Interview date: November 24, 2007
You don’t just let a chance to see IQ slip by. As a huge fan of this legendary neo-prog outfit, I simply didn’t want to miss a show happening so close to our border. The trip to Vienna meant more than just seeing IQ live – it also meant sitting down with singer Peter Nicholls, which we had arranged well in advance. Mr. Nicholls turned out to be a lovely, kind and likeable guy who didn’t mind having a chat with three scruffy ragamuffins from Slovenia.
Rockline: You’ve got a new DVD out right now.
Peter Nicholls: Yep, that’s right, it’s the Forever Live DVD, which took us ages to get out.
Rockline: Is it the same material on the DVD as on the CD?
Peter Nicholls: It’s actually the same show that was on the VHS tape. The CD also had No Love Lost, which we’ve now added to the DVD as a bonus. There’s also the fun track Wiggle, which we used because the film crew had to swap cameras and we needed to fill the time.
Rockline: Why didn’t you use My Legs instead?
Peter Nicholls: (laughs) We couldn’t learn all the lyrics in time.
Rockline: So how’s the new album coming along?
Peter Nicholls: Pretty well. We’ve mostly got it put together. Just when we decided to start recording, Martin (Orford) decided to leave. That naturally caused delays. But we already had a tour announced, so we had commitments. Our priority was to get the whole lineup sorted. If we wanted to play those shows, we had to find a new keyboard player. Now that we’ve found Mark (Mark Westworth), we’ll play the tour and carry on working on the album next year. The plan is still for Martin to be on the album, since he contributed.
Rockline: He helped write it?
Peter Nicholls: Right. He’s always been an important member of the band when it comes to songwriting. The current plan is for Martin to take part in the album, but that could change.
Rockline: So will he play on the album, or just be credited as a songwriter?
Peter Nicholls: We hope he’ll play. Mark will too, so there’ll be two keyboard players on the album.
Rockline: And this will be Martin’s last project with IQ?
Peter Nicholls: Yes.
Rockline: So what does making music in IQ look like? Is it teamwork, or one person’s idea?
Peter Nicholls: It’s always collaborative. We write much like a lot of other bands. Everyone brings ideas, then everybody else adds something. The problem with Martin is that he never liked that process, even though that’s how we’ve worked from the start. It bugged him that the other guys could change his ideas or tack things onto them. Maybe he wasn’t as happy with the end result as he would’ve been working on it alone. I get it, but when you’re in a band you have to know there are plenty of compromises. Unless there’s just one person in charge. But IQ has always been about working together.
Rockline: Well, you’re not Pink Floyd.
Peter Nicholls: No. We were sorry to see Martin go. I understand his reasons. If you want to be in a band, you need a certain mindset. One day you might reach a point where you just don’t need the band anymore. Like the Beatles, who wanted to spend more time with their families. When Martin left it was a really sad day for us, but the whole thing was very friendly.
Rockline: So you still get along?
Peter Nicholls: Of course. Martin is also still in charge of the label (Giant Electric Pea). We’re still in touch. I think we’re too old to fall out now.
Rockline: So there’s no bad blood between you (No Love Lost)?
Peter Nicholls: Of course not. I have huge respect for Martin as a songwriter, keyboardist and friend. I’ve known him a long time and there’s no animosity between us.
Rockline: What about the new album? What’s it going to sound like? Will it have a similar retro style to Dark Matter?
Peter Nicholls: Retro?
Rockline: More organic, with fewer synthesizers.
Peter Nicholls: I think with Dark Matter we consciously chose that direction, but it was just for that album. We wanted to explore different sounds. You can end up leaning too hard on synthetic sounds. You can reproduce mellotron or organ sounds, but it’s never exactly the same as the original. And we thought it would be nice, like you said, if the album were more organic.
Rockline: Wasn’t that a real mellotron?
Peter Nicholls: No, those were samples.
Rockline: What about the organ? As far as I know that was real.
