BredYes
01-29-2002, 06:01 AM
Hello Yesfans,
Part two is ready. I hope you understand my translation, very strange: English-Dutch-English. Especially the remarks by Jon about Trevor Rabin and the final remark of Alan about Rick Wakeman are intersting. Maybe, this is a hint to the future. You never know.....
Hope you like it.
(continuation of interview part one)
Back to the roots, part one
Before Union started it was decided that Union was an single happening, so after the tour the school trip was over. From now on Yes had to be a "normal" band. Bruford and Howe decided to stop and Wakeman decided to continue his solo career. The remaining five members were the same members who recorded 90125 and Big Generator.
White: "Everything became the same as before Union. We were in Trevor's studio and recorded the album Talk like nothing has happened. Jon and Trevor shared the lead and I never heard somebody complain. We spent a lot of time to the vocals and Jon liked the songs a lot."
Anderson: "During the Talk sessions I got along well with Trevor. It was OK that he was responsible for the production. I said: 'Show me you are a first rate producer!'"
In the Talk period, the relation between Jon and Chris improved (a new light in the cloudy relation). The previous years both only tolerate/endured each other as colleagues, now it was time to neglect the ego's and talk out all the problems.
Anderson: "Chris and I both had a hard period in our lives, during the eighties. During the Talk tour we learned to know each other again. After the tour, we talked about our lives, what we were doing and if we had a future together. I said: 'Chris you are an excellent bass player. You are a little crazy/eccentric, and so am I, but if we want to continue with Yes we have to think at the reason why we started a band so long ago: music without boundaries, long pieces of music'. I wanted to return to that music and I told him I wanted to work with Steve Howe again. For the future of Yes, he was musically more interesting than Trevor."
White: "There was a long break after Talk, very long. Trevor got in touch with people from the film industry and he wanted to write soundtracks. Today, he is very successful."
Anderson: "Trevor is a good musician, but he acted too much like a rock & roll star. He absolutely couldn't handle the historical aspect of the band, while I thought that historical aspect was very important. I am happy that he made it in the film business, because he is very talented. I see him once a year. Probably that is the reason I get along with him well now, haha!!"
Back to the roots (part two)
Together with Rabin also Tony Kaye left Yes. So Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman could return to Yes. At once, there was the same line-up that had huge successes in the period 1972-1980.
Anderson: "When Steve and Rick returned, we realised we could play songs as Close to the Edge and And You and I again. Songs we couldn't do with Trevor. And of course we wrote long pieces of music again, for example Mind Drive. The idea was he all hold a key in a collaboration that could bring us to the next century. More simple: we wanted to make a new album and continue to work together in last years of the century. A necessary condition was that it has to be adventurous. That was the big plan. I must say: as long as it lasted we had great fun."
In 1996 the album Keys to Ascension was released. The double album scored good reviews, but Anderson's idea to continue this line up until the year 2000 failed.
White: "The shows and record were great, but Rick did not want to go on a long tour. Beside this, I thought he had some problems with his health".
Anderson: "Rick was back in the line up, but was not really in the band. He was not so very involved in the masterplan, while the others were very involved. So he left again.
The classical adventure
Yes reached the 21st century, with assistance of guitar player Billy Sherwood and the young Russian keyboard player Igor Khoroshev. They recorded two reasonable albums, Open Your Eyes ('98) and The Ladder ('99), but after the last successful tour, the new members left the band. The absence of a keyboard player gave Jon Anderson the opportunity to fulfil his dream. Deep Purple and Metallica already had successful records with an orchestra, so nothing could held back Yes to make a studio album with an orchestra.
White: "We all had the same plan in our minds, but it became tangible when we talked about it together. Steve came up with some classical arrangements on guitar and then we went together to Santa Barbara (California) to write an album: Magnification."
Anderson: "Recording an album with Yes is no little walk in a park, it is more like climbing a mountain. Once at the top of it the view is beautiful, but to reach it, it is a hell of a job. I never recorded a Yes album that was easy to make. Every album had a very difficult process: the hours you are thinking, the pain and frustration if somebody wants to do it different than you want, the emotions you go through working in a team…. The music does not come up just like that: they have to create out of dreams. Sometimes it is mysterious, the way a song can develop within three hours, like In the Presence Of from Magnification. That was amazing, like we had nothing to do with it. The title song however, costs us four days and has been changed six times. If you hear the final product, you cannot imagine that it is so difficult to make such a simple, magnificent, little piece of music.
