ProgScape.Com: Hey Paul, how are you?

Paul Craddick: Very well. How about you?

PS: I'm doing OK. I wanted to take some time out and discuss some Xen with you, being that it's a project that not many people know about...although they should! First off and foremost, how did Xen come into....come to be?

PC: Well, let's see. I'm not sure if there was...I can't think back to a specific moment when the idea was born, so to speak. I guess around the time when Enchant first began working on material that would end up being on the Break album. I started playing the guitar again, playing more and more. I had sorta dabbled in previous years...just playing basic chords that I learned out of song books and I had always fiddled on the guitar and known my way around it...at least in the basic way. Around that time, we were working on the Break material and I started playing more (for whatever reasons) and just started getting more and more interested - spontaneously, I guess you would say - and working up material that would be more guitar-based and stuff I had written in the past which was always written on the keyboard - even if I had some ideas for how a guitar, bass part might go - I always did my demos with drum machines and keyboards, which was OK for the kind of music I was into at that time...those textures and keyboards really suited that...but I really started to getting into and appreciating alot of the grunge stuff and alternative rock - which obviously is more guitar based. So, because of my changing listening interests and the fact that I was starting to fiddle around more with the guitar, it just seemed natural to want to compose some more guitar-based stuff. As I continued on with that and started coming up with some stuff that I really liked. I thought it would be fun and interesting to do a project with a different musical focus that Enchant had. It just kind of grew out of that.

PS: One of the questions I was thinking of, is I noticed - you mentioned that you wanted to do something a little different from Enchant, yet all of Enchant is on the album!

PC: <laughs> Right!

PS: What that just because of the way things were going with Break or was that spontaneous or was that just "hey, let's see who's around and use what we have?"

PC: A little bit of all of the above. At first, I was more interested in not having anyone from Enchant involved. Not because of any disrespect to them - the other guys - not by any means, but just because I wanted it to sound very different, but it's very difficult to find other musicians with whom you can work and have sort of a like-mindedness of approach and comfort level where you can be critical of one another without people getting too upset or offended and just having a good working relationship where you can draw the best out of one another. And, it just because apparent as the Xen project started progressing from the planning to the actual realization phase. There's no way I could do everything on my own. I didn't want it to be a novelty album where I was doing everything but I shouldn't have <laughs>. So, I knew to get some outside help and the Enchant guys were the best people that I knew to help me out. Obviously, they're local and have a shared history and I think they were into trying to stretch their limits as well and tried to do something different and be more experimental and have the freedom of a new musical entity and not feeling so constrained, perhaps, by expectations of what Enchant should be (either from within the band or whatever people might expect), so a combination of those circumstances led to them being involved as well.

PS: Gotcha. How did you come up with the name?

PC: Originally, it was going to be Zen with a Z - spelled in the standard way. I found out there was already another group using that name. I think it's an Italian Metal Band...

PS: Interesting combination.

PC: ...so why don't you change it to an X and subsequently we found out after we made the album and had been pressed and ready to be released that there is another Xen with an X as well. Originally, changing from the Z to the X was an attempt to make it, just to change it sufficiently so we wouldn't be confused with this other group, plus it made it a little more original. But as far as that, that word in and of itself, Zen (whichever way you spell it), I have a real amateurish interest in ZenBuddism. I love the sound of the word. It's really, to my ears, really kind of strong, kind of peaceful at the same time. I love the sound of it, and certain Zen principals, like the principal of mindfulness, meaning trying to become completely submerged or immersed in whatever it is that you're doing - whether it's something sublime like working on a piece of music or beholding a sunset or something more mundane like washing the dishes. You bring your full attention to what it is you're doing - be completely present to it - the experience will be that much more powerful and fulfilling. So, I it's a combination of the sounding of the word and some of the associations that I have with ZenBuddism made that name really appealing to me for a band name.

PS: Is that the reason why you put 84,000 Dharma Doors as the title of the album?

