Interview
(Progressive Newsletter Nr.23 12/98)
excerpts from an epic interview with Stuart Nicholson (Vocals)
The short answer is, no I don't; perhaps people just get fed up with me after a while!?? Seriously though I think everyone who has left has done so for different reasons. Priorities and circumstances change. Karl for example has a family, was working long hours, going to College and literally did not feel that he could put the time and commitment in to the band that was needed. In general as we get older we all have more responsibilities and it becomes more difficult to give Galahad the time that it needs. Galahad is obviously more important to me than any of the other band members who have left!! In some ways I guess Galahad is my project, dare I say it, my life. It's almost like a drug; it's a constant challenge which is something that I for one thrive upon.Ultimately, it's up to me to keep it going, which I will always endeavour to do in one form or another. However, having said that, Spencer has now been in the band for 10 years, ever since he was 16, and Neil has been with us for 6 years; so there is a certain amount of individual longevity within the band apart from myself. In some ways I see the band evolving in to a kind of musical collective, which I think is very healthy as it means that more musicians can contribute ideas, thus the band will not sound the same album after album. I think that the contributions Sarah Quilter has made on "Following ghosts", for example, bear testament to such an approach. Galahad 1998 is a very different beast to that which started out in 1985!
Speaking of changes in line-up. First of all, after completion of "Following ghosts" founder member Roy Keyworth has left. What was the reason and have you already found a replacement?
All of us are still not quite sure why Roy left the fold as he has not been in touch for several months now. I think he realised that he no longer had the enthusiasm and ideas that he used to have and could not devote enough time to the band. People change and Roy no longer regarded Galahad as a priority, which I personally could not accept. In the end he did the decent thing. Ironically I think that some of his best playing can be heard on "Following ghosts". However most of the ideas for the guitar parts on "Following ghosts" came from Dean, Neil and myself and not from Roy; indeed sometimes I actually had to remind Roy what guitar parts were supposed to go on which songs and what effects, sounds and even guitars he was supposed to be using on which tracks!! This tended to sound a few alarm bells as to how seriously Roy was taking the project. It is very ironic too that Roy should leave after having had such an easy and straightforward time recording this album compared to the "Sleepers" saga which was a complete nightmare. How we held the band together during those dark days is still a deep mystery to me. Ultimately though, I and the rest of the band still have the drive and determination to carry on writing, recording and playing. I know it's a cliche but the band is almost a part of me; I cannot imagine not being a part of it, we are permanently intertwined!! I suppose it will come to an end one day but not for a long time yet. As long as we enjoy it we will carry on indefinately. As far as a replacement for Roy is concerned, yes we have found someone, his name is Craig Wilson, who we think is probably a better and more versatile guitarist than Roy is / was. However it is still early days and I don't want to speculate too much at this point, but the way things are progressing at the moment it looks though Craig will probably become a permanent member of Galahad.
On the new album you have a new keyboard player, Dean Baker. I liked the style of his predecessor, Karl Garrett, very much. With Dean the sound has changed radically, I think. He appears as co-author on all tracks but one. One obvious new element of Galahad's music is the ambient touch. Is this mostly Dean's influence?
Actually, in general no! It's more mine. I have had several ambient / dance crossover ideas kicking around in my head for quite a while, the result of which initially was "Bug Eye". When Dean started writing with us we clicked very well almost immediatly and he was very receptive as well as being a very good listener to the ideas that I had.This was probably due to the fact that he spent many years putting backing tracks together for various other singers and musicians. Between us we managed to mould these ideas in to various musical forms which became several of the tracks on "Following ghosts". The fact that he has a sequencing software on his computer was also very handy as it speeded up the writing process dramatically. We would literally go through all his sounds and loops etc until we found those that suited the track. If we couldn't find any, Dean would make up his own sounds and modify or write new looops to fit the atmosphere of the track. However, he does come from a more mainstream musical background which includes quite a lot of dance, so obviously he would have had an influence on the overall sound on "Bug Eye". "Ocean blue" & "Rejuvenation", the other dancy, ambient tracks on Following Ghosts were both actually written by Neil who although a big fan of Prog such as Pink Floyd etc. is also a big fan of Drum'n'Bass and alternative dance music which I think shows to quite an extent in the aforementioned tracks.
In my opinion, „Following ghosts“ is a big step forward for Galahad, exploring new sounds and being very adventurous. Don't you fear that with songs like "Bug eye" you could lose those fans who are limited to neo-prog only? Or do you want to reach a totally different clientele?
