SAGA guitarist Ian Crichton recently sat down with Guitarhoo.com to chat about his roots as a musician, the music business, the band's new album 20-20, solo projects, and Saga's upcoming concert on the Cruise To The Edge progressive rock extravaganza. An excerpt is available below:

G!: A big part of the Saga progressive sound is your staccato solo playing trading off with the keyboards, more than solo sections, they are more like interludes / extensions of the songs. How do you guys usually come up with these parts?

IC: "That's usually Jim Gilmour and myself that come up with those. It's part of what Saga has always done, key-guitar lines that are played together in harmony, or not, panned left and right! The section itself always presents itself, where there would be a guitar solo or middle section is where we put these lines.

G!: Saga has always had some very interesting album cover artwork. On your latest album 20/20, the cover has what looks like Albert Einstein looking through a phoropter. Who came up with the idea and who did the artwork?

IC: "This cover shot was found on the net, it was the pic you see but we put in Alberts nose and mouth, which are very famous, everybody knows who it is. We were having covers done by a European artist - Trust, Human Condition - but he had moved on and isn't painting anymore."

G!: 20/20 is a solid album with a polished sound. How did you guys approach this record and did the songwriting come together fairly quickly?

IC: "The CD took quite a while, almost two years. We were still without Michael Sadler (vocals) when it was started and it sounded different to what you hear now. When Michael came back to the band we started all over again, with the same material but needed lyrics-melody."

Go to this location for the complete interview.