Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Location: Theaterfabrik, Munich
Interview date: November 24, 2012
Pete Trewavas is the cult bassist of the legendary English art rock band Marillion, who rode their biggest hit, »Kayleigh«, to become the flagship act of the new wave of progressive rock in the eighties. He’s been a member of Marillion since 1982, just before they signed with EMI and released their first single, »Market Square Heroes«. In that time Trewavas has lived through all their biggest highs and lows, the departure of charismatic singer Fish and the arrival of his replacement Steve Hogarth in 1989, and the many sonic shifts that came from one album to the next. Now and then he also earns his keep in assorted side projects like the prog rock supergroup Transatlantic, Kino and Edison’s Children. But for all those different musical ventures, Marillion remain his first love. Trewavas’s delight with their latest studio effort, »Sounds That Can’t Be Made«, knows no bounds, and he passionately insists it marks the start of a new era for Marillion. Mr. Trewavas, who also pitches in as a backing vocalist and acoustic guitarist, is a sparkling conversationalist and an endless source of info on the past, present and future of this legendary English band. We got to see that firsthand during a chat before Marillion’s show at the Theaterfabrik hall in the middle of Munich.
Rockline: How does it feel now that the new Marillion studio album, »Sounds That Can’t Be Made«, is out? Can you tell us a bit more about how it came together?
Pete Trewavas: That’s a long question that could easily get a long answer. I’m sure we’re all really proud of »Sounds That Can’t Be Made«. I think it has a kind of maturity that tells the listener where we are right now as a band. It’s got a really varied mix of songs and music. We took quite a bit of time over it, three and a half years. In between we had jam sessions and tried writing new material. Suddenly it got hard to work together, so we had to take some time out for other things. During that time we did a joint tour of Germany with Deep Purple, which turned out fantastic. Then we went back into the studio and put more time into working together. Slowly the creative process started getting better. We had to find a way for all of us to enjoy the music again. Maybe that sounds odd, but after thirty years in a band, after so many albums, we needed a bit of a break to enjoy writing again and get creative again. Little by little things did turn in the right direction. We had a really good producer, Mike Hunter, who kept our morale up, tried to get us focused on what he thought was good, and steered our creativity the right way. The end result is truly fantastic. Our fans say it’s our best album so far.
Rockline: Are you enjoying the current ‘Sounds That Can’t Be Made’ tour?
Pete Trewavas: Yeah, I’m really happy. After leaving behind that tough process of making the album, after three and a half years, we really had to find out how the new material holds up live. We’ve been on the road for a while now. We kicked off in June in America, then in July we went to Scandinavia and northern Europe. We had August off. In September we were in South America. So now we’re in central and southern Europe, and we dropped by England in between too. A lot of fans think we’ve made our best album, so that’s a really good feeling. Which makes all of us very happy.
Rockline: You’re best known as a bassist, but we also know that with Transatlantic you contributed keyboard parts. You also played acoustic guitar on some Marillion tracks like »Faith« and »Now She’ll Never Know«. Do you like hopping between different roles as a musician and songwriter?
Pete Trewavas: Yes, I love it. I’ve been a bass player for years, but first and foremost I’m a musician. I like just being a musician. I’m a big fan of all kinds of music. My love of music got me hooked on playing piano. The first instrument I played was actually the piano at home. My dad played jazz piano, so I grew up on jazz, especially big band jazz, and jazz musicians like Nat King Cole. At the same time I was listening to the Beatles. I was lucky to grow up in the sixties, so in a way I grew up at the same time as music was ‘growing up’. Back then I was listening to the Beatles, The Who, The Kinks and bands like that. Later, when rock came along, I started listening to Led Zeppelin and then Yes and Genesis. Around then I stopped playing piano and switched to bass. A friend of mine and I decided to start a band. He was a better guitarist than me, so I became the bass player. I love the bass and I love being a bass player. It’s a unique position in a band that gives you a huge number of options. I love all kinds of music. I once played clarinet in an orchestra too. As an orchestra member you really get to draw out the expressive power of individual arrangements. And that’s what I love most about music: arranging. The power of an arrangement means the most to me in music. One of the best examples of arranging that mighty is Gustav Holst’s Planets suite and similar pieces from classical music. It’s truly mighty music, because there’s incredible emotion poured into it. That’s what we try to do in Marillion too, through our music and lyrics. That’s why I’m interested in different instruments, because through them I sometimes hear something new and interesting that could be worked into the music.
Rockline: Is there any particular challenge out there for you as a musician and band member?
