WARNING- Only start reading this if you are Musically obsessed, a bit of a dreamer and LOVE the idea of a ‘regular’ working class nobody punching through with some big songs
Hi, I’m ABRAM. I have written, arranged performed & recorded some songs over the last six months. I chose the prestigious Grand Chapel Studios, Bedfordshire to record them, initially just to get them out of me. Since their completion it has become obvious that they must be shared and heard by you.
I’m real proud of them and I think you’re going to dig them.
If you are a fan of Rock, Soul, Classical, Folky music, then soaked in Soul one more time then these songs are for you.
It had been an immense task to complete them and get them to feel and sound exactly like they did in my head, but with the help of Anneliese Shaw Producer, Grand Chapel Studios and a plethora of talented, creative and adaptable musicians, we finally got there. I am so proud to announce the release of my first single ‘Distressed Angel’. It will also be accompanied by ‘Distressed Angel Ensemble’, which is a nearly 8-minute musical journey telling the WHOLE story of a Prayer & her own personal Angel.
Who is ABRAM? A bit of backstory
I’m Gary Abram. I am a 52 year old builder. I look like a builder, I sound like a builder, and I will probably always be a builder, I am good at it. I have always had a passion for music of all genres and styles. The only requirement for me is that it has to connect with me fully, not just to my ears but to the deepest depths of my soul
I played guitar at school, self taught and had a few little bands with friends etc, did a few little gigs. Truth be known we were a racket but it felt real and exciting and have such fond memories of that time. Nearing the time of leaving High school I remember having a Careers meeting with a nice lady.
‘So Gary, What do you want to be when you leave school?’ She asked
‘What do you mean what do I want to be? I’m GOING to be a Rock star!’ I replied overconfidently
‘Do you think we should form a backup plan?’s he said ‘ Just in case?’
‘Absolutely Not,’ I replied and left the room.
The day came when I left school. I gave it a few days and nobody was knocking on my door holding a record deal. The phone icy quiet and nothing through the post. I realised at that moment I needed to grow up and grow up fast!!! I managed to enrol on a Bricklaying apprenticeship and over a period of time worked hard and took to it like a duck to water. Construction became my absolute passion and in my early to mid 20’s started my own company long leaving my guitar to gather dust in the loft.
In construction I remain channelling my inner creativity towards my craft and transforming peoples houses into family homes. I still get a buzz from seeing these families enjoying their perfect space that I have created for them.
My musical passion did not waver, though. As my three sons got a little older and my business a little easier, and with the support of my Wife, Caroline, I was able to free up some time to pursue both playing guitar and watching live music of all forms as much as life would allow me. I’d start to play more and more. The number of guitars and equipment grew, and I think this was the start of a musical obsession.
My obsession slowly gathered momentum, and I was a regular attendee of The Jazz Jam down at The Bear Club, Luton, for years, way too petrified to ever get up to play. The level of musicianship on display in front of me was highly intimidating, but one day, with the encouragement of a few of those guys who had become firm friends, I got up and played. I was awful!!! But the exhilaration and the buzz is an unrivalled feeling and have spent the past few years getting better and more confident and had learnt so much.
I became more creative and confident being exposed and witnessing world class music of all genres on my very doorstep ( The Bear Club). Melodies and ideas started to surface, which was great but….
I could never write a whole song, though!!!!! Just bits of pieces, a chorus here and a verse there. Parts of lyrics, a few nice sounding clever lines but never a whole song, certainly nothing I could properly connect with.. My musical obsession ( looking back) was getting in the way with ‘normal life’ and I was not producing any reward for the time I’d spent on it. My constant talking about music & more importantly, MY music was clearly becoming a problem both at home and at work. Also, if I’m being honest, affecting the well-being and mental health of myself and the people around me.
I realised something had to change and change fast. I put the guitar down for a while, hid from the gigs, stayed away from The Bear Club and in my head detached myself from the whole frustrating process. Music is supposed to enhance our lives right???
Spotting my guitar in the corner of the room one night I picked it up. Had a little play on it and man it felt so good to here its warm beautiful tones again. Not sure what happened or how but from nowhere the basis of a whole song just fell out of me. I developed the bare bones of it over a week or so, picturing its meaning and breathing some life and texture into it, and this became ‘The Mousai’. To my surprise, it resembled more of an opera feel, but it was something I’d written that I could finally connect with and fully immerse myself in. What a glorious feeling. My obsession now felt rewarded and something must have clicked in me as another song just hatched and fell out a few weeks later, then another a month or two after that whilst on holiday.
