With:	Mark Kelly [keyboards]
Conducted by:	Jeff (in person)
Published:	24.03.2009

Sometime you're lucky and have some great oportunities. Marillion was in Toulouse and I had the chance to meet Mark Kelly to talk about the band and its last album "Happines Is The Road". I asked to my old friend, and Prog specialist, Eric to come with me and we finally met a really nice and friendly man. Here is the interview with the keyboadist of the legendary Marillion.


- Jeff: You played in Bordeaux last night, you're doing a big tour one more time, are you "Happy on the road"?

Marc: I was a good show, really well! The audience was really nice and we didn't have any problems with the equipment. Yes of course we had some little problems but nothing serious really.


- Jeff: And do you like to be on the road, I mean playing concerts or are you someone who prefers to stay at home and work in studio?

Ho well? I'm? I'm scared on stage (laughs). The rest of the band does like touring. Well it can be good fun for few weeks but after two three weeks I want to come back at home? Yeah I think that I prefer working in studio than being on the road?


- Jeff: Why did you divide "Happiness Is The Road" in two different albums?

Well because first it was physically too much music for one disc. We wrote a lot of songs and we came to the point that we got enough material probably to release two albums at the same time. Some of the songs were perfect for the concept, some others were just good additional songs?


- Jeff: So the second CD is more like a good song collection right?


Yes definitely.


But how did you write the songs of the second album? I mean if it was not some songs made for the concept album?


- Eric: "Essence" is a real album, can we consider the songs of "The Hard Shoulder" like some really good bonuses then?

Not? well we want that people realizes that the second album features real songs and not only stuff which couldn't be featured on "Essence"? Some people prefer "Essence", some others "The Hard Shoulder". We didn't want any difference of quality between the two CDs but they are different. As an example it's obvious that the lyrics can be similar because when Steve writes his lyrics, he always uses to talk about his own life. We didn't set it out this separation from the very beginning? You can consider that "The Hard Shoulder" is more like a song collection yes. Since that they were not really linked to the ones of "Essence" then it was a good thing to separate them. Having two albums was not obvious but in the end?


- Jeff: And do you have any preference between the two albums?

Yeah I prefer "Essence". I tend to prefer the more melodic stuff to the Hard and Rocky ones. We don't play Metal music officially and anyway that's not my favorite style of music. Sorry about that (laughs)

- Jeff: Don't worry we like Marillion too!!! (laughs)

You know a lot of people prefer the second album. It's just a matter of taste you know. It's a positive thing that people can choose different tracks between the two albums! Look if everybody was saying that they preferred one of the two albums it would just mean that the other one was bad (laughs). So it's a good thing!


- Jeff: We have a question about the lyrics. It was at first for Steve but maybe that you can answer to it. The album is inspired by the book of Eckhart Tolle, "The Power Of Now". Was it like a therapy for him to write this album? Does he feel better now?

I read the book actually! Steve gave a few copies of it to us. On the "Somewhere Else" tour, we were in Holland and Steve had to see a doctor because he had some mind problems. The doctor saw that Steve had a lot of problems inside and even if he was a real medical doctor he said to Steve: "just read this book". So Steve started to read the book. Have you read it?


- Jeff: No, we didn't?


Well it's some kind of Buddhist approach. It's just says, stop carrying about but past, the past is gone, forget it, it's not important. Don't worry about the future too, it hasn't happen yet. Just live for the moment. It's not a new idea but this guy sold a lot of books because he really identified the problems of our society now. Steve used this book to write the lyrics.


- Jeff: Do you think that it helped him to write this album?

Well he seems quite happy at the moment. Of course we all have our bad moment phases and we're more or less happy but? Well really as a band we're all really happy at the moment. We're all enjoying working and touring together. That's good!


- Eric: And do you know if all the band has read the book?

I don't think so! (laughs) I'm probably the only one with Steve! (laughs) I'm not sure!


- Eric: In the past, some of the songs like "Don't Hurt Yourself" on "Marbles" where extremely positive despite the fact that the general atmosphere of the album was dark. Does "Essence" can be considerate like the following of a song like "Don't Hurt Yourself"?

Well I think that if some of our stuff were quite dark and depressive, "Essence" has a real positive message yes. We're happy not doing dark stuff now (laughs).


- Jeff: Are you satisfied by the reaction of the public concerning "Happiness Is The Road" so far?

We had really good reactions with this album. I still don't understand why we got so many bad reactions with "Somewhere Else"?.






- Jeff: I like this album?


Well I don't say that it's a bad album of course but the fans didn't like it very much, especially with the production. People were not happy about it? Well we had the same producer on the new album but now it's ok I think.


- Eric: We had one other question for Steve. He writes the majority of the lyrics. Do you think that he makes a difference between his own career and Marillion?


