The nature of Progressive music is to question the etymologies of sound. Often breaking through the pertaining boundaries be it within musical composition, theoretical ideas or plain and simple musicianship. Set to release their brand new second album All That You Fear Is Gone (Feb 26th), Headspace are gearing up for a new chapter in their Prog life. We were very luckily able to speak to the delightful lead singer of Headspace, Damian Wilson. Among other we discussed the brand new album and its surrounding themes, what a band sounds like with such a vast and eclectic mix of musicians and of course the p word, Prog.

Listen to the full interview below on our Soundcloud page or read the fully transcribed version below! We do apologise for the slightly dodgy connection in the last sections. The troubles of technology!

Welcome Damian! Tonight we have Damian Wilson of Threshold fame and also Headspace fame, how are you?

I’m very well thank you Tristan, very well indeed!

Excellent, where are you at the moment?

I’m actually at my brothers house at the moment because it’s quite rough out there at the moment. So I have found a haven in my brothers bedroom to have a chat the kids are asleep next door! Its my little brother Paul Jude who often comes to sing with me but he is a sensible man. He doesn’t mess about with this boat business!

For those who may not be familiar with Headspace could you give us a brief crash course in Headspace?

Of course I can! Headspace is a band of friends really, we got together because we wanted to spend a bit more time around each other and to be able to work and to do some inspired music together. So we decided to form a band, didn’t particularly think about genre or anything and it just came out quite Metal and quite Proggy!

Excellent, so genre wasn’t a boundary for you?

Not at all. I mean it’s just that inevitable thing when you all get together and out comes Prog! I don’t know quite how that happens to be honest, I like the simple melodies, I like the simple life you know. Keep things 4/4 its fine by me, you don’t have to change it around too much but before you know it gets complicated.

I think that’s just the lovely nature of Prog haha, so you’re set to release the brand new record All That You Fear Is Gone. Could you tell us about some of the themes surrounding the album?

Well the album is really a continuation from the first album,  I Am Anonymous which was about an individual trying to fit in with the group. The group being nothing particular but our natural grouping. A group is a bunch of friends or its the country or the government or business. It’s just our natural need to group as human beings and its about the individual not coping with it and trying to fit in. With this album its about the group not controlling the individual so its a continuation from the first.

By the group not controlling the individual do you mean a sense of free thought?

Yeah absolutely. I think with the first album, we all want to fit in don’t we? We want to be part of our groups and we want to be part of, whether it be a family or whether it be society we all want to fit in. When people go against the group its how they respond and how they react and what happens to that individual. In fact in the second album it ends with glorification of the individual.

Oh wow! When you traditionally see people who go against the group grain lets just say, they’re regarded as outsiders is that what our protagonist is regarded as in the second album?

Absolutely, on both albums he is an outsider. Its just on the second album he becomes actually accepted, whereas on the first album it ends in destruction. The third album, that’s the interesting one! That’s when it all comes together…

Like Lord of The Rings!

Do you know what its so silly, I thought yeah I would like to do a trilogy. You think of all these ideas, I remember with the first album I said to Pete, Pete the guitarist, I said to him look I think we should have emblems for all individual members. And then suddenly you realise “Oh no.. That’s been done before.. Zeppelin did that didn’t they, that’s right!” of course we cant do that haha. And then trilogy you think you are the only person, of course you put your mind to it you’re suddenly realise in fact it’s quite rare for someone that hasn’t done a trilogy in this world of Prog! To me it seemed a natural thing to do and it wasn’t influenced by anybody else’s great trilogy.

When we first got together Pete, he was very influential on particularly the sound with his guitars but he was very keen to do a concept album. We had spent a lot of time writing as a band in rehearsals and got a lot together and I was quite keen just to put out tracks that we had already written not demo’d up as such but certainly written. Pete was like no, no, lets start again and before I knew it the whole band went no, no lets start again. To me I kind of thought well its going to take a long time to get together which of course it did but I think it has been very interesting. I was very keen on keeping it as a trilogy and in fact the last album we recorded, I wanted to record the third album at the same time but we haven’t! That’s to come!

There’s quite a variance of genre you could say, for example “Polluted Alcohol” has got that kind of Country feel to it. Was that something that both you and the band, just didn’t really care about genre?

