Click on this link for a 'Flash' version of the album artwork, you drag the corner of the pages and they turn, you can also select different backing tracks based on sections of the album tracks. Flashbook
Click on the tabs below for a track by track breakdown by the band and Mike B of the most recent album, "The Dreams of Men"
Warriors
Graeme originally
wrote this as a take on the 9/11 attacks.
I was a bit uncomfortable with being too
specific about that as I felt that there
was more than one way to interpret the
motivations of the guys that carried it
out; and also that suicide bombings are an
issue in many circumstances other than
that one dramatic attack in New York (the
recent London attacks just go to underline
this). So I've tried to make it a little
less specific - although it can still be
read that way. The heavy middle section
screams out "classic Pallas" to me. Heavy,
powerful and emotional. I'm particularly
proud of the vocals in the "the girl wipes
the sleep.." section. It really builds
nicely from a warm, sleepy delivery to the
all-out "Death comes on silver wings..".
There's a power and control there I've not
often managed to get on a recording..
Now here's a track
that was born in typical Pallas fashion. I
cant quite recall what came first here but
a quick look on the old computershows
several ideas came together to form
Warriors. Niall had his ripping opening
riff that he played in a moment of metal
weakness. He should have known better
because we leapt on him and insisted we
use it on the album despite his protests.
Ron had a slow idea we had called "Rons
Sweeny" which we sped up and used the
chords for the chorus . I had a couple of
bits; the opening chords with a fantastic
gritty organ sound from the Motif over
which we fitted Nialls riff, and the fast
middle section with the bass riff and big
big voices melody. Chuck it all in the
Pallas jamming machine and the track came
together.
Lyrically we felt the song had a very violent and martial feel. somehow the quiet mid section called up a very vivid memory I had from watching 9/11 unfold and seeing that plane in the clear blue sky . I had the "Death comes on silver wings" part of the lyric first and developed the rest of the lyric from there. There were obvious concerns from the rest of the guys due to the subject matter, and whether it was appropriate "to go there". A few lines were changed to soften things a bit, but I really fought for this one as I feel very strongly about the subject matter.
I seem to remember
that this began with the guitar riff at
the beginning and some how we managed to
squeeze the Sweeney theme in there. Its
sometimes difficult to not make these
tracks to literal but the "silver wings"
line gives it a rather definite context.
This came together
from jamming – a combination of everyone’s
ideas. I think it will be great to play
live.
We argued amongst
ourselves about the additional
instrumental intro section that was added
to this. I suppose we would miss it now if
someone stole it! The instrumental section
in the middle is a very powerful part,
where I use the crash cymbal as a ride,
followed by a jungle type tom pattern then
straight into the end section. This part
was a Jam which we all really liked with
with a kind of Yes-ish feel to it and has
some more intricate drumming on it.
Extending the mask
metaphor here with a montage of a set of
graphics which I think compliment the
track rather well. I think that the intro
gtr motif to this track is probably the
most debated 20 seconds on any Pallas
album !!
Ghostdancers
This
is about how one man's dream can be
another man's nightmare. It takes the
example of the celtic disapora to the
Americas (among other places) as how the
achievement of one aim can displace
another. Many Scots left these shores out
of desperation and found themselves
successful in the new world - the
archetype of the American Dream. But that
dream had a sour edge for many of the
peoples already living there. For me it
also carries a little poke at what America
now stands for in the world - That there's
a maggot in the apple which they're not
prepared to face up to.
I sat
down in my music room one evening as often
happens when we are in writing mode, in an
effort to create something for the new
album. Some nights nothing worthwhile
happens, but on this particular night
within half an hour I had laid down the
verse and chorus sections of this track,
sounds and all, and thats how it went down on the album. It felt very haunting and Celtic. It was a real buzz when the other guys heard the rough idea as everyone was excited about it. Niall and Ron put the mid 8 together as I recall within a half hour. I had the first three verses of lyric and the first chorus for sometime before thrashing out the last verse in collaboration with Alan. All in all this track came together very smoothly. The addition of Pauls violin playing simply took the atmospheric feel up another level in my book as did Nialls wonderful solo work.I have to say that I'm enormously proud of this song and cant help feeling that it could be a classic if it received enough exposure.
