Creating a second album can be a daunting challenge to any band. How many groups have released a smash hit out of the gate, only to stumble on their second shot at the brass ring? Asia, The Knack, and Crowded House are examples of this kind of "sophomore slump" that come to mind-not that their second LPs were necessarily bad-they just didn't live up to the reviews/sales/reception/etc. of their amazing debuts.
Six By Six is an example of a band that is avoiding such a slump. Following the success of its self-titled debut album released in 2022, the trio-former 3 frontman Robert Berry on vocals/bass/keyboards, Saga guitarist Ian Crichton and Saxon drummer Nigel Glocker-has upped the ante with its 2024 release, Beyond Shadowland, which finds the band evolving its potent mix of prog-rock adventurousness and hard-rock power with a strong set of new songs. Based on fan response to advance releases of the new material, Six By Six has nothing to worry about, as album No. 2 will surely eclipse the response that greeted its first effort.
When Goldmine spoke with Berry and Crichton from Berry's studio, the band was anticipating the April release of Beyond Shadowland in a discussion that covered upcoming plans, including the trio's first-ever live shows.
GOLDMINE: Congratulations on the new release! I was wondering if you could talk a bit about how the band has evolved since the debut?
Robert Berry: Well, Ian's really mean to me. So, there's that. (laughs)
Ian Crichton: It's the use of a whip. (laughs)
GM: I can tell you don't get along at all.
IC: It just came naturally. It was the same process as the first one and musically it has evolved. It's a little heavier. But I think that's a good side for us. There are two slower songs on the record and the rest is heavy. I think we shine the best with heavier stuff.
RB: Although with "Obiliex," we have a song out that nobody knows the title (to). "Obiliex" is a slower tune and it's getting rave reviews, but I'll have to say that everything we do starts with Ian. He'll send me some genius little part and I'll go, "Oh my God, this needs to be a song." Then I get it back to him, he gets it back to me, we bat it back and forth. The only thing this time was, we thought it should be a heavier record. We didn't want to make the same album twice. A lot of bands do that-it's just the same thing. "Oh, a Journey album! It sounds like a Journey album. That's as good as the last album." Because it's the same album! (laughs)
Beyond Shadowland coverart
GM: Some bands have run into the "sophomore curse" on their second album. You've really moved it forward and upped your game on this one. Do you feel like you broke the curse?
IC: Yeah, I think so. We're thinking about playing live too. We're going to wake up the audience!
RB: I want to tell you something that's interesting. I experienced this. It wasn't writer's block. The first album did so well. Then when we first started putting a couple of ideas together, Ian said to me, "This isn't as good as the first album. Try a little more." I'm like, "Yeah." One of my rules for myself is, it's easier to fix an idea than it is to get one. So I just went for it and then I got a little bit closer. Then he goes, "Ah, yeah-but..." And I said, "Well, you haven't worked on it again. Work." And he worked on it some more. And all of the sudden, it clicked. It just happened. It was funny to have that pressure. Day one of album 1, nobody knew who we were, never heard of us. We kept it a secret. And it did so well. Then when we got to the second, we were like, "How are we going to top that?" And I think that's when we unconsciously-or maybe consciously-said, "We don't want to make the same album. We have a style. Let's make it heavier."
GM: And you did! Ian, it seems as if you went for more diversity on this one with some different guitar textures and acoustic guitars. Could you speak to that?
IC: Well, it turned out that I like playing my Spanish nylon guitar, and that is now part of the band, really. So I will have a floating guitar on a stand on the floor and go back and forth. I think it's created something really cool. I just really like playing it a lot, so it's just mixed in with the music now.
GM: You mentioned doing some live work. You didn't get to tour for the first CD. Are you guys expecting to get this band onstage this time around?
RB: That's the plan.
IC: We're working on it for September, a possible four or five shows in Europe. Possibly ProgStock in New Jersey. (Note: Six By Six has been confirmed to play at ProgStock 2024 in October. Saga is also on the bill.) And funny enough, we have been sitting at #5 on the AZ Rock Chart in San Juan, Puerto Rico, so we might go down there and do a show!
GM: I'm sure you've heard the stories about how Rush famously broke in Detroit. In your case, you're getting big a little farther south.
IC: A little further south! My first big concert with Saga was in San Juan. We were playing smaller places for three years up in Canada, play, play, play, and all of a sudden, we heard that we were really doing really well in this place. I didn't even know where that was. We went down there and sold out an 8,000-seat venue. That was the start of that. So yeah, it's a good omen that this band is happening down there again.
GM: That's great. I hope you can actually get there!
IC: We'll play around America too.
RB: I want to get there, Howard-and actually come home, too. You never know.
GM: No, you don't. That could be interesting. Robert, when we talked about the first album, you mentioned that you were considering trying to handle the keyboard parts and some of the other elements of the music through some digital effects. Have you evolved that idea? Do you have any further thoughts about how you would produce those sounds?
RB: Yeah. Keyboards are light in our music, but they're there. I think I can handle all of that by playing keyboards and using bass pedals. My problem is remembering the words while I'm doing that, because I got to aim for that bass pedal. We're doing a video for Song 3 tomorrow, and I've worked out how I would accomplish that. It's motor memory. It's not really hard to do. You know, I used to do that a long time ago.
GM: Sure. When you played with Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer in 3, you had to wear a lot of hats.
