Tamino

"During a soundcheck at a small Italian festival, which took place in between the walls of a medieval castle, I would start playing a newly written song called Babylon. My band, noticing that something special was happening, quickly caught on and joined in, improvising their parts along the way, following my lead along a nearly 6-minute dynamic journey. By the end of the epic outro we all looked at each other with an excitement that had been absent from our faces for a while. Tour can get repetitive and turn even the most passionate people indifferent, so injecting a boring soundcheck with the newness and grandeur of Babylon felt great. We played the track for the first time that night and have been playing it ever since.

Going into the studio to record my new album, the song proved to be a cornerstone there as well, and even though I had been playing it in front of audiences, getting the right feel on record required many different approaches. The groundwork was laid in an old church turned recording studio in New Orleans. From there it traveled to Brussels and then back to New York. Three monumental cities, each in their own way modern Babylons. I’m still excited about the release of this song, even after playing and working on it so much. That means something."

Tamino