Graeme
had written this haunting tune that was
and still is one of my favourite tunes to
date. I must confess that for me, it
always conjured up the picture of Connan
the barbarian, riding across a bleak and
unspoilt landscape but as the story began
to take shape this obviously changed. The
middle guitar solo actually came from a
tune called Slojazz that I had written
several years earlier.
Anyone
analysing my contribution to the Pallas
effort would probably be surprised to
learn how much I love songs (not all
Pallas compositions fit with my
understanding of what constitutes a song).
This magnificent song evolved from another
of Graeme’s sketches. My involvement? I
helped to ‘articulate’ some of the chords
to make them slightly more palatable than
they might otherwise have ended up being.
Paul’s violin work is gorgeous, and is
completely at home with the overall
dynamic. I’m very proud of the way this
has turned out I wonder if Pallas fans
would tolerate a whole album of songs
sometime in the future? Please say
yes!
The
secret behind this was to keep it simple
and uncluttered to let it breathe whilst
still providing a powerful drum part.
Niall's 1st solo is fantastic and really
inspired my part. I think it was my idea
to lengthen the end a bit for more guitar
solo. The drum sound it perfect for the
song and really adds to the songs overall
power. Oh yeah, the violin is great
too.
The
night we finished the compilation of the
album and took home the finished product
for the first time I took a detour to make
my journey last the length of the album. I
had to stop the car at the 'middle eight'
of this song as I couldn't see the road
for tears! ( The endings of Invincible and
Last Angel had the same effect ) I think
this is the strongest 'song' the band has
ever recorded, and that was before Paul
came along and added the violin part! The
artwork leaves the mask metaphor for a bit
and is a simple reflection of the
transatlantic journey that the song
represents.
Too Close to The Sun
A
bugger to write and sing. I put off doing
this one for months. Trying to count to
eleven when you're sustaining at full
volume is one of the most difficult things
this singer's ever had to do in the studio
:-) This is another of those tracks where
Graeme and I were unable to come up with a
complete version of a song, but
individually we came up with different
ideas that meshed together. In this case
Graeme had pulled together a verse/bridge
section and I had a middle and an ending.
In fact we both had a middle and we
thought it'd be interesting to put both of
them on - and it works!
Ah
Ronnie, what a guy he is!! We had had a
meeting in the studio to whittle down our
pool of ideas and to focus on what would
make it thro' to preproduction and become
tracks on the new album. I recall Ron in
his painfully modest way saying "I've got
this idea but I dinna ken if its ony
good". He then played a tape of what is
now this track to us. It was of course
PROGTASTIC. I love it. I was always an ELP
fan as a lad and there's a lot of
wonderful Emersonesque moments here. The
rest of us were certainly left with plenty
to get our teeth into after Ron and Denise
departed on their travels round the world,
with the complex timing changes
here.(Colin called Ron names I've never
heard before) Alan and I combined our separate lyrical ideas to good effect here with an excellent team effort. I wanted a German voice for Einstein but was overuled as being "too cheesy". No sense of humour this lot. Now this track has for me, one of the best guitar solos,Niall has ever recorded. I just want you to know that it was played grudgingly at gunpoint with Mike B. and I threatening him with death!! Niall was angry as he wanted to keep it folky and to feature his "3 stringed thing".( He gets his way on the bonus disk).
Originally
called Ron's 11; 8 this was a hard one to
do for me. Because it was an almost
complete piece featuring mostly keyboards,
and it was always a problem to known just
how much guitar to put in without standing
all over Ron's intricate key work. I had,
for a long time, wanted to record my
little Thai 3 string guitar which I was at
last, able to use on the middle section do
think this turned out rather
well.
This
is pretty much my main contribution to the
album – with the exception of the vocals.
(For anyone that doesn’t get out much),
the main themes are largely written in
11/8 – a fab time signature that lends
itself to the use of unusually extended
melodic phrases that wouldn’t sit nearly
as nicely in common time. It’s a
remarkably inspirational time domain to
write in – the melodies almost write
themselves once the first few notes
arrive. The guys wrote and added the
lyrics in my absence, taking the piece to
a slightly different place than I had
first had in mind. Still though – I’m
quite pleased at where it’s ended
up.
This
was originally called 11/8
because.............it is in 11/8,
although the intro isn't. I cold have
killed Ronnie for this (he wrote it), the
time signature changes 16 times in the
intro section and was a real Bastard to
count (as the bonus disc will prove). It
also does it again in the middle of the
song but is different (the swine!)!
