Out of the SHADOWS
Big Big Train drummer Nick D’Virgilio teams up with luminaries from Supertramp, Dream Theater and The Flower Kings on his new solo album, Invisible. The results, he says, take just a pinch of inspiration from his time with Cirque Du Soleil.
Words: Dave Ling Portraits: Erick Anderson
“I always wanted to be a solo artist but those ambitions took a back seat to family commitments and being in bands,” states Nick D’Virgilio. “I’m not complaining because I’ve done some amazing things in life, I’ve found my voice and from this point forward there will be a lot more music from me. I won’t take 20 or even 10 years between albums.”
Much has changed for this quietly spoken Californian since the release of a debut solo record, Karma, at the millennium’s turn. Having co-founded Spock’s Beard, Neal Morse’s departure in 2002 saw D’Virgilio quit the drum stool to become lead singer and, for the first time, a significant writer over a four-album spell. After moving on in 2011 D’Virgilio played with Tears For Fears and also auditioned to replace Phil Collins in Genesis, going on to perform on four tracks from Calling All Stations, and he is a long-serving part of Big Big Train.
But it was during a five-year spell as part of Totem, the Cirque Du Soleil’s touring presentation of mankind’s history, that D’Virgilio had the idea for Invisible. As assistant bandleader his role in the show involved playing drums and singing largely unseen by the audience. With up to 10 performances each week, as night after night became year after year, the sheer gruelling anonymity of it all began to eat away at him. The opening song and title track, which includes the lines: ‘It was the best and worst decision I ever made/I should have thought it out’, holds the key to what follows.
“I was definitely frustrated by Cirque Du Soleil for a little while, but while this album is a little bit autobiographical it’s not all about my own experiences,” he replies. “It’s more fiction than non-fiction. I was writing about things that are universally felt. Lots of people reach points in their lives that they don’t expect to be, it’s just how things have gone for them.”