Interviews
Stream of Passion
Interview with: Marcela Bovio of Stream of Passion
2006-02-04
R: About three years ago, you were quite anonymous, since then you've been discovered by multi instrumental\ producer Ayreon, you've participated in his last prog rock successful album called "the human equation" and now you are standing as lead vocals of your latest co operation with him called "stream of passion", I guess a lot has changed in those last three years, how does it feel?
M:It’s all been such a big adventure. So many things have happened the last few years, everything’s exciting and new; it’s also a huge honor for me to collaborate with Arjen, he’s extremely talented and experienced.
R: how are you handling all the press and interviews?
M: quite well for now, there weren't so many till now; today I had three interviews, so I guess it's going ok for now.
R: tell us about yourself, outside stream of passion
M: Well nowadays I don’t have much time to do anything besides Stream of Passion and Elfonía (my Mexican band). But I love to spend time with my friends and talk, watch a cool movie, waste time away playing videogames.
R: tell me about the new album, how does it sound? what is the concept behind it …?
M: The album is called “Embrace the storm”; the sound is the result of the combination of all our different influences. It’s dark, sometimes heavy and sometimes atmospheric; there are progressive and symphonic influences as well.
We didn’t really have a concept when we were working on the songs, the only idea we had is that we wanted to do something mysterious and exotic.
R: How did the band formed?
M: well, alejhndro (the keyboard player) came with me to ayreons studio while I was recording "the human equation" so knew ayreon from back then, the rest of the guys were mostly picked out from the ayreon mailing list, and they are all very nice and very talented people from various places, with the same music interest so it was quite fluent.
R: You live far away from each other, how did the writing and recording session were made?
M: at start Ayreon had sent me the basic guitar tracks on which I wrote vocal melodies on, I heard it and got into writing the lyrics and melodies. We mostly sent mp3 files to one another with the musical ideas and recordings back and forwards.
Usually ayreon sent us the guiding line and instrumented parts of it, and each one contributed his own part, and own composing, we all had similar musical ideas so it all mixed well together, each one recorded at his own house or studio and sent it over, it was not until being close to finishing the project we all met for the first time..
R: Where did you record your vocals?
M: ayreon sent me the tracks, and I wrote and recorded the melodies at my home studio, which was great because I got to record in an ease home environment and I could take my time with it and didn't have to travel all the way to Holland to record, which was very nice that I could do it here at home.
R: Who made the final descion about the songs and how they'll sound?
M: it was a group effort, everytime ayreon mixed a song he would send it to us and each one got to say his opinion and we decided together, it was very democratic.
R: How was to do the video for "passion"?
M: it was a lot of fun, we worked some guys who've already worked with ayreon before, so that was great, it was also one of the first time we all met together as a band, that felt really good, and the people were very nice, and there were good vibes and energies, I am really looking forward to spent time with the guys while touring.
R: What's gonna be on the limited edition?
M: the limited edition has a DVD with the clip for Passion, and it has the making of the clip, and behind the scenes of recording the album, it also has demo versions of songs that are on the album, so that is really cool in my opinion, to get to see from all these songs cam from.
R: What are your plans regarding touring with this project?
M: We have a tour through Europe coming up in January and February. They’re about 14 dates and we’ll stop by Holland, Belgium, Italy, Spain, UK and France; we’re very excited to have the chance to finally play together as a band.
R: How will you arrange the album to be playable at live shows?
M: "Stream of passion" was recorded as a band album , so it is already quite modified to a band live show, and they are easier to do then ayreons songs, because he always has a lot of singer and always something is going on, so that is impossible to do live.
R: You were discovered by ayreon in his latest album "the human equation", please tell me about it.
M: ayreon wrote out on his website, asking for people to send him their recordings, as he was searching for a new fresh vocalist, an unknown one, so I sent mine as well, and after a while he told me I've got it, of course I was very excited, I didn't expect to get it, after all a lot of people sent their tapes. Afterwards he sent me this tracks from the album and wanted me to sing the part of "the wife" on the album, again I was very excited, not to mention I also had the opportunity to work with great singers like James LaBrie and Mickael from Opeth.
R: What are your plans for the upcoming year?
M: we have the European tour with "stream of passion", and I also have a band here in Mexico called Elfonia, which we're also released an album recently, so we're gonna tour Mexico for a while before going to Europe, and basically this is a very busy year for me.
R: Do you have any plans trying to make a solo album, or a project which is all yours?
M: I think so yeah, but for now I haven't found the time or courage to do so, it's been a busy time.
R: How does your family and friends react to this entire buzz and this entire new situation?
M: They're great, very supportive especially with me going to tour Europe, which I'm going to be far from home for some time, they are al just really great.
R: What is your official musical background?
M: I started learning music when I was 5 or 6 years old, in a musical academy here in Monterrey. I took private violin and classical singing lessons for around 5 years, and I’m currently studying jazz harmony.
R:.which artists influenced you the most as a musican, and what kind of music do you hear this days?
I’ve drawn inspiration from singers like Ann-Mari Edvardsen, Lisa Gerrard, Kathleen Battle, Ella Fitzegarld, Sarah Vaughan. Nowadays I listen to as many different musical styles as I can: rock, prog, jazz, world music, post-rock; I try to keep my ears open.
R: What was the first ayreon album you've heard?
M: mmm, the first one I heard is "into the electric castle", I heard it about the time it was released, but the one I love the most is "the dream sequencer and of course "the human equation" but you know… (Laughs).
R: What is the first prog album that kicked you into prog music?
M: well, I actually got into prog through prog metal, I think it was Dream Theater, "awake", but my first prog rock album was king crimson.
R: Ss a songwriter,where do you get your lyrical inspiration? And do you rewrite your lyrics?
M: I write mostly about things that I think of, feel, things that affect in the daily life, sometime it can even come from books I read. I usually don't rewrite my songs to often, I had some grammar rewriting, since English isn't my native tongue, even though I speak it a lot (laughs), I sometimes have grammatical mistakes which I have to rewrite, but it's good to have feedback on it.
R:Marcela - I would like to thank you for your time,
M: thank you, take care
I would like to thank Marcela for her time and kindness, and Peter klapproth for making it all happened.
Roy Povarchik
