Q&A: The Pink Floyd Experience

On April 19, the pig will fly again.

Bringing their state-of-the-art production to the University Theatre, The Pink Floyd Experience jumpstarts this year’s Spring Thaw festivities with a concert reminiscent of the legendary art-rock group Pink Floyd in their prime.

Kaimin Arts caught up to band founder and guitarist Tom Quinn for a telephone interview while he was in San Diego.

Kaimin Arts: What inspired you to take your love for Pink Floyd to the next level and do a full-time, million-dollar production cover band?

Tom Quinn: I was a typical adolescent and wanted to be in a band back in 1973. I was playing all the normal trumpet and marching band kind of stuff. But I became a rebel and my parents didn’t want me playing electric guitar, so of course it was the thing I gravitated to. In my first band, in one of our early practices, I unwrapped Dark Side of the Moon for the first time. From day one of opening up that album, it just floored me: the guitar tones, the themes that Roger (Waters) was painting out and the guitar work of David Gilmour. He’s been my mentor since day one, from my tone and technique and playing psychedelic blues as only he can do.

We weren’t always playing a lot of Pink Floyd in the early days because it’s not great dance music. They’ve made fun of themselves on album covers, as a matter of fact, by featuring dance couples pulled down by ropes. Through the years, I made my way through school and graduated from college playing live music. Finally, after the 1994 Division Bell Tour where I saw Pink Floyd finally after all these years here in San Diego, I was determined to put together a Pink Floyd band for real – playing nothing but Pink Floyd. I got the right people together, put an ad in the paper. It took about six months to get the band up and running, with lots of member changes later. It had nothing to do with money or anything else, but just the passion. It’s a real thrill for me to get up there every night and play this stuff.

KA: What do you think makes the music and image of Pink Floyd so timeless?

TQ: I know what motivated me, that’s all I go from. It was real to me back then and it’s just as real to me now. Just hearing the music is where it all started for me. For some people, it’s the themes that Roger created with his lyrical content back when he took the reins of the lyric writing in the Dark Side of the Moon days: The threat of madness in everyday life spoke to adolescence in their formative years. It really connected back then and still does today.

KA: What’s the hardest part about mimicking the band’s style?

TQ: The easiest part is learning the chord progressions and singing the melody. The hardest part is what I call “playing the music from the inside-out.” That is, what kind of headspace, what kind of spirit was in the band when they created this music in the first place? You have to do a lot of reading and you have to do a lot of studying, and just a lot of time with tonal shaping – from overdrive units and delays – and getting behind everything made on a technical basis. Then you have to be in the head and heart space to emotionally pull the stuff off. Otherwise it’s just notes on a page.

KA: What do you look forward to the most with this Missoula crowd?

TQ: It’s not the way I envisioned it when I started playing this and getting on the road with the show, but college campuses have reacted better to our music, have filled the halls, and have been the most passionate fans across the board for the last couple of years. It’s not necessarily the hall, it’s just the mood and the passion that college campuses bring to the music. They have time to wrap their brain and heart around this music. That’s where the power of the music hits. It spoke back then and it speaks to people now.