"The following is an interview conducted in February 1999, by Aymeric Leroy, a fan & scholar of the prog.-band Happy The Man; this and other interviews will appear in a full-length biography of HTM, _Service With a Smile: The Story of Happy The Man_ (Far Gone Books, 2001): http://www.fargonebooks.com):

Interview with Frank Wyatt, by Aymeric Leroy
copyright Aymeric Leroy.

Date: February 1999

Aymeric Leroy: 1) First, a technical question. Those tapes (at least
the 1974 recordings [of _Death's Crown_]) were long presumed lost. When
and how were they finally recovered? In what condition? Was it hard
work making them useable for cleaning up? How has the remastering
process positively affected the sound? How would you compare the final
result with how it sounded on the tape? The 1976 tape seems to be of
much higher sonic quality. What else was on that tape? No other
unreleased compositions? Just pieces that turned up on the first album?

Frank Wyatt: I know nothing about the tape. I presume it was recorded
across our mixing board, considering the sound. Kit would be the one to
know how much recovery was done, as he is the master of those things. I
could only conjecture that the '76 tape was better because we were
constantly updating our equipment.
 

AL: 2) "Death's Crown" is the only known large-scale work of this kind
ever attempted by Happy The Man. Under what circumstances did you write
it? What was the nature of Dan Owen's input in the lyrics?

FW: Hmmmmm, we were in Harrisonburg ,Va. Not still students at
Madison , but I believe Stan and I were still involved with the jazz
ensemble. I won't swear to that tho. Dr. George West was our theory
instructor and the ensemble's director, so we hung with that while
Happy was growing. Was a great sound, those 18 pc. arrangements have
always completely struck me as the best way to express almost any
idea.  We were very prolific in those early days, and I wrote DC like
all the other things I wrote, a little at a time, and it sort of flowed
together. I was very influenced by Eddie Kinestrick, the former
University of New York theater director who was working in the
theater dept. at Madison then, and who soon after left that job to work
with HTM as a consultant and teacher. I have lost touch with him, and
would love to know of his whereabouts if anyone can help there. Last
known to be in NYC, on 26 and 7TH <G> . His influence made me want to
do it as a musical, or stage production, and also I was very into the
modern dance things happening. You would have to see the whole thing to
understand it. All of those long and sometime repetitious musical parts
had three dimensions; a light show consisting of three screens of
images, put together by Johnny, Jeff, and Steve (Steve also danced the
part of our man), the music, and the dance troop, featuring Nancy Jo
Morrisy, all students of modern dance at Madison. It as really a
thrilling show. We performed it live two or maybe three times, and I
believe there is a video tape of it out there somewhere, which would be
a wonderful discovery.

Dan's input in the lyrics was an emergence of his wonderful melodic
sensibility really. There were voids in the story line that were
naturally filled in with his melodic input. I think Dan has the most
pure and wonderful voice, and wish more of his songs were available for
people. We did an acoustic set of his songs that still bring tears to
my eyes when I listen to the old tapes I have recently been given
(Thanks Alan Ekland)
 

AL: 3) To this day, only a section of the work, titled "Open Book" on
the second studio album, was known. Why was "Death's Crown" never
recorded in its entirety? There are of course several obvious options -
too much available material and the need to use the other guys' pieces;
it being too long, too ambitious; or simply dropped in favour of more
recent material when the time came to record the first album ?

FW: Ohh, it was just too long. I later (after HTM broke up) moved to
NYC, and with Eddie found some backing to produce the whole thing off-
off-Broadway. We actually started rehearsals, but the money guys had
some fantastic commodity option come up and pulled the finances.
Another great songwriter and friend of mine, and the bands, is Steve
Durham. He and I met in NY in Jan 98 at the IAJE Jazz festival there,
and are still trying to get a new DC off the ground in NYC. The new
version is retitled "The Hanged Man," and the theme is much more
refined, with a basis in Shamanism and the Tarot. With any luck at all,
it will be produced someday, hopefully not posthumously <G>.

Steve wrote a fantastic "science fiction" song many years ago, titled
Exitor, recorded in the basement....I would love to hear that again, and
could do a whole show on that theme <g> .
 

AL: 4) What symbolizes, for me, what's great about Happy The Man, is
this: Kit Watkins' extraordinary keyboard work, and your compositions.
Of course, all the band were great musicians, and Kit and Stanley
contributed some great pieces. But that, for me, is the essence of
HTM's magic. Well, let's turn this into a question now: your
compositions are particularly dreamy, highly melodic, full of twists
and turns but always carefully arranged; what, and who, did you draw
your inspiration from? What sort of "topics" tended to inspire you?
What aims and ideals did you set for yourself when composing?

FW: Well, first of all, most of my melodies are from Kit's
interpretations of my songs, or Stan's vocal interpretations of my
words. I am a mult-timbral composer <haha>  I guess that describes it.
I write from chords, and unusual ones at that. The movement within
those chords as I play them sometimes will reveal a melody, but
certainly not a refined one. As it turns out, the one melody I am most
proud of, and worked painstakingly to produce is also on the DC CD, in
Merlin. That melody is truly mine, and I am very happy that it conveyed
the feeling I wanted. I intended to do a whole musical about Merlin,
but alas, it was near the demise of HTM as we know it, and never
emerged.

