Lee Abraham Dishes on the Making of “Harmony/Synchronicity” and a Surprise
A little breaking news popped up during an interview about the latest Lee Abraham release.
In the fall of 2020, British multi-instrumentalist/songwriter (and Galahad guitarist) Lee Abraham continued a prolific period in his music career, releasing his eighth album, Harmony/Synchronicity. I was still kind of digesting his progressive concept piece Comatose, so I’ll admit that this release escaped my notice for several weeks.
As my “to-listen” pile never seems to shrink — one of the primary reasons I stopped doing my Epic Prog radio show in 2014 — it took a while to get more than just one or two initial listens, but I finally had time to dive into it more fully in recent weeks. What I found was a nice listen that strays from the prog leanings of Comatose into another of his musical loves, album-oriented rock.
That’s not to say there aren’t moments of proggy goodness on Harmony/Synchronicity. After all, there’s a 12-minute epic centerpiece on the album and it’s laden with tasty guitar solos and keyboard bits. But it’s a simpler album, easier to digest, and allows Abraham to follow his muse and indulge his passions.
I caught up with Lee to ask him about the process of making the album and ended up near the end of the interview getting some breaking news, so we’ll start with that.
Abraham will be releasing another album this year — likely in September.
“It's all done, it's all written. Outside the record company, and my wife and Mully (drummer Gerald Mulligan), You're the first person to know,” Abraham said.
And now you, faithful Michael’s Record Collection readers, know as well.
“So, it's mostly recorded now, actually. Mully’s just got to do the drums on two more songs I think,” he said. “And then, of course, I’ve got to think about singers. I haven't thought about singers yet. So, we're at that stage where we've done all the music, you know, all the drums and the bass and the guitars and the keys are all done. I’ve got a pretty good idea of who I want to work with again. It will be mainly singers who were on Harmony/Synchronicity actually, so as long as they all say yes, of course.”
Speaking of Abraham’s 2020 release on F2 Records, Harmony/Synchronicity came about as a way to stay busy during the pandemic lockdown. Abraham had been planning a festival date to support Comatose, but COVID-19 put a stop to not only that but also his local live gigging.
“I thought, well, the only thing to do is to write another album, but I did think that it was a bit quick because I'd only done Comatose, literally, six months before,” he said. “I thought, well, all I can do is just write something, and see what happens. You know, the usual kind of thing that you do when you embark on these mad projects.”
What happened was an incredible burst of productivity. Cooped up in his home studio, Abraham wrote the entire album in a matter of weeks with much of the lyrical content based on the pandemic and the situation going on in the world during lockdown.
“I wrote over an album’s worth of material in about eight weeks, which is unheard of for me,” Abraham said. “Normally, I never normally work that quickly. I recorded Black and White, which was back in 2009. It took me ages and ages and ages to write that album — so much so, I never thought that one was going to end up being written. Probably took about two years to write that out. But, yeah, this one just kind of materialized over about eight weeks or so, and it was literally due to the fact that there was nothing to do.”
Writing turned into recording and the whole thing came together rather quickly. Abraham plays all keyboards, bass, acoustic and electric guitars on the album. Everything the listener hears is Abraham with the exceptions of Mulligan’s drumming and, notably, the lead vocals. Although Abraham sang on some of his earlier albums, he prefers to turn to guests to bring his lyrics to life.
“I just don't think my voice is very interesting or nice to listen to, really,” he sheepishly (and too humbly) says.
Five vocalists provide the leads on the seven tracks (one instrumental and six with vocals). Abraham tapped Galahad bandmates Stuart Nicholson and Mark Spencer, as well as Peter Jones (Tiger Moth Tales), Marc Atkinson (Riversea, Moon Halo), and Simon Godfrey (Shineback, Tinyfish) to sing lead on the album.
If that seems like a lot of voices to put on one record, it’s only because Abraham keeps in mind the voice that he wants on each one.
“When I write the song and the melodies, I've pretty much got a singer in mind,” he said.
Nicholson takes the lead on opening track, “The World is Falling Down,” but Galahad fans will notice that his delivery isn’t as theatrical or dramatic as one would find on his own band’s songs. Abraham said he thought Nicholson opted to faithfully follow the style of his own demo vocals rather than put his own spin on them. Lee added that Nicholson also had never self-recorded at his home before, which presented a new challenge to overcome during the recording process.
“So, he set himself up with a Pro Tools recording system. And it was more or less the first time that he'd used it alone,” Abraham said. “He’d always had other people around him when he'd recorded before, whether it be, you know, Karl Groom at the studio to record him for the albums or, you know, even Dean (Baker) the keyboard player from Galahad. He would go around to Stu’s house if they wanted to record stuff at Stu’s house before.”
