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There's a back story to the name. I was going to publish it at some point but I'm still waiting for the right time to do this. Basically Brighteye Brison is our overseer and muse if you will. This will become clearer in portions, beginning with the song "The Battle Of Brighteye Brison" which displays a part of the mythology, in no chronological order.

Ofcourse the influences of the great 70's bands include so many. I grew up listening to jazz music, John Coltrane is my first musical inspiration, and got into prog in high school. If I have to pick one band though it has to be Gentle Giant.
I believe vocal arrangements to play a big part. When all instrumental parts are carefully arranged it feels natural to me to think about the vocal possibilities as well. Not only throwing in harmonies to make the chorus (or something) stand out but to create a good balance throughout the whole piece. Todd Rundgren is a master at doing this. In his band Utopia vocal harmonies were used to perfection since all four members sang and also shared the lead vocals. This concept really appeals to me. Rather than having one person in the front Utopia was a bunch of musicians all playing their part, even sharing song writing. Even from the start this is how I wanted Brighteye Brison to function as well.

Cheers!
/Linus

Great to hear that, aith01!
What we know for sure is that we are going to record once more for Colossus. It's a new track to be added on the upcoming "Dante's Paradiso" album. Since we did the track for "Dante's Inferno" this feels like a fun project.
There are always songs in the making, and songs that are already finished for that matter. Right now we focus on getting out and play as much as possible and I hope that we will be able to release something from our live performance in the near future.

/Linus

Hi again! Nice with all your questions, I enjoy having contact with fans.

Yes, that´s me singing in the beginning of "The Harvest" (and the rest of the song as well, when it´s one person singing...).

I use Cubase as my DAW, with almost only Universal Audio UAD Plugins. They have recreated a lot of the old tools in the digital world in a impressive manner, so I´m quite happy with the results I can get out of it. I started in the analog domain, so there´s still an old magic there that I´m very fond of, but still I´m happy with the digital domain as well. Both has it´s advantages and disadvantages, I guess...
I do have two Roland Space Echo 301 and 501 units I try to use as much as possible although UA has quite a good emulation of a 201.
I´ve put most of my money in purchasing good microphones, preamps and converters to get a great sound into the computer, if you have that it really doesn´t matter what tools you use to tweak the little things that needs a bit of work...it´s 90 percent in the playing, arrangements and songwriting anyway :-)

Regards/

Per

Hey, thanks for posting again guys! It's great getting to talk and ask you questions.

I think the epics on "Believers and Deceivers" are my favorite songs (although the shorter songs are still very good, and I still listen to the whole disc). It's the kind of CD I would use as an example of why current symphonic prog is just as worthwhile as the old stuff.

Linus: While I do hear some influences from other bands in the music, Brighteye Brison really does not sound like a copy or clone of anyone. I didn't mean to sound like I thought you guys were copying anyone.   By the way, is "The Grand Event" part of the Brighteye Brison mythology by any chance? The lyrics seemed somewhat sci-fi based, but I thought maybe it was part of the overall story. Or is it just a standalone piece? Great song, either way.

I was also wondering what kind of synth you used near the beginning of the song (around 3 minutes in, after the acoustic intro). I love the sound of it.

Per: I figured it was you singing lead on "The Harvest", but just wanted to be sure. I was wondering, what is "The Harvest" about? From what I could tell, it seems like it involves a patient in a mental hospital or something like that, but that's all I've been able to gather so far. I was wondering if you could tell me a little about the song, or where you got the inspiration for it.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Cheers!

Oh okay. It makes more sense now, and I understand the harvest allegory too. That's very cool. Thanks for taking the time to explain it.

How do you go about writing long songs like these? Do you compose with a certain scope in mind, or do you just write several pieces and then put them together -- or is it a mixture of both, or something else entirely? I'm an amateur musician (emphasis on the "amateur" part. lol) and long compositions that hold the listener's attention are very interesting to me. I've never really known how it comes together.

Wow! It's been a few days since I've been back here.

Today at  work I've been listening to Stories, just finished We Wanna Return actually. I've got to say, at first I felt that Believers & Deceivers overshadowed this album quite a lot for me personally, but Stories has really grown on me a lot in the last month or so of listening to it. There's not a single track on it that I'd skip, and that's a rarity for me.

Seriously, these two albums are quite possibly among my favorite "discoveries" of recent years. I'm not trying to just be flattering or insincere. It's so rare to get to actually communicate with the people who make the music I listen to, so when I get the chance I try to make it known how much their work inspires me. You're one of my favorite new bands now, and I've been going on and on about you guys to my friends and relatives.

Believers & Deceivers is in my top 5 CD's of 2008, easily. I'd cite this disc as an example of why modern prog is still a worthwhile endeavor. I can't wait to see where you guys go next.

Thanks again for answering all of my questions too, Linus and Per. Please convey my appreciation to the other guys as well (Kristofer, Johan, and Erik).

How cool to read through this! If I wasn't intrigued before I am now.  Thanks Aith01 for asking so many questions and thanks Linus and Per for answering them!