July 18, 2005
Interview with Daniel Flores of Mind’s Eye & XSavior
Daniel Flores is a musician who lives life with music on the forefront. Daniel has worked on many projects and with many different musicians and is well respected in the music world by fans and others artists. Daniel has always followed his dream and has stayed committed to creating music he loves while bringing passion to the scene with new ideas and sounds. Throughout this interview Daniel showed me that there is much to learn in the melodic world of today as it continues to grow as a movement. Be sure to stop by http://www.roundrec.com and http://www.xsavior.com/ to learn more about Daniel and his bands both Mind's Eye and XSavioR!
1. Your name is associated with some great albums and is well respected among the artists; to start out the interview would you take a moment to introduce yourself as an artist and Daniel Flores, the man behind the music?
Well, this is always a difficult task for me, as I really think I have a long way to go before I can call my self a true musician. But here it goes! I'm a 30-year-old drummer, keyboard player, engineer and producer. I live in Sweden but was born in Chile/Concepcion and have my studio here in Stockholm. I just started my own studio called Sound vs Science Studio after working over 10 years for Sheepvalley Studios. I have recorded drums on a little bit over 40 albums and still get offers. I would like to record more drums for other artists as I think it shows the best side of me. Through that I got connected with engineering and producing. I simply got tired of all the lazy engineers who didn't care about music at all and just wanted to make easy money. To learn about engineering properly, I studied music and engineering at Stockholm music conservatory and got my diploma in Engineering and Percussion. After school I taught sound engineering in college for about 3 years. During that period I was starting to get jobs as a drummer, mainly because of the great response from the Mind's Eye albums and Benny Jansson’s solo album. It was then when I realized I could make a living of my drumming and production. That was 3 ½ years ago and today I'm here writing this interview. I'm a simple man, I love music in a very passionate way. Don't get me wrong but I didn't start to play for the chicks or money, my mission was to create something different for the listeners out there. Ever since I took up drumming it has always been my goal to give people hope through music and hopefully to make a change. I enjoy reading books while I'm not doing music but other than that I don't have any other hobbies, well if you don't count manual reading into that... One thing I have done a lot of because of my work…I love sweets and can't get enough of it and love my wife Ingrid’s cooking and to spend time with her. I guess that’s it.
2. Mind’s Eye has been a long time project for you and is on a lot of peoples play lists. Would you take a minute to let us know what is happening with the release of “Work Of Art” and fill us in on the new songs?
“A Work Of Art” is a record that was actually released back in 2002 by Rising Sun Records but shortly after the release the label filed bankruptcy. We never had much luck with labels and that sort of nailed the last nail into the Mind’s Eye coffin, at least for that period. It was a hard blow for us and we all were pretty tired of each other and wanted to try new adventures. For the rest of the guys and me, Mind’s Eye was history… until LION MUSIC came along and saved us from quitting. They offered us a re-release of the last two albums “…Waiting For The Tide and “A Work Of Art” (both with 2 bonus tracks each) and to my surprise, a deal for a new album too. That got my blood pumping. I asked the guys if they would like to record a new album (while we where recording the NOVAK album) and they were all very positive. I also asked the former guitarist Fredrik but his answer was no, as expected by me. I really want to point out that without Fredrik Mind’s Eye won’t be here doing records today, we will miss him immensely but it’s time for a new chapter in Mind’s Eye.
The new album called “Walking On H20” is a concept album dealing with the human evolution and generally about human stupidities that slow this world down. I have always asked myself: How come we evolved so fast these last 100 thousand years? That question led to this album, thus the making of “Walking On H20 is the outcome of 3 years of research, writing and preparations. I had this idea for a long time but both musically and mentally we were not prepared. Some songs are really technically challenging and some are emotionally very hard to play. Johan was really a blessing from the gods with his guitar bending, I never even thought he could play like this in my whole life. I said to him: Where have you been all my life? Anyway, the melodies are still very melodic but we added a dramatic feel to them. There is an instrumental song in there that I tried to do with Fredrik Grünberger for the “A Work Of Art” album and even with Benny Jansson and the rest of Xsavior for the “Caleidoscope” album but all of them felt the song was out of their reach technically. Johan did it without hesitating. Johan is a great bass player but now he is an equally great guitar player, thank god for that. I didn’t want to bring in somebody new in the band and believe me I have looked hard for a replacement for Fredrik, to me Fredrik was and still is one of the greatest guitarists coming from Sweden. Anyway, all of us have been friends since our childhood and nobody can come into our circle of music easily and I don’t have time to wait for anyone.
