IT’S TIME TO DO RIGHT, WORDS CANNOT BE WISER
A CONVERSATION WITH ROINE STOLT OF THE FLOWER KINGS
Roine Stolt is a rock legend in Sweden (where he is from) and all over the world. Whether he is performing as a solo artist, or as a member of Kaipa, or Transatlantic or The Flower Kings, the man has been making influential music since 1975. Roine Stolt is getting ready to release Love, The Flower Kings’ 17th studio album, and he could not be more excited. He loves music and loves the art of writing and recording. I had a chance to speak with the man about the new album by The Flower Kings (Love) and the beginning of the band.
“The new album came about, because that is what we do. Basically, I am a guitar player, that is how I started out. To be very honest, I started out as a bass player in the very beginning and then switched to guitar. And then, like many other young musicians, I played covers of other musicians’ songs. Then, I thought, ‘ok, what if I tried to write a song myself?’ And you do and the first few songs you write are not fantastic but then you keep going. It becomes a trail of writing songs, it gets better and better. I am a songwriter, and suddenly I am a singer because you start singing a demo for a song, and you realise, well my singing isn’t that bad. People aren’t leaving the room when I start singing. That kind of development, yes, I can play the guitar, sing my song and then you get into recording.
The Flower Kings officially formed in 1994, and since then, although there have been a few member changes, the group has grown and developed.
Stolt agreed and added, “with a band like this, the more you know and the more you learn about recording and producing, the more impact you have on the final product. You can take the music in the direction you want to go, instead of sitting and waiting for other people to do stuff. For me the starting point was when I was 17 or 18, starting in a band and learning to work with other people, mainly in Sweden at the time. All the way from that to doing album number 17. That is just The Flower Kings, everything I have done with other bands and solo is about 250 records (and he is not kidding or exaggerating).”
He is very modest about his accomplishments. “It is what I do, it is what I do to live a good life. It is not about money, it is about being creative and enjoying what you are doing on a daily basis. I happen to be a person who enjoys creating stuff.” And as a young man, he almost went the route of Art School, but music won out. “Music felt very uncertain. It never entered my mind that I could go outside of Sweden and play music and do concerts. But it was one step at a time.”
Stolt formed the band Kaipa, who released three studio albums. He became a session player in Sweden but eventually formed The Flower Kings. This gave him the opportunity to play with musicians he admired, such as Jon Anderson and Steve Hackett.
PRE-ORDER LOVE
The band, The Flower Kings has an interesting history. “What happened was, I was in Kaipa,” said Stolt. “Then for about 10 years I was doing session work. I learned a lot, but I felt there was something missing. I thought I would do an album full on, and not even care if it sells. Just do the music I like, so I did. That album was called The Flower King. The interest and sales of that album took me by surprise, and then found its way outside of Sweden, so that was a door opening to allow me to do progressive rock. It works, people in other parts of the world enjoy what we are doing. So, I put together a band, and we played a few shows in Sweden, and then Canada and eventually the U.S.”
Although The Flower Kings are prog rock, Stolt is open to all kinds of music. “The funny thing is, I do love progressive rock, but not because it is progressive, but because it expands music. But on the other hand, if I hear a good song by Coldplay, I don’t think about what kind of band they are, I just like the music. Then I listen to something extreme like Frank Zappa or out there fusion jazz. I started listening to blues. I have an open mind when it comes to music. Everything from pop to atonal.”
Roine Stolt’s brother, Michael, plays bass for The Flower Kings, and is also a songwriter and producer. Although there have been many bands with siblings, the stereotype is always that the brothers tend to fight. This is certainly not the case with The Flower Kings. “Well, up to now, without any bloodshed and fist fighting,” laughed Stolt. “No, honestly, Michael and I have been in bands together since he learned to play music. He was in my first band after Kaipa, the short-lived band Fantasia. We did two albums. Michael was the bass player in both Fantasia and The Flower Kings. Michael started his own band, Desperados, but then he came back full circle. It works well. Family is always family. You can say things to your brother you can’t say to others, we get along well, actually.”
The first single from the album, Love, is the beautiful “How Can You Leave Us Now”. “Sometimes I sit down by the piano in the studio, and fiddle around with some chords and come up with music. But this song came up early summer last year, on a bike ride. On this bike ride I got the melody humming in my head. Luckily, I had my iPhone with me, so I could sing the tune into my iPhone to collect and process it and develop it. First song I have ever written on a bicycle,” laughed Stolt.
“I have tried to understand what the song is really about. My mother died and I had loss, so maybe it is some kind of processing about that. Sometimes you write a song, and it is a very specific topic about what the song is about. The other thought I had is that the world is in a state of uncertainty, with climate change, political unrest, poverty, craziness, and crazy leaders. It is very uncertain. The politics are uncertain, the world is in a state of unrest. It doesn’t need to be a religious song, but there is an element of it.”
The new album does have meaning for Stolt. “It is Love. The Beatles told us already, in 1967, “All You Need Is Love”. It sounds like a cliche, but it is very true. You can try to love your enemy, and there would be less suffering. Try to love the differences in people. I think it would be very easy to just leave people alone and let them live their lives. Everyone has a right to decide about their own lives. The starting point for everything is love. If you can feel love, even for people you might hate, then you can solve every problem.”
And Stolt hopes people listen to the album and give it a chance to grow on them. They would listen to the album, and then listen to it many more times because it becomes more rewarding each time you listen to it. I hope they listen to the album in the sequence it was meant to be but people buy the album and do whatever they want to do, which is fine. I just hope people will enjoy it for some time.”
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Photo Credit: Toby Photo | Album Artwork: Joey Tessier
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