Interview Mad Painter

Mad Painter returns with Island Poetry, a rich and ambitious journey through classic rock influences, Hammond-driven melodies, and imaginative storytelling. We spoke with the band about the album’s inspirations, creative process, and enduring passion for timeless rock music.

1. Island Poetry is described as your most varied and ambitious release to date. What was the original vision behind the album, and how did that vision evolve during the writing and recording process?

The original vision was to make the next full Mad Painter album after Splashed, but in a way that felt more focused and more like a true group statement. Splashed had a lot of different material on it, including songs from various periods. With Island Poetry, even though the album is still varied, it feels more cohesive, heavier and more representative of where the band is now.

The title and atmosphere came from the idea of people gathered on a small tropical island, sitting around a campfire under the full moon, chanting, meditating or perhaps praying to the stars. It is a communal image, but also a spiritual and mystical one. That is where the “poetry” of the album comes from.

The vision evolved naturally as the songs took shape. Some were written fresh for the album, while a few had earlier origins, such as “Stand Your Ground” from 2017 and “Empty Bottles” from 2021. But unlike Splashed, this was not a case of emptying the vaults. The songs had to belong to this particular record.

2. The album draws inspiration from a wide range of classic acts, from Deep Purple and Rainbow to Queen, Motörhead, and Status Quo. How did you balance honoring those influences while maintaining Mad Painter’s own identity?

The balance comes from the fact that these influences are part of our natural musical vocabulary. We are not trying to hide them, but we are also not setting out to imitate anybody. A song may begin with a certain energy or reference point—Deep Purple, Rainbow, Status Quo, Queen, Motörhead—but once Mad Painter plays it, it becomes something else.

The identity comes from the same musicians, the same Hammond-driven approach, the same vocal character, the same rhythm section, and the same sense of arrangement. The influences may provide the doorway, but the band determines what happens inside the room.

I also think there is honesty in being transparent about influences. Rock music has always been a conversation between musicians and eras. What matters is whether the song ultimately has its own character. We are not trying to erase the past; we are trying to carry forward the spirit of the music that shaped us.

3. The Hammond organ plays a central role in your sound. What is it about that instrument that continues to inspire you, and how does it shape the character of your songs?

The Hammond organ has a huge personality. It can be warm, ghostly, aggressive, mournful, majestic or completely wild, sometimes within the same song. It is not just an accompaniment instrument for us. It can carry the riff, the harmony, the atmosphere and the lead voice.

Because many of my songs begin from the keyboard, the architecture is different from a standard guitar-based rock song. The guitar does not have to do all the heavy lifting. It can answer the organ, compete with it, or add a different color on top of it.

That Hammond-and-guitar relationship is central to bands like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, and it is also central to Mad Painter. The organ gives the music grandeur, drama and a certain vintage physicality. Even when we move into different styles, the Hammond helps keep the sound unmistakably ours.

4. Each track seems to have its own musical starting point. Was it a deliberate goal to make every song explore a different corner of 1970s rock, or did those influences emerge naturally during songwriting?

It emerged naturally. We would never set out to be different or eclectic just for the sake of it. Every piece of music I write reflects what I have absorbed over the years and what I happen to be listening to at the time. There are no rules about that. If I listen to Ganymed, Dee D. Jackson or Sheila and B. Devotion for a while, that may eventually come out in a song. If I am immersed in early 1970s British rock, blues jams or Canterbury-style keyboard playing, that may come out too.

That is why “Nektarized” could become a strange homage to Nektar with space-disco colors, while “Two Horsemen” could develop into a free-roaming Wishbone Ash-type piece with touches of British blues and progressive rock. “I Am the King” has something of the Moody Blues and Barclay James Harvest about it. None of that feels forced because it all belongs to the same personal musical palette.

So the album travels widely, but the journey comes from genuine listening habits and long-term influences rather than a calculated attempt to cover every style.

5. Six songs feature lyrics by writer and music journalist Dmitry M. Epstein. How did that collaboration come about, and what did Dmitry bring to the album that might have been different from your usual approach?

The collaboration began with “Illusion,” which appeared on Splashed. I already had the melody and recorded it as an instrumental demo. I gave Dmitry the lyrical idea, and he wrote the words. The same process happened with the ballad “I’ve Been a Fool,” also on Splashed.

After that, the collaboration changed. Dmitry started sending me his own poems, beginning with “Rock’n’Roll Samurai.” That opened up a different process because I was no longer simply asking him to write lyrics for a melody or concept I already had. Instead, I was receiving a poem and having to find the music hidden inside it.

Six of his poems became songs on Island Poetry, and there are more waiting for me to work on in the future. Dmitry brings imagery, phrasing and perspectives that I might not have arrived at on my own. It gives me a different kind of challenge as a songwriter, while still requiring me to make the finished song sound naturally like Mad Painter.

