George Heron: Where does the name Linx come from?

Linx: Tricky question. I was looking for another name, an artistic name if you wish and I wanted it to have one syllable like Sting who I admire a lot. I asked a friend of mine, he’s an encyclopaedia maniac, to find me a name with one syllable. He opened a page and found Lynx and said: “Is that all right for you?” I thought it was great. Lynx was catalogued in the encyclopaedia as a war helicopter, which I don’t like that much but for me, I more like the animal lynx. I wanted to personalise it so I took the 'Y' and put an ' I ' and it became Linx.

GH: What is the origin of the name “Forgotten Suns”?

L: We were looking for a name that sounded good and was significant. At the time, we wanted a British-sounding name as we were very influenced by Keats and British Symphonic Rock. We heard a lot of Marillion and we liked the song “Forgotten Sons”. When you do it with a British accent it sounds great – “FORGOTTEN SONS”. Like with Lynx and the “Y” I wanted to change the name from “Sons” to “Suns”. Our mothers really like us, we are not forgotten sons. It’s become a really meaningful name for us as a lot of things Ricardo (guitarist) and I write about are the lack of values in daily society and forgotten suns is an alert about that issue. Forgotten suns means forgotten light. Light can be values. It’s a protest.

Vasco: The sun is something always present and we don’t notice it every day. It is part of life. We can’t live without it but we forget about it.

L: I hadn’t thought about that. That’s a good one.

GH: How is your new album “Snooze” different to your previous album?

L: First of all, in our last album, “Fiction Edge”, our influences were a lot more clearer and of the more classical prog. But we are now also influenced by the new wave of prog. We are also influenced by Bjork and Tool. We’ve got more metal in this new album. I never used to like metal that much, apart from Iron Maiden and Metallica but now I like it a lot more. If you want to compare Forgotten Sons to other bands the list is much bigger than the last album. I think that means we are reaching our own style. You reach your own style when you have thousands of influences at the same time. It is your unique view of all these influences. The audiences at our concerts relate our music to a band they like and that can be the start of getting into Forgotten Suns. It’s also good in that people who are not into prog but can hear influences in our music such as Sting can then relate to our music. They don’t know what prog is but they like Forgotten Suns and that’s fine by me. I think we can reach more people with “Snooze”.

GH: What’s the concept for Snooze?

L: The basic concept is the story of X. Snooze is really “Fiction Edge II”. It’s not mentioned anywhere, but it is. People will find in the last few seconds of the album a lot of melodies and lyrics from the first album that illustrates this. It’s also a story that works by itself. In the first album, we talked about the beginning of the planet, the big bang theory, religion, war, and society – a big vision. It’s based on a group of people who live in the city, which is where we live so we talk about what we know, or what we think we know. The new album gets inside one individual being and describes the perspective of the person to the society – a microcosm. So it’s about the story of a character we created. It could be about anyone of us, anyone can identify with him. X is a middle-aged man with a 9 to 5 job. He doesn’t like it very much; it’s not what he wanted to do. There’s a lot of people like that, too many. What would happen if one morning your “snooze” would ring and you would ignore it and do what you like and see other people’s lives through their perspective. You could see what you’ve become through other people’s eyes. In “Pay the Price”, “Look at the people laughing all around” it describes what I’m trying to say here. You are observing people and when you do that you see that you have become one of them – to quote Marillion, “I have become the invisible man”. Everybody has dreams or hopes and only a few people manage to reach out for them – X was not one of those. It reflects our own fears as a band – a little band but getting bigger. We decided to write a story about it in the hope that it will never happen to us. Let’s try and trick destiny. To quote Peter Gabriel: “I have my fears but they do not have me.” I really like that lyric. The end message is hope, fear not what you’ve learnt to fear. Always try to know the unknown as that is what we are here for. I believe that once you stop doing that you will die inside. There are lots of people like this but they can come to life again.

GH: What happened to the keyboard player from the first album, Miguel Valadares? He only has a guest role on “snooze”.

