Andy Tillison wanted to make sure The Tangent’s eighth album A Spark In The Aether was more fun than its predecessor – in order to avoid being pigeonholed as a downbeat band.
Le Sacre Du Travail, launched in 2013, drew acclaim for its strong concept and musicianship, but he didn’t want to continue in the same direction.
Tillison tells Prog: “Le Sacre was ambitious. It was very complex, and it took ages to write and put together.
“I’m proud of what we achieved with that record – but at the same time it put The Tangent into a kind of Roger Waters arena of ‘Is this what they’re gonna do? Be eternally depressing and spend the rest of their lives commenting on how bad things are?’
“I thought, ‘Fuck that! There are plenty of life experiences, some of them are downers and some of them are uppers. Why not celebrate good times too?’”
That’s one of the reasons Tillison indulged his love of disco music on A Spark In The Aether. “It’s well known among Tangent fans that I’m an absolute total disco freak,” he states.
And he doesn’t feel he’s exploring new territory by bringing fun into the music. “Prog rock is the Breaking Bad of rock music,” he says. “Whoever portrayed this as being some kind of pretentious broomstick-up-your-ass music? Honestly, it’s the most fun music in the world.”
