Nick D’Virgilio
Big Big Train drummer Nick D’Virgilio teams up with luminaries from Supertramp, Dream Theater and The Flower Kings on his new solo album, The results, he says, take just a pinch of inspiration from his time with Cirque Du Soleil.
Big Big Train’s drummer discusses his second solo album, Invisible.
“Ialways wanted to be a solo artist but those ambitions took a back seat to family commitments and being in bands,” states Nick D’Virgilio. “I’m not complaining because I’ve done some amazing things in life, but now I feel I’ve found my voice and from this point forward there will be a lot more music from me. I won’t take 20 or even 10 years between albums.”
Much has changed for this quietly spoken Californian since the release of a debut solo record, Karma, at the millennium’s turn. Having co-founded Spock’s Beard, Neal Morse’s departure in 2002 saw D’Virgilio quit the drum stool to become lead singer and, for the first time, a significant writer over a four-album spell. After moving on in 2011 D’Virgilio played with Tears For Fears and also auditioned to replace Phil Collins in Genesis, going on to perform on four tracks from
Calling All Stations, and he is a long-serving part of Big Big Train.
But it was during a five-year spell as part of Totem, the Cirque Du Soleil’s touring presentation of mankind’s history, that D’Virgilio had the idea for Invisible. As assistant bandleader his role in the show involved playing drums and singing largely unseen by the audience. With up to 10 performances each week, as night after night became year after year, the sheer gruelling anonymity of it all began to eat away at him. The opening song and title track, which includes the lines: ‘It was the best and worst decision I ever made/I should have thought it out’, holds the key to what follows.
“I was definitely frustrated by Cirque Du Soleil for a little while, but while this album is a little bit autobiographical it’s not all about my own experiences,” he replies. “It’s more fiction than non-fiction. I was writing about things that are universally felt. Lots of people reach points in their lives that they don’t expect to be, it’s just how things have gone for them.”
When asked whether his discontent with the job was based upon repetition or maybe if it caused him to realise he was more of an attention seeker than he knew, D’Virgilio chooses the former.
“The repetition had its good and bad points; it certainly taught me some discipline,” he responds. “I did know that I was very blessed to have that job, the pay cheque was very welcome during a time when my career was very slow. And I ended up using the concept of invisibility to tell story, not necessarily
my own story.”
So percentage-wise, how much of the tale is made-up?
“Oh gosh, just a little bit of it came from me – 10 per cent at the most.”
An unforeseen development in this new Covid-19-conscious world of ours is that
Invisible could also take on fresh meaning; that of underappreciated frontline workers.
“You bet,” he agrees heartily. “Some people assumed that the first single, Where’s The Passion, was about that. It really wasn’t my intention, but if that song provides energy and positive thought during all of this crap, that can only be a great thing.”
Although Invisible is a lengthy, conceptually themed piece, D’Virgilio didn’t set out to make a prog rock record and that isn’t really what happened. Its creator prefers to call the album “storied”. Prog’s recent album review may have singled out Turn Your Life Around as a nod back to Spock’s Beard, but what we’re dealing with is a painstakingly assembled and varied rock record.
“A lot of the influences I expressed came from when I was a kid, and not all of it is progressive rock, though a lot of it’s kinda
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