A Splash OF COLOUR

It’s been two solo albums in less than two years for guitarist Lee Abraham, and now he’s rejoined his old group Galahad. Prog finds out what makes the prolific player tick.

Life is good for Lee Abraham right now. The musician has just released his sixth solo album Colours, and he’s also rejoined old bandmates Galahad, with the group preparing to release a new record too. It’s something of a two-pronged attack on the prog world by the hard-working Englishman.

“Galahad will shift more units than I will, but that’s a fact of life,” the axeman smiles when asked if there will be any healthy competition between the two projects.

His admission might be a little bit pessimistic, however, with Colours proving a more accessible affair than Abraham’s previous five efforts as it channels a more mainstream sound.

“It’s a bit different from what I’ve done before,” he says. “I’ve got a bit of a mutual love of prog and AOR rock, so it’s kind of a mix of the two. We just have to wait and see what people make of it, but at the end of the day, I just followed what I was writing. I didn’t have to force it in any way, and it’s the material that came out.”

What did come out was seven impressive tracks which feel succinct and concise, with only one song – album closer The Mirror Falls – breaking that hallowed 10-minute mark.

He cites nods to the likes of Toto and Asia but there are still a few hardened prog chops amid all the melody – although you might have to dig a bit deeper to unearth them.

Abraham has enlisted the likes of FM’s Steve Overland, Gary Chandler and Dec Burke to provide vocals, keeping up his penchant for recruiting guests, and the result is a fine selection box of singers.

Completing the core line-up is drummer Gerald Mulligan, Rob Arnold on piano and Alistair Begg on bass, with Abraham on guitar and keys duty.

“Using Steve Overland was a massive, massive deal for me,” he says. “I’ve been a huge FM fan ever since I was a teenager, and I’ve always wanted to work with Steve. I think when I was interviewed last for Prog magazine for the last album, the interviewer signed off by saying, ‘Who would you like to work with in the future?’ I actually said Steve Overland, so I managed to achieve it for this album. I think I mentioned Steve and John Petrucci from Dream Theater, so you never know, I might get John Petrucci next time…”

Abraham’s first album, Pictures In The

Hall, was released in 2003, but his desire to seek feedback from those in the industry – specifically Martin Orford from IQ – ultimately saw him phase out his own vocals.

“When I sent Martin the finished copy of [2004’s A View From The Bridge], he sent me back this email that said, ‘Your songwriting is really coming on. But there’s a couple of things: you need to work on your production skills, and you’re certainly no lead singer.’”

While some musicians may have been derailed by such curt feedback, Abraham took it with typically good grace.

Around the same time he joined Dorset prog rockers Galahad on bass and he used the band’s Empires Never Last recording session with Karl Groom to pick up on Pro Tools production tips, casting an eagle eye over the Threshold man at work.

“I was able to sit next to him for the 40-odd days we spent recording that album,” Abraham recalls. “That gave me the production angle. As for the singing, I thought, ‘Well, I could either take some singing lessons, or I could get people in who would probably do it more justice.’

So I decided to go for the second route.

“I’m a great believer in making the music the best it can be. If that means getting other people to do bits… I can’t play drums to save my life, so I get a friend of mine in to do it.

“I can play bass and a bit of guitar, so I’m okay with those two bits – but piano, I’m no good, and it’s the same with vocals. I can just about get away with backing vocals. There are backing vocals all over my albums from me, but when it comes to lead, I usually shy away.

“It’s not a vanity project for me. I really do want the music to speak for itself and be the best that it can be.”

Abraham rejoined Galahad earlier this year – this time taking up a guitar role – after calling it quits in 2009 following four years in the band.

He was suggested to the band for their vacant guitarist slot by Groom, who was impressed by Abraham’s solo CV and the way he honed his skills over the years.

It was an ill-fated tour of Poland that previously saw the multiinstrumentalist leave Galahad after a perfect storm of problems, with it all coming to a head when the band returned to the UK. “We had done some dates in

Poland, and I’d been ill while we were out there, so I’d not enjoyed it. My wife wasn’t very well either – she had a heart condition which she was awaiting surgery for at that time, so I was worried about her as well,” he says.

“I’ve got a bit of a mutual love of prog and AOR rock, so it’s kind of a mix of the two.”

“I probably wasn’t particularly nice to my band members whenever small things went wrong, as they invariably do when you’re on tour,” he says. “We’d gone away for a week to do these five dates, and I just felt really rough about the whole thing. I came home, discussed it with my wife and a few friends, and I just thought I’d probably had enough of doing that.”

Abraham admits he didn’t speak to his bandmates for a “long time” as both parties delved into their own projects – but it was after a moment of tragedy that he began to reconnect with his Galahad comrades.

“The guy who came in to replace me was a previous bass player called Neil Pepper, and he sadly died in 2011, I think it was – he had cancer. I sent the guys a message just saying that I was really sorry to hear about Neil.

“That kind of healed a few bridges, and I started chatting to Stu [Nicholson] the lead singer now and again. In 2014 I played guitar for Cosmograf and he was invited to do Celebr8 festival in Islington, and Galahad were also on the bill, so I met up with the guys then for the first time in five years. It was like those five years never happened.”

It feels Abraham has come a long way since picking up his first bass guitar as an

Iron Maiden-loving teenager. He was later given an old acoustic guitar – “I remember taking it to school and getting somebody to tune it for me” – before he sourced an electric and never looked back, with pub gigs slowly leading to prog.

“I’d always listened to bands like Queensrÿche,” he says. “I liked bands like Marillion as well. I was in a covers band in the late 90s and we had a drummer join us. He kept mentioning this band Dream Theater, and he lent me Images And Words, which was maybe three or four years old at that time. I was just blown away by it. ‘Wow, this stuff is brilliant – it’s really heavy rock but it’s got really complex structures.’

“I had a few albums by people like Genesis and Yes in my record collection that I’d kind of acquired over the years, but I was a great one for listening to an album maybe once or twice and then never listening to them again, because I tried to listen to so much stuff. I remember going back through all my CDs, thinking, ‘Well actually, I’ve got some Genesis albums here, let’s revisit them.’ It was around that time that I’d finished with a particularly busy covers band and I started to write some fairly long and complex tracks, and found myself really enjoying it.”

And to the future. Abraham will have little time to twiddle his thumbs in 2018 as Galahad release their latest record Seas Of Change and promote it on the road around the globe – including a return to Poland.

But it’s safe to assume that the musician will keep chipping away at his solo career too – when he can – and will keep trying to improve. It’s a constant cycle of seeking perfection, and making the best music he can.

“Some people are good at songwriting, some people are good at playing guitar, some people are good at being the producer, some people are good at being the mix engineer,” he says.

“On this album, I’ve had to do all of that.

It’s through my own choice. I’m no good at singing or playing drums, but I’d like to think that in terms of playing the guitar and doing the production, those are the bits that I really, really do enjoy. I’ll make sure I’ll get better and better at it.”

Colours is out now via F2 Music. For more information, see www.leeabraham.co.uk.

“Galahad will shift more units than I will, but that’s a fact of life.”