Hi Vince and Brian… thanks so much for giving us a so different and good musical work!

V: We are very glad you found us and thank you for taking the time to listen.

B: Thanks for appreciating the efforts.

First of all can you give a small bio of the band so that people can be aware with the band?

V: Brian and I have been working together for years. We played in pretty successful cover band for years. When we finally stopped beating our heads against the wall, Brian went into the studio and I started my family. A couple years down the road Brian started Balance and after the first release and his great experience working with Steve Morse, Brian knew he wanted Rod and Dave to play on the next album. He wanted this to be good - but also very original. If Brian had his way each song would have a different singer, different players, etc... as you can tell he likes all styles. But he also knows that would not get him the band sound or audience he was looking for so he called me and we put the plan together for BII.

I know that it took you almost two years to produce this CD... what happened all this time? Why did it take you so much time? Did you want to release a flawless album by any means?

V: Brian and I went in different directions for a while and then looking back realized we had most of our success in music working together.

B: It was a long process, which actually took a lot longer than two years. The song “Reptilian Crawl” for example was recorded on three occasions with different arrangements, keys, singers and musicians.  It wasn’t that we wanted it flawless; we just didn’t want to have to make excuses.

You are an independent band... do you like to work better that way? Have any music companies offered you a contract that you turned down due to bad terms?

V:  We have talked with several companies and we knew based on our conversations and the money we invested into BII that only a major label could afford us. They will not likely take the chance because of us “unknowns”, so we set off on our own.

B: We had no choice initially in that three of our members were basically unknown in the recording community, and record companies want security on their investment and at the time we didn’t offer them that. We know the terms/deals are pretty biased to the label’s advantage, and while we could afford to make a conscientious choice we chose on the side or art at this point and are test marketing it to see if it makes sense to do another one in this manor. This isn’t to say that what comes next from the band won’t be a commercially biased recording on a label, just the second one wasn’t.

I know that Andrew at Melodicrock.com is doing an excellent promotion of the CD and is so encouraging the fact that bands can have publicity without having to bow at any big or small labels of music industry. Do you believe that internet can change the ways that an artist or a band can promote itself or its work in our days?

V: It is people like Andrew and you that give power to the internet and that gave me the faith that we might actually find our audience. The power of the web is amazing, if used correctly. We are still learning but hope with people like you we can find our balance - ha- ha!! J

B: I love Andrew, his support has been overwhelming from starting with the Melodic Rock CD #1 until today. I’ve promised him, if we play live, I’m flying him to the gig! Everything recording-wise in the United States has changed since de-regulation of radio. Now the major market radio stations are owned by record companies. Exactly what shouldn’t have happened did, and now the radio waves are controlled by accountants with marketing objectives rather than artists with artistic objectives. That’s part of why we are trying to appeal more globally in that outside of the US is a better climate for what we do than inside, except on label’s like Magna Carta and Steve Vai’s Favored Nations.

Before we talk about the album I want to know why did you name the band Balance II?

V: I hate the name – it came with the band. I like the idea behind the name. Brian told me how he wanted to find balance in his life that would include family, work and music. Life was very hard on the job and family. Writing and recording seemed to bring that balance we both wanted.

B: I have the band identity trademarked from 1-40 for subsequent releases - 40? I’m dreaming there! Long after the first disk was sold, I found out about the New York based band Balance with Bob Kulich. I contacted Bob to get his blessing, but never got a call back after leaving a few messages, so I figure we’ll be known as Balance - the roman numerals are silent and are to denote releases - except legally.

Was it hard to work with some artists that are considered as veterans in rock music?

B: That’s the very best part!!! If you have any success in this business and are still around after 20+ years it’s because guys of this caliber are exceptional human beings in addition to unbelievably skilled craftsmen, so it enhances every aspect of things.

V: I agree with Brian on this one, that was the best part. Thom is as good as they get in the studio. I learned a ton and had more fun than just about anything I have ever done in music. Rod and Dave set the bar. When we did the rhythm tracks we knew we had our work cut out for us to keep the rest of the work at such a high level. This was hard for those of us who don’t live in the studio but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

When you started composing songs what kind of music do you had in mind to play?

