Interview with Kurt Barabas (bassist) and Gary Wehrkamp (guitarist/keyboardist/composer), Amaran’s Plight

By Jill Hughes

USAProgMusic: What is the storyline in the Amaran’s Plight album, Voice in the Light? Is this a true story? 

Gary Wehrkamp:  It is not a true story, but there are elements of truth throughout it.  There are ideals we believe in, and points to be made. The story basically follows a man's journey throughout his hardships of a young child, losing his father, then his mother at age 9 to cancer. Although it is documented that some types of cancer are not hereditary, there seems to be a curse in his family, and he wonders if he will be next.

His one true companion in life is his friend Rachel, who lives next door... he eventually goes to live with her and her family...When they become teenagers, they develop deeper feelings for each other. He does become great friends with another local youngster at school, Tommy, who always encourages him, and John gains confidence from this, and from Rachel. One day while skating, he falls through thin ice, and starts to fall down into the freezing water... Rachel struggles to save him, but she is slow to progress in finding him... While down there, he begins to give up, and is flooded in light, but hears this clear message that says, "Make the match." He thinks it has something to do with him and Rachel and he tries to make his way up. She saves him and they try to put that crazy day behind them, but he is haunted by his near death, and the message he receives. They get married and enjoy a nice life throughout their 20's until he starts getting very sick. Fearing the worse, he denies this to himself, and to his wife, and conceals his illness until he has no choice but to go to a hospital.

His bad news, of terminal cancer, is delivered as no surprise to him, as he expects, and therefore draws this bad "luck" on himself. He can accept his fate but is puzzled by the message he received as a teenager, and seriously starts to question God and his "plans" for making a match. What good is this godly message if nothing comes from it? He decided not to tell his wife, and fears for how she will go on after his passing. He starts to have warped visions in his mind of all the other men she will date, and their intentions, and wants nothing more than Rachel’s happiness but feels he must assert some control over the situation as his time is short and he is trying to do things that make a difference.  His best friend Tommy is trying to figure out why his friend John is not around anymore, and John continues to hide his illness from him as well.  Rachel grows concerned, and then John decides that perhaps making the match was not about himself, but about arranging his wife’s and friend’s future together, as they always had so much in common, and were very good together.  He begins to drive his wife away, and steer Tommy closer, but confusion is surrounding everyone's thoughts as they do not know the entire story.  Tommy is very consoling to Rachel and their relationship does grow, as fast as John’s health and time disintegrate.  Eventually they figure it out, and Rachel rushes to the hospital, but it is too late and only gets a note from John as to why he did what he did. He dies alone, but content, thinking he had done what he was supposed to, as hard as it was for him, and his wife.

The story ends many years later with a news broadcast about a doctor. This doctor and chemist has been recognized for his work in reducing the risk of cancer, almost solving the problem that has been taking over 6 million deaths a year for so many decades.  This was Rachel and Tommy's son. He was instrumental in finding a cure for the disease that killed John.

USAProgMusic: What did you think of the story in the Voice in the Light ?

Kurt:The great thing about it, this was unbelievably cool for me, Gary had sent me demos, and not all the songs were on it and I would get the rhythmic  and Nick’s tracks or Gary’s guitar or keyboard or vocal tracks, and I had no idea what order the album would be in. And from my standpoint, I would chart out the songs, and write my part to it, or learn what I needed to play and then record it.  At first, there was so much music and these instrumental sections just take off like nothing, they are as cool as they can get.  And there was just so much music, so I was like let me break this down and play the easy songs first and so I had no idea what order the album was in till I got. And now I heard all of the lyrics for the first time, and I played the album twice in a row in my studio the first day I got it and probably for the next 10 days I did the same thing.

USAProgMusic:It’s a pretty emotional story.

Kurt:  It is. It a very powerful story.  I need to mention John W. Crawford, which I met for the first time a week ago. An intense guy.  I didn’t really know that a lot of the story was based on a lot of fact.  On a side note, my dad has always been a big supporter of what I have done and he sat down and read the lyrics to it, and he said to me “You’ve made it.”  How can you put a price on that?

USAProgMusic:How were you approached to do the Amaran’s Plight Voice in the Light album? How long was the album in the making once the go ahead was given?

Gary: John W. Crawford had some good ideas about a concept album, and needed song-writing musicians to be a part of it. I was the guitar player and keyboard player, and one of the singers, but my involvement started first as a producer and songwriter.   We set up a meeting and imagined the possibilities and tasks ahead to see if it could happen. Once we began, we worked for about a year to 16 months, but then I got busy with Shadow Gallery, and DC was busy with a tour and his Silent Force record. We resumed quite a while later and finished it off in a year, but it was over 5 years in the making.

USAProgMusic: It seems like you had a lot of involvement on this album …you wrote not only the music, played guitar and keys, but also got to write some lyrics.  Did you have a lot of freedom with what you wrote or was there a lot of input from the label/investors of the album?

