Since the mid ’90s, the Flower Kings have released an impressive body of “symphonic prog,” including ten studio albums. The band’s latest CD, The Sum of No Evil [Inside Out], pays homage to the grand styles of Genesis, Yes, Utopia, and ELP while contributing valid new music to the canon. (King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto joined the Kings for their latest European tour, providing added street cred.)

“Nowadays, you hear ‘progressive’ applied to bands such as Muse, the Mars Volta, and Radiohead,” says Stolt. “Then, there are the ‘retro prog’ bands, and I suppose that’s where the Flower Kings fit in. Either way, the genre seems healthier than ever. Prog musicians are taking back what was denied them in the ’80s. We write and record what we want—thanks partly to software that gives us the ability to make serious music at home. Our musical imaginations run wild—just like in late ’60s and ’70s—but this time without the drugs.”

Although the band members recorded vocals, solos, and some keyboard overdubs at their various personal studios, the majority of the retro sounds on The Sum of No Evil were achieved the old-fashioned way at Varispeed Studios, using Studer and Ampex analog recorders, a vintage Neve console, a slew of old Neumann and Telefunken microphones, and racks full of classic mic preamps and outboard processors.

Stolt is also the Flower Kings’ co-vocalist—sharing mic duties with rhythm guitarist Hasse Fröberg—as well as the band’s chief songwriter, penning many of melodic suites for which the Kings are renowned. How does the 51-year-old guitarist go about writing a prog epic?

“I just keep on writing as long as I have good themes coming, and, for some reason, it often ends up as ten or 20 minutes of music,” he explains. “A while back, I realized that writing three-minute hit songs wasn’t for me—even though I respect that skill. I was made to craft extended pieces. Then again, the process for recording a 15-minute track is similar to that for a short tune. For example, on ‘Love Is the Only Answer,’ we rehearsed it as five shorter pieces, and mixed each part separately. Then, I edited them together during mastering to create a long suite.”
A self-confessed stompbox junkie, Stolt deploys a combination of vintage and modern tone tools.

“My main distortion units are the Fulltone Full-Drive 2 and Matchless Dirt Box—they give me anything from clean to crunch to extreme overdrive,” he says. “I also have a Fulltone Deja ’Vibe, a Z.Vex Fuzz Factory, an Electro-Harmonix Small Stone phaser and Big Muff fuzz, an Emma RF-1 ReezaFRATzitz overdrive, an early-’70s Vox wah, and a Dunlop CryBaby Deluxe. I tie all these pedals together with a TC Electronic G-System board—which really makes my life easier.

“In the studio, I used my Fender Telecaster Thinline a lot, but I also used a Gibson Custom Shop SG Standard VOS, a Parker Fly Deluxe, and a Rickenbacker electric 12-string. The Telecaster was detuned a whole step down for a fatter sound, and to make string bending easier. My main studio amp was an early-’70s Fender Dual Showman that was heavily modified and transformed into a four-channel amp by Tommy Folkesson here in Sweden. [According to Folkesson: “The amp mod has a 12AT7 tube working as a small class A, slaved power amp with an output transformer and a load box, so inside the amp there is full power even at low volumes.”] It has volume and bottom end like nothing else, and it gives me anything from über Fender twang on the clean channel to mean, super-saturated tones on the lead channel. I generally plugged it into a Marshall 4x12 cabinet containing vintage 25-watt Celestion greenback speakers.”

Like many modern bands, the Flower Kings success has been greatly aided by the Internet.

“It’s great that ‘Flowerheads’ can go to our Yahoo Group and discuss shows, records, and lineups,” says Stolt. “There is also the ‘Plantation’ page where they can freely trade concert recordings. Of course, there will always be the illegal downloading of our studio tracks, but what can we do to stop that? Instead, we put a lot of work into our live shows, because hearing the Flower Kings blast out progressive rock in a club or theater is a singular experience—and you can’t download that.”