Coming together in 1989, Pangaea is an American Rock band with a rich history. Releasing their first album Le Collage D’Exoticolours in 1991, the band steadily moved forward creating a blend of Progressive Rock and Metal over the course of 6 more full-length albums. Last releasing A Time & A Place in 2002, now in 2024 they return with their new collection of songs for the album Beowulf. An album finding them teaming back up with Robert Berry (famously known for his work in 3 with Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer), the members of Pangaea reunited with vast inspiration… and it shows in the songs. Excited about everything, co-founding Keyboardist Corey Schenck sat down to talk about the history of the band, the work put into Beowulf, plus more.
Cryptic Rock – Pangaea was established 35 years ago. With a history behind you, the band resurrected a few years ago after some time away. What inspired the reformation?
Corey Schenck – We’re friends. We’re like brothers – all of us. We’d stayed in touch during our hiatus through text and calls. Then in 2019 we started talking a lot more and getting it on everyone’s radar that we should find a way to do this. So, in June of 2021 we met at a hotel in Dallas, Texas to see what everyone was thinking. Right away that chemistry was there. Everyone wanted to do this again. Initially, we started rehearsing once a month with the goal of playing live shows again. Within a few months I said, “I have some songs,” Steven said, “I have some songs,” and Andi said, “I have some songs also!” At that point we decided to focus on writing and demo-ing songs for a new album – which is what became Beowulf.
Cryptic Rock – That is great to hear that you were all on the same page after time had passed. The band’s sound has a very interesting mix of Rock, Metal, and various other Progressive elements. How would you describe the approach to the songs early on, how the style has developed since then?
Corey Schenck – Yeah, we have a lot of influences that we draw from. The original five guys – myself, Andi, Ron, Steven and Darrell all have our influences but others that crossover to each other: Andi is into Jazz, R&B, and Genesis; Ron is into Metal and Prog bands like Porcupine Tree and Pineapple Thief; Steven is a singer-songwriter who brought in everything from Frank Sinatra to Harry Chapin to John Cougar-Mellencamp; where Darrell loves Rush, ZZ Top, Steve Vai, and Yngwie Malmsteen; for me, my biggest influences were the classic ‘70s British prog bands and Classical music. So, what happens is someone brings in a song – a nearly complete song or just a little idea like a lyric or riff – then everyone in the band puts their ‘stamp’ on it. Even if one of us is the sole writer of a song, the arranging is done by the group.
That’s what gives it that Pangaea sound you hear on the albums. And that’s still the approach today. The difference would be that we’ve all grown as musicians – our skills, our knowledge, our influences – and all of that is now pulled into the music. I think if you were to listen to The Rite of Passage from 1996 and Beowulf (our latest release), you’ll hear the same band, but you’ll hear growth and development – as it should be.
Cryptic Rock – It appears you have a broad range of influences. As mentioned, the band was away for some time, but now you are back. With this, you recently released a new record entitled Beowulf. What was the writing and recording process like for this album?
Corey Schenck – Different guys would bring a song to the table. We’d work up a ‘rough draft’ of that song. Then we’d lay down demos at Andi’s studio – he has ProTools – with the various members. I might lay down a basic keyboard line first and then Andi would add his drum tracks. Ron would fly in from Tulsa on a weekend and lay bass lines down on whatever songs we had. Steven would fly in on a different weekend and lay down vocal melodies. Darrell or I would lay down various guitar tracks. The order could change from song to song, but that was the basic concept. When the demos were done, we sent the files to Robert Berry, our producer, so he knew the direction of the album. We then flew out to Robert’s Soundtek Studios in San Jose, California for two weeks in July and August of 2022 to record the album with him.
Cryptic Rock – It sounds like everything worked quite seamlessly. For this album you teamed back up with the highly accomplished Robert Berry. What is like working with Robert, and was there a level of comfort working together knowing there is that past foundation?