B: All kinds, whatever it took to make the songs work. I don’t believe in boxing yourself in and saying “I’m a one-dimensional rock and roll artist” and whenever anybody buys my music they know 90% of what they’re getting. The wider and taller the box - the better. Ideally I’d like it to change things up all the time like Alan Parsons.

V: Brian played me “Let Us Pray” and I thought this could be fun. When we sat down and started working our way through the music we both thought this could be good. Brian has a great sense of movement and musical change and imagination in his work and he loves breaking the rules. We felt that if we had the right band, vocal style, recording style, these would bring us our continuity and allow Balance to play just about any style we wanted and people would know BII from the first bar of any tune.

Do you think that many people can appreciate this strong and “difficult” music that you play? You know your album needs many listens in order to get into it. We’re living in a fast age... everything must be done fast... music, meals, dates etc. Do you believe that is easy to make someone spend some hours in listening to your music in order to become one with the album as people used to do some decades ago?

V: We decided that if we like it, not being from Mars, we could find an audience that would appreciate it. I think there are some tunes that are easy for anyone to like “You Asked”, “Miracles” and others that would take the listener on a ride. There is a lot of ear candy in this CD that will bring even the most casual fan back for more. I agree this is not typical but I give people who love music more credit. If you can sit through 2 hours of some of the crap movies they put out today, you can take 50 minutes and give BII a ride.

B: Well, that’s a good assessment of the battle we’re fighting... For 10 years straight every single night before I went to bed, I had a tape that was the Dixie Dregs on one side and Bill Bruford’s “One Of A Kind” on the other that I listened to. The only way that kind of artistic integrity happens is if you take a stand, and make a statement, so we tried our best to be inspired by the things that inspired us in the first place. The list is virtually endless with this bunch of guys...

Would you like to tell us about your influences, presenting thus the musical stigma of the group, to someone who hasn’t listened to the album?

V: I think this is Rock, played well by great players with a couple of twists and turns along the way. We grew up on Queen, Eagles, Yes, Boston , Journey , Kansas etc . I hear some of all of that in the mix.

B: There are a lot of influences and the list is just about endless ranging from sitting in College recitals to punk bars and biker bars. The path has been very varied, though I think you could lump most of what we do in some form of “rock” category. There is R&B, Folk, Rock, Fusion, Progressive, Jazz and Stadium rock overtones.

What are the expectations from this album? Is it going to be a new album soon or so?

V: First I am glad we made it. You can’t imagine the time, energy and money it takes to make something competitive and interesting. It is very hard to break through all the noise out there. If we can move enough units to make our money back and “break even” we can make another. That is all I want to see happen.

B: Our only expectation or desire is to have people “get it”, when they do that’s what it’s all about for us. I started writing the new album, but it’s going to be a while until we decide what’s going on exactly.

Is it too much to ask for a comment about each song of the album? Just a line or two.

V: “How Many”: Rough vocal, cool flow.

“You Asked”: Naked.

“Reptilian Crawl”: Old Queen.

“When Love Comes”: Fun ride.

“The Way We Do”:  Dueling Banjo’s.

“When I Fall Down”: Love takes two.

“Carry Me Home”: Haunting.

“Burn”: My favorite.

“Miracles”: Radio Ready.

“Let Us Pray”: Great riff.

B: “How Many”: Great bass playing, love the vocals.

“You Asked”: Naked, scary playing with two of the best musicians in the world, while I’m playing a mando-dulcimer that has four strings and is the size of ukulele.

“Reptilian Crawl”: A fun one lyrically, magnum opus production.

“When Love Comes”: Written for Neal Morse of Spock’s Beard to sing.

“The Way We Do”: Freebird for the year 2005.

“When I Fall Down”: Pop on steroids.

“Carry Me Home”: Love lost.

“Burn”: Two sides of burn, the loss and then the redemption through Jazz.

“Miracles”: Happy music orchestration.

“Let Us Pray”: Sad story about a dead homeless man I watched laying there...

