Neal Morse & The Resonance is the new band from Neal Morse (Transatlantic, Flying Colors) and a brand new set of young musicians from his local Tennessee area, who brought with them a sense of newness and immediacy. The new album entitled ‘No Hill For A Climber’ will be released 8th November 2024 and the title is taken from a resonant line in Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Demon Copperhead.
Now, the band are pleased to share the second single from the album, “Thief,” one of the most unique sounding tracks on the album, as Neal explains:
“Thief had an interesting writing process. I woke up from a very deep afternoon nap with this idea of people singing ‘thief’ in these high voices and then saying stuff in between. It was really weird. But I thought it might be cool. So I wrote the beginning part and then had no idea where to go. I phoned Chris Riley who lives close by and he came over and he had the idea to put in the kind of evil sounding middle section. The drum beat has a kind of hip-hop feel which was not my idea at all. I had written it with a swing feel, and when Joe Ganzelli came in to do a drum track on it, that was his idea! I think it really makes the song special and different. Neal Morse with a hip-hop feel? Love it!”
Watch the video for “Thief” here:
https://youtu.be/xSEc-YURcn4
Faithful to any Neal Morse prog album, ‘No Hill For A Climber’ features two epics (the 28 minute ‘No Hill For A Climber’ and ‘Eternity In Your Eyes’, which clocks in at 22 minutes) as well as three shorter songs: ‘Ever Interceding’, ‘All The Rage’ and ‘Thief’. The latter, Morse admits, is his current favorite: “It’s so different… it’s in all these different sections, and I’m really happy with the way each part has come out. It’s pretty crazy. There’s even a really cool King Crimson-style instrumental bit in the middle that Chris Riley originally came up with at the Radiant School a couple of years ago.”
For all of these reasons, Morse believes that the whole album is unique, but notes that “if I was going to compare its structure to an album I've done in the past, it might be along the lines of ‘Bridge Across Forever’ or Spock's Beard’s ‘V’; it’s not that it sounds at all like those albums, it’s just structurally similar. It has voices and playing styles and soundscapes that many people will have never heard before! Everyone you work with changes you a little bit, so even I sound a little different on this one, but I hope that everyone will love it!”
Watch the video for the first single “All The Rage” here:
Throughout his long career, Neal Morse has often been a musical collaborator, usually with some of the greatest prog musicians across the world. This time, Morse has brought that collaborative spirit closer to home.
It has its roots at the end of 2023, as Morse explains: “I started thinking about what I was going to do in 2024, and my wife suggested that I should think about doing something with the amazingly talented younger guys that we have here locally – like Chris Riley, Andre Madatian and Philip Martin. I knew just how good they were from playing with them at our Christmas concerts and other events.”
These local musicians were supplemented by Joe Ganzelli (drums) and Johnny Bisaha, who performs much of the lead vocal work, as Morse explains: “While composing ‘No Hill For A Climber’, I was hearing a lot of higher range vocals –so I contacted Johnny Bisaha, who came over, listened to the music. loved it and started singing for me. And I immediately thought, ‘Oh man, he's the guy!’”.
Neal Morse - Keyboards, Guitars, Bass, Percussion, Lead and Backing Vocals
Chris Riley - Keyboards, Guitars, Bass, Lead Vocals
Andre Madatian - Guitars and Orchestration
Johnny Bisaha - Lead Vocals
Philip Martin - Drums on tracks 2, 3, 4 & 5
Joe Ganzelli - Drums on tracks 1, 2 & 5
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