We are pleased to offer you in this article an interview with a duo playing Progressive Rock mixed with electronic sounds, whose new album “The Journey” was released on December 16, 2022. Please welcome Crypto Knight.

Hi, how are you?

Doing great thanks, and good to be with you. Thanks for promoting Progressive Rock music.

The genre you play is Progressive Rock with elements of electro Pop and 80s reminiscences, where does your passion for these sounds come from?

It probably stems from listening to a lot of music from the 70’s onwards. Early influences were bands like the Doors, the Beatles, Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull, and then later electronic bands like Kraftwerk, OMD and other 80’s synth bands. In a way it seems like a contradiction between long epic meandaring symphonic instrumentation and shorter structured digital sounds but they were all good in their own way. We must have absorbed all these sounds as we’ve been told that we have a hybrid style that incorporate elements
from all these genres. A progressive mindset with a more commercial feel.

You are a very complementary duo with original sounds, how did the band come about?

We met online during a music course. We discovered we had similar tastes in music and started working together. At first we were writing specifically for the course we were doing, and then decided to write in the style that came more naturally to us and like the music we listen to. One of the first things we came up with was a 20 minute concept piece (which we haven’t yet released), and that made us realize we could work well together in this style.

Your new album “The Journey” was released on December 16, 2022 how would you describe this work?

It’s a bit more focused than our debut album “The Quest” which had a more varied style to it. On this new album we decided to be more cohesive and give it a more progressive feel. We chose the title “The Journey” because we wanted to take the listener on an adventure, like picking up a book and reading different stories in each chapter. Each piece of music is different from the one before and we like to incorporate lot’s of different elements, sounds and subject matter.

Long tracks and sophisticated musical textures in addition to the lyrics, what are the themes of the album?

The overall theme is a one of exploring different experiences both musically and lyrically. We try not to repeat ourselves so that although we may have our own sound it isn’t predictable. We choose different subject matters and different music structures for each song to try and keep the listener engaged and make it interesting. Some songs are historical and some are futuristic but they all tell a story and on this album it’s about taking you to different places and circumstances.

the tracks are engaging and elaborate, how does the songwriting take place?

The music is written and recorded by Dave who will then send it on to Tim who writes the lyrics and records the vocals. Sometimes when the music is written Dave will have a specific theme in mind and suggest certain lines or ideas. Other times it will be left for Tim to come up with something that he’d like to write about. Once that is done it’s fine tuned until both are happy with the results then mixed and produced by Dave,

Besides the music, the lyrics are also sophisticated, what themes do they deal with?

The lyrics cover all different subjects. We see the songs as individual stories so they range from made up fantasy tales to historical biographies. Some songs deal with events and some with emotions. We can illustrate this with a short explanation of the songs on “The Journey”
Track 1: Ride On (A fantasy tale of a historic female outlaw / Robin Hood like heroine)
Track 2: Good Knights (A story of Crypto Knight’s musical journey, creativity and mission statement)
Track 3: Down to Earth (A reminder about staying grounded and remembering your roots)
Track 4: Castaway (A message about hope, optimism and new beginnings)
Track 5: The Inklings (A reminiscence of the Eagle & Child pub in Oxford where CS Lewis and JR Tolkien
would meet and discuss their writing)
Track 6: Surfing the Ether (A Sci-Fi adventure of a being in another realm)
Track 7: Cascades (A man trying to escape – himself / others / fears, or something else)
Track 8: Exodus Finalis (A tale about the ending of one era and the beginning of a new one)

Many of your fans and our readers wonder if there will be a chance to hear your music live, do you have any plans in this regard?

We’d love to play live at some point in the future as it’s great to have that interaction and feedback with the audience. At the moment however it is an online collaboration because apart from being in different locations, Dave plays all the instruments so it would be dificult from a technical point of view. We would never rule out the possibilty of being able to play live though as it’s something we’d both like to do.

Yours is a very interesting album full of ideas, do you already have plans for future releases?

Yes we do, we have lot’s of unreleased tracks and are continously writing and recording. We decided after the first album that instead of releasing longer albums occassionally, we would release shorter albums more frequently. That way they are more focused and current. We have our 20 minute concept piece “Union Square” that we will release in it’s own right, as well as a group of more acoustic sounding songs for an E.P. and then more albums.

The music market has changed a lot in the last few years, how difficult is it to establish yourself with a more sophisticated music genre like yours?

The music creation and recording is the easy part for us. The difficult part is the marketing and promotion. With all the music that’s out there now, It’s all about trying to find your audience. That’s where websites like yours are a great help in promoting and showcasing the music to other listeners. It’s especially gratifying when websites and Radio stations pick up on our music and present it to a wider audience who in turn
recommend us to others. That’s how it’s been growing organically for us rather than being hyped.

Change is constant both in music but especially in Prog, how do you see the future of the genre?

It’s always evolving. There will always be a market for nostalgia so a lot of those classic bands from the 70’s will remain popular, but then the next generation takes that on board and adapts it with more modern influences like the neo-prog bands of the early 80’s. Although Prog may be a minor interest it will always be around and have a resurgence at various times. Hopefully bands like ours that incorporate Prog elements in their sound will bring new listeners who will want to explore the genre and discover more. As long as
there are bands that are creating, Rado stations that are playing, and websites that are informing, then Prog should remain alive and healthy.

What advice would you give to a young band approaching the modern music scene with Progressive sounds?

Follow your heart and do what you love doing. The key is to be persistent and don’t give up. There will be setbacks and people who will criticize, but if you believe in yourself and keep going you will become stronger, improve you skills, and overcome the barriers. There’s an audience for everything out there it’s just a case of finding where it is.

A curiosity, do you have any other passions or artistic projects outside of music?

For Dave it’s Travelling, running and cycling. He also did 10 years of acting in Hollywood.
For Tim it’s also travelling, music collecting and house Improvements.

As usual, I’ll leave the last question free to allow you to talk about any topic of your choice not touched upon in the previous questions.

We’ve both written and performed music all our lives in different bands or solo and never gave up on it. Don’t be discouraged if success doesn’t come immediately, use it as a learning experience. Maybe the next piece of music you write will be a masterpiece, maybe the next person you collaborate with will be the magic key, you never know unless you try. We’re always looking to reach out and increase our audience and explore new musical ideas so it would be nice to have our music heard in film, T.V. or commercials. And
finally we’d like to thank our followers for their support and encouragement, as well as the Websites and Radio shows that have brought our music to a wider audience.

I thank Crypto Knight for the pleasant interview, wishing them all the best for the continuation of their musical career.

Lineup:

Dave Johnson / Music & Production
Tim Malugin / Vocals

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