First and foremost, I would like to thank all the wonderful friends/fans who have sent me well wishes through my wife LeeAnne's thread. God bless you all; know that I am extremely humbled by your inspiring words and that I'm gonna kick this thing's ass and emerge better and stronger than ever! Please keep the prayers and well-wishes coming as I have still a bit of a struggle ahead of me and LeeAnne prints out everyone's comments for me to read which I can't begin to tell you how much they mean to me...
My main reason for writing tho' is to 'clear the air' concerning HTM. The early years of HTM were absolutely some of the most rewarding, enlightening and spiritually fulfilling years of my life. We were creating some wonderful adventurous music and simply following our hearts. When I moved back to the east coast from Los Angeles to reform HTM for NEARFEST 2000 it was with the same intent and excitement as the early years. Frank,Rick and I made a pact to only do it as long as it was still fun. The fun factor for me ended soon after NEARFEST. The logistical nightmare of trying to get together to write and create new HTM music was very frustrating. Frank had so many excess toons and I had a number of 'rockers' which didn't really quite fit into the typically heavy keyboard-laden format of HTM and we just knew that if we waited for HTM to get together they would never see the light of day. Thus was born the 'Pedal Giant Animals' project which became the seeds for 'Oblivion Sun'.
We never made an "official" announcement for a number of reasons too lengthy to go into here. Suffice to say, I was very unhappy with the HTM situation and disbanded it three years ago. For me, as a lead guitarist, I once again felt relegated to the role of a 'textural' guitarist with an occasional structured solo (if I was lucky! Which, I may add, had to be played 'note-for-note' every time with nary a thought to god-forbid improvise or fans would think I screwed up and made a mistake!) I appreciated this aspect in the early days as I think I wrote some pretty cool structured solos but to be limited to playing the exact same solo every time no longer works for me in 2008.
Oblivion Sun has given me a vehicle to express every side of who I am and that includes more singing and more improvising! Playing with OS offers me more freedom as a guitarist than I've experienced in my entire life. I'm having more fun playing guitar now than when I was a giddy lil' 16 year old! Now, I never quite know what I'm going to play when a solo comes up and I absolutely LOVE that!!! I have sorely missed that 'edge of your seat' creative spontaneity that can only happen 'live' with a band.
There was absolutely no 'spontaneity' within the confines of HTM music and that was okay for 1972 (when I formed HTM) but is a bit confining and stifling in 2008. I truly believe in my 'heart of hearts' that "progressive" music means to evolve and expand your musical horizons and, dare I say, 'progress' and grow both spiritually and musically, wherever that may take you. Don't get me wrong, HTM fans, I'm VERY proud of the HTM 'legacy'! We created some amazing music. I always considered HTM more of an orchestra than a rock band as the music was SO highly structured (I have always adored classical music and was equally as inspired by Debussy, Delius and Stravinsky as I was by Gentle Giant and King Crimson!) and it was always a great challenge to recreate and pull off that music live.
OS pays homage to HTM at every gig by playing 4-5 choice HTM toons. If you haven't yet heard OS live or the cd (and consider yourself a HTM fan) please do yourself and the band a favor and get it! With me and Frank's toons there's plenty of HTM vibe throughout the OS cd but simply with more balls! With Bill Plummer playing moog you've got more of a Kit Watkins/Jan Hammer vibe than ever and his compositions fit right in with the HTM vibe! And with Chris Mack (Pedal Giant Animals, Puppet Show and Illuvitar)on drums and Dave DeMarco (Marc Norgard,local Baltimore legend etc.)on bass we have a very smokin' awesome rhythm section that can groove on while Frank, Bill and I can 'stretch'. For our most recent gig at Jammin' Java our encore was 'Service with a Smile' going into a 10-15 minute completely free-form jam (which is how we end all OS shows!)
Growing up in Germany in 1969 I was exposed to Gentle Giant, Crimson, Yes, Genesis, Van der Graf, etc when I was a young 15 year old budding guitarist. All of them had a major impact on my musical-life; but at the same time I was also seeing Free and Humble Pie live and was WAY into them too! Bottom line, I'm a 'rocker' at heart and Oblivion Sun gives me a vehicle to express that side of my musical soul in a way HTM never could. For anyone questioning any HTM/Oblivion Sun comparisons/revelations please reference the OS review in the lastest issue of Progression Magazine. I couldnt've said it better myself!
Lastly, as my wonderful wife LeeAnne so eloquently put it;
"Death of the 'Man', Birth of the 'Sun',
With my guitar as my oar, I row to the shore..."