However, the rest of the song is pretty
straightforward apart from the fact it is
in 11! There are some nice wee tight bits
with the drums and guitars. Nialls solo in
the middle is great, hence the sparse
parts during the solo. A Pallas
classic.
The
track formerly known as 11:8, then the
Dreams of Men, an honour it shared with
Ghostdancers introduces the other
recurring motif in the design process,
that of angels and flight, though the 'old
mannie' apparently looks more like Bobby
Charlton than Icarus! Despite it's
formerly eponymous time signature this
track reminds me in part of Insomniac
meets Tower of Babble. Probably the most
'proggy' track the band has done. Oh and
we never did entitle a track the Dreams of
Men after all that!Messiah
Graeme
and I are very different in our political
views, which can often make writing
something we're both happy with a bit of a
challenge. However, I immediately warmed
to this idea of the control-freak
political leader. It's kind of a dig at
Tony Blair, but it applies to pretty much
any self-satisfied political or social
leader. Anything they say needs to be
taken with a healthy pinch of salt. I
think the soul choir's a nice touch - If
we ever did a video I'd like to portray
TB, GWB and OBL as gangsta rap types with
loads of bling (lots of gold, girls and a
huge Hummer) .. All style and no
substance.
I
spoke earlier about how sometimes musical
ideas just happen and sometimes they dont,
well on this night they did. Mike B had
given Niall and I a real rollicking for
getting bogged down, and not getting any
of the tracks finished. I had watched our
esteemed Prime Minister lie his way thro'
a tricky press conference on TV just
before going to the studio and had a lyric
brewing about "political ambition "and the
dream of "power". Got to studio..
compulsory cup of tea....brief chat with
Niall over general concept....Picked up
bass...Niall picked up guitar....three
hours later we had a rough backing track
with verse and cracking chorus, and guitar
solo in the bag. We were very smug, as we
knew Mike would be at the studio the
following day. JESUS, what a row we got
for starting another new idea instead of
finishing the ones we had already. Anyway
I love this. Its a bit like Sledgehammer
meets City Of Love, with the humour of Big
Time. Hope you guys like it.
I
remember Graeme and I sitting in the
studio one night and Graeme saying that he
wished there was a punchier track on the
album with the sort of riff that goes
something like this....daa daa
dee......daa daa dee etc and the track was
born.
.
This
was created in my absence. "I’m liking
it!"
Not
very Pallasy, but very rocky, powerful and
precise. It was decided that the groove
was the most important thing in this one,
sort of Zeppelinesque, with
straightforward fills. Although during the
first guitar solo, we throw in a single
bar of 5/4 to keep it interesting. The
middle section (with Tabla etc) has a
great almost Bonhamesque groove and moves
into a real Hendrixsy feel at the end with
swirling cymbals and fills etc and less
that 5 minutes long!
And
after reading all the above you'd never
know that this features a stunning
contribution from some 'Stroppy Divas' on
backing vocals! This track, nay song, is
not as much as departure from things
Pallas as may first seem as it is
undoubtedly a cousin of Dinosaur, why not
check that out by getting the newly
released archive DVD Live From London! The
image used for the booklet was a cert the
moment I saw it, took a great deal of
finding, then another by the same
photographer cropped up and found its way
onto Mr Wolfe. Reading Graemes comments
you'll know why the album was late
...again ;-)
Northern Star
We
played this at Rotherham and Nearfest last
year. At the time we were figuring out how
to develop it into a song, but good sense
prevailed and we decided to leave it as an
instrumental. Beautiful. And with the best
drumming Colin's ever done
:-).
The
Dream here is "the dream of home" when you
may find your self on faraway shores. I
close my eyes and see the snow gently
falling in the fields and hills around the
studio. This is soooo evocative of our
little corner of the planet. This is a
gorgeous little piece which will afford
Colin, Alan and I the luxury of a nice
brew up at side of stage whilst on tour.
You can never have too much tea. Tough
tittie Niall and Ron...get the kettle on
G.C. Dear Boy"!
This
was one of those special moments, like
"Blood and Roses", between Ron and my self
were Ron played a chord and I played a
tune and the song just wrote itself in
about 15 mins. Done...
In
four minutes and two seconds, Niall and I
simultaneously brought this piece into
existence. Not a note, chord or sound has
been altered from the original
performance. Cool, eh?
Some
would say, my best drum part
EVER!