White: "Larry Groupé (composer) visited us every weekend and we discussed the new writings and the next week he came back with his own ideas. Then we adjusted and that process continues for several weeks. After the studio sessions we went to San Diego to record the orchestra".
Anderson: "This is the most progressive step Yes ever did. Can you imagine I wanted to do this much earlier."
This summer, there was the kick off of the YesSymfonic tour, who brought the band on the 21st and 22nd of November to the Amsterdam Heineken Music Hall.
White: "Once at stage, everything was in its right place. The orchestra played excellent and the band even better. This was my first experience to play with an orchestra. I thought it was much more difficult, especially the combination of the old work and the new material. But we played the songs like we used to do and everything fits exactly. Our music is very suitable for it. Yes has in the orchestral pieces influences of Ravel and Fidelius, and a little Wagner and Stravinsky. That seems to be a perfect interaction with bizarre music. The orchestras did a good job. Every afternoon, they rehearsed with the conductor and Tom Brislin for three hours, without us. The orchestra saw us as we walked on the stage in the evening. I always saw confused faces because nobody knew how all those little fragments of the arrangement would sound. After the opening song Close to the Edge was over, all the musicians were laughing: everything fits.
Epilogue
Now, it is 2001 and Yes is active as never before. The classical adventure will last until to almost the end of 2002, according to the plans. After this, of course there will be a new chapter for the band with the whimsical/fanciful/changeable history. And how, what, where and in which line-up, you never know.
White: "Who knows, maybe next year we are on stage with Rick Wakeman again. But nothing is sure because we changed our minds very often."
Anderson: "We, the members of the band, don't have to say each other so much because we respect each other deeply. We are like brothers,. No, "normal" friends we are not. I am not a very social person. I have a quiet life, beside Yes. I live with my wife Jane at the ocean and I am not very often outside my house. If I call Steve, Chris or Rick, I never say: 'Let's drive together'. It is always about work. However, we have a special bond. I often think I knew Steve, Alan, Chris, and everyone else who was in the band, from another life. From a different time. You can turn your back on Yes, but you can never leave Yes."
Aloha, December 2001 by Willem Bemboom
Translation: BredYes
Part two is ready. I hope you understand my translation, very strange: English-Dutch-English. Especially the remarks by Jon about Trevor Rabin and the final remark of Alan about Rick Wakeman are intersting. Maybe, this is a hint to the future. You never know.....
Hope you like it.
(continuation of interview part one)
Back to the roots, part one
Before Union started it was decided that Union was an single happening, so after the tour the school trip was over. From now on Yes had to be a "normal" band. Bruford and Howe decided to stop and Wakeman decided to continue his solo career. The remaining five members were the same members who recorded 90125 and Big Generator.
White: "Everything became the same as before Union. We were in Trevor's studio and recorded the album Talk like nothing has happened. Jon and Trevor shared the lead and I never heard somebody complain. We spent a lot of time to the vocals and Jon liked the songs a lot."
Anderson: "During the Talk sessions I got along well with Trevor. It was OK that he was responsible for the production. I said: 'Show me you are a first rate producer!'"
In the Talk period, the relation between Jon and Chris improved (a new light in the cloudy relation). The previous years both only tolerate/endured each other as colleagues, now it was time to neglect the ego's and talk out all the problems.
Anderson: "Chris and I both had a hard period in our lives, during the eighties. During the Talk tour we learned to know each other again. After the tour, we talked about our lives, what we were doing and if we had a future together. I said: 'Chris you are an excellent bass player. You are a little crazy/eccentric, and so am I, but if we want to continue with Yes we have to think at the reason why we started a band so long ago: music without boundaries, long pieces of music'. I wanted to return to that music and I told him I wanted to work with Steve Howe again. For the future of Yes, he was musically more interesting than Trevor."
White: "There was a long break after Talk, very long. Trevor got in touch with people from the film industry and he wanted to write soundtracks. Today, he is very successful."
Anderson: "Trevor is a good musician, but he acted too much like a rock & roll star. He absolutely couldn't handle the historical aspect of the band, while I thought that historical aspect was very important. I am happy that he made it in the film business, because he is very talented. I see him once a year. Probably that is the reason I get along with him well now, haha!!"
Back to the roots (part two)
Together with Rabin also Tony Kaye left Yes. So Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman could return to Yes. At once, there was the same line-up that had huge successes in the period 1972-1980.
