Love for symphonic rock
Different Strings' debut album is a mix of times past and present, and a love for a genre that refuses to die.
Around 10 years ago, we had Different Light, now we have Different Strings. The similarity between these two local outfits does not just stop at their name. Both of them love prog and pomp rock. At a time when this genre has been making headways, albeit on a smaller scale in Europe and the US, one Chris Mallia has just released his debut album, a project that says so much about the music he loves and the pains he took to make it happen.
The album, entitled It's Only The Beginning, features terse and epic songs, featuring complex, well-structured arrangements, and a myriad of influences from past and present bands within the genre. Now approaching his mid-30s, Chris seems to be more mature as an artiste when one considers his arrangements and his love for symphonic rock.
"Well, actually I was born in the early 1970s so my teenage era was between late 1980s and early 1990s. My contemporaries were more the grunge period like Nirvana, Soundgarden and who knows what else there used to be on MTV at that time. Beside this, I was never really interested in this kind of music. I grew up listening to rock music and I used to listen to my older brother's records like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, ELO, Rainbow, Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, dozens of others and, of course, Rush, which later became my favourite band. My first guitar lessons were pretty much basic but then I realised that I had to study further so I changed my tutor and started to learn classical guitar and took theory lessons more seriously. In the meantime I was discovering more progressive bands like Yes, Genesis and Kansas, the old ones and Dream Theater and Spock's Beard as latter-day neo-prog rock bands," said Chris when I spoke to him recently.
One might think that his debut release, being a progressive album and having the tracks joint together, gives the sense of a concept album but actually it isn't. "I've been writing music for almost a decade now and I can say that I have quite a repertoire on the shelves waiting to be released, even concept material, but in this case it is different. I wanted to choose a few good tracks I had and put them together just to start with. I made, ironically, a sort of greatest hits of my music without having any hits at all and as mentioned on the inside cover of the CD, I made it this way to try to catch the attention of some foreign labels of this music genre. All tracks individually have their own identity," added Chris, who also seems to have gone for some different arrangements and moods, as a way to explain his versatility within the genre.
The album at times sounds melodic despite its pomp theme. Even the short songs like the opening title tune are themselves challenging and intriguing, not least for their approach and musicianship. The epic songs are stories, and fine arrangements in themselves, influenced by the meticulous approach that King Crimson and Rush (in their 2112 and Farewell To Kings era) adopted. There are also a few morose sounding arrangements on All Over Again and Dead Man Walking. Chris said that "although such lyrics might sound a little glum in person I'm exactly the opposite, being quite frivolous at times! My darker side seems to glimmer a lot more when I start writing some pieces of music or lyrics. ...It's Only The Beginning reflects a little of my irony in seeing things. In fact, on the cover there's the picture of a five-day-old conceived embryo which in itself is a very strong subject, so I didn't want to call it the great beginning or something, but like 'hey ...it's only the beginning, relax, stay tuned and I will give you more in the future!' So the baby's cry at the end of the title track resembles the beginning of life - a baby."
It's Only The Beginning also shows its composer's awareness about various issues. On one song, All Over Again, he refers to a terrible accident which happened in Italy a few years ago where a school roof collapsed with dozens of kids inside killing most of them. The authorities didn't do much about the situation so there was a kind of riff raff between authorities and parents. "I was trying to put this song in a concept album with the subject of imperialism, dictatorship and wrong governmental decisions all over the world. Most probably this album will be released someday, of course All Over Again will not be a part of it," added Chris, who, like Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie was also quite impressed with the 1995 classic film Dead Man Walking, to the extent that he too, wrote a song on this film based on a non-fictional best-selling book. Dead Man Walking is about a prisoner who is about to receive the death penalty and his confession through his walk between his cell and the electric chair. "It is one of those songs that made me try to understand more the feelings of a person who is about to die unexpectedly, or unnaturally."
However, It's Only The Beginning is perhaps at its best technically and creatively on Beyond Infinity, which happens to be the album's second instrumental. This song resembles entirely what progressive rock is all about. A lengthy track with odd timing, syncopation, and time signature changes and all of this embellished with great guitars and keyboards riffs and solos using analogue keyboard sounds like the hammond organ, moog and mellotron, it is also one of the author's most favourite compositions on this set.
Around The World is another song in which there's a lot of time changing and analogue sounds. This time the whole lot comprises four parts. "I was inspired from a Discovery Channel programme about an expedition on Mount Everest that didn't go so well, although what I wrote is fiction. The first part, an instrumental, explains by its sounds the preparation of the journey. The second is the journey itself. The third and second instrumental section explain a terrible storm that forfeits the whole journey, resulting with tragic losses, and the fourth and final part is the reflection of the whole thing," said Chris, who handles all the instruments on this set, with Alan Mayo singing lead and backing vocals.
"One of the difficulties I've found in doing it was trying to find a schedule between myself and Alan Mayo, in which I cannot be enough thankful for his interpretation of my songs. He helped by giving me ideas from his past experience with Limestone Kick and their respective recordings. It wasn't easy for us to meet since we both have so much to do. Another thing was the ability in mixing the whole set. I have a little experience but you cannot be experienced enough compared to professional engineers. It's their full-time job and of course they will definitely have better equipment than I do. In the end though, for financial reasons and as it was something to start with, I had to stick to my abilities, so I mixed and mastered the CD at home, spending much more time than any pro would do but at least the result is quite decent!"