Pete Trewavas: There are always certain challenges I want to get more actively into down the line. I’d like to make some solo stuff too. I’ve always wanted to record a solo album. I write new songs on my own. When I’m not creating with Marillion, Transatlantic, Edison’s Children or Kino, I sit down at home and start putting my own musical ideas on paper. If I don’t, I get stuck in a creative rut. So yeah, I’d like to make a solo album. I’ll be working on that in the coming years. I’ll probably record it with acoustic instruments, most likely just acoustic guitar. There are always things on the horizon I’d like to tackle.
Rockline: While you were working on your new project Edison’s Children, you found some success in the US. You made it onto the commercial radio charts there with the single »A Million Miles Away (I Wish I Had A Time Machine)«. Did that surprise you?
Pete Trewavas: Yeah, I was really quite surprised. With Edison’s Children I made an album that sounded more rocky and commercial, and not really like a progressive rock album. I drew inspiration from certain bands from the seventies and early eighties who played a slightly rawer version of what people usually called progressive rock. With that album we wanted to recreate that kind of sound. But since I’m also a big fan of pop music, it happened that we made some more commercially minded songs too. For »A Million Miles Away« we decided to push it to American radio. That decision was mostly down to the fact that Eric (Blackwood, ed.) had already had some success through radio there years ago. We obviously had to pay good money for the airplay, so it would get played on as many stations as possible, which Eric took care of, but in the end we got some nice success out of it. I was surprised, because you don’t normally expect that sort of thing.
Rockline: How does it feel to be a member of the prog rock supergroup Transatlantic?
Pete Trewavas: Yeah, it’s a really nice feeling. I remember when the band came together and Mike (Portnoy, ed.) called me on the phone. Actually, he talked to Steve Hogarth first, told him he was putting together a side project and wondered if Pete would want to get involved. Steve asked me, before the rest of Marillion, if I’d like to work with Mike on his new project, and I was in right away. Mike and I got together to talk about the concept, and eventually I found out the project was also going to include Roine (Stolt, ed.) and Neal (Morse, ed.). Roine already had a bunch of different demos ready, while Neal was still a member of Spock’s Beard at the time, who are a fantastic band. Until then I didn’t know anything about Neal’s music. He sent me a CD of his demos and apologized for how weak his bass playing was. But his bass playing was actually excellent. He’s a truly versatile musician. I soon realized the project was going to have lots of different guitar phrases and fast, daring arrangements, which isn’t what I normally do in music. There were also plenty of keyboard sections and all sorts of piano parts. So I called Mike and asked if he was sure I was the right person for this project. I’m not a riff player, but Mike talked me round, telling me to trust him because it would all turn out great in the end. In the middle of 2000 I broke my leg, so I thought that was the end of my involvement in the project. I figured they’d carry on recording with someone else, but they didn’t. Mike insisted I was the bassist, which was a really nice gesture on his part. I generally get on well with him anyway. Dream Theater supported Marillion a few times, and that’s when I met him. So I headed off to New York to record and was surprised to find Mike wanted us to record the album in one week. I objected that there was no way we could record it in such a short time, but he talked me round and said it was his usual practice with Dream Theater. In the end we managed to record the album in a week, and we really enjoyed ourselves too. The creative process with Transatlantic is very different from what we do with Marillion. It’s always a joy to create in a different way and then come back to Marillion, which only deepens the respect for what Marillion represent and stand for.
Rockline: Do you plan to keep working on other side projects in the future, like Kino?
Pete Trewavas: Oh yeah, definitely. I’m in constant touch with John Mitchell. Every six months or so we have a chat about when we’ll get to do something new again and record a new Kino album. John is a very busy producer and works on the production of various English indie bands, and right now he’s also super busy with his band It Bites. He’s a joy to work with. Chris Maitland is still Kino’s drummer and John Beck is still on keyboards. We’ll see where the future takes us.
Rockline: Let’s go back to Marillion. What are your favorite memories as a band member? When were you proudest to be in Marillion?