I am a dreamy sort of fellow, and "Shadow Shaping" [_3rd: Better
Late...] sort of captures that essence from me, although I only did words
and sax parts on that tune. I never start any piece with  finished idea
musically, but will start with either a feeling at the moment, or a
feeling inspired by a larger concept. That's a little hard to explain.
I'll try to give you some examples. Merlin of the High Places was
inspired by a long time researching the King Arthur story. T.H.
White's "One and Future King", and "The Book of Merlin", along with Mary
Stewert's "The Crystal Cave" were monumental in that inspiration. It
was a tedious and focused effort to focus that feeling. On the other
hand, I was on the Staten Island Ferry, young and dumb, visiting NYC
and staying on the Island with some of the dancers from Madison when I
wrote "New York Dream's Suite." It just came to me, fast and hard, very
real, it just popped out. The piano part probably didn't change at all.
The arrangement credits go to Kit and Stan, who are both musical giants
in my mind. They, we, at that point in time could just sit down, plug
in , and with about 50-60 hrs of time make a song out one or the others
ideas. Kit, as the exception, usually already knew all of our parts,
and would instruct us accordingly. He is destined to be one of
history's greatest composers I believe. Let's not underestimate
the complexity of the music here. There is no doubt that this is
technically correct, although different sounding, music. I believe that
is what has delayed our popularity.  It is pleasant at times to listen
to, but tedious at others.

It all depends on your listening point, of course, and please don't
think I am being pretentious, I just know from my experience with many
music forms that our compositions were farsighted.
 

AL: 5) Generally, would you say you came up with pretty much finished
arrangements for your pieces, or were there instances when the band's
input  was crucial to the eventual form and feel of the pieces ? I'm
thinking of the example of "While Crome Yellow Shine" were Kit finished
the piece from a chord sequence of yours. Any others that come to mind?

FW: hmmm, Ii would refer you to my last answer <hahah>
 

AL: 6) Your lyrics are very evocative and poetic, with a very peculiar
use of phonetics and vocabulary... Very hard to understand for a non-
English person, anyway ! How would you describe your approach to lyric-
writing at the time?

FW: Oh good question. I love Edward Albee, and while I was in 10th
grade in high school discovered that punctuation could add a whole new
dimension to words. As I grew in my exploration of words, I came to
discover semantics, and in still further related research of very
strange things, came upon some very inspiring thoughts about the true
nature of our verbal description of the world (this one, that we agree
exists). Rather than expound upon my own philosophy about these things
I will make reference to some reading material I suggest, "The Dancing
Wu Li Masters", The Music of The Spheres", "Be here Now", "The only
Dance There Is", "The Psychology of Ethics", "Programming and Re-
Programming the Human Bio-Computer", and "The Joy of the Cosmos", among
many others.

I believe that the word is not the thing.
I believe that the map is not the territory.
I strive to strike an archetypal feeling deep within someone, that they
might realize days later and not even associate with my little words.
 

AL: 7) Could you try to briefly summarize the "plot" of "Death's
Crown"? Could you also enlighten us on the non-musical events that
happened when the band performed this piece live - the choreography,
lighting effects etc.

FW: Hmmm, OK I touched on this a little awhile ago, and could write
substantially about it, but I will try to put it in a bubble.
A man dies....hmmmm, nope I cant do that at this time. I would be happy
to compose it properly for you in the new "Hanged Man " context, but it
will take some time  to accomplish. Perhaps for a later discussion.
 

AL: 8) After HTM's split in 1979, you attempted to turn "Death's Crown"
into an off-Broadway musical in New York, but failed due to lack of
funding. How far did you go with this ? How long were you involved in
this project?  What would have the musical been like? Would the music
have been very different to the original form, and in what ways?

FW: Well, there you go, it seems to have been anticipated earlier, or
at least stumbled upon.
 

AL: 9) Although HTM came up with an astonishingly mature approach and
sound as early as the first album, there was a definite element of
musical evolution from one album to the other; one of the key factors
on "Better Late" being Stanley's growing interest for his role of
vocalist/lyricist; and, although this may be due to the sparser
production, a less "symphonic/spacy" sound.  If HTM had continued into
the 1980s, how do you think the music would have evolved ?

FW: I think it would have become a tree, with branches into many forms.
I believe these forms would have maintained structural integrity, yet
stretched the listener's ear into new territory.
 

AL: 10) During your time in Hawaii you worked on a lot of music, but a
lot of that has unfortunately been lost, I understand (and deeply
regret). As far as putting out music you composed during this period,
in its original form where available or re-recorded in other cases,
what are your plans?

FW: I plan to make everything I ever thought of available, as soon as I
can physically do it.
 

AL: 11) Of course, I couldn't interview you without asking you how the
reunion project is moving forward. There seems to be a lot of new
material at hand; the main problem seems to be on the
financing/production end. Is this looking like it will be solved soon?
Is any date set for the recording to begin? Would the album be mainly
instrumental? Is the plan to continue largely in the direction of the
first albums, or to attempt to move forward
in a radical way? Both?

FW: There are no problems. Only solutions. No directions, only
movement. We each try and do what we can. Musashi says, "one thing does
one thing, two things do four things"; Together, just imagine....