Reviews

“The album is fabulous. They have delivered big time. Absolutely top notch. I just loved it. It’s really really good. They make clever clever music and it’s just hugely enjoyable.”  Garry Foster, The Prog Rock Files

"A terrific album". Signals with Scott McArthur

Progressive Rock Central

"One of my favorite UK bands… It is the band’s ninth album, for a very wonderful and extensive discography.

“Parallel Lives,” will join its predecessors as another intricate masterpiece created by this under-appreciated band. They are masters of a modern sound for progressive rock."

Tracklist

1. My Blistering Mind 
2. The Mandatory Prize
3. Never Really Felt Like Home (instrumental) 
4. Smile, Smile, Smile 
5. Intermission (instrumental)
6. Parallel Lives
7. Eversion 
8. Pretty Blue Fox (instrumental)
9. Just Another Thing
10. Dropping The Mask (instrumental)
11. Just Hold On 

Album Notes

[This is a slightly expanded version of the album notes in the back of the CD booklet].

About a year and a half ago, around the time we were developing the tracks that became this album, I found out that I have a rare, incurable, neurodegenerative retinal disease that is causing progressive visual loss and distortion. I’ve previously had other medical problems (primarily related to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome that took my previous career from me), and I had thought I‘d found a way of coping with those while still managing to keep creatively active. I have developed a way of composing, where I write into my laptop while lying in bed, as unfortunately I need to spend most of my time lying down.  This new retinal diagnosis affected my mental health. I am aware that others have worse problems, and I don’t like to make a fuss, but it knocked my sense of my identity and future, and this fed into the music.

The album title refers to disconnection, both within ourselves, between our different or changing identities and social roles, and between each other. Many of the songs are sung from the perspective of characters who are experiencing situations that undermine their sense of self-identity. Some of the tracks are more directly personal, while others were influenced by science fiction stories that relate to these themes.

‘My Blistering Mind’ is sung from the perspective of someone struggling with mental health issues. [Where I mention ‘splintering’ in the song, I mean a mind that has painful, jagged edges, rather than intending to relate to schizophrenia or multiple-personality disorders]. Towards the end of the song, the lyrics reflect a desire to acknowledge these feelings, and to use them to drive something creative. I see this opening song as being a frame for the album. It says ‘take the fear and feel it, hold it... make it something you can use’, and is then followed by songs that hopefully make something positive out of feelings that weren’t necessarily pleasant.

‘The Mandatory Prize’ is sung from the perspective of an authority figure informing someone that they are obliged to play a role that they haven’t chosen, and that they are supposed to at least pretend that they are grateful. Via the influence of a Philip K Dick short story (‘The Exit Door Leads In), it is about social masking. I hope it might feel relevant to people who feel they have drifted into presenting a version of themselves that they don’t feel that they’ve chosen. The Philip K Dick story is about someone who wins a place at a college as a prize in a competition they didn't choose to enter. The ‘prize’ comes with compulsory enrolment into the military.

‘Never Really Felt Like Home’ is a melancholic instrumental, featuring Kathryn Thomas on flute, bass flute, and piccolo. Later in the track I join her on guitar. 

‘Smile, Smile, Smile’ was inspired by Philip K Dick’s novel ‘Flow My Tears The Policeman Said’. In the novel, the protagonist wakes up in a world where he is no longer one of the most famous people on the planet. He goes from being a highly privileged person in a police-state, to an undocumented person at risk of arrest and being sent to a forced labour camp. For me, this song is also about what happens to someone when the mask of their social role is taken away from them.  

After the claustrophobic intensity of ‘Smile, Smile, Smile’, ‘Intermission’ is a brief instrumental respite before the title track. This song is about the way we tend to drift apart, whether on an individual or societal level, without either side having deliberately decided to do so. Perhaps this is also true of the relationship between between different versions of ourselves. Kathryn joins me on vocals for this track.

'Eversion’, inspired by the Alastair Reynolds novel, also explores issues of masking and identity. A surgeon, Dr Coad, finds himself repeatedly living through similar experiences in different historical periods. I’m very grateful to Alastair for all his encouragement with our songs that relate to his writing. 

‘Pretty Blue Fox’ is an instrumental named after a game-playing group in Philip K Dick’s novel ‘The Game Players Of Titan’. 