It is these 3 songs I’ve been working on for the last 6 months in the studio and so pleased to announce finally Distressed Angel & Distressed Angel Ensemble will be released on all major streaming platforms in March 2025
Who inspired me to start making music?
Marius Ptas – guitarist. A great friend and a wonderfully talented player of all genres. He gave me guitar lessons over the lockdown period (only when it was legal to meet up!) I needed some more in-depth theory knowledge & he needed some income. Pro musicians had a long period with no income so times must have been tough. What he taught me helped shape my brain into thinking how chords and sounds can work together.
Craig Stallwood- Pianist. An amazing player of all genres. It was his classical training that showed through in whatever he was playing that inspired me. I started writing Melodies, imagining what he would play over the top of them. Which then in turn would influence the final outcome of the sound of what I was creating. To my joy, he agreed to come and play on my songs, joining us in the studio, for which I’m so grateful.
The Bear Club, Luton
What I’ve witnessed week after week, year after year, in this special little venue, is mind-blowing.
A small independent music club hosting live Jazz & Blues bands ( and everything in between), playing host to some of the finest musicians from around the world.
Independent clubs are smaller and more intimate, and you can get up close to the players and learn how they’re achieving that sound!
What Two records Inspired you artistically?
John Spillane – In Another Light
A live album of John’s favourite songs he has written across his fabulous career. Performed with The Cork Philharmonic Orchestra. This album taught me there is no boundaries to how you can stretch a song. Really play with and manipulate the arrangements with different instruments to add texture or smoothness, light or dark moments.
Black Pumas- Black Pumas
This was the first album they released, and there is not one bad song ( well, maybe just one I don’t like). The rest are bangers. They mix a vintage soul sound with vocals and guitar but with a fresh modern twist. It’s such a classic familiar sound but nothing I’d quite heard before. It’s completely inspiring.
If you’re trying to explain who you sound like to someone that’s never heard you. What do you say?
Aargh! I’m going to struggle with this. My honest answer is I do not know!
The best I can do is say what other people have picked up on. Some people say they can hear at times Radiohead, within the same song then someone will say that’s like Fleetwood Mac. Another musical writer has told me my song writing is very Neil Young. A few people have said the arrangements remind them of a Queen song although I can’t see that, but I’ll take it!
Someone recently said some of my arrangements remind them of Alexis Ffrench and how he can play in two different moods almost at the same time. I get that, as I really can hear that in one song I have called ‘The Mousai’. At one point, it sounds Euphoric but full of tragedy at the same time. It even has a three-minute Opera thrown in the middle for good measure!
It is Soul and rock with a wedge of classical through the middle. Things chop and change a lot but still run smoothly and flow. On paper, it sounds a mess, doesn’t it? But it seems to work, I think.
Tell us about Your new single
It’s called Distressed Angel. Its opening intro has a Hammond organ played through a Leslie speaker. I wanted that warm Muscle Shoals sound, kind of like a big musical warm hug.
It’s a duet between a Prayer and her own personal Angel. The prayer verses conflict with the Angels verses and we slightly change how we are playing each verse to suit the mood of the lyrics. I loved writing the words to this song. It was fun almost getting into character to get across their increasing frustration with each other. My favourite verse is the third Prayers verse where she just gives up on the Angel. You can really hear the mood change in all of the instruments.
There is an extended version of the song which will be released at the same time called Distressed Angel Ensemble. The story continues where Distressed Angel finishes into a Dark section. Within this, there is a Cello, strings, guitars, huge drums, quiet drums, and thundering bass lines. When I wrote this section, I pictured a big Choir popping up out of nowhere, building and building up. Six of us had the task of recreating what I had been hearing & set up vocal booths in Grand Chapel Studios ( which ironically had been a real chapel since its construction in 1847 up until 2014 when Anneliese pulled it out of retirement and converted into a recording studio).
This part was the most fun I’ve had in the studio. We layered our vocals up so many times in different styles, different keys, even singing different lines at the same time. I think we cross all 6 Octaves in this section!
Where can you get hold of it?
Release date not finalised yet but it will be mid to late March 2025. It will be available on all good streaming platforms. I am currently working with my good friend Tim from Cinema Iloobia to create a music video ( I’m old school! ). I wanted to extend my creativity and not just leave everything for the ears. I think a track like this needs a strong visual too and we are having fun bringing my ideas and the genius ideas and skills of Tim to the screen. It’s a mixture of animation and model-making. AI and real humans, too! All in the same frame!
I would also love to release my music on Vinyl/ CD and even tape at some point soon, but I’ll first release it digitally. It’s time to share!
Tell us how you write?
