Threshold I n t e r v i e w w i t h Ri c h a r d W e s t By Jen @justjenrees
Ten albums into a career that began in London’s leafy suburbs back in 1989, it’s time this situation was reassessed. Sure, Heavy Metal and Progressive Rock are the cornerstones of the group’s sound, but as proven by the consummate quality of their last several albums, THRESHOLD are a classic Hard Rock band, built upon high-quality musicianship, enormous quantities of musical light and shade and, above all, memorable, hummable songs. Few bands are capable of gracing the stage of a leather ‘n’ studs gathering such as Bloodstock, as Threshold did in 2004, or conversely the Hard Rock
all-dayer the Firefest, at which they played three years later. Their music is eloquent and deeply melodic without relying upon the usual gratuitous levels of power and repetitive twiddly bits. “The key to THRESHOLD is songs,” believes long-serving keyboard player Richard West. “By all means we have all those extra ingredients, but without the song you’ve nothing.” “I’ve no objection to the label,” elaborates Damian Wilson, among the finest singers of the current Hard Rock scene, “it only bothers me when causing people, who might otherwise enjoy us, to shut them-
selves off. Nobody likes being pigeonholed.”
you are going to have line up changes, people’s lives are going to change but you just keep on turning up. That has certainly been my philosophy and the “Since the band joined Nuclear Blast same with Karl our guitarist and it is true we’ve tried to make the ultimate THRESHOLD album,” Richard West nods. as we are the only two left within the original line up. Everyone else has come “I love what we’ve done with For The Journey, but I can’t wait for the next one. and gone, our singer has come and gone three times and he is back again now. I’m so happy that there were just two Yeah I read about that. I do think that is years between albums instead of five.” the trick, you look at a band like Queen I got the chance through Nuclear Records and the whole longevity, the same 4 guys all the way through, but they had times to interview Richard about their new album. I really enjoyed chatting to Richard, when they could not stand to be in the same room together but they kept turnhe can sure talk! So we got on well! If it was not for the 20 minute limit I think we ing up and we are glad they did as even though they went though a rocky patch in would of talked a lot longer! the middle but in the end they were back playing beautiful music together. Yes that is very true. We try and do the same, you know we live in a society that everything Hi Richard, how are you going? is so disposable, you don’t like your wife, Good thanks how are you? you get another one, you don’t like your Great. life you get another one. That’s right. I You guys started out in the late 80’s and don’t think you can do that, you need to are still together making great music, in get through those difficult times and then my opinion better music now than then. come through it stronger than ever and I hope that is what we have done with Thanks a lot! Threshold. With the new album I think it What do you think your secret is? is the best thing we ever did so I am glad We kept going, I recall watching a TV that we kept going. Yes the album seems show a while ago and someone was to be about the journey of you life and saying “What’s the secret for you having over the past few years. Yeah the new a long marriage?” and the guy said, “I album is about perseverance, forgiveness keep showing up” (Laughing) I think it is and honesty and all the things that help the same for Threshold, over the twenyou make that long journey. Yes very true! ty years you going to have arguments,
“For the Journey” is the third album you have done with Nuclear Blast who seems to have motivated you to write and record in a timelier manner for your fans enjoyment, can you explain to us how you guys have changed and what were you like before? Do you mean musically? Yeah, I read that you guys were very lazy before….. (Laughing…..) only writing when you could be bothered….. Ha! That was a flippant comment. We were not lazy we were just busy with other things. It was a funny period I think, the end of our period with Inside Out, they were a great label for us, we just reached a point where the relationships were broken down, certainly our singer, he had a bit of a drinking period at the time and it wasn’t so pleasant to be around each other, like mistakes made on stage due to the drinking and so it was not such a fun place to be, so we ended up quite slowing down, we ended up having three years between *** and Dead Reckoning that we did with Nucleur Blast. I think it just was that we did not want to be in the same room together. We reached a point where we thought if we want to keep going with this we need to change a few things and go through a whole new chapter, so we changed labels and we’ve change management companies and various things. You know that is not the answer really, I think the answer should have been- Get comfortable in your skin, get comfortable with each other and do that whole honesty, perseverance and forgiveness thing. We could of carried on but we were younger back then and we were looking to make things work and we changed it all around, the singer left, the guitarist left, it is peoples mind set that change things and things will keep on changing. I don’t think it is always the best thing.
head all day. Which is a good thing. Was that the plan from the start for that to be the lead song? Yes as soon as Karl sent me the instrumental for that song it sounded like it had all the elements for a great bombastic Threshold opener, give it a big chorus, it had a great riff and had a great energy and momentum to it. It also had a great section for solos, you know we could stretch our fingers a bit and go a bit prog metal . We knew right from the get go that was the best one. I think the other options were maybe Turn to Dust but that was a little bit more poppy, a bit less prog metal, I did not think it was the right way to introduce ourselves. We also thought of using The Box because it is beautiful soaring epic but we thought it we put that first it is all downhill from there so we kept it until a bit later. I think that was a wise decision. What is the story behind you buying back a keyboard for the second time for this song? Are you now going to keep it? Can you explain the story a little more? The third time actually, over the years, I’ve used so many keyboards on these records and either you end up with a pile of keyboards gathering dust or you just move on, you sell the old one and bring in the new one. That’s what I have intended to do but then I think I really need that sound and this is the third time of buying it back and I am not selling it again! (Laughing) Trinity it is called, it is really old keyboard from the 90’s, it just has a couple of sounds on there that I need. It keep’s getting cheaper each time I buy it so I’ve probably made a profit.
