Interview with Karl Groom

By Rob for Light And Space, february 2002

Hello Karl, Let's start talking about the dish of the day: Concert In Paris is the new, long awaited full length-live album. Why did you decide to record the show in Paris - and not others, which would have been longer? 

The recording of the Paris show was largely due to chance. We had intended to record the Hannover show. This was because Mac had some hard disk facilities we could have used, as this is where he lives. However, there were some problems with the equipment and also the mixing desk feeds at the venue and it did not happen. At Elyssee Monmartre, Paris we had met up with Freak Kitchen who were carrying a portable hard disk system. The venue is well equipped and Freak Kitchen had enough hard disk space to make the recording. I think there were four bands this night, which is why we had a shorter set. Also this was an extra date added to the tour. 

What about the cover? I've never been in Paris, so I ain't recognize if it shows the subway of this city!

Yes the front cover is the Metro. Better than a picture of us, hey!

Some girls I know wouldn't agree with you... *blink* Ok, talking about the tour (there's not much to add about the live album, since I couldn't hear it yet!), it should have been a lot of fun; at least that's what comes out from the tour diary!

I think most of us enjoy touring. Jon tries to pretend he hates it, but he keeps turning up. Most people don’t have a good excuse to go on a free holiday with their friends every year, with the added fun of playing some shows. The work part is the rehearsal.

Anything very funny that Jon forgot to mention?

One thing I think he forgot was Nick walking into a glass door in Strasburg. It was at the front of the venue where people were queuing to get in. However, Jon doesn’t forget much in his tour diaries.

I saw you in Vienna, the show was cool! One point: to me you have played Sunseeker too slowly – and my bootleg witnesses it!

That is part of the magic of live shows. Unpredictable. Maybe we have played that too much in recent years.

I remember you explaining me why Livedelica had a bad snare drum sound; can you please tell it to the rest of the fans? 

I’m not sure it’s that bad considering it is live. But at the time Jay had quite a cheap drum kit and we had to carry it around in tea chests and carrier bags! You can imagine what this looked like when we did the DT tour in ’95. Mike’s immaculate kit in full flight cases etc. Anyway, the snare was probably a bit beaten up and we had no sample triggers then, so Rob (engineer of Livedelica) triggered white noise from an analog keyboard to make the sound a bit better. Imagine what it would be like without that. 

Ok, let's talk about the new album: I read in the official website it is going to be the natural step forward from Hypothetical: maybe Threshold have found the way to express themselves at best?

Every album is a step forward I guess. I just write what comes at the time. Don’t get me wrong this is not just a carefree process, but I cannot write songs a year ahead of release. Maybe the last few months before the recording I will work intensely on new songs. The arrangement is what becomes the hard work and painstaking process for me. I will send Jon complete songs with drums, guitar, bass, and keyboards on a CD. Then he will work on lyrics before we rearrange any parts necessary. When the band play the parts for real things will often change in feel and this brings the songs a “Threshold sound”. As long as the basic song, melody and arrangements are inspired and as good as we can achieve the rest happens naturally and the album defines it’s own sound.

Any working title? 

Jon had a working title for us that was fun. Johanne always say “What we resist – Persists”. It is unlikely to be the final title, but until Jon has more lyrics complete we he will not decide. Traditionally Jon always chooses the title and we all complain about it!

About the new tour, Richard told me that you will only play in summer festivals: why? Is a standard tour too tough/expensive? Do your wives/girlfriends complain too much when you are away from home? *giggle*

The summer festivals look likely in Germany and Switzerland, with the possibility of an English show as well. Also we have just confirmed Progpower USA in Atlanta. I would like to tour in November. This is because the album may not be released until late August. This is record company stuff. After we finish recording, mixing and mastering, they always want three months for release. Therefore there is no point playing shows to people who have not heard the songs on the album. It does not work well. The cost is not really an issue as we should be close to breaking even and wives/girlfriends probably need a break from us at least once a year!

I noticed that Symphony X will release the new album in late spring, why don't you ask Inside Out (which owns both bands) to tour with them?

We will see what happens. They usually get us a good package. Inside Out will sort something out with our live promoter. I prefer to concentrate on the music at this stage.

