At Progressive Rock Journal, we’re delighted to present an exclusive interview with Welcome Inside the Brain. Their new album “Re:Creation” is a powerful blend of vintage-tinged Progressive Rock and dynamic Heavy Prog elements. The band continues to captivate listeners with intricate compositions, raw energy, and a deep respect for the classic prog tradition. We thank them for sharing insights into their music and creative journey.
Let’s start from the beginning: how did Welcome Inside the Brain come together, and what were your initial goals as a band?
The band has been around under this name for ten years now. It emerged from a previous project that primarily covered songs from the great psychedelic era and alienated them more and more until we finally decided to write our own songs. At this point, Leipzig was already the band’s fixed local point of reference and, apart from me, almost all the band members in those years were from the extremely creative environment of the Leipzig University of Music and Theater. A really good environment for people who are interested in high-quality music, even if it almost completely rejects the market. The aim was always to turn our inner selves outwards and make fat, dynamic rock music haha.
Your music blends vintage Progressive Rock with powerful Heavy Prog sections. Which bands, artists, or movements have most influenced this distinctive sound?
I think what has influenced this band the most is that we all listen to extremely different music and are not typical scene connoisseurs who have eaten up the entire history of prog from beginning to end. In the founding phase, it was important for us to have an organ with us, and of course that gives us a nice basic sound into which everything else can then be tastefully integrated. Apart from that, we are all very diverse musically. In our private lives, one of us is perhaps more
likely to be found crosssing the boundaries of free jazz and avant-garde, while the other is perhaps more into classical music or a well-made pop production. When we’re on the road with the band bus, we’re usually listening to music that sounds as far removed from ours as possible and, in principle, we all have very open ears for any kind of influence.
Do you feel that non-musical influences — such as literature, cinema, or visual art — also play a role in shaping your music?
Each of us certainly has a different approach here and I can only speak for myself for now. But of course all aesthetic experiences contribute to one’s own aesthetic. A William S. Burroughs with his cut technology of writing can certainly be found just as much as a deliberately non-Hegelian dialectic, which does not move towards harmony but rather seems to end in a dystopian post-apocalypse film. The whole thing is then packaged in a humorous way, with a clear political stance, well aware of the postmodern aporias… I personally find the interplay of the present, dystopia and extremely dynamic music, on which you could easily get into a mescaline high, very exciting and here I see all kinds of links to the most diverse forms of artistic expression at all times. For a few years, I ran a semi-public smokers’ cinema that screened all kinds of strange films: from North Korean films for which the director was kidnapped abroad to Soviet space propaganda epic films that were also reused by Hollywood, whereby the socialist propaganda talks were replaced by space battles of monsters in the form of penises and vulvas…. The absurd reveals a lot about the present, and few times seem to me to have been as absurd as the current one haha. So of course, aesthetics that reveal something about the world and philosophical-literary reflections allow the world to shine in a certain light, which then needs to be captured musically….
“Re:Creation” offers a rich balance between complexity and raw energy. How did the writing and arranging process evolve for this album compared to your earlier works?
This time, we actually needed a different approach than before. Three musicians left the band at the end of 2019, which was concealed quite well by the pandemic. We took our time looking for new people and wanted to take a relaxed approach to the work. However, we were already working on song ideas while we didn’t even have a full line-up yet. There were therefore no opportunities to work on topics by jamming together as we normally do. Instead, we often used ideas that Georg (guitar) had collected on his loop station over the years. These were then usually linked together with Lennie (keys) and myself (vocals)… This time it was much more work on provisional soundtracks in advance than playing together. The structured song ideas were then worked out in a complete line-up in a week so that the band could “breathe” together and then we went into the studio.
The album features both expansive instrumental passages and strong vocal parts. How do you usually approach this balance during composition?
I believe that a band’s approach to songs must be fundamentally different if they work with vocals than if they work purely instrumentally. It’s also understandable that vocals are the most divisive aspect. Even a really powerful singer can’t really assert himself in every band arrangement. Therefore, the ratio of instrumentalists to vocals is certainly often the biggest problem in songwriting, if one is not to take a permanent back seat to the other. In addition, I’m the only one in the band who hasn’t studied jazz, so I actively demand a few harmonic or rhythmic refinements from the band, which I then want to incorporate into the vocal tracks… A few instrumentalists are often involved in the final vocal line and I’m really very grateful that my band is interested in this process and takes the time with me.
So there are primarily these three modes of working:
1) a band has to completely subordinate itself to a vocal idea – this is often the case in pop.
2) the vocals have to be completely subordinate to the band – this is often the case in metal, at least when it comes to growls
3) the relationship between the band and the vocals is a major construction site where we are constantly weighing up where what has to be oriented towards what and where the weights are always in flux. That’s often the case with us.
There’s a clear vintage flavor in your sound, but it feels fresh and modern at the same time. How did you achieve this balance in production and arrangement?