I
tasked the band to write these comments
and they did so without reference to each
other whilst doing it. So it took either
15 or 4 minutes to write but definitely
shows of Colin to his best, tee hee!
Simple track, simple artwork, sorted
! Mr Wolfe
I love
this. Dark, violent and distinctly nasty.
It's a bit more spiky than our usual fare,
but perhaps a taste of other things to
come. Lyrically it's a tale of the
invisible men who seem to run the world -
not always with our best interests at
heart..
Now Mr
Wolfe is not a nice chap massively wealthy
,a ruthless gambler who plays with people
as chips. Are you a lamb or a wolf? This
was Ron's other main piece for the album.
He wrote that wonderful piano line on the
intro..love the menacing feel. Of course I
couldnt resist the challenge of using it
as a bass line....."Fool of a Took!!!"
Rule no 2. Dont adapt keyboard sequences
as bass parts!! The fingers on my left
hand now have muscles like Popeyes arms.
In the studio I could record the song in
segments but live...Oh Jooly dee ..lets
wait and see. I love the imagery of the
lyric, and am very pleased with a rather
hooky chorus. Look out for the "Shepherds
Pie" remix of this on the bonus disk. It
kicks Ass.!
I love
this. Dark, violent and distinctly nasty.
It’s another one of Ron's tunes. I will
look forward to seeing Graeme doing this
live...!!! I really enjoyed doing the
guitar solo. It’s really quite different
for me and sounds a bit
punk.
This
is my other main contribution. It started
life with the working title ‘The Silent
Witness’. I’d like to think I wasn’t
influenced at all by Muse, but I’d only
just recently begun my love affair with
their music. I think I prefer the less
‘gothic’ version on the second disk – its
a little closer to where I hoped it would
end up.
Kind
of a bit like Muse, quite a modern thing
for us......... Straight forward basic
rock drum part, kicking arse. Lots of tom
fills locked into the keyboard and Bass
parts!
What's
the time !.
Invincible
"I am
not a number - I am a free man" was the
phrase from the 60's TV show "The
Prisoner", and that pretty much sums up
what this is about. It's the story of an
attempt at rebellion from the day-to-day
grind of modern life, where it seems
everyone else has power over you and
freewill is increasingly limited. This is
not the life you would have chosen for
yourself. Why should you put up with it?
This is one of those places that it seemed
right and proper to use more of Graeme's
voice. It's one of the unusual strengths
we have as a band that we effectively have
two vocalists at our disposal. The mid and
end sections really leant themselves to
Graeme's voice, so we went with
it.
Niall
has little black book with his poems in.
Most are very strange! (Dont go there) I
was looking for inspiration for subject
matter for Invincible,and one line leapt
out at me, "it's my life and you cant have
it!" This rang a bell for me.I knew
exactly where that was coming from. I was
a big fan of 1984, a great visionary book.
I have felt like I have been living on
Airstrip One for quite a few years now.
CCTV everywhere, more and more laws, less
freedom of expression ,out of control
political correctness, A NANNY STATE. Big
Brother s cheesy grin, spin, spin , lies
and spin , Live to work. I think you get
the feel.
Lyrically this is an homage to 1984. The dream is of TRUE LOVE. It can get you thro' anything!! I had hit on the great hammer sound when messing on the keyboard. The intro chords followed. I was looking for an relentless industrial feel. Please excuse the ham acting for "the eater of souls" vocal. Gave us all a laugh in the studio. Great powerhouse drums from my "thunder brother" Much band jamming to develop the music. Nice example on the bonus disk as to how little musical ideas can grow into big themes. I had a very sweet melody sequence on my computer which we dismantled and turned into a Big PALLAS finish for the end section of this track. A BIG FAVOURITE.
I
remember showing Graeme a lyric that I had
written and I think that may have
influenced the direction of this
track.
Another
track chiefly born out of jamming –
although credit must go to Graeme for
planting many of the seeds, and for his
very personal lyric.
Intro
section is very staccato, moving into a
fluid drum part that rolls along like a
train. Middle section comes right down
with moody drum and bass part. We wrote
this to be really tight and powerful, yet
sparse. This moves into a big tom rhythm
with BIG toms then back into a verse with
a more syncopated drum pattern which is
subtly different from the earlier verses.
The End section in 3/4 is one of my
favourite bits of the album and strangely
was one of the most difficult for me to
come up with a drum part for. It needed to
really build the track and I am really
happy with the resulting part and drum
sound!