Peter Nicholls: I’m not sure. It actually wasn’t a Hammond organ. I don’t even remember what we used for the Hammond sound. I think there was a lot of good material on Dark Matter. Every album is a risk. You can never put out an album that everybody likes. Even on Dark Matter there are things I don’t like. As a whole I like it, but… well, it’s a group effort.
Rockline: Compromises are always necessary.
Peter Nicholls: Yeah. Of course you like your own ideas better. But on every album you’ve got to take some risks. I know IQ has a certain sound. In America they often label us a neo-prog band.
Rockline: Some people love slapping labels on everything.
Peter Nicholls: (laughs) There are plenty of labels already. It’s just music. If you like it, great, if not, fine. In Britain we’ve had to defend ourselves for 25 years for playing this kind of music. Then you go to the US and suddenly you’re not prog enough. Why do you use modern instruments? Because they’re good. On one hand we have to defend the music we play, on the other we have to stand up for ourselves because some people say we’re not progressive enough. I know there are plenty of bands that stick to the prog template more strictly than we do.
Rockline: What even is the prog template? Everyone’s got their own opinion.
Peter Nicholls: Yeah. It’s a bit sad that fans of one band end up in conflict with fans of another. Everybody tries to prove their band is the more progressive one. To me that’s nonsense. No band is going to please everybody. Everyone likes different things. I’m sure the people who like us don’t love every one of our songs. And that’s as it should be. Like I said, you’re always taking a risk.
Rockline: You do what you want, not what the fans want.
Peter Nicholls: You always have to be aware of how the music is going to sound. If we wanted to put out a comedy album, most of our fans would probably be disappointed. So we know people expect a certain style from us. And that’s the music we know how to play. We’re good at it.
Rockline: And you enjoy playing that kind of music?
Peter Nicholls: Yes. But it’s also important not to repeat ourselves too much. When you’re in a band, there’s a danger of falling into certain routines. We try to avoid that. There’s some really good material on the new album, but it’s hard to predict how people will react. I think it could turn out really well.
Rockline: Have you ever thought about putting out a solo album, like Martin?
Peter Nicholls: I don’t think the world needs a solo album from me. Musically, I don’t think I’d have anything useful to show the world.
Rockline: Do you play any instrument? Guitar?
Peter Nicholls: No, I don’t play guitar.
Rockline: But you have written a few songs on your own for IQ?
Peter Nicholls: In the early days we wrote more on our own.
Rockline: So you only wrote the vocal melody?
Peter Nicholls: Mostly it works like this: first we settle on the song structure, then the chords, and then either Martin comes up with a vocal melody or I improvise one during rehearsals. Then I write the lyrics. That’s how we’ve always done it. When I was away from IQ for a while, I made an album with Niadem’s Ghost, and there I had more responsibility as a songwriter. I think that’s because I wanted to say something.
Rockline: Something political?
Peter Nicholls: Not really. I wanted to say something musical. I wanted to create something that sounded nothing like IQ. It was important to me to separate myself from IQ. And again, I don’t like all the music with Niadem’s Ghost, but it was something I had to do at the time. There are ten songs on the album, and probably three of them are good. But again, sometimes you simply have to take a risk. I wanted to try something different back then.
Rockline: What else did you get up to while you were away from IQ? From 1985 to 1993.
Peter Nicholls: Actually I came back in 1990, after Tim (Essau) and Paul (Menel) had already left the band. The band was playing the Marquee club as a four-piece, with Martin (Orford) taking over vocals. Mike called me and asked if I’d help out with the encores. I came along and it was great. They were magical moments, and I felt really good. A promoter in France heard what we were up to and wanted us to play a show supporting Magma. I have to say, Magma’s fans hated us. They wouldn’t let us breathe. They booed and heckled us the whole show. It was truly awful. Anyway, we played that gig with Les Marshall on bass.
Rockline: Didn’t he play in IQ before that?
Peter Nicholls: He played in The Lens. When Tim left, he joined us as bassist. That year (1990) we played two shows together, and then Les died that summer.
Rockline: Wasn’t the Ever album all about remembering his death?
