0:00

Time is precious and so are our pets.

0:02

So time with our pets is extra precious.

0:05

That's why we started Dutch. Dutch

0:07

provides 24 -7 access to licensed vets

0:09

with unlimited virtual visits and follow

0:11

-ups for up to five pets. You

0:13

can message a vet at any time and

0:15

schedule a video visit the same day. Our

0:17

vets can even prescribe medication for

0:19

many ailments and shipping is always free.

0:23

With Dutch you'll get more time with your pets and

0:25

year -round peace of mind when it comes to their

0:27

vet care. Hi

0:39

everybody, welcome to a very special Parkport

0:41

interview as you can see we have two

0:43

very special guests Neil Morris welcome back

0:45

my friend Again, we

0:47

just came off cruise to the edge where

0:50

we can chattel out about that a little

0:52

bit and other things But of course we

0:54

have the great Chester Thompson as well Good

0:56

to see you sir Good

0:58

to see you, good to be here. So

1:01

we're here, of course, to talk about. This

1:04

which I just

1:06

got an advanced vinyl

1:08

here The Cosmic Cathedral,

1:10

which is the new debut album

1:12

that you guys have done with

1:14

your two friends, Phil

1:16

Cagie and Byron House. And... two

1:19

singles that have been out so far, I'm sure people

1:21

have heard are just awesome. It's really

1:23

cool stuff. mean, it nearly,

1:25

you know, being a long time fan and listener of

1:27

your music, It kind of still

1:29

sounds like what you do, but then it

1:31

doesn't, you know, and I think maybe that's what...

1:38

with some of these ideas or did it

1:40

start with first you meeting Chester? I guess

1:42

we can jump right in, but how did

1:44

this whole thing get going? Well,

1:47

first of all, I want to say

1:49

the label must like you better than

1:51

us, because we don't have the final

1:54

yet. Yeah, I'm scared not to say

1:56

anything. No,

2:00

we don't know yet, but I'm sure it's it's

2:02

on its way. Yeah Well,

2:05

it started with Steve

2:07

Hackett actually Who

2:09

I just saw on the ship

2:11

by the way Chester and he sends

2:13

his regards. Oh cool He

2:17

had heard of course about Cosmic Cathedral

2:19

and he's like, oh, I'm glad that Yeah,

2:21

you know because I had asked him

2:23

for your email address after we saw

2:26

each other at his show Okay.

2:28

Oh, that's great. And so he

2:30

was asking about that But

2:32

anyway, yeah Chester and I got together

2:35

and had lunch and then jammed and

2:37

I think For me anyway

2:39

right away. I felt like there was

2:41

something special there Oh, yeah

2:43

Yeah, we did we didn't get again

2:45

out at your place, you know,

2:47

and it's with Jerry on hand and

2:49

it's like, yeah It was pretty

2:51

fun stuff. Yeah Yeah, we

2:53

still have a lot more music to

2:55

explore from those jams, I think. Yeah I

3:01

mean, I'm just curious when you

3:03

guys get together to do that There's

3:05

no plan yet of a record or what

3:07

that's going to be, right? So is

3:10

it just Chester you

3:12

start playing a beat and Neil you're just

3:14

Doing some stuff on the keys and

3:16

just seeing where stuff goes. Were you recording

3:18

things at the time just in case?

3:20

Well, the very first day we didn't really

3:23

You know the next time You

3:25

know, Jerry Guidros was available to you

3:27

know, really push faders and all of

3:29

that And then then when

3:31

we jammed with the other two guys

3:34

with Byron and Phil Again,

3:36

Jerry was there to document it and

3:39

document it and Yeah,

3:42

we this thing back it was like

3:45

I mean, I remember even the moment of when

3:47

we were playing it just felt like man

3:49

This is this is something special this this this

3:51

works, you know And then listening back was

3:53

like, you know kind of confirms it because you

3:55

know, it's like Yeah,

3:57

yeah, it's very cool has a has

3:59

a great energy about it. It felt

4:01

really good in the room together. And

4:04

it's just great to be in the

4:06

room together in this day and age.

