Prog4You.com - Band Interview

Prog4you: Hi Gary & Mike, welcome to prog4you.com.

Gary: Hello.

Mike: Hi.

Prog4you: We had the honor to hear the new CD Legacy. We think it is probably one of the best albums of the year.

Gary: Thanks.

Mike: Thank you.

Prog4you: So where are you guys from?

Gary: I’m from North Jersey originally. I have been living in PA since 1986. I think everyone else in the band, except for Brendt, are all from PA.

Mike: I was born in Allentown and have been around this area my whole life. Brendt is originally from Texas. Joe, the drummer, is from New Jersey.

Prog4you: So how did the group form?

Mike: Back in the early 80’s we had a band called Sorcerer. We played heavy metal back then. We did covers and some original work. We played Iron Maiden, and the likes of others. From that point, we started recording some demos. One of them got sent over to shrapnel records.

Prog4you: So what was the time frame when this all happened?

Mike: Basically mid 80’s. Then in 1989-1990 we started to get some feed back from record labels.

Prog4you: Mike, were you singing leads back then?

Mike: Oh yeah.

Prog4you: Gary, when did you hook up with Mike and his group?

Gary: I hooked up with Shadow Gallery in 1993. They had already put out their debut album the year before. I was playing around the Pocono area and having a hard time finding the right people to play with. I played in a lot of different bands. They were good players but they were mostly young and irresponsible people. I finally decided I wanted to do all originals. I almost moved to Los Angeles and quit music all together but then I heard of the band Shadow Gallery.

Prog4you: Bet your glad you didn’t move to La.

Gary: Yeah, I guess I am. It was during a big snowstorm when I got a call from someone looking for me to play with Shadow Gallery. It took me like three weeks to track down all the calls, eventually it lead me to Shadow Gallery. I finally met the band. Everyone in the band was pretty cool, except for Mike.

Prog4you: So, Mike was the only one you didn’t care for?

Gary: I still don’t, (all laugh). I think it was April of 1993. The group was just looking for someone who plays guitars and keyboards and tour Japan. I had just gotten off the road about 6 months before that with a different band. I thought great! I want to get back out there again.

Prog4you: So Shadow Gallery already had its name?

Gary: The group was already established. The band was already writing a few tracks for the next album.

Prog4you: So currently are you writing all the music now?

Gary: Not by intent, it’s just the way it’s ended up for now.

Mike: Basically that’s a yes.

Gary: I had written most of the music for Legacy.

Mike: He also wrote a lot on Tyranny as well.

Gary: I think Tyranny was well rounded; everybody in the band is a writer. Sometimes it’s hard for everyone to get everything they want in there.

Prog4you: I liked every album especially Tyranny. I don’t think Tyranny got the recognition it rightfully deserved. Personally, it’s one of my favorite albums.

Gary: Thank you.

Prog4you: I noticed Carl and Colleen Cadden- James designed the album cover on legacy. Where did they come up with the idea for the lighthouse?

Gary: I think it stems from a lyric from Destination Unknown. But it’s more what a lighthouse represents in its hope. There are a lot of things you can interpret from it.

Prog4you: Who plays primary keyboards in the band?

Gary: Well that depends on which record you’re asking about

Prog4you: Legacy?

Gary: That would be me, but Chris has had a tremendous role throughout all of the records.

Prog4you: Great sound, all the tones are almost perfect.

Gary: Thank you, our recipe was basically to have fun with it.

Prog4you: We share the same common goal.

Gary: That hasn’t been our logo in the past. Shadows Gallery’s logo has been let’s make the best record ever made. This time around, we decided we couldn’t do that anymore. We have to just write some songs and record them.

Prog4you: Touching base on Legacy, was there a concept on this album or did you do every song separately?

Gary: Well we approached it all separately; the fact is, we decided not to make a concept record. However, a couple of the songs are continuations of other songs. Society Of The Mind really can be a continuation on a lot of thoughts that were pointed out in Tyranny. Not really a song-Time-line continuation, as much as it is an idea of provoking thoughts.