Gary:  There were not a lot of demands from ProgRock Records, as they got to hear it quite developed once they came along.  John had a lot of specific ideas, naturally with the lyrics, but also with the music.  In a very interesting, unorthodox way, he had notes about the "visions" of each song. Some were very detailed in non-specific musical terms, such as "a song that sounds like Pink Floyd sorrow, and in the middle it breaks down and gets slower, high held notes for the singer to sing... the last line before the chorus, should be a long held note for the singer… starts slow, and gets faster, heavy rolling guitars in the middle."

And this was a great help to get things started, because it is always a guessing game if someone doesn't communicate well with what they want.  John basically hired DC and myself to help get his project going, and the more information he could give me as to what he was hearing, the better.  Now of course, naturally, saying "long solos section with intricate parts like Shadow Gallery or Dream Theater" and arriving at the middle 6 minutes of "shattered dreams" is two different things, and thus it allowed me a great deal of freedom to do what I thought was best, but you have to give John, who is not a musician, credit for trying to have this big picture in his head about a grand album. He and I put our heads together, and then, with DC Cooper’s invaluable help and talented contributions, we had something good started.

USAProgMusic:  Kurt, how were you involved in the making of the album? Did you write anything for it?

Kurt: Actually, the album was already written when I joined the band and Gary sent out the demos and the badass that he is the album was fully structure. There were certain parts that he requested I stuck to what was written but other than that he was pretty much ‘do your own thing.’  It was weird. For being on opposite coasts, with Nick & I [on west coast], and Gary & D.C. [on east coast], the end result was tighter than anything I’ve ever been involved with.

USAProgMusic:<Gary, was some of the music written for Amaran’s Plight songs already written for other projects?  Was it hard to write for this album knowing you had to stick with a certain plot line? 

Gary:There were sections, yes.  "Consummation Opus" was written and recorded in 1993, and I actually used some of the keyboards from that original recording for the Voice in the Light version. John’s notes were basically "start slow and build, come to a sudden stop then resolve peacefully... 3-4 minutes." Well, I remembered that song that I wrote, and always thought it could reappear again, as it was never released on a record, and so that made that song easy to compose, as it was only about finishing off a few musical details.

"Coming of Age" was based on riffs I wrote for Shadow Gallery around the Tyranny record. "Shattered Dreams" had a few parts that I was considering for a James LaBrie song for his first solo album.  "I Promise You” was something I wrote (musically) as a pop song for a new band I was forming, that is yet to record anything other than a different version of "I Promise You" called "Chemical Rush” and there may be riffs here and there from other places, but most of it, 90% of it was new.

USAProgMusic:  What was it like working with the musicians on this project?

Gary: Great. They all have super instincts and were totally together with seeing the vision of the songs and project.  I worked with DC here and in my other studio and we talked by phone a lot, shaping the songs and the direction. Kurt and Nick did their recordings out in California(2500 miles from here) and so it was phone communication and notes.. I did not fly out for those sessions, as they are both extremely capable, and very talented musicians.

Kurt:  Well, I’ll tell you with Nick, I went to the first day of his drum session and he was tracking one of the tunes, and I don’t remember which one, and he came in and also Rich Mouser which engineered his drums and he is absolutely great, and anyone who hears the album will notice it, and I felt like a little kid listening to the coolest drummer with a  great engineer.  Nick would come in and I remember at one point he looked at Shawn & I and he was like, “Was that a little too bass? Was that over the top?” and I was like “No, the more of that the better.”  And for me especially a lot of the nuisances with the rhythm section and a guy like Nick is that  you can’t get better and that sounds kind of stupid, but I never heard a drummer with a  better feel and to me it’s all about feel.  And he does this stuff, and for me as a bass player no matter where the songs are going you can add or subtract to his drumming. And I think that is what separates this album from anything I’ve done is the rhythmic value of what we are doing.

USAProgMusic: What is your take on being called a “supergroup”?

Gary: I really dislike that title.  It is SUPER if people like the record, but to brand it that way before it is done, makes me feel uneasy. Still, I understand that the record company wants people to realize that this is a project based on the experience of musicians who have all been a part of other successful bands. Maybe THAT is one alternative to saying supergroup, but it is more wordy.

Kurt:  Thanks. It’s something I told Gary earlier, this is the first album/project, whatever you want to call it, that I am 100% proud of with everybody on every level.  For a guy who grew up wanting to play great music, I love it.

USAProgMusic:The album has been out for two months now and has been getting good reviews. What are your expectations for Amaran’s Plight? Can you see yourself putting out another Amaran’s Plight album? Or was this just a one shot deal?

Gary: I really didn’t know what to think or expect. I was just glad to have finished it, after so long and so many years. It was very difficult towards the end, as most records are, to get all the final touches right, and all the details and effects and echoes in line.  But now that I have separated myself from it, I believe I like it.

