| Mastermind began in 1987 as a vehicle
for the Berends brothers' creative musical aspirations. Spanning over
a decade that saw four acclaimed studio albums released worldwide; international
touring in Japan, Europe, and the USA; performing with Rush, Joe Satriani,
John Wetton, Fish, and many others; Mastermind steps into their 2nd
decade by taking a bold new step: a totally instrumental album that
features Jens Johansson joining the band on keyboards. Bill Berends first met Jens Johansson in 1987. Bill was totally amazed by Jens' playing and upon introducing himself learned, incredibly enough, that Jens had already heard of Mastermind through shred-guru Mike Varney. A few years later Bill again by chance ran into Jens on the Internet and the two began exchanging email, traded discs, Jens came out to Mastermind's gigs in Manhattan, and slowly the musicians became acquainted. After a 1995 Mastermind performance at the Bottom Line in NYC, an exec from Mastermind's US label suggested that Bill and Jens (who was in attendance that night) should record something together for an upcoming compilation disc, they agreed to give it a shot, but schedules conflicted and the idea was put on hold. But it didn't die. Eventually, even though the label exec and his compilation were long gone, it evolved into "let's do a whole album" which Bill thought should be instrumental after hearing Jens' "Heavy Machinery" album. In 1996 Jens recorded a demo piece Bill had written and the decision to do a full instrumental album was agreed upon. But Jens had since found work with the Finnish metal band "Stratovarius" and their schedule was keeping him busy as Mastermind was about to embark on a busy year of touring, so it wasn't until late 1997 - 10 years after that first chance meeting - that definite plans to record together were scheduled. In January 1998 Jens was in the studio with Mastermind recording all new music Bill had written specifically for this album since returning home from touring. Mastermind have recently released their new album Excelsior! How would you classify your music? BB: High intensity progressive rock metal fusion. Do you all have day jobs and if so what do you do? BB: Mastermind is my full time job along with the occasional side production project. Jens Johansson's full time gig is Stratovarius of course. Everyone else has some sort of day job which isn't that important I don't think. It has no bearing on the music. How did the band get together? BB: Rich and I have been playing together most of our lives. In the mid 80's we decided to go back to our progressive roots which spawned the name "Mastermind" and we've been moving forward and growing ever since. Check the bio on our web site for more detailed info on this story. What are your musical backgrounds? BB: Rich and I both took private lessons early on but most of what we do is a self-taught development built on those early foundations. What kind of music do you like to listen to when your not playing? BB: Mostly classical and jazz... the occasional metal album when I have a wild hair up my ass. What do you do to relax? BB: Smoke and drink. What is the most satisfying thing about being in a band? BB: Performing live. What words would best describe you (as an individual)? BB: Determined, neurotic, intense. What things did you do differently on Excelsior! compared to your previous album? BB: The biggest difference is Excelsior! is completely instrumental. And of course having Jens Johansson play on the album is the first keyboard player we've ever recorded with, so the interaction is nice. Recently (June '99), Mickey Simmonds (from Fish's band) played live with us as Jens was on tour with Stratovarius at the time. Did Excelsior! live up to your expectations? BB: Absolutely! We achieved exactly what we set out to do. Even though the music is very complex on Excelsior, at times I found myself thinking, here are three guys really enjoying themselves, is that the impression you wanted to give, or did it just happen that way? BB: That was really the goal with Excelsior! - to just have a good time doing it and make an album of music that would be enjoyable and flexible to play live. Playing the older material had become like giving a recital and we wanted to do something a little more immediate. I'm sure at some point we may start adding the classic material such as "Brainstorm" back into our shows, but after taking a break from it for a while it should have a fresh feel to it again at that point. Would you rather stay independent and do things your way or would you rather have a recording contract with a record company? BB: Well... we do have contracts with InsideOut Music in Germany, Avalon Records in Japan, and are near closing a new deal here in the USA. However as they are licensing contracts it gives us a little more freedom to do things as we please. It gives the best of both worlds I think. How do you get your CD into the marketplace?, How much hassle is it to finance and distribute your own album? BB: I don't know! We've never financed, manufactured, nor distributed our own albums. Beyond printing up the first demo cassette in 1987 this has all been done through licensing deals with various labels in Europe, Japan, and the USA. Do you have your own studio? If so, what equipment is in it. BB: We record in my private project studio which has the standard fare of recorders, effects, and computers. Most of the gear is Tascam and the computer is a Gateway PC. )If you had the chance to jam with any band, who would that be? Band? The Beatles. Musicians? Jack Bruce, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman, maybe Keith Emerson. What's the best thing that has ever happened to you? BB: Getting divorced! What's the worst thing that has ever happened to you? BB: Getting married! Who writes the songs? BB: I write and arrange all the music. Where do you get your inspiration from? BB: Drugs and alcohol. Who thought of the band's name and how did you choose it? BB: When we decided to follow our progressive leanings in the mid 80's a hair-metal friend asked "who's the mastermind behind this?" I said I was and the name stuck. Which are you personal favorite songs and why? BB: I like them all I suppose, I did write them! On Excelsior! my fav's are "Tokyo Rain" and "The Approaching Storm". I suppose because they have personal meaning to me and they express that feeling. Really my favorite piece tends to be whatever I am working on at the moment which currently happens to be our next album. Do you play many gigs and if so where? BB: Not as much as we'd like to recently, but we make an effort to play EVERYTHING we do live at some point because playing live is what it is all about. We play a lot in our local geographic area which is the USA eastern seaboard, but we have played in Japan, UK, Holland, Germany, and all across the USA. We try to play at festival events like the recent NEARfest, PowerMad, ProgDay, Pulfest, things of that nature, and have had some good support positions with Satriani, Rush, Fish, etc. In the year 2000 I expect we will do a lot more traveling as we will then have two new albums to support and hopefully stronger label support. What is you view of the music scene in New Jersey? BB: It sucks just like everywhere else, maybe even a little more. What band/s would you say has had the most influence on you? BB: Mastermind of course. Earlier musical influences might include The Beatles, Cream, Mahavishnu Orchestra, ELP, and to a lesser degree Deep Purple, Ten Years After, things of that sort. What are your plans for the future? BB: The immediate plan is to finish our next album, our 6th studio album, and then tour to support it where possible. The new recording again will feature Jens on keys, and also introduces a very talented and beautiful vocalist, Lisa Bouchelle. Any last words or remarks? BB: Never tell your mother she's singing out of tune? Visit our web site for more info, scheduled events, audio and more: http://www.k2nesoft.com/mastermind/ Bill |