URIAH HEEP - "2000 Boiled Eggs" Page 2
by Martin Popoff"I think we took a totally different approach on each of them, and to be honest, this is the one I enjoy the most. We did this as a band. We didn't do it piecemeal where someone records this part, and then the keyboard parts, bass parts, etc. We just went in as a band. We found a studio called Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, in the English countryside. It is as it is, a chapel, and we put the gear all in the one room, rehearsed each song, pressed the record button, and in two or three takes we had the take we wanted. So that was one of the major things. The other thing is that we didn't use any synthesizers. We just wanted to use the basic ingredients of what Uriah Heep is all about, which is the Hammond, wah-wah guitar, drums, bass and vocals. And the other great thing was, we had a producer called Mike Paxman, who actually... first producer that I've known lately who uses his ear to produce rather than looking at a computer screen, ProTools and a graph. He says, if it sounds great like this, that's it. And it was brilliant, quite refreshing to be working with someone like that. Because nowadays you get a great take that everyone is excited about, and it makes the hairs on your arms stand up and gives you chills down your spine, and it's wonderful, and the next four hours is taken up by the producer trying to make it all perfect and putting the one on the bass drum and all that. I don't think that's what music is about, because in search of perfection, you lose the magic that was there in the first place."
As regards the arresting cover image by noted graphics guru Ioannis, "Well, the album cover is kind of a reflection of the Wake The Sleeper idea, and it's a female Buddha who has been in a long meditative state. And they actually do this for months and years, this meditative state. And she is just awakening, and you can see her hand, and there's a glow there where the enlightenment is coming to her. I thought it was a very strong cover and it seems to be going down very, very well with the fans."
Look for Heep to construct a rare American and Canadian tour, as well as the usual knocking about in less traveled nooks and crannies of the world, of course, including a receptive Russia.
"Absolutely. Russia's just such a changed place from when we went in December of 1987. And we went the following year and we did five weeks there right through Siberia and everything. We did shows where they'd never had shows before. So we were pioneers in rock 'n' roll, really, in that regard. But now people are following in our footsteps, which is wonderful. But that's been the case with us, because we've got a saying in the band, that if the people can't come to the music, we'll take the music to the people, and that's been underlined by the fact we just did that prison (laughs)."