:The Last Dance:
A good jump into 2003 for Twilight Realm, interviewing the "energic" American Band...After the astonishing Liveshow in Milano, what can I say?? Wait for their 2003 Tour and run to see them!
Many thanx to Jeff&Rick for answering to my twisted questions...and the very best wishes to The Last Dance...Dreamers never give up :-)
Simona

pictures by theBlackRose - TheLastDance Live in Milano - 2002

Simona: "You taught me to never give up"...this quotation is taken from the movie "What Dreams may come", and I believe it can in someway describe the story of "The Last Dance": 12 years (for you and Rick), passing through success and difficulties, births, re-births and deaths...a complete cycle...do u agree with me?
Jeff - I totally agree. When you find something you believe in, and have the right chemistry with the people you work with, it's easier to keep working at it despite the difficulties. Some of the things we thought about when we started this band 12 years ago have certainly come to be. We wanted to create music that people would be able to relate to and identify with. We wanted to be recognized and to be successful. We have all that. I don't think we ever thought we would have to go through some of the hardships, but life is like that. Working with Rick and Peter and Ivan has always been a great source of inspiration for me. It's that cooperation and shared resolve that keeps us going.
Rick - I agree with you. Doing this now for 12 years, The Last Dance has become my life. I do not know what I would do without it or without the friends I have in this band. In 1993 I once considered "giving up" and Jeff convinced me not to. This last year, with its successes and devastation has only encouraged me and TLD to continue..to continue our dream. For me personally I feel in many ways I owe it to myself, to my bandmates, and to Ivan. As for the cycles you speak of I see them in our past, and with each cycle we grow, improve, and continue..as for the cycle we are in currently, I cannot foresee the outcome, but in my present mind I am putting all I am into the life of The Last Dance, maybe its to keep TLD going, maybe it is to keep myself going, or maybe it is a bit of both.
Simona: The Last Dance have caught my attention (on a high emotional level) since the first time I listened to "Fairytales"..."kind of Music to listen to at candle lights" (excluding the recent Remixes, and the more energic song on "Perfect", of course), I thought. So (I'm referring myself to your show in Milano, since it has been the first time I saw you in concert) it was quite a surprise to discover how "powerful" you are on stage! (though Alex of Ascension already told me about it!). a Perfect marriage between melancholy, energy and...fun (the way you play with the audience)...another awesome way to appreciate your Music...well, this is in short what I got from your live-show, and what does a live show "give" to you? what do you remember of your first time here in Italy (that was also the Last date of your tour)?
Jeff - There's a lot to answer in a question like that! First of all, I fell in love with Italy. We were supposed to play in Rome and some other shows back in 1999 on a tour that fell apart at the last minute. So it was especially rewarding to be able to return. We received a lot of very positive feedback from our show in Milan, and chances are good we will be able to return sometime this year. I have always loved to perform live shows. There is such an opportunity when you have a good and receptive audience. I like to interact with the crowd and make it a good time for everyone. Even if people are not very familiar with our music, they can certainly enjoy a good show. I think that we are a lot more powerful and energetic on stage than we have ever have been able to capture on an album. With the album being recorded now, we are taking lessons from how people react to us live. So this album is looking to be much more raw and like a live show.
Rick - The live show is the most fun part of what we do. The energy you experienced from it comes from a collection of our love for playing live and enjoying our music along with the crowd we are playing for and their response to us and our music. Ending our last tour in Italy was really special for us. We did not know what to expect, going into the last show of the tour. Everything in Milano was wonderful for us however, from the promoter, Alex, to the crowd, to the overall vibe we experienced that night. Thank you to everyone involved, Alex of course and the people who came out to the show. It was a very fun and special night for all of us.
Simona: "Perfect"...I'm in someway attracted by this "word"...so, I'm wondering why you decided to entitle your album "Perfect" ... a part the romantic content of the song: "your only one, your perfect one"..."Perfect" is something my mind suddenly tried to relate with human beings, but I can hardly find a connection...uhm I'm loosing myself into words... by the way, what is "Perfect" for you?
Jeff - The album was named after the song Perfect, and there are correlations in how we saw the meanings of the two. The song is about finding perfect love, even if perfect love is not a thing we can possess. The song is about the struggle to be perfect, not about perfection itself. The album is much the same. It is about trying to be perfect, about pursuing perfection, not about being perfect.
Rick - "Perfect"..something no person can really understand I have come to realize.including myself. No one is perfect, and this world is hardly perfect I have come to know all too well. It is in some ways it is a pretentious word but also something that many attain to achieve. The only perfection and solace I find in the world currently is within my son, Carl, who is just a simple and innocent child. In my eyes, he is perfect.
Simona: "Fairytale the Storm"...what is the meaning of remakes of previously released Songs for The Last Dance? (same goes for "Do you believe in Angels?", "This Tragedy"....)