3. Your work with Andreas Novak on his recent album “Forever Endeavour” shows us some of your talent, while there are many other projects you have been involved with. Could you tell us about your work on this one and how you feel about the album as Andreas first solo release?
I think Andreas did a great job on that one. He matured a lot during that period I think. It’s a huge step for a musician to make an album and call it his own. There’s a certain amount of responsibility tied to that. I mean you have a budget, you have to employ people and make music at the same time. A very hard task if you ask me, but Andreas did all that very well. To me he has always been one of Sweden’s best vocalist, really, he is an unsung hero and I’m glad people get to know him more through his music and singing. I have been pushing him ever since we did our last Mind’s Eye album to do something of his own. He plays a lot live but didn’t put his own mark on a record yet (even though the last Mind’s Eye record shows some of Andreas best moments as a metal singer). He always had this melodic vain but it never got satisfied with Mind’s Eye fully, I think.
I wrote, recorded and produced 5 songs with him, which he chopped around with not much luck, then Magnus Soderqvist from ATENZIA records sent our CDR to MTM and they were really enthusiastic about the 5 song demo. He got a decent budget and we started to write songs for the album. When I think of it, it’s incredible that he trusted me so much with producing his album, having only produced progressive rock albums until that period. I loved to do it, I sang a lot of background choirs on that one, which gave me much pleasure. I have always loved bands like Giant and Toto so for me it was a natural step to produce such an album. I called up some of my friends and they were really digging the vibe on the album. Tommy Denander even called it one of the best releases of this year and he does not usually spill compliments all over the place … that was huge for me. Today I’m still very satisfied but I can now see some things that I could have done better and what could have been avoided. Elements and helpful things that I can use and remember for the next record, when it comes out. Let’s see if MTM wants to do that soon.
4. Your new XsavioR release shows a different side of your style. What was your goal with this project and how do you feel about the final product?
To be honest I have to tell you that I’m quite divided. I’m still very pleased with Goran’s vocals though. He completely blew me off with his ideas and style. He really stopped the album from becoming something very predictable and too smooth. Basically this album and songs were created by the band. My job was to hold it all together, controlling the production like keyboards and mixing the final product. What really makes this album different from all the other is that Goran, Benny and me went in with the ambition of not thinking too much about whom it would appeal to. Just 5 guys making music the old way. The drums and bass are recorded analog for that live feel, a fact that I think shows and take us way from the new mentality of recording albums today with lots of triggers and samples… I really wanted it to sound like the old bands, Queen, Genesis or even Kansas. The influences are so many it would be ridiculous to even start rounding them up here. Let’s see if we ever do another album. After 2 years in the making, I need to take time away from the band.
5. Do you have plans for solo work of your own; is there a style or project you have been waiting for the right moment to pursue?
Mind’s Eye’s new album will be my first statement. It has always been showing my true personality and I’ve never been thinking of making a solo album. Maybe if I ever learned to sing lead vocals, but I guess that will never come, even though my wife thinks I should do so. As a drummer I would like to contribute to other styles. I would love to record a Latin Jazz album with somebody. I have never even recorded drums on a Jazz album either so that would be fun too. If I ever will do something completely solo it would be something really calm, maybe like Sting or Kip Winger or even Peter Gabriel, nothing planned though. Another thing that would be really cool would be to arrange music for a movie. This is actually one of my dreams and I’m starting to see if there are any possibilities of me doing this, people are always telling me: Why don’t you write score music, you are perfect for it! In time I will make time to learn music on that level and you will for sure hear something written by me in a movie in the future. Look for me in the ending scores!
6. Is there one or two songs that you have worked on that are favorite of yours that you would take a moment to tell us about and why they are special to you and the story behind their importance?