I think that the solo careers of Steve and other members as well actually are a way to explore other musical orientations that don't really fit to Marillion. It's a different thing really. Steve has just finished his new solo album. Of course it sounds a bit like Marillion, but it's different and it's good to be able to work on different styles if it's not something for Marillion.


- Eric: Marillion gives an image and feeling of serenity and a certain kind detachment. Do you look at the other bands to write your music or does your inspiration only come from yourself?


Well not consciously? We don't listen to other bands to get ideas. But of course when we listen to music we probably are influenced unconsciously. Not a lot of music excites me today honestly. It's a bit like a boring time in music nowadays. I don't know, maybe that I'm not listening to the good things (laughs)?


- Jeff: Well it depends of what you use to listen to in general (laughs).


Well I always thought that the Internet could help to discover new things but well?


- Eric: What about your future projects this year? A solo album maybe? A new DVD?

Well as a band, after this tour we will do some Marillion conventions in Holland and Canada. For the next things, we will maybe record some songs in acoustic versions. We did something like that in the past and people liked it a lot so why not again? We will like to do more touring too especially in countries where we didn't go a lot.


- Jeff: You released a DVD last year. Do you like the idea to be filmed on stage and release video live recording?

Yeah! We found some good guys to make some good live filming. People like it, I mean it doesn't bother me. A lot of fans have never seen us so it's a good thing for them I think.


- Jeff: After such a big career do you still have some projects or dreams that you want to achieve?

Well nothing that we haven't done before but we would like to play more in festivals, especially outdoor festivals! We did a few and for us it's a real challenge. Don't get me wrong it's great to play in venues but playing in a festival that's a way and a chance for us to be discovered by people who don't know us. It's a bit messy because you don't have sound-check and stuff like that but it's cool to do that!


- Jeff: That's funny because we wanted to talk about our big French Metal festival? Bands such as Pain Of Salvation, Porcupine Tree, Anathema, Dream Theater have played there? So I suppose that would you like to play in that kind of festival?

Yeah of course! Absolutely!






- Eric: For several years, you put your records on your website and even only sell those through this way. What is the reason of such an experimentation? What are the differences for you now?


Well? Everything is changing in the music industry. Stuff are changing really, people download music, record-shops are closing? A lot of people use to download and even buy their music online. We like to try new things. I will be honest with you, at first we wanted to put the new album online for free, this is not that we are so generous but we wanted to give an option to the fans. They could give something or not? We're sure that some people would like to buy it anyway. It was a good way to get some information about the loyal fans, to get some email address etc We already have some hundred of email addresses, we haven't done anything with it yet but it's a way to know a bit more our fans. The whole experimenting with this new way of distribution is to know if we could survive in the future? Finally we decided to release the album in the shops through EMI because a lot of people complained about it. "We can't buy the album, we want to buy it in the shops!" They don't want to buy it online?


- Jeff: Yeah some people are still afraid to buy stuff on the Internet?

Fair enough! That's fine you know and we will do it for them.


- Jeff: You're not a newcomer in the music industry so do you think that the labels and majors try to influence a bit too much all the new bands? "Do your music like that etc.."

We didn't really have people who told us how to do our music. They tried a little bit but it was ok. Well I think that a good record company should sign a band because they like what he does. So we didn't really have that problem. I think that it won't be easy for the major companies it's gonna be hard. It's not a future for CDs and people who sell CDs. We will see what happen of course. Now when a record company signs a band, this is not only for CDs, this is also for merchandising and touring and everything else! They're not making money with CDs anymore?


- Jeff: I use to ask this question to French bands in general but you can probably answer. We don't understand why our big Medias just don't care about Rock music? A lot of people here listen to Marillion or AC/CD, whatever?

And you can't listen to it on the radios right?


- Jeff: Yeah! Why?

Yeah nothing on the radios and even less on television? That's the same in England you know. In the UK, the music industry import a lot of money, billions of dollars but the government, the radios and TV, nobody helps! It's pretty much strange. They help the banks but not Rock N Roll (laughs).


- Jeff: So you'll play this night in the new Bikini. You'll see, the sound is just fantastic.

Yeah it looks like!


- Jeff: So what can we expect of your show tonight? How is Marillion live?


Well normally we? well last time that we played at the old Bikini it was already good, it was a great place to play really. Hopefully tonight the audience will be good. We will play some new songs but not that much because we have so many albums? People want everything. Whatever we do people always says, "Why don't you play that song?" We will try to do a good balance between the albums! We will play more than two hours.


- Jeff & Eric: That's cool that's pretty long! So this is the end of the interview, thank a lot for your time Marc!

You're welcome guys, please enjoy the show tonight!