Which tracks on the album are your personal favorites and why?

V: “Burn”, the lyrics are personal and the music grabs me.

B: “Burn”, because there isn’t another song like it.

What do you think of the album’s artwork? I think that it is very erotic. Who’s idea was? And the beautiful lady on the cover and on the booklet is she a model or something?

B: She’s model, my dad is a photographer, the idea was mine originally to work with a model friend of mine with her photographer boyfriend to have a picture represent each song (not naked)... well she ended up not being able to do it (maybe on BIII though!), and my dad has a huge portfolio of his work, so once I started thumbing through it, I found one particular model who’s pictures I could work with that loosely resembled what I was thinking. All the songs are all about relationships. The artwork, and graphic art work are as good as it gets in my opinion.

V: Like my brother said, “Give a guy a naked lady, great music and a beer, how can you go wrong”. Truly, I love the cover, Brian’s dad is a wonderful artist.

What inspires you in general in order to write music? Are there any boundaries on your musical horizon?

B: Inspiration comes from everywhere, but without getting to heavy hopefully, I’m just a conduit from God, as it comes out sometimes with no reasons as to why and I struggle to keep up with writing it down before it vanishes into thin air. I stopped analyzing it and just accept I’m only a partial owner in what’s going on in my brain.

V: Music stops me cold. I can’t drive with the radio on because I get lost in a tune and then literally get lost. Brian has a great gift and we work well together. I love the creative process and am happy to contribute any way I can.

How far do you think that you can go with Balance II?

V: We are getting great reviews, this is nice but no band can survive without an audience. If we find them and they want more we will be happy to go back into the studio. I would also love to take this band on tour.

B: I don’t think there is a stopping point; as long as somebody is talking about it, somebody will hopefully get inspired to do something about it, like buy it! The best fan letter we got was where somebody was pointing out how they occasionally buy indie albums on the basis of a writers review and have always been disappointed until they bought Balance II. That’s a huge compliment... and very humbling.

Are there any details about the album that you would like to share? Funny stuff, way of recording it?

V: Our engineer Bryan Mitchell is a forensic pathologist “CSI” “Dead People” never a day without a great story. I loved it that we wanted to grill Rod and Dave about music and they just loved hearing Bryan stories. Also we worked late into the night many a day and Brian would be at the back of the studio “we think sound a sleep”. Bryan and I would think we had a good take and say that will work and he pops up from his slumber and says “no - do it again”. Bryan and I would be “no way”, that was solid. Sure enough we would go to play back and sure enough “sleepy” got it right. Oh and Joel can’t finish a thought in less than a day.

B: Joel talk’s non-stop, and it was driving Vince crazy, and they love to pick on each other and are excellent at it, so that pretty much was our entertainment, never a dull moment with those two around!

The reaction from the press must have been more than good, right? Have you been expecting it?

B: The press support has been amazing!!! We weren’t expecting it in any way, shape or form I couldn’t be more amazed. Our interest was doing the best we could all things considered, we didn’t expect that the press would get it one bit, it’s a shock to be honest, but I’m sure happy about it!

V: No way, I thought I was going to get crushed. AOR, Melodic Rock is kind of like Star Search, how many high C’s can you sing and how long and loud can you scream. Brian wanted to break the rules and Thom was a huge help making the vocals on this project unique. I am sure some people won’t get it, but most have loved the work. To be compared to Queen, Yes, Toto, Rundgren the Eagles is unreal.

Are there any plans or an extended tour? By the way, what group would you like to tour with??

V: I would love to do this music live, if we can find an audience we will play for them. Any time, any where!

B: There are some things being kicked around. The band I’d most like to tour with would be Toto. I think there is a common thread of hard hitting rock music and serious musicianship.

And some weird questions now to relax somehow!!! Which are the top 5 rock albums of all time according to you and why?

V: I hate that question because it does depend on the day and what kind of party is going on. I just love so many styles and artists I would hate to pick just a few.

B: It depends on the day... today I’m pretty tired, so the list would leave people scratching their heads. On our balanceweb.com site I answered that question, and I think it’s still the same way I feel.

