Michael Sadler Honors Music Heroes in ProgJect
The Saga frontman jumps at the opportunity to sing some of progressive rock's most iconic songs by the genre's most recognizable vocalists.
Hello, friends. Welcome to another issue of Michael’s Record Collection, and thanks for making it part of your day. This week, I’m excited to bring you information about a new endeavor called ProgJect, which features vocalist Michael Sadler, who you might know from the Canadian prog/pop band Saga.
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Now let’s get to that discussion with Michael Sadler. Where I’d normally spotlight a record in this newsletter, today I’m going to talk (mostly) about a band that hasn’t yet released anything, and when it does, it will most likely be a live album. But don’t worry, there’s also discussion about a specific album as well.
Most tribute-style bands pay homage to a specific band. There are several acts that have made a living by bringing the music of their favorite bands to people all across the world. Get the Led Out is a successful Led Zeppelin tribute band. The Musical Box does a fantastic job of recreating the early Genesis experience. The Australian Pink Floyd Show takes Pink Floyd’s music on the road and uses original visuals supplied by the original band.
But then there’s ProgJect. Billing themselves as “The Ultimate Prog Rock Experience,” this five-piece ensemble pays tribute not to one band, but to an entire genre. ProgJect consists of Michael Sadler (Saga) on vocals, keyboards, and bass; Ryo Okumoto (Spock’s Beard) on keyboards; Jason Bieler (The Baron Von Bielski Orchestra, Saigon Kick) on guitar and vocals; Matt Dorsey (Sound Of Contact, In Continuum) on bass, guitar, and vocals; and Jonathan Mover (GTR, Aretha Franklin, Alice Cooper, Joe Satriani, Mike Oldfield, The Tubes) on drums, percussion, and vocals. The band, which performs iconic progressive rock classics from the likes of Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Rush, ELP, and others, is about to hit the road for 15 dates across the United States in the month of April.
Sadler is perhaps the most well-known member of ProgJect from his long tenure with Canadian prog/pop/rock band Saga, which had a couple of major hits in the 1980s and got heavy airplay on MTV with “On the Loose” and “Wind Him Up” from 1981’s Worlds Apart album.
ProgJect was largely assembled before Sadler joined.
“A friend and someone in the media part of the business in (New) Jersey contacted me one day and (asked) if I would take a call from someone named Jonathan Mover,” Sadler explained. “I didn't know Jonathan before this and I got the call, and Jonathan and I spoke, and this is his brainchild. It's something he's always wanted to do. So, we chatted and Jonathan explained the whole thing to me. It sounded really cool. It's a real labor of love.”
Sadler said he didn’t need a lot of convincing. He was interested in paying tribute to the great progressive rock songs that had inspired him. The band met up and rehearsed, and everything just clicked.
“We all got together in the first rehearsal. And it's like we've known each other forever,” Sadler said. “We’ve all been around the block a few times and we all get along really well. From the minute we started rehearsing, it was just, you know, (a feeling of) this is a family already. And it was really weird because a couple of us only met for the very first time in that room.”
Sadler doesn’t always do the vocals for ProgJect. Some of the other band members take their turns as well, leaving the frontman to play some bass or keyboards. Despite opting to take on the daunting task of singing parts made iconic by some of progressive rock’s most unique voices, Sadler said he was intrigued by the idea of performing the songs sung by so many of the great lead vocalists in rock history.
“It's fun. It's challenging. I mean, some of the songs, especially the Yes stuff, because I mean, you're dealing with Jon Anderson, who's like a freak of nature when it comes to his voice,” Sadler said. “And he was the toughest one, maybe psychologically had something to do with it. But I discovered that I did have the range. It kind of surprised me. And not just being able to hit the notes, range-wise, but to be able to deliver the performance. And I listened to it after we were done and I thought, ‘No, it sounds okay. I'm getting away with it, you know?’”
ProgJect is faithful to the originals but even when doing that, the songs are not exact copies. Each musician can play the same notes but their personalities generally make the song sound slightly different. The band stays close enough to the originals to not offend the sensibilities of fans who have loved those songs for years — and so the band can treat them with the respect they deserve — but there is enough variation tonally that ProgJect brings something a little different to the table.
“You could take three guitarists and tell them to learn a part, and they'll each play the notes. But you can tell there’s a difference,” Sadler said. “As a vocalist, it's tricky because it's not like being a a Bon Jovi tribute band or an AC/DC tribute band. They look for a singer that sounds like the guy and hopefully looks a bit like the guy. This is all different singers. So the challenge for me is not to sound like each one of the original singers but to do it my way and still deliver the same performance, the same notes, and the same melodies.”
As the man who has to get the phrasings right and hit the notes, the vocalist needs to have some say in which songs the band will perform, and Sadler said he was given leeway in that regard.
