Hi Brian and Jos and thank you very much for accepting to have this little chat. Should with start with a small biographical note on Silhouette?

Brian: The foundations of Silhouette go back to 2003. I met Jos in 2001 and we shared a lot of idea's about what's good music. We did a few songs together but realised we really need a band to make things work. I made a few phonecalls one evening.. I knew GJ was playing bass for a few years. I knew him from old times on a local Radio station. The same evening I phoned Henny van Veenendaal if he wanted to play lead guitar. I also knew he did some jamming with a keyboard player (Toine van Riesewijck). So Henny asked Toine and the first setting of Silhouette was there. For Henny it seemed too far away, and Toine had to let go because of health problems. And then there were three. Gladly Erik responded on an advertisement for a new keyboard player in the beginning of 2005. Erik ‘s coming to Silhouette made things really flow. We also thought for a moment to search for a new solo guitar player. By that time I already played most of Henny's lines as well and we noticed there was quite a chemistry going on. So there you have it…a party of four.

Give us some more details on the recordings of your debut, self-financed delivery?

We did most of the recordings at the Avenue Sound studio, which is really the garage at Erik's place. Avenue is english for Laan, which is his last name. Because we didn't want a fight with Erik's neigbours, we did the drum recording at the Wellant college in Montfoort. Jos is a teacher there.

Taking into account the writing process and the recording session, how long have you been working on "A-Maze". How satisfied are you with the final outcome and if you had the chance, what would you choose to do differently.

We recorded the album in 9 months. We are very satisfied for a first recording, but we know there is still a lot to win. So we invested the money we earned with A-maze to buy new and better recording stuff. We all think that the drumming sound will improve a lot on the new album.

What's the reaction of the media and the fans so far? Does it me your expectations?

It's more than we expected. We sell more CDs than we anticipated. With a few exceptions, most of the reviews are rather positive. Several reviewers stress the potential in Silhouette, which we of course also believe in, but it helps if others recognize that!. (:-))!

Even though it's pretty obvious to me that you're a classic progressive rock band, I'd like to know whether or not you agree with this definition and how would you describe your music on "A-Maze"?

Of course we are not going to deny this, although if you ask us we prefer melodic rock. We want to play progressive rock, but we enjoy playing songs with a strong and catchy chorus and verses. It's very nice to hear our own kids singing the songs at home. We like instrumentals , but we prefer solo's that stick to ones mind, that people can hum with or whistle, instead of technically superb and virtuoso solo's.

Why did you decide to follow that direction in the first place, considering that it's difficult for a progressive rock band to gain recognition nowadays? Or it is not, because I see more and more bands popping out. Does that mean that the fans are finally showing more interest towards this style?

We don't know and we don't care (:-)). This is all about our passions and having fun! We don't care if we play for a full stadium or 60 people (like we did on the 8th of september), we just want to create the music that we like.

If I'd ask you to pick a song from "A-Maze" as your favorite, what would that be and why?

Brian: If you ask me it's the combo Seize the night followed by Long distance. You can't play the one without the other and I can't choose between the two. They are very nice songs to play and characterise everything we stand for.
Jos: Very difficult to pick up one song, because each song has his own charm.
Musically I prefer Ocean of life , seize the night and long distance. If you look at the lyrics then I prefer Reunion.

What are your main influences as musicians and as a band on the whole?

Brian: For me it's Steve Rothery, no doubt. The band as a whole: Genesis, Marillion and Arena.
Jos: As a drummer I listen to rock drummers like John Bonham. Personally I'm influenced by bands like Asia, Genesis and The Beatles.

Do you follow today's prog rock proceedings? Is there any bands you pick out?

Brian: Of course we do. I think Satellite is a very good one. This band consists of old Collage musicians, so do we call this a new band (:-))? I also like Saybia, which is not typical progressive rock but music with a very nice atmosphere.

So, who is mostly responsible for the song-writing and, by extension, for your musical approach?

This you can see on the back of the album. Brian did 4 songs, Jos 3 and Erik 2. But still the album sounds as one band, because each member put his own "shot" into the songs.

Lyric-wise, is there a concept story behind "A-maze"? What themes inspire you most on that aspect?

This is all by accident. The title was A maze at first, because of the school we rehearsed every week (Wellant College in Montfoort) is really a maze. As the songs were growing we realised there were a lot of songs about amazing things, like losing friends and lovers or a world that has gone mad. So we added the "-" between the two words and voila, a double meaning.

Have you been approached by some labels for a future collaboration? Are you optimistic about that? How difficult is it for a progressive rock band to turn the spotlight on it?

We did, but it's not easy to find a label when you don't have material to convince them yet. However, now that we have released "A-Maze", we hope for labels to be interested. If they don't, well, no big problem: We will go on making CD's and release them indepentdently and we are confident that our fans will find their way to us and our music.

Do you have any live experience so far? Are you going to do so in the future?

We did our first gig on 8 september, It was great, the people loved it. Some said the music had more power than the cd, so we hope to do more gigs in the future. We also concluded that the challenge will be to capture this power when recording the next CD.

And what does the future hold for Silhouette? Are you working on new stuff and when should we expect it to be released?

We are working on a second album, we hope to release it in 2008. It will be a concept album containing a story of 11 tracks, in which the different moods a person experiences along the story, will be expressed in the music. From deep grief to pure euphoria and back. Besides this story we already have two songs ("The answers" and "Anybody" ) that will also appear on the album. We played those songs live on the 8th of september as well as some parts of the "moods" story. We are really looking forward on releasing the new album, but people have to be patient. We want to take time to make the second album one to remember.

Brian and Jos, once again thank you very much for this interview. From the bottom of my heart, best wishes for the future. Is there anything you'd like to add?

Keep on visiting our website www.silhouetteband.nl because we will put some of the new songs on MP3 there very shortly (:)).