Prologue
Galleon started as a three piece named Aragon back in ´85, experimenting with different kind of music
and musicians, but never really found the "right" feeling.
That was until a friend of the band some years later gave them a tip of a recording studio, which had an engineer who probably would suit their sound and taste of music real good.
Because Micke Värn, guitars - Göran Fors, bass and Vocals and Dan Fors, drums had the idea, they wanted at least to document their sweat and blood in composing the music they believed in under so many years, just in case.
When Galleon started to send around their first demo tapes under the name Aragon back in -89, they initially got a friendly response but also a demand to change their name.
After they had come up with the name Galleon and was actually working on their first album, the drummer Dan Fors injured his foot badly and the album was delayed for six months.
During the recording sessions the Producer and Keyboard player Ulf Pettersson had joined the band, but left just before releasing LYNX-93, leaving them as a three-piece band with music arranged for four.
After trying several different keyboard players with only the good response and sales of the CD keeping them from giving up , Ulf rejoined the band , which allowed them to play live and gave new dimensions to the song writing.
HERITAGE AND VISIONS - 94 was a kind of honeymoon where Micke , Göran and Dan , that had developed their sound since the early eighties , migrated that with Ulf's Very personal song writing and arrangements.
Delighted with the sound that seemed to appear when they played together but not to crazy about the actual CD they started to experiment under the work title of "Divina Comeda".
In 1995, Galleon released the single AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME but their Asian distributor, the Japanese Label , ZERO CORPORATION wanted a full length CD , so the album KING OF ARAGON was released and gave the band the opportunity to try on odd ideas like the happy tune Illusive exhibition and the dark heavy Long lonely shadows.
Then after two years "Divina Comeda" became THE ALL EUROPEAN HERO - 96.
The reviews have been overwhelming with the highlight of GFT in England calling it "The melodic prog album of the year".
After that Galleon got enough courage to go on a minor European Tour with gigs in Norway, England and Germany.
They got a very good response, and started to work with the new material in springtime of ´97 and in the autumn Galleon went on tour again , presenting some of the new songs to the audience , who seemed pleased with the new material.
So right after the tour, Galleon went into the studio in Ljusne , and started the long and hard work of making a new album.
And hard work it became . . . . after almost a year , with ghosts , evil spirits , technical problems and hard labor pain , finally . . . . . Mind Over Matter saw the light of day in the autumn of 1998.
After the release of Mind over matter galleon took it very easy. And in April of 1999 Micke announced that he wanted to leave the band.
Ulf knew a Guitar player from he's old hometown and called him up and Sven Larsson was brought in on the Galleon ship bringing a new spark to the band.
During the summer of 99 Galleon started to work on the next record and in august they played a festival in their hometown, the first gig with Sven.
In the fall they went on a tour again visiting England and the Rotherham Rocks, Belgium for the first time and Holland, after the tour Galleon continued the work and recordings in to February 2000 when the new record got finished.
Galleon had their release party at the rockclub Anchor in Stockholm in March of 2000. And in May Galleon went to Spain to play a festival.
Galleon also made a gig in a local club for the first time in June.
In the autumn of 2000 Galleon started the long and hard work to make a double album with one long track on one of the cd's, a long concept that Göran had been thinking about for several years.
Göran and Ulf made the first small musical ideas during the mixing of Beyond Dreams.
In february of 2001 Galleon made a short stop in the making of the double album for a gig in Gothenburg at Oceanen, and continued the work on the cd through the whole year and in to 2002.
’From Land to Ocean’ took almost 3 years to complete. By spending almost two years on ‘The Ocean’ only, The CD part ‘Land’ was still left to create. After an additional year of composing, arranging, and recording, ‘From Land to Ocean’ finally made their way to the record stores.
It was to be the only Galleon album up to that point, actually selling anything before it was released.
‘From Land to Oceans’ release party was held at a local club in Ljusdal and a two gig “tour†followed nearly a year later, in September 2004 in Belgium and Switzerland. The labour pains that supervened the creation of such a concept double album, was taking it’s toll on the Galleon camp, and the rehearsals for a live performance were tedious and difficult. Together with some changes in the personal lives of the members, it made rehearsal summits a rare occurence.
Then the “tour†itself was inflicted with technical problems on gear, transportation, and just about anything you can think of having a chance of going wrong, whereby Galleon took a brief time-out later that autumn.
But that was only to begin rehearsals for a fresh new album, in January 2005. However, the labour pains from the previous album still seemed to infest drought in the creative process, leaving Galleon to discover that no output had been produced for a whole year.
Now, in 2006 Galleon is still trying to find the vein where that creative blood flows, seeking out different approaches, and taking all possible measures to get back on the creative track.
In retrospect, Galleon has really gone through a tremendous development since their first album ‘Lynx’. And just maybe, sometimes such development might outrun each individual spirit, forcing them to catch up with it, before being able to take that development to the next level.
When reaching a certain point in life, our responsibilities to other people in our immediate surroundings are increasing tremendously, and in that respect we understand Dan’s decision to leave the band. In addition, there seems to be an inherent age restriction in how far one’s commitment and dedication is allowed to go. Of course it’s individual, and most definitely dependent on the amount of any earlier success.
Getting older also means stepping into a new and different time zone, where you are moving in slow-motion, while everything else around you seems to be passing by at rocket speed.
So time flies, and now it’s already autumn 2007. After a couple of years spent in a creativity desert, we have reached an oasis and finally have a new album on the way. Official release date is November 7. (Let’s keep our fingers crossed it’s not a mirage).
The engines of creation works in mysterious ways, so after Dan’s decline enter Göran Johnsson, - previously from Grand Stand and Spektrum, to meet up with Göran Fors in Easter 2006 to brainstorm on some new ideas. They managed to create enough material for some team development, and from then on the whole process went pretty quick,-in Galleon time, that is.
The recording started in July 2006, and was finished in July 2007, with some polishing up and details added in late summer and autumn. This is the first Galleon recording ever made using digital equipment only. Once our sound waves enter the microphones, they never escape until they come out of your speakers or headphones.
You’re always supposed to be saying that “this is the best album we’ve ever made†and we are proud to present it. This is especially true this time, considering the years spent in the desert, members dropping off, and a ruthless time zone playing every known and unknown trick in the book on us. You will find it packed with a kind of energy that you have never encountered on any previous Galleon album. Still we think we have kept the original Galleon essence.
We are hoping that we will be able to pull off yet another European tour sometime in mid spring 2008, but that is yet to be confirmed, so stay tuned.
To be continued…