I guess it's possible that "Bug Eye" and some of the more modern sounding tracks on "Following ghosts" might alienate a few of your typical 'Neo-prog' fans, but that is their problem and not ours.I think if people cannot open their ears and minds to wider variety of music then they are the ones missing out on some great music by being steadfastly narrow minded. The world of music, I'm afraid, doesn't start and finish with traditional Prog. Obviously, we would like to reach a new audience or rather expand upon the one that we already have. We are realistic enough to realise that because of our limited resources we will never reach a mass audience unless we are extremely lucky, but I'm sure there are those music fans out there who have never heard of us who would like "Following ghosts" if only they knew about it or heard it on the radio. If groups like Pink Floyd can still attract vast stadiums full of fans then there must still be a massive market out there in the ether for what can be called, in generalised terms, 'Progressive Rock'. Personally, I think that "Following ghosts" musically is a much broader album than anything we have released before and in many respects it is also a lot more accessible and contemporary sounding, and dare I say it, more commercial than any of it's predecessors whilst ironically being more adventerous,certainly in a Prog sense, than anything else we have put out. Although, musically there is little that is complicated, timing or chord wise, on the album, we have never been ones to go in to muso mode and show off as to how many obscure chords we can play in how short a time like so many bands. If that is the road you are going to take then you are in serious danger of losing the song in a cloud of muso meanderings and any sense of melody that may have existed in the first place. Of course, there are a few very clever bands that seem to be able to marry the two together, but they are few and far between and I don't think that we are one of them! After all I am principally a singer, and as I generally have a lot of the ideas for Galasongs then I need to be able to sing over the music and therefore that needs relatively straightforward melodies in order to be able to lay vocal lines over the top. Perhaps that is why, although we write the odd long epic track with the occasional musically adventerous chord, timing sequence, we never lose sight of the melody aspect and the need for hooks, whether musical or vocal, something for the listener to grasp on to and remember. We feel that "Following ghosts" has these in abundance, which is one of it's many strengths!!
Concerning the lyrics. Is "Following ghosts" a concept album? Can you tell us a bit about what it's all about?
No, "Following ghosts" is not a concept album or at least it was not planned as such. Although the way it has turned out means that there are several links and recurring themes throughout the album that may give the 'Concept' impression, which initially were quite unintentional, but perhaps in my subconscious were supposed to be there all along, who knows!!?? In general,the lyrics are actually far more personal on "Following ghosts" than those that I have written before. For some reason the older I get the easier I find it to write about how I feel about people, situations, friends and family etc from the heart. Perhaps it's a case of not being so bothered about what people think of you and your ideas as you get older!! "Following ghosts" is very much an album about life, death and everything else in-between, cliched I know but something which affects us all and something which anyone can identify with, which perhaps ties in with the fact that, in some ways, "Following ghosts" is a very accessable album, even to non-proggies! For example, "Bug Eye" is about the very conception of life within the womb before birth whereas at the other end of the scale there is "Reflections I & II" which is about remembering the good times my brother and I had when my Nan and Aunt were still alive. Other songs, for example, are really observations on human behaviour and attitudes, such as "Easier Said than Done" which is about those people who always know better than you, even if they've never had the same experiences and patently do not know what they are talking about. "Perfection Personified" is in a similar vein being about someone who has always done everything that you have only on a larger, bigger more spectacular scale, no matter what it is, and who could not give a toss about your opinions and is only interested in what he has to say and getting it across as forcefully as possible not taking in to consideration any opinion or anything that anyone else has to say. "Imago" is a kind of self-analysis, considering where we come from and how much of each of our individual 'selves' is truly unique and how much is influenced by genes etc carried down from previous generations of our respective ancestors. So now you know! "Myopia" has a slight political bent to it, which I think is quite self-explanatory once you have heard the song or read the words; again, a kind of tirade against the way many politicians or indeed many people in positions of high power are so patronising to their 'subjects' actually convincing themselves somehow that they are superior and actually believing that we 'the proletariat' are ignorant and cannot see just how corrupt, two-faced and bigotted so many of them are! So begs the question, just who is fooling who? The closer "Shine" is a song about human spirit and a determination to succeed against all the odds at having a life worth living. Specifically it is about someone that I know who was a beautiful and bright young girl who was struck down with Rheumatoid Arthritis and now is struggling on valiantly to live a normal a life as possible despite all her problems. I think that when the human spirit does kick in it is amazing what you can achieve with plenty of grit and determination. Thus this is another very 'humanistic' song. I guess in some ways you could say that lyrically, the majority of the songs on "Following ghosts" are exploring a whole gamut of human feelings, tendencies and emotions. Often, I find writing an education in itself in that as you are coming up with ideas, your thought processes go in to overload and you end up pondering on all sorts of things that you would never normally even consider thinking about. So there you have it. It's all rather good happy stuff! However there is ,of course, at the other end of the lyrical scale the words to "Ocean Blue" which are almost a kind of escape valve to the rather more serious nature of most of the other songs on "Following ghosts". Though nothing so flippant and silly as the "Dentist Song" appears on this album!!
In my opinion, the cover of the new album is excellent! Can you tell us more about this?
