Arjen Lucasseen has explained why he overcame his concerns about playing live to tour with The Gentle Storm collaborator Anneke van Giersbergen.
They’ve just released their album The Diary, which contains 10 tracks delivered in “gentle” and “storm” versions, and followed it with a handful of acoustic performances in Europe.
But Lucassen – who won’t take part in the full-power Gentle Storm shows fronted by Giersbergen – initially didn’t even want to play the stripped-down concerts.
In the exclusive Prog video interview he says: “I played live for 15 years when I was young, a long time ago. I see myself more as a composer and producer; that’s what I’m good at. I don’t see myself as a performer, because I’m not very good at it, and I get stage fright and stuff like that.”
He continues: “When Anneke asked me to do a little acoustic tour, at first I was like, ‘Nah.’ But then I thought about it, and I thought, ‘Damn it, we worked on this album for a year. Everything turned out right about it. It has to succeed – and I’ll do anything to make it work.’”
Find out more in the video below. The Gentle Storm premiered their video for Shores Of India with Prog last week. The Diary is available via InsideOut in a variety of bundles via Lucassen and van Giersbergen’s websites. The Gentle Storm visit the UK next month without Lucassen:
Apr 23: London Garage
Apr 24: Leicester Musician
Apr 25: Manchester Roadhouse
