Parsons' Latest Project -- 'Stereotomy': Wide-range Personality
Billboard Magazine
By Ethlie Ann Vare
LOS ANGELES Alan Parsons is an unlikely rock star. He doesn't sing on his
records. He doesn't play any instruments. In most cases, he doesn't
write the material. His band never tours, and has neither an identifiable
lead voice nor a guitar hero. Yet "Stereotomy" (Arista) is Alan Parsons'
10th album, and the title cut is popular both as an album track and a
video. (Naturally, Parsons doesn't appear in the video.)
"The original idea was for us to model ourselves after the great film
directors and producers," says Eric Woolfson, Parsons' manager and
partner. "We anticipated that music, which normally follows film, would
become a producers' medium just as the film business has become a
directors' medium."
If "Stereotomy" has no particular voice--Gary Brooker, John Miles, and
Graham Dye all sing leads--it does have the identifiable Parsons sound.
Parsons, producer of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" and engineer for
the Beatles' "Abbey Road," imposes his vision as helmsman on all his
productions.
"I think artists have a problem when they make an album that has the
same vocal sound throughout," muses Parsons. "It's hard for any listener
to spend 40 minutes in the company of a single voice. That's why
compilation albums do so well: you get variety."
"Not having a fixed personality," admits Woolfson, "does mean listeners
don't immediately know 'this is the Alan Parsons Project.' But quality
itself is a valuable market commodity."
Parsons' Compact Discs have been consistent sellers--even though the
band is currently embroiled in a dispute with Arista over CD
distribution--and Parsons says that CD was just what the doctor ordered
for his digital recording techniques.
"We made a major commitment to digital format in the studio," says
Parsons, "recording 'Stereotomy' all digital from day one. I'm now
building what may be the first 48-track, digital home studio."
"In fact," adds Woolfson, "digital may be the salvation of the entire
industry, as far as being quality product, bringing the studio sound into
people's homes."
With more AOR outlets broadcasting from CD players, Parsons has been
given yet another boost by his mainstay, album radio. Never a consistent
hit single artist, the Project has relied upon AOR for exposure.
"Thank God for American radio," smiles Parsons. "We fit into this
category of AOR very naturally, and they've been enormously supportive of
us--not just in playing our product, but in giving us objective criticism
which we perhaps lack, not having any touring activities."
Although there are still no immediate plans for a Parsons Project tour,
the bandleaders aren't entirely opposed to the concept. "I have a dream,"
says Parsons, "of working with my hero in the film business, Douglas
Trumball, and putting something together from a sound and visual point of
view that can be a dynamic, even a totally new form of entertainment."
In the meantime, Parsons will again be producing outside artists when he
completes his home setup, a task that will mean new compromises for the
audio auteur.
"It's very easy to become too locked into my own vision," says Parsons.
"I feel strongly about what I do, and one can become dictatorial. But you
have to be responsive; music is meant to be a communication."
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