‘Just Another Thing’ is from the perspective of someone who outwardly seems to cope with whatever life flings at them, but what is seen on the surface may not reflect what is going on inside. This song is was directly inspired by my recent retinal diagnosis. 

This is followed by the instrumental, ‘Dropping The Mask’.

The album ends with a song intended to be more hopeful - ‘Just Hold On (Pts 1 and 2)’. The song is intended to represent someone encouraging someone else, or perhaps themselves, that it’s not too late to try to embrace life. Many people don’t find life easy, many struggles are invisible, and sometimes just managing to hold on is an achievement worth celebrating. Thanks for taking the time to listen.

Malcolm, July 2026

Parallel Lives album

Copyright Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate / Glass Castle Recordings / Malcolm Galloway / Mark Gatland / Kathryn Thomas 2026

Recorded in Camden and South Woodford (London), Norfolk and The Wirral, UK.

Malcolm would like to thank Mark Gatland for all his support over many years.

Additional comments

Malcolm - Our last album (‘The Uncertainty Principle’) had a clear concept (relating to history and quantum physics in chronological order through the album). We had originally thought that this album wouldn’t have a theme or concept. In retrospect, although as is usual for us, the style of tracks varies widely, I think the thematic links between the tracks are stronger than we’d originally intended. Most of the tracks I think relate to the feeling of being isolated from your sense of self (whether due to mental or physical health problems, or to the parallel situations of the characters in the various associated stories).

Lyrics

My Blistering Mind

Jitter, jitter, can’t sit still
Can’t hold one thought at a time
Can’t start, can’t stop, one chain, unlocked, uncorked
And it won’t stop,
And it won’t stop,
And it won’t stop

Fragment edges
Try to hold on
At the sharp end
Break at the hair-pin bend
Too many thoughts try to fit into my head

Stop

And I’m breaking down

Up and down
I’m lost
I’m undefined
I’m climbing walls
Inside my mind
I’m running out
I’m shutting down
It’s seeping out
I’m sinking

Inside
Inside my splintering mind
Inside
Inside my blistering mind
inside
Inside my splintering mind
Inside, inside my blistering mind 

Welcome inside
Inside my blistering mind
Inside 
Inside my splintering mind
Inside
Inside my blistering mind
Step inside
Inside my blistering mind

Take the fear and feel it hold
Turn it around turn it inside out
Make it something you can use

Inside, inside my splintering mind
Step inside, inside my blistering mind
Inside, inside my blistering mind 
Step inside, inside my splintering mind

Step inside, inside my blistering mind
Step inside, inside my blistering mind
Welcome inside, inside my splintering mind
Inside, inside my blistering mind.

The mandatory prize

This must come as a wonderful surprise
You’ve won the mandatory prize
So if you’d come with me now
We’ll take you into protective custody
And if you say you didn’t choose to play
Well that’s a shame
But the rules are clear
By not opting out you’re in, you’re obliged
To take part
Congratulations
You’ve won

Congratulations are in order so I’ve heard
You must be the luckiest man in the world
For our mutual convenience, I think you’ll find
The contract has been presigned

This must come as a wonderful surprise
You’ve won the mandatory prize
So if you’d come with me now
We’ll take you into protective custody
And if you say you didn’t choose to play
Well that’s a shame
But the rules are clear
By not opting out you’re in, you’re obliged
To take part
Congratulations
You’ve won 

The small print was there
Though the letters were small
They were written by the finest minds money can buy
So try if you like
It won’t bother us at all
It’s all in the contract

To save you time we’ve written your acceptance speech
And ensured that the photographs show that you smiled
You moving words will be very well received
A good outcome for all
I’m sure you’ll agree

This must come as a wonderful surprise
You’ve won the mandatory prize
So if you’d come with me now
We’ll take you into protective custody
And if you say you didn’t choose to play
Well that’s a shame
But the rules are clear
By not opting out you’re in, you’re obliged
To take part
Congratulations
You’ve won

Lose when you win
Fail to begin
End as you intend to start

Smile, Smile, smile

A wave from a tech and he points to his watch
Still, half a minute to fill
He turns to the lens with a wink and smiles
Improvises
Then ends the show with a trademark tug on his fly
Not a beat missed
But he knows
That’s not happened for years

