Here Ye, here ye

Here is the news! and the news is.... I am no longer in Galahad, we parted ways just after the Poland mini tour. Why? Well many reasons too complex and boring to go into here but if you see me in person I will gladly tell you the story from start to finish.... as long as you buy the beer! Lets just say that the planets aligned and I thought about quitting at EXACTLY the same time as they were thinking they wanted a different bass player.

So in the words of the very excellent Tinyfish "its time to get some real work done"

I have been busy recording an album for former Big Big Train vocalist Sean Filkins, its called War and Peace (and other short stories) and its turning into a MONSTER of a prog album, you...will...love it! I am also busy writing for the After the Storm project I'm involved in with Dean from Galahad (thats still continuing - Dean and I have become good mates over the last few years), promotion of Black and White is starting to accelerate - in fact I'm doing an interview live on ARFM.co.uk internet radio on Sunday 12 July to talk all things Black and White - tune in, should be alot of fun! No sooner had the news of my departure from Galahad bearly left the editors office than the phone started ringing from muso mates and aquaintances looking to get, well, reaquainted! I have a very exciting project lined up which I'll keep under wraps for the time being!

So all in all, its been an eventful old month, June! Life would be boring if it was quiet though wouldn't it! ;-)

Lee

 OK, I'm going to try and start all my blog entries by using a prog bands album title and changing it just an incy bit to suit my rambling! Why? Dunno, summit to do? Did you get this first one?

It relates to my forthcoming trip to Poland with the Galalads where we will entertain the excellent people of Poland with 4 gigs over 4 cities in 4 nights and what a blast it will be. I always enjoy this side of being in the band as you really don't have to think about anything for 5 days or so... not a thing. You get told when to go for breakfast, what city you're going to next, when you should get there, what time you're sound checking, what time you eat, what you eat, what time you play and for how long and where you will sleep. Some people might find that like hell and in a prison/army situation I guess it might be, but when you're in a foreign land, not knowing your surroundings but wanting to actually get something worthwhile out of the trip having someone do all that stuff for you is ace! All you have to do is concentrate on putting on 4 great gigs, which I'm sure we'll do. It also makes a change from the usual life pattern and takes all 5 of us out of our daily routines and into something quite special and ultimately I guess, something we've all craved from the moment we took up rock music.

Back to reality, just to give you an indication of what happens; we do a great first gig and all get storming drunk on the first night, we sleep off raging hangovers on day 2 and as a result do a rather more subdued gig on night 2 and all go to bed straight after the gig! Night 3 we start to sound tighter than Dream Theater and all get drunk to celebrate a fab gig, sleep off raging hangovers on day 4. gig like its our last one ever on night 4 and then get steaming drunk as its the last night! Come home.... wash all those sweaty pants.

but would we have it any other way? absolutely not!

Poland, we love you and we'll see you next week!

Lee

 I have just finished mixing the debut album by After the Storm called 'Where Do We Go From Here' and very good it is too. Great pop tracks with a distinct proggy feel. As well as engineering the mixing the album I did alot of guitars, bass and backing vocals and the guys have asked me to join them for future live dates in support of the album, which I am stoked at being asked!! A euro tour is hopefully on the cards so if you see us in a town near you, make sure you come along!!

Lee

 Hello!

So now Black and White is released and beginning to find its way in the world, I thought I'd let you in on how it came to be....

I started the writing of the album in late 2007. I had just finished building the studio and went headlong into writing ideas, lyrics, riffs, chord patterns, surfing the many thousand keyboard sounds and samples you build up over the years etc finding inspiration. I seem to recall Black was the first thing written; the piano riff that drives the verses just flopped out of my head onto the keyboard and the rest flowed from there.

Not that it was easy at all, there were some nights when I closed the mac down and wondered if I'd ever write anything I'd be happy with ever again, but gradually, it came good (phew!)

Right! Here's each song:

And Speaking of Which...

This is just a simple atmos piece to open the album. I love Gilmour's heavier moments, such as Sorrow and so tried to recreate something along those lines here. If you listen thru headphones you'll notice something cool about the ending ;-)

Face the Crowd

The "rip your head off" moment! I love those heavy riffs that just come out of no-where and slap you in the face, and slap you it does! The song kind of follows a Threshold type feel. Lyrically, it deals with new beginnings and feeling positive. Great solo from John Mitchell and stunning vocals from Sean Filkins