• It's Only The Beginning will be officially released tomorrow, at Exotique Baystreet, St Julians.
The album, entitled It's Only The Beginning, features terse and epic songs, featuring complex, well-structured arrangements, and a myriad of influences from past and present bands within the genre. Now approaching his mid-30s, Chris seems to be more mature as an artiste when one considers his arrangements and his love for symphonic rock.
"Well, actually I was born in the early 1970s so my teenage era was between late 1980s and early 1990s. My contemporaries were more the grunge period like Nirvana, Soundgarden and who knows what else there used to be on MTV at that time. Beside this, I was never really interested in this kind of music. I grew up listening to rock music and I used to listen to my older brother's records like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, ELO, Rainbow, Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, dozens of others and, of course, Rush, which later became my favourite band. My first guitar lessons were pretty much basic but then I realised that I had to study further so I changed my tutor and started to learn classical guitar and took theory lessons more seriously. In the meantime I was discovering more progressive bands like Yes, Genesis and Kansas, the old ones and Dream Theater and Spock's Beard as latter-day neo-prog rock bands," said Chris when I spoke to him recently.
One might think that his debut release, being a progressive album and having the tracks joint together, gives the sense of a concept album but actually it isn't. "I've been writing music for almost a decade now and I can say that I have quite a repertoire on the shelves waiting to be released, even concept material, but in this case it is different. I wanted to choose a few good tracks I had and put them together just to start with. I made, ironically, a sort of greatest hits of my music without having any hits at all and as mentioned on the inside cover of the CD, I made it this way to try to catch the attention of some foreign labels of this music genre. All tracks individually have their own identity," added Chris, who also seems to have gone for some different arrangements and moods, as a way to explain his versatility within the genre.
The album at times sounds melodic despite its pomp theme. Even the short songs like the opening title tune are themselves challenging and intriguing, not least for their approach and musicianship. The epic songs are stories, and fine arrangements in themselves, influenced by the meticulous approach that King Crimson and Rush (in their 2112 and Farewell To Kings era) adopted. There are also a few morose sounding arrangements on All Over Again and Dead Man Walking. Chris said that "although such lyrics might sound a little glum in person I'm exactly the opposite, being quite frivolous at times! My darker side seems to glimmer a lot more when I start writing some pieces of music or lyrics. ...It's Only The Beginning reflects a little of my irony in seeing things. In fact, on the cover there's the picture of a five-day-old conceived embryo which in itself is a very strong subject, so I didn't want to call it the great beginning or something, but like 'hey ...it's only the beginning, relax, stay tuned and I will give you more in the future!' So the baby's cry at the end of the title track resembles the beginning of life - a baby."
It's Only The Beginning also shows its composer's awareness about various issues. On one song, All Over Again, he refers to a terrible accident which happened in Italy a few years ago where a school roof collapsed with dozens of kids inside killing most of them. The authorities didn't do much about the situation so there was a kind of riff raff between authorities and parents. "I was trying to put this song in a concept album with the subject of imperialism, dictatorship and wrong governmental decisions all over the world. Most probably this album will be released someday, of course All Over Again will not be a part of it," added Chris, who, like Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie was also quite impressed with the 1995 classic film Dead Man Walking, to the extent that he too, wrote a song on this film based on a non-fictional best-selling book. Dead Man Walking is about a prisoner who is about to receive the death penalty and his confession through his walk between his cell and the electric chair. "It is one of those songs that made me try to understand more the feelings of a person who is about to die unexpectedly, or unnaturally."
However, It's Only The Beginning is perhaps at its best technically and creatively on Beyond Infinity, which happens to be the album's second instrumental. This song resembles entirely what progressive rock is all about. A lengthy track with odd timing, syncopation, and time signature changes and all of this embellished with great guitars and keyboards riffs and solos using analogue keyboard sounds like the hammond organ, moog and mellotron, it is also one of the author's most favourite compositions on this set.
Around The World is another song in which there's a lot of time changing and analogue sounds. This time the whole lot comprises four parts. "I was inspired from a Discovery Channel programme about an expedition on Mount Everest that didn't go so well, although what I wrote is fiction. The first part, an instrumental, explains by its sounds the preparation of the journey. The second is the journey itself. The third and second instrumental section explain a terrible storm that forfeits the whole journey, resulting with tragic losses, and the fourth and final part is the reflection of the whole thing," said Chris, who handles all the instruments on this set, with Alan Mayo singing lead and backing vocals.
"One of the difficulties I've found in doing it was trying to find a schedule between myself and Alan Mayo, in which I cannot be enough thankful for his interpretation of my songs. He helped by giving me ideas from his past experience with Limestone Kick and their respective recordings. It wasn't easy for us to meet since we both have so much to do. Another thing was the ability in mixing the whole set. I have a little experience but you cannot be experienced enough compared to professional engineers. It's their full-time job and of course they will definitely have better equipment than I do. In the end though, for financial reasons and as it was something to start with, I had to stick to my abilities, so I mixed and mastered the CD at home, spending much more time than any pro would do but at least the result is quite decent!"
• It's Only The Beginning will be officially released tomorrow, at Exotique Baystreet, St Julians.