Prog4you: Ok, so Gary writes the music and Mike writes the lyrics?

Gary: Well, Carl has been the biggest part of the lyrics throughout all of the records. Mike has got a couple of songs in this one. He started out and did lyrics for a few songs and Mike and I worked together on some of those. In order I would say Carl first, then Mike and myself.

Prog4you: As far as Society Of The Mind, is that a political song or just the way things are looking today in our society?

Mike: I really don’t like to comment on too much of those kinds of things. We like to let the listeners take what they can from the lyrics.

Prog4you: Ok.

Mike: It definitely has a theme of big brother is watching.

Prog4you: That’s what I thought, like government control.

Mike: Exactly.

Gary: You also have that on Tyranny. It had many layers of what you could look for in a story line. Some were religious and spiritual, some were political, and some were just a simple story of good versus evil.

Prog4you: I like the religious messages you have in you’re music.

Gary: Yes, we still try to keep all those at the same time without being too forceful on anyone.

Mike: Carl based the lyrics to that song based on a book actually called Society Of The Mind.

Prog4you: Colors. Is that considered a song about hope, or a song of love?

Mike: Both.

Gary: The song actually changed lyrically a bunch of times. I think it’s mostly about hope; you can summarize this whole album about a different sense of hope. Tyranny is about hope as well, but from a different perspective. Legacy is from a more secure perspective of hope.

Prog4you: Not trying to get political on you. Is the group somewhat Christian?

Mike: Yes it is.

Gary: You could say that.

Prog4you: Christian progressive?

Mike: I wouldn’t go that far, as to putting a label on it. We don’t label ourselves as a Christian progressive rock band or anything like that. I think you could find our belief within the lyrics of the music without having to label ourselves.

Prog4you: I think that’s great. More bands should do that. For instance, you’re last song on Legacy, it takes me somewhere else; it makes me think about life. This is what I like about your music, it’s not just music but song writing that goes with it.

Gary: Right, we always try to believe that it should be a good marriage between the music and the lyrics. They have to work together.

Prog4you: Well we happen to think that you nailed it.

Mike: Thanks, I guess were doing okay.

Gary: It’s up to the listeners to decide what they get out of it.

Gary: You were saying First Light. Where it takes you. It definitely is perspective, no matter what the situation even if it’s kind of a little bit of a fairy tail. First Light kind of gets off a little bit into reality versus not reality. Still in the end, it’s a matter of where your perspective is. There are two sides to Legacy; one is what is passed on to you and the legacy you get and the legacy you pass onto others.

Prog4you: Your music has a sound of seventies progressive rock. I hear Kansas and some Yes, that’s from the instrumental parts of it.

Mike: Especially First Light. Bands like that are our influences. We all grew up with a lot of that stuff playing our albums on our record players.

Gary: Yeah, we grew up with it. It’s kind of a natural part of us. There are so many influences in our band; each different member has so many different contributions they bring to the table. When we make an album, we try to incorporate all those elements together to create our own kind of sound.

Prog4you: Who were your musical influences?

Gary: Yes, Kansas, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Queen, and Rush.

Mike: I was a little bit more on the harder stuff; Alice Cooper was my biggest influence, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath.

Prog4you: By the same token, you guys are forging your own sound. You can pick up a Shadow Gallery CD, play it and you always know that’s Shadow Gallery. Other then Spock’s Beard you guys are doing the best harmonies right now.

Gary: Yeah It’s carried within our own style. I think it’s always been important to us individually. I think if we were all in separate bands, you would have five different bands that would be all doing big harmony things. That’s what I always wanted and what I’ve always liked most. Hearing things like Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody like going over the top with vocals. So we definitely try to do that, and if we had another month to record, there would probably be 500 more vocal parts. It’s good we have deadlines because at least we know when to quit.

Mike: We like the big backup vocals, that big full sound.

Prog4you: First Light. Where did you get the idea of doing 34 min. of music?