The Mirror

I love writing songs that build and thats exactly what this one does. I wanted to try out some different sounds on this one too so those strange noises are all sorts of everyday sounds, like piano, sax or guitar put thru overdrive emulators and just mangled beyond recognition! Great fun! Simon Godfrey of Tinyfish had the perfect voice for this; very english sounding. Jem added a nice keyboard solo and then my buddy Simon Nixon did the 2 excellent guitar solos on the end. He was unsure of the final takes but I'm sure you'll agree with me that he did a marvellous job! Lyrically, its pretty disturbing; in the news about 18 months ago there were 2 cases of wives who had poisoned their husbands in order to kill them and cash in life assurance policies to either clear debts or just pay for a greedy lavish lifestyle. The lyrics here are from the dying husband's perspective who's just realised what has happened and as he breathes his last, he asks "I hope its worth it"

Celebrity Status

Pop, pop and more pop! Don't you love songs that get stuck in your head for weeks? Maybe not! I certainly hate the celebrity obsessed culture we seem to have created in this world - people being famous for doing nothing, or just appearing on a reality TV show or taking their clothes off etc etc (yawn!) Gary Chandler's voice was perfect for this slab of feel-good sing-along stuff. Tip for you; when writing a song of this kind, use lots of sus2 chords, they sound great - in fact my all time fav chord of all time is the humble Asus2, and that little beauty is the first chord of the verses! Have a listen to the ride cymbal in the 7/4 section, That Mulligan bloke is a genius; keeping 2 time sigs going at the same time! What a guy!!!

Black

The epics! Black was written first and came together quite quickly. I knew I wanted a grand middle section and during the tracking the "Feed me with the junk" section really started to come to life. When John Mitchell came over and added the stirring solo to the end of that section I knew I was onto something! Sean said it made his stomach jump when he heard that section for the first time during mixing, if it has that effect - you know you've done good! Lyrics? dark, moody, depressed, lies, repression - its all there!

White

A new beginning! Or ending, as it may be! Steve Thorne provides the excellent vocals here on the epic that turned out to be more "song" driven compared with Black which is very "riff" driven. I hope it ends the album on a high when it reveals that you can take control of your own destiny, your own life, you can change things when you need, or have to. I certainly have in the last 5 years!!!!

Sometimes its not as simple as Black and White....... enjoy!

Lee

Hi One and all!

Sorry for the lack of updates but I've been extra busy recently what with the new album coming out, Galahad rehearsals, studio work, blah, blah, blah.

I am happy to say that the official release date for Black and White is 11 May 2009! So just a few days time! Shipping of all orders will commence this weekend and as far as I am aware there have been no issues with ordering, so if you ordered.... you will recieve!

Over this weekend I will post another blog with my thoughts on each track, how they were written/recorded etc so you can read and listen at the same time! Cool huh? Anyway, I'm off to equip all the flying monkeys with sat nav

Lee

Black and White will be officially released on the Festival Music label (part of the F2Music Group) and I'm so pleased that it has been taken on. This means it will be availabe through online retailers, download stores and indeed from this site as well!

Speaking of which, the online store should be up and running soon and we have secured some nice deals to tempt you into ordering! Make sure you check back soon!

Lee

Morning/Afternoon/Evening (delete as appropriate)

As you can see the new website is really coming on well thanks to Mr Kirksnosehair and his fantastic web talent.

The new album, Black and White is now fully mastered and is covered in audio fairydust which has been added by Mr Karl Groom, him of Threshold fame (some you the more junior surfers may know him as "that guy who produces Dragonforce"). I am now just waiting for the final proofs for the artwork to be finished and we should be all ready to go.

I am also doing some very exciting negotiating with some labels who are interested in releasing Black and White in the pukka time honoured fashion. If this happens who knows where it'll take me? Its all very exciting you know! In any event, the new album will be available from this very website in the Store section within a matter of weeks! (might be 3 or 4, or it might be 8 or 9 but it is still weeks!!!) I will keep you all posted as to whats going on.

In other news I am very pleased to announce that Galahad will be doing a joint gig with Threshold at Mr Kyps in Poole, UK on Sunday 10 May. This gig has been in talks for a while but now we finally have a date, and I'm extremely proud to be sharing the stage with a band I have been a fan of for well over 13 years! Also on the gig front The Indigo Pilots are playing a full scale prog tribute show at the Ashcroft Arts Centre in Fareham, UK on 22 May and I am sooo looking forward to it! We have been in rehearsal, sans any gigs, for so long now it'll be nice to finally face the crowd!

Galahad will also be touring Europe this summer playing in Poland and Spain so its all quite busy :-)

In the studio, I am putting the finishing touches to the debut album by a band called After The Storm, look out for them the music is very cool!

C ya

Lee

My new prog album "Black and White" is being mastered on 28th March at Thin Ice Studios by Karl Groom. The artwork is being handled by Paul Tippett who has done fantastic artwork for Kino, Frost* and It Bites. He's putting together some great artwork for me. Once that is done the album will be ready for manufacturing and release!!

Not long now!!

L