RB: Yeah, [Keith] didn't let me play a lot of keyboards. I don't know why.
IC: Maybe because he was Keith.
RB: Yeah, maybe because he has four hands already.
GM: I always say that Robert has good taste in teammates. You were with a great keyboard player. Now you're with a great guitar player.
RB: Well, that was my goal.
GM: You choose well. Robert, you also mentioned you were considering bringing some female vocalists on board for live shows.
RB: Originally, we talked about that, but now we're thinking that the harder we can work-like Rush-the harder you work as a three-piece. The crowd seems to really appreciate that, and there's a lot of guitar in this album that Ian's got to get across. As you mentioned, with the keyboards and playing bass and saying there's a lot of stuff to do-I think the fans might appreciate it more if there's (just) the three of us up there. We'll see once we get there. You know what? When we do a whole rehearsal, if we need to add, we will. I don't think we will. I'm feeling well. I'm feeling pretty good about it.
GM: I'm sure you can pull it off. Did you record this album remotely, or work together in the studio?
RB: We came here to (my studio) SoundTek. All of the drums were done here and some of the guitars. Ian does work at home because he has a good studio there with great sound. But we got together. Part of the band being a band is we didn't want it to be a "project." You have to see if you get along. Nigel is as funny as can be. He's an easygoing guy. We got along fine. Ian and I had been doing things for a while writing-wise before that, so we knew we got along-until this interview. You've sort of broken us up, Howard. Thanks a lot! (laughs)
GM: I'll take full blame for that. So how was it recording together in Robert's studio?
IC: This is a great studio here that Robert has. It's really nice, and has everything in it you would need.
RB: And a lot that you don't. It's like a museum in here. He was just looking at my Korg Oasys keyboard that Emerson got me. They don't make them anymore. That's still the best sound. It's just incredible. There are five drum sets, 10 snares ... everything over the years has been kept, and if you need it, it's here somewhere. Plus the old and new consoles and all of the outboard equipment. I've got the oldest and the newest of everything. It's taken 35 years to collect all of that. But I love that part of it.
GM: Robert, do you have any plans for the 3.2 project and live band at this point? Or are you only focusing on Six By Six?
RB: I've put everything into Six By Six on my end. That's my dream band. If I go back to (my time with) GTR with Steve Howe, there's a great guitar player that you could recognize, one of the few in the world where you can recognize their playing and jump back when he plays. You can recognize Keith Emerson on the keyboards. Chris Squire on the bass. You can recognize these guys. With Steve Howe, I had that and the drummer happened to be Nigel Glocker. And it took me 30 years for my manager Nick to say, "What are you going to do next? Keith's gone." I said, "I'd like to find a guitar player like Steve, where he has these unique things, but heavier, more power and this unique sound like Emerson, but I've got to leave the keyboards behind. He was the greatest, the best. I'll never be able to do that. And it was Nick who said, "You ought to give Ian a call." (To Ian) And I figured you would say, "Sorry, man. Click." And he didn't. He was interested.
IC: Yeah. During COVID-the first year of COVID.
GM: Right. And Ian, you played with Asia, so you had that pedigree to bring to this as well.
RB: Oh yeah. Between GTR, 3, Saga, Asia, and Nigel, who had worked with Robert Fripp's wife, Toyah Wilcox, as well as Saxon. Seriously, odd ducks all put together. It just is cool that our band works so well.
GM: It's a true supergroup. Did you envision that it would come together this well?
IC: Thinking and doing are two different things, but it worked out well.
GM: It sure did. How's the response been so far to the new material from Beyond Shadowland?
RB: We've gotten 110-percent positive comments, except for one guy who thinks this would be banned in Russia.
IC: Well, that's fine. We don't plan to go there and work. And that's great promo.
GM: No such thing as bad publicity, right?
IC: Yeah. I was hoping we'd encounter that on the first record with the song "China." But that didn't happen. They didn't ban us.
GM: That's a good thing. How do you make Six By Six work with your busy schedules? How does it come together that you can have windows to get together?
IC: For myself, Saga has a big tour in the fall, but for the rest of the year, I'm just sparse with a couple of shows here, a couple of shows there. I have lots of time. I like to play, and that's initiative for getting this thing out on the road and making it real.
GM: Do you have any further thoughts on the new album?
RB: It's nice you notice that it's a little more diverse. It goes to the extreme ends of what we do, and a lot of it is anchored right in that sweet spot. But we took some chances, especially putting out a slow song as a second single. It's not really slow, but sort of medium tempo. We were thinking, "Boy, I hope that doesn't sink us." But the reviews have been just tremendous.
IC: On the first record, we got to No. 13 in the charts in England one week in. There was great response there, so we're planning to play there also.
GM: It would be nice to see Six By Six take off as a touring band.
RB: Yeah. Plus we need a DVD to show people what we play, and that we're a real band. With all these things we're talking about, maybe we'll do 10 shows altogether. It doesn't have to be a lot to spread the word so people go, "Oh yeah, they were good live." I think from what people have told me, we have a distinct sound. We're progressive with some straight rock and heavy metal, and then there's some acoustic stuff.
GM: What do you envision for the future for this band?
IC: We've got to take it out live, because otherwise it's just a record band. So that'll be the big change once we do some live shows. And from there, we'll see where it goes. We have a three-album deal with Sony/InsideOut, so there's another album we're going to be working on, and off we go.
