Dear readers, we are pleased to offer you in this article an interview with a Norwegian band with Progressive Rock sounds, whose new album we recently published a review of. We welcome The Windmill.
Hi, how are you?
“Very well thank you.“
The band was formed in 2001, how did the project come about and why did you choose the name The Windmill?
“The progressive rock band The Windmill was initiated around years 2000/2001, as an occasional prog project just for the fun of it, as a side project next to various other bands that the members at that time were involved in. The background for
both the band and the name is a “revelation” Keyboardist Jean Robert Viita had somewhere in Germany in the mid 90s. Above a hilltop, a windmill farm appeared, and Jeanni discovered that the in the windmill’s rotors seemed to rotate in time with Camel’s “Moonmadness” playing on the car stereo. There and then the seed of The Windmill was sown!“
You play Progressive Rock with Symphonic traits, how did your passion for these sounds come about?
“Many of us grew up in the 70-ies which was dominated by different symphonic prog bands such as Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes, Camel, Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant etc… As many of us also started our first band-projects around that time, it was inevitable to be influenced by the rich sound these bands managed to create, thus leading young people like us to try an replicate more or less the same kind of sound and feeling. That has stuck with many of us since.“
The new album “Mindscapes” was released in July 2024, how would you describe this work?
“It was a long and slow process which among other factors, was hampered by a small virus that closed the whole world down for a couple of years. But as soon as we were able to continue the process, and start meeting again it went quite
smoothly. A couple of us had ideas which sounded quite inspiring. All the guys came up with ideas as to how to arrange everything, and most of the recordingswere done in our rehearsal venue, and in the members respective home studios.“
Long instrumental textures with guitar-keyboard-flute interlacing, how does the creative process of your music take place?
“It differs form one song to another. Sometimes one of us comes up with a recorded demo, and all the melodies and lyrics are already decided upon. For the arrangements all the guys are involved, and mostly the different solos are created by the actual musician himself. In that way we manage to keep up the Windmill sound. It also happens that we create a whole piece of music together, for example in a jam session. Normally the lyrics are written by the main composer. We were so lucky that we had a good friend living in Edinburgh, who wrote some lyrics for us, but unfortunately he passed
away during the covid lock down. Not from the covid itself though. We still got some lyrics from him that might be used later.“
You offer prog sounds with long instrumental textures and intense vocals, what themes do the lyrics deal with?
“That really depends from one tune to another, but very often just human thoughts, feelings and small or bigger problems we tend to struggle with on a daily basis. Real and fantasy.“
Many of your fans and our readers are wondering if there will be a chance to hear your music live, do you have any plans in this regard for the ll near future?
“We really hope so, but unfortunately that is not up to us. We have a small management that takes care of requests for gigs, so if we are being contacted by gig and festival organizers we will always consider whether we can afford it, and of course if the time permits. At the moment we have some requests pending, which will be decided upon in a short while. There will be one festival here in Norway called We Låve Rock where we will celebrate our 25-years with a special concert. This will take place in Asker, just 20 minutes by train or car from the centre of Oslo Friday April the 25 th .
More info can be obtained from visiting our web-site www.thewindmill.no and our Facebook page. Search for The Windmill and you’ll find us and more information there. We Låve Rock also have their own Facebook-page, so search for We Låve Rock festival for details and line up.“
How has the way of experiencing live performances changed from the earlt ‘00s to today and what has changed for you?
“Due to the fact that more people are being aware of the prog scene, and that more young prog rock bands are entering the scene it tends to be a bit more people attending the festivals end gigs nowadays. But there could gladly still be a lot more. Another significant change would be that the stage shows and lighting-effects has improved since the introduction of led-lights and modern technology. For us the main changes must be that we are able to play on bigger stages with greater audience.“
Do you have any special anecdotes or memories you would like to tell about your long career?
“There are quite a few memorable moments during that time. Of course we remember the first release. Highlights are also the following releases, but the first one will always be special. Another highlight must be the first appearance on the NOTP festival in Loreley, Germany. Also quite amusing is the fact that we have been able to share the stage and meet some of our idols from the 70-ies. And not to forget the amazing reviews of all of our albums during the past years. We will never get used to that, and it’s always an exciting and agonizing time just after a new album-release.“
This is your fourth studio album, how has your sound evolved over the years?
“We are really not sure about how it has evolved. We think we still have more or less the same sound as always. That is hopefully a sound which can be recognized as The Windmill sound. Of course the recordings itself has become much better due to the facts that we are still learning how to proceed, and also the studio equipment has become better. And not to forget the amazing Karl Groom from Threshold, Shadowland , and Strangers on a Train just to mention a few, who has mixed and mastered our two latest albums. In our opinion that made a huge impact for the sound on the albums.“
Norway is one of the most interesting countries for Progressive Rock in recent years, how do you see the modern music scene in your country and more generally in the world?
“There seem to be a change in the music industry to the better. It might be wrong but the impression is that more and more artists prefer to use real instruments again, in combination with some computer based effects live. Also more young people start to listen to prog in different ways. We now have prog-rock, prog-pop, prog-metal and so on. It might be a kind of counter reaction against machine produced music which has dominated for many years now. A phenomena that is not so good is the introduction of download possibilities and streaming areas. Take for instance Spotify, which is a great arena for unknown artists and bands to show themselves. But as a “small” artist there is absolutely no possibility to earn anything from all the streamings done. All the money goes to the most streamed artists who normally already has great earnings. That is counter-productive for the smaller ones so they might not be able to afford any more recordings without a record label behind them to help financing. So the only way to be able to continue releasing music is to sell CDs and vinyl-records. The latter has gained new popularity among the younger audience as well as the older ones, and that is really nice.“
What advice would you give to young artists approaching music with more sophisticated sounds like yours?
“Keep going and don’t give up, even if you don’t become rich after the first year. You might never be rich from making and or playing music, but it makes wonders for your soul and mind. It’s a fantastic hobby to have no matter what your daily work is.“
Do you have any other activities or artistic passions outside of music?
“Some of the guys are avid golfers, others collect watches and love to go skiing during winter. Some of us are aviation-geeks and must read everything that there is to read and watch concerning aviation.“
I thank the band for the interview and wish them all the best for the continuation of their artistic career.
“Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to participate.“
Read our Revirew of the album here: [Review] The Windmill – Mindscapes