Dave Allen - Spirergy Interview

Dave Allen – Spirergy – Interview Questions

The cover for Spirergy's new Whenever Forever album

1/ This new album is really good I can hear a lot of Yes and Mike Oldfield in the guitar work and the powerful bass lines am I supposed to be able to or is that just me hearing things?

That is a huge compliment for me, John, thank you and I suppose the straight answer to your question is probably, yes. As a child of the 60’s, I discovered YES around 1972 with Fragile and Close to the Edge but most notably, Yessongs. Chris Squire’s bass sound and Steve Howe’s guitar work on Roundabout had a big impact on me. I also bought Tubular Bells when it first came out and again was probably influenced by Mike Oldfield but never really followed his work much after that. Even before Progressive rock music was a genre, I was probably heading in that direction anyway. As a youngster, I was a boy soprano singing classical works such as Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Fludde in school concerts and my dad was a huge classical music lover, so was surrounded by Beethoven, Bach, Mahler and Sibelius, on his gramophone. I started with Spanish guitar lessons at around 11 years old and wrote my first (very basic) song then. So, when I listened to ELP in 1970 I could totally relate to classical music being played on guitars and synths so that was my grounding.

2/ what inspires your compositions where did get your concepts come from?

As a small boy, I was captivated by Sci-Fi and read many books such Isaac Asimov’s ‘Foundation Trilogy’ and Arthur C Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and watched the film in 1968, as well as the Star Trek series on TV. I have always had a vivid imagination and even wrote my own Sci-Fi novel called ‘Spirergy’ which might give away the origin of the band name! Most of my compositions are based on futuristic worlds, the human condition and space travel. I’m also very emotionally influenced by current affairs, wars and conflicts around the world but I made a conscious decision not to build politics into my lyrics because it gives a narrow focus and is too short term in my opinion, so I put those emotions into a fantasy landscape and let the listener draw their own conclusions.

3/ I noticed that Colin from The Swan Chorus helped with the sound of the album. Is he local to you?

7/ Have you thought of having a singer like John Wilkinson to help you out at all?

I’m going to answer question 3 and 7 at the same time if that’s ok, because they are linked? When I released my second album, ‘Journey Beyond’, I was lucky enough to have many of the tracks played on Prog stations around the world. At the same time, John Wilkinson released his fantastic solo album, ‘Imposter Syndrome’ and we both appeared (I think), in Shaun Geraghty’s ‘The Prog Mill’ chat room. John and I continued our chat afterwards and I met up with him and met Lisa, his lovely wife and the wonderful members of the ‘Mama’, band and families, when they played at Heswall Hall a few days later. We talked about a possible collaboration and will hopefully start working on some material in 2026, time permitting with John’s very busy schedule.

At the beginning of 2025, I had completed most of what is now my third album, ‘Wherever Forever’ and wanted to get the tracks mixed and mastered professionally. (I literally did everything on Aeon and Journey Beyond myself). So, I contacted John Wilkinson to ask who did the work on ‘Imposter Syndrome’, (the sound mix is superb) and he put me in touch with Colin McKay of The Swan Chorus. I live in Hoylake, Wirral and Colin lives about an hour away in Prescot, outside Liverpool.

I had just finished building a music studio at home, so, Colin came to me to mix and master the album here. I think I tested his resolve by presenting him with over a hundred stems per song, some with over thirty guitar harmony tracks and a lot of complexity but being the consummate sound engineering genius that he is, has produced an extraordinarily good result in my opinion.

I’m hoping Colin McKay will also be a part of the collaboration with John Wilkinson as his programming skills are second to none.

4/ You do all the artwork yourself how do you do it all?

I love art and pictures and have painted in oils and acrylics myself over the years as an amateur. I’ve always been creative and spend hours producing potential ideas for music, lyrics, video and artworks. I just really enjoy producing something a bit different and putting my personality into the process. More recently, I’ve been learning how to create using modern technology but trying to stay true to my ideas rather than just adopting the use of AI but it’s a very useful tool and helps to achieve professional results that are required when producing CDs and booklets etc.

5/ This is your third release in 4 years, this is a very expensive hobby, surely?

There is no question, producing music to a reasonably high standard is costly but it has been a passion throughout my life so, it’s been worth it for me. As a business colleague of mine constantly reminds me, ‘If not now, when?’ On the 21st of March 2020 I was running a successful hospitality consultancy business with a very busy diary and on 22nd March had no clients and no income due to Covid19! Luckily, my wife, Gill, was still teaching and we’d both been prudent over the years, so it wasn’t existential, thankfully. It did, however, leave me with a lot of time on my hands and so the opportunity arose to spend time pursuing my passion. I’m under no illusion that making music is lucrative, it’s not, unless you perform live, sell merchandise or capture the Zeitgeist which is rare in today’s Prog world. My aim, therefore, was to sell enough CDs to cover my costs, which they have. So, I have a cost neutral hobby, as you put it and you never know what the future holds!

6/ What next for you any prospect of any live action for you?

After a successful year of two album releases with Colin Powell, my Riffstone partner, we’re working on the next album project which is going to be a little different to Richard III (which you have very kindly put in your list of best albums for 2025, thank you!) and Sanctuary Sky. We are both enjoying the freedom to produce music we like and not stick to any preconceived rules which is quite liberating! Work on that project and others with Mr Powell will continue into 2026.

Also, hopefully in 2026, I’ll be working with John Wilkinson and Colin McKay on a new collaboration which I’m really looking forward to, if that comes to fruition.

And there’ll be fourth Spirergy album towards the end of 2026. I already have an album’s worth of new material, work in progress, so I’m very excited about next year.

A number of people have suggested putting a band together to perform live and it’s certainly on my bucket list but nothing concrete to talk about at this moment in time. I hope it will happen at some stage though.

Info here: Music | Spirergy https://share.google/JVLpIDSVDD8boQLXo