Maybe this year you could have the long-awaited chance to play in the USA: any particular feeling about it?

As I mentioned before the Progpower USA show in Atlanta happens in November I think. We also have the possibility of another show in September.

And do you plan to re-release/remaster other albums? You did a wonderful work on Psychedelicatessen; it just needed to enhance the guitars to have the right groove!

The Psychedelicatessen album was a lot more than a remaster. I had to reprocess a lot of sounds from the original multitrack tapes and remix the whole album. The original was recorded with primitive equipment in two different studios before we built the current Thin Ice Studios. It is unlikely I will treat any other albums like this because none of the others need it. Clone and Extinct Instinct will be re-released through Inside Out later this year, but the changes will be of a different nature. Mainly the artwork will be upgraded on Extinct. We were never happy with the lettering and colours added to the main picture. Incidentally, Nick’s Dad painted the cover for this and Nick has the stone cross in his living room. There should also be some enhanced elements.

Let's go back to the roots: since you are part of Threshold since the early times, can you sum up the discography pre-Wounded Land? I know about some demo tapes called Cult Of The Immortal and Mother Earth... 

Threshold – Threshold (1989) - Cassette 
(Jon Jeary, Karl Groom, Nick Midson, Ian Bennett, Tony Grinham)

Paradox
Breakdown
Endless Sea

Threshold – Mother Earth (1989) - CD
(Jon Jeary, Karl Groom, Nick Midson, Pete Crawford, Tony Grinham)

Day To Day
Mother Earth
Rich Bitch
Burning Down The Middle
Seventh Angel
Count The Cost
Breakdown
Endless Sea

Threshold – Cult Of The Immortal (1990) - CD
(Jon Jeary, Karl Groom, Nick Midson, Pete Crawford, Tony Grinham)

Conceal The Face
Shifting Sands
Heart and Soul
Sweet Little Lady
Aftermath
Kick The Habit
Paradox
Through These Eyes

The demos in the multimedia section of the Special Edition of Wounded Land have a very good sound, I'm impressed; I think a re-release of them would make a lot of fans happy.

We would not want to profit from releasing demos of songs that are already available on the major albums. The band are quite happy to make some of these demos available as MP3s on multimedia sections as you mention. However, we are currently looking at the possibility of making the best of the early songs in a fan club release for next year. I think this would be of more interest, as they are songs not currently out in any format. Some of these early songs have sections, which later made parts of Into The light for example.

Jon sings quite good on those demos, I always wonder why he doesn't sings more on the albums: time has passed since the duet with the singer like on "A Tension Of Souls"...

Jon is actually still quite a good vocalist. Also, Johanne is a vocal tutor in schools. So Rich and I are left some way behind and try to fill in backing vocals where we can. Jon still does a lot of the extra vocals live and you should remember his marvelous vocals on Eat The Unicorn. Damian just didn’t have the right tone for that part. I think if parts come up that suit him he will sing again on future CDs.

Talking about those times, was it hard for a prog-metal band to get a good response from UK listeners? 

Not just those times, but even now! We do have our successes and the last UK date last year was excellent. We even got a 10/10 from the UK magazine Power Play for that show, which is pretty much unheard of. It is notoriously difficult for Prog Metal bands to get positive press in England. There was also a period during the Psychedelicatessen era when we were getting regular plays on UK National radio.

As every band that plays in clubs, were you used to play covers? Which ones, in case? 

Only in the very early days we played about 50% covers. Van Halen, Whitesnake, Led Zep, Ratt, Def Leppard. Really whatever was popular at the time that Jon could sing.

Any good memories of those days to be shared with the readers? 

The funny thing then was that we had no keyboard player. I used to program the keyboards at home and make Tony where headphones to follow it. Sometimes with our primitive equipment at the time, songs could go wrong in a big way. In the end we gave Tony a pedal to stop the sequencer when disaster struck.

Most of the fans know why Damian Wilson decided to leave Threshold both times, but it never came out why Glynn Morgan (and Jay Micciche, which did a very good work on Livedelica) decided to leave...

