAnother Day,\u201d where guitars step back and the rhythm section takes over. How do you decide when to spotlight each member and let the music breathe in that way?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it feels good, we do it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9.\u00a0Fans and legends alike, from Fantastic Negrito to Gordie Johnson, have praised your sound. How does that kind of recognition impact your confidence as a band pushing genre boundaries?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last night we made an Uzbek pilaf called plov in our hotel room because it’s a incredibly tasty way to give 6 adults two meals each for under twenty dollars.\u00a0We’re doing this because we believe in the project and love making music (lovemaking music?), but it’s tough out there for an independent band. A little bit of validation here and there is great for morale!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10.\u00a0You\u2019ve said you\u2019re not interested in playing it safe. With Camel, what risks did you take musically or thematically that you\u2019re especially proud of, and what\u2019s next for Brass Camel as you chase down the future of prog rock?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are just glad that we made the record we wanted to make! I think all of our have been in other bands where you compromise your vision to do what you think – or so often,\u00a0someone else thinks-\u00a0<\/em>you have to do to ‘make it’. We’re all really happy with how this turned out and it has us feeling energised for the future. Speaking of which, we enter the studio next week (while on tour) to record album number three which will be coming out in 2026. It doesn’t have any 12 minute songs but it is a more ambitious album in terms of arrangements and themes – we can’t wait for the next chapter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n