“You know your voice is gone”
She says “you know you’re coasting
Grey hair sneaking out
Dying time
You’re growing old
You’re getting tired 
You’re just a little less than you were 
Once upon a time
Worn out by all the smile smile smile”

By the smile smile smile

“Just get in the ship” he says
“Just a minute I’ve got to
You know how it is”
But he knows she knows
And she’s stopped pretending

He thinks he’s paid back everything he owed his former protege 
Be she’s still insisting that he still needs to hear her

A Callisto cuddle sponge to the face
The spikes invade
Bury in, burying 
Deeper, inject, secrete
Eyes open and close
Nothing left but pain and sleep

Nobody knows you 
Nobody knows who you are 
Nobody knows
Nobody, nobody knows you

Nobody knows you 
Nobody knows who you are 
Nobody knows
Nobody knows 
Nobody knows you 
Nobody knows who you are 
Nobody knows
Nobody, nobody knows you

Jxxx Txxx  does not exist

Open eyes and hospital gone
Out of the gown and back in a suit
Taken back to my youth
To the kind of cheap hotel
I used to frequent
When I was unknown

Panic
But I never panic
Stop. Take stock
Open wallet
No ID
Call the front desk
He’s never heard of me 
I need something to show
Before the first roadblock

Nobody knows you 
Nobody knows who you are 
Nobody knows
Nobody, nobody knows you
Nobody knows 
Nobody knows who you are 
Nobody knows
Nobody, nobody knows you 
Nobody knows you 
Nobody knows who you are 
Nobody knows
Nobody, nobody knows you
Nobody knows 
Nobody knows who you are
You’ve never existed

“I wish I’d heard of you so I could be impressed” she said
Before she handed him over
“Flow my tears” the policeman said
“You supermen are so easy to manipulate”

You can’t be found
You’ve pulled the files
Everyone has a file
You don’t exist 

parallel lives

On both sides of the window
Quiet night
We don’t see each other
We don’t recognise where we went wrong

We don’t intersect
We don’t notice
We don’t stop

We live our lives in parallel lines
We’re living parallel lives
If we could break our parallel lines
If we could meet again

On both sides
Of different worlds
Parallel conversations
Never meeting
Never really speaking
We remain disconnected
We can’t explain where we went wrong

We don’t, we don’t intersect
We don’t notice
We don’t, we don’t stop

We live our lives in parallel lines
We’re living parallel lives
If we could break our parallel lines
If we could meet again

eversion

Wake up
Wake up

The impersonal malice of the unchained sky
The lightening scratches inside my eye 
An affordable surgeon
I shouldn’t be here
It’s all too familiar, I’m living the dream

Waking up from nightmares at my writing desk
I stumble down corridors masked and dead

Wake up 
Wake up

“Oh come on, not again, you were so close
And back he goes”

Canvas, rope and trephination
Sea and salt and wind and sail
Readings at the captain’s table
Distraction in a tale
Cannonballs and terminal glow
The quill, the inkwell, out of place
Fragments out of time colliding
On this lucky ship

For more than a hundred days
I’ve been trying to get through to you
We’ve been through this so many times now
I’d thought you’d have noticed

Dreams of airships reach my story
Piston-driven age of steam
Piercing fragments half forgotten
Breaking through an unmined seam

Past the bones of ancient monsters
Leave a pinprick in the sky
I think I remember dying
Somewhere else, another time

This is the bit where you always lose it
Don’t crash on me again
We don’t have time to wait while you disappear to who knows when
A simpler time that never existed, the comfort of a fictional space
But even in your chosen dreams you just can’t win, you keep on dying

The worlds of my scientific romance
Intrude in my day-to-day
And I must confess, that I get tired, I get tired of dying

Walking around, with someone else’s bones inside me
With a past, borrowed from an onboard library
Trying not to slip back
Trying to hold on
Hold onto now, hold onto now
I don’t if I can
Please, please, help me

You, a part of me
Created for empathy
But sometimes things go wrong
I’m sorry reality reality hurts
But you’re code
Welcome home

We’ve one last just job to do
So let’s see it through
And save who we can of the crew

Whatever you’re made of
It’s the choices you make that make you
That define you, and when you’re done you can rest

just another thing

I made the mistake of thinking for a while
That things had stabilised
That I knew what I was doing 
That I knew where I was going
Knew where things were flowing
Well I shouldn’t be surprised
It turns out I was wrong