In
grandiose style on the special edition
we've split the lyrics into four chapters
across two pages with two seperate sets of
artwork. The first one with the hands
grasping a rope underwater and insets of
drowning business men with a mysterious
angel is hopefully figurative to the
lyrics, the second one is my tipped hat to
the work of Storm Thorgesen with a
businessmen breaking free and flying, Mary
Poppins-like to a higher plane.
I have to admit that as many times I have heard this track I still get a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes during the end section, another pull the car over and stop driving moment, with the mother of all inspirational rising chord sequences and glacial soaring guitar this is probably the BIGGEST Pallas Big Ending ever..... unless.......... press the 'next' button!
The Last Angel
What
can I say? I think this is the best track
we've ever done. I love the intimacy of
the opening vocal section, and I think
it's the best singing I've ever done on
record. Bizarrely it didn't take me too
long to do. I'd been singing all day and
we'd gone off to get some dinner. I was
pretty knackered and I'd thought we'd just
listen to it a few times so I could get a
feel for it before I tried recording the
next day. But it was late evening, and I
thought I'd try and get a version down
anyway, and before we knew it we had "THE"
take in the can. The vibe was just right.
The "God only knows" line still sends a
shiver down my spine every time I hear it.
The final section had only been roughly
marked out when I put down my vocal, so
imagine my surprise when I heard the final
mix. Pandy's vocal is just breathtaking.
Takes the band to a whole new place.
Magical. 
Now
some songs almost seem to write
themselves, (see Messiah,
Ghostdancers)...and then there are those
who's birth is...traumatic. This was
traumatic! I had played the guys a demo
idea which had numerous elements of the
finished song over a year ago. We had the
concept of the lyric, tho' not the
finished item, and knew that we wanted to
use a female operatic voice in the track.
The song sat part finished for a loooong
time. There was talk of ditching it and
saving it for later, as it seemed to have
stalled. There have been numerous
developemental directions but in the end
Niall and I stripped it bare and went
minimalist on the first half so as to
really feature Alans vocal. With time
running out and no BIG end
section(mandatory), desperate measures
were called for, so Colin, Niall and I
sallied forth into the Live Room and
jammed an ending which you can now hear on
the album. Pandy came along and worked
very hard on our melody and Italian lyrics
(Thanks to Italian fan Daniele Castrecane
for helping me with translation) and
contributed a phenomenal Diva performance.
I am so glad we persevered with this
because I don't think I've ever heard
anything like this before, by any band
ever. It is so difficult to do anything
truly original these days but, you know, I
think we've done it
here!
I
would love to say that we wrote this one
as we were eating breakfast one morning
but in all honesty it took along time to
evolve. Pandy's vocals were great fun to
do but trying to get them balanced with
Armageddon in the background was more
fun.
Again,
this was created in my absence – all I
remember was a rough computer sketch that
is now barely recognisable in the
completed piece. This track is a
remarkable achievement, and I would have
loved to have been involved with it (its
right up my alley!
Another
marathon track with multi parts to it. The
drum part becomes interesting as the
operatic voice is introduced. I am playing
a syncopated rhythm around the cymbals
with both hands, which then is pushed
along by a driving kick drum, I then turn
this into a very syncopated rhythm that
straightens out into a real pushing rock
part which drives the song along. We then
decided that I should let myself go at the
key change or "outro" part of the song. So
I open out a bit to the fade out. The
album was a long toil, but hopefully
worthwhile. I think it is the best one yet
for playing and musicality. Time to
gig........ 
Probably
the longest gestation period of any track
the band have done, the initial
inspiration came very early in the writing
period, its sketch was programmed and
forgotten about, well they forgot to work
on it, and many times I asked how it was
getting on and got a non committal
response. In fact I got as far as saying
the album would be ok without it... (what
a fool!)
Suddenly, as if by magic, a few nights of concentrated effort saw the ending fall into shape and a passing opera singer, you'd by surprised who just passes by the studio, got roped into the act. Et voila! Another tear shedding moment to add to the Pallas canon! Which is just as well as I'd selected the gorgeous angelesque image a year before the track was finally completed.
As Ronnie returned after the main disc went to press but before the bonus disc was complied he had a chance to tinkle the ivories with a remix version! Oh and we sincerely hope that the committee that was involved with the Italian translation got it right!