PC: That's right! You may know that 84,000 dharma doors is an expression that comes from Zen-lore, you know ZenBuddist lore meaning that there are supposedly 84,000 dharma doors. A dharma door is a doorway or a porthole - a way of reaching what the Buddhists call "ultimate reality" - and I really though that was a most interesting and also kind of a funny notion, thinking that "who counted all of those up?" - why that number? Why not 84,001 or 83,999? So, a combination of the reference back to ZenBuddism and also sort of the humor end and, on the face of it, at least, the absurdity of that motion really appealed to me, so that's why that's the title.

PS: Gotcha.

PC: It was wacky enough and off the wall.

PS: One of the things I noticed from looking over the credits is obviously you wrote, except for Middle Ground, you wrote all the music. But, with the lyrics, you only wrote a few. Some of them are by Ted, some of them by Doug. Was that just a combination of Enchant songs that weren't geared for Break or was it stuff that you had that you wanted some assistance with or how did that come about?

PC: A little of both, I suppose, but mainly I really wanted Ted as the vocalist to really be able to believe in and feel strongly about and to relate to the lyrics that he would be singing and I felt that maybe a weakness of some of the past Enchant material have been that Doug and I have presented lyrics to Ted that we felt strongly about (because obviously we wrote them and could relate to what it was were trying to say and the way we had said it) but perhaps Ted had really some difficulty getting into them. I wanted for him (and for everyone involved in the project) to really care about it. If you use the analogy and think about stock options these days. A lot of corporations, the idea that the workers will actually be co-owners of the corporation, gives them a little bit more of a stake, of an interest, in their work. They really feel like they're working for both the good of themselves and the company instead of feeling more like a weightslave. I think somewhere in that the principal works for a band. The more involvement and ownership, so to speak, someone's given in the final product - the more they naturally feel committed to it, and their efforts will really shape the final outcome. So, I really wanted Ted to feel that, and plus I think he's a really good lyricist. He comes up with some really picturesque and clever nice way of saying things. I thought the lyrics would be better for him being more involved. Plus, I wanted him to feel excited about the project and really put his best foot forward. Now Doug wrote the lyrics to the track Find A Way. I forget now how that came about. I think that was because he was really excited about the music. I hadn't written anything, and I don't think Ted had either. I thought "hey, it would be great for Doug give something" because I really like his work as well. I thought it would be a neat thing to have happen - to have him do that. You had mentioned earlier about the track Middle Ground. That was the only track on the Xen album that was in serious running to go on Break, the last Enchant album. With that track and a few others, we actually had more material than we needed for an album. Enchant's motis apparendi - the past at least - has been to write more music than we'll be able to put on an album and select the best stuff. For various reasons, Middle Ground didn't seem like it would work that well on Break and I thought "well, god, I really like this song and let's change it around a little bit and put it on the Xen album."

PS: It surprises me that you mention that Middle Ground was the only track that was going to go on Break, because She Plays just...it doesn't seem like a song that would be on Break but it seems like a very Enchant-ish tune, moreso than the other ones.

PC: Really?

PS: Yeah!

PC: Wow, that's very interesting. I wouldn't have thought that but it's interesting to me that you think that.

PS: I'm wondering if the lyrics to She Plays - and I know Ted wrote them - was it coming from an experience that somebody he knows had...it's not blatant but it's pretty graphic in what he's trying to say.

PC: I think it was inspired thematically by a family member but I'm sure you can appreciate <laughs> I shouldn't say anything more about that!

PS: The two songs you did write lyrically - at least you wrote by yourself, which were Psychadelia and Existentialist - were those autobiographical?