Anderson: "When Steve and Rick returned, we realised we could play songs as Close to the Edge and And You and I again. Songs we couldn't do with Trevor. And of course we wrote long pieces of music again, for example Mind Drive. The idea was he all hold a key in a collaboration that could bring us to the next century. More simple: we wanted to make a new album and continue to work together in last years of the century. A necessary condition was that it has to be adventurous. That was the big plan. I must say: as long as it lasted we had great fun."
In 1996 the album Keys to Ascension was released. The double album scored good reviews, but Anderson's idea to continue this line up until the year 2000 failed.
White: "The shows and record were great, but Rick did not want to go on a long tour. Beside this, I thought he had some problems with his health".
Anderson: "Rick was back in the line up, but was not really in the band. He was not so very involved in the masterplan, while the others were very involved. So he left again.
The classical adventure
Yes reached the 21st century, with assistance of guitar player Billy Sherwood and the young Russian keyboard player Igor Khoroshev. They recorded two reasonable albums, Open Your Eyes ('98) and The Ladder ('99), but after the last successful tour, the new members left the band. The absence of a keyboard player gave Jon Anderson the opportunity to fulfil his dream. Deep Purple and Metallica already had successful records with an orchestra, so nothing could held back Yes to make a studio album with an orchestra.
White: "We all had the same plan in our minds, but it became tangible when we talked about it together. Steve came up with some classical arrangements on guitar and then we went together to Santa Barbara (California) to write an album: Magnification."
Anderson: "Recording an album with Yes is no little walk in a park, it is more like climbing a mountain. Once at the top of it the view is beautiful, but to reach it, it is a hell of a job. I never recorded a Yes album that was easy to make. Every album had a very difficult process: the hours you are thinking, the pain and frustration if somebody wants to do it different than you want, the emotions you go through working in a team…. The music does not come up just like that: they have to create out of dreams. Sometimes it is mysterious, the way a song can develop within three hours, like In the Presence Of from Magnification. That was amazing, like we had nothing to do with it. The title song however, costs us four days and has been changed six times. If you hear the final product, you cannot imagine that it is so difficult to make such a simple, magnificent, little piece of music.
White: "Larry Groupé (composer) visited us every weekend and we discussed the new writings and the next week he came back with his own ideas. Then we adjusted and that process continues for several weeks. After the studio sessions we went to San Diego to record the orchestra".
Anderson: "This is the most progressive step Yes ever did. Can you imagine I wanted to do this much earlier."
This summer, there was the kick off of the YesSymfonic tour, who brought the band on the 21st and 22nd of November to the Amsterdam Heineken Music Hall.
White: "Once at stage, everything was in its right place. The orchestra played excellent and the band even better. This was my first experience to play with an orchestra. I thought it was much more difficult, especially the combination of the old work and the new material. But we played the songs like we used to do and everything fits exactly. Our music is very suitable for it. Yes has in the orchestral pieces influences of Ravel and Fidelius, and a little Wagner and Stravinsky. That seems to be a perfect interaction with bizarre music. The orchestras did a good job. Every afternoon, they rehearsed with the conductor and Tom Brislin for three hours, without us. The orchestra saw us as we walked on the stage in the evening. I always saw confused faces because nobody knew how all those little fragments of the arrangement would sound. After the opening song Close to the Edge was over, all the musicians were laughing: everything fits.
Epilogue
Now, it is 2001 and Yes is active as never before. The classical adventure will last until to almost the end of 2002, according to the plans. After this, of course there will be a new chapter for the band with the whimsical/fanciful/changeable history. And how, what, where and in which line-up, you never know.
White: "Who knows, maybe next year we are on stage with Rick Wakeman again. But nothing is sure because we changed our minds very often."
Anderson: "We, the members of the band, don't have to say each other so much because we respect each other deeply. We are like brothers,. No, "normal" friends we are not. I am not a very social person. I have a quiet life, beside Yes. I live with my wife Jane at the ocean and I am not very often outside my house. If I call Steve, Chris or Rick, I never say: 'Let's drive together'. It is always about work. However, we have a special bond. I often think I knew Steve, Alan, Chris, and everyone else who was in the band, from another life. From a different time. You can turn your back on Yes, but you can never leave Yes."
Aloha, December 2001 by Willem Bemboom
Translation: BredYes