Relocator

Posted on 12th Jul 10 by Jonathan Keane | 1

Relocator – a “multi-national endeavour”. What is that exactly you might ask? Well, the German progressive instrumental project’s self titled debut album is enough to reveal that. It’s the sound of five different musicians melding their skills and acumen into one entity. Click here to read the Drop-d approved review of the record if you don’t believe us.

Meanwhile, bassist Michael Pruchnicki spoke to the ‘D about all things Relocator from their somewhat rocky beginnings to what it took to finally bring the record to life.

Michael Pruchnicki

Michael Pruchnicki: The group originally came together in the summer of 2004. In the beginning we were a trio – just Stefan (Artwin) on guitar, me on bass and a drummer. We had different keyboard players throughout the years that followed, but none of them stayed for very long.

Drop-d: Relocator is a “multi-national endeavour”, with contributions to the album coming from your home of Germany along with drummer Frank Tinge (the Netherlands) and special guest Derek Sherinian in the States. How were these parts recorded?

MP: We spent three days in the Netherlands recording Frank’s drum tracks, but everything else was done here at home (in Germany). And obviously Derek Sherinian recorded his keyboard parts in his own studio in California.

Drop-d: What were the advantages and disadvantages of not having all members together at once to record?

MP: The main advantage was simply that we weren’t limited to musicians from our area of Germany. I’ve been in and out of various prog projects for a decade and not only is the prog scene here very small, it’s really hard to find musicians who have the skill, the time and the determination to follow through with such a project. This way we could practically pick anyone who liked the material enough to want to get involved. The disadvantage was that communicating about music via e-mail can be pretty tricky and a lot of time is wasted that way, although even misunderstandings can sometimes lead to good results.

Drop-d: When and how did violinist, Bartek Strycharski become involved with the project?

MP: Bartek had attended a rehearsal of one of my former bands back in 2004, but back than he was looking for a band that was ready to hit the stage and we sadly weren’t. But I was very impressed by his playing – he picked up on some of my ideas instantly that had always been difficult to grasp for just about any guitarist I had played with and he could come up with really beautiful violin lines on the spot.

Anyway, my band folded soon after and Bartek and I went separate ways. I got back in touch with him in March 2009 while we were already pretty far into the production of our album – seven of the eight songs were pretty much done and we were still working on the last song. I wanted to add another element to the music that would counterbalance the spacey prog metal somewhat and Bartek‘s violin seemed perfect for that. Bartek really liked the material and was eager to become part of the project – actually he recorded his first violin track for The Alchemist the same evening, just days before Derek Sherinian would begin working on the song.

Drop-d: Relocator features a guest appearance from renowned keyboardist Derek Sherinian. How did this collaboration come to be?

MP: There was a moment when the old line-up had an album that was very far into production, but there was a falling out with a keyboard player who had recorded several solos for the CD. It was decided to remove all of his parts from the album and to look for someone to fill the gaps in the material. A couple of local guys were contacted at first, but it didn’t work out. Than I spotted the big ad for his session work on Derek Sherinian’s website and suggested asking him. We contacted him through his manager and he liked the music, so he agreed to record some solos for the album.

When we revived Relocator as a project a year later, we decided that we wanted a more professional and coherent keyboard approach for the album, so we asked Derek to record all the remaining keyboard parts as well.

Drop-d: Was all the music written by you and Stefan since the band’s formation?

MP: No. The first non-cover that we played together was a song called Under Water by the other two guys’ former band Delta Cyphei Project (DCP). It was co-written by our drummer. The original version, from 1995, was later released online as part of the album 4elements in 2008, re-titled Waterdream.

The song had vocals originally, so it didn’t really fit with the rest of the material and we never got around to arranging a real instrumental version of it. Later there was another DCP song that we played around with, but we were never really happy with the arrangement. This, too, was released in 2008 – it’s called The Journey. Other than these two tracks, we were mostly playing Stefan’s songs. I never wrote a full track for the band myself, only rewrote and added some sections to Stefan’s compositions.

Drop-d: The record is also self-financed. Did this place any particular restrictions on your creativity or where you could record?

MP: I know Frank would’ve preferred to spend some more time on his drum tracks; he recorded all of his parts within just two days. But other than that we never really felt limited working on the material at our homes. Stefan always wanted to mix the album himself just to have control over the sound and since we’re all very happy with the results, we never had to think about booking a studio for non-drums stuff or hiring a professional to mix the album.

I think the restrictions are more of a problem when it comes to promoting and distributing the album. With music like ours, it makes no sense to aim for success locally and than build on that – there just aren’t that many prog fans around here. So we have to reach listeners worldwide from the start and that isn’t easy without a label.

Drop-d: Did you have a goal for how you wanted the album to sound?
MP: Punchy, transparent and with lots of bottom end. Dream Theater fans usually complain about the lack of bass guitar in their albums’ mixes and we definitely wanted to avoid that. For a band without vocals it’s especially important that none of the instruments are buried in the mix. And obviously we wanted a modern approach to synth sounds; otherwise we wouldn’t have hired Derek Sherinian.

Drop-d: Everything about Relocator is very DIY. With that said has there been any label interest in the band?

MP: No, but than we didn’t even try to find a label when we made the album. And all-instrumental music is probably too un-commercial to expect labels to approach us.

Drop-d: Are there any touring prospects?

MP: Yes. Although Relocator is a project and not a full-time band, we have now assembled a complete line-up for live gigs and we definitely want to hit the stage at some point.

We already played half the album at our release party with a quartet line-up, which is really not enough to do the material justice and forced us to rearrange the tracks considerably, but it was a lot of fun and we can’t wait to play the songs with a full band at last.

We are currently making plans for some live gigs in October, but nothing is set in stone yet. It might just be a few gigs, but it might also develop into a mini-tour of sorts.

Drop-d: What does the future hold with regards to new material?

MP: Stefan is writing new material, but it’s coming together slower than anticipated. We definitely want to make a second Relocator album. It won’t necessarily feature the same line-up as the debut – it’s meant to be a project, after all, and we’d like to use this freedom to work with some of our favourite musicians if the opportunity presents itself. We’ve already talked to some very interesting people, but it’s too early to announce anything yet.

Relocator

Relocator myspace

Tags: Bartek Strycharski, Delta Cyphei Project, Derek Sherinian, germany, Michael Pruchnicki, PROG, Relocator, Stefan Artwin