I think the whole album “A Work Of Art” has what you are searching for. Even though everything I do I take it into my heart, but I think “April Skies” from the Xsavior album is one of those songs and is worth mentioning here. This song and “Mr. Chairman” are the songs I wrote the music for the album. When I first showed “April Skies” to the guys they where like: “What the hell do you want us to do on this song?” They where clueless of what to do with the production and no wonder as the song was originally created to fit the new Mind’s Eye album, both of them were actually. It was funny to see that even though there is not much complexity in these songs, they are really hard to record and to bring to life. At the risk of the band selecting them out of the album, I took hold of the production wheel and steered into the unknown, not knowing where I would end up. Today I’m really glad I did as I came up with a new direction for my musical ideas and style of all future to come. This was actually a cornerstone in my life and I can’t describe how much joy it was to see a new part of me growing that I thought I would never get to know. I finally understood what music was all about and at that point I stopped caring what other people thought of both my drumming and musical skills. I just dropped the huge weight of my shoulders and started to make music for real. All of this happened 2 years ago to me. It is something that I could never learn in school or by anyone else, it was something that matured inside of me and said: “Here is a gift, use it well!” Today, I’m a more confident man than I ever was and every decision I make, I’m really comfortable with. I think one thing should be said though, it’s really important to really bleed for what you are trying to create as an artist, cause if you don’t bleed for it, people will see through you and never listen to anything more you have to say again. It’s not often these things happen to a musician and I’m glad they did for me, as I will use this new knowledge for the rest of my life. Basically, I guess I found myself and the path I wanted to go. It’s nice here; I think I’ll stay here for a while.
7. The credits on each album make it clear that you are a musician through and through, playing many of the instruments and sharing much of the production responsibilities, what sort of training do you have and how important would you say the technical aspect of making an album is?
Like I stated above I went to music school for about 3 years, after that I studied production and percussion for 2 years and then I completely threw myself into the world of music and this ugly business. My curiosity made me pick up other instruments like vocals. I always loved the way The Bee Gees made vocal harmonies and so I started to try out some ideas to try to reach that level. A lot of training went into that. Same case with keyboards, I wanted to write my own songs and in school I had a perfect chance to develop these ideas and techniques. I try not to get too technical while I’m making music, if that happened involuntary, then fine I use it, but I never think like; where can I fit these licks or chords. There is lots of balancing in making a production, for instance, while I’m making the keyboard production I try not to play with my left hand (the contra hand). Usually it gets in the way of the bass player and keeps him from playing in total freedom. That’s why I can’t understand 7 string guitars. They simply don’t give the bass player any room. I think I keep aspects like these from colliding with each other. Most keyboard players I have played with are great soloists but they are clueless when it comes to arranging layers and air pockets in the music. Their left hand is often all over the place and my job during this time is to prevent them from ruining the picture. Music production is a like a puzzle. Everyone has his or her part of the puzzle, it’s all matter of finding the right place and right color in the right time. I use my imagination when I work, very much like painting. Often when I get jobs for production I offer my services as a drummer and that helps me a lot when it comes to record bass parts and the rest. As a drummer I set the rules of where the music has to be pushed or drawn back so there are very little arguments while recording. Also, 90% of the time I’m given total freedom and control over the product. That’s the best feeling and it usually results in my best work.
8. Overall how would you rate the albums being released today as far as sound quality and production as opposed to the albums released in the eighties when budgets were much larger but technology was not as far along?
Albums back then sounded a little bit darker and warmer than they do today. That is the result of the hard disc technology. I’m going to get too technical here but I think the analog tape recorder, which were used back then and still are used today in bigger studios, gave that warmth. A lost art if you ask me. The problem with tape recorders is that they are very expensive and some are even impossible to work with if you don’t serve them every now and then, but that costs a fortune. The sound today is better but colder. I see a bright future for smaller studios like mine. The days of the big studios are gone and if you ask the bands they are even not interested in them anymore. There is so much you can do with a competent computer and so much easier. There is backside to all of this though.