4:08

Yeah, absolutely. So much

4:10

stuff is remote these days. Have

4:12

you done a lot of remote

4:14

work like that, Chester? Sending files and

4:16

people send you things? Yeah,

4:18

my last solo album was completely

4:21

done that way. We did it

4:23

during COVID as a matter of

4:25

fact. It was just back and

4:27

forth. I send drum tracks out

4:29

and my friends in LA would

4:31

write around what I sent back.

4:33

I sent a couple of melodies

4:35

as well. But for the most

4:37

part, I just sent these drum

4:39

tracks and different guitars and different

4:41

saxophone players. everybody's doing it in

4:43

their home studios. It's

4:46

amazing, right? I mean, it all can

4:48

sound so good that it can

4:50

get by, which is awesome. Neil,

4:52

you'd worked with Phil in Byroom

4:54

before. at what point did it come

4:56

to you that these would be

4:59

the guys to bring in this? And

5:01

then when did the four of

5:03

you start officially working together? Well,

5:06

really, it was a

5:08

matter of prayer for

5:11

me, mainly. I

5:14

think right away, I think Chester and

5:16

I talked about Phil. And

5:18

I don't know if it

5:20

was Phil or you, Chester, that

5:22

suggested Byron. I'd mentioned Byron as

5:24

well. Byron

5:27

and I have actually had several occasions

5:29

to just jam together, just the two

5:31

of us. We're

5:33

both big fans of doing it, so

5:35

yeah. That's so

5:37

cool. Yeah. I'd only

5:39

ever worked with Byron with

5:41

him playing stand -up bass on

5:44

orchestral kind of things. I

5:46

never heard him really play

5:48

electric bass only stand -up.

5:50

Oh, okay. Right. Oh, wow. Yeah.

5:53

So, but with

5:55

Phil also chimed in like, oh yeah,

5:57

Byron's the guy. And I prayed about it.

5:59

felt had a really good feeling about

6:02

it. So then

6:04

it was like, yeah, let's get together. The

6:06

four of us last January, towards the end

6:08

of the month. Wow, yeah. Yeah. That's

6:10

when it all started, yeah. Yeah.

6:12

Because I remember pretty cold out when

6:14

we started and by the time we

6:16

got done, it was blazing. would say.

6:21

Yeah, he's, man, I mean, of course,

6:24

his resume, Byron, mean, his resume

6:26

is outstanding, you know, which speaks to

6:28

his level of playing, but he's

6:30

incredible on the record, know, just

6:33

awesome. Yeah, and really fun. You

6:35

know, he was so funny. Yeah,

6:37

it's true. Yeah, but it was a lot

6:39

of laughs. I'm just

6:41

thinking back to searching for a group

6:44

name and he came up with some hilarious

6:46

stuff. I saw that one clip. Yeah,

6:48

let's forget what he said, but it was really funny. That's

6:51

a good one. He

6:53

was just a lot of fun throughout. And

6:55

I didn't know that about him. I've

6:57

only done these little string sessions. You know,

6:59

you find out so much more about

7:01

people when you really get in there and

7:04

spend time together. And that's one of

7:06

the great joys also making records. And especially

7:08

this one. How much of

7:10

this music was sort of improvised, you

7:12

know, throughout while you were putting

7:14

stuff together? Quite

7:16

a bit of it. I'd

7:18

say at least 75 percent.

7:21

Neil was great at organizing

7:23

it and bringing in, you

7:25

know, sort of making sense

7:27

of it all. this was

7:29

the thing that the ingredients,

7:31

the raw ingredients, a lot,

7:34

at least three quarters, if not maybe

7:36

even a tiny bit more, because Neil

7:38

contributed two fully written songs. But the

7:40

rest of it, we kind of fed

7:42

off of each other. And I

7:44

mean, I got to admit

7:46

when you first mentioned that

7:49

this thing ended up being 38 minutes,

7:51

the deep water sweep. I

7:53

mean, I'm like, really? But

7:56

driving, it's like an hour drive from

7:59

my place out to... Neal's place. so

8:01

I listened to the entire thing that

8:03

he put together, the vision he had

8:05

of all the bits and pieces we'd

8:07

done. And by the time I

8:09

got there, I was all in. mean, it was like,

8:11

I got to hear it in its entirety. I

8:13

really, I couldn't

8:16

fathom it. I just

8:18

couldn't picture that. But it

8:20

made so much sense when I

8:22

heard it all together. was

8:24

like, okay, well, well, you know,

8:26

Neal's for the last, I

8:28

don't know, quarter century been the

8:30

master of the long, the

8:32

long prog epic, that's for sure.