I don’t like to complain
But it feels like yet again
There’s one more problem
For my problem basket to contain 
And it’s getting pretty full
And I’m worried that I might soon
Find that something’s dropped 

So I’m bouncing between 
Hope and lethargy
With an energy
Borrowed from tomorrow
But tomorrow wants it back
Overspent promises, nothing in the tank
I’m getting overdrawn from my physical bank 

So I’m struggling from problem into
Crisis into stasis
It’s looking like a habit
I don’t know to face this
So I put on my public face
And say the kind of things that I tend to hear myself say

It’s just another thing
So add it to the list
Throw it on the pile
It’s just another thing
It’s just another thing
So add it to the list

It’s just another thing
It’s just another thing
So add it to the list
Throw it on the pile
It’s just another thing
It’s just another thing
So add it to the list 
It’s just another thing

I get one problem stabilised
And then I think I’m due a break
Well life’s not fair
It doesn’t have to work that way
It hasn’t worked that way before
Why does it come as a surprise
Every time I catch up
I’m lost again before the paint dries

I must admit 
I’ve been more than a bit
Discombobulated recently
I can’t deny the
Increasing  frequency
Of noticing 
How close I’ve come to 
Letting the mask slip

I’m not as calm as I seem
I’m not as brave as I pretend
I’m not everyone I need to be much of the time 
I know I say I’ll cope
I’ve always been someone who copes
Until one day I won’t
Until then…

It’s just another thing
So add it to the list
Throw it on the pile
It’s just another thing
It’s just another thing
So add it to the list

It’s just another thing
It’s just another thing
So add it to the list
Throw it on the pile
It’s just another thing
It’s just another thing
So add it to the list 
It’s just another thing

JUST HOLD ON

When you feel like there’s nothing left to give
When you think that you’re broken
When each extra step is one step too far
Just hold on, just hold on

When morning comes and you just can’t face the day
When everything at best feels grey
Or worse when you feel nothing
When all you seem to do is tear yourself apart
Just hold on, just hold on

It’s not too late
It’s not too late
It’s not too late
To keep on
To hold on

You’re not alone
You’re not alone
So keep on holding on

You’re not alone
You’re not alone
So keep on, holding on

Take my hand
And we’ll hold on
Just keep holding on
Just keep holding on
Just keep holding on

It’s not too late
It’s not too late
To hold on
To hold on

With grateful thanks to our pre-order campaign supporters - 

Béla Alabástrom, John Alexander, Simon Arnold, Thomas Ayers, Aad Bannink, Alan Bell, Duncan Berryman, Sarah Bigglestone, Andreas Blohm, David Boyson, Stefanie Bristow, Paul Brownbill, Michael Cambridge, David Carter, John Chadwick, Peter Chapman, Gareth Cole, Nick Cooper, Andy Corbett, Matthew Cragg, Andrew Curtis, Neil Daly, Richard Dapre, Kenneth Dowling, Stewart Duncan, Stephen Dunn, Philip Durman, Krzysztof Dziedzic, David Edwards, Frode Egeli, Holger Eick, Chris Emmerson, William Ewen, Andrew Forster, Paul Foster, Isabella Foster, Andy Gamble, Rob Golby, Richard Goodburn, Craig Goodwin, Peter Greenhough, Chris Griffiths, David Gross, David Hedgcombe, Luc Henzig, Jeffrey Himes, Doug Hinson, Malcolm Hobday, Stephen Horner, Carl Hufton-Straw, Jon Hunt, Erin Ihde, Dave Jones, Rick Karbowski, David Kennedy, Ed Kershner, James Knight, Andreas Kranz, Stephen Laughlin, Phil Launchbury, Steve Lazenby, Michael Lentz, Jed Levin, Matthew Lumb, Andrew Machin, Derek Malouf, Bob Mason, Jasper Maudsley, Owen McIntyre, Ray Mckean, Lee Mellows, Steve Mepham, Dean Middleton, Mark Moerman, Dom Mooney, Keith Moore, Russell Morgan, Steve Moyster, Pierre Nanson, Paul Murphy, Debbie Nairn, James Noury, Alan Alessandro Novia, Geoff Parks, Ian Percival, Malcolm Pringle, Reuben Rendon, Nick Robinson, David Robinson, Bob Ronau, Steve Rosendale, Wesley Saeger, Richard Schilder, Giuseppe Schiuma, Johannes Maria Schrievers, Simon Scott, Andrew Simpson, Gavin Siriwardena, Sam Smyth, Craig Stafford, Nick Standford, Justin Stanton, Neil Stevens, Anthony Still, Andy Stoddart, Steve Swayne, Andrew Thompson, Paul Trower, Paul Turner, Mike Turner, Johan van Kempen, Robert W Wass, Robert Wass, Keith Waye, Peter Weidenhagen, Paul Wheeldon, Mike Whitfield, Chris Whiton, Chris Winkley, Brad Woodfine, Alexander Wooldridge Smith, Adam Wray, Dave Young.

