Spock’s Beard found themselves tackling more line-up issues – including a regretted departure and a welcome return – as they made 2018 album Noise Floor. Members Dave Meros and Ted Leonard told Prog about the US proggers’ past and present, and speculated on their future in a challenging music market.
“That was the best show I’ve ever played,” bassist Dave Meros muses, somewhat ruefully, as Prog recalls a superb Spock’s Beard live performance at the long-defunct Astoria in London in June 2001, when the band were promoting fifth album V. “That whole tour was great, but that gig in particular was where everything came together exactly right,” he elaborates. “The energy was massive, the sound was great, the audience was awesome. It was a perfect gig – a once‑in-a-lifetime thing.”
At the time, the band were demonstrating some real momentum. “There was a buzz building up for sure,” Meros agrees. “And then Snow came out and far surpassed V as far as CD sales. Our live attendance was the highest it had ever been. It seemed like every year the band would take another step up. It was a great feeling. But we all know what happened…”
That’s when the band were profoundly shaken by the departure of their leader, vocalist and keyboardist Neal Morse, shortly after Snow’s release. Until then, it had seemed that Spock’s Beard – who at that time representied the hopes of a resurgent prog movement – were on the brink of a significant breakthrough.
While V and Snow may have represented the band’s high-water mark commercially, it was Morse’s fervent desire that the group should continue without him. Meros, Morse’s guitarist brother Alan and keyboardist Ryo Okumoto have honoured that wish. Now fronted by Enchant singer Ted Leonard since the departure of drummer/vocalist Nick D’Virgilio in 2011, it’s striking that Spock’s have now recorded more studio albums without Morse than with him.
Looking back, Meros admits he didn’t expect the band to last over 25 years and build a catalogue of 13 studio albums. Indeed, when their debut album The Light emerged in 1995, they had no great expectations. “We just recorded The Light as a vanity project – we were just having fun,” he says. “We weren’t even aware there was a prog rock audience; we thought it had died out and we were just doing it for us.”
After a couple of low-key shows, they’d decided to record the album properly for the princely sum of $4,000, just to see what it would sound like. “We didn’t expect it to go anywhere so it was a nice little surprise when it did.” But The Light fired the starting gun on a lengthy career; and while the departures of Morse and D’Virgilio might have killed off lesser bands, Spock’s Beard have persevered – and now seem to be in their best health in a long time.
What’s more, they’re bolstered on new album Noise Floor – albeit only on a guest basis – by D’Virgilio’s return to the drum stool, following the resignation of drummer Jimmy Keegan in late 2016. That was another difficult. “It was a shock to have to go back to the drawing board and figure out what to do in Jimmy’s stead,” Leonard says.
Initially Okumoto spearheaded a search for a replacement, and received assorted submissions. As Meros points out, “We’ve been extraordinarily lucky having Nick and Jimmy. The hardest thing to find is a drummer of that quality who can sing high harmonies – that’s a rare bird.” The search was paused as the band started work on Noise Floor and discovered that D’Virgilio was willing to return to the studio with Spock’s after a six-year absence.
“We got busy putting this album together,” Leonard says. “We stopped pushing it once we knew Nick was going to do the album; we postponed worrying about who’s going to play it live.” Understandably, they sought to cajole D’Virgilio into rejoining; but at least for now, he’s declined. “He’s such a busy guy, so we know the prospect isn’t very likely,” Leonard admits.
D’Virgilio has, however, performed live with the band on a few occasions in recent years, most notably playing Snow in Tennessee at Neal Morse’s Morsefest in 2016, then on Cruise To The Edge and at the Night Of The Prog festival in Loreley. “It was a complete blast,” Leonard enthuses. But with their wanted man unable to commit for the foreseeable future, they’ll head out on tour in the autumn with someone else.
But even if D’Virgilio was to become available, Leonard thinks his return is unlikely. “For us it would be awesome, but I think it would be weird for him. I’ve likened it to when Peter Gabriel left Genesis and Phil Collins took over as singer. It would be like if Genesis got Collins back, but only to play drums because Ray Wilson would sing. That would be extremely weird for Phil.”