L: He is a dear friend of ours and will always be one of us. He chose a different path. He has a passion for creating stained-glass windows and he wanted to follow that path. Maybe he was a bit afraid that we weren’t getting enough money to live off from music. I don’t judge him for that and maybe one day he’ll come back but maybe not as we are starting to work with a new keyboard player. That’s fresh news. He’s not actually in Forgotten Suns yet but we really like his work. He’s really into the prog scene. Miguel left the band 2 years after the “Fiction Edge” album. A year later he started talking to us again and getting interested in things but in a different perspective. He will write some music with us in the next album I hope. Maybe record some things to. He will be doing some programming too which will be really important for the next album. We are going into the digital era. We don’t know how it’s going to turn out but we are really enthusiastic about it. We want to meld new technology with metal.

GH: On your website, it says the “Snooze” album is produced by Magic Rope Music. Who within Magic Rope Music produced the album?

L: Magic Rope Music is a new prog label owned by me and Ricardo. We decided we didn’t want to work with a label now. We didn’t have such a good experience with our first label, Galileo Records. We will always be thankful to them as they were the only ones but they didn’t do things the way we wanted.

V: If you want something done right, do it yourself.

L: Exactly. Of course, if I have InsideOut music calling saying “We want to produce your next album” would be amazing as it is one of my favourite labels. But I would at least like Magic Rope connected to InsideOut.

GH: I didn’t know that Magic Rope Music was your own label.

L: The mystery is finally revealed. It’s working good. Magic Rope is derived from the song “Struggle” (from “Snooze”). Do some research, please? I’m just joking. We produced the album with Jorge Avillez. He has a lot of studio experience and really helped us. He is a member of our team in our studio. We manage the studio with him - a really well-equipped studio in Lisbon. We are very happy about it, getting into the music business and technology and really learning a lot. It will improve Forgotten Suns as a band too.

GH: Did you write all the lyrics for the latest album?

L: First of all, I wrote the storyboard – the story behind the lyrics – that is on the multimedia section of the CD-ROM part of the album, where it all started. I wrote it in an afternoon but I couldn’t get a good end to it – everything was too dark. But my girlfriend really helped me at that point; she showed me the light at the end of the tunnel. After that, I had a few lyrics already, some old ones. But I mostly wrote everything at the same time. Ricardo has also written a few parts and is an excellent advisor. I need his approval for lyrics. I write them and he changes them a little bit. There is also Monica who is an English master and it will become better and better.

GH: Tell me about the video you did for the track “Senses”.

L: Joao Pico is a great director and an image editor for a sports station in Portugal. We had a story in “senses” about X and created a script for a video. He wanted us to find the location and as I was the one producing the video I had to find it. That was a lot of hard work, don’t be a producer. When the director tells you that he needs a place with white walls, a big corridor with lots of natural light and must look like a mental hospital, that’s an easy place to find. But we remembered the place were we practically formed Forgotten Suns, high school. It was perfect and it was really special for us to come back and record a video there, very nostalgic. We had a friend who was perfect for the character of x as long as he didn’t shave and he was running everywhere getting tired. Then something really wonderful happened. Joao has an incredible eye for space and how things should be in a three-hour filming session. Two school workers were watching for the school and one of them caught the attention of Joao and he asked me to ask him to be on the video. You always do what directors say or they’ll kill you. He ended up becoming the doctor of the video. He fitted the role perfectly. He’s not an actor but he looks like one. Joao Pico used some great effects for the video and incredibly, the video was shot with only one camera.

GH: What’s the mask at the end of the video?

L: It’s a carnival mask from Venice. The ending means the whole “Snooze” concept in that you can go on with your life different to how you’d planned before. The dreams will always be with you and it can be a pain in the ass. People get depression from confronting their own dreams and this is represented in the mask. I like the B-Movie horror feel of the video especially at the end, “Have I really woke up with this fucking mask on?”

GH: How old is everyone in the band?

L: I’m 29, Ricardo is 28 (29 in January) Johnny is 29 and so is Samora.

GH: Have you taken singing lessons?

L: I had 3 lessons. First one was an opera singer, a very nice lady, but she wanted me to sing in an operatic way only and I was not into it. I do like Opera, as my Dad used to love it and I’d listen to it a lot when I was a kid. Valadares, our former keyboard player, recommended a younger teacher. I had two lessons with her and she told me that I couldn’t sing. I suffer from sinusitis and she wanted me to only breathe through my nose when singing but that is very difficult for me to do that. But other singers breathe through their mouth when they sing, like Tori Amos, so I ran away. I was nice to her but I ran away. In the future, I would like to get more singing lessons. Not to make my voice clearer, as I’m happy with that, but on the contrary, to make my voice sound rougher. I’d like to add more expression and do other tones with my voice. We’ll need that with the next album. Mike Patton’s (Faith No More and Mr Bungle) teacher would be great. Or Jorn Lande, he’s incredible. I’d like to go that way but I haven’t found the teacher that leads me to that path.