Technical Notes In Case Anyone Is Interested

• All the recording/mixing/mastering for the album was done on laptops.
• Malcolm uses a Windows laptop running Sonar, Mark an Apple running Logic.
  
   

My Blistering Mind 

Video -  https://youtu.be/a9xLebIFoaM?is=xQ7bOnqwpY117E5f 

Malcolm Galloway - vocals, guitar (PRS), keyboards/synths/programming, additional drums/percussion

Mark Gatland - bass, Chapman Stick, keyboards/synths, additional drums/percussion

This is a song about internal struggles. This song deals with themes relating to mental illness/neurodiversity. I wrote the song at a time when I was not feeling in a very pleasant mental state, and wanted to try to turn that uncomfortable feeling into something positive. When I use the word 'splintering', I'm intending to refer to the idea of a mental state that has jagged edges that stick under the metaphorical skin (rather than splintering in a multiple personality type way), and also to the sense of having multiple masks that are needed for different contexts.

If you are struggling, you are not alone. In a crisis, consider contacting the Samaritans https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/ or other support organisations.

The Mandatory Prize

This song was loosely inspired by the Philip K Dick 1979 short story “The Exit Door Leads In”, in which the protagonist ‘wins’ a compulsory course in a military college. This led to lyrics about someone trapped by what they are told is success in something they don’t feel they signed up to.

Malcolm Galloway - vocals, guitar, synths (including Syntronik 2, Addictive Keys, Vacuum Pro)

Mark Gatland - bass, keyboards/synths 
 

Never Really Felt Like Home (instrumental) 

This track was originally conceived as a song with lyrics. The image I had in my mind was of someone who had never really felt at ease anywhere, possibly going back to somewhere they used to live, and being reminded that they still felt out of place. The melodic pattern that was the starting point for the song has an intentionally awkward juxtaposition of 6/8 and 5/8 bars. I did have partial lyrics, but they felt a bit too ‘on the nose’, and I felt that the lyrics were better left unsaid. 

The lead instrument is initially the bass flute, later joined by normal flute, and then electric guitar. For this guitar solo, I’m playing my Stratocaster. 

Kathryn Thomas - flute, bass flute, piccolo
Malcolm Galloway - guitar, keyboards/synths, programming
Mark Gatland - bass, keyboards/synths


Smile, Smile, Smile 

This song was inspired by the Philip K Dick novel 'Flow My Tears The Policeman Said'. In the novel, Jason Taverner is one of the most famous celebrities on the planet. He is a highly privileged person, and not particularly bothered that less privileged people in the police-state in which he lives have a very different life to his. This is one of my favourite songs on the album. I like the sense of claustrophobia. Philip K Dick has been a huge inspiration to me over many decades.

Malcolm Galloway - vocals, guitar, keyboards/synths (including Syntronik 2), programming
Mark Gatland - bass, keyboards/synths, additional guitars

Intermission (instrumental)

Malcolm Galloway - keyboards/synths, programming
Mark Gatland - bass, keyboards/synths

Parallel Lives

The starting point for this song was looking out of a window late at night. So many lives, running in parallel, and rarely noticing each other. The image in my mind was of people initially connecting, then gradually diverging, until their lives are lived in parallel, and the feeling of being aware of this disconnection, wanting to do something about it, and feeling unable to change things. I am aware that this doesn't make strict mathematical sense, unless within a non-Euclidean geometry, but explaining that within the context of the song would have made the lyric slightly clunky.

