Neal Answers! Part I
Andrzej Janiak
Neal, I’ve recently discovered your music and I’m totally blown away by its sheer beauty and complexity. It’s like discovering new musical life within oneself. A quick question: What does the process of writing songs look like in your case? When you record complex songs lasting 20 or 30 minutes, do you write the melodies first and then plan the arrangements or are some of the songs the result of jamming in the studio?
Most of them are not the result of jamming in the studio. It’s usually ideas that I have when I’m walking or driving, or doing all sorts of things like hanging out with my family. Sometimes I just have these ideas and I put them all down on my phone. And then when it comes time to start putting a piece together, I usually have some themes that have been playing in my mind for a while and I’ll start with those. Then I go in the studio and I try and put them all together. Sometimes I take all these different ideas and themes and put them actually in a folder in the computer and listen to them and try and figure out how to work them all in. But a lot of times it’s just kind of a natural process…like I’ll start with one thing and it will kind of lead to another thing and I’ll keep working in that vein until I come to a stopping place. And then maybe I’ll look through my ideas like, “Well, what could we put in there?”
It’s kind of the same flow with Transatlantic when we’re writing. We pick out the bits that we like the most and sometimes we write them all down on a chalk board and erase them as we use them. It is a bit random of a process; sometimes I hear a lyrical line first and I hear a chorus and I sort of write a song around it, and sometimes it’ll seem like that’s a complete thought. Another time it’ll sound like that should be at the end of a bigger piece or in the middle of one of the big pieces. It’s really all just feeling out for what’s the right thing to do and going for it from your gut.
Bruno De Souza Lino
Maybe not the usual question you’ll probably answer, but how did you decide it was worth using a laptop live as opposed to the way you did it before with synths/workstations, etc? Was it just for the sake of coming as close as possible to the studio version? Do you still feel the live versions lack stuff even with guest musicians “filling the holes”? Also, do you consider doing songbooks with transcriptions of your parts? I’ve always wanted to learn a lot of your songs and songs from projects you’re in (mainly Transatlantic, and now Flying Colors), but I’m not that proficient to learn them by ear.
Well, the great thing about using a laptop for sounds is you can use the best sounds. Ivory Piano for example is 60 gigs of piano voices. So it’s really a better piano than anything you can find in any keyboard. That’s why I use the laptop really—the quality. And also they’ve come up with really good programs that make it easy to split and layer the sounds—you can layer like 20 sounds if you want to…it’s outrageous what you can do with a laptop these days. As far as writing up the parts goes: we are working on it. I would really like to make that available for more people. We would probably start with a song book of sorts and then go from there to more complex things.
Philip Newton
Hi Neal, I was wondering…how long it did take for you to feel confident about your musical ability? Is confidence something that comes with age or experience?
I think I was always pretty confident when it comes to my playing of rock and singing and songwriting. I remember being kind of insecure when I was 9 years old and singing opera. But apart from that, I feel pretty confident about it. For individual concerts, I still sometimes am a bit nervous about whether I’m gonna be able to pull off some of these parts. Particularly with Transatlantic, I’m carrying almost all of the keyboard load and that’s pretty challenging, especially with a broken finger like I had on the Transatlantic tour. But God’s given me the strength to get through all that stuff and it’s been really good.
Ashley Donaldson
Hey Neal – thanks for all your incredibly creative, inspirational music (and fantastic book, Testimony). Heaps of my friends (and myself) place you as their favorite artist. You should totally come to Australia 😉 My question: how do you approach songwriting; particularly trying to make something catchy but still creatively interesting; complex yet simple?
Well that’s a great challenge…trying to make something accessible, yet interesting. I try not to think about it too much and follow the music where it feels like it wants to go. I try to create something that works, that fits, that speaks. That’s really the main thing, whether it’s complex or simple.
One thing that’s really interesting about prog music is that you can have really complex things and then a very simple melody, like on the One album with the “one hand reaching” section being very simple next to a more complex stuff. And I think it makes both parts stand out more. I think it’s really about just trying to write the music that God has for you to write. A lot of times it’s about listening more than about creating, yourself.
Johannes Lorch
Neal, I wanted to thank you particularly for “That Crutch”. There is a line that has been on my mind for a very long time and keeps inspiring me: “If God says soar, you CAN soar!” The song is so simple and yet it goes so deep. How do you write songs like that? Are they just there? Do you go for walks or is it a sit-down-at-your-desk kind of thing?
