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!