Rick - Meaning..really it is a combination of things..Fairytale, This Tragedy, and DYBIA all are songs from our past that we really like as do our fans. We enjoy remixing and rewriting songs in a style more current with that which we are playing at the time. There is no particular meaning behind the remaking of each of these songs other than the idea that we liked them and wanted to have fun rewriting them just to see what would happen. With the three you mentioned, the outcome has been good and they have become the versions we perform live.
Jeff - It is always fun to relive songs from the past. When you play them live for so long, they tend to evolve. Releasing new versions of old songs is just to show how they have changed as we continue to play them.
Simona: I guess at the moment you are quite busy rehearsing for the new album...can you reveal us some more details?
Rick - We are currently in the studio recording the new album. We are purposely keeping most of the details of this CD quiet, as it is a very personal album for us, from the songwriting through the recording process. Given our last year and the events that transpired, every aspect of continuing The Last Dance and writing and recording a new album have become even more personal and in many ways keep us going. The new CD is for us, it is something we must do to stay alive on many levels, and therefore we are keeping most of the details to ourselves. I will tell you this, we expect a Spring 2003 release in Europe, and at that time, everyone who is waiting can experience the whispers and rage we have had while creating it.
Simona: I read that a 2003 tour is already scheduled....tell us more! is also Lepizig Gothik Treffen planned? what do you think of that unique event? isn't that a Fairytale? Have you got similar festivals in the States?
Jeff - We have been busy planning tours throughout 2003 in the US and Europe. We would love to be reinvited to Wave Gothik, but nothing has happened so far. There are a few decent festivals in the US. Nothing so large as Leipzig, but some good festivals. We should be attending a few this year, where we missed most of them last year to be on tour in Europe. In any case, we will do as much touring as time and finances will allow!
Rick - At this point we only have tour dates set up in the us as far as 2003 goes. We are still working on European options. We would love to play Leipzig again but there are politics involved and we shall see how they transpire. In the US we have similar festivals but they are smaller. We are planning to play at a few festivals in the US this year, including Convergence 9 and Dragoncon.
Simona: once you collaborated with Engelstaub...other collaborations planned in the near future, maybe?
Jeff - I was asked to sing one song on an album for Engglestaub. It was a fun experience, and we had Peter add some guitar tracks. A remix of that version appeared on their latest release as well. I would be honored to sing for them again, and we have talked about it a few times.
Simona: according to your discography, you seem really to enjoy making cover versions...what does this re-interpretation of so different songs (from "Dead can Dance " to "Mission") mean to you?
Jeff - Most of the cover song we have done have been for specific tribute compilations we've been asked to be on. It's a fun thing to do when you get to reinterpret songs that have meant something to you in the past. A few of them have appeared in our live set from time to time. The latest cover version we've done was Oingo Boingo's Dead Man's Party (big hit from the 80's in the US). Since it was the last song Ivan recorded with us before he died, it's a special song for us. It was released on Apollyon's Halloween CD.
Rick - It is fun to do cover versions of songs, especially when playing live. In the last years we have done vesions of Britney Spears "Oops I did it again"(!! ah ah! ndr), along with Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party" and Cirque du Soleil's "Alegria." All have gone over very well at live shows and they are fun to play. We enjoy doing our interpretation of another artist song, whether it be just for fun as the Britney song was or for doing a complete stylistic re-working of a song into our style.
Simona: since I'm a lot into Visual:Art, here is an odd question for you: if you would be asked to "tell" your Music through a Painting, which one (or ones) would you choose? and why?
Jeff - That is a difficult question for me, because I am not a visual artist. I don't tend to relate my music that way. When I look at visual arts, I generally try to understand what the artist had in mind and what they think it means. What I relate to on a personal level is difficult for me to express. It's not a very good answer, I'm afraid. But I would love to see an artist give an interpretation of our music.
Simona: "we, human beings, were meant to stay together, but we never learnt how" (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, from the movie "the bitter tears of Petra Von Kant")...this is what your lyrics mainly recall to my mind...what's your opinion?
Jeff - My lyrics are mostly about learning how to get along. Through life, it's all about learning how to stay together, how to get along, how to be happy. I think that people are essentially interested in being happy and having people around to share with. It's not that different from your quote. I think the biggest problem that we face as people is that we don't really know what makes us happy.
Rick - Mankind has a certain ability to see only what is in front of them and not what is in the future, what is to come that is. You say our lyrics remind you of this passage from a movie, and I take that as a compliment. We write about experiences in our lives. Things we live through, things we see, things we feel, and of course things we dream.

Contacts:
THE LAST DANCE official website
jeff@thelastdance.com