Soundbite
Paul
The title means two things to me..
1. Escaping from the shadow of corporate enterprise, the shadow of say Canary Wharf and:-
2. In the shade of my favourite tree whilst in the Scottish mountains, away from all and at peace, a place where I can regroup and think.
I put my heart and soul into this album, it means so much to me and to have an opportunity to express ones inner most feelings is quite amazing and helped gain clarity in my direction in life. I feel that I have put to rest a lot of the conflict which I was feeling at the time of writing. I want to thank the guys in Pallas, Mike Bentley, my family friends and loved ones for helping me through a crazy time and thanks for proofing the album with me night after night, it was beautiful.
Pallas fans… I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making it possible, for making me feel at home, for hugging me and just loving something like the prog community with all that you have. I have learned so much about community and being active to support a cause, whatever it may be, and you were always in my thoughts as I put my lyrics together.
Niall
This started as a completely different song, called BIG CITY, as far as I remember. The original song was written several years ago and many attempts were made to make it work, but it always ended up back on the shelf.
I remember asking the other band members listen to a certain Norwegian Eurovision song entry that I liked very much and we came up with the intro based on the feel of that song.
I’m not very sure how much of the original BIG CITY song remains but it would be safe to say ‘not much’!
Graeme
It's funny because sometimes as a band we've come up with an idea that everyone initially has been very enthusiastic about and then the enthusiasm wanes and the song runs into difficulties and never gets finished. This is one of those songs.
I always really liked the original idea but we came back to it several times, but never got it finished,and I thought that it had been consigned to the bin. I'm delighted to see that this original idea call Big city finally made it onto a PALLAS album and I must see that it's one of my favourite tracks on the album.
I'm looking forward to playing it live it went down extremely well on a few gigs before concentrating on the album and it helped to fine tune the song before going into the studio.
I particularly love the outro of the song as it fades off into the distance.
Colin
Colin's comments coming soon.
Ronnie
Shadow of the sun was built, dismantled and re-built so many times! It started out as a guitar riff that had been around for some time, working title: Big City. As the track evolved, the Big City riff was gradually extricated, note by note, until it was altogether gone.
The process is similar to building a house, removing the walls and finding that the roof mysteriously stays up. (We often work this way).
The chorus has been attached to the song right from the start and has a really cool interplay between two major chords, a tone apart over a single pedalled note. The effect is uplifting, especially in the second four bars, when the bass part starts to climb with the chords. You could sing virtually anything over this and it would sound good, and Paul's lyric is particularly hooky and memorable.
Lyrics
And now no more fear
At last no more tears
The time has now come
Clear cut and run from here
Pretension has gone
It's time to go home
There is no confusion
There's no illusion
I'm going home
To the shadow of the sun
My dizzy head spins
In the shadow of a lie
My aspirations die
But the sparkle of the night
Takes my hand and leads me there
I am the shadow and the light
This new life will feed me
I need space to breathe
Where my soul won't grieve
I will reminisce
On my youthful bliss again
The sickness has gone
I'm moving on
Just one premonition
One lucid vision
I'm going home
To the shadow of the sun
My dizzy head spins
In the shadow of a lie
My aspirations die
But the sparkle of the night
Takes my hand and leads me there
I am the shadow and the light
This new life will feed me
From the shadows to the sun
My dizzy head spins
From the shadow of a lie
Aspirations rise
To the sparkle in the night
And in my heart I'll see you there
With a sparkle in my eyes
This new life will free me