I write on my own. It normally comes to me in sections of songs, like a verse or a chorus that I dig. I let it marinate in me for a while then expand it/ tweak it, change it till I’m happy then move on. I may start pursuing other ideas, then something will drop in, and I think oh, I like that chorus; it goes with that verse I wrote earlier. Sometimes, a strong lyric line I’ve thought of will dictate a change slightly in the timing and rhythm strumming pattern of the song, but before I get too involved in wording, most of the song structure is formed.
When I wrote the Opera section in The Mousai, I was stuck in traffic in my Ford Transit on the M25!
It literally all came out In one big outpour! My advice to any would be songwriter, if you have strong idea about something as soon as you can, drop everything and get it down. Don’t think ‘ I’ll remember that in the morning’, you won’t!
I sometimes use like a morse code method. Like dots and dashes to replicate length of syllables to help space out words to help make words and sentences fit and sound nice.
Songwriting tends to be a long process for me as I like to hear and work out the whole arrangement with all the instruments in my head before I record. Which is great once in the studio because I kind of know how it’s going to roughly sound. Not so great for the Year before the studio as it feels like I’m lugging those instruments around with me in my head everywhere I go. Sometimes all day and all night. For music, especially my music I seem to have an obsessive musical nature. The plus side to an obsessive musical nature is you can really home in on tiny details, wether you want to or not!. It’ll be good to share the burden and pass them on to other people heads instead!!!
Tell us about your live show? What would be your dream gig?
Well this is a tricky one when I play these songs live I tend to keep it smaller and focus on the details and textures. To get this sound onto record it took a lot of planning and careful selection of hand picked musicians to get the authenticity of what I was hearing in my head. This took a very patient and highly skilled producer ( Anneliese Shaw/ Grand Chapel Studios). This lady is a genius and a beautiful soul & without her these songs would have stayed locked in me and consumed me.
I’ve found out I’m pretty good at describing sounds and feel and she just got what I was about musically from the start.
For us to replicate this exact sound it’s gonna have to be somewhere big and it’ll take some arranging. Each hand picked member has their own successful careers scattered across our planet. Having said that, we got together to record it, we had the best time and forged lifelong bonds, I’m sure individually we would make it happen. At the right time right place for sure.
The dream gig for me personally- I tend to think big. If I could perform these songs with everyone that’s been a part of this amazing journey so far including every sound engineer, every backing vocalist, every supportive roll in and around the studio ( and there’s a lot!) it will be The Royal Albert Hall with a full philharmonic orchestra. It’s a case of we either all go or none of us goes.
If that can’t happen then I’ll settle to just get to hear my songs and arrangements played there. I don’t even have to be performing them or even be on the stage. Just get me a seat somewhere out of the way, anywhere will do, front row, back row. Sit me down. Pass me a tissue to dab my eyes every now and again. I’d leave this world a happy man, life complete. No one even has to know they where my songs, lyrics & arrangements. Life’s not always about high fives, we’ll done you’s & recognition.
What to expect from me in the near future?
Well I’ll get these Distressed Angel tracks released and free’d. Let them spread their wings for a bit.
My second release will be a few months later in hopefully May. That one is called ‘Waiting’. This one is a Soul drenched banger with such a hooky catchy infectious chorus. It gets stuck in people’s heads for days which I’m taking as a good sign. Amazing vocals from a hugely talented Samuel Ashton.
When I originally wrote this song I also wrote a more Dance/ Club version of it too. I could really hear the dynamics of the song suiting that style. I can hear the drops, the big heavy beat, reverb sax opening. It has such an energy in both versions actually. We shall be recording the alternative version in March ( again at Grand Chapel) and release them both together.
I have such a cool concept in my head for a music video for that too which is exciting me.
I think I’ll then drop an EP focusing on ‘The Mousai’. That song, it represents my journey with it’s frustrations as I’m trying to navigate through my every day life knowing I have created these songs with their huge arrangements locked within my head.
I wrote the song at the time when there was no feasible way I could ever get anyone to hear it in the form it now exists. I genuinely cannot listen to it now without getting emotional. It feels like a life story and if I’m being honest, it’s the one that makes me feel the most proud. It generally leaves most people who hear it open mouthed. I’m hoping that’s a good thing?
My favourite song at the moment?
That is so hard!!!! I love ‘Colors’ by Black Pumas. I will never tire of that song ever!
Early Zeppelin is awesome. I do love ‘No Quarter’ though. I listen to Alexis Ffrench ‘ Bluebird’ constantly. I can’t wait to hear ‘Durand Jones & the Indications new album coming out very soon.
Would love some new Gabriel’s at some point soon please Jacob.
I haven’t really answered your question have I ? Oh well, next time!
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