We had almost finished recording "Following ghosts" and I was racking my brains with various ideas whirling around in my confused head for the cover, none of which seemed quite right for the feel and atmosphere that the album was beginning to evoke. Then one day I was flicking through the pages a local newspaper whereupon I saw this wonderful picture of Knowlton Church with Hale Bopp comet flying overhead. I took one look at the image and thought we have got to use this on the cover as it exuded so much spirit and atmosphere even in black and white. I was also intrigued as to the actual colour of the photo, thinking it would be dark blue, wrong!! After many phone calls, I eventually tracked down the photographer through his parents who happen to live in the same town as myself. His name is Mark Gaston and he specialises in night time photography as well as being a keen astronomer. He has also taken night time photos of many other local landmarks incuding some stunning photos of Stonehenge! Perhaps Hawkwind would consider him for their next album cover!!?? It turned out that the colour of the photo was actually dark brown which was very unusual but none the less stunning. It is a completely natural image that has not been computer enhanced in any way, shape or form and appears as such on the album cover. Although the images of the church within the booklet have been toyed with somewhat!! As well as loving the photo, Knowlton Church has great significance for Lin and myself as it is situated only a few miles from where we live and is where we had some of our wedding photographs taken, ironically exactly two months after the cover picture was taken. Also, I and some of my friends often used to visit the church by day and night when we were younger to experience the special atmosphere that it exudes. So it is a very special place for me. I think that the church itself dates back to Norman times and is now a ruin.It was built upon an old Pagan religious site in order to ward off Pagan ie non christian spirits, or so legend has it. Thus on the front of the album there is something very old, ancient in fact, as well as Hale Bopp comet which is shown passing over the site for the first time in more than 4000 years, so the photo can also be seen as a contemporary snapshot of what is a very historical moment in time. Whereas the back of the CD is actually a scan of 'Mary' the daughter of one of my closest friends, in the womb, i.e. 'Bug Eye' several months before she was born. Therefore in terms of time, the front and back covers are light years apart, which again ties up with the overall feel of the album and the many intertwined subjects that it covers.
In the latest Galahappening - the Galahad newsletter - I've read that there will also be a release of a different "Following ghosts" version called "De-constructing ghosts" produced by several sound mixers. I've seen a similar thing with Marillion's last album. Will it be comparable, what will it be like?
I don't know about the Marillion re-mix album as I have not heard it, although I have been told that it is very good. With "Following ghosts" I'm perhaps going in to experimentation overload!! The idea for the 'alternative re-mix' album is to mix and match various samples of sounds, chord sequences, vocal lines from "Following Ghosts", including vocals, guitars, keys, flute, clarinet etc. from different songs, together into a kind of musical Pot-Pourri in order to create completely new tracks, that may have little or no similarity to those which appear on the 'Mother' album. In other words we are not simply re-mixing existing tracks, that would be far too simple!! I actually find this whole concept very exciting as the final outcome, sound etc. of each of the new tracks is a complete unknown. Whereas with "Following Ghosts" we always had a pretty good idea of what we wanted it to sound like, or at least I did!! Therefore there were not many surprises in a musical sense, although I was very pleasantly surprised with all of the arrangements and some of the wonderful sounds that we found and incorporated in some of the tracks and I do love surprises!! This is in part what drives me and the rest of the guys on, a willingness to explore new horizons, not quite knowing what we might find. My goodness, all this spacy rhetoric and I'm not even a trekkie, Stardate 1998....... The results of "De-Constructing Ghosts" could be quite radical, certainly in terms of Prog and I'm sure may traditional Proggies will hate what we have done! but that in some ways vindicates what we are trying to do, i.e. explore other areas thus far uncharted by us. I would think that "De-Constructing Ghosts" would probably appeal, generally, to a different audience to that which currently buys our albums. But I'm sure there will always be some cross-over by those with broader minds. It might work, it might not, it might go horribly wrong!! But it is a very personal subjective thing. I just feel that we have to try and give it a go if we are to stretch ourselves across other boundaries and off in to the future..... At least we could never be accused of being complacent and resting on our laurels, if that were the case, then as I said before, we might as well just give up!! I must stress though, that "De-Constructing Ghosts" is only an experimental sideline, certainly at this stage and will not be credited as a bona-fide Galahad album as many of the tracks will be remixed and re-written by musicians and DJ's who are not in the band!! Overall, things are beginning to pick for the band after a quiet re-convening period in the last couple of years which was necssary after the dark "Sleepers" years. Hopefully, we can, at the very least consolidate our position within the world of Prog and beyond and hopefully raise our profile with the new album of which we are justly proud. Indeed, there is a new positive attitude about and within the band that hasn't existed since the early nineties, and what with so many ideas and other projects in the pipeline, the future is looking bright, the future's Galahad....
Jürgen Meurer © Progressive Newsletter 1998