KIY1

JIM XAVIER INTERVIEWS STEVE LINES

The King In Yellow CD album is the brainchild of Steve Lines, and here Jim Xavier interviews him to try and find out more about the project and plans for future releases on Rainfall Records.

Jim: Once again, the obvious question, what inspired the project?

Steve: There's a number of reasons why I undertook the KIY project. The whole thing began when, while working on Strange Aeons, Joe Pulver mentioned in a letter that he'd like to hear Stormclouds put Cassilda's Song to music. So I promptly sat down and wrote music to Chambers' lyrics and we recorded a demo and sent it to Joe. This got us talking about a possible album inspired by the KIY. Joe had already discussed several KIY ideas in his Mythos novel Nightmare's Disciple so I asked him what other ideas he had. He then sent me a track by track breakdown with ideas for arrangements, running order and themes. I added my ideas to this and what resulted became the blueprint for the album.

Jim: Why has it taken so long?

Steve: Well, apart from the fact that I'm doing about nine million other things, all at the same time, there's a few other contributing factors; Stormclouds lost their singer, which meant that a lot of the planned songs by the band had to be scrapped and the running order re-vamped -- there are only two by STORMCLOUDS on the album; a planned collaboration with Susan McAdam as vocalist fell through -- mostly due to the distances involved as she lives in the US and, bit by bit, other projects took priority. However, now that the two STORMCLOUDS archive CDs have been released (The Darkest Hour and Shadowqueen) I'm back working hard on the project now and it should be released in the summer of 2006

Jim: Is the line up the same as Strange Aeons?

Steve: It's similar, although it lacks some of the big names, such as Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley and Simon Clark. What we do have though are songs by Stormclouds, Rod Goodway, The Petals, Childe Roland and Lodovico Ellena (who was the vocalist in Astral Weeks), and also a Swindon band called Karda Estra. Poetry is read by Robert M. Price, Susan McAdam, and Joe Pulver. It's not as ambitious as Strange Aeons and is only a 1 disc set but it's probably more psychedelic than Aeons: a bit like a Mythos version of Head by The Monkees.

Jim: So how does the project stand at the moment

Steve: I have one more Stormclouds song to finish, titled Lost Carcosa and Rod Goodway is working on a variation of The Waltz of the Veiled King. Then all the material will be completed and it's just a case of mixing it all down and putting together a master.

However . . . there is a chance that Stormclouds may have a new vocalist in the near future and, if this materialises, I will probably be tempted to add a couple more Stormclouds songs to the project which were shelved when Mel left the band. These are Vincent Starrettt's Cordelia's Song and Ann K, Schwader's A Lost Song of Cassilda. We'll have to wait and see what happens

Jim: What will be your next musical project after THE KING IN YELLOW?

Steve: Well there's THE CHAOS BROTHERS, who seem to be gigging on a semi-regular basis again. Then there's the unfinished album by THE DOCTOR'S POND which Mike and I have been working on sporadically. I was hoping to record a new STORMCLOUDS album, but the proposed singer didn't materialise, so we'll have to wait and see . . .

Jim: What does the future hold in store for the publishing side of Rainfall?

Steve: Good question. John and I are always about 10 books ahead of our publishing schedule. We are also producing a prolific number of chapbooks, the first of which was LOVECRAFT'S DISCIPLES. This has been followed by a KIY publication THE YELLOW SIGN and another devoted to Clark Ashton Smith entitled STRANGE SORCERY. We have also published occasional one-offs, the first of which was DEATH SONGS FROM CARCOSA by me and John.

The next book to be published will (finally) be a collection by Derek M. Fox. We have a number of Mythos anthologies planned such as CTHULHU'S CREATURES and INNSMOUTH TALES, a pulp anthology STRANGE STORIES, a collection of fantasy tales BENEATH THE MOONS OF ZANDOR and a surprise project that John and I have been working on..