Translation on an interview published in the February 2005-issue of iO Pages www.iopages.nl/ (previously known as: www.net4u.nl/io/ )
THE PAST
1. Welcome back! What has happened to the members of Happy The Man after Crafty Hands was released?
Frank: After Crafty Hands until now covers a lot of territory! I tried to stay in music, working on an off broadway production of The Hanged Man (Death’s Crown), but that fell apart when the backers pulled out for some stock market opportunity. After that it was simply surviving for me. I went into carpentry as there was still some room for creativity there, and then with that as my skilled trade moved around a lot, ending up in Hawaii for thirteen years. I had moved back to Virginia when Stan called about reforming the band.
Stan: Yeah, we all kind of went our separate ways but Rick and Frank and I always kept in touch with each other. I formed a band called Vision with Rick after Happy broke up in ’79 and then had a group called One by One both of which had some minimal success. Then I had a group called Avalon and in 1994 moved to Los Angeles where I played with a band called Ten Jinn, formed a little ‘power trio’ called Spirit Noise and I started doing some solo acoustic work.
2. What can you tell us about what happened in Mexico, where the seed was planted for the reunion?
Stan: I was playing with Ten Jinn at Bajaprog (a prog festival in Mexicali) in 1999 and word got out that I was from Happy the Man and after the set I was surrounded by about 100 musicians from all over the world telling me how great they thought HTM was and couldn’t believe they were meeting someone from HTM! I was floored and quite humbled. I found it hard to believe anyone even knew of HTM much less were influenced or inspired by us! Then two promoters from Nearfest (a progressive music festival in Pennsylvania) approached me and told me if I reformed Happy the Man with even one or two of the other original members we’d be headlining these festivals. I also found that hard to believe, but they sent me an offer in writing to headline Nearfest 2000 and I immediately called Frank and Rick who were also very surprised at the apparent interest in HTM and we decided to do it. So I moved from LA to Virginia to start writing music with Frank.
3. The NEARfest 2000 was a great success, but what were the main reasons it took more than 4 years to come up with a new album, while you played 5 new tracks at that moment?
Frank: We were set back several times while trying to fill the drum chair. Ron was so busy with his film and television scoring that it became more and more difficult to work in rehearsals with HTM. The logistics problems of having a band spread over several states also pressure the timeline substantially, and finally there was the project funding to be dealt with. It is very expensive to produce a quality recording, and we did not want to compromise the high standards we had established with the two Arista releases. Without Inside Out’s support we might not have the record done still!
4. If InsideOut Music wouldn’t have been willing to release The Muse Awakens, would you have considered to release the stuff you had recorded in 2003 as a private release?
Stan: We would definately have released it on our own and sold it through our website and at our gigs but that would have taken even longer. We are ever thankful for Inside Out coming to us and offering us a deal. We really couldn’t be with a more appropriate label. It’s great being with a label that actually ‘gets’ us and appreciates our music.
4a. From what I understood the music of The Muse was rerecorded after the contract with InsideOut was signed.
Stan: Nothing was rerecorded as we had only done rough recordings up till signing with Inside Out.
5. When you got the contract Ron Riddle choose for his career of film-composer. What influence had that on the music of the new album (especially because Riddle took the music more into the Crafty Hands-vein than in the vein of the debut, which was also clear at NEARfest) and how did you find the current drummer Joe Bergamini?
Frank: The songs were all composed and rehearsed without Ron initially, simply because he was unable to attend many of the early practices. As a result, the change of drummers probably had less impact than it otherwise might. The arrangements certainly have a different character with different drummers though, and I think they sound better than ever with Joe Bergamini, who we found in a series of auditions.
THE PAST
1. Welcome back! What has happened to the members of Happy The Man after Crafty Hands was released?
Frank: After Crafty Hands until now covers a lot of territory! I tried to stay in music, working on an off broadway production of The Hanged Man (Death’s Crown), but that fell apart when the backers pulled out for some stock market opportunity. After that it was simply surviving for me. I went into carpentry as there was still some room for creativity there, and then with that as my skilled trade moved around a lot, ending up in Hawaii for thirteen years. I had moved back to Virginia when Stan called about reforming the band.
Stan: Yeah, we all kind of went our separate ways but Rick and Frank and I always kept in touch with each other. I formed a band called Vision with Rick after Happy broke up in ’79 and then had a group called One by One both of which had some minimal success. Then I had a group called Avalon and in 1994 moved to Los Angeles where I played with a band called Ten Jinn, formed a little ‘power trio’ called Spirit Noise and I started doing some solo acoustic work.
2. What can you tell us about what happened in Mexico, where the seed was planted for the reunion?
Stan: I was playing with Ten Jinn at Bajaprog (a prog festival in Mexicali) in 1999 and word got out that I was from Happy the Man and after the set I was surrounded by about 100 musicians from all over the world telling me how great they thought HTM was and couldn’t believe they were meeting someone from HTM! I was floored and quite humbled. I found it hard to believe anyone even knew of HTM much less were influenced or inspired by us! Then two promoters from Nearfest (a progressive music festival in Pennsylvania) approached me and told me if I reformed Happy the Man with even one or two of the other original members we’d be headlining these festivals. I also found that hard to believe, but they sent me an offer in writing to headline Nearfest 2000 and I immediately called Frank and Rick who were also very surprised at the apparent interest in HTM and we decided to do it. So I moved from LA to Virginia to start writing music with Frank.
3. The NEARfest 2000 was a great success, but what were the main reasons it took more than 4 years to come up with a new album, while you played 5 new tracks at that moment?
Frank: We were set back several times while trying to fill the drum chair. Ron was so busy with his film and television scoring that it became more and more difficult to work in rehearsals with HTM. The logistics problems of having a band spread over several states also pressure the timeline substantially, and finally there was the project funding to be dealt with. It is very expensive to produce a quality recording, and we did not want to compromise the high standards we had established with the two Arista releases. Without Inside Out’s support we might not have the record done still!
4. If InsideOut Music wouldn’t have been willing to release The Muse Awakens, would you have considered to release the stuff you had recorded in 2003 as a private release?
Stan: We would definately have released it on our own and sold it through our website and at our gigs but that would have taken even longer. We are ever thankful for Inside Out coming to us and offering us a deal. We really couldn’t be with a more appropriate label. It’s great being with a label that actually ‘gets’ us and appreciates our music.
4a. From what I understood the music of The Muse was rerecorded after the contract with InsideOut was signed.
Stan: Nothing was rerecorded as we had only done rough recordings up till signing with Inside Out.
5. When you got the contract Ron Riddle choose for his career of film-composer. What influence had that on the music of the new album (especially because Riddle took the music more into the Crafty Hands-vein than in the vein of the debut, which was also clear at NEARfest) and how did you find the current drummer Joe Bergamini?
Frank: The songs were all composed and rehearsed without Ron initially, simply because he was unable to attend many of the early practices. As a result, the change of drummers probably had less impact than it otherwise might. The arrangements certainly have a different character with different drummers though, and I think they sound better than ever with Joe Bergamini, who we found in a series of auditions.
HTM really are ahead of their time! 