8:36

No, no, I get a lot one does it

8:38

better. I get a lot

8:40

of help. Well, and Jerry Guidros

8:42

was instrumental. Yeah, I want to

8:44

ask about him. I know that

8:46

he was really involved in it.

8:48

So yeah, talk about his his

8:50

involvement in it. Well, you know,

8:52

at one point, I wasn't sure

8:54

exactly, you know, what to do

8:56

with all the bits and pieces. And

9:00

he was the guy that

9:02

said, Hey, listen to this jam,

9:04

I've marked some things, mark

9:06

some more stuff, and see if

9:08

you can get in there

9:11

and like kind of do your

9:13

thing to develop it. And

9:15

so Jerry was really key, because

9:17

he also gleaned out a

9:19

lot of things. And recently,

9:22

I found out a lot of groups

9:24

work that way. And Merillion, what they do

9:26

is they get together and they jam

9:28

and they, they have a guy that kind

9:30

of calls out the really good parts

9:32

and they develop them. And, and that's a

9:34

lot of this record was done that

9:36

way. Yeah. You

9:39

know, working with these guys,

9:41

because you've worked with so many

9:43

different variations of people just

9:45

this can work for you as

9:47

well. But you know, how

9:49

did this feel different working with

9:51

these four people, Neil for

9:53

you then, you know, Neil Morseband,

9:55

transatlantic resonance. mean, did it

9:57

have its own unique way of

9:59

going about things? Oh,

10:01

totally. I

10:04

mean, of course, every person

10:06

is totally unique and differs

10:08

from everybody else. And then

10:10

if you get four or

10:12

five guys that everybody's different

10:15

than everybody else. I

10:17

mean, Mike and

10:19

Chester are very

10:21

different people. Mike's

10:24

an East Coast, very

10:26

driven. You know, once

10:28

he gets going, Mike

10:31

takes a little while to get going, as

10:33

you know, Roy, he's not a morning person. Once

10:36

he gets going, know, he's just

10:38

like a, and Chester

10:40

would get here earlier and we

10:42

just kind of talk. And it was

10:44

just a whole different vibe when

10:46

we were all together, very,

10:49

and, you know, in the way

10:51

that the music's different to it as

10:53

more of a groove, a little

10:55

more of a, I don't just a

10:57

different feeling to it. And I

10:59

love it. I love Viva La Diferance.

11:01

know, it's, it's, it's great to

11:03

do different things and it

11:05

brings a freshness. And

11:08

time is precious. And so are

11:10

our pets. So time with our pets

11:12

is extra precious. That's why we

11:14

started Dutch. Dutch provides 24 seven access

11:16

to licensed vets with unlimited virtual

11:18

visits and follow -ups for up to

11:20

five pets. You can message a

11:22

vet at any time and schedule a video visit

11:24

the same day. Our vets can

11:26

even prescribe medication for many ailments

11:28

and shipping is always free. With

11:31

Dutch, you'll get more time with your pets and year

11:33

round peace of mind when it comes to their vet

11:35

care. A

11:38

feeling that is really

11:40

special, I think this album

11:42

does. Totally. Chester, for you,

11:44

you know, talk about that. mean,

11:46

you've played with tons of different musicians.

11:48

How was this group different

11:50

for you in the

11:52

approach and just in recording

11:54

process? Well, yeah, the

11:57

same thing for me, though, I've

12:00

had a totally different situation

12:02

than this, but the people that,

12:04

when I, the last solo

12:07

album I did, like I said,

12:09

sent the tracks out to

12:11

people that they had actually been

12:13

my first band under my

12:15

own name. And in

12:17

the beginning, we started out jamming, which

12:20

led into writing. And

12:22

similar in that we were all

12:24

really good friends and it just started

12:26

out, you know, I had the

12:28

place to place that when everybody would

12:30

come over and jam, and

12:32

then it was like, if you're the

12:34

one that called everybody, you're sort of

12:36

the leader by default, almost, you know. So

12:39

then it was like, well, let's get together and

12:41

jam. And then it's like, hey, let's take this bit

12:43

and do something, you know. And then

12:45

it's like everybody's looking at, well, when's there

12:47

gonna be a gig? It's like, oh yeah,

12:49

okay, so we're gonna have to go out

12:51

and start booking gigs, which was a very

12:53

new world for me, all of that stuff.