“I did have some input to the setlist and the songs that we're playing,” he said. “Specifically, (the U.K. classic) ‘Rendezvous 6:02.’ And I always wanted to do a really, really good version of ‘Squonk’ (by Genesis). And we're doing ‘Squonk’ and I was like, yeah! For me, it was the the idea of the challenge of tackling these songs, and you know, songs that I really love to listen to, much less perform, and having the chance to sing them is pretty cool.”
Michael’s love of progressive rock stems from his introduction to Gentle Giant’s Three Friends album. He came across the record while he was part of a blues band that was transitioning into more jazzy and fusiony types of music.
“That's Gentle Giant’s fault,” he said of his love of prog. “The drummer went into Toronto one day — the big city — and came back with the album Three Friends,” Sadler said. “And he said, ‘Michael, you’ve got to listen to this.’ So he just put side one on, not a word, turned it over, put side two on, and I just remember when it finished, I just looked at him and I said, ‘I don't know what that is, but I want to make music like that. I want to start writing music like that. I have no idea what it is. But it's really cool.’ And yeah, and that that changed everything for me.”
Sadler said that there’s some Gentle Giant in the ProgJect setlist, but he declined to say which song, preferring to keep the surprise.
While ProgJect will likely record some of their shows, Sadler said it will be mostly for their own reference the first time out. He does, however, envision the possibility of a future live album and potentially a DVD. But for now, fans can go check out ProgJect live in April.
Sadler said that he’s got some other things to do when not singing. When Dorsey sings “Solsbury Hill,” for example, Sadler will play bass. He also helps Okumoto with some of the keyboard parts.
“He's only got two hands, and much the same with Jim Gilmour in Saga, if there's a part that requires a third or fourth hand, it's usually me,” he said.
Learn more about ProgJect at the band’s official website.
Worlds Apart
Since I had Michael on the Zoom call, I couldn’t waste the opportunity. I had to ask at least a few questions about my favorite Saga album, Worlds Apart. Having just celebrated the 40th anniversary of its release a year ago, the album remains a fan favorite and the band’s most successful record to date.
With three studio albums behind them already, Saga went to The Farmyard in Little Chalfont, England to record the album that ultimately became Worlds Apart. Working with famed producer Rupert Hine and engineer Stephen W. Tayler, Saga crafted a progressive-pop crossover masterpiece. Sadler said the band chose the songs that would be on the album ahead of time and then refined them until they were as good as they could make them.
“I do remember feeling like there was something special about what we were doing at that moment,” he said. “The whole environment, the fact that we've changed to working with Rupert and Stephen Tayler, and we suddenly find ourselves in England, living together in a house, putting together the material and just working and working it.”
Hine famously used all sorts of tricks to get the performances he was looking for out of Sadler and the band. He put Sadler on a beam 40 feet above the floor to record the vocals for “On the Loose” to get the right amount of nervous tension in his voice. He also used a trick to get what he wanted for a quiet passage in the middle of the band’s other big hit off the album, “Wind Him Up.”
After not being able to quite capture it during the recording session, Hine said they’d give it another try in the morning. But the next day’s session came before Sadler knew it — about 8:30 a.m. the next morning. There was no chance to prepare.
“I'm in my bed, I hear something, and the door opens,” he said. “I just barely open my eyes. In comes the assistant with a boom and the mic attached and the cables and headphones. And he reached down, he put the headphones on my head. My head is still on the pillow at this point. He took the boom, brought the mic down in front of me, and I’m just laying there.”
Sadler was then greeted by the sound of Tayler bidding him a good morning and they got right to the recording, with the singer still lying in bed, half asleep.
“I just sang it maybe two or three times, and I didn't even think about it,” said Sadler. “Two minutes later, the assistant came in, took all the stuff, closed the door and I just laid there going, ‘What just happened? Did it just happen?’”
It did indeed just happen. And Hine and Tayler got the exact performance they had been looking for the night before — a soft, gruff, groggy, dreamy vocal that fit that part of the song perfectly.
“He played it back and I thought, ‘Son of a bitch!’ It's exactly what he was looking for,” Sadler said with a laugh. “And I can see what he was looking for. And there's no way that you can simulate that.”
Sadler said that Hine and Tayler were so in tune during the Worlds Apart sessions that they could play something, exchange a look without a word being said, and Tayler would know what adjustment to make on the mixing desk. They’d play it back again after the change and give each other another glance without a word in silent agreement that they’d made the right adjustment.
“To me, it was like otherworldly,” Sadler said of the shared wavelength that producer Hine and engineer Tayler were on.
That kind of magic, and the stunts Hine pulled to get the performances he wanted are a big part of what make Worlds Apart a special album.
For my full conversation with Michael Sadler about ProgJect, Worlds Apart, and other topics, check out the video below or download this week’s Michael’s Record Collection podcast. Michael spoke at length about those topics as well as making music videos, some of his collaborations with other musicians, how he fell in love with the song “Rendezvous 6:02,” and the first album he ever bought — which might surprise you.
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Another great interview.
Still working my way back through the catalogue