Eye In The Sky…An interview with Eric Woolfson, creator of and co writer of the Alan Parsons Project and writer of several musicals, the most current one being "Dancing Shadows"

When some people are asked about Eric Woolfson and his music, they might say Eric who? Millions of others however when asked would say what an extremely talented musician, songwriter, lyricist and singer he is. He writes songs with haunting melodies and lyrics that are poignant. That doesn't mean though that he can't be romantic, because he can. That he doesn't write songs that are hard, because he does.

Eric took up the piano at a young age and by the time he was in his late teens, he was an accomplished session musician as well as a composer. Countless artists have recorded his songs…from Pat Benatar to The Symphonic Rock Project. During his time with the Alan Parsons Project, he wrote about many different "concepts" I Robot for instance was about man's intelligence versus a machine's cold logic. Ammonia Avenue was about the deteriorating relationships between the sexes, and the misconceptions between industry and human perceptions. His first Musical, Freudiana was about Sigmund Freud. His latest Dancing Shadows is about a love story and the futility of war. He has written many different concepts in between, and has done each one with passion and conviction. Erik has always preferred the shadows to the limelight, but his music speaks for itself and is forever "moving in new directions…
Listen to his music, for instance Eye In The Sky, Time, or Don't Answer Me… with all the lights off and absolutely no noise of any kind. In fact listen to all of his songs in the same way, and you will be amazed at how your feelings and emotions are brought to the surface. Deep emotions-deep feelings. No matter what Eric does in the future, it will be very good. You can count on that!

So enjoy the interview. I hope it will answer some of the questions his fans wonder about.
Bill Kornman




here goes ...

1, The album "Sicilian Defense" remains un-released. Do you foresee it being released? What are your thoughts/memories about this album?

ERIC "The Sicilian Defence was an experimental work and very untypical of other Projects. It was recorded in Superbear Studios in the South of France at the same time as the EVE album. The record company only wanted product of a similar nature to previous releases and there were 'artistic differences' over this album. The title was inspired by one of the standard openings in the game of chess and digging into the archives while preparing for the expanded editions of the APP albums, the record company, now, asked if we could include something from Sicilian Defence which I agreed to. On the forthcoming EVE Expanded Edition album (to be released September 2008) we have included one of the Sicilian Defence tracks as a bonus item, which I have now called 'Elsie's Theme', dedicated to my newest granddaughter."

2, Would you elaborate on the "Guide vocal", I believe you did this for each song and do you do this for your musicals as well?

ERIC "When the Project backing tracks were recorded, we had no idea who the singer would be. It was part of the unique set up and way Projects were recorded that we didn't have one artists fronting the material and we had the luxury of deciding whose voice would suit the track. It was necessary for me to lay down a guide vocal, either to give the orchestrator an idea of how the song would develop, or to teach another vocalist the material, although in many cases I would have preferred to sing it myself, Alan was the producer and in the studio I deferred to his choice of vocalist. However, many of these guide vocal recordings do appear to give an interesting insight into the development of the final product, even when I myself did the eventual lead vocal, and we have included many examples in the expanded editions."

"For similar reasons, I do record guide vocals on the musical recordings or demos as well."

3, Could you elaborate on the idea of your songs being "Cinematic"? I find that this gives the song an almost classically "romantic" feel.

ERIC "One of the greatest compliments that the Project recordings received was to have been described as 'cinematic'. I feel this is more a tribute to Alan's production and engineering than necessarily to the songs themselves. Projects, like films, were often made with large orchestras and I think this does give an epic quality to the material."

4, Was it hard to write songs when you were with Alan, since you roughly had to produce an album or so a year, and especially since each album dealt with a new concept?

ERIC "The schedule was tight, but although the songs were credited to myself and Alan, in nearly all cases I was the writer and we did not work together at the composing stage. Lyrics were my particular bug-bear and I agree with Stephen Sondheim's sentiment that 'writing lyrics is like running uphill'. The music came much more easily but the lyrics were a challenge to complete with the tight deadlines. Some of the bonus tracks highlight this where you can hear the song is complete but I'm still working on the words."

5," Ammonia Avenue" is far and away my favorite album. Both the album and the single "Don't Answer Me" made it into the top twenty. How do you feel the songs on this album stand up today compared to similar songs being recorded today?

