PhotoMistress.com :: Symphony X Interview, February 26, 2001

Michael Romeo, guitarist of Symphony X. Albeit a very impromptu interview (I had less than two hours to come up with questions!!!) I gathered a lot of cool little bits of info that I wasn't quite expecting. I ESPECIALLY loved his response to my first question. I think it took him at least three minutes to come up with anything! :o) So here is my interview. Interview conducted on February 26, 2001. PHOTOMISTRESS: I think I'll start it off with my favorite question. In ONE word, describe each band member. MICHAEL ROMEO: Hmmmmmm(laughs) Oh man! Um, okay (laughs again) It's usually more than one word! Man, that's a pretty tough one. See why couldn't you start with something easier? Okay, I'll start with my keyboard player. He's shy. The bass player Mike LePond, he's the quiet one. The singer Russ he's the loud one. Our drummer, let's say spiritual. Okay, good? PM: What about you? MR: How about cool?
PM: Nah that's too easy!!! MR: Well, I answered it! No, you ready? I'm mellow. I'm a mellow guy you know? No actually hard-working too. PM: I know you guys just played the Prog Power Festival in Chicago this last weekend. How was the crowd's reception towards the band and did you see any new bands that sparked your interest? MR: We got to talk to some of the other bands but we really didn't get to see any of them really play. Just a little bit of the first one. We drove out there so we were pretty beat. The first day we kinda like caught up on sleep. The next day we left, so we didn't really see any of the other bands. But we got to talk to a lot of them so that was all good. The fans were pretty receptive and all in all everyone we talked to were really, really cool. So it was over all a good experience. PM: Were there a lot of people there? MR: The place wasn't really huge. I think the max capacity was 350-400 and it was PACKED. It was tight. PM: Are you satisfied with the overall success of V (the new album) and will you release any more solo albums? MR: Yes and maybe. It's going pretty good. In Europe, Japan and South America we're doing well. Here it's just getting going a little bit. This kind of music isn't the most popular thing here, you know? It's been doing well so hopefully it will just keep going.
PM: Your songs can range anywhere from three minutes to twenty minutes. What determines how long a song will be and how do you go about writing them? MR: What determines how long a song is. Really, when it's finished. When the IDEA is finished. So if it takes only three minutes to convey the idea of what the song is about, I mean if it takes twenty minutes, you know that's the way it has to be. We don't sit down and say, 'This song has to be this long'. It just happens. If you have lyrics and it's only a couple lines of words or something you're not gonna write a two hour song on that. But if you have a pretty in-depth kind of story or something like that you can tell it'll be a longer song. Usually like the lyrics and the general idea of what we want for the song determines the length. PM: Do you guys collaborate with each other or do you sit in a room and just try to write a song. Or do you come up with ideas on your own and put them all together? MR: Well usually me and the keyboard player write most of the stuff. Either I'll get together with him or we individually will come up with an idea and we'll work it out and get the basic idea of the song down and then get together with the whole band and work it out. You know, put it together as a band. Usually you have a basic idea of what it will be. I'll sit down here and get a basic idea, like this can be the chorus and then Russ will listen to it and add any comments. We work like that, try to build it along. PM: Do you guys plan to rerecord any of the Tyler-era (old singer) material (besides what they've already done with Masquerade) with Russell Allen? MR: There really are no plans.
PM: Will Symphony X be contributing to the Jason Becker Tribute album? MR: Actually someone mentioned that to us about doing that but I don't think we're gonna do it. Actually I haven't heard anything, but I know there was one being done and they had asked us but we were getting ready for the tour when that whole thing went down. I don't even know if it's done yet or not. PM: What was it like to participate on the Ayreon disc and with the Johannson brothers?
MR: The Ayreon thing was definitely cool. I mean Arjen is definitely a talented guy and I'm familiar with some of his previous stuff. He asked Russ and I to do something and of course we said yes. I guess we like what he does so we did that and it was kind of a cool thing. We did it through the mail by tape. He sent us a tape of the rhythm tracks. For that (record) we did it that way. Although with Jens Johannson he's pretty much basically next door. For me it's not that far. So with the Johannson thing he came down to my place a couple of times and let me hear some of the stuff he had and we laid down some guitar stuff. Jens is a totally awesome musician. It was a lot of fun plus he's a great guy. PM: What is your favorite Symphony X song and what bands/albums do you listen to? MR: My favorite song by us I think is probably Communion and the Oracle off the new album. The stuff I listen to now is the same stuff I listened to ten years ago pretty much. Old Judas Priest, Rush, Kansas, a lot of the classical music.
PM: Will you play the Bay Area any time soon? MR: It's so hard to say because I'm not really sure what our touring plans actually are for America. There have been some offers and things kinda fell through and nothing's really been written in stone so it's hard to know what the hell to do. PM: Have you guys ever played out here at all? MR: Out there? No. I mean we've done some shows here in like New York and the thing in Chicago and I know we're going to Montreal, Canada next month, but the only touring we've really done is overseas. We kinda gotta get things rolling over here. I guess it takes a little time to see that happen, so we're just hanging out and waiting here until something comes our way. As soon as we find out something is definitely happening, we're definitely there. PM: You guys have a website right? MR: There is one that actually some fans, now friends, started that have actually been doing it for a while. We don't do it ourselves because we don't have any time or anything. It's called the Edge of Forever. Matt (the webmaster) does some pretty cool stuff on there. PM: Well I hope to see you guys here sometime soon. MR: Well I think sometime in the next three or four months we'll come up as far as the touring goes. Just look out for us, we'll be around! I'll look out for ya!
Official Website: www.symphonyx.com For more live photos of Symphony X, please click here.