Q&A STEVE BABB

Glass Hammer's main maestro discusses the creation of ARISE, satisfying personal expectations and what it's like to steer the ship after three decades.

- Jordan Blum

As the co-founder of Glass Hammer, multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Steve Babb has been at the forefront of American progressive rock for around 30 years. In fact, he’s helped pen some of the genre’s most celebrated modern works, including 2005’s The Inconsolable Secret, 2011’s Cor Cordium and 2016’s Valkyrie. The band’s latest conceptual release, ARISE – which stands for Android Research Initiative for Space Exploration – fits right alongside them, as it’s a cosmic horror narrative packed with the group’s trademark melodic and musical specialities. Babb tells Prog about the influences and ambitions behind ARISE’s amazing path.

Did any specific horror or sci-fi fiction or films inspire ARISE?

For example, HP Lovecraft or Aliens. Oh, definitely Lovecraft. [On the album] you’ve got a group of scientists who think they’re the superior intellects of the universe, and when they take their android out into space, they quickly find they’re not. So it just kind of becomes a battle. I mean, I love Lovecraft, and then there’s Clark Ashton Smith and the movies Interstellar and 2001: A Space Odyssey. You know, putting cosmic horror in a galactic context.

What interests you about making concept albums? Do you think it’s almost a prerequisite of prog?