Sheffield progressive rock band Gilmore Trail discuss their long-awaited third album, 'Impermanence', and their UK tour

As the new year brings on colder weather, I spent some time talking to the ambient, epic and cinematic, music creating prog-rock band Gilmore Trail, who recently released their first album in five years. We discussed their latest release, why they chose the name Gilmore Trail, videogames, Jackass and much more as we warmed up with a steaming bowl of bean chilli.

A prolonged hiatus can be the death knell for many bands or artists, but it can also be a prime opportunity to make a return with fresh ideas. It all comes down to perspective, and that’s something that Gilmore Trail are aiming to do with ‘Impermanence’ — the follow up to their 2015 release, The Floating World. Founding member Joe discussed how this latest project came to fruition in-between spoonfuls of a perfectly spiced homemade chilli.

“It kind of all came together while a few things were changing in our lives, relationships, and that kind of thing”

“And, then the whole process just came out of the themes of our lives. The Floating World album was named after the Japanese ukiyo-e art style” , says Joe, before continuing.

“In comparison to that almost tranquil style of music Impermanence is more about rebirths and cycles, which is kind of what influenced the names of the songs.”

‘Impermanence’ is the culmination of a trilogy of full-length studio releases for one of Sheffield’s premier instrumental bands. A soaring emotive affair, recorded and completed just before the pandemic hit.

It was quite pre-emptive of what was to come with its themes of change, which if you take into account recent months, it’s nod to the impermanence of a normality society had taken for granted is pretty spot on, if only avoiding the pitfalls of social media, bubbling anger, fake news and relentless conspiracy theories.

Following the departure of drummer Sam Ainger who left at the beginning of the recording process. In came new percussionist Bob Brown, an old friend, whose input and approach signalled a change to the tone of the project.

“Everything changed in a way, including the album name."

“Sam was leaving and when I have discussed it with the guys, I always explain that Bob plays the drums much quicker, yet lighter hitting. So that kind of changed the music stylistically”, says Joe

It was only when we deviated our conversation onto that of videogames, in particular the N64 and the increasing cost to latch onto older memories that the album’s intention or meaning was explained in simple terms by Bob.

“That’s the whole point of the album, Impermanence, nothing lasts forever. Good or bad. Things come and go in… in cycles, just like our desire to play Mario Kart 64”

Bob added, “I dunno who it was who came up with the name first but whoever said it, everybody instantly agreed ‘yeah, that’s the name’, and everything after then we’d jokingly say in our group chats, hashtag impermanence.”

"Whenever anything good or bad ends, we’d refer back to the impermanence of things again.”

The thing about the music that Gilmore Trail create is that each of their projects is purely instrumental, you can say so much without saying a single word at all and this trio of albums, neatly brought to a close with Impermanence, is saying an awful lot.

To quote the iconic lyrics of Ronan Keating, ‘you say it best when you say nothing at all’. Not exactly the person the band may attribute to their output but amusingly fitting, it was a mention that resulted in yet more laughter.

“That’s the thing with a lot of instrumental rock”, says Dave, “it can be quite similar. But we wanted to vary the journey, keep it interesting, we don’t want our music just to be for those who are into instrumental or progression rock.”

Each song is a contained message in of itself, from the personal reflections of a collapsing legacy in Ruins - the video to which you can see on this page – to the brooding undertones to losing a loved one to the debilitating effects of dementia in Distant Reflection. Another one of their songs that you should listen to is Echoes of Solitude, featuring a brooding saxophone, and was inspired by the 52Hz Whale… aka the loneliest whale in the world (something that is worth a Google!).

It’s an album that's deeply entrenched within its thoughts, offering moments of hope and reverie, a few of the songs (five to be precise) confidently surpass the 8-minute mark, all without feeling overly long at the same time. It’s a tricky balance.

Gilmore Trail’s latest album Impermanence was released on January 21, 2022. It is available digitally on all streaming platforms and physically — alongside a vinyl-only bonus track: Origins/Oceans (Live).

The band will also be touring their new material with gigs taking place in early July, 2022, across the UK, and Sheffield too. You can find out more info and buy tickets here.