Waiting For Miracles Prog Mirkko DeMaio has been in The Flower Kings for more than a year, but he’s still a little in awe of the boss.“Roine’s a miracle,” says the drummer..
“He’s the healthiest guy I’ve met in this business. I mean, he eats a lot, but it’s all healthy stuff. When he walks in he’s like a king.
He’s a man who lives for his art, and everything he does is driven by passion. And he looks younger than any of us.” The enviably well-preserved Roine Stolt is 63.
DeMaio is 35, and Zach Kamins (who’s replaced long-serving keyboard player Tomas Bodin) is just 32. “Roine’s so great to work with,” says Kamins. “He has so much music in him, and so many ideas.
When it came to recording the new album, I imagined he’d have to have things his way or the highway, because when the music’s this well-crafted someone’s usually behind it being super-specific. But he’s actually very experimental and open to suggestions.” Maybe a shot of young blood was just what The Flower Kings needed.
Their last studio album proper was back in 2013. Last year Stolt busied himself with his (now-shelved) supergroup and the hastily assembled . Released by Roine Stolt’s The Flower King (singular), the album was recorded with Flower Kings singer and bassist Jonas Reingold; but not Bodin, who by now was clearly out of the picture.
But what a difference a year makes. There’s a palpable sense of renewal and rejuvenation centred on new double-album . And nobody�.