Prog Magazine is proud to present the world premiere of a brand new version of Gentle Giant’s Proclamation, featuring the original band themselves! Put together by Noah Shulman, son of GG frontman Derek, the video features contributions from a huge number of talented fans, friends and rock and prog notables, including Jakko Jakszyk, Billy Sherwood and Yes/Steve Hackett bassist Lee Pomeroy. You can watch the new video in full below.
For Noah Shulman, one of the most exciting aspects of the Proclamation project was the opportunity to hear his dad singing a Gentle Giant song. In fact, all five surviving members of the band’s classic ‘70s line-ups make appearances in the video: frontman Derek, bassist Ray Shulman and brother Phil Shulman, keyboardist Kerry Minnear, guitarist Gary Green and no fewer than two drummers, Malcolm Mortimore and John Weathers. Perhaps not surprisingly, Noah confesses that it was his father that needed the most persuasion.
“I think it wasn’t until I started sending him some of the fan submissions that he realised this thing was real and could be a really fun video,” says Noah. “So I asked him to sing a few lines and to be honest, I was surprised how excited and willing he was. It was one of the few times I’ve heard him sing Gentle Giant music! Once he was open to being in it, I knew I had to get every band member to contribute in some way. My favourite moment is around two minutes in, when all the members are on screen screaming ‘Hail!’”
With every contribution being performed remotely, Noah Shulman faced a logistical and technical nightmare when he pieced the new Proclamation together. A self-evident labour of love, the final product looks and sounds spectacular and was clearly worth all that laborious effort.
“I‘m predominantly from a film and video background, but I decided to not even think about the visuals until the very last step,” Noah explains. “So first I synced and grouped every instrument to the original song, nearing over 100 tracks of audio. The syncing alone took five days! From there I went through it section by section, cutting the audio stems while also making sure I could include as many participants as possible over the course of the track. [Then] I needed it to be levelled and mixed properly so I reached out to my uncle Ray (Shulman) who definitely said the audio timeline looked like a nightmare… sorry Ray! [Laughs] But we worked together to fine tune things and I’m really happy with the result and that we kept everything within the GG family.”
A fine way to celebrate the band’s music, not to mention the ongoing Gentle Giant reissue splurge, Proclamation 2020.
"Yes there’s lots in the works. Sadly no reunion, though!” says Noah. “Steven Wilson has remixed Free Hand in Dolby Atmos as well as a 5.1 & surround sound. He has also remixed Interview and The Missing Piece in 5.1 & surround sound, all slated for a 2021 release. There will also likely be several recently discovered live albums on vinyl and maybe even on CD in 2021. In the meantime we have slowly been ramping up the band’s YouTube and Instagram presence so be sure to follow them @gentlegiantband (IG) and search for Gentle Giant Official on YouTube.”
