Shadow Gallery - Shadow Dancers in the Gallery
By Dimitrios Fatouros
June 2005

Shadow Gallery began their career in the late 80s when a band called Sorcerer, threw in the towel. Some of the members didn’t give in and as soon as Mike Varney, took wind of them he signed them to his then new prog label, the now largely dormant, Magna Carta. Throughout the years the band has released 4 albums and now their 5th one is coming out, amusingly entitled “Room V” – Latin for 5. The band continues their Concept, that was initiated with “Tyranny”, and stylistically they still tread that lonely path somewhere between the modern prog bands, pomy AOR and latter day Savatage melodic Metal. Mr’s Brendt Allman and Gary Wehrkamp Guitars and Keyboards, respectively, enlighten us about this new album and various other interesting things. Enjoy.

M.I : Thank you for doing this interview !
GW: You are welcome - Its our pleasure to talk music with you!
BA: Thanks for having us.

M.I : Tell us what happened since legacy ?! and extend the bio a bit further back for the benefit of any younger readers.
BA: After Legacy was finished and released, we were then tasked with considering what label we were going to sign with. WE had some very good offers and InsideOut really stepped up to the plate. Of course, negotiations can take a while sometimes though so that added to our delays, but that's just part of the business. During the search and eventual signing with a new label, we began writing what would then become "Room V". though, at the time, we had no idea that we'd end up writting a sequal to "Tyranny". Once we decided that we were going in that direction ( continuation of Tyranny ) we sort of doubled our efforts to live up to the standards that "Tyranny" created for us.
GW: Yes, Initially we were looking at just 2 or 3 songs to continue to TYRANNY story, but it soon grew to be an entire record.

M.I : What took you so long - not all night it was way more...!
GW: We juggle many things at once, from other jobs and careers to families and other projects- This makes the process take a little longer. We also spent some time getting some business in order, namely our switch to working with INSIDE OUT, once our contract with MAGNA CARTA concluded.
BA: Like Gary said, we all have pretty hectic lives outside of Music. Add that to the fact that we were continuing the story line of "Tyranny", we really had a lot to live up to there - so it took a while to find the time to devote to the music, the quality time that it demands.

M.I : There were rumors that you gave up - untrue ? Did you consider that ?
GW: After Tyranny, I know it seemed like nobody wanted to jump into a tour, or get right back into recording... There was a period there where we could have easily ended the project, but I always felt we had so much more to give, and would be so much better in the future, so it is too soon to stop making Shadow Gallery music. Personally, I want to make another 6 albums.
BA: I stopped playing guitar for about a year after that record. I didn't even want to see a guitar after all the stuff that happened with "Tyranny".  

M.I : How do you compare - this release with the previous ones. it seems to be a sequel of Tyranny - is it a trilogy of sorts ?
BA: Oh yeah - it's the sequel to "Tyranny" - it takes up the story about 8 hours after "Tyranny" ends....and gets pretty crazy from a story line and musical point of view.

M.I : What is room V ? Why that title ? explain the concept a bit and where it picks up from...
BA: The title "Room V" fits this CD in so many ways...it's our fifth record...five guys played on it, instead of our normal size man line up and it's been the name of our publishing company ever since our Debut CD. Plus, any one familiar with where we took our Band name from, will know where Room V comes from as well.
GW: It began from the name of our Publishing company, and that extends directly to the story and what happens in ACT IV. "ROOM V" ends up being the code name for the operation that gets Shadow Gallery involved.  

M.I : Natural science of Ben Salem's archer...- discuss ? Plagiarism ? Tribute ? it seemed to irk a lot of people lol.
GW: Wow, I honestly fail to see the connection- I am running through both songs in my head right now.. I wish I knew which parts you meant? I love the song Natural Science and that album and era of RUSH, so it is a compliment to me if we sound anything like that! Honestly though, We never thought of that song when we were working on this one - Brendt wrote the bulk of the body of the song, maybe he is the one who ripped it off.
BA: I've never been a big RUSH fan...though I do like them a bit. I've never owned a single RUSH record. I couldn't hum anything from Natural Science if you paid me to. (laughs ) I think it sounds more like TOOL meets Black Sabbath, with John Lord (Deep Purple) on Hammond Organ. I wish I knew what part you were talking about. I haven't heard anyone else make the connection to that RUSH song till now... I found it complementary to rush....
GW: Ok.... I would love to jam on that Rush song sometime soon, what a classic and original and terrific record!  

