This FAQ area will comprise FAQs surrounding his work with:
- The Beatles
- Pink Floyd
- Alan Parsons Project
If you have burning questions that fall into any of these categories please send them to webmaster@alanparsonsmusic.com and they will surely help us extract answers out of the man himself... sooner rather than later.
1. Will Alan Parsons be playing any shows in
my hometown in Nebraska and will he ever tour Greenland?
How do I get him to play in my area?
2. How do I book Alan and the band to play at a private or corporate event?
3. How do I find out where he is playing?
4. Does Alan's website mail out newsletters?
5. What is the "Eye" symbol?
6. Will any concerts be televised?
7. Are the Alan Parsons albums going to be released in 5.1 Surround Sound?
8. Where can I find lyrics to the songs by The Alan Parsons Project and Alan Parsons?
9. How can I get my CD's and other items autographed?
10. What kind of equipment does Alan use in his studio/on the road (synths/mixing consoles, sequencing tools, software/hardware, guitars etc)?
11. Will Alan ever consider a huge outdoor (in the dark) gig, like Vangelis did in the Rotterdam harbour more than a decade ago?
12. Will Alan consider adding a full philharmonic orchestra at live shows so he can use 'real' strings for songs like Old and Wise and Don't Let It Show?
13. I have done a remix/remake of one of Alan's songs. How do I get permission to use it?
14. Can I use Alan's music for my "school project"/home movie/short films for private showing etc?
15. How can I get my latest musical creation to Alan? Will he produce my next masterpiece?
16. Does Alan ever collaborate with anyone and, if so, what are my chances of working with him?
17. Will Alan ever work with Pink Floyd again?
18. Will there be any more " A Walk Down Abbey Road" shows?
19. What was the Projectron, which featured on some of the earlier
albums?
20. Where can I buy Alan Parsons CD's and DVD's? Are all the
original albums still available?
1. Q. Will Alan Parsons
be playing any shows in my hometown in Nebraska and will
he ever tour Greenland? How do I get him
to play in my area?
A. Concert tours are organized by
Agents and Promoters. The Artist has little say in
the process until he is presented with an offer. In
conjunction with his management, he will then decide
whether to accept, decline or renegotiate that offer.
Alan is not deliberately ignoring your area - he just
only considers shows where he has been made aware of
an available venue on a particular date for a certain
amount of money (Yes, he has to make a living!). If
you feel that you can help make a show happen, find
a reputable professional concert promoter in your
area, ask him if he would be interested in The Alan
Parsons Live Project doing a show and have him email
Alan's management. Click Contact above.
2. Q. How do I book Alan and the band to play at a private or corporate event?
A. Alan is happy to do private or corporate shows provided his financial
and technical requirements are met for his band and crew. Realistically,
you would need to book a venue with a capacity of at least 200 people.
Alan and the band are available for festivals too. For serious
enquiries, please email Alan's management. Click Contact above.
3. Q. How do I find out
where he is playing?
A. The "Live" page on this website will always have the latest information. Check often, because sometimes shows are added at only a few weeks notice.
4. Q. Does Alan's website
mail out newsletters?
A. Alan is planning on putting a regular newsletter on the website. There are no mailouts from the site currently. You might want to consider joining The Avenue and Roadkill websites, which do have newsletters, discussion sites, etc.
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5. Q. What is the "Eye" symbol?
A. Alan tells us- "The Eye of Ra is one of the most recognized symbols in existence and has great spiritual significance. The idea came from Storm Thorgerson the creator of the Eye In The Sky record cover. It has become a symbol synonymous with my identity. My wife even has one tattooed on her ankle!"
6. Q. Will any concerts be
televised?
A. Although there are no plans for any TV broadcasts, Alan is hopeful that the live concert in Madrid will be shown, but as yet, we don't know when and where.
7. Q. Are the Alan Parsons
albums going to be released in 5.1 Surround Sound?