It depends. Sometimes I go in the studio and I sit down and write something. “That Crutch”…I remember exactly how I wrote that song. I had been thinking about a conversation I had in church with someone. Many times, for some reason, when I see myself at the throne of God, I have a crutch like the crippled boy that I played in the opera when I was 9 years old. And I was telling my friend Mark Leniger about that and he said, “Yeah, you know, if God doesn’t want you to have a crutch and you’ve got one, maybe he wants you to run but you can’t because you got this crutch.” So it was really that thought which sparked that song and I’m really grateful that it speaks to you. Whatever God says we can do, we can do. Right?
Ivan Koncic
Hi Neal, a question related to the Question Mark album (IMHO your strongest release): The main theme (“…and then after all…”) appears multiple times throughout the album but it is resolved in its real (major) tonic chord ONLY at the very end of the album (“XII. The Temple of the Living God”). Other times when it appears (“I. The Temple of the Living God,” “IX. 12,” “X. Entrance”), it is resolved into tonic substitute or an unstable chord. I always thought it is connected with the lyrics: I. “…We seek…,” “…sit and wait to see…,” X. “…We seek…,” XI. “..We seek…,” and finally XII. “…Can be….”
I think this is brilliant, composition-wise, and it perfectly connects the album into a whole. So, my question is: Was it intentional/planned in advance, or did it just come to you like a natural way to finish the album? Or some other reason? Thanks for the music, you’re an inspiration.
Thanks, Ivan! No, I hadn’t really thought about it. But I see what you mean about it not really resolving until the very end. A lot of these things happen naturally when you’re working on a piece like that. The first time I sing that line I’m going into a bridge to get back into the verse. And then the next time I’m going into an instrumental section that’s leading to another section. So a lot of times you’re following the music, but it winds up making a lot of sense, because you don’t want to truly give that really satisfying resolve till the end of the piece. That’s what makes the ending so satisfactory. It just seems kind of natural…you wouldn’t want to do that too soon.
Sometimes we discuss these things among ourselves. Mike, Randy and I will actually discuss things like “not resolving” and “resolving”. I don’t recall that we did on that album though—it was just the natural flow. But I’m grateful that you’ve grabbed hold of that!
Norman Duffell
Have you ever thought of writing a classical piece for an orchestra or performing along with an orchestra?
I would love to. I’ve talked to people about doing something with different orchestras. I’ve actually had conversations with the Nashville Symphony. There’s been a few others. I’d love to do that some time, but it doesn’t seem like something that God had set before me yet. But it would be a great, great challenge. I’m really into orchestral music!
Alexandre Jaffeux
Hello Neal. Huge fan here. What is your favorite Genesis album? I hear a lot of influence from Trick of the Tail in many of your projects. Am I right? Thank you for the music that I really enjoy listening to here in France.
A Trick of the Tail is one of my favorites actually. I think “Dance on a Volcano” particularly is a big influence. But also The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Selling England by the Pound and also Foxtrot are quite an influence for me, personally. I love all those albums and when you grew up listening to music like that, you can’t help it…it’s in you and has to come out at some point.
Shane Edmundson
I don’t know if Neal Morse sees these, or he’d care, but (while I’m not a religious man at all), a bunch of Neal’s music has gotten me through some rough times, and I truly appreciate him for that. Thanks to him (or you, if he’s here) for some great music and great memories. I appreciate that!
Hey Shane! That’s awesome! I’m so glad that my music has been a help to you. And that’s what it’s really for…that’s why God keeps giving me things to write about. And it keeps helping me to make these albums, so it will have an effect on people like you. I’m really grateful for it. It means a lot to me, too. When you’re working by yourself in the studio and you’re not really sure always what’s going on out there in the world, it’s really nice to hear, so: thank you for sharing!
Prateek Mody
Dear Neal, do you feel it’s important for keyboardists working in a rock/metal domain to have a good understanding of traditional classical piano? Thanks a lot for your response, I am a keyboardist aspiring to be as good as you one day! Just need to convince my parents to buy me some decent gear now! Ha ha.
Hey, my dad was a school teacher and he managed to get a synthesizer for his school that we got to use all the time. That was pretty cool…he even didn’t have to pay for it himself. (Ha ha!) I think it’s good to have a classical background in keyboards. It’s also good to get some jazz background, too. I think the more styles you can learn, the more it will help you. Especially with prog; it is so varied that you want to be able to do lots of different keyboard styles. Learning Bach inventions is a great place to start for any keyboard player.
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