12:55

But it started similar roots and we're dear

12:58

friends to this day. And, know, like

13:01

I say, it was, my wife

13:03

and I had to kind of

13:05

just become Christians in those days. one

13:07

by one, everybody helped becoming Christians

13:09

in that band, and which was a

13:11

whole, you know,

13:14

that it shouldn't make a difference,

13:16

but it does. We

13:18

were all on the same page. And in

13:20

this situation, I have to say, I

13:22

think the fact that we were

13:24

all on the same page and,

13:26

you know, there were no egos

13:28

involved. We just

13:30

basically got together. And, you

13:33

know, I mean,

13:35

I don't know how this stands

13:37

up in the prog world. But,

13:39

you know, for me, it was

13:41

really important that every jam session,

13:44

every rehearsal, every recording session started

13:46

with prayer. And

13:48

I have to feel like that

13:50

had something to do with the level

13:52

of cohesiveness that happened, you know, that

13:55

we were all there. You

13:58

know, nobody was trying to... You know

14:00

take over. I mean Neil had direct

14:02

had the direction. He'd done the arrangements,

14:04

which was fantastic But

14:06

there was no I

14:09

don't know. This is one of the most

14:11

eagle, you know, it's wonderful in that it

14:13

was one of the most eagle -less things

14:15

I've ever done, you know, right No,

14:17

that's a that's amazing. I'm wondering

14:19

if well because you said you met

14:21

at a Steve Hackett concert and

14:24

of course I think Neil you I

14:26

Know your big Genesis fan and you

14:29

know know those old records and

14:31

and stuff that you played on live

14:33

and everything How much chatting about

14:35

old Genesis stuff sort of happened from

14:37

from that Neil or is that? You

14:40

get past all that kind of stuff because

14:42

I would be geeking out on all that

14:44

kind of stuff, you know I mean, oh,

14:46

you mean when we're just hanging out. Yeah.

14:48

Yeah. Oh, well, you know We talked about

14:50

our histories Chester's talked about a lot of

14:52

things, but you know I miss not like

14:54

it was it wasn't like the center of

14:56

of attention No, not at

14:59

all, but I mean, I've been

15:01

in that situation before it gets

15:03

a little awkward for me I'm

15:06

I mean, I really appreciated it

15:08

was a wonderful opportunity I

15:10

hadn't that was well, I

15:13

guess My introduction I

15:15

suppose to the prog rule was it

15:17

was early Genesis. I mean, you know

15:19

before the hits, you know, right and it

15:21

was it was all prog and Zappa

15:24

I mean musically, yeah, a lot

15:26

of those elements, but but it

15:28

wasn't so much I don't know

15:31

how you still to this day

15:33

people trying to figure out how

15:35

to classify Frank's just like weird.

15:37

Yeah Yeah, well, it was weird,

15:39

but it was structural weird I

15:41

mean the guy was amazing at

15:44

what he did, you know, yeah,

15:46

and But yeah, so

15:48

for me, you know, but at

15:50

the same time My

15:52

natural wiring seems to be I'm

15:54

always more excited about what's

15:56

next, you know, then I

15:58

am, you know, sort of I

16:01

mean very surprised to find

16:03

out how much weight that early

16:05

Genesis still carries in the

16:07

Prague world. I mean, I

16:09

guess it's a level of respect.

16:12

it was pretty significant stuff.

16:14

mean, when I got there,

16:16

we were still doing quite a bit of the

16:18

early, the stuff with Peter and all, with

16:21

Peter, but some stuff

16:23

from that era, which

16:25

was amazing music, actually.

16:27

And so basically, like

16:30

I said, I did a

16:32

tour a couple of years

16:35

ago with an Australian Prague

16:37

group, Unitopia, and festivals and

16:39

stuff. I had no idea

16:41

how much influence Genesis had

16:43

on how much respect

16:45

they still garnered from that era. Yeah.