PC: Yes, although Psychadelia is really kind of a nonsense lyric - not that there are that many Xen fans or Xen album owners out there, but if somehow I could take a poll of all of them - I'd be real interested to see what people make of that song lyrically, because it's so non-senceical and abstract, although there is some sort of a vague theme that runs through that is basically just oddities or annoyances of human nature. So, there's a lot of sarcasm in the song - making fun of different tendencies that people are prone to. Kind of, in a way, like the old fable The Emperor's New Clothes - something so absurd and silly can be taken as being so profound and so deep. The middle section of Psychadelia, there is a rap or spoken section which is basically making fun of the 1970's idea of being groovy. There's references to lava lamps and bean bags, that kind of thing, as if that really constituted, you know, kind of a deep metaphysical viewpoint.

PS: I wonder if in a hundred years if are going to view Saturday Night Fever as like the quintessential 70's movie.

PC: It probably is, if I'm not mistaken. It may not say that much for the 70's. I'm not trying to be harsh in the song. It's just me trying to have fun in a really obscure way and getting to do different things like, lyrically in the 2nd verse it's very kind of funky and a lot of internal rhymes like you might find in rap. So, just trying to have fun doing stuff like that. And then Existentialist is definitely more personal and autobiographical and obviously it's a serious statement. It's basically...it's kind of like, I guess, me having a conversation with myself or an aspect of myself - my own tendency to, the existentialist temperament. My own definition of existentialism as a philosophy would be "a bad mood" transmuted into a philosophy. Really existentialism focuses on the most upsetting and negative aspects of life like, as I say in the song, absurdity and suffering. It's really easy when your in a black mood just to see only those things - those most upsetting and troubling things of life. So, the song's kind of a plea to someone in that state - seeing somebody or feeling something horrible aspects of life - to try not to give up hope. Basically, trying to see that there's more to the world and to life than just those things, even though those things are very real and very powerfully negative.

PS: One of the questions that I had in listening to it, because I guess I'm one of the lucky people who actually had one of the earlier versions...Furious Skeleton Records - how did that come about?

PC: <laughs hysterically> Well, it's obviously just trying to be silly. For some reason I've always found an appeal or had a fascination for skeletons. I think in the past I've actually suggested the name Furious Skeleton or The Furious Skeletons for different cover bands we've done. I don't know if you know this or even if it's any interest to you, but Enchant has always kept at least one cover band going on the side.

PS: No, I was never aware.

PC: Yeah, alongside with Enchant. We figured, "Ok. We're all reasonably good musicians and we enjoy working together. Why don't we try to <laughs> make a little money out of this skill we've developed 'cause obviously we're not making any money out of Enchant..so why don't we put a cover band together and play some covers and play some funk or top-40, whatever, just have some fun" - and I'm always the guy coming up with the really stupid band names suggestions like, I think, as I've said, Furious Skeleton was one of them, I know Bones 'N' Tones was another one...and other really stupid names. So, when it came down to actually pressing the Xen album - before InsideOut Music became involved and said that they wanted to release the album - I didn't know if anyone was going to release it. So, I thought "ok, I'll set up my own fictitious record label" and since I'm in charge of it, I get to name it and have a little fun...and came up with Furious Skeleton. My friend Rick Grey who is a really good artist - who actually did the original Xen artwork which was on my pressing of the album - did the logo. I think he aptly conveyed a pretty pissed off skeleton, so I was happy with that.

PS: Any plans on, because I know Enchant hardly ever plays out, any slight chance of seeing Xen anywhere other than Doug's basement?

PC: It's possible! I'd really enjoy to play the material live but...unless we have a lot of time on our hands and just want to amuse ourselves it really boils down to if there's any kind of demand. I don't believe that, thus far at least, this first Xen album had really sold particularly well, so unfortunately it doesn't seem like there's a groundswell of interest for the project. I suppose it is possible if there's another Xen album and there's material to drawl from and to try and be able to fill up an hour, a hour and a half of show time. If there's interest and there's demand then it would be great. I'd really enjoy that but at this point it's kind of a dream or a possibility but there's certainly no plans at this point.

PS: Are there plans for a Xen 2?

