It took almost seven years for Israel’s proggers Soul Enema to come up with a follow-up to their 2010’s debut album “Thin Ice Crawling,” but as it turns out, “Of Clans and Clones and Clowns” was worth a wait. On the new album, the quintet has collaborated with a number of musicians, including a guest appearance by Ayreon’s Arjen Lucassen and ex-Orphaned Land’s Yossi Sassi.

Keyboardist and composer Constantin Glantz told us about the creative process behind the new record, and more.

Hey folks. How are you doing?

Thanks, it’s damn hot outside, but everything else is quite well otherwise. The new album came out June 23 and now the video for “Spymania” is out – that one was a hell of a fun to make. Interesting period, definitely!

You are just launched your second album titled “Of Clans and Clones and Clowns.” How do you feel about the release?

I feel that we accomplished what we planned here, and it’s going great so far! Very positive feedbacks, the amount of people that are really moved and touched by it – it’s just really surprising. People typically get to hear our album by chance, and then we receive some comments like – “How come you’re not more famous with this music!?” I don’t know. Seriously, we are top secret, and you are reading strictly classified information here.

How much of a challenge was to work on the album?

I think everything was a challenge, because that was one of our aims. We didn’t really do “the next studio album“, we just tried to make as great and special a record as possible, and then some. I don’t know if we succeeded, but I’m not sorry – I think this stuff deserved such attention and dedication.

What other artists similar to your genre that are coming from Israel are you friends with?

We are friendly with many, and there are some new, that came in touch in the wake of the album release. That makes me think we might have done something right in the end. Maybe vodka really connecting people, but music may do it even better sometimes (laughs). In general, there’s a sort of mini explosion right now – many good Prog-related bands from Israel, some of them have quite a presence internationally, and it’s really a feature for such a small country. So, you’d better keep your eyes on the Israeli Prog scene, it has some goods to deliver, and nowadays it’s becoming more and more obvious. A touch of Middle Eastern specifics is also a distinct factor sometimes, but it’s not always raised on hummus – there’s pretty much everything here.

What is your opinion about the current progressive rock/metal scene?

I’m not a big expert, there’s really a huge amount of new coming bands and artists, and it’s hard to stay deeply in touch. In general, it’s nice to hear more originality, more gifted visionaries, and less of the “production line”. So once in a while when I recognize something of a kind, combined with great music writing – that may make me happier as a listener.

Can you tell me something about your influences?

As you can hear on the new record – it’s quite eclectic. As we jokingly put it – “from Abba to Zappa, from King Crimson to King Diamond”. Everything could be a potential influence. When I recorded some animal voices and Guinea pigs and my own kid, all of them were influences as well – they made the right kind of sounds for a particular occasion, so they ended up being on the album. I must admit that Guinea pigs received no credit in the end, so I’m giving them a tiny moment of fame here – cheers, homies! Life is the biggest possible influence; you just have to configure your antennas to catch those signals and translate them into something creative.

What are you listening to these days?

Well, last days it was some ethnic breakbit album, for some reason. Ah, here’s the reason: it was really well-done. The singing, the arrangements – they just made this electronic thing come alive on their own terms. Hardly a surprise, but I listened to some old time favorite along the way as well: “Pawn Hearts” album by VDGG – this one never falls short of brilliance for me. What else here… Split Enz, the early albums – such a unique band.

Your 5 favourite records of all time?

Impossible to limit it to just five. So, i will focus on some of my Prog-related favorites, besides the one already mentioned in the previous answer:

Cardiacs – “A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window” – 1988 (ABC reissue, 1995). Some say that Prog was nearly dead in the 80’es, except a bit of Neo and a bit of RIO. I wouldn’t take it for granted. This one is beyond any clear boundaries and definitions, and Tim is a certified genius. One of my all time favorites.

Voivod – “The Outer Limits” – 1993. If I still need one single Prog Metal album to pick – this is it. Always mindblowing. For some reason there’s no 5000 clones of this band and this particular album, and I’m fine with that, actually.

Genesis – “Selling England by the Pound” – 1973. No surprises here, contains a few of the greatest tracks ever recorded in history of rock music. No, not “More Fool Me”. Yes, those ones you think of first.

Pink Floyd – “Animals” – 1977. There’s an opinion that Prog was finished by ‘77 and replaced by Punk. Haha, not in PF world at least – this is their proggiest record yet, but it has a grain of punkish anger and sarcasm as well. This is their peak for me. No single note or sound is out of place, nothing is non essential. Zero compromise with wider public tastes, despite hitting the real rock stardom level with a large stadium tours and other attributes.

Brian Wilson/The Beach Boys – “Smile/The Smile Sessions” – 1967/2004/2011. What can I say here? It should have been the most revolutionary record of the 60’es. It’s unbelievable what Brian was very close to achieve here with those limited studio technologies and his wild fantasy.

I left outside at least a similar amount of albums that deserve top places as much as those.

Can you tell me a little bit more about the gear you used to record “Of Clans and Clones and Clowns”?

I can talk about my side, as far as keyboards go. Since I prefer the period between mid- 60’s and the early 80’s, predominantly some analog types of keyboard gear, I used anything that can convincingly replicate the authentic qualities of those instruments, without sticking too much to the retro approach. It’s mostly different VST software with some appropriate editing. Besides typical rock band instrumentation, we used violin, flutes and more exotic stuff like sitar and samisen. Sometimes not in a very strict way; for example Michael recorded those sitar licks and then I processed them in a few spots, reversing it to make the atmospheric drone that you hear on “The Age of Cosmic Baboon”. Yossi Sassi (ex-Orphaned Land, Yossi Sassi Band) used his signature bouzoukitara – a two headed beast of bouzouki and guitar on the track “Aral Sea II”. Then the mix was done by renowned sound engineer Jens Bogren in Fascination Street Studios. The analog gear that he used was particularly instrumental in keeping our sounds as authentic as possible. I think we managed to retain the general warmness while getting that big sound.

Besides the release of the album, are there any other plans for the future?

We will put the new video soon, and it will be beautiful, I think I can admit to that. That’s all I can tell so far, keep following.

Any words for the potential new fans?

If you are still reading to the very end, you are hopefully ready to let the music do the talking. We have done a very complex and time consuming job here in order to take it to another level, so we hope your journey with this album will be really addictive and long lasting!

Order “Of Clans and Clones and Clowns” from Bandcamp here. Follow Soul Enema on Facebook.