Corey Schenck – Absolutely! We knew Robert was the only person to produce this album. This is our fifth project as Pangaea with him since 1996. Robert is an extension of this band – he’s like a member of the group, like George Martin to the Beatles if I can make that comparison. He’s been our mentor and teacher as well as our producer and engineer. And he’s a very close friend with all of us. We stay in touch all the time. Robert was also excited to hear we’d put Pangaea back together and he was adamant that all five original members had to be on this project. We all agreed. We also had the same vocal engineer/coach on every album with Thom Duell as well. Working with him again came very naturally, very symbiotic.
Cryptic Rock – Very cool. It seems as though the relationship with Robert created a great album. With this new album out, can we expect more shows to be announced?
Corey Schenck – Yes, absolutely. We don’t have anything in stone yet, but we are working on and speaking with different parties about more shows in Texas and Oklahoma as well as other parts of the U.S. and outside the U.S. But, I don’t want to say anything more until things are finalized.
Cryptic Rock – Alright, we will have to look out for date announcements. Pangaea is a band featuring players with a rich musical background as well as training. This in mind, does everyone bring something to the table in a democratic fashion?
Corey Schenck – Yeah, it is. Like I mentioned with songwriting, everyone puts their own ‘stamp’ on what we do; whether it be the songs, shows, visual aspects, album titles, even where we get dinner together! We truly like each other, being around each other. We trust each other. We always say that “this is the band. It has to be these guys.” We knew putting it back together that all five original members would have to be on board or it wouldn’t work. Then, in October of 2023 we added a sixth member, Scott Draughon, who is a great friend of ours who we all respect as a musician.
At rehearsals, we realized we couldn’t cover all the parts, so we had to get another musician. We were not going to go the whole ‘backing track’ route. We had a short list of three guys we liked. We needed someone who could play guitar, keyboards, and sing background harmonies. Scott fit that bill. He’s now an equal member of the band as well and has the same input as the rest of us.
Cryptic Rock – That is great. It is nice to see a group of players work so well together. Being in a band presents its challenges. For the most part, we are living in a streaming world where many have microscopic attention spans. Additionally, with the oversaturation of material out nowadays with the internet age in full force, it is easy to get lost in the shuffle. What do you think the key is to navigating this sort of musical landscape?
Corey Schenck – Be yourself. Find who you are as an artist, a songwriter, a singer, whatever, and stay true to that! Don’t try to be a chameleon and change to ‘fit’ whatever the next ‘big thing’ is because chances are you’ve already missed that boat anyway. You take your influences of course, but you have to find your own voice and be true to that.
Cryptic Rock – That is very sound advice and honestly makes for the best music; you have to be yourself. As mentioned, Pangaea has quite a diverse sound. Out of curiosity, what are some of your personal musical influences?
Corey Schenck – For me, with Classical music it’s composers like Stravinsky, Berg, Bartok, Ravel, and Bach. Then there’s the band Asia – they were my gateway as a kid into the world of Progressive Rock. I heard them when I was about 11 or 12 and then people told me to find out where those guys all came from. It was from there I discovered Yes, ELP, King Crimson, Pink Floyd and all of that great ‘70s British Prog Rock! Those are my biggest influences.
Cryptic Rock – It is interesting how Progressive music and Classical go together so well. Those are some great artists you mentioned. Last question. On Cryptic Rock we cover music, but also films… particularly Horror and Sci-Fi. If you are a fan of either of these genres, do you have any favorites?
Corey Schenck – I dig Sci-Fi. My favorite, being a kid of the ‘70s and ‘80s is the original Star Wars trilogy – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) is my single favorite. I still love these three movies. I also like Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), and Blade Runner (1982). I also get into older Sci-Fi like Star Trek and I remember the film Forbidden Planet (1956) – that monster scared the hell out of me as a kid! It might have scarred me – maybe that’s why I remember it! (Laughs)
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