Do you prefer to get good scores from the press or to please your fans with every new album?

V: Press is people too, who listen to a lot of music and if we stand out to them, they write good things, that brings interest and interest gets people listening. With all the noise on there we need both. I am happy to get anyone to listen.

B: I’m really starting to believe they both can happen if I close my eyes and click my heals together three times.

If you were obliged to give just one album to extraterrestrials that which would represent the whole human music... which album would it be and from which band?

V: Balance II! This CD gives you just about every feel E.T. could want.

B: It would be Balance II! They would be forever confounded as to why humans would value something like distorted vibrating guitar strings.

Do you believe that rock music it’s on its rise again?

V: I do hear more old-school influence in more and more music. I don’t think rock ever took a break, I think the business of music is just stupid sometimes.

B: I don’t think it left, I think the fans did because it started curving away from the heart and took a u-turn into dancing visuals with computer music backdrops.

What is missing from today’s music industry and most albums are missing that quality that they used to have back in the 70’s and 80’s?

V: There is not enough depth. You have the same people doing all the writing, engineering, playing, etc… It is a bitch, if you are a nobody to get anybody to listen. In the Midwest there are very few opportunities play live and build your chops and an audience. Young bands need a place to grow, to suck and get better.

B: Humans used to play on the “old” recordings.

Which are the things that piss you off from today’s music industry?

V: It is controlled by too few people and or companies. The record company owns the radio stations and the movie company and the TV station and so on. It is very hard for anyone on the outside to get inside.

B: I except the equation, there is now a semi-level playing field if somebody has the perseverance to do battle with the odds and has enough time and money to put into promotion.

Do you prefer the 70’s era of music or not?

V:  I like it all. There are some very talented people making music today.

B: Nope, like every decade equally though I did like ‘67-90 productions better than what followed after in general but not always...

What would you tell to someone to convince him to buy your album instead of hundreds others that are being released every month?

V: BII is different. The songs are well written, it has big harmonies, great audio, and it is artistic, poetic and well played. I tell folks that you may not like every song but you will appreciate the music. If you take the time to listen, it will bring you back.

B: BII offers some jumbled answers to the meaning of life, it also audio-Viagra!! J

Do you believe that is so easy for a band to differ in today’s music industry than in the past? And if yes what shall it do in order to achieve it?

V: It is very hard to be heard if you are different. Music is all about money, units sold, and that’s fine everyone needs to make a living. It is just the people making decisions seem to think everyone lives in the same box. The need for money leaves very little room for art.

B: Bands all have to be cookie-cutter in order to get a label’s attention. It makes for boring music that we’ve all sorta heard before.

Which is the most over-rated band today?

V: Music is rated by your pocket book. If people buy it, you are the best. If they don’t buy, you suck. Neither is typically true, but my hats off to anyone who can make a go of it in music today.

B: Any band that is selling well is successful, not over-rated to me. I wonder what people are paying $200 a ticket for in many instances though, I’d rather go buy a distortion box, echo or shop for some accidental finds at pawn and resale shops.

Which band do you consider that can take a leading part in rock music in the future?

V: BII.

B: Spock’s Beard when Neal Morse was in it, Porcupine Tree, Dream Theatre are a few that are pushing in all directions that I’m impressed with.

Imagine that your wife is selling your whole album-collection just to buy for herself an expensive ring. How would you react? J

V: It would be need to be a cheap ring.

B: I’d be fine with it, I haven’t listened to an album in years. She looks at her hands all the time.

Is there something you would like to be questioned, but I didn’t ask??

B: No, you hit most of the things that come to mind.

V: I like tall, leggy blonds that have a great personality!! Just kidding, very good questions.

All my best wishes for the future mates! Keep up the good work! Leave a message to Grande Rock readers for the end...

V: Thanks – back at you.

B: Thanks for taking the time to read this interview! Buy it please, you’ll be glad you did, or re-package it with plastic wrap and give it to a co-worker for Christmas!

by Thanos Aggelakis