Malcolm Galloway - vocals, programming, drums, percussion, synths/keyboards
Mark Gatland - bass, guitar, drums, percussion, synths/keyboards
Kathryn Thomas - vocals

Eversion 

‘Eversion’ is probably the most traditionally proggy track on the album - with lots of key and time signature changes. That song is inspired by Alastair Reynolds’ novel of the same name. I was very relieved when he told me that he liked the song. The story is about a surgeon who finds themselves in similar situations in different historical periods. I don’t want to give too much away about the twist in the story, but the surgeon has to come to terms with his identity being different to how he saw himself. Again, this theme of someone struggling to come to terms with a changing sense of themselves and their role in life.

The flute part in this one is very subtle and brief, so don't worry if it isn't immediately obvious.

Malcolm - vocals, backing vocals, synths, drums/percussion, guitar (PRS SE spalted maple)
Mark - bass, Chapman Stick, drums/percussion, keyboards/synths, additional guitars, backing vocals
Kathryn - flute 
 

Pretty Blue Fox (instrumental)

The title of this instrumental is a reference to the Philip K Dick novel, ‘The Game Players Of Titan’.

Malcolm - keyboards/synths, programming
Mark - bass, keyboards/synths
 

Just Another Thing

This song was directly inspired by my retinal diagnosis. Kathryn and I had been to Moorfields eye hopsital, where I was given the diagnosis. Kathryn said to me later that day something that directly led to the main hook lyric of the song. I appreciate that approach. No sugar-coating, but also that sense of we've ploughed through plenty of other problems, we'll probably find a way to muddle through this one as well. A  sort of defiant pessimism. 

The over the top ending is meant to be somewhat sarcastic.

The brass sound I've used is a 8 Dio's Centruy Brass layered with Kontakt 7's stock brass ensemble. I wanted to use one to give the sharp attack at the front of the brass chords, and the other to provide the sustain, but at a lower level so it didn't muddy the mix.

It may seem odd that that I've got really nice PRS and Fender Stratocasters providing the rhythm guitar part, and playing a pretty cheap Eart headless guitar from Amazon for the solo. This wasn't my original plan. I have to spend most of my time lying down because of my spinal problems, and compose lying in bed. Sitting on the bed to record guitar parts, I risk bumping the guitar into the adjacent walls. I sometimes use the Eart headless as it is small, if I think I'm just recording a guide part to remind me roughly what to play in a future session. I ended up liking the draft guide solo on the Eart, so kept that, rather than trying to replicate it on a higher-end guitar. 

I often think that higher-end guitars are easier to play, but don't necessarily sound that different to the listener.

Malcolm - vocals, lead guitar Eart headless, rhythm guitars PRS and Strat, synth solo uses Syntronik 2.
Mark - bass, keyboards/synths, backing vocals, percussion.
 

Dropping The Mask (instrumental)

Malcolm - Guitars, keyboards/synths, programming
Mark - bass, keyboards/synths

Just Hold On

This song is a defiant song about fighting through depression. Too many people don’t get to know how loved they are.

I played the guitar solo on my black PRS 24.

The choral section originally was intended to be a stand-alone choral piece, but then became the intro for the song.  The starting point for the rest of the song was the broken chord figure recorded on my PRS, which then evolved into the full song.

The harmonising synth under the guitar solo is Syntronik 2. 

This was a relatively late addition to the album. We thought we had the song order sorted, but I wasn't quite happy with the ending, and couldn't put my finger on my not. I then sent Mark the draft of this song, with the suggestion it might work as the ending of the album. I try not to just shoe-horn a guitar solo into everything, even though it can be tempting, and without this track, there were relatively few songs on the album that really felt like they needed a big guitar solo. I'm pleased to have something on the album that features this kind of guitar part.

The hands featured in the booklet image for this song belong to Mark and Katie Gatland.

