Six years after the last official Flower Kings album, Roine Stolt’s prog royals returned in 2019 with two talented new members, a thrilling new double album and one very happy leader (although more line-up changes were to follow). That year they discussed Waiting For Miracles with Prog, and Stolt revealed how Jon Anderson had influenced the decision behind the revamp.
Mirkko DeMaio has been in The Flower Kings for more than a year, but he’s still a little in awe of the boss.“Roine’s a miracle,” says the drummer.. “He’s the healthiest guy I’ve met in this business. I mean, he eats a lot, but it’s all healthy stuff. When he walks in he’s like a king. He’s a man who lives for his art, and everything he does is driven by passion. And he looks younger than any of us.”
The enviably well-preserved Roine Stolt is 63. DeMaio is 35, and Zach Kamins (who’s replaced long-serving keyboard player Tomas Bodin) is just 32. “Roine’s so great to work with,” says Kamins. “He has so much music in him, and so many ideas. When it came to recording the new album, I imagined he’d have to have things his way or the highway, because when the music’s this well-crafted someone’s usually behind it being super-specific. But he’s actually very experimental and open to suggestions.”
Maybe a shot of young blood was just what The Flower Kings needed. Their last studio album proper was Desolation Rose back in 2013. Last year Stolt busied himself with his (now-shelved) supergroup The Sea Within and the hastily assembled Manifesto Of An Alchemist. Released by Roine Stolt’s The Flower King (singular), the album was recorded with Flower Kings singer Hasse Fröberg and bassist Jonas Reingold; but not Bodin, who by now was clearly out of the picture.
But what a difference a year makes. There’s a palpable sense of renewal and rejuvenation centred on new double-album Waiting For Miracles. And nobody’s happier about it than Stolt. “Zach and Mirkko came in with so much enthusiasm, so many ideas, and a will to do something extraordinary,” he says. “Working with them made me remember what it was when you were young and hungry.”
He’d already had a Damascene epiphany while working with Prog God Jon Anderson on their 2016 collaboration Invention Of Knowledge. “Jon’s 75 now, but still like a kid in his enthusiasm, wanting to do things and explore. I had a wake-up moment: ‘It can be this great, so why am I in a band with people who just wait for the pay cheque?’”
Stolt first met Kamins in 2009, when the younger musician asked him to produce his band An Endless Sporadic’s debut album. Kamins had first been turned on to The Flower Kings in 2005 while studying at Berklee College Of Music, with Retropolis and Unfold The Future particularly piquing his interest.
“I grew up listening to older prog and metal, but when my room-mate introduced me to The Flower Kings they reminded me of ELP, Yes and Genesis – in a more modern way,” Kamins says. “Their music had so much to it, interesting textures and harmonic and melodic ideas, and I wanted to be around these guys. I never imagined I’d be in the position of joining!”
After connecting on Facebook years ago, Stolt would often ‘like’ videos of DeMaio playing drums, both solo and with Mind Key, his prog metal band back home in Naples. When Stolt asked if he’d like to join The Flower Kings, DeMaio’s first thought was that a friend was pranking him; his second was to agree.
“I’d heard some of their music in the past,” says DeMaio. “I said ‘yes’ – but when I checked out the material and realised how technical it was I thought, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ But I liked Transatlantic, and also Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd and Gentle Giant since I was a kid, so the general vibe was very familiar.”
DeMaio and Kamins joined Stolt, Fröberg and Reingold for last year’s dates in South America and Canada, and their European shows with Spock’s Beard. DeMaio says he and Reingold locked together quickly, both as people and as a rhythm section. Both newbies offered Stolt a stream of suggestions for fresh ways of replicating the band’s album music live.
“Their ideas were a huge help for me,” says Stolt. “It was like a vitamin boost. And those shows helped me appreciate the old music more; coming back to Stardust Are We and The Truth Will Set You Free made me appreciate our music in a new way, and that maybe helped with the new album.”
Waiting For Miracles was recorded in Stockholm in June at RMV Studios, owned by ABBA’s Benny Andersson. Action adventures (Black Flag) mingle with 60s psych pop (Wicked Old Symphony), harmony-rich prog epics (Miracles For America, Vertigo) and instrumentals. Haunting opener House Of Cards and orchestral piece Ascending To The Stars were both written by Kamins, while The Rebel Circus was based on drum work by DeMaio.
The old guard are keen to keep pace – Reingold’s sterling playing is galvanised, notably on the very Yes-sounding We Were Always Here; there’s a swagger to Stolt’s gutsy rock’n’roll guitar solo for The Bridge, and his thick retro tone on Steampunk.
Some of Stolt’s stream-of-consciousness lyrics draw on circus imagery, illustrated by the elephant perched precariously on a house of cards on the album’s cover. That instability reflects deeper concerns. “A song like Black Flag is just fun,” says Stolt, “but we do have real pirates on the coast of Africa. Are they bad, or just poor? And America does need a miracle now – day by day it’s in a terrible state. This is where we are, with global warming, with economics. The elephant image was perfect.”
Then there’s the other elephant in the room: wasn’t it odd recording as The Flower Kings without Bodin? “Not at all!” Stolt says. “Tomas, and our past drummers, all contributed to the band’s legacy, but Zach is a super-funny guy with a smile on his face, and any musician can tell you that means a lot. If you have great players, but someone’s grumpy and putting a lid on the joy, you shouldn’t accept that for a long time. The best possible environment for me is having happy people around me.”
Kamins built up a large bank of classic Kings sounds while prepping the live shows, which helped in the studio. “I did try to stay close to what Tomas did,” he says. “I put a lot of pressure on myself to ensure the keyboard parts would appeal to the fan base. I love what he did; that sound is ingrained in my brain. To me that is The Flower Kings sound.”
People close to us say this is the happiest-looking version of the band ever
Roine Stolt
Stolt’s brother Michael added some bass to the record, and noticed new life in the band that’s been going for 25 years. “He appreciates that something that’s been missing from the band is back again,” says Roine. “I’m probably too close to it to tell, but I can say I’m enjoying playing live again. I really enjoyed recording the album and I’m looking forward to seeing how the fans connect to it.”
While he can’t see The Sea Within moving again “for the foreseeable future,” Stolt’s other supergroup, Transatlantic, recorded a new album in October, with release planned for 2020. With Kamins and DeMaio now full-time members, The Flower Kings will follow December’s 12-date European tour with Cruise To The Edge in March, and there are dates in Australia and Japan on the cards too.
Add this schedule to the artistic strength of Waiting For Miracles, and all really does seem rosy in the realm of The Flower Kings. “I’ve had people close to us who’ve seen us many times,” Stolt reports, “and they say this is the happiest-looking version of the band ever. We’re sounding great, and it’s getting better and tighter by the gig. We’re in a good place.”