I guess we fell out over what direction the band should head in. You can hear from Mindfeed’s excellent first album what Glynn wanted to do and Jay was young and idolized Glynn’s voice so he followed. We have always been very sure what the sound of Threshold should be and don’t want to head mainstream because we would loose the individuality. Also, nearly the whole of the first half of 1995 was spent touring and we had enough of each other’s company. I remember returning home in June and thinking what a relief to have a bit of solitude. About a day or two later the record company called and said we’ve got some great dates for you with Dream Theater and we were on the next ferry out again! We have since shared a tour bus with Glynn for Wacken ’99 and get on well together again. By then Jay had been fired from Mindfeed though and is now in a couple of local bands looking for a deal. He has also shaved his head and looks like Emperor Ming from Flash Gordon!


What will be Threshold in the next five/ten years? You seem to have found the right way to work together and make good records.

The big change came with the current line-up. As you know musicians are great at spending a lot of time arguing, but with the current members we have found a good understanding. It really is a happy band pulling in one direction and this shows in the recent albums I think. Johanne has been a major calming influence and you have to respect his drumming ability. Maybe we can persuade him to do some backing vocals too!

Describe your band mates in a word each

Mac - Energetic
Nick - Breakdowns
Rich - Competitive (watch out on the computer games!)
Jon - Worried (of Wiltshire)
Johanne - Phlegmatic

Now is your turn: what do your parents think about your musical career? 

12 years ago I gave up a career in Government to become a musician. They though I was mad and we did not speak for a few years really. They should have expected it because my Grandmother was a pianist and taught me what little keyboard skills I have. 

Which is the song and the guitar riff you would have written?

Electric Crown - Testament

What of the UK musical scene excites Karl Groom, as of today?

UK musical scene revolves around boy bands and girl bands. (i.e. no band but 4 or 5 singers). Some of the songs are OK, whoever writes them, but nothing too get excited about. One band I occasionally do live sound for is Jadis (kind of Genesis meets It Bites). I have always liked their music and their latest album is probably their best.

If you decide to play in a cover band, which band would be the choice?

The closest I come to playing in a cover band will be the Christmas gig for Thin Ice Orchestra. There may be a gig this December to play Shadowland, Peter Gee, Strangers On A Train, Oliver Wakeman and a few other Thin Ice Studio related bands.

I recently saw again a very good movie, Almost Famous: did you see it? And how do you like life 'on the road'? 

I love touring, but have not seen the movie Almost Famous. I cannot watch anything at the moment whilst I am decoration. My house is a total mess! I hide in my music room to write for the new album.

Apart from what the lyrics of Virtual Isolation say, do you think Internet helped (and how much?) Threshold to grow bigger? 

The Internet has undoubtedly helped bands in our genre of music. I think that most of our fans our fully computer literate. [I am one of these! ^_^ - Rob]

I think you could have released a single of 'Keep My Head'; as Richard already noticed, it doesn't give the right impression on Threshold sound, but it could have given you a lot of exposure – and money! A lot of people here in Italy said it could be a good MTV single! 

I doubt our record company would agree with you.

Ok, let's face the last questions: you had a little moment of what could be called "success" when touring with Dream Theater: do you think you can reach it again - or maybe go further ?

I think our major success was the last album. It was a big step up for the band and doubled the sales of Clone. The DT tour was just a support slot for a 2 weeks in 1995, although very welcome

Do you have any complaint about the past of Threshold? Chances that could have been picked up at the right moment but haven't been? 

We all have enjoyed what we have achieved with Threshold. I’m sure we could have sold more records earlier if we had be a bit more mainstream, but look at those kind of bands and they only last a few years. I am very happy to still be creating and developing further as a songwriter. Our record companies have been good to us allowing complete artistic control.

Last one: which percentage of the time you spend in studio making records is actually spent playing Saturn or Nintendo 64 ? ^_^

We purposely do not have a games machine at the studio. When Rich and I were mixing Mercy Train we used to spend half the night playing Sensible Soccer and Skidmarks. It took months to finish the mix! [Now I can guess why it takes so long for, say, Def Leppard to release their albums!!! ^_^ - Rob]

That's all folks! :)