Malcolm - vocals, lead guitar, ryhthm guitar, synths/keyboards, programming
Mark - bass, keyboards/synths, additional guitar, backing vocals

Track notes by Malcolm Galloway unless otherwise stated

Parallel Lives album
Copyright Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate / Glass Castle Recordings / Malcolm Galloway / Mark Gatland / Kathryn Thomas 2026
Recorded in Camden and South Woodford (London), Norfolk and The Wirral, UK.
Produced by Malcolm Galloway, co-produced/vocal engineering by Mark Gatland.
Music by Malcolm Galloway and Mark Gatland.
Lyrics by Malcolm Galloway, additional lyrics on ‘The Mandatory Prize’ and ‘Eversion’ with Mark Gatland
Cover art photograph by Mark Gatland, Cover art design by Mark Gatland, Malcolm Galloway. Booklet design and photography by Malcolm Galloway and Mark Gatland.
Booklet notes by Malcolm Galloway 
Band photograph by Talie Eigeland  www.talie-eigeland.co.uk
 

How was the album recorded?

Malcolm - "This is our ninth Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate album, and Mark (Gatland - bass, co-producer, multi-instrumentalist, and other half of HOGIA) and I have developed a way of working that seems to work well for us. Because of my physical health issues, I need to spend most of my time lying down, so most of my composing is done lying in bed with a laptop.

Generally I’ll sketch an outline of a track. Usually this will come in a burst of productivity, where over a period of a few days, Mark will have his email inbox flooded with potential songs. He tells me which ones he likes, and that then inspires me to work more on those ones. He will then send me a folder of possible parts to incorporate. Usually these will include a bass line, and various additional guitar and keyboard parts. Other than bass, Mark often focuses on complementary melodic and textural parts.

I then select from these options, edit and manipulate, and  incorporate into the track draft, and send it back to Mark. He makes suggestions, I revise the track, and we iteratively bounce the track between us. 

Usually we leave recording the vocals until fairly late in the process of creating the track. For the vocals we meet up, often in my mum’s house where we have access to a room where we can sing without disturbing anyone, and have a vocal recording session. For these, Mark acts as the vocal engineer/producer. I much prefer having someone else helping guide the vocal performance rather than doing it on my own. Usually in those sessions we will also add extra musical elements. For this album we also recorded various percussion instruments and I have my drum kit there, so we incorporate elements of real drums and percussion into the mix. We also recorded some additional lead guitar parts there, which was fun, and encouraged me to play things I wouldn’t necessarily have thought to have played if I was recording on my own.

Mark then takes away the various vocal takes and comps (selecting which parts of which take to use). I then work on the comped vocal take, doing my best to reduce mouth noises, pops, etc. 

We then go back to the iterative process of me making edits to the mix, sending a render to Mark, him giving feedback, me making another mix, until we get to the stage where we meet together to work through  the tracks in detail face-to-face. This is where we do the very detailed, possibly spectacularly obsessive work of cycling round small sections of the track, deciding the small details that hopefully cumulatively have the effect of polishing the track.

Early on in the process we are quite maximalist in our approach, with lots of guitar and keyboard/synth parts. Often our tracks will have around 80-100 individual tracks, but later in the mixing process we try to carve out (in terms of EQ) from each track in areas where they don’t need to sound, to hopefully allow all the parts we want to be given their space in the mix. 

I then master the tracks. Again, all the mixing and mastering is done on my laptop. We see the mastering process as part of the iterative creative process. Often, once the track has been through the various compressors needed to hopefully make a track sound like a professional release, the balance of different instruments feels different, and subtle details (and imperfections) become more apparent, so we go back to the mix, make changes and go through the cycle again.

I find it hard to stop making small tweaks, so it is good for us to have a deadline for sending an album for pressing. It feels a bit like doing an exam and trying to cram in a few extra words when the invigilator is saying ‘pens down’.

Some of the subject matter on this album has felt more directly personal, which in some ways I find a bit uncomfortable. When singing about emotional things, I think I’m more comfortable with singing from the perspective of a character, whether a historical or fictional figure, that gives a bit of emotional distance between my off-stage self (which is very shy) and the onstage person. In the last few albums there have been more songs that have more directly dealt with my own experiences (such as the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome related ‘imtiredandeverythinghurts’). I suppose I’m a bit nervous about that to be honest. 

I think as Mark and I get more experienced with recording, we get better at it technically, and it gets more efficient. I realise our iterative process isn’t usual, but it works well for us.

Because of my eyes, I had to get a laptop with a massive screen recently, and the upgraded computer (which is now much faster) has made the whole process much more efficient. I find change stressful, and changing my setup to a new laptop is something I’ve been avoiding for years. On my old laptop it could take up to half an hour for a project to load, which slowed things down a lot."