(I can't tell you how good it is to have my soul and my feet firmly back on solid ground)
Love & Light to you all, thanks for letting me ramble, please share this message with any and all 'proggers' who may know of HTM but have yet to discover Oblivion Sun,
Progressively yours,
Stanley Whitaker
My main reason for writing tho' is to 'clear the air' concerning HTM. The early years of HTM were absolutely some of the most rewarding, enlightening and spiritually fulfilling years of my life. We were creating some wonderful adventurous music and simply following our hearts. When I moved back to the east coast from Los Angeles to reform HTM for NEARFEST 2000 it was with the same intent and excitement as the early years. Frank,Rick and I made a pact to only do it as long as it was still fun. The fun factor for me ended soon after NEARFEST. The logistical nightmare of trying to get together to write and create new HTM music was very frustrating. Frank had so many excess toons and I had a number of 'rockers' which didn't really quite fit into the typically heavy keyboard-laden format of HTM and we just knew that if we waited for HTM to get together they would never see the light of day. Thus was born the 'Pedal Giant Animals' project which became the seeds for 'Oblivion Sun'.
We never made an "official" announcement for a number of reasons too lengthy to go into here. Suffice to say, I was very unhappy with the HTM situation and disbanded it three years ago. For me, as a lead guitarist, I once again felt relegated to the role of a 'textural' guitarist with an occasional structured solo (if I was lucky! Which, I may add, had to be played 'note-for-note' every time with nary a thought to god-forbid improvise or fans would think I screwed up and made a mistake!) I appreciated this aspect in the early days as I think I wrote some pretty cool structured solos but to be limited to playing the exact same solo every time no longer works for me in 2008.
Oblivion Sun has given me a vehicle to express every side of who I am and that includes more singing and more improvising! Playing with OS offers me more freedom as a guitarist than I've experienced in my entire life. I'm having more fun playing guitar now than when I was a giddy lil' 16 year old! Now, I never quite know what I'm going to play when a solo comes up and I absolutely LOVE that!!! I have sorely missed that 'edge of your seat' creative spontaneity that can only happen 'live' with a band.
There was absolutely no 'spontaneity' within the confines of HTM music and that was okay for 1972 (when I formed HTM) but is a bit confining and stifling in 2008. I truly believe in my 'heart of hearts' that "progressive" music means to evolve and expand your musical horizons and, dare I say, 'progress' and grow both spiritually and musically, wherever that may take you. Don't get me wrong, HTM fans, I'm VERY proud of the HTM 'legacy'! We created some amazing music. I always considered HTM more of an orchestra than a rock band as the music was SO highly structured (I have always adored classical music and was equally as inspired by Debussy, Delius and Stravinsky as I was by Gentle Giant and King Crimson!) and it was always a great challenge to recreate and pull off that music live.
OS pays homage to HTM at every gig by playing 4-5 choice HTM toons. If you haven't yet heard OS live or the cd (and consider yourself a HTM fan) please do yourself and the band a favor and get it! With me and Frank's toons there's plenty of HTM vibe throughout the OS cd but simply with more balls! With Bill Plummer playing moog you've got more of a Kit Watkins/Jan Hammer vibe than ever and his compositions fit right in with the HTM vibe! And with Chris Mack (Pedal Giant Animals, Puppet Show and Illuvitar)on drums and Dave DeMarco (Marc Norgard,local Baltimore legend etc.)on bass we have a very smokin' awesome rhythm section that can groove on while Frank, Bill and I can 'stretch'. For our most recent gig at Jammin' Java our encore was 'Service with a Smile' going into a 10-15 minute completely free-form jam (which is how we end all OS shows!)
Growing up in Germany in 1969 I was exposed to Gentle Giant, Crimson, Yes, Genesis, Van der Graf, etc when I was a young 15 year old budding guitarist. All of them had a major impact on my musical-life; but at the same time I was also seeing Free and Humble Pie live and was WAY into them too! Bottom line, I'm a 'rocker' at heart and Oblivion Sun gives me a vehicle to express that side of my musical soul in a way HTM never could. For anyone questioning any HTM/Oblivion Sun comparisons/revelations please reference the OS review in the lastest issue of Progression Magazine. I couldnt've said it better myself!
Lastly, as my wonderful wife LeeAnne so eloquently put it;
"Death of the 'Man', Birth of the 'Sun',
With my guitar as my oar, I row to the shore..."
(I can't tell you how good it is to have my soul and my feet firmly back on solid ground)
Love & Light to you all, thanks for letting me ramble, please share this message with any and all 'proggers' who may know of HTM but have yet to discover Oblivion Sun,
Progressively yours,
Stanley Whitaker