"It has been absolutely amazing and it just keeps growing," says Uriah Heep founding member and guitarist Mick Box. "I mean, here we are 48 years later still talking about a new album, "Living the Dream" and still going out on tour for months on end. It's an amazing thing; it's the power of music my friend isn't it? Because we are really passionate about what we do, that fuels us with the energy to do it; we do nearly 150 shows a year and just love getting out there and playing, it's what we do."
Box is the sole original member left from the band's founding in 1969 and although players may have come and gone he has remained the one constant; a driving force behind keeping the group viable and around more than one may think.
"We've never left the road, we never broke up; it's always been a continuous thing," he explained as he himself seemed to marvel at their durability. "There may have been different line ups and stuff but I've been there all the way through; the common thread if you'd like. We've always been out on the road but we're one of these bands that when we say we're going to do a world tour we do a world tour; we play in 61 countries. We may be in another part of the world for six months so you might not hear about us until we come back and ruffle the feathers in other countries (laughs)."
One of rock's most durable acts, the "Heep" as they're known, came to be during the tumultuous period of FM album oriented radio, concept records, psychedelia and where the careers of many of today's legendary groups now considered "Classic rock" were launched. So with more than five decades behind them; is their music garnering new fans while engaging their followers of yesterday?
"Absolutely yes! We get a lot of young kids down in front shouting out songs that are three times their age. The good thing about that is that it proves the point that a good song will stand the test of time and we've been lucky to have a lot of those along the way and people still like to hear them in the live arena. That keeps the momentum going; there are certain songs that we have to play in a set but then we intersperse those with the new album and even older tracks. So if you look at the set list it's our journey from the first album to, "Living the Dream" and everything in between. We travel so much that we tend to find the common denominator of songs that people have come to listen to and then we move into our new material which blends wonderfully by the side of the old stuff which is great."
Their most recent release is their twenty sixth and Box gave some insight into the process and how staying true to past practices has its benefits.
"We released it on September 14 and it has gotten great reactions from fans and media alike, we're delighted with it. We actually recorded it in January in a studio called Chapel Studios up in Lincolnshire which is actually in the English countryside. It was ideal for recording because there were no diversions at all, even the pub up the road was closed (laughs). So it was heads down and we recorded the whole album in 19 days and the reason that it went so quickly is because we recorded it as a band in the studio all together. We didn't have to wait two weeks to get a drum sound, we just went straight in, signed up and played as a band and I think that's when you get the best results to be honest. Everybody being on the one pulse; we didn't even use click tracks half the time because we felt if something sped up because it was excitable, then that's the way that we want to do it. It felt very natural and very easy and the results came very quickly."
"Think back to the old days; Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, none of us used a click track because it wasn't invented and yet what great music came out of that. That's because the bands were in the studio playing together and you got that great vibe. That's the beauty of a band playing in the studio together; there's nowhere to hide because if you do make a mistake there's a good chance it's going to go onto the drum track or wherever. Even though you try to section it off these things have spillage and that's part of the fun of it and then there's the part of being on top of your game which is also fun; isn't it? That's how we recorded it in 19 days, we'd get the tracks, we'd work them out until we felt really good about them, push the record button and in one, two or three takes we've got it but we haven't just got the drums we've got the bass parts, keyboard parts, guitar parts and even some guide vocal that we can keep. It's the way forward and always has been from day one with us in terms of getting results."
With the new album came the decision to release singles and the Heep has released two along with corresponding videos. Box says the ones that the band has chosen have multiple purposes and are a reflection of their make-up.
"Grazed By Heaven" which is the lead track from the album; I think it was a statement that we wanted to show that we still have passion in what we do and I think it works perfectly because it comes straight in your face; a drum fill in and we're off to the races (laughs). It's a good track and it's written by our bass player Davey Rimmer who wrote it with Jeff Scott Soto from Sons of Apollo. He helped with the melody and lyrics because Dave already had the music written and it worked out really well. So when we took it into our rehearsal room it was obvious that it was going to be a track that we were going to use. "Take Away My Soul" is a song that is very much in the Heep mode, it's got all the block harmonies that we're known for and the Hammond Organ parts and a really long guitar solo at the end; it kind of encompasses everything that the Heep is all about. Those two tracks have proven very popular at the moment."
Today's music climate is distinctly different from that of years past. Bands and solo acts rely more on technology and many producers and labels seem to stick to a formula or a trend that is popular at the time resulting in an almost cookie cutter type sound; something Box sees as an issue going forward.
"I think that the individuality has gone out of the business which is a bit of the shame," he began, choosing his words with care. "Because when you think back to the 70's, certainly in England, I mean I didn't play a lot with Ritchie Blackmore, Ritchie didn't play with Tony Iommi and on and on and all musicians, bass, keyboard players, guitarists and drummers all had their own thing and it was the sum of those parts that gave each band its flavor. You don't quite see that now because there's a lot of semblance going on and not enough individuality. I could be a bit more articulate by saying, guitarists today, they go into a guitar school through the front door and come out two years later playing fantastic guitar but they sound like everyone else. They're all playing the same and in that two year period there was no attention paid to individuality and I think that's what's missing at the moment. They are tremendous players, you can't deny that but you want the hairs on your arm to stand up and a chill to go down your spine and that's when you know the music's gotcha."
So with a new album; what can we expect from the band as 2018 comes to a close?
"Tour, tour, tour, tour, tour," said Box with a laugh. "We are never off the road; we started the 23 of October in Budapest and then we went to the eastern bloc countries and through Russia then over to England for four or five shows. Now we're having a break over Christmas and then we'll fire up again in mid-January and complete the rest of Europe and that morphs into going to Japan in March for a tour there. Then we come back and we have some European festivals that start about that time and we're looking at putting together a 10 week run in America later in the year. We are very much looking forward to that because we did a 10 week run earlier this year which had a lot of sell outs and then we went into Canada and that was very successful too. So we'd like to repeat that and do it again. One way or the other we'll be there because our American fans are great and we can't wait."
To discover more about Uriah Heep, please visit www.uriah-heep.com.
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