I think most people if not everyone will be able to relate to ‘Lost in Your Memory’, I love the lyrics, you are a very talented song writer! Thanks very much. The chorus would be a great mantra for I listened to Watchtower on the Moon first and loved it but was carefully not to me to say to myself when I get stressed over the smaller stuff. I am actually a assume it would be the stand out song teacher of teenagers and they always for me, however after listening to the rest of the album it still is the stand out worry about the small stuff and can’t song and the one that I am singing in my see the bigger picture, I am actually
trying to grow in difficult conditions, trythinking of playing the song to them ing to put their roots down in a dry arid to help them to see the bigger picture, desert or trying to grow in a place that is that what is happening right now, even so dark it is not getting what it needs but though it is really stressful, you will look at the same time it makes the roots grow back and it will be lost in your memory stronger as they have to grow deeper to like a faded photograph. Something just find their source and you end up with a clicked in my head when I read that and stronger plant. And that is kind of what listen to that. the song is really about, you are going Wow thank you I am really proud and through a tough time right now but when humble about that at the same time. It you come though it you will be stronger. is one of those songs that, well I’ve been So it is a song about you wanting to get through quite a few things in my personal to another place, you have to go through life that has made me have to persevere something to get there. Yeah I can relate and the verses are analogies of plants to that with that in my personal life but
we won’t go into that but I am the happiest I have ever been now. I think we are roughly the same age…. 21. Yeah 21! (Laughing…) yeah it is one of those songs that I had to go through it to write it. Of all the songs on the album it is the one that I am the proudest of. Musically too I am very proud of it, I just sat at the piano and try to find a beautiful changes and sets of melodies that will suit the emotional content of the lyrics. I think that is one of my proudest moments writing that song. Well I am sorry that you had to go through that but I am glad that you can share it and help others including me. Thanks very much.
other half of the album is written by Karl and what he does is he will write a whole instrumental part of a whole piece, all the instruments, the drums, the guitars, the bass, the whole thing and then he will give that to me and then I will write the lyrics and the melodies to it. So slightly different process there.
The Box goes for a whopping 12 minutes, was that planned when you wrote it or did it evolve into that? That’s a long song! That is one of the ones that Karl write so I can only speak for him really but yes it is normally planned to have a long song. You have a sense that a piece of music is going to be too long for 3 or 4 minute Hold on keep yourself together format and I know with The Box he wrote There are better sights to see the end section first , the beautiful stringline and ending to the song and he knew Hold on this will all become that it would be the end of an epic. Then A faded photograph you start by building and building it and discovering what is going to work as a Lost in your memory song. It is lovely, it takes a long time obviously to write a long song but it is such How does your typical writing process go? Do you write them on your own? You a beautiful thing to do. You just have all this extra space and all this extra places said you sit at your piano. you can go. You can let all the ideas flow It is 50/50 Yeah I just write, not normally at the piano, they are going around in my and fall out instead of that pop format it is lovely writing long tracks as you get to head and I will find a place where I am not distracted by life and where my mind explore a tell a story as I did on The Box, can freely wander, like walking in the hills but in a 3 minute song there is not really time to do that. I better have another or it might just be in the shower, it is just listen to it, I did not get to listen to it as one of those times we you are free to many times as the others for obvious drift off into your thoughts and I try and reasons! capture those melodies. If it is a piano ballad at some stage I will sit at the piano You mentioned pop before, I was going and start working it though in what key to ask you what are your views on shows that it will fit into and try some different like the Voice or the X Factor rather than keys. Most of the writing is just done in my head it feels like I have a 48 track tape working your way up in the music scene. recorder in there and I build things up lay- We have many young Australian bands that are struggling to get exposure er by layer as they go round and around. It drives my wife quite nuts as often I am who are really talented. What are your lost in my little recorder in my head. Your thoughts on those shows? I think it has its place, I mean some of poor wife! That would drive me crazy if those singers have been singers for years my husband did that! (Laughing) She they are exploring their dreams and that is very patient and very supportive, it’s is cool, there is no problem with that. It is lovely. I get to the point where the song funny, I look back on my record collection, is built up in my head and I will go to the and any of these bands that have won studio and try and get it on real tape, the
these shows, do I have any of their CD’S the answer is No. So even though it has it’s place it is not what I got into music for. Music is about the whole package the song, the writers, the players and everything and I’ve never wanted to buy them however good they are. Even looking at Adam Lambert going out with Queen, he was on American Idol, I think he came second, sure he has a great voice but he has nothing to do with Queen and to me that is a very strange thing, it is like watching a theatre show of what Queen used to be. I am going to see that concert soon. I am sure it will be a good show, I mean I saw We Will Rock You show but there is something about that authenticity of Freddie, he lived and breathed every note of those songs, he created them, he sat at the piano and wrote them, that is
the stuff I love. That whole artistic package, I’ve never been into the whole manufactured thing where you pick someone who has a good voice and is good looking, a team of writers and marketing team behind them, it is all about commercial product rather than artistic integrity. Any plans to come out to Australia for a tour? Have you been out here much? I would love to. Sadly we have no plans to at the moment but I would love to do Soundwave so hopefully yeah I would love to! I can dream! Great thanks Richard for your time! Thanks Jen it was a pleasure to meet you. Bye. Ok bye now.