I think we all have a preference for a warm vintage sound, but we all don’t want to sound like
something that’s been done before. At the same time, the guys are involved in numerous other
projects that are produced in a much more modern way than our music… I think that came about
naturally and we want to keep it that way…
Were there particular challenges or memorable moments during the recording sessions of “Re:Creation”?
Of course, one of our main challenges is always the limited time we have together. We therefore have to work in a well-structured way and still avoid stress. Working together is always great fun, but also highly concentrated. When we were writing songs for our second album (Queen Of The Dayflies), we locked ourselves in a snow-covered mountain hut for a week and wired it from top to bottom. During the breaks, we raced down the slopes. This kind of relaxation was not possible this time. But the next production will probably see us shutting out the world together again and hopefully finding more time for the nice things together that aren’t directly connected to music.
Can you tell us more about the lyrical themes on the album? Is there a unifying concept or message running through the tracks?
As someone who doesn’t speak English as a first language and who had a personal war against his English teacher at school, these lyrics are often a compromise between what I had in mind and what I could then make sense of haha.
There was always a dystopian undertone to all our lyrics, but it often drifted into the absurd. I think this time there is less humor than on the previous albums. It was already clear to us on the previous albums that Western civilization is on a knife’s edge, which is also clearly expressed on the album cover of our first album Celebrate The Depression. Incidentally, the template for this image was Frankfurt in columns of smoke on the day of the opening of the European Central Bank and an office complex rises out of the smoke in the form of an eternally revolving chain carousel above a mob whose party is long over or probably never took place. I think Occupy Wall Street and Blockupy Frankfurt were the last major progressive uprisings that were not primarily based on identity politics. But it was always clear that the danger of fascism was very real if the demands of these movements did not have a real impact on the political and economic systems.
So that was always the threatening background mood. Since February 24, 2022 – three weeks after the recording of our album – and at the latest since Trump II, we are already a significant step further. A group of super oligarchs is currently dividing up the world and the race to the Middle Ages has begun with quantum computers and AI: Science is being dismantled and silenced, the separation of powers, law and democracy are being smashed. Language is being truncated until it is no longer useful for communication and instead the cryptic whispers of a megalomaniac clique determine the structure of perception, content and post-politics. With The Murderous Mary, we have a song about colonial structures on the album. It’s a true story about a lady elephant who was sentenced to death and hanged because she impaled her tamer in self-defense. A feudal system is being established on a global scale that is destroying everything that has made up the Enlightenment with brute force. This order of violence – and I mean this very seriously – is already at a stage where it can only be removed by the guillotine, or does anyone believe that the Republicans in the USA, the Putins or Erdogans will be peacefully deposed again? The modern state – which is what “Leviathan 21” is about, for example – is this dual structure of protection and suppression of the individual. But the Leviathan is fundamentally us – the wild, unbridled crowd. And we will not allow the dirt under the fingernails of world history to condemn us to servitude!
Your music seems perfectly suited for live performance. How important is the live dimension for Welcome Inside the Brain, and what can fans expect from your shows?
Yes, we are of course a live band first and foremost. This music, the way we make it, lives first and foremost from what happens between the musicians. The little magic of how energy builds up and discharges. A show is all the better the more identically it reproduces the preconceived idea each time. We don’t do shows!!! A concert is all the better the more it succeeds in generating the desired intensity in different ways. That’s the guiding principle for us. Of course, that can go wrong from time to time and about one in seven concerts doesn’t work because the magical “in-between” can’t happen for some reason. But the other six concerts are magical.
How do you view the current progressive rock scene, both in your country and internationally?
Is there a “current Progressive Rock scene”? I only know it from various Facebook groups where people discuss the new Steve Wilson album and the 83rd Yes bootleg recorded backwards. I find this scene quite un-prog. On the other hand, there are numerous highly interesting young bands that are on the road with really progressive aspirations and creative drive. But they hardly get a hearing. Not in the scene and not outside the scene either. I’m a concert organizer for experimental music. But an entire cultural sector is in danger of being lost. But I’m very open to other opinions and experiences.
Do you have plans for touring or festival appearances in support of “Re:Creation”?
Yes, here we can make a connection to the question you just asked, haha. Booking is an asshole. We’ll muddle through like we have for years. But the environment for smaller and medium-sized bands is getting more and more difficult. By the way, perhaps to paraphrase good old Kant: Have the courage to use your own taste! Algorithms do not react to quality but only to success. Search outside the algorithms!
What’s next for Welcome Inside the Brain? Are there already ideas for future recordings or projects?
We’ve definitely already started working on new song material – but we’re still at the very beginning. In principle, our motto is: better slow and long-lasting than fast and short-lived. So we’re taking our time and I think that’s the only way a band of this size can survive in the long term.
Thank you so much for your time and for sharing these insights with Progressive Rock Journal. We look forward to following your next steps and to hearing more of your unique take on Progressive Rock. Prog on!
Purchase “Re.Creation” on Bandcamp: https://welcomeinsidethebrain.bandcamp.com/album/re-creation
Read our review of “Re:Creation” here: [Review] Welcome Inside The Brain – Re:Creation