In 2015, Baroness released their fourth album, Purple – the last to feature guitarist Peter Adams, who went on to focus on Valkyrie. Before that, though, he told Prog about how he discovered Camel – and the musical ambition Andy Latimer’s band had inspired in him.
“My parents raised me on good music in Virginia. They had a massive vinyl collection that I spent my youth thumbing through, so I got to listen to everything from The Allman Brothers to The Rolling Stones and tons of classic rock and blues.”
But my older brother Jake had the biggest influence on my musical taste. I knew about Pink Floyd when I was a kid, I love Gentle Giant, I’ve always liked Steve Hackett’s solo stuff, and Focus as well – I can really relate to all that – but Jake was the one who turned me on to Camel.
The first thing I heard of theirs was the live version of The Snow Goose, from A Live Record. It was recorded at the Royal Albert Hall; I think it’s an amazing record. It took me a minute to get into it, but once it had clicked, I was a major fan from then on.
At first I didn’t realise it was live. When the clapping came in, I was like, ‘This is live? That’s incredible!’ I had to hear the rest of Camel – I had to know what else this band had done, where they were going, what they were doing.
I went straight through their back catalogue. I really love their first self-titled album and a lot of stuff off Rain Dances but if I had to choose one, I’d say Moonmadness is probably my favourite. I love the flow of that album.
Right when people started carrying iPods, I borrowed one for a flight and I put Moonmadness on it. I remember it was a brilliant day, flying through the clouds and it was just the perfect soundtrack. I was listening to Air Born thinking, ‘This is great!’
With Baroness, we’ve always had proggy bits but I would say it’s less and less these days compared to the past. I’ve thought about composing something on The Snow Goose scale though – I love that idea of taking something like a book, and trying to score it.
I read a lot of Robert Ruark and Peter Capstick, so who knows? Maybe we could do something with Hemingway’s Green Hills Of Africa? That’s the kind of stuff I love. Maybe one day…”