ERIC "Firstly, thank you for the compliment. The quality of the Project recordings was such that to me, they don't seem to have aged at all. In fact the re-mastered expanded editions are technically superb and reminiscent to me of the first magic playback in the studio, of the completed product. Usually the vinyl albums were a relative disappointment as they really could not match up to the technical facilities in Abbey Road Studios, but now with the new technology for mastering, it is possible to recapture the essence of the work in the studio so for me, Ammonia Avenue and all the other albums do stand up today, but it would be hard to compare them to other product being recorded today as hardly anything is approached in the same way or with the luxury of the budgets that were available."

6, I've read somewhere that you worked with Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice in the sixties. Is this true and if so what kinds of projects did you do with them?

ERIC "I worked alongside Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in the sixties when we were all signed as writers to Southern Music in Denmark Street. I never actually wrote with either of them, but experienced the same frustration that they had as the material we wrote was not really what the artists of the day were looking for. The most successful writers at that time could produce what was known as the 'three minute opera' which was a very self contained song which stood on its own. Both Andrew, Tim and I tended to write more conceptually based material and they quickly realised that they needed a vehicle for their own output and chose the stage musical. I eventually developed the Alan Parsons Project as a vehicle for my writing and later realised that Webber and Rice had got it right and I moved into stage musicals, somewhat belatedly."

7, Tell me more about "Dancing Shadows". Do you ever foresee this musical being staged in America? Which of your musicals do you feel has the best songs written for it,,,Do you have a personal favorite among your musicals?

ERIC "Dancing Shadows was commissioned by the Korean producers who have previously staged my musical GAMBLER. I had the great privilege of working with the American dramatist Ariel Dorfman (Death and the Maiden) on this piece. We were fortunate to have the work directed by Paul Garrington (Dirty Dancing, Mamma Mia) which premiered in Korea in the Summer of 2007 and won 5 Korean Tony Awards including Best Musical. I very much hope that one day this will be staged in America but these things take time."

"For me, my musical POE is representative of the best work I can produce. The work was showcased in Abbey Road Studios and is currently scheduled for a European tour in 2009. I used to say, when asked, what my favourite Project was - 'the next one' and I suppose the same answer applies to my musicals as well."

8, Did you do all of the arrangements on the Alan Parsons Project songs, and do you do the same for each musical? Also how originally, did you decide on which vocalists to use for each Alan Parsons Project album?

ERIC "The arrangements of the basic tracks on the Projects were a combination of my input as well as the other musicians, especially the guitarist Ian Bairnson and Alan's suggestions as record producer. The superb orchestral arrangements were scored by Andrew Powell as apart from anything else I cannot read or write music! Although many of Andrew's arrangements highlighted what was on the basic tracks, he did embellish the recordings in his own particular style and many of the re-mastered editions feature elements of his superb work which can be heard in isolation as opposed to the final mixes where the orchestrations were often buried in the totality of the overall mix."

"The process for musicals is similar although I now use other arrangers, notably Gavin Greenaway who is now a prolific Hollywood film score arranger."

"The choice of vocalist as I have mentioned previously was left until the basic track was recorded and as Alan used to say, regarding orchestrations, the time to add them is when you can listen to the track and hear them when they are not there. A similar process goes on when trying to imagine which voice might suit a particular track, so when a suggestion was made about Arthur Brown recording the Tell Tale Heart from the Tales of Mystery and Imagination album, it was easy to imagine what he might sound like and the reality turned out to be even better!"

9, When you write a song, do you write the lyrics for each song first and then the melody that will carry it, or is it the opposite? Can you give me an example of songs done both ways? After that you do the arrangements right?

ERIC "I nearly always do the music first, then the lyrics, as opposed to a writer like Elton John whose starting point is a lyric given to him by either Bernie Taupin or someone else. The arrangements come later."

10, The album "Eye In The Sky" was hugely successful in America, with the album reaching number seven and the single reaching number three. What do you think made the album and single do so well?