I hadn't heard it in a while, but it was in my wife's car's CD player the other day, and I was pleasantly surprised at how good it sounded, if I may say that. We may do another if it appears that people continue to like and appreciate this one, but we did not go into the making of Voice In the Light thinking we would surely do another or two or three more...

USAProgMusic:  So you would like to do another album?

Kurt: Yesterday.

USAProgMusic: What were you first impressions of the Amaran’s Plight album when you were presented it to record? How do you feel about the album now? Anything you would have liked to have done differently? 

Kurt:  As far as my first impressions of the album, this was really just a very very cool situation. Shawn Gordon, President of Prog Rock Records [who had released the Under the Sun album Schematism], and I realized that Under the Sun was floundering, because basically I am Under the Sun. I think they just stopped playing. Paul & I still stay in touch, the other guys I just don’t know honestly.  But Shawn had no idea that I was into doing lots of other projects, and he asked me “You know I have this really great project and I think you should take a listen to it”, and I was like “Well, who is in the band?” and he mentioned Gary, DC, and I knew Gary’s name of Shadow Gallery fame although I had never met him, and then he said Nick is playing drums, and I said, “As in Nick D’Virgilio?” and he said,”Yes” and I said, “I am in!”   Long story short, the last gig that Under the Sun played we opened for Spock’s Beard at the Trubador, and one of those weird things that bass players go through, I watched Nick play at sound check and I was like, ‘Yeah I want to play with that guy someday.’ And would I do anything differently? Nothing. I think it’s really cool. It’s great.

USAProgMusic:  So is this your dream come true?

Kurt:  To quote Elmer J Fudd, besides a mansion and a yacht, yes.

USAProgMusic:  Kurt, how long have you been playing the bass?   Did you go to school to study music?

Kurt:  Long story longer, I began playing guitar at age 10, and stopped playing after a little while, because I was actually taking classical guitar lessons and as a 10 year old I wanted to be in the Beatles but I couldn’t hear the sound of it on an acoustic guitar, so I stopped playing and then at 15, I got hooked, and maybe younger because I always just listened to music a lot, and I heard YES, and I thought ‘Wow, that’s a bass?!’ And that’s when I started playing bass – at age 15.

USAProgMusic: What has been one of your most exciting or rewarding experiences as a musician?

Kurt: The greatest experience, besides this record, which is really a big deal on a lot of levels, there was a song that my old band wrote called “Reflections” and I received a hand written letter from this guy in Russia, and this guy basically said he made a great living as an engineer, but he was only able to buy 4 albums per year.  He bought our album, which was one of the 4, and he was actually suicidal at the time, and he had a family & everything, and one of the songs that I had co-written had gotten him through the dark moments.

USAProgMusic: Any interesting playing or practicing technique that may be coined as “Kurt Barabas’ technique”?

Kurt: Play a lot. 

USAProgMusic: On average, how much do you play each day?

Kurt:  Hours a day, generally. Sometimes when you are traveling you don’t play as much. And when you play shows, you play at the show. And especially since I broke my hand again. The guys from my last band will probably laugh because every time I come to the east coast I have my hand in a cast. It’s true in the past 5 years.  You find out how much time you spend playing because all of the sudden you have all this time on your hands and you are kind of bored.  It’s a simple rule. If you want to be good at anything, do it a lot.

USAProgMusic:  Practice makes perfect, right?

Kurt: I’ll let you know when that happens! (chuckles)

USAProgMusic: There is a rumor going around that there is a tour in the works for Amaran’s Plight?  Gary, knowing that your band, Shadow Gallery, doesn’t tour and you have a very busy schedule with your cover band and teaching facility already, is this something you would like to participate in?  What do you think the reality is that Amaran’s Plight will go live?

Gary: Yes, I would. It will be tough to manage, but I am determined to find a way.  I spent a good amount of time yesterday researching my schedule and looking for holes and I was speaking with people in Europeabout venues and timing, etc. I would love to be in Europe in March. It may not be a whole band thing, as the scheduling between all of us could be a challenge, but do not rule out the possibility of seeing some live representation of this record, and maybe some Shadow Gallery songs as well.

USAProgMusic:  Kurt, would you be interested in touring with Amaran’s Plight?

Kurt:  Yes….(chuckles). You’d like me to expand on that?  Yes, I would love to tour.  I can tell you something about this album, and it was one of those weird things that everyone was so far apart when we made the album, but the musicians and writers, and everyone involved in the record worked for the best result for the song and the record. Not your typical 2 seconds here where everyone jammed, it was like let it breathe.  And the chemistry is something I have never felt with any other group of musicians. Now I am out here in the Poconos in Pennsylvania and I am getting to know Gary, who is without a doubt the coolest guy.  And the same thing with Nick.

USAProgMusic<: And you are hoping to get everybody together and meet each other?

Kurt: I think it would be a shame if we didn’t play live and I think it’s a very cool thing we have but different.

USAProgMusic:  Well it has been getting a lot of great reviews and I wish the best for the album. Thanks for taking the time to do the interview and I hope to be hearing more from you guys.