Fourth Dimension
The stock of melodic Northumberland-based proggers Stuckfish has been rising since they formed six years ago. Their fourth studio album, Stuckfish IV, represents an important watershed in the band’s musical evolution. Co-founders Adrian Fisher and Phil Stuckey tell Prog about the diverse influences that have helped to shape it.
Words: Alison Reijman
Stuckfish, L-R: Adam Sayers, Paul McNally, Phil Stuckey, Adrian Fisher, Phil Morey.
Images: Jim Donnelly
M
usical inspiration springs from many obscure places, but Stuckfish’s co-founder Adrian Fisher hit on an unlikely source while in the queue for the Tyne
Tunnel’s telephone hotline.
“The on-hold music had quite a nice keyboard sound, so after the phone call, I got out my Logic Pro and played around with a couple of chords which came pretty close to what I had heard,” recounts Fisher, the band’s guitarist, producer and composer.
With lyrics later supplied by fellow co-founder Phil Stuckey, this was the genesis of Fragile, the band’s first-ever three-minute pop song, which appears on Stuckfish IV. The north-east quintet’s fourth studio album is full of ‘firsts’.
“The whole Stuckfish ethos is always to try and do something we have not done before,” Fisher explains. “We also aim to please ourselves, so with every song, we ask ourselves, ‘Do we like it?’”