Personnel changes aside, Noise Floor is arguably the band’s strongest album in the post-Morse era, characterised by some of their most melodic and compact material to date. Although there’s no formula or grand design behind these characteristics. “Any time we sit down to write a song, it’s not usually with an intention to steer it in one direction or another,” Leonard states. “We approach it with what’s appropriate for the song. There’s not a whole lot of forethought.”
The length of a song isn’t important. We had demos for this album that were cut down from their original length
Dave Meeros
So it’s coincidental that the longest song on Noise Floor only is a comparatively short eight minutes? “It just worked out that way,” says Meros. “With our long songs we don’t set out to write big epics. Instead there will be a song that starts growing, and pretty soon it’s 20 minutes. The length of a song isn’t important to us – in fact, we had a couple of demos for this album that were cut down from their original length.”
“We didn’t set out to avoid writing an epic,” Leonard adds, ”but sometimes when you’re writing a song, it can feel like it’s done at a certain point. When a band stretches a song out for the sake of it, I think you can hear it. Of course we all love our crazy prog moments, but what sets us apart is the songs and the fact that there are hooks that sink into you.”
Speaking of hooks, Noise Floor opens with the decidedly uptempo and direct To Breathe Another Day. “We definitely stuck the most energetic song up front,” Meros agrees. “We knew we had a number of mid-tempo songs on this album so the placement of certain songs was strategic.”
Intriguingly, it was written by long-time collaborator John Boegehold with Kansas in mind, when that band were considering using songs penned by outside writers for 2016 comeback album The Prelude Implicit. Boegehold’s Days We’ll Remember – which features on the Cutting Room Floor bonus disc accompanying Noise Floor – has a similar genesis.
When you’re the lead singer, you can’t tiptoe in; you have to jump in. Audiences are like bumblebees – they sense fear!
Ted Leonard
While Kansas elected to essentially keep their writing in-house, Spock’s Beard have no qualms about utilising outside writers, with Boegehold and Stan Ausmus both making contributions. Perhaps as a reaction against the Morse era, when their erstwhile leader dominated the writing credits, the band are far from territorial about songwriting.
“There’s a lot more variety regarding who contributes to this album than there was on The Oblivion Particle,” Leonard explains. “Most of the time, when John writes we do pretty much what he writes; but we took some liberties with To Breathe Another Day, especially with the drums and the structure.”
“It sounded a bit more like a Kansas song originally,” says Meros. “We pumped up the energy from its original state.”
Following the almost AOR tones of the opener, Noise Floor gets proggier as it continues, culminating with final track Beginnings via some more complex material, not least Okumoto’s instrumental contribution Box Of Spiders. “That song, which couldn’t be weirder, was placed to break up the sing-songy ones – it’s perfect right there,” Meros says. “It sounds like what it would look like opening a box of spiders!”
Noise Floor is Leonard’s third album with the band, although his association dates back decades – his other group, San Francisco proggers Enchant, opened for Spock’s Beard in the States and Europe way in 1998. Having come aboard while Enchant were on an unofficial hiatus, Leonard regards the former as his musical home. “Since then Enchant have made an album [2014’s The Great Divide] and we’re making another one this year. But Spock’s has been the priority.”
Stepping into shoes vacated by Morse and D’Virgilio might appear a daunting task, but Leonard has taken it in his stride. “From a live perspective I never felt uncomfortable fronting the band,” he says. “When you’re called in to be the lead singer, you can’t tiptoe in; you have to jump in. Audiences are like bumblebees – they sense fear!
“And from a recording perspective, this album is finally me just being me vocally. On the previous two albums I accepted direction a lot more. I was more stubborn this time.” He acknowledges similarities and differences between his two roles. “The camaraderie and energy on stage in both bands is the same. Enchant stretches my vocal range a little bit more, but Spock’s requires more of me. I love that, in Spock’s, I get to play some stuff that’s a little more challenging.”
Given the quality of Noise Floor, they remain at the forefront of the scene. However, in a more saturated prog market, Meros is realistic about what they can still achieve. “Once, I thought Spock’s could really go somewhere and become our only band, with all of us making a living from it. I don’t have that hope for that any more,” he admits. “So it’s more about legacy.”
With a rich back catalogue and strong live reputation, Spock’s Beard have strong foundations on which to continue to trade. “None of us want to be stagnant – we all want the next album to be better than the previous,” Leonard says. “So I think it’s about artistic ambition at this point than monetary or anything else.”
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