Prog Me!

This month: Michael Romeo, Symphony X

OK, COMPUTER?

I’ve been using PCs forever and Cubase was always the thing for me; I pretty much do everything in the studio but I have games and goofing around stuff on my Galaxy Android tablet.

MASTERMIND

Music and music history, or maybe horror movies. After music, movies are my thing – I like suspense and the more modern stuff – the Freddys and the Jasons. Spielberg is the obvious choice for director but I’ve always been a Hitchcock man.

SOUND AND VISION

That’s what I’m all about. I always go back to the music I grew up with: Black Sabbath’s Heaven And Hell and Rush’s Moving Pictures. Se7en is one of my top five movies; followed by Scarface, Star Wars, Psycho and Silence Of The Lambs. Jurassic Park as well – when that came out, it was just unbelievable. I was always fond of Predator and John Carpenter’s The Thing, too.

RELICS

I bought my first guitar when I was 16. It was an old Kramer Pacer – it’s not in the best condition but I still have it.

SUPPER’S READY

I guess a steak and a lobster tail – I used to like steak well-done when I was younger but now I’m leaning towards a medium-rare, with vegetables. And coffee. I like my coffee light and sweet – and lots of it.

Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine’s News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she’s since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen’s memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She’s currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine’s cover.