A. Alan is hoping to remix some of the earlier material very soon for release on DVD. A Valid Path was released on DualDisc in the early part of 2006 and is available on this site. The only other currently available AP album in Surround is On Air, which is a DTS-encoded CD. See DTS On-Line.
8. Q. Where can I find
lyrics to the songs by The Alan Parsons Project and Alan
Parsons?
A. http://www.theavenueonline.info/site3/lyrics.htm
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9. Q. How can I get my
CD's and other items autographed?
A. Alan often does autographing sessions
after concerts. He is also pleased to sign items sent
by mail to:
"AP Autographs"
c/o John Regna
8815 Conroy
Windermere Road, Suite 407
Orlando, Florida 32835
It is important that pre-paid return U.S. postage
or international postage vouchers are included as
well as a suitable self-addressed envelope. Sorry, but we will
not respond to any requests that do not include a return envelope
and postage. Please understand we cannot accept responsibility
for any lost items sent for signature.
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10. Q. What kind of equipment
does Alan use in his studio/on the road? (synths/mixing
consoles, sequencing tools, software/hardware, guitars
etc)
A. For A Valid Path, he used Steinberg's Nuendo on a dual processor PC running Windows 2000 and Steinberg's proprietary digital converters. He used both the audio recording and MIDI sequencing facilities in Nuendo. His favorite synth is Yamaha's Motif ES, which he used extensively on the latest album. He used a Yamaha 02R for monitoring, but most of the digital mixing and processing was done through Nuendo and a Houston Controller. He made good use of plug-in programs by Native Instruments, Waves and Universal Audio among others. On stage he currently uses a Gibson jumbo acoustic, a Motif ES and a Roland VS-1824 hard disc system.
11. Q. Will Alan ever
consider a huge outdoor (in the dark) gig, like Vangelis
did in the Rotterdam harbour more than a decade ago?
A. He would love to. He is just waiting for the phone call.
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12. Q. Will Alan consider
adding a full philharmonic orchestra at live shows so he
can use 'real' strings for songs like Old and Wise and Don't
Let It Show?
A. Alan has always enjoyed playing with Orchestra, but budgets often make it difficult. He has played with orchestra at The Night Of The Proms in Belgium and Germany, at The World Liberty Concert in Holland and more recently with Dennis De Young (previously of Styx) in Detroit, Michigan, and with The Omaha Symphony Orchestra and The Keeweenaw Symphony Orchestra. Check the Live page for details.
13. Q. I have done a remix/remake
of one of Alan's songs. How do I get permission to use it?
A. Any remix or cover version of any Parsons or Parsons/Woolfson composition will need clearance by the Publishers. Furthermore, if you have utilized a recording in whole or in part or samples from any APP or AP original album, it will need to be cleared by the Record Label. Videos require what is called a Sync License. There are various contacts according to which album the material comes from. Use the details below to access their online licensing systems or to reach the correct contact by email or phone.
Tales Of Mystery And Imagination: for Publishing contact filmtvlicensing@warnerchappell.com. For label enquiries contact Universal Music at +1 310 865 0770.
I Robot, Pyramid, Eve, Turn Of A Friendly Card, Eye
In The Sky, Ammonia Avenue, Vulture Culture, Stereotomy, Gaudi
and Try Anything Once: the Publishers are Universal
Music Publishing - http://www.umusicpub.com/licensingrequests.aspx and the label is Sony - http://www.sonymusic.com/licensing/contact/
The Very Best Live, On Air and The Time
Machine: For Publishing
and Label enquiries in North America, contact Karyn Soroka at
sorokamus@aol.com. For Label clearances in Europe, contact Alesa
Blanchard-Nelson at anelson@roadrunnerrecords.nl
A Valid Path: For Publishing Clearances contact Karyn Soroka at sorokamus@aol.com.
For Label enquiries in North America contact Michael Lee Jackson,
SVP Business Affairs, Immergent Records - mjackson@immergent.com - Tel. (310) 207 5181.
For Label or Publishing enquiries outside North America and Europe, or in case of any difficulty in reaching a label or publisher for a license contact Karyn Soroka at sorokamus@aol.com.