They got it sorted out and Nicholson deliverd a side of his vocals I’d never heard before. “The World is Falling Down” opens with a driving heavy rock bass line with keyboard washes before a main riff arrives. Then comes a wicked guitar solo. It opens the album in a big way.
“I had a particularly bad day, I think, when I wrote ‘The World is Falling Down,’” he said. “Since lockdowns, have become a keen cyclist. So, I'm out on my bike quite a lot. And, and I’d just come back from somewhere and I think I'd seen something that I didn't quite like. You know, sometimes you see people behaving in a stupid way and you shouldn't be doing that. And I came upstairs and wrote the lyrics for the world is falling down almost instantly.”
The second track, “Stay,” is a ballad-y piece that features a wonderful lead vocal by Jones. Abraham said it nearly didn’t make the cut but ended up being the track he likes best.
“When I wrote ‘Stay,’ I thought I thought, that’s a bit weak. That doesn't sound very good,” he said. “I sent it to Mully to do the drums and said to him, ‘Let me know what you think of this song because I'm not sure it's gonna go on the album.’ And he rang me up, and he said, ‘I'm going to use my concert tom kit for this song. Because I want that (Phil) Collins gated tom sound and snare sound. He said that because it's just so Genesis this song, it's gotta have that sort of drum sound.
“And he said, ‘When you mix it, you've got to mix it in the same way that Collins and (producer) Hugh Padgham would have done — the whole gated reverb thing.’ So, once Mully had recorded his drum takes, sent them through and I'd done the mix that we both liked; and then, of course, Peter Jones done his fantastic vocal over the top, I just thought, ‘You know what? For a song that almost ended up in the trash bin, this is probably my favorite on the album.’”
“Hearing the Call” is the album’s progressive centerpiece. At just under 12 minutes long, the epic features an opening keyboard wash, and a mid-tempo rock beat with cool 80s-style keyboard leads. Spencer provides lead vocals. It’s got a fast-paced, frenetic middle section that gives way to a lovely acoustic riff, which leads back into the original rhythm and then Abraham provides a tasty electric guitar solo over it. Another verse ensues, leading up to a soaring conclusion.
The epic piece grew out of Abraham’s irritation with people’s complaints about the government’s handling of things.
“That's very much about, you know, the fact that there's lots of people who are willing to give their opinions about how things are going,” he said. “And, you know, lots of armchair critics, you know, they're just willing to sit at home and just spout on Facebook about the government's doing this wrong, the government's doing that wrong.
“Sometimes I just think, ‘Hang on a minute. If they're getting it so wrong, and you think you could get it so right, why don't you have a go at actually standing for office, and going in there and sorting it out?’ Just don't sit around and complain about it. If there's a calling here for you, go out and answer it.”
Abraham channels his inner Steven Wilson on the Porcupine Tree-esque instrumental “Misguided, Pt. 2.” A companion piece to “Misguided” from his Distant Days album, Part 2 is a chance for Lee to wear one of his influences on his sleeve. It’s inspired by the non-album track “Mother and Child Divided.”
Atkinson takes the lead on vocals for the next two tracks, “Never Say Never” and “Rise Again.” The former song sounds like it could have come from Abraham’s View from the Bridge album but also features a U2-ish guitar riff and a great solo. The latter is a bit slower tempo and features an acoustic opening, some keyboards reminiscent of “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and outstanding vocals. It’s the shortest song on the album at just 3:40.
Neither of “Never Say Never” or “Rise Again” are particularly prog-sounding, but both are fine songs in their own right. Abraham said he’d been listening to more straight-on rock music and that influence shows up in how the songs on the album turned out. He cited acts like Swedish AOR outfit Work of Art, W.E.T. featuring Jeff Scott Soto (Yngwie Malmsteen, Journey, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Sons of Apollo), and Lionville out of Italy.
The title track “Harmony/Synchronicity” closes the album, featuring Simon Godfrey on vocals. The highlight is an extended guitar solo — probably the best one on the record, which is saying something. The ending is big and hangs in the air, which was an intentional nod to the way Dream Theater — one of Abraham’s favorite bands — has ended several albums.
“As someone who creates albums, you always think about how the album starts and how it finishes. And I really like the way this album starts and finishes,” he said. “’Harmony/Synchronicity,’ which is the last track on the album, the song builds towards the end. You'll notice if you listen to it the last couple of choruses are getting bigger and bigger, and there's more orchestration going on, and it finishes on a chord that just kind of leaves it hanging. I'd like people to think of the end of ‘Harmony/Synchronicity’ when he got the end of that, that ended really well.”
Speaking of ending well, that’s probably a good place to end this ‘making of’ story, but if you’d like to hear/see the entire interview, which includes additional material like the equipment Lee used to record the album and other informational nuggets, you can watch it on my YouTube channel, here.
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