| The
Interview |
This interview originally took place in March of 2004,
and until now, at least to my knowledge, has never been published.
Right off the heals of the release of The Blinding Darkness
I was given the chance to speak to Pallas bassist Graeme Murray.
Since then, the band has gone on to play numerous festivals
and even released a more recent album, The Dreams of Men.
This interview offers a snapshot in time, especially since
at that point the band has just gotten back together. Now
after being put to sleep, this interview is yours to enjoy!!
-
Tommy "Hashman" Hash - 2006
Having a history that extends out for decades, that began
as early as 1974, Pallas' story is unlike, but yet relative
to many rock bands. Like any band, they struggled for almost
ten years until signing to EMI in 1983, then changed lineups,
and left the record company; but it is unlike any band where
they went on hiatus in the late 80's, which would begin the
time period for Pallas known as "the missing years," playing
the occasional gig/show, but yet failing to release any new
material. ***
It was not until the late 90's until a new release would
surface, titled "Bet the Drum," which would lead to a record
deal with Inside Out Records, who not only would release "The
Cross and the Crucible," the current live CD/DVD "The Blinding
Darkness," as well as reissuing their back catalog, that have
been out of print and unavailable to prog-rock fans for years,
finally giving them the well deserved exposure and the visibility
that goes beyond their EMI days.***
I had the chance to interview bassist Graeme Murray,
who had been with the band since their days under the name
Rainbow (later to change the name due to Ritchie Blackmore
taking the title) and has seen all the changes throughout,
all the way up to their current endeavors, which include a
spot on this years Nearfest and a new record that is currently
in the works.***
Tommy Hash: With a history going back all the way to 1974,
what types of changes in the bands evolution have you been
through or seen that have been significant?***
Graeme Murray: Well I suppose, you have to be reminded,
we kind of live a long way away from anything (referring to
Scotland), so we spent the first ten years of our career roaming
around Scotland, so it was quite a shock to us when we went
to London and played, which was a big thing for us, about
500 miles, which might be a drop in the ocean for some, but
for us, it was a real big thing, and that was quite interesting.
We just started to get places when punk happened here, so
are timing was impeccable. ***
I actually started off in a heavy metal band, which is
what I thought I would be doing forever until Rainbow, at
that time, asked me to join, and gave me a stack of albums
of bands that I have hardly heard of like Yes, Geneses, and
things like that, they said "listen to that, that's what we
are like," and it was just a musical eye opener and I really
never looked back from then.***
TH: When you guys sort of went "missing" in the 90's,
what changes did you guys go through during that time period,
what caused it?***
GM: Yeah, we did go missing; it was about thirteen years
we vanished. When we broke up from our major record deal (EMI),
I think we felt that we had been through the works a little
bit and I think there was a few of us that didn't listen to
music for a year after that, we "lost the plot" as they say,
in regards to what we were and where we fit in at that point,
and it took a little while to get back on our feet. I think
some of the cause for pressure was from EMI at the time, I
think we lost a bit of our artistic direction and slowly steered
towards commercial stuff and I don't think that was really
in our hearts, so after our break, we decided that were going
to write music that we wanted to write and we have never been
happier.***
TH: So with the trials and tribulations with EMI, and
the urge to create music on Pallas' own terms, was that the
basis with signing to Inside Out Records?***
GM: Well Inside Out actually approached us, we released
and album titled "Beat the Drum," which I always call the
"Tool in the Water" album, which was a collection of bits
and pieces of stuff we had done, stuff that had been sitting
on the shelf for a while as well as some new stuff; try them
out and see what was out there, because we really did not
have our finger on the pole at the time in regards into what
was happening in progressive rock, music wise. So we put together
this album, and Inside Out decide they like it and decided
to do something with it, and they also said at the time that
they would also like to re-release some of the albums we did
with EMI, such as "The Sentinel" and "The Wedge" so that's
fantastic.***
TH: That's really good seeing how your albums that in
the past have been hard to find are now being brought to the
masses and pinpointed to prog-rock fans.***
GM: They (Inside Out) are behind 100% of what they do.