Gary: I guess I can see it from your point of view, you’re seeing the final product, it’s like wow look at all this. Mike and I put that song together from the ground up. Basically that was right after we were done with Tyranny. We were going through a not so inspired period where we were trying to generate some ideas. I was not completely satisfied musically with what I was coming up with. So I gave Mike a five-minute song and he would write some words for it. Then Mike would capture a part of it I would say oh man, you really brought that to life. All of a sudden there would be a two-minute section that I really thought was great. I listen to the rest of the song and I would say this is so mediocre but those two minutes are great. This seems to happen over and over, each week he would come here. I probably really pissed Mike off a lot because I would say I like that part but I don’t like the rest. It wasn’t even so much what he was doing as it was what I had originally given him wasn’t so inspiring. So eventually we said let’s not write mediocre stuff, let’s take the best part of this song, let’s take 30 seconds of this, three minutes of that and let’s make a song that has all parts that we like. That’s what First Light is.

Mike: Kind of like a big melting pot of our best parts of our demo tapes.

Gary: Yeah when I hear that song I still think oh there’s that song, oh there’s that one. It’s like 30 songs put together but only the best parts. At that point we went back and rewrote the lyrics to be more cohesive. We got Carl involved to kind of tie it all together. To me, it’s the success of all our failures.

Prog4you: The guitar work on First Light is incredible.

Mike: I agree.

Prog4you: This is your fourth recording. How long did it take you between albums to get the recording out?

Mike: It took us about two and a half years.

Gary: It’s not that we were sitting around for 2 ½ years. Mike and I got a couple of the songs rolling, and the first ones we worked on became First Light. The next song we worked on became Colors.

Prog4you: Is there any particular song off Legacy that really gets you guys rocking?

Mike: Colors is a personal favorite and First Light of course.

Prog4you: Is that the one that makes you guys feel good?

Mike: Yes. A feeling of accomplishment, it was an epic song.

Gary: First Light is the one that makes me feel proud. That took the most work to get that song together.

Gary: It wouldn’t be what it is without the rest of the group.

Prog4you: I love Colors.

Gary: Thanks. That song was very inspirational to me.

Prog4you: It almost feels like a love song.

Gary: When it first started, Mike and I worked on that one together the whole time. I’ll tell you that was definitely the most inspiring moment for me on the record. I went down to my basement studio, not knowing that I was going to record a song. I had other things to work on. My acoustic guitar just happened to be on the couch that day. I picked it up; I popped in a blank tape and hit record. The entire song as you hear it, start to end, is recorded first time through. So it’s just one of those moments where I didn’t write a song. I didn’t have an idea. I just played whatever came into my head. I didn’t know it would be Shadow Gallery. Mike put some good vocals into it. I thought this could be Shadow Gallery.

Prog4you: Wow that’s amazing. The genius of Gary shows through on Colors.

Gary: From a personal perspective, I would say some of the lyrics on a small part are kind of a love song. It’s kind of like the song Don’t Ever Cry Just Remember on Carved In Stone. That has two different meanings. You can take it a couple of different ways spiritually because it’s definitely spiritual.

Mike: I always think those are the best songs. Those have the best staying power. You can find a different meaning within the same song within the lyrics.

Prog4you: Colors has the feel of a radio friendly song. Not to say that its pop. It deserves to be on the radio, because it is rich and beautiful.

Mike: That would be nice, we are trying.

Gary: We didn’t set out to make it radio friendly and actually I think it’s too long, I agree it’s definitely more commercial sounding.

Prog4you: It just deserves to be heard. Anyone who loves music, not just a prog head would love it.

Mike: We feel that if people would just give it a chance they would love it.

Prog4you: I wish people would give this music a chance, they don’t know what their missing. That’s our job. We are trying to turn people on to it. Prog4you stands for trying to spread the word.

Mike: We appreciate that.

Prog4you: We’re going to do our best.
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Mike: Were going to do our best too, making the good music.

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