Steve Rothery’s guitar playing has defined a genre. Beginning with Marillion’s debut record in 1983, Rothery’s playing has set the standard for melodic guitarists who play progressive rock. While he has done a few projects outside of the band, teaming up with Thorsten Quaeschning in the new band Bioscope and their debut record Gento may be his most ambitious. Recently, Steve Rothery took some time to talk about creating Bioscope, future Marillion plans, and much more!
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On how Bioscope initially came together – We met up for a coffee after Marillion played in Berlin in December 2018 on the theater tour. We talked about the possibility about maybe working together one day. I arranged to fly to Berlin for a couple of days, the following February, and we did a little bit of a session, his studio, which was quite interesting. Then skip forward to March 2020. He had some solo shows in the UK. After his London show we arranged to have a day at the Marillion Studio, the Racket Club. So, he had all his gear there, all his sequences and keyboards. We spent, probably most of the afternoon and early evening just playing really and exploring what it would mean to work together.
There was an immediate chemistry. I’d always kind of loved that sort of music. I had Tangerine Dream albums when I was growing up in Whitby, Ricochet and Stratosphere, and I love a lot of Vangelis’ work, so, it wasn’t that alien to me. I just thought it’d be interesting to try and do what I do over what he did. It proved to be we started working together really after the pandemic, I think December 21 I started flying into Berlin for five, six days at a time. Every year we’d kind of have this ritual where we’d edge the album forward a little bit more until we got to the session we did last December and we thought, “We’ve pretty much got a record here, we should really try and finish it”. Then that’s when we decided to try real drums and found Alex (Reeves). Alex and Thorston flew across to London in March of this year and we did the session with Alex at his little studio in North London, and he recorded drums of the whole album in two days, which was an amazing thing to see.
On what Alex Reeves’ drumming brought to the record – I think it gives it an organic quality. It makes it more exciting. He, he kind of completed the songs really. They were sounding good before with loops and program drums. But when you have a drummer of the caliber of, of Alex, it just adds a different dimension really. Things like “Kaleidoscope” transformed.
On if he approaches writing differently for an instrumental project rather than a vocal – It’s a whole different mindset. I think when you’re making an instrumental album, you don’t have those considerations of “when’s the singer gonna sing” and “is this the right key for his voice?” You just do what works well musically. I think the way I approach playing and trying to play memorable parts and melodies, that kind of takes the job of a singer in a way, to have those kinds of melodic hooks. But it was kind of a musical conversation really, between the two of us. We really loved what each other did and a lot of mutual respect. No egos, no falling out. It was just a pleasure from beginning to end. And although it took us five, six years, if you add together the time that we spent in the same room together, it’s probably only five weeks.
On the cinematic quality of the music – It had always had a very cinematic quality to what we did. Maybe it might lead one day to us getting some soundtrack work. You never know. But, it was just a very natural way of working for us. I think that will continue for any, any future albums we do together.
On creating a multi-section track like “Vanishing Point” – You put sections together because it’s a 20-minute track. You couldn’t hold all that in your head without your brain exploding. You tend to work in sections and the songs evolved and the arrangements evolved. Sometimes you cut in sections out or shortening sections. So yeah, the, the music evolved until it had reached that point where we were happy with it really.
On if he needs to separate ideas for Bioscope from those that could be used in Marillion – All this music was born in the moment of improvisation. It’s a direct result of the chemistry between the two of us. So, there was no idea on the shelf. It was just purely spontaneous creation.
On if he sees Bioscope continuing – Oh, definitely. We will make another record together. I think we’ve had far too much fun making this one not to. The challenge with this, because we didn’t have a producer as such, we were both the producer. There’s various things on like a track like “Vanishing Point” where there’s heavily treated guitar to the point where you wouldn’t know it was a guitar that was making this particular sound. There’s a sound that I like to think of as icicles which is on a few points in in “Vanishing Point”, and there’s another patch. These are all from the Eventide h90 pedal. I should get commission. But there’s one patch in that unit, and it sounds like the human voice. Sounds like a choir. I use that in a couple of places. That’s kind of one of the interesting things was to take the guitar but not limit it to the role of the guitar sonically, but to be adventurous and try and find new textures and sounds you can drop in.
On if he uses these projects to experiment with sounds that wouldn’t fit Marillion – No, I’ve used some of these unusual sounds with the writing process for any Marillion album. I suppose the only thing is the Bioscope album has been the incentive for me to buy all these new pedals probably. Spent more money than I’ll ever make from the Bioscope album on buying the pedals to make the Bioscope album if, if the truth be told. But don’t tell my wife. How many guitars you need? One more. The answer is always, “Just one more”.
On if Bioscope will be playing live – We’ve got five shows in Europe at the end of the year. It is very difficult because making the Marillion album and we have the final Marillion weekend in Utrecht at beginning of December, but immediately after that I have two shows in the Netherlands with Bioscope and two in Germany finishing off in Warsaw in Poland. We’ve got Alex playing drums with us and my good friend Dave Foster, playing second guitar. We got a amazing video wall and Finky who does the lights for Tangerine Dream, doing the lights. Ian Bond, who always did Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson doing the sound, so it should look and sound fantastic…(US shows are) probably not on the board at the moment. I think it’s unlikely unless I sold a lot of records. Of course, in this day and age, you’re lucky to sell any records.
On prepping Gento for a physical release – The vinyl sounds absolutely fantastic. I went down to Abbey Road with Andy Bradfield, who mixed the album for the half speed mastering, and it really is the best of both worlds. It’s beautiful, deep, rich, bottom end with a pristine, clear, high frequencies. I think it’s gonna be an exceptional album.
On a timeline for the next Marillion record – I’d like to think some point next year. Ideally kind of June time. Maybe September. Depends, really depends how the next three months go.
On working with Steve Hackett – It’s an album we’d be working on very nearly for as long as I’ve been doing the Bioscope album. It’s probably about 85% finished. I just need to record some extra guitars for it. But it sounds wonderful. It’s an instrumental album. It’s, again, it’s quite cinematic, but in a very different way to the Bioscope album. That’ll be out some point probably in the middle of next year, I would think. But yeah, a great experience. He is a really good friend of mine and one of my big influences, so, I’m finishing that off next. Then I’m gonna finally finish my space-themed instrumental album I’ve been working on for even longer than Bioscope, since probably 2017. So that’s the next on the calendar.
On other upcoming live appearances – We have a festival on a beach in Cornwall near the end of September, which it’s gonna be an interesting experience. But that’s the only of the show apart from the Utrecht weekend we have. We start out next year with a Cruise To The Edge again in March.
On doing the music cruises – Tt’s not quite as much fun as a Marillion weekend, but it’s still a lot of fun. Most of the people on the boats seem to like us, not everyone. I think there’s a certain amount of snobbery for any band that was, wasn’t making records in 1972. It’s a bizarre thing. The cruise really, it’s like a Twilight Zone or a time warp where all of a sudden it is still the height of prog in the mid-seventies before punk and new wave arrived. There’s lots of tie dye t-shirts, it’s a funny thing, but it’s great. I love the whole genre of music, but it is unlike anything else.
