Page 24 - ROCKNATION ISSUE 26

TRISHULA Interview with Neil Fraser
PAGE 24 ROCKNATION ISSUE 26

by Tom Mathers

Hello Neil from the band Trishula and welcome to Rocknation. Congrats on your new album “Scared To
Breathe”. Please name some of the tracks and what they are about.

Thank you Tom, it’s a pleasure to be invited onboard, thank you. The opening track is called ‘I can see it
in your eyes’, this song originally was written about the music industry and how as an artist/ musician, you
sometimes feel like you are dangling on a thread and hanging on every word of those that you are playing/
working for, then when you feel like you might be loosing your place in the band/project and you can see
the end coming, hence the line ‘I can see it in your eyes, I can see you’re looking out for another’, but you
could also apply this to a relationship situation too. ‘Homeland’ is quite a popular track on the album, the
lyrics for this song were written completely by our awesome singer Jason Morgan. Jason is from South
Wales here in the UK and this song is about how tough life can be in South Wales, employment is scarce,
making a living can be very difficult, and sometimes a person is torn between staying in their homeland
where their heart is, or moving to another area for possible better opportunities. The title track ‘Scared to
Breathe’ was written about my daughter who was bullied very badly at school. I watched her go through hell,
but it inspired me to write this song, it’s about seeing someone so frightened that they are almost too Scared
to Breathe, but again Jason Morgan contributed considerably to the lyrics and vocal arrangement of this
song.
You are well known for playing in TEN & Rage of Angels. How is this album compared musically to those bands?

Well, I guess some of my guitar solos have a similar sound and playing style to the playing that I did on the Stormwarning album with TEN, I guess this
was kind of intentional as quite a lot of people have said that they liked my playing on the Stormwarning album. In terms of song writing comparisons, I had
the privilege of working with the Ged Rylands for quite a few years with Rage of Angels and when I could see that Ged’s commitments with Tyketto were
bringing Rage of Angels to a natural close, I started working on what has become the Trishula album ‘Scared to Breathe’, so I think the very first song that
I wrote was the song ‘A thousand pieces’, I think after working so closely with Ged for so long, this song was quite heavily influenced by him. Although
again Jason wrote pretty much all the lyrics for this song, I’m thinking in terms of the actual music when I compare it to Rage of Angels.

Where did you record this album at and who produced it?

All the music was originally recorded in my home Studio (Farmyard Studios), with programmed drums (this is where I do all my writing), then I sent all the
songs over to Portugal where Joao Colaco recorded the live drums (Black Sheep Studios). I demoed the vocals with Jason at various locations in Wales,
we met up a number of times for short holidays with our wives and dogs and I took my recording equipment with me in order to record Jason’s voice. We
then took all the recorded tracks into M2 Madhat Studios (where Magnum record their albums) and Sheena Sear took us under her very experienced wing
for final vocal recordings, mixing and mastering.

If you had to tell someone what Trishula sounded like, what bands would you mention?
Well I really wanted to keep a bit of a classic rock sound on this album, I wanted quite a lot of keyboards (even though I’m a guitarist), because I wanted a
big powerful overall sound. When I was playing live with Rage of Angels, we played some nice festivals on the same bill as bands such as ‘Europe’, ‘Pretty
Maids’, ‘House of Lords’ etc and my memories from those shows were definitely in my mind when I was writing some of the Trishula songs, so maybe
Trishula have a classic rock sound, with a few hints of the bands that I’ve just mentioned, but it’s obviously for the listeners to decide.
Did the other members contribute to the writing process?

Not really, I prefer to write on my own as far as the actual music goes. Jason Morgan contributed hugely in terms of the lyrics and some of the vocal
arrangements. In the later stages of recording, we were lucky enough to have Rick Benton (Keyboard player from Magnum) join us on keys and Rick
added some fantastic keyboard passages to the songs and replayed some of my original keyboard parts (Rick is an absolutely awesome player), but
apart from that, I wrote the music on my own and that’s what I intend to do for the next album.

Please name some of the Trishula members and what they brought to this release.

On the album I played Guitars, Bass and keyboards, Jason Morgan sang lead and backing vocals, Joao Colaco played drums and Rick Benton played
keys. Jason has a massive voice, he is an incredible talent, I know Jason because he sang in the live version of Rage of Angels, so I always wanted him to
be a part of this band (Trishula), his voice IS the sound of Trishula, I love him. Rick Benton is a long time friend of mine, we played in bands together when
we were kids, he has always been an idol of mine in terms of keyboard players, Rick is an incredible player and musician and I was so proud to have him
on this album. Joao Colaco also played in the live version of Rage of Angels, so again, a world class player that did a great job on the album.

What plans do you have for 2019?

Well, in between promoting the ‘Scared to Breathe’ album, I’m making preparations for live shows, in reality these will probably be in 2020, but you never
know, we might squeeze a live show in at the end of 2019? We’ll have to wait and see. I’m busy writing and recording the second Trishula album, things
are going well, but I want to try and have the second album finished for the end of 2019 so that I can pass it over to the record label hopefully for release in
spring 2020.

Thank you for taking time for this interview. Any last words to the fans?
Thank you Tom, it’s been a pleasure talking with you. The response to the ‘Scared to Breathe’ album has been amazing, all I can say is a
massive ‘thank you’ to all you lovely kind people that have shown an interest and supported the band and the album, we really look forward to catching up
with you on the live circuit, it’ll be great fun!

https://www.facebook.com/neilfraserguitarist/