16:48

think, and you know what, to give

16:50

him credit, think Steve has a lot

16:52

to do with that these days, how

16:54

he's carrying the torch of the music

16:56

and keying on that classic era, which

16:59

I think is amazing that he does.

17:01

I do want to ask you just

17:03

one question, if I can, about that

17:05

during your period of playing. When

17:08

you started with the kind of classic

17:10

era playing, like you said, the stuff that

17:12

Peter was on and then moving into

17:14

later on, that when it became a little

17:17

bit more pop oriented, which

17:19

did you enjoy both as

17:21

equally or did you miss

17:23

sort of the challenge of

17:25

the odd time signature stuff?

17:28

I think every tour, there was

17:30

some Prague included in every concert.

17:32

mean, some of the early stuff made

17:35

its way. And all of the

17:37

albums, pretty much, there was always

17:39

at least one piece that was

17:41

a real nod to their roots. And

17:43

my opinion of the way

17:46

they approached the pop thing, I

17:48

don't, you know, a lot of fans

17:50

felt like they sold out. I don't

17:53

get that at all. I mean, I

17:55

get what they had, what they feel

17:57

that way, but being around and kind

17:59

of somewhat on the inside. I felt

18:01

like the musical integrity held up. They

18:03

just learned how to, you

18:05

know, things just got shorter. I

18:08

mean, basically, I think the quality of the

18:10

music did not change. I mean,

18:12

there were a couple of like sort

18:14

of novelty pieces, of course, that would

18:16

be silly, but, you know, but for

18:18

the most part, I think the level

18:20

of writing and the amount of care

18:22

and stuff, I never got the impression

18:25

that they got together looking for a

18:27

hit. They just never felt

18:29

that way. know, they approach it

18:31

that way at all. Yeah, just

18:33

sort of happened. mean, a lot

18:35

of that era was, yeah, a

18:37

lot of that era was older

18:39

bands just trying to find their

18:41

way, and yes, did the same

18:43

thing. Because I wasn't involved in

18:45

the recording process. mean, for me,

18:47

it was like the world's most

18:49

glorious cover gig, I suppose, but

18:51

at the same time, there was

18:53

always a really interesting mix of

18:55

music every concert. was never just

18:57

like the five minute hitch, you

18:59

know? Yeah. So

19:01

going back to the record a

19:03

little bit, Neil, was

19:06

there a particular part that

19:08

was more challenging on it

19:10

than others, you know, a

19:12

particular song or something that

19:14

stood out as tougher? Well,

19:20

I suppose it would have to be deep

19:22

water. The long, yeah,

19:24

the long one. Just

19:28

to... I would say the first

19:30

one you completed, you know, Hearts,

19:33

that one... The

19:35

first song in the hadn't been in that

19:37

world for a while, so that was like,

19:39

you know, and I refused to write things

19:41

out. mean, generally in the past, I've always

19:44

sort of written charts out, but I was

19:46

determined to not go there with this time,

19:48

you know, with this one. So for me,

19:50

it took a little... I had to dig

19:52

in a little deeper because I really wanted

19:54

to memorize everything, so I'd have the freedom

19:56

of really getting involved in it as opposed

19:58

to just... looking at a page, you know?

20:02

But that when I was more of

20:04

a challenge for me than Deepwater actually,

20:06

I think. Yeah, that opening track

20:08

is just fantastic. That's when I had

20:10

a chance to finally listen to the

20:12

whole record, but it's blown away by

20:14

that one. Just a phenomenal song. And

20:16

that you wrote it when you were

20:18

supposed to be on vacation was like,

20:20

come on, dude. Yeah,

20:24

you haven't found out that Neil writes an album every

20:27

week, you don't know that. That's

20:29

what doing. I'm getting it, yeah.

20:31

I'm getting it. That's

20:34

great. So

20:36

I'm assuming, well, Morris Fess is coming up

20:38

and you guys are to be playing on

20:40

one of the nights. I

20:42

guess that's the first full show, right?