M.I : give us a few more details about the recordings.
GW: It was typical Shadow Gallery business, only we did not encounter nearly as many problems along the way. Brendt and I got to write a log of music together which was great - Mike hung in there and delivered wonderul vocal performances, and he had a great guide on some of it - Carl presented wonderful melodies again, not to mention a very deep storyline. We tracked most of it here at 9th Street Studios in ALLENTOWN, which is closing in 2 weeks, so it will be the last record ever recorded here.
  BA: This record was , unlike some of our previous efforts, very fun to record. Maybe I feel that way because I'm older now and appreciate more the talents and opportunities that GOD gave me. It was very fun to write. We went into this wanting to do the best record we could do, and while I think it's our best effort to date, I believe that the best is still yet to come. Luckily, we had very little equipment failures this time around, something that usualt plagues us.

M.I : Are you happy - with what you 've achieved will you tour to support the album ?
  GW: It is a good indication of growth, but I think we can do better - but at the end of the day, if one can give this a serious listen, I think there is room for them to be emotionally moved, and if that happens, then the record is a success- Of course, if one is emotionally moved to vomit, then that is not good for us - OR THEM..
  BA: We're in discussions about a tour of sorts currently. that looks like a strong possibility. I could not be happier with the way this record turned out.

M.I : Any plans for a visual document down the way ? other projects ? Are you lending a hand to Arjen ? anybody else lending his hand, throat lungs ? I ll lend you an ear.
BA: We're working on a "Making of Room V" DVD currently, though I'm not sure when it'll be done. We documented a LOT of the recording process and sessions this time around.
GW: Could be the end of the summer... maybe later, hopefully sooner.

M.I : What was your proudest / saddest moment so far ?
GW: many of each--- I just learned last night that our sales, accoring to one on line source anyway, were #1 in Italy. That is nice to read about. Saddest: Losing my dad just hours before I was boarding a plane to fly to San Diego to start drums for this album.
BA: I'd agree with Gary on both of those points...in fact, the whole band would.

M.I :. Would you release a live album ?
GW: The live show has to come first, so we'll have to take it with the proper steps, but it would make sense, at some point to capture the magic, if and when we have a magical night, to share with those who were not in attendence.  

M.I :. Where do you think that the band's music fits in the modern music scene ? what do you think about it ?
GW: I think we are in our own world, not by design or choice, but because we work at our craft and try to develop something that is accessable, but somewhat original.
BA: We don't really think about what we do in those terms...or at least I don't. There's not a single time in our career that I can recall saying or thinking " This sounds too much like this band or that band" and at the same time, I can't recall thinking about a particular song or part of a song that was "too progressive" or "not progressive enough". I guess what I'm trying to say is, our music just turns out the way it does and I don't really have a good label for it. If it fits anywhere, it's in a CD tray :)

M.I : what is your opinion about the mp3s/filesharing ? the internet ?
GW: It can help bands, and it can hurt them. Bottom line is this. If you are not the copyright owner of a song (which you only are if you are the songwriter or record label) - then you do NOT have the RIGHT to COPY the song... If you are happy to say you are "helping" the band, or it led to sales, then fine, but if the band didnt ask for your help with promotion, then follow the laws that are set up to keep things fair. Utlimately, bands lose a lot of money because of this, so the next time someone is "sharing" (what a nice word to hang on it), think about this: If your boss decided to stop paying you (while claiming they were possibly helping you in the long run) - How much longer would you work for them? My solution is simple: Download one minute clips, listen to them, keep them, cherish them if you want, and share them with the world - THEN, if you like it (and PLEASE, do not begin to tell me you cannot tell after more than 10 minutes of free music - 10 songs times 1 minute each)- Go out an buy it, and support the band, the music, the reason you have new joy in your life... and Do not get mad at bands that are telling you "please do not steal my work"
BA: If you bought a record, go ahead and copy it for yourself. Put it on your PC or make backup copies if you want - just don't stick it out on a server for people to take for free. It's really no different than buying a book, making photo copies of it and giving it away for free to anyone who happens to know where you put it. There are laws that protect against that sort of thing...called copyright laws. The person who wrote that book may have made increadibly large sacrifices to write it. The person who wrote that book may have no other source of income and every time someone took the "shared" copy, then that's food out of the mouths of the writers children. I don't think most music lovers understand that when a record company gives a band advance money to make a record, that the advance money is recoupable by the band, through sales of the product. Downloading music makes it more dificult to pay those large sums of money back to the record company and if you are lucky enough to actualy sell enough CD's to pay that money back, it's nice to be paid for all the time you spent in producing the art that you so desperately want to "share" with people.

M.I : Anything else you'd like to say?
GW: I have been a fan of Metal-Invader Greece for many years, so the people who are reading this - MUST be very cool to be reading such a cool magazine.
BA: If it wasn't for Gary liking Metal-Invader so much, nothing about him would be cool.
GW: This is brendts last album. (ok, just kidding)