KP: Your two most-recent CDs were collaborative projects. Let’s talk a bit about Audiocracy first. What made you want to do a progressive rock album?
Mueller: I have loved progressive rock since I was a late teen. Bands like Yes, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, and players like Frank Zappa and Keith Emerson were a heavy influence on my music, even when I was writing purely classical or jazz. Progressive rock is this interesting mix of classically-trained virtuoso players, jazz cats and performers possessing a dramatic theatrical flare (especially for epic melodrama). I wrote two progressive rock opera musicals, one that was produced (Creature) and one that was never finished (Dreamless). Prog Rock is as central to me as Gershwin (my mother's favorite) or Stravinsky (my first favorite composer). Progressive rock combines metal, jazz, musical theatre, and classical stylings and is dedicated to exploring new sounds and new forms. How could I not be drawn to that?
On a personal level, I was getting back into the Hammond B3 organ and was looking for excuses to play. I had an aging group of old prog rocker friends that I needed to tap into before they all went blind or threw their backs out again. The timing was good.
KP: Did you do most of the writing for “Revolution’s Son”?
Mueller: Most of the writing is mine, as was the concept for the album. My son, who sings lead and plays bass, collaborated on two or three tracks. The only track that started with someone else's ideas is track two, the first draft totally written by our lead guitarist, originally designed to be an instrumental. After I added keys and words, the song changed character and blossomed into a choral prog tune.
The main aspect of collaboration is in how each player contributes to the arrangement of the songs. Much of Audiocracy is about texture, changes and harmonic interplay. It’s less about rhythm than most mainstream rock. Since everyone in the band is such a creative musician, their contributions to the arrangements constitute an important aspect of collaboration. This also affects the writing, on many levels.
Actually sitting down with someone else and writing in a collaborative fashion happened on only two tracks, both with my son. We both came in with bits and pieces of ideas and slowly threw down solid ideas that morphed and grew as we progressed. We built the pieces on tape, playing in sections, singing drafts, layer on layer. The lyrics went through several drafts as we evolved our concept/message of each song.
KP: Had you worked with your son on projects before Audiocracy? Has he been a musician for a long time?
Mueller: Anton has been performing with me since he was a little kid. He was in my traveling theatre troupe starting at age 6 or so. By the time he graduated from high school, I think he'd been in nearly 54 separate productions. I bought him a 5-string bass for his 15th birthday. He still plays it (he's 29).
KP: Does the band have any more projects in the works?
Mueller: I had wanted to do a second concept album, mainly because of additional musicians who wanted to collaborate, but the RAIN BATHER project intervened and Audiocracy lost momentum. I did do a small collaboration with Jon Anderson from Yes and was hoping that might turn into something more, but then his health began failing. I would never say “no” to more Audiocracy projects, but what I said about guys going blind and their backs (and wrists) having troubles, I wasn't joking. Plus, our drummer is touring with the number one Elvis impersonator band and that has been very successful for him. We might not ever get him back. My son is now in three other bands, so his time is limited. If we do another project, it may be a purely instrumental. I like that idea, actually. I may begin something in 2010...
KP: This year’s Rain Bather was especially interesting in that it has tracks that were passed around the internet for the various musicians to add their parts. Did you have suggestions for the musicians to follow, or did you leave their parts strictly up to them?
Mueller: Both. I wrote out every note for the clarinetist on "Last Song On Vaudeville", but let him do whatever he wanted in two others ("Caught In The Current" and "Secret of Life"). I only counseled him to use melodic motifs and not rely on jazz scales. RAIN BATHER is a very melodic, very composed-through jazz.
Only three players added their parts after-the-fact via the internet without me being there: the clarinetist, the fiddle player, and the guitarist. All the other players were together for most of the sessions, although a few lines were added in overdubbing sessions in the studio, like the multiple sax layers added by Woody Mankowski in track 6, "Windowshade."
KP: How do you handle additions when you aren't there to oversee the playing?
Mueller: When someone adds a part without me present, I always ask them to keep each of their takes on separate tracks so I can choose, edit, cut & paste, and otherwise rearrange them. Many times I need to move phrases or hits to fix timing issues. (I used the program "Live" for this, which has fabulous re-beating tools.) I sometimes move whole phrases into different parts of the song, or use one part of a phrase from one take and another from a second take, to better express what I think works best in the moment. All the players got a kick out of my manipulations except the guitarist, who may never work with me again. There were terrible latency issues in the software he was using, and I had to reconstruct his contributions in a major way. He didn't appreciate the changes that resulted, especially in the tone of his (time-stretched) guitar. But I attribute that more to accidental software incompatibility than to artistic incompatibility. Now I only collaborate using Logic, ProTools or Digital Performer, software without issues for me.
