One of the mainstays of the Progressive genre has always been the classic calling card of the concept album. Having seen a slight resurgence in its popularity over recent years it has become a more accepted form of storytelling. Releasing their brand new album Love, Fear and The Time Machine, Riverside construct a hazy retrospective of a persons life and their decisions to change it. Last month we caught the band on their London date, prior to the performance we were able to speak with mastermind Mariusz Duda about the new album, it’s writing process and why I should be afraid of a hat?  

You mentioned the track “Lost…” What is the significance of the track “Lost (Why should I be afraid of a hat?)

It’s the little prince, I honestly took it from this book. At the beginning of the book, the child shows a picture of the elephant swallowed by a snake. The child shows it to the adults, parents probably and asks is it scary? And the parents say, well why should we be frightened by a hat? And the child says, this is not a hat! This is the elephant swallowed by the snake I need to draw it for you in a different way.  Later this child draws it from a different perspective so that you can see that it is something terrible. 

But the adults, they see only a hat. This is connected with the fear of the unknown, sometimes you see a hat  and you think oh my god, there’s something beneath this. I don’t want to touch it, I don’t want to move it. So that’s a kind of example of this fear of the unknown. Why should I be frightened by hat? Maybe this hat is just a regular normal hat maybe there’s nothing in there. It’s connected with the whole subject, mostly this album is about transition.  About something, or more someone who decided to change something in his life or her life. The beginning is just like ok, it’s time to change.  I think it’s time to get rid of the hat’s  from my head or from my surroundings so this is the title.  

Speaking of nostalgia was that something that you were thinking of in the writing process of the record? 

Riverside’s brand new album Love, Fear and the Time Machine is out now via Inside Out.