ERIC "I was aware in the studio that the Eye in the Sky album was a pinnacle when for me, everything seemed to come together at the right time. Alan, at the time, did not share my enthusiasm, in fact I still enjoy telling the story of how he argued that the track 'Eye in the Sky' was not worthy of being recorded, although the musicians were on my side and Alan actually bet our guitarist Ian Bairnson double his session fees that the song would never be a hit! Ian still regrets that he never apparently banked the cheque which Alan had to give him! The other factor in the Eye in the Sky album was that there was a particularly good team at the promotion department of the record company and although the results of marketing are never an exact science, all these elements contributed to the particular success of this album and the title track."

11, Tell me you thoughts and memories/feelings about these songs,,,

"Baby Make It Soon",,,for Chris Farlowe

ERIC "This was Mick Jagger's first production. I had been signed by Andrew Oldham who was the Stones record producer and co-manager and this was to have been the A side of Chris Farlowe's first single for Andrew's Immediate label. The B side was going to be a Jagger/ Richards composition entitled 'Out of Time' but surprise surprise their recording turned out much better and became the A side, so I had the B side of a very big international number one hit! When the record came out, I was surprised to see the writing credit on this song was 'Oldham/ Woolfson' and Andrew and I fell out over this."

ERIC " Eye In The Sky" and "Don't Answer Me" were both songs where in the studio, Alan was particularly unhappy. I persevered as I knew they both had enormous potential. I do find it ironic that Alan, who now goes around performing with a band which he never did in the Project days, has apparently chosen to sing both these songs as lead vocalist

"Ammonia Avenue"
ERIC "This was a result of a meeting I had with John Harvey-Jones, the Chairman of the British Chemical giant company ICI. He invited me to visit the ICI plant in Billigham in the North of England as he had an idea that it might provide some musical inspiration. The first thing I saw when we drove into this enormous complex was a long street with no trees, no people, but miles of pipes and a sign that said 'Ammonia Avenue'. Quite simply, this was the street where they made Ammonia, but I was struck by the phrase and indeed it did provide me with musical inspiration. I did have the pleasure of presenting John with a gold disc in appreciation."

"The Bells"
ERIC "I think The Bells, for me musically, is my most adventurous composition and I'm particularly proud of this recording from my album POE, More Tales of Mystery & Imagination."

" No Answers Only Questions"
ERIC "This was for me a little gem that was left out of the Vulture Culture album. I recall that contractually, our albums had to be of a certain minimum length and we had achieved this without including this track so it was left out. However, I'm delighted that it is now included on the expanded remastered edition as well as on the new Essential compilations."


12, And Finally, what is your current project? Do you ever foresee working with Alan again on songs for a new project?

ERIC "I have several current projects. At this moment, I am writing a new song for the GAUDI musical which is scheduled for a European tour late next year. I am also working on the material from Dancing Shadows which was adapted for Korean audiences and needs to be re-worked for Western audiences. I'm also developing many of the unfinished songs which we've discovered in the process of going through the archives for bonus material for the APP expanded editions and I have in mind here, a CD entitled 'The Project That Never Was' though this may take some time!"

ERIC "Alan now lives in America and has become a performer whereas I am very much committed to musical theatre so our paths really don't cross. I do consider that he was the finest engineer/ producer of his day but the last work we did together was more than 20 years ago and in that time, the record business as we knew it has almost completely disappeared so there is little or no prospect. We have both, however, worked on the new expanded edition albums and compilations from different sides of the Atlantic."

One remark, Alan And Eric worked on the remasters both sides of the ocean and it shows.
I wish Eric had been more involved with the remastering, because they are absolutely not up to the standard of what we want to expect from a group that's was always known for it's perfection in production.
The remasters are far and far too loud, and the dynamics in some songs are completely gone.
The HDAD versions are far better.
Example : on one of the HDAD's a song has a peak value of -0.5 Db and and avreage RMS of -25 Db.
So there is a huge difference between the softest and loudest parts in that song.
On the remsters however that same song gives 0 Db as peak and an average RMS of -17 Db.
Away are the finer nuances. The soft parts are now far louder than on the original.

It seems normal these days to record everything as loud as possible , but in this case it ruined things.

I regret that deeply.......

And as far as planning goes for the musicals.... well, if they are planned as well as the remasters, don't expect POE before somewhere around 2015........ ;-)

Nice interview, but what is the source?