PC: Ahhh, well, there's plans. These days now, whenever I'm writing music, I'm thinking "Is this a Xen track? Is this an Enchant track? Is this a track for neither, for something else?" I do come up with stuff that feels more Xen-like, which I guess means more experimental or eccentric or stranger perhaps then Enchant might be open to. So, I think alot about it. I think there's probably will be but no firm plans for a release date or even when I would be seriously addressing the material but yeah, I think there's a good chance of it. I hope so, at least.

PS: Are you happy with the Xen record?

PC: Oooh, that's a good question. I'd say overall I am quite proud of it but that said there's many many things that I wish were different about it and I certainly feel and notice the weaknesses. That's pretty painful when I listen to it. Considering how quickly it was recorded and especially mixed - the learning curve involved and just the enormous responsibility of playing most of the instruments, writing most of the material, trying to coordinate everything and everybody and, you know, trying to oversee the production and all the rest (even though I have say in the same breath that I was assisted in a very important way by the other guys) - yeah, taking all those things into account and the stress there was to do it, I do feel very proud of it. It's something I feel good about.

PS: Did you...I know on the liner notes it said that you recorded this at the same time that you guys recorded Break. Was this recorded in that way or was it recorded after Break was done, before Break started, or was it pretty much hand in hand?

PC: A little of both. The recording of Xen was very intermittent, so some was...I don't know if any was recorded while Break was being recorded. I think it was recorded both before and then after in one heroic three-week period of getting stuff done. I was thinking about it concurrent with the recording of Break, certainly, but the actual recording was done right after Break.

PS: Gotcha. There's a couple other people I wanted to bring attention to...M.C.Hamhead - what's that all about?

PC: <laughs> Welp, he's a local amateur rapper...it's obviously a joke, but just for fun we will leave his identity cloaked in secrecy but he is one of the Enchant guys who dawned his rapper's uniform and delivered a rapper attitude for that middle oratory in Psychadelica I was talking about earlier. <laughs> I think you were going to ask about some of the other characters, so go ahead.

PS: The one that strikes me is good ole Grandpa.

PC: <laughs> Grandpa Benignus?

PS: Yes!

PC: Beloved grandfather of Benig, Enchant keyboardist (who also made appearances on the Xen album). Grandpa is the one who delivers the final word for the track Prettyzntenuf.

PS: A bucket, a bucket, a bone.

PC: That's right!

PS: Well, since we've been dancing around the Enchant circle for a while, I think we might as well dive right into it. Obviously, everyone's dying to know what's going on - is there going to be another Enchant album, is Break it - so can you give us a word either way?

PC: Yeah! With the call that things can change - especially in the Enchant universe - we're definitely online right now for another Enchant album. We've been working on material now in fits and spurts for a couple of months - getting together intermittely and demoing stuff and putting stuff together. Yeah, I'd say there's...well, we're basically in the planning kind of pre-production stage. I'm not really sure of the timetable, although I would expect we'll probably start recording it in February or March. Whenever we begin the about goal is to get it done very quickly, because Enchant albums have a tendency to drag on for months and months, so it would probably be released either end of June or in early Autumn, being of September. We're definitely on track for another one.

PS: One of the problems with the past few releases, and I'm sure you've been talked to about this, is that since Magna Carta, for whatever reason, you no longer have a US label so finding Time Lost or Break is kind of...not the easiest task in the world.

PC: Right.

PS: Can you even go into somewhat of an explanation of what happened or why Enchant doesn't have a label here in the states?

PC: Well, yeah, although let me say the situation is basically being rectified because you probably know that our label InsideOut now has InsideOut America.

PS: Yes, I do.

PC: Which they set up with Jim Pitulski, who used to manage Dream Theater. I think he still manages Fish and Spock's Beard....

PS: ...and Kevin Moore, btw.

