THE INTRO
The Grammy Award winner revives the Alan Parsons Project sound on his first album in 15 years and hints that future shows could feature live magic tricks.
Alan Parsons returns with his first new album in 15 years, plus news from Mostly Autumn, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Last Exit To Pluto, Irij, Lonely Robot and more…
“I love the mystery and the appeal that magic has to so many people.”
Alan Parsons has exclusively revealed to Prog The Secret behind his new studio album, out on Frontiers on April 26. The songs on the mysterious 11-track all have a connection to magic, which has been one of his biggest passions since he was a child.
“I love the mystery and the appeal that magic has to so many people,” he says of the concept. “I do a bit of magic myself; card tricks, coin tricks and so on. I’m a member of the Magic Castle in Hollywood, which is the most famous magic club in the world, and I used to attend The Magic Circle in London before I moved to the States as well.”
The album opens with an epic version of Paul Dukas’ orchestral piece, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which was made popular by Walt Disney in the classic Mickey Mouse animation Fantasia.
“We arranged it for a rock band and it’s a veritable superstar extravaganza,” says Parsons. “Steve Hackett is playing guitar – he’s a helluva player – drums are Vinnie Colaiuta, bass is Nathan East, and my good friend Jake Shimabukuro is playing ukulele on this track. He’s a virtuoso and has made an incredible name for himself mostly by doing his version of Bohemian Rhapsody. It’s hard to imagine it but he does it brilliantly.”
The recording also includes vocal contributions from Jason Mraz, Foreigner’s Lou Gramm, and Alan Parsons Live collaborators Todd Cooper and PJ Olsson.
“This album is much more in the vein of the original Alan Parsons Project; it’s heavily orchestrated, with good quality songs and good quality production,” he says. “I’ve gone back to the old-school way of recording too; having a band in the room that interacts with each other. That’s the way I like to work. I get inspired when I hear three or four musicians playing together.”
There’s another track that Parsons fans might recognise. A version of the closer I Can’t Get There From Here also appeared on his soundtrack to the 2007 biopic 5-25-77.
“The director Patrick Read Johnson was heavily affected by Star Wars and he was a co-writer on the song,” says Parsons. “It’s one of the most popular ballads on the album and we’re going to release it as a single. We’ve already been shooting a video for it.”
The Secret contains the musician’s first new studio recordings since 2004’s electronica excursion A Valid Path. Since then, his production credits have included Steven Wilson’s The Raven That Refused To Sing, and he’s been involved in the curation of several Alan Parsons Project box sets, including the 35th Anniversary Edition of Eye In The Sky which won him his first Grammy in February. But despite his busy timetable, a new studio album has been on his mind for a while.
“I’ve been doing other things, but I’d built a studio and didn’t want it to sit there unused so it seemed like a good time to put something out and Frontiers is genuinely excited about it,” he reveals. “This album’s been on the drawing board for about a year now and we completed it on December 19, the day before my 70th birthday.”
Parsons recently performed on Justin Hayward’s On The Blue Cruise and is now rehearsing for his upcoming tour, which opens in Beverly Hills on April 4. And, he says, there are some exciting plans in the works for the shows.
“I’ve got lots of friends who are magicians and we might actually do a couple of magic tricks on stage but it’s very much on the drawing board at the moment. I’d really like to do a magical appearance or disappearance myself. That would be fun to do, I think. Kate Bush had the magician Simon Drake on stage with her way back [on 1979’s The Tour Of Life] and I think there’s a way to make it really effective especially given the album’s theme.”
See www.alanparsons.com. NRS