King's X: The Harsh White Light Of Reality Page 2
by Martin Popoff

Contrast this album with Tape Head for me.
"In our opinion it was more experimental than Tape Head. A lot of times it's hard when you are the person directly involved and close to it to see what is really going on. People who are on the outside and have the ability to hear if fresh might have different ideas about what is going on. So I kind of hate to define it. But for us the intention was just to be more experimental. I had been listening to a lot of Jeff Buckley lately, and have been really inspired by his free-form type of writing you know, where it doesn't follow the usual verse, chorus, verse, chorus bridge feel. His songs just kind of go anywhere. There's one particular song here where every verse is different. Just having that freedom to write that way was very inspiring. We used to do that earlier on with some of our records but lately we had intentionally tried to be a little more straightforward. But once again, we were just in an experimental mood, like the early days, just being able to write about we want. And I think it ended up being a little more adventurous than Tape Head."

Was the methodology different?
"I think we started a new pattern on Tape Head of not bringing material in and just writing everything on the spot, so that everybody is more directly involved with the songs. With Tape Head there were a few musical fragments brought in and the large majority of the album was written together. It was the first time to try that as a band. At that time that was different for us. But at that time we hadn't really gotten into our flow yet. And on this next record, I guess because we were prepared and knew we could do it because we had done it on the last record, we were more relaxed and had a different kind of attitude. Instead of worrying, we were just more confident and excited to be writing it all from scratch, and being in a mood to be creative. So we all came in very positive and ready to do it. And it just came together so easily."

Would you characterize this one as a softer album, more morose?
"You know, other people are characterizing it as that. That is a perfect example of what I was saying earlier. When you are close to it, I mean, you don't see what other people see. Because for us, when we were making the record, we were thinking it was heavier and even more vicious, in some places musically, than anything we had ever done before. The one difference is that we really worked on vocals and harmonies, making that more of a vital part of it, like some of the earlier music. And I think that always makes something to be perceived as less heavy. Of course the presence of my voice on the record is a lot more predominant then Doug's, sort of like the earlier albums."

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