PC: oh? ok. So, he's obviously very active both with management and also with being the American CEO or something like that for InsideOut America. So, if it hasn't been released already I believe soon Break will be released by InsideOut America. I'm not sure about Time Lost, and it's a good question that I can't give an answer to. Certainly future Enchant releases and perhaps present and future Xen offerings too will be available through InsideOut America. Going back to Magna Carta, and I know that's very frustrating for some people. It's certainly frustrating for us. Basically, all I feel comfortable saying about that is I think there was fault to be found on both sides - both the Enchant side and the Magna Carta side - in our relationship. I do regret anything that we did, which was unfair or irresponsible. I think we definitely contributed to having a negative relationship with Magna Carta. On the other hand, I feel a bit down, I guess is the right word to say, that Magna Carta is, at least until InsideOut America, maybe a few other labels that are now cropping up, Magna Carta has really been the only outlet for bands that fancy themselves to be prog or vaguely prog. So, kind of mirroring the record industry in general, bands are so desperate to be signed and to get a little exposure afforded through a record deal - whatever motion will be gained through that - that they're willing to sign really bad contracts. I don't think the Magna Carta contracts were particularly beneficial to bands. I don't think bands that are giving that much out of them and if I could do it all over again I wouldn't have signed a contract. But, in saying that, obviously let me make clear that it was our choice. We're responsible for the choice we made and certainly no one did or could have bullied us into it by any means. It was a choice we made and I wish we had chosen differently.

PS: One of the big differences from BluePrint and Wounded to Break is Doug taking over bass duties, although Ted does bass on Break, Bob Madsen does a track, Tony Marriano does a track - they're basically done by Doug. This obviously brings the question - what happened to Ed?

PC: Right. Well, it's not really too interesting a story there. I mean, it sounds like such a cliché but it's true to say that were the preverbal musical and personal differences. What it boiled down to was that the rest of us were interested in trying to push the musical envelope of Enchant and trying to do something different. I don't know how Break strikes your ears but certainly our intention musically with that album was to try and incorporate more current influences into the Enchant sound. So, while it has that epic and progressive quality I think that past Enchant has had, we also wanted to bring elements of other music that we had become excited about...like I said with Xen, alternative and grunge and some other elements - strip the sound down a bit, make it a bit darker perhaps, introduce more acoustic guitar, the more of a groove - that kind of a thing. Ed wasn't really impressed with the material we were coming up with, nor did he believe in the direction we were trying to take things. So, there came a point where it was obvious that we weren't moving in the same direction and that it would be better if he did his own thing and we continued on with what it was we were trying to do.

PS: Are you guys still on good terms?

PC: No, unfortunately not, although there's always hope for the future. It's such a problem in a band when the bandmates are in a common creative and also kind of a business enterprise but also friends when you split up. A lot of times there's bad feelings unfortunately that is what happened in this case.

PS: You mentioned that you wanted Break to be darker and I firmly believe it is - alot darker than BluePrint or Wounded. I see you taking ideas that, for instance, Oasis is eight and a half minutes converting it into songs like Defenseless that is four or five minutes. You mention that was a direct intent to do so. I also notice that there's a bonus track. I assume that's for humor purposes only since it's the only release?

PC: Good question! Originally it was...there was supposed to be a slight different packaging for the original release of Break. It was going to be kind of boxed up and have the bonus track and then for the next pressing that was going to be just more of a standard release without the bonus track, so it was a way...I tried to do something a bit special and maybe try to draw a bit more attention to the initial release and try and get some sort of a buzz going. That track, Once A Week, by the way, was a redo of a..the original version we had recorded was quite a bit different. This new one as you know has a lot of acoustic guitar and piano and sort of a string arrangement and is quite mellow. The original one was alot more bluesy and a lot heavier and when we were talking about this bonus track idea we thought "hey, why don't we re-do Once A Week and try it with this new treatment?" - it's certainly a different kind of thing for Enchant. That's how that whole thing came together.

PS: And it features you on piano as I see!

PC: That's right!