6. Songs like “Debt Collector,” “Suit of Worries,” and “Shadow of the Words” have intriguing titles. Are there any recurring lyrical themes or stories that connect the songs across the album?

The album is not a concept record in the sense of telling one continuous story from beginning to end, but there are recurring emotional threads: tension, anxiety, absurdity, disaster, longing, escape and the possibility of release. The songs often place characters in heightened situations, sometimes serious, sometimes grotesque or darkly funny.

“Debt Collector” is a deliberate pun on male-female relationships. It is written from the point of view of a slightly chauvinistic and rather dim male character who thinks he is practicing his “door opening technique” on a woman’s heart. He says things like “here’s some rules for you so read ’em,” and I have always found that type of fantasy both unsettling and hilarious. The song plays with that discomfort.

“Suit of Worries” is much more direct. It is about a person who cannot stop worrying about anything and everything, somebody living in a constant state of anxiety. “Shadow of the Words” is harder to categorize. It is more abstract, almost an apocalypse or disaster-type song, but the chorus brings in hope: “when in love don’t waste your time, open up your soul and let it fly.” So even there, there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

That mixture of unease, humor, drama and hope fits the broader atmosphere of Island Poetry. The songs are separate visions, but they feel like they come from the same strange island night.

7. You emphasize full-band performances and warm analog-style production rather than modern digital perfection. What advantages does that approach offer, and what challenges come with recording that way in 2026?

The advantage is that the music keeps its personality. We wanted warmth, movement and human character rather than a perfectly polished digital surface. The album was recorded track by track by Tom Hamilton at Lowell Street Sound in Peabody, Massachusetts. Tom also produced and mixed it.

He works in Pro Tools, but he has a wide range of plug-ins that allow him to bring the sound back into a twentieth-century rock environment, down to very small nuances. That kind of analog-style warmth would have been much harder to achieve digitally even twenty years ago. Actual analog equipment might have created more practical problems than benefits, so the goal was not to be purist. The goal was to make the record feel alive.

The challenge is knowing how far to go. Modern tools can correct everything, but if you correct too much, you risk removing the very thing that makes a rock band interesting. We wanted the record to sound produced, but not sterilized.

8. “Circle of Hands” is your interpretation of the Uriah Heep classic. What inspired you to include that particular song, and how did you approach making it your own while respecting the original?

Uriah Heep is the place where all of us in the band converge. We had already recorded “Stealin’” on Splashed, and live we have performed “Circle of Hands,” “July Morning,” “Sunrise” and one or two others. So including “Circle of Hands” felt completely natural.

It is one of Heep’s pivotal classics, and we approached it with respect. We were not trying to reinvent the song or turn it into something unrecognizable. The grandeur, spirituality, vocal layering and Hammond-driven power of the original are exactly what make it important.

At the same time, any band that plays a song honestly will inevitably leave its own fingerprint on it. Our version is faithful, but it also comes through the sound and personality of Mad Painter. Ending the album with it allows the record to conclude in the world that has inspired us so deeply.

9. Many modern rock releases focus on singles, yet Island Poetry was conceived as a complete album experience. Why is the album format still important to Mad Painter, and how do you hope listeners will engage with it?

The album format matters because it allows a band to create a world. A single can introduce a song, but an album can move through moods, styles and emotional changes. That is especially important for a band like Mad Painter, where the songs may draw from hard rock, progressive rock, glam, boogie, balladry and space-disco influences.

The sequence of Island Poetry was important. It begins with zany rock and roll, moves into hard rock, then space rock and art rock, then progressive and bluesy roaming, then dramatic balladry, then heavy metal, and finally the classic grandeur of “Circle of Hands.” That order helps the variety feel like a journey rather than a random collection.

I hope listeners give the album the chance to unfold. It does not have to be understood all at once, but it was made to be experienced as a complete record.

10. With Island Poetry bringing together hard rock, progressive rock, glam, boogie, and even space-disco influences, what do you hope longtime fans and first-time listeners will take away from this musical journey?

I hope longtime fans hear a band that has taken a real step forward. Island Poetry is still recognizably Mad Painter, but it is more cohesive, heavier and more of a group effort than Splashed. It shows the band growing without abandoning the qualities that defined us in the first place.

For first-time listeners, I hope the album makes clear what world they are entering: Hammond-driven rock with roots in the 1970s, but not simply nostalgia. The influences are there, but the songs are ours.

Most of all, I hope people hear personality. The sound of musicians playing with conviction, the drama of the Hammond and guitar, the layered voices, the shifts in mood, the humor, the heaviness and the mystical atmosphere of the album all belong together. Island Poetry is meant to feel like a journey to a place slightly outside ordinary life, and I hope listeners are willing to spend some time there. 

Mad Painter