Nice Interview

[ladybugking]

http://tinyurl.com/y9mjtct

 

DeYoung brings Styx hits, solo work to Family Arena

 

By Daniel Durchholz

SPECIAL TO THE POST-DISPATCH

Friday, Feb. 12 2010

 

Former Styx frontman Dennis DeYoung’s concert at the Family Arena on Friday

night comes hard on the heels of his appearance at Tony La Russa’s “Stars to

the Rescue” ARF benefit. But this time, DeYoung will present his full show,

featuring recent solo work as well as Styx classics such as “Lady,” “Babe” and

“Come Sail Away.” DeYoung called in from the road a few days after the ARF

show.

 

You’ve had a long relationship with St. Louis over the years. How did that

develop?

 

I think it was primarily because of KSHE. We were one of the bands, early on,

that they embraced. Historically speaking, the success of any artist,

particularly in the era we grew up in, was due essentially to a radio station.

Without that, it was very difficult, because we were pre-video. But if a radio

station like KSHE would embrace you, you became very important to those people

that listened to the station. That was a huge part of our success in St. Louis.

 

We did go down there very early in the 1970s and played the Ambassador Theatre.

We played with Dr. John. I think that was our first foray to St. Louis. We went

down there and you know – we didn’t suck. We were a good band. And the kind of

music that we made had, I think, a Midwestern appeal as well.

 

People may have been surprised at the time that prog rock wasn’t just playing

well in the Midwest, but was actually coming from here as well. Styx had some

prog elements, and St. Louis had Pavlov’s Dog and Starcastle. You don’t think

of that as being Midwestern music, but it was.

 

How about Kansas? Yeah. I’m not sure what the reason for that was. For me, Styx

has always been more of a hybrid than those other bands. Right from the very

beginning, “Lady” being the first record. That’s not a prog rock song to me.

Being recorded in ‘72 and released in ‘73, it might actually be one of the very

first power ballads. But we had prog-rock ambitions and overtones, particularly

on our early records on the Wooden Nickel label. But unlike Yes or Emerson,

Lake & Palmer or Gentle Giant and all those sorts, there was really a pop and

rock side to us. We were a song-oriented band from the very beginning. Being a

Beatles fan, I always believed that, whatever you’re going to do, the song is

the important thing and the rest will follow.

At the same time, your songs were clearly ambitious in scope and had a certain

grandiosity. Where did that come from?

 

Maybe it’s from Daniel Burnham, a Chicagoan, who said “Make no small plans

[laughs]. Speaking for me – because a lot of that prog rock did come from me –

as a keyboard player, you’re more inclined to use those classical musical

influences just by the nature of what you study as you come up. So a lot of

that came from me. After 1978, though, I really turned my back on it and tried

to steer the band in a completely different direction. After that year, after

“Pieces of Eight,” we had made I don’t know how many records that had that

prog-rock feel to them. I just felt like it was a dying thing and we better get

off that ship before it sinks us.

The Styx episode of VH1’s “Behind the Music” is just brutal. What was it like

to be on the receiving end of that?

I found it exaggerated. The way the band was portrayed, that was certainly not

a band that I would have wanted to be in. When it was made, the divorce was in

progress and they were trying to make the point that going forward without me

would be a good thing.

 

“Mr. Roboto” was kind of reviled when it came out, but it’s become a pop

culture landmark.

 

It’s a book, it’s a movie, it’s a doll, it’s a greeting card [laughs]. The

longevity of the music we created is something I’m extremely proud of. And with

something like “Mr. Roboto,” it’s become part of pop culture, part of the

vernacular. I don’t know how that happened, but I wish I wrote another

half-dozen songs that did the same thing.

 

Let’s talk about some of the things you’ve been working on more recently. What

drew you to your latest project, writing the score for the musical “101

Dalmations?”

 

I had written a musical based on “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” that two years

ago was in Chicago. The producers of that show were putting [“Dalmations”]

together and asked if I would write the music for it. I thought it would be a

challenge to write something so different from where I come from. The heart of

the show is really in the right place. It’s about family and what it means to

pull together to overcome adversity and crisis.

 

The show is on the road right now. It’s in Nashville as we speak. I’m sure it’

ll be coming to the Fox at some point.

Your last release was “One Hundred Years from Now.” Are you working on

anything new?

That last album is something I’m very proud of. What I tried to do was write a

sequel of sorts to Styx’ “Paradise Theater.” So if you want to hear some of

that art-rock stuff, it’s on there. It was a concerted effort on my part to

recreate that thing, that sound.

 

Beyond that, I’ve been working on the show I’m doing now. I think fans will be

shocked by some of the things I have planned. It’s a new show, I have new band

members. The show is everything you would expect from me, but with some genuine

musical surprises.

[Rubulator2k]

Good interview, thanks for posting...

 

I think fans will be shocked by some of the things I have planned. It’s a new show, I have new band

members. The show is everything you would expect from me, but with some genuine

musical surprises.

 

must mean those Tommy lead vocal songs that Scott pointed out in his post in reviews section...