PS: Have you sat back and listened to any of the old albums? Have you listened to BluePrint and Wounded and see what you like or what you don't like or has anything popped out at you?

PC: Not that systematically but I have gone back, you know, over the previous months and listened to a bit of each. Yeah, I have to say that Break is the first Enchant album that I really can listen to from start to finish and feel proud and not cringe. There are elements of the other albums that I like and certainly I feel proud of but Break is really the one where I think there's a definite maturity in the Enchant sound and delivery and the playing. For example, you may be thinking "oh god, this guy's nuts! what is he talking about?" but the first album...the drum sound bothers me alot. It's very dry, kind of crisp, kind of wafer-like, and I really don't care for that!

PS: Was that a product of Steve Rothery or...

PC: No, he can't be blamed for that! <laughs> It's really just the original tones that we put down on tape and I'd say it would be a combination of, if we have to dull out blame, would be a combination of blaming me for the way I had tuned and muffled the snare drum and the engineer who had recorded it - but it's say it was primarily me more than him even. Second album, actually the 2nd and 3rd album, maybe even the first album too - some of the material I like quite a bit and other tracks I'm not that enthused about. With Break, as I've been saying, it really reflects more what I like to listen to these days integrated into the Enchant approach and I think the playing is generally more consistent - it's strong, the mix and the production and everything, and to me it sounds much more professional then the previous Enchant releases.

PS: Going back a bit, how did you meet up with Steve Rothery?

PC: Let's see...we met up with him in, I guess it was '89 when Marillion had lost Fish and then got Steve Hogarth in the band and just recorded Seasons End and before they began their proper tour for that album they did some "special" shows here in the states - one at, I think, the Ritz in New York and another at The Roxy in Los Angeles. We went down to that show and we noticed that after the show the band went right next door to the hallowed Rainbow Bar, which is known as a big rock bar, rock hangout, literally about 20 feet away from the Roxy. So, we went in there and the band were in there relaxing and drinking and we got talking to Steve [Rothery] and we hit it off. Later on during their tour I met up with them and gave him a demo that we - at that point Enchant were not Enchant but called Mae Dae - had done. That, as well, featured Brian Cline, who was our original vocalist and bass player (also known as the "Shit Ape") and Steve apparently really liked the tape, which if I remember correctly used to be Catharsis and Standing Ground. He spoke about trying to do something with us in the future - maybe doing some recording together - and we tried to keep in touch. We did, and when it came time to finish the BluePrint album, the tracks that we had done initially just weren't sounding very good. Steve had offered to help us out with that album - try to improve what we had already done. As luck would have it, he had some time available at the end of July beginning of August of 1993 (when Marillion were finishing up their Brave album) they were using that really amazing studio called Par Street Studios in Liverpool in England. So, Doug and I went over there with our tapes and we just built on what we had done and improved them as much as possible. Doug redid a lot of the guitar parts, we had some keyboards tweaked with some tone as much as we could, basically just did it and mixed it and that's how it all happened.

PS: Gotcha. I remember hearing during the Wounded era that Benignus...well, first off, how did Mike Geimer get the name Beningnus?

PC: <laughs> That came from me. I really enjoy to bestow nicknames on people, and when I was at college (a small liberal arts college in this area called St. Mary's College studying philosophy) one of the courses we had - a book we had called Nature, Knowledge and God by a Brother Benignus! This is a catholic college and was setup and kind of administered by the Christian brothers so this book by a Brother Benignus was by a christian brother whose name was Benignus. That's a catholic holy name meaning "good one" or "highest person," that sort of thing - think about words like begnin or benevolent. The latin root of bene meaning "goodness" so Benignus is just a hilarious (to me, at least) name to put on that root. I don't know if he still is, but at that time our Benignus was an atheist, so it seems very appropriate and kind of a funny irony to call him "Benignus," given this catholic holy name.

PS: That's...I'm trying to picture him when you first gave him the title - just looking at you like "huh?"