Back when tape recorders were used people could actually play their instruments because it was almost impossible punch in, if you screwed up a take, you had to do it all over again. The best made in to the end. Today, they can just play one chord, cut it and then paste it all over the songs if they like. They don’t even have to play the whole song, they can record one verse and then eat dinner and then record the rest. That was impossible 10 years ago. Either way, I think if you can combine the two, like most people do today, you have the best of both worlds. We have a 16-channel tape recorder and I use it whenever I can, they can’t be beaten sound wise. Most albums today sound like poor demos. I don’t mean to sound arrogant but that’s the truth. That’s another problem with computers, if you know what you are doing, it will sound marvelous but if you don’t know, it will sound really, really poor. Here in Sweden computers are kind of cheap and anyone who has a normal job can get one, the problem is that they think just because they have the money they have the talent to make a record, and 99 times out of 100 they are wrong.
9. The internet has become a major factor in the music world, allowing artists to get their music out to the fans sooner and further, but also has furthered the problem with piracy and file-sharing how do you view this situation as an artist and a fan?
Internet is a two edged sword I think. It could be damaging for some and it could be the end of the rainbow for others. I’ll say I’m in between not knowing what side to join. I mean without proper salesmen we can’t sell records and without musicians we don’t have music. For Mind’s Eye the Internet has helped a lot, we can keep track of fans and keep them informed of things to come. For me as a fan? Well, I’m glad the Internet is here or else I would have lots of albums with one or two good songs in, albums of which I would sadly, rarely listen to. I love MP3 clips, that way I can decide if that is an album I’m going to get or not. For me MP3 downloading is like throwing a rock into a window of a record store and then taking what ever I like. That damages hard working musicians, and believe me, things are not looking any better for poor musicians so people please stop this piracy.
10. The music world of today strikes me as one that is ready to explode, with people longing for melodic, structured yet flowing music, what are your feelings on this and what do you see happening in music over the next little while?
I think our generation has a huge responsibility to the next one. We really have to show them what music was all about, to recreate the standard of yesterday. If we start there we can solve all the negative elements in music, maybe not now but in the future. By this I mean that if someone really learned how to play an instrument they wouldn’t hide behind a computer, they would try to create music with instruments and use the computer as it’s supposed to be used as, a tool. I think the labels have to change their way of thinking as it’s a new world out there and we really don’t need them to that level that we used to, at least not now with internet. If the big labels stop creating cheap and meaningless music things will change. Today kids are influenced by MTV and what do they show in these kinds of channels? Crap! There are no real heroes out there, just copycats. I still see a ray of light in the end of this dark tunnel though. When they have reached a certain point of meaninglessness, they’ll say: Hey! What can we do now that is easier to sell than Britney Spears? And I believe they have reached that level today. It’s when they realize this, that they will have to go back to the beginning, back when people were for real and not just a bunch of faces and bodies. I mean look at Rush, who the hell wants to buy their records because of the looks of the singer or drummer? No one! In fact if this were the tactics of the record label in this particular case, the band would have never survived all these years. I buy their records for their music! Period! Nothing can compete with real musicianship. I make music for one reason only and that is to inspire people to follow. I’m doing my part. Kathy, you are certainly doing yours as you promote some of the best bands out there on your site. That’s all we can do, the rest it’s up to the listener.
11. Do you have a closing message you would like to send out to the fans?
I hope to see you guys on tour and let’s hope the winds of change might take me to the states in the future. I have been receiving lots of mails from fans in the states even though we haven’t released any of the last two records in the states. Please check out our website www.roundrec.com for more information about us and or if you are curious of finding out who we are, there are lots of cool stuff going on in the Mind’s Eye camp so check out the site often.
KEEP ON LISTENING AND STAY AWAY FROM DRUGS! No matter what the rock stars would tell you THERE IS NOTHING BETTER THAN A CLEAN AND HEALTHY MIND.
Thank you Kathy, it has been a pleasure to answer your great/smart questions and keep up the amazing work with Strike Up The Bands, as it’s for sure one of the best webzines in the internet.
Chao
Daniel
Posted by Kathy at July 18, 2005 07:51 AM