Pete Trewavas: One of my favorite memories, and one of the ones I’m proudest of as a member of Marillion, was definitely signing our first deal with EMI. Over the years I’d dreamed of being in a band, and after I came from a local band into Marillion we started talking about signing a record deal. When the day of the EMI signing came, I felt like it was the best day of my life, because that was my dream back then. But after the meeting with the label people and the signing, once the euphoria wore off, I suddenly realized that nothing had really changed; it was still just me in a band. I’ve also got a lovely memory of the day we first heard ourselves on the radio. When one of our first singles, »Garden Party«, was getting played on the radio, we were still recording our debut, »Script For a Jester’s Tear«. »Garden Party« climbed high up the radio charts back then, and I remember we found out about it on the car radio. The car radio was the only radio we owned at the time. It was a truly fantastic feeling, hearing ourselves on the radio for the first time. Another unforgettable moment of our career was when we supported Queen. That was fantastic. We followed Queen on tour through Germany and France and a few other countries in 1986. The tour was called the ‘Magic Tour’ and it was truly unforgettable. Around then we also went off to Brazil and played the huge Rock in Rio festival. We were supporting Bon Jovi that time. It was a wonderful time. We spent a whole week in Rio de Janeiro. It was right in the middle of summer and it was fantastic. Lately, now that we’re a bit older and more mature and know more about the secrets of the music industry than a lot of other musicians, what I’d highlight is that we now have complete control over our fate and over what we create. Before, we’d worked with a big label, EMI, which was focused on constant commercial success. Because of that, the success we’re having these days feels far more earned. Right now we’re slowly working on getting our whole music catalog back and full control over all the past recordings from the EMI era. We’re always looking ahead and want to keep making things better. Things change. In the early days we experienced loads of glorious stuff; we were on TV, traveled most of the world, flew in our own private planes, did interviews and tours in all these different places around the globe. But in the end we were so tired and burned out from the label’s constant pressure that we had no time left to enjoy any of it. The next thing you have to think about is the next hit single, as EMI wants it. A good example is when »Kayleigh« was getting radio play and climbing to the top of the British and other European charts. We were right in the middle of a tour then. Every Wednesday, every Friday, every Sunday we celebrated »Kayleigh« breaking through to the top of the charts and popped bottles of champagne for the occasion. We knew EMI would soon be demanding a new album from us. The label people started pressing us with questions about a new album at a time when we hadn’t written a single new song yet. When we got back to Britain, a week after »Kayleigh« hit number two on the British charts, which was a fantastic achievement, I remember going to the local supermarket. Our single was having incredible success, but for me as a person, things still felt the same as before all those big achievements.
Rockline: What are your favorite Marillion albums? Can you single out any in particular?
Pete Trewavas: »Brave« was without a doubt an iconic album, because it was the first time the current incarnation of the band really ‘found itself’. »Clutching At Straws« was a great album too. So was »Misplaced Childhood«. But I think »Clutching At Straws« was the better album. It was musically stronger. Then Fish left and Steve joined us. By the time we started recording »Brave«, the band had finally clicked with Steve. That’s when we really started writing and arranging songs the way we wanted for the first time. We worked with producer Dave Meegan then, and we got on brilliantly. In my opinion, though, »Afraid Of Sunlight« is still a better album than »Brave«. It’s got better songs. »Anoraknophobia« is an interesting album, not to mention »Radiation«. »Radiation« is a truly strange album. With it we were originally trying to get at what we later pulled off with »Anoraknophobia«. On »Radiation« we tried to change our sound, tear down the old walls and build them anew. When you’re in a band with a long career, a band that’s artistically minded, you have to do that. On »Radiation« it didn’t quite work out for us, but we were all the more successful when »Anoraknophobia« came out. On it we changed our sound, and also our outlook on music and the very way we write songs. Because of that we moved forward in our sonic evolution and landed in a Marillion sonic era that we’re coming to the end of right now. I think that from »Anoraknophobia« to »Marbles« and then »Happiness Is The Road« we went through a special phase of our career, comparable to the first four albums with Fish or the next few albums with EMI. »Sounds That Can’t Be Made« can be called the starting point of something new. With this album, which took us a long time to make and which I can say was quite a difficult birth, we reached a new level of maturity; the songs are better and our songwriting has improved. We were a lot more creative on it than on some of our past albums.
Rockline: »Sounds That Can’t Be Made« really does sound quite different from its predecessor, »Happiness Is The Road«.
Pete Trewavas: That’s true. Every new album of ours sounds different from the one before. The first thing we try is not to repeat ourselves. At the same time, when we go back into the studio, we’ve got a kind of memory of what we achieved before, what we made earlier, so we want to create something completely different. So we’ll always strive to make our next album sound different from the last.
Rockline: Do you have a special message for our readers?
Pete Trewavas: Yes, I do. Anyone who doesn’t know we exist, who doesn’t know what kind of music we make or what we’ve been doing since Fish left, can find useful info about it on our website, marillion.com. There’s stuff you can listen to, stuff you can buy, you can read interviews, concert set lists and things like that. To everyone who knows we exist, follows us actively or even contributes to our success, a huge thank you. We really appreciate all that support. One of the strongest pillars of Marillion as a band has always been our base of loyal fans. These are people who put a hundred percent loyalty and trust in us. We’ll always strive to listen to and respect their wishes and give them what they’d want most themselves. That’s why we strive to be as good a band as we possibly can. We’re very well aware of how lucky we are. We’re in a very unique situation and we value that enormously. So once again, thank you all.
Rockline: Thanks so much for the chat, Mr. Trewavas.
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