EUREKA - FRANK BOSSERT interview (2009)

Frank Bossert,EUREKA
INTERVIEW

FRANK BOSSERT, multi-instrumentiste de Hamburg évolue à merveille dans le “PROG” influencé par les plus grands du genre. Il édite en cette année 2009 : Shackleton's Voyage. Ce quatrième album ne sera pas pour déplaire aux amateurs de prog rock parsemé ça et là de passages symphoniques et celtiques emmenés par une guitare qui n’est pas sans rappeler celle de MIKE OLDFIELD.

FRANK a pour ce magnifique album tiré son inspiration d’une histoire vraie. Celle de Ernest Henry Shackleton, aventurier du XXème siècle parti à la conquête du Pôle Sud (voir historique en bas de page).  Shackleton's Voyage nous fait vivre cette aventure extraordinaire au travers d’une musique qui ne l'est pas moins. La parole est à son talentueux compositeur…   

At first, can you introduce yourself and tell us in few words  your own career ? 

I started playing guitar at the age of 14, in a school band like most of us. I quickly changed to the bass guitar because someone was needed to play bass. In the beginning I was not too happy with it, because it seemed to be a second choice instrument in the younger days when everybody wanted to be a guitar hero – but then I saw Geddy Lee in 1982 during the Rush “Signals” Tour - and from that point I knew I could have a future in the deep end...

Being a fan of softer music like Mike Oldfield, Supertramp, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits etc., Rush introduced me to the more physical side of rock music, followed by Yes, ELP and bands like Thin Lizzy, Triumph and all the classic rock stuff. Later I bumped into celtic music, world music, jazz rock and new age sounds - from that time I felt I could love almost every kind of music, as long it was good and amazed me! I‘ve been a lead singing bass player in some young rock bands, and after some thrilling years on the club stages of Hamburg I became interested in recording. I learned to play keyboards and drums, built up my first small studio and tried to create some really special music. I felt tired of commercial standard rock music and developed a style that featured all my influences at once. It took some years to find out what could be my place and in 1994 I decided to make my first CD album, entitled „Eureka“. I was so happy with that kind of working on music that I decided to carry on. After finishing my second album „The Full Circle“ a couple of musicians joined me to help me in bringing Eureka on the stage, and that was the beginning of what I call the „band phase“. We really had a lot of fun putting the music together for live concerts and so it happened that the third album „The Compass Rose“ featured my band on the record. In 2005 we all went different ways after a private crash with my girlfriend, who sang in the band. I decided to complete my idea for the “Shackleton‘s Voyage” album on my own at first and bring in guest musicians later.

Which artist you work with or you worked with impress you the most?  

Billy Sherwood! He had an amazing feel for the vocals on the songs he sang on “Shackleton‘s Voyage”. I sent him guide vocal tracks with only rough ideas of the vocals and he came up with the full flavour choir arrangements I had dreamt of - he is an amazing talent. I became aware of him in his „World Trade“ days and working with him so many years later was like a dream come true!

What about your promotion work and your relation with press at the moment? Do you get a good feedback about your new album? 

Due to the fact that the album hasn‘t been released yet just a few reviews have been published so far, but they‘re all very good, so that makes me optimistic!

What’s the mood of it? What would you say to make people listen to it and buy it?

I think the album has many different moods, caused by the complexity of the story it tells. It starts very optimistic, heroic - they intended to do something that had never been done before - then it becomes frightened, hopeful again, more frightened, hopeless, dramatic, and then the tension releases when they are rescued...if you go through the booklet while hearing the music, you can

create your own movie of the story. I used a lot of different musical styles to follow the storyboard - it‘s a musical adventure by itself, featuring great songs, orchestral themes, a narrator guiding to the most important chapters, a lament sung by a girl choir, racing prog scenes and ambient moods when necessary - I‘m very proud of this album, I really believe it‘s a big one!  

Where do you find your inspiration for music and lyrics? 

In the diversity of life! Life is full of topics. They are always present, I just pick them up. Sometimes I think a lot about our social relationships, like most of us, than anger or the will to change something drives me, and sometimes I like to step back in time bringing historical topics into my music - the inspiration comes from a lust to learn and to interact between time and people.

You have to be a bit crazy, thinking that people need to know what you think about everything - if you loose that, you can stop it :-) .

What’s your favorite new track? Why?

My number one on the album is „The Challenge“ - it‘s such a „round“ song with a strong chorus - one of those songs where everything fits.
 

If I didn’t intend to bring in something new in music I could stop doing it - but on the other hand it‘s not my most important goal to create a revolution like the first “twelve-tone celtic salsa album with danish lyrics“. Most of those things are only impressive in the first moment - I like the idea of creating timeless music :-) .

Will you be touring soon and what can the audience expect from you on stage?

There are no plans for touring with the new album, but I‘m working on new rocking stuff that needs to be done live - so hopefully this will bring me back to the stage!

MESSAGE to HEAVY SOUNDERS : 

Keep your minds open - music is so diverse! 

Cheers, Frank




 

Frank Bossert, EUREKA Interview – mai 2009

www.eureka-music.de

www.myspace.com/frankbossert


Shackleton's Voyage - InsideOut Music / SPV 





Discographie:

Shackleton's Voyage (2009)
The Compass Rose (2005)
The Full Circle (2002)
Eureka (1997)





Le concept de "Shackleton's Voyage" : 

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton CVO, OBE, né le 15 février 1874 à Kilkea et mort le 5 janvier 1922 en Géorgie du Sud, est un explorateur anglo-irlandais, l'une des principales figures de l'Âge héroïque de l'exploration en Antarctique. Il connut sa première expérience des régions polaires comme troisième officier lors de l'expédition Discovery de Robert Falcon Scott, qu'il dut quitter avant son terme pour des raisons de santé. Déterminé à se rattraper de cet échec personnel, il retourna en Antarctique en 1907 comme chef de l'expédition Nimrod. En janvier 1909, il établit, avec trois compagnons, un record avec une marque à 88°23'S, soit moins de 100 milles du pôle Sud. En raison de cet exploit, Shackleton fut anobli par le roi Édouard VII à son retour.

Après la conquête du pôle sud en 1912 par Roald Amundsen, Shackleton porta son attention sur ce qu'il estimait être le dernier grand objectif de l'Antarctique : la traversée du continent de la mer de Weddell à la mer de Ross via le pôle. À cette fin, il monta ce qui est devenu l'expédition Endurance. La malchance le frappa lors de cette expédition et le navire, l’Endurance, fut emprisonné plusieurs mois dans les glaces et lentement écrasé, obligeant les hommes à débarquer. Il s'en suivit une série d'exploits – sans aucune perte humaine – qui allaient assurer le mythe de Shackleton. 

 
(source Wikipedia)