PC: <laughs> We've always had a tradition within Enchant - especially between Mike and me - of a pompous overly intellectual kind of banter - just having fun, discussing ideas...being serious about it but also kind of making fun of ourselves in the process, so it was something he really took to and appreciated.

PS: That's cool, but as I was saying - I had heard (and I don't know how much of this is rumor and how much of this was actual fact) that during Wounded he actually left the band and rejoined later on.

PC: Right.

PS: Is there any truth to that?

PC: Yes, that was the case. After we did our first tour for the BluePrint album, unfortunately we...our rapor deteriorated between the rest of us and Benig. After some long discussions with him, we kind of mutually decided (that is, us - Doug, Ted, Ed and myself on one side and Benig on another) that it would be best that he leave the band. We were all depressed about it, but we decided to carry on without him even though we were sad at his departure. We tried out a couple other keyboard players - including a guy named Matt Guillory (who now plays with a group called Dali's Dilemma). Another friend of ours, Phil Bennett (who ended up appearing on Wounded playing the solo on Missing and I think he played some stuff on Below Zero as well) is a really good player. We had material we were working on with those guys. After a hiatus of about seven or eight months we kind of twisted Benig's arm and got him to come back and do some stuff and so, on the Wounded album, the playing is a combination of Benig, Phil, Doug and I.

PS: You mentioned Missing on the Wounded album, and I'm sure you know the eery similarity it has to a song by Dream Theater.

PC: That's one reason that Doug, who wrote the song, especially hates it because he realizes in retrospect that it is quite similar. To be fair and to be totally objective, you can't argue with what someone's ears tell them. If someone hears it and says "god, this is a total Dream Theater rip-off, you know, it's just like 6:00" in a sense you can't argue with them - but being, or trying to be totally objective, it's really not that similar. I mean, the similarity is more structural or arrangement wise. Both tunes begin with a drum beat and then have a keyboard part that has kind of a wah-wah sound to it, but the actual beat I play is quite different to what Mike played and certainly the keyboard part is quite different. I see why it reminds people of that and it certainly is quite Dream Theaterisqe - maybe a poor man's version of Dream Theater at that - but I don't think it's as much of a shameless rip-off as some people have claimed.

PS: You mentioned a couple of questions ago the infamous word touring! You tend to tour California and Europe, but that's about it. Any reason or just the way the ball bounces?

PC: Well, actually we don't even tour California. We've played once in Southern California somewhat recently. We played with Spock's Beard at a place called The Country Club in Raceida which is down near L.A., a picturesque little place. We've done local gigs here in our area, which is the San Francisco Bay area, but mostly in Europe. The reason for that is Europe is where our label is, and the small success we've had has really been over there. I was somewhat sliding Magna Carta a while back and saying I didn't think they offered the most beneficial deals to their bands and I said touring as a perfect case in point, except for Liquid Tension I don't know of any shows or tours that they have sponsored. They may have some involvement with the ProgFest shows that their acts have appeared at, I don't know, but as far as I know there's been no touring support. I really don't think it's built into their equation and it's really down to the label when it comes down to touring - where is the label willing to send you? Obviously touring is looked at as a way of increasing revenues through record sales - gain the band expose, building up the band and so we really can only go where's there's some kind of demand and granted that where the record company's willing to send us and can afford to send us because it's so expensive. It makes no sense for InsideOut, based in Europe, to send us on a tour over here. It might make more sense now that this InsideOut America is being set up, but even still, it's so expensive, and plus for musicians now - basically everybody has to have a day job because we don't make enough money from the band to support ourselves. So once you have that to deal with and then other interests and responsibilities like families - it's very difficult to be able to make the time. It's very difficult to justify as well as you're working pretty much full time and then you have a couple weeks vacation a year to spend that on tour instead of taking your wife or family somewhere nice. It's a difficult balance.

To learn more about Paul Craddick, Enchant and Xen, check out the following links:

The Oasis: Enchant's Official Website