14.
Q. Can I use Alan's music for my "school project"/home movie/short
films for private showing etc?
A. Alan normally has no objection in principle to any such uses especially if they do not result in any financial gain to the user. But strictly speaking you should seek the clearance for the composition from the publishers and for the sound recording from the relevant record label. Use the links under Question 13 above.
If you use material without permission you do so at your own risk, but in practice that risk is small because the copyright owners do not have the time to chase after you - especially for private non-commercial projects. There are literally millions of unauthorized uses of music on YouTube.
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15. Q. How can I get
my latest musical creation to Alan? Will he produce my
next masterpiece?
A. Alan gets an enormous number of requests to listen to material. He cannot listen to everything. If you send an MP3 to webmaster@alanparsonsmusic.com we will send it to Alan but we make no promises. Alan has produced very few records in recent years outside his own name, but miracles happen.
16. Q. Does Alan ever
collaborate with anyone and, if so, what are my chances
of working with him?
A. Alan gets a large number of requests for collaborations but realistically the only ones to materialize have been from existing business contacts and artists who have already made a name for themselves. Send an MP3 to webmaster@parsonics.com - you never know.
17. Q. Will Alan ever
work with Pink Floyd again?
A. Alan says, "I would love to. I always felt that we made a great team. The main reason why we didn't do anything together after Dark Side was that my own career as producer and artist was blossoming. Contrary to popular belief, I do not earn royalties on Dark Side. If I was to work with them again, it would be nice to get one!" David Gilmour performs a soaring solo on Return To Tunguska, the opening track on A Valid Path.
18. Q. Will there be
any more "A Walk Down Abbey Road" shows?
A. No plans - sorry. A walk down Abbey Road was a touring entity for two summer seasons - the first with Todd Rundgren, Jon Entwistle, Ann Wilson, David Pack. The second outing was with Todd again, Jack Bruce, Christopher Cross and Mark Farner.
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19. Q. What was the Projectron,
which featured on some of the earlier albums?
A. The Projectron was effectively an analog "sampler". It could therefore produce any sound fed into it. It was a little like the Mellotron, but was capable of much higher quality. Usually it would reproduce tape loops individually recorded to a 16 or 24-track tape machine. The attack and decay times were adjustable using voltage control technology. One of the most featured sounds is the female background vocals on Breakdown. The Projectron looked something like a keyboard synthesizer but with lots of sockets on the front panel for connections to a multi track tape machine. Sadly, there are no known photos of it and it has disappeared into the annals of legend.
20. Q. Where can I buy
Alan Parsons CD's and DVD's? Are all the original albums
still available?
A. Most of the CD's currently available in the USA are available online at the Shop page of this site. If you see "Oversold until further notice", try ordering from a non-US based site such as www.amazon.co.uk. Just search for "Alan Parsons" in "Popular Music".
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He was fortunate enough to work as assistant engineer on the last two albums by The Beatles and after he qualified as a fully-fledged recording engineer, he went on to work with Paul McCartney and 
In 1975 he met Eric Woolfson who not only became his manager, but joined forces with Alan as a songwriting and performing partner for what became known as The Alan Parsons Project. The APP's debut album, Tales Of Mystery And Imagination based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe paved the way for a signing to Clive Davis' newly launched Arista label and a string of hit albums, namely I Robot (1977), Pyramid (1978), The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980), Eye in the Sky (1982), Ammonia Avenue (1984), Vulture Culture (1985), Stereotomy (1986) and Gaudi (1987). 
A brief venture into musical theatre resulted in Freudiana in 1990.The show ran for over a year in the historic Theater An Der Wien in Vienna. Eric and Alan then went separate ways. Eric devoted his career to the musical theatre while Parsons felt the need to bring his music to the live concert stage and to continue to record conceptual symphonic rock music. 
The album A Valid Path, Alan's foray into Electronica was released in 2004 and featured Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, 
Alan's latest venture is an instructional series about recording called The Art And Science Of Sound Recording. See 
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