Bill Berends, Jens Johansson: mastermind interview

Over what time frame where the songs written and have they changed somewhat since their original conception?

All of the Insomnia material was written shortly after Tracy joined the band in 2001 with the exception of Night Flier which was recorded in a separate session with Jens [johansson] . Once I had a fair idea of what we were shooting for, the material didn't change that much throughout the recording process. The album was basically finished in 2004, it just took 6 years to get it released. Ideally this album should've been released in 2004 but it didn't work out that way. There was another behind-the-scenes element too... we had an A&R guy at a major label very interested in the band and we went back and forth with them and a big management company for almost a year, so that delayed things as well. I suppose that may have had some bearing on the shape of a few songs. I edited some things down to shorter times and cut back some of the solos at their suggestion, but ultimately that deal fell apart and we were still nowhere, but I liked the modern edge the changes brought about and kept them. Inside Out suggested calling it something other than Mastermind, which I considered, but they weren't into the female vocal thing anyway so I thought, this is the same people as Mastermind, calling it something different would be silly. It would be like The Beatles changing their name because Sgt. Pepper didn't sound like Love Me Do... so we soldiered on as Mastermind. In retrospect they may have been correct, who knows. I am better at making music than marketing which is why I prefer being involved with a decent label.
http://www.virtuosityone.com/mastermind_int.htm

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