I don’t think that we want to be restrained by genres. I speak for myself, I don’t want to sound like anybody in particular and I’m not trying to do anything other than what I am trying to say. I don’t want it to sound like any particular style, I want it to be us. Of course with “Polluted Alchohol” I spent some time with some bikers and had some very strong alcohol that had been home brewed, it scarred me a little bit. I got to Glasgow and I tried some whiskey in Glasgow and I just couldn’t drink anything for about six months and it was just pretty heavy stuff. It was all kind of 70% proof and it was pretty potent. Chemistry stuff really! I had wanted to write a song which had a focus with Hells Angels and I was quite keen on an American influence but I was thinking more kind of patriotic Rock. I had voiced this to Pete and had this more southern kind of influence. I said to Pete, that’s just completely wrong! And he said but you wanted something that sounded American? I said, Yeah I wanted English, I didn’t want all out American, I went with it of course! I just put a different angle than the Hells Angels on “Polluted Alcohol”.

The alcohol is symbolic of depression and it’s all about things that are acceptable one day and things that aren’t in the next. We are dictated by the group as we would.

Do you often put symbolism in a particular thing, for example this time its alcohol. Do you put symbolism in many of your songs individually?

I think there’s lots of symbolisms, in Headspace particularly! Alcohol is mentioned again, it represents something very different there. It represents religion and it talks about wine. Trying to think of the line, “been drinking the wine and openly sober” and that’s really about religion. The sober side of religion that’s what it represents there. There is lots of symbolism throughout the album and I think the important thing about this album to me is that people listen to it and they get something from it. When they really feel they understand it they can look back and they can give it a listen again because there’s a lot more depth to it than you think there is.

I think the important thing is to keep finding things, there’s a lot in there and with the first album, if you listen to I Am Anonymous, you can listen to it on different levels. For example, you can listen to it as a boy facing life or you can listen to it as a man, as a soldier. If you listen to “Die With A Bullet” it was meant to be a boy escaping school. I actually had my son with a bit of truancy. My son actually wrote some of the lyrics for it from his videogames. Then if you read it again, if you go from the man’s point of view it becomes a soldier at war and the reality of war. That’s the way that all of these albums are going to be there’s different levels, so it’s not just a straightforward story. You can actually go back and start the story again it will take you somewhere else!

A real multifaceted feast!

It’s only because it keeps me interested haha!

Do you find it hard to have a topic that can be, not ambiguous but that can have so many different layers?

Not really because to me they are quite clear but I find that lots of people don’t see it quite as I see it. The funny thing is it’s to entertain myself I think, I’ll write something and then I will want it to have a much darker side so I would put a little twist that would take you down a different route a much darker side. Or else I want something that is very happy from something that is very dark vice versa. I like the fact that there is a lot more depth than it appears to have.

There were some bizarre things that I umm’d and ahh’d about putting in. Michael Jackson quotes were one of them. Looking at Billy Jean who was the fan that he had who had a baby and was claiming that it was his baby. Which is where “Billy Jean” comes from and those kind of things, questioning not only media, the stuff we are given but also kind of what is behind it a bit? It’s questioning why we are fed all of this, where it all actually really comes from and who was Billy Jean. I didn’t know that she had such an influence  and these great tracks came out from her influence of trying to claim that Michael Jackson was the father of the child.

An unorthodox muse! This is also the debut of Adam Falkner is that correct? What was it like recording the album with the new drummer?

It was much the same as recording with the other drummer because I didn’t really see him! I don’t really know Adam, I’ve only met Adam after the album was completed so I wasn’t there for the drums. He’s a very nice and pleasant guy and a fantastic drummer and he has got a great reputation as a drummer and just being a decent bloke so he fits in very well!

With regards to the artwork of Headspace could you illustrate us a little bit about that at all?

I would love to say that it was all my idea and that I had put it together after many hours of pondering but in fact the artwork came from Black Lake. Who are great friends of ours  and I work very closely with on other material a lot of ideas, Pete had some strong ideas and so did Adam but I did just stand back a little bit and encourage where I felt it was right, encouraged in the right places! So I didn’t have a huge input with the art of the actual album.

It’s very striking and I think it encapsulates the band quite well…

Yeah I think so too, I mean we obviously played with a number of different ideas and this is the one that worked for us. The important thing for me I think is that lyrically that people listen to it and it illustrates what I’m trying to say within the lyric.

When you’re writing lyrics do you consciously try and fit the changes in musicality, it all goes all over the place!

It’s mad isn’t it! One of the quotes I did say about the album was when the rough mixes turned up we were listening to it and I was just thinking this is just unlistenable to. Who is going to want to listen to this?! Hahaha We’ve created a monster and then Jens got his hands on it, who mixed it and he just did a great mix! It all settled beautifully but it’s a bit mad! I think it’s joint madness, it’s not one man’s madness its the lot! They’re all mad!

Its good madness though, that’s what we want.

I think a lot of this we are writing about is the madness and chaos is actually good and it’s a positive. It’s about accepting human nature and people and not just trying to define them. Be free and accept them for it.

Going quickly back to the recording process, you mentioned that you hadn’t met Adam until the record was completed. Was it odd having that music there without having met the person who made it?

