Marillion's Steve Hogarth's solo-trip
'I DO NOT WANT TO END UP LIKE PHIL COLLINS'
Ice Cream Genius's music is totally unreachable for any music-critic who is used to give musicians a certain label. One time H is a real singer/songwriter and the next he's doing some sort of hypnotising technopop. It seems that he's done some stuff he never could do with Marillion. At the time the Dutch knew that H would do a solo-gig in Amsterdam, the Dutch-Marillion-fanclub immediately bought most of the tickets. "Each band gets the fans it deserves", says Hogarth. It seems that the fanatism of the Marillion-fans is every now and then a bit too much, even for Hogarth. But on the other hand, he knows a lot of the fans by name. He remembers a girl named Astrid, who once gave him James Redfield's "The Celestian Promise", in Rotterdam. Hogarth: "Redfield seemed to be inspired by "I will walk on water". I can still remember when I got the inspiration for that song. I was in a bus ans suddenly it started to rain. It seemed like I was lifted by the enormous amount of water. It was almost a supernatural experience. That made me think that there's a lot more between earth and heaven.
With ICG, Hogarth showed us something of all the complex music that circulates in his head. Music you did not expect from Marillion's singer. "My solo-project can't be seen totally apart from Marillion. I just wanted to show that there's more to me. Eventhough I thought that the average Marillion-fan would have had major problems with the album, the opposite is true. They all like it. In my heart I actually hoped that they'd hate it. Because if that happened I could be sure of the fact that my music was something totally different, that it confronted them. I do not want everybody to like whatever I do. Each music-listener should have his or her own opinion. I do not like those who walk along with the crowd. People should not follow what's 'in'."
The fans were really enthousiastic and H got a lot of reactions and opinions from them. But not from 'the boys' (Marillion). "Steve said nothing, but I won't ask him either. Mark told me that he liked some of the songs. Pete likes the whole album. He was the only one who asked me for a copy. But on the other hand, they all have their own solo-projects as well. See, we all wish each other the best on our solo-projects, but not too much, since we do not want Marillion to suffer. But it is not like that the other members of Marillion save all their critics on my solo-album and then sum up a list of all that's on the list. The Police's Stewart Copeland did it when Sting made his first solo-stuff. But he was really disappointed that Sting's solo-carreer made an end to the Police. That should not happen to Marillion. But you can never tell how all will develop in the future. I really do enjoy this solo-trip. One of the things i like is the smaller audiences and the smaller places to play. It is a shame that I cannot tour that long solo, it's costing me money. Four show are costing me 60.000 guilders and I do not make that much money to get it even. If I go on like this, I'd have to sell my home. It's not that I earn that much money with Marillion to finance my own solo-carreer.
Marillion has just finished a new CD, and we'll soon start touring. That's at the end of the summer and after that I can continue with my own solo-carreer. But if that happens, it will be someting totally different. Something with trance-music. I met two guys that make awsome trance-mixes and I'd like to do something with them. It's not the ordinary kind of trance, it's far deeper... E.g., they travel to Africa to record the local-primitive tribes and their music for sampling. The same they do with sounds of Aribien streetmarkets and the like, I love it.
On Marillion's new album TSE there's one song called Estonia and for that one I sampled some underwater-recordings. I always want to stay creative and I always want to be looking for new paths to explore. I do not want to end up like Phil Collins - making records that all sound like each other. Happely enough I can still do what I want with Marillion. We offer each other a lot of freedom. With Marillion I can show that I am a performer. Running down a large stage, interaction with thousands of people in the audience. That's a kick as well."
Zondagskrant, March 9, 1997
Translated by Remko Zuidgeest from an article in Dutch Sunday-newspaper