Peter Nicholls: Kind of. The band was in a lull back then. Les’s death was a terrible shock, but it also woke us up. We started to appreciate what we had more. That’s actually why I rejoined the band. As a friend – more as a friend than for the sake of a career. We said it would be nice to play together again. And it happened. On Ever we had Les in mind, and Geoff Mann, who was a good friend. Geoff died while we were recording Ever. My dad and Mike’s (Mike Holmes) dad also died around that time. That’s sort of where the mood of the album came from.
Rockline: The album is pretty dark.
Peter Nicholls: Yeah, it is. It’s about dealing with the loss of loved ones, with mortality. Pretty dark, sad stuff, basically.
Rockline: You always like writing dark lyrics like that. Why?
Peter Nicholls: I think it’s more interesting that way. That style suits me better. I don’t know what that says about me.
Rockline: Maybe it’s a kind of catharsis.
Peter Nicholls: Yeah, I think so. Maybe it helps me deal with problems more easily.
Rockline: So generally your thoughts aren’t that black?
Peter Nicholls: No, I think I’m a pretty cheerful, optimistic guy. That’s just the stuff that comes out of me.
Rockline: Do you get rid of your frustrations through the lyrics?
Peter Nicholls: Yes. On Subterranea I wasn’t writing about myself. It was a deliberate attempt to write in a more narrative style. We had a story we wanted to tell.
Rockline: It’s a pretty complex story.
Peter Nicholls: Yes. I usually write more about my own feelings. It’s always seemed important to me to show my real emotions so people can relate to them. But Subterranea was a project where we wanted to show the band in a different light.
Rockline: But there’s still a lot of emotion on Subterranea. Within the story.
Peter Nicholls: Yes. I think that’s the essence of a good song. You listen to it and react emotionally to the music and the lyrics.
Rockline: Can you tell me who Maya is, by any chance?
Peter Nicholls: (laughs) I don’t know. I think she’s a female metaphor for hope and that sort of thing.
Rockline: I also heard you’re planning to release a book about IQ, written by Mark Hughes.
Peter Nicholls: Yes, Mark has been writing our biography for a long time.
Rockline: And how’s it going?
Peter Nicholls: The problem is we don’t know where the book should end. We thought Martin’s departure would make a good ending, but then we’d leave out the new era with Mark (Mark Westworth) and the new album.
Rockline: What’s actually in the book? Stories about the band?
Peter Nicholls: It’s really the story of the band from beginning to end, wherever that end may be. All of us in the band contributed too. There are lots of anecdotes and memories. Some of the stories are funny, most aren’t. Lots of adventures from the early days.
Rockline: You were an actor too. Did you do any acting while you were away from IQ?
Peter Nicholls: Yes, actually I did. I worked with a theater group that toured schools. We staged plays about things that matter to kids. I didn’t really enjoy it. I wanted to get back to that profession a bit, but I realized I didn’t want to do it. Before joining IQ I spent three years at drama school. But I always wanted to do music.
Rockline: But in a way you combined music and theater.
Peter Nicholls: I never felt like just standing on stage and singing. In that sense I don’t consider myself a musician. What matters is that we put on a show for the audience. I’ve also always loved drawing the artwork for albums. So I combined music, writing, theater and drawing. It was a great way to bring all my interests together.
Rockline: What about poetry? Your lyrics have always been very poetic. Did you take any ideas from poetry too?
Peter Nicholls: I don’t think so. I never had a favorite poet. With lyrics I always aim to create something poetic and aesthetic. A couple of them were more poetic, but I usually prefer writing things listeners can relate to. Sometimes the simplest expressions are the most effective. I don’t over-analyze it, it’s more instinct. I write the lyrics first, then keep tweaking them constantly.
Rockline: So you’re a perfectionist?
Peter Nicholls: Maybe I am. Though nothing’s perfect.
Rockline: Maybe you reread a lyric years later and feel something’s off.
Peter Nicholls: Sure, that happens all the time. Or I come up with a really good line, then realize it’s already been written.
Rockline: Well, thanks a lot for the chat.
Peter Nicholls: My pleasure.
Interview by: Rok Podgrajšek
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photo Gallery