It's quite interesting, I think I rearranged "The Sentinel"
album for the re-release, it was a lot of fun for me looking
back on that period, there is sort of a tendency once you
have finished and album and say "we have finished that one,
lets move on" and over time they tend to get a little bit
forgotten about, apart from what has been played live, but
after all those years, returning to it, you feel that is it
really good stuff, I was really quite pleased, creating a
bit of a smile. It was kind of inspirational, and some people
have said that (The Sentinel) is a landmark album, I don't
know if that is true or not, I just thought "we can do that
again, and we can do better than that" so we just feel more
positive and that we have matured as composers of music and
it's a really happy time for us.***
TH: When talking about playing live and current endeavors,
how did the new double live CD/DVD release "The Blinding Darkness"
come together?***
GM: (laughing loudly) It wasn't too bad actually, I would
have preferred to do over two or more shows, you know, but
it was an absolutely huge, huge, day for us. We started very
early and finished very, very late, as far as the actual recording
of it. The gig had a couple of technical hitches, we had to
stop and apologize, just once or twice, we had a couple of
power failures, but we just got on with it, and the audience
got bigger and bigger, the responses just went up, being very
fired up about it. Once that was done it was just a question
of doing the 5.1 surround mix, which was a lot of fun for
me, I had really never done that before and then doing the
actual editing and video, so it just took a little while,
once we got everything together. There wasn't a huge amount
of money spent, I recently got a hold of the new Rush DVD
(Rush in Rio) and obviously you can tell that lots of money
was spent on that project, watching the documentary reminded
me of us, because they are quite zany.***
TH: On the subject of the new record that you guys are
currently working on and 5.1 surround, with new technologies
such as SACD (Super Audio CD) and DVD-Audio, are you guys
planning to possibly mix and release this album on one of
those formats in 5.1 audio?***
GM: Well, we kind of talked about this at the beginning
and decided not to, but I'm thinking that maybe we should
discuss it again, we are not at the point where we need to
make the decision, but we will in the next couple of months,
but I'm wondering if that would be a good idea, so I can't
really give you a good answer at this point, but what kind
of got me thinking about it is that our music lends itself
to the 5.1 format, as more as an experience, with something
you can be more involved with, some elements with our music
we can do a lot of good things with it. I think with a standard
rock band, it sounds odd to hear guitars in the wrong place,
but I would be interesting in experimenting with it, we have
the facilities to do that, but for now, maybe.***
TH: You guys just played the Progeny Festival in London,
how was that?***
GM: It was fantastic, absolutely fantastic, we did not
have a very big slot, but I enjoyed myself so much and the
audience was just excellent.***
TH: So with that said, are you guys really anticipating
the Rotherham Rocks and Nearfest this year.***
GM: Oh for sure, with Nearfest, this is our first American
date, if you let us in of course (laughing). That is so exciting
for us, we have to play our pants off.***
TH: At this point where do you see progressive rock going
in the future, what are your thoughts?***
GM: I can only really talk about where I see us going,
but I would love to think that progressive rock is going to
get bigger and bigger because it really deserves it. One reason
we got back together again, as a band were not satisfied with
what we were hearing on television or radio and it was not
doing it for us, becoming a motivating factor, so we thought,
lets pick this back up and go with it and start writing music
that we want to hear again. The progressive rock thing is
getting quite big, I just hope it just keeps going without
too much silliness going along with it, I think that was one
of the reasons it started to fail in the early 80's because
of all the egos and money being thrown out all over the place.
I just hope that people keep their heads and keep producing
good music and not go completely nuts.***
TH: You can see this evolution within bands and the major
recording industry taking steps in totally different directions
from each other, in regards to artistic control, legal downloading,
retail price control, consolidation and so forth, what are
some of your thoughts on this, especially when it comes to
all the issues with downloading, to me it always seems like
the commercial music got hit more so than any underground
music, but granted, I'm sure it did take somewhat of a hit
one way or another. ***
GM: I think you are right about that, I suspect with the
commercial stuff it has to be different, the prog people seem
to be much more "collector" oriented as well as being great
fans of music, they want something that they can hold in their
hand, obviously we all have the internet, but I just don't
personally deal with it.***
TH: How have you seen technology evolve over the years
with Pro-Tools and other new "toys" that are making the rounds
in the industry?***
GM: Well I actually do a little part time job, where
I teach at a local college, and I teach on Pro-Tools, so the
job for me has not been too bad, I love it, use it and do
it, we use a lot of digital effects and processing, and if
I have not had a computer, I don't think that we could have
done the last album, just the way we work. The fact that (singer)
Allan (Reed) lives across the country from us, the internet
has helped with that with the sending and processing data
so the technology has been fantastic; with that said, regardless
of the fact that I use digital workstations and interfaces,
I still have analog equipment, stuff that I like to have and
use, I actually use and old analog mixer, using best of both
worlds. All of us use Macs and the same software, and fortunately
the rest of the band have me to help them out, with mastering
these things, it's easy for me because I actually run a recording
studio as well, so I am sort of in the thick of it, not to
mention the college work, so the rest of the members of the
band come to me for help.***
TH: So any last words?***
GM: Love You All!!***
TH: On behalf of Proggressiveland I thank you.***
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