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By Jill Hughes Moth Vellum wowed the RosFest 2009 audience with their progressive rock performance, while dressed in all white. This was my first exposure to the band, and I got to speak to some of the members at the festival. Here is an interview I conducted with them months later. USA Progressive Music: How did you come up with the concept of the album cover design? (the significance of the lady, whale and building) USAProgMusic: What is the significance of the name of your band? Ryan: There really is none. Just two cools words pieced together. USAProgMusic: What are your major influences/inspirations for your music? Johannes Luley (guitars): We get the Yes/Genesis comparison a lot and I would lie if I said I didn’t listen to them. Steve Howe was a  huge influence from very early on, but so were Gilmore, Jeff Beck, Wes Montgomery, Frank Zappa, Allan Holdsworth and Steve Hillage, to name a few. And those are just some my personal influences. The range of influences combined is pretty vast. Today I find Rufus Wainwright to be one of the most inspiring songwriters. USAProgMusic: Why did you choose this particular type of music to create when you formed the band? Johannes: I grew up with the great supergroups of the late 70s and so it was only natural for me to go back to my beginnings. Isn’t that usually the music that you end up liking best throughout your life? The other guys are a bit younger and they liked more modern prog, too. To me, good progressive rock came to an abrupt end with the rise of punk rock in the late 70s. USAProgMusic: How has the reception to your album been? Are you pleased with the outcome? If there was anything you could change about the album’s final product, what would you change? Ryan: The response has been overwhelmingly positive. I am so tickled by the response. If I could have changed one thing about the product it would have been that they were on vinyl and inside there was a huge poster that people would put on their bedroom walls. Johannes: Amazing! We set out to release an album of music that we loved without making any artistic compromises. That in itself was rewarding. We didn’t expect such an overwhelming reception even in our wildest dreams. Most of our reviews have been more than positive. We are deeply humbled by that. I wouldn’t change a thing about the record. It came out just the way we wanted it. I am not saying there is no room for improvement, but I tend to look forward to the future. USAProgMusic: The band is comprised of members originally from all over the World. How did you all meet and how did Moth Vellum become what it is today? Johannes: I first met Tom Lynham when he was recording with his band Bunnysound at my studio in Oakland, CA back in 2002. He was actually their drummer, which is his main instrument. Ryan and I had met in 1997 when I was guitarist in his band Ryan Downe and the Hypocrites, supporting the release of his album on Elton John’s Rocket Records. In ‘02/’03 he was dying for a new project and as a Rush lover very interested in what Tom and I had cooked up. Matt was the last addition to the band. We were all part of the San Francisco music scene at the time. He brought amazing drum skills as well as a second lead vocal to Moth Vellum. Tom is also a gifted keyboardist and so it made sense for him to play the keys. USAProgMusic: What did you think of your experience at ROSfest 2009? What did you take away from that performance? Was there a reason you all wore white clothing? Ryan: The ROSfest crowd welcomed us with open arms and big hearts. It was exhilarating to play for them and to get the response we got. We had a chance to meet almost all of them after the show or during the after-party. What I love about prog rock fans is that they are “all in” - they really love the music and the people who dedicate themselves to writing it. They are also a smart lot. The white clothing was homage to the greats of the past who often came on stage in all white. In particular Genesis did this. Johannes: It was fantastic. What a great opportunity to meet other bands and artists in the prog community. It was great exposure, too. We loved every minute of it. The white clothing is something we’ve been doing since the beginning of the group. Most rock musicians always wear black. We thought white sets a different tone, perhaps a little more positive. People seem to like it. We get asked about that a lot.
USAProgMusic: What are the goals for the band? Are you currently writing new material? Any big gigs coming up? Johannes: Yes, we are writing new material. Unfortunately this is a slow process which is why progress on the follow up album has been a bit sluggish. Not to worry, though. It will be released eventually. Luckily we are on our own label and we don’t have a big major company breathing down our necks. So we only release stuff that we feel is the best we can give. Our goal is to spread the word about Moth Vellum and to release many more albums, building on the success of our debut. Since we are focusing on the writing, we are currently not performing live. Ryan: My goals are simple. Keep making albums and keep playing festivals.  USAProgMusic: How often is the band able to get together to compose/record/rehearse? Johannes: Not very often right now. I moved to Los Angeles a while ago and that has made regular rehearsals more difficult. We are writing via the Internet and that works pretty well. Once we have a few good ideas, we all get together and record everything we come up with in a three-day studio marathon. This usually happens in San Francisco. Just last month, I opened my new studio in Los Angeles (check it out at mysonictemple.com) and it is likely that we will record here in the future. USAProgMusic: What do you think are some of the challenges in writing or promoting the music you create? Ryan: Most of the challenges have been removed by the power of the Internet. At this point it is only about your talent and your dedication and discipline. Johannes: One of the big challenges is the complexity of the music. You’re not just writing a 3-minute ditty. It’s more like a symphony and that takes time. Promoting the music is fairly easy, because we have such a niche audience: People who love prog! It’s that simple. There is no point in promoting our music to a rap or a country audience. We reached a lot of fans through the popular prog sites, mainly by getting good reviews. USAProgMusic: Anything more you’d like to say to your U.S. fans? Ryan: Be patient we will get something out and we hope it doesn’t disappoint. Johannes: Yes, we love you! Thanks for giving us such great support. And hang tight. The best stuff is still to come. Photos by Mike Flavin
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