20:44

That'll be the first time. Well,

20:47

I'm hoping to do some

20:49

kind of a warm -up show somehow,

20:52

somewhere. But we haven't sorted that

20:54

out yet. But it'll

20:56

be almost the first show. Yeah,

20:59

that's going to be exciting. I mean,

21:01

are there plans, hopefully, to try and do

21:03

a few more gigs at some point

21:05

after? know touring is just super hard with

21:07

anything, but are you hoping to do

21:09

that? Yeah, we're working on it, man.

21:11

We're working on it. Nice.

21:14

Neil, I wanted to ask you a little bit about the cruise.

21:17

I never really get to talk to

21:19

the musicians. It's just

21:21

happened. So it's sort of in our

21:24

minds a little bit. But what is

21:26

that an experience like that for you

21:28

as an artist on there and being

21:30

immersed with all the fans and people

21:32

coming up to you while you're eating

21:34

and all that kind of stuff? How

21:37

much enjoyment do you get from being on

21:39

there? You've done it a number of times. I'm

21:41

sure it's great. But what's it like for

21:43

you on there? Well,

21:47

the short answer is I

21:49

love it. I feel so

21:51

blessed. It's

21:54

hard to imagine. I was just

21:56

saying to my wife, and then

21:58

I come home to my grandkids.

22:00

You know, sometimes I just feel

22:02

like the Lord's just blessed me

22:05

so mightily, know, to

22:07

get to be on a cruise

22:09

and then go out and play music

22:11

you love with people that you

22:14

love and be around all these people

22:16

that you love, you know, I

22:18

mean, it's become a pretty close community.

22:20

Yeah. You know, so like there's

22:22

some people that we see, Sherry and

22:24

I see every year like, Hey,

22:27

you guys, I don't remember if we

22:29

don't remember your names, but we

22:31

love you. know, you know,

22:33

I'm on the beach. We took a

22:35

taxi at one of the destinations

22:37

over to a beach just to try

22:39

to, you know, kind of get

22:42

away from the touristy areas. And I'm

22:44

out there and up walks like

22:46

Rich Mauser and Jonas Reingold and the

22:48

twins and, you know, all these

22:50

people from different parts of my life

22:52

that I know and we're just

22:54

hanging out and talking and it's just

22:57

like, man, it's just great. It's

22:59

so unique. And the bands were

23:01

also the music. I

23:03

mean, Steve put it best. He's like,

23:05

There's a lot of really good musicians

23:07

on this boat. He

23:10

leaned into me like it was

23:12

a secret. was like, It's crazy.

23:14

I know. And the thing that

23:16

blows your mind is like so

23:18

many of them are rehearsed for

23:20

like two dates. You

23:22

know, these are these are bands

23:24

that record an album over sending

23:27

files. They never had a chance

23:29

to meet the rehearsed yesterday for

23:31

the first time ever. And then

23:33

they're playing the most complicated 20

23:35

minute songs. It's mind blowing. Yeah,

23:37

yeah, there was some very, very

23:39

good. I felt like

23:41

the bands were even more excellent this

23:43

year. Yeah,

23:47

I thought it was one of the more

23:49

enjoyable cruises. I do. I think it went

23:51

off really well. Again, everybody,

23:54

Cosmic Cathedral. I don't know if you can see

23:56

it on here, but it's great. we

23:58

have here. this is the blue

24:00

vinyl I guess I'll do a little

24:02

advertisement but it's yeah do a

24:04

little advertisement man yeah very nice and

24:07

we are almost sold out nice

24:09

picture here oh it's lovely it's just

24:11

an outstanding record guys really congratulations

24:13

I played it for some of my

24:15

jazz friends and everybody's knocked out

24:17

with this thing man yeah the amazing

24:19

slay good I mean yeah just

24:21

you know the songs and you know

24:23

the playing and it's just something

24:25

something kind of cool something special about

24:27

it yeah yeah absolutely wish y 'all

24:29

the luck with it and we'll

24:32

see you at Morsefest looking forward to

24:34

that have a great rest of

24:36

your day great weekend guys talk to

24:38

you soon all right guys see

24:40

you all good to see both of

24:42

you man right sitting here see

24:44

you all right God bless bye guys

24:46

hey thanks for checking out the

24:48

podcast don't forget to subscribe to your

24:50

YouTube channel wherever you get your

24:52

podcast follow us on all our socials

24:55

and parkport .com and we'll see you

24:57

all again real soon thanks