Interview in Italy’s Luponair
- May 8, 2023
A very brief interview for an Italian Radio Show
1. Tell us something about “Could I Stay The Honest One? – 2022 Serpent Version,” the track we aired.
Sam: Thanks for playing the song. The original version was recorded for 1991’s A chaos of desire. I reissued that album on 2LP, MiniDisc & 2CD last year; I thought it would be interesting to re-record songs from the album with the current band, which has completely different members aside from myself. I transferred the 8-track master tape to digital, and started by retaining a few of my piano parts, then replacing everything else. Originally it had a female vocalist, now Jon takes over the passion and intensity of the story about personal failures. Henrik’s strings flesh out the mood in a way that overall the song is more beautiful and yet more depressing than it was 30+ years ago.
2. Are we going to make it on time?
No. Unfortunately not. Humans are not trying hard enough to make it. Still killing each other, religion preventing progress, and generally not saving the planet from our own betrayals. My son is 21. It is horrible to think what the world will be like when he is my age. We’re not going to make it. Failure is guaranteed.
3. Suggest us a record we surely don’t know.
The album I recommend is Player Piano from FUTURISK, a band I knew in the early 80s in South Florida when I was just out of high school. It’s synthwave, synthpop? I think Jeremy called it “Synth Punk” back in the day. It was great to have a local band making music on synthesizers back then, when most bands were playing rock-n-roll on standard rock instruments in dusty bars for country rockers.