No I don’t think so we each find ourselves working like that as musicians. I didn’t find it too strange, I think the people I went into work very closely with is Adam particularly as a singer, you know. With Pete but in fact the rhythm section on the whole with my input with the band I don’t have an awful lot of say other than “let’s make this one easy!” haha. Let’s make it a classic hook anthem and then they turn it into a Bluegrassy or Southern guitar. Theres no one in the band really dictates I think our influences have bounced off on the other musicians obviously everyone has their say in it. I think it shows in the chaos!

In progressive music what would you say is the quintessential element, of Prog?

Well I think freedom is, I think a lot of Prog can be restricted. Prog is a vast umbrella I think we have to stretch it out a little further.

Because it’s already gone pretty far!

Yes, I know but there is further to go! Whether were going to do that I don’t know, its certainly those things that make you sit up. I’m a simple man really, I like simple melodies and I like simple structures really but I like the fact that it is within a certain chaos. They’re little gems! You’ll have a great hooky line and you’ll only hear it once, that is Prog isn’t it!

Hahaha

It’s certainly not going to make it to the top 40 that’s for sure!

With that in mind, that you like to have a solid hook as an anchor, I have noticed that a lot of the material that you sing on is very prominent. Theres definitely something that you could call a chorus,it’s more structured than Prog. If that makes sense?

Yes it does! I think its simpler, it is simplified and I like it, I like the simple things even with Headspace if you were to look to the first album and we had things like “Daddy Fucking Loves You” and the like, really they were very simple songs. One song you start with a lullaby sound and then you finish with a little lullaby its quite simple and theres a similarity there. I like that, I love simple melodies and I think the two things that I bring to the table are melody and also I tend to put a lot of emotion into my singing. I think the emotion is what I can really offer as a Rock singer because a lot of people in Metal and Rock, its not about emotion. To me I think it has a place!

Metal especially is quite sterile for emotion…

Well, they’re men aren’t they! We can’t be emotional haha but they do complain a lot but the women they understand that emotion a little better.

So who have been some of your influences vocally or as a lyricist as well?

Lyricist is weird because I don’t really study lyrics as such, its very much from my own inability to write and the lyrics I come out with I think if I had my own style that is unique to me because I probably don’t know enough about good English! So its all probably error and fault but I find it quite interesting even when I am writing myself. I write as a vocalist, I’m writing to the sounds which is a major part of how to deliver the lyrics because its how they sound as well as the fact that they are trying to say something.

And finally could you tell us if there has been an album in particular that you have been listening to over the past six months to a year?

There’s lots of albums that I have liked I can’t think of any album that has really grabbed my attention, that would be shame on me. I’m sure there is more than one album out there that should! It’s just my lack of picking up on it. There’s lots of good albums and lots of things I thought “Yeah great” but nothing I can sort of say woah! those albums do turn up and they hit you you can often be collapsed with woah that makes you think that there is something really special about that. Sadly due to my lack of researching I obviously haven’t. I’ve probably spet too much time trying to bail out the boat I think!

We were talking about singers earlier on most of them are kind of soul singers that I have always loved. Just vocalists really, Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye there’s so many great singers I think that obviously the things that I kind of really loved that would have belted it out like Otis Redding or else had real feeling like Paul Rogers as a bluesy kind of rock singer he can’t be better! Many Queen fans may say different haha!

Oh wow have you got any sort of Progressive vocalists?

Vocalists in Progressive music can it doesn’t tend to be the highlight for me I think its the instrumentalists that have the edge really! Vocalists, I suppose also because of the genre I think you tend not to have the great signers that perhaps you have in other genres and that’s probably it.

That’s true!

I suppose that’s what I am trying to do really, some great singers and relive them and blend it all in because it should be in there with Progressive Rock. I think to my end I have really heard of it and again I’m probably no giving people credit who really deserve it because I am sure that there are some amazing singers they just don’t seem to stand out in the same way in the Progressive genre. I think that people like Ashley Holt from Rick Wakeman’s sort English rock ensemble he is a great singer, he’s got a great voice but I sometimes wonder whether he really had the platform to shine. Not with the material, I think Rick’s material is fantastic but I just wonder sometimes whether the care to give the platform to a singer has been there because I think theres a great voice. I cant think of any great moments particularly that’s just me thinking out loud I’m probably saying all the wrong things. I’m trying to think who I really love in the Metal world. Theres many great singers, many great singers.

Of course! Well thank you ever so much for speaking withThe Metalist tonight Damian it was an absolute pleasure!

Thank you and I hope I talked sense somewhere!

Headspace’s brand new album All That You Fear Is Gone is out February 26th 2016