GH: You play keyboards in “Snooze” are there any other instruments you can play?

L: When Forgotten Suns first started off I was playing drums. Maybe when I have time I will have some drum lessons as I really love that instrument. I’m always passing on ideas to our drummer JC Samora. We might do a percussion section live. That would be great fun. I’m nothing special in the keyboard department but I have my own way of playing. Other keyboarders have commented on this and can struggle to play Forgotten Suns’ music as it’s not structured properly. It’s like Mark Knopfler who also taught himself.

GH: Who are your influences?

L: Lyrically speaking, Fish is a really powerful influence. Roger Waters too. The other of the masters is Peter Gabriel. They are my lyrical parents. Vocally, Fish of course, Jorn Lande, the man from Tool, Sting. Female vocalists too like Tori Amos and Bjork. Maybe Phil Collins a little bit too. We had the honour of playing alongside Pain of Salvation one time. I think they are one of the greatest bands and they will be one of the classics. Daniel Gildenlow is a role model to me. Wonderful singer and person. On the keyboards, we are heavily influenced by Arena and Clive Nolan. Mark Kelly of Marillion is also an outstanding player. More than people think he is. I really like King Crimson too.

GH: Do you prefer to rock out or do you like the tranquil parts as well?

L: That’s a nice question. I really like both. Normally, I’m more quiet, melodic and calm. But Ricardo has injected me a virus of aggressiveness. When live, that’s when we like to rock. The calm parts are great moments to look into the eyes of people and try and reach out for their souls. It’s really moving. We can do whatever we want as is the nature of progressive rock. There are no limits. I like the transition from aggressive to calm and vice versa. You’ve got to provoke the listener and if you don’t do that you are not doing a good job. I mostly compose the calm parts and Ricardo does the heavy parts but I’m getting heavier every day.

GH: What other Portuguese bands are you friends with?

L: Have you heard of Sonic Pulsar?

GH: No.

L: They are a one-man project and he gets guests musicians to work with him. Maybe I will get to work on his next project. When Forgotten Suns first appeared, we didn’t know of any other progressive acts in Portugal. Portugal was sleeping. There was Tantra in the 70s but then there was nothing. For the past 4 years there have been some new prog projects in Portugal and they’re really good. We have Atlantis, a more vintage-sounding project but a good one. We have Sonic Pulsar. There’s another band that I can’t remember their name – they’re gonna kill me. They sound a lot like Pain of Salvation – experimental and metal. I hope more and more projects will come out as we have very good musicians here. I think we can compete with the whole world. We are friends with Moonspell, who have worked really hard to get where they are and are an example to us all. Maria Joao is a very talented singer who sings jazz improv that if you haven’t heard of her already you should check out.

GH: I haven’t and I will. Ricardo mentions on the website about the dream of going to and doing well in Japan. Is that an ambition shared by the whole band?

L: I think it’s an ambition for any band like us. It is a very important market. They are very demanding with their musicians, they love the virtuosos. When they like a band, they REALLY like a band. We’ve heard that copies have been sold out in Japan and that they want more. Step by step we’re reaching out to the whole world.

GH: 2 more questions: Who would you like to support on tour in the future?

L: Arena and Pain of Salvation would be great. A dream would be Marillion. Fish would be great too. If Tool came to Portugal, I would really like to open for them. Ritual is another wonderful band. A kid’s dream would be Rush and Iron Maiden.

GH: Final question. When are you coming to the UK?

L: We talked a bit with Moonspell’s agent and he said that when he has some time he would try to get us a gig in the UK in a club I think in London. It’s one of those clubs where if you do well there, then they’ll take you on for more UK gigs. It would be great if that came about. UK would be really special as I’ve been there in 1993 and I really loved it. Maybe it would be more fitting to have Forgotten Suns over there because of your foggy weather. The sun is not forgotten in Portugal. It would be great to see a premiership (soccer / football) game and then play a gig.