upbgirl
02-15-2003, 03:22 PM
had to use the laughing devil icon, because i am filled with maniacal laughter as soon as i open my mailbox!! i LOVE this mag.. thank you so much, my acid-folk playing buddy, glenn!!
here is a small interview they did with alan..[dang! should have gotten those bi-focals] this is from issue #41-summer/fall 2002
ALAN WHITE:EXPOSED
long-time Yes drummer shares the nitty gritty of an illustrious career
by john 'bobo' bollenberg
No 'long distance runaround' when it comes to accessing members of yes in the 21st century-thank goodness for THAT!! The last time this writer visited the grand hotel, in amsterdam, holland, was when micheal jackson played the arena. the interview involved tour guitarist, jennifer batten, yet getting there on the Oudezijds Voorbugwal was next to impossible. hastily erected crush-barriers held back hundreds of jackson fans who braved a constant drizzle to glimpse their hero.
This time, no crush-barriers, no security on every street corner.. and the enticing possibility of bumping into vocalist/icon Jon Anderson with wife, jane, in the city center. the assignment: a sit down with with Yes drummer, alan white.
White was easily recognizable the moment he entered the hotel lobby. But summoning him required a bit of cloak and dagger, as the band members never register in their proper names. So even if you knew which hotel the band uses, never ask the clerk to ring White, Anderson, Squire or Wakeman, because they wont be listed. it was even worse when the guy behind the counter asked from which song he should know Yes.
"owner of a lonely heart" did the trick, even if it was necessary to sing a small part of the tune a capella [to the amusement of the passing guests]. Whites quick arrival and firm handshake were reassuring. "I have a short interview with someone from the sunday mirror", alan smiles. "I'll be 15 minutes or so and then i'll pick you up." in the 20 minutes that followed, Anderson entered the lobby. Jon was the only Yes member considered off limits to interviews, in deference to preserving his voice on tour.
"it's true that i i tend to sing rather loud and have to look after my voice. We are recording a dvd tonight, so i really have to look after that voice very well," he says. Not to worry. White soon returns and hunkers down with a cold beer to discuss all things Yes, plus a few other far-ranging subjects.
Of course, this session occured BEFORE wakemans unexpectedly welcome return to the Yes fold. The first thing alan asks is how rick is doing, recalling the longstanding friendship between yours truly and the venerated keyboard maestro. he knows about ricks live performance of 'return to the centre of the earth' in canada, and when told rick is in russia, he relates with enthusiasm.
"when we were performing in moscow with Yes, my wife and i were walking beside the kremlin and noticed a poster of rick wakeman. he looked like a comedian!" with russia in mind, the name of igor khoroshev comes up. "igor was a pure wakeman clone," white says of the now ex-Yes keyboardist. "russia is the cradle for clones! in fact, the arrival of igor was a learning experience for me because i could see someone who would take the best parts of someone else, then add a couple of of his own things to result in something original.
"as soon as you arrive in the airport in moscow you can read these wise words: 'welcome to a different world.' and that is exactly what it's all about because nothing, and i mean nothing, there, can be compared with the rest of the world. i have been in the subway in moscow and was amazed at the art and references to to the revolution and the war, which are all over the place. i have a lot of nice photos as souvenirs."
the interview quickly gets down to business. white addresses the fact that the bands latest studio work, 'magnification', was written and completed without presence of a keyboardist-a Yes first. "every day we would enter the studio and work non-stop for about eight hours writing new material. it even gave me the opportunity to play some piano, which would have been completely out of the question if we'd had a keyboard player in our ranks.
"the song 'in the presence of' had been in my head for two years, and i finally got the opportunity to develop it within the mold of Yes. we would give the backing tracks to [producer] larry groupe, and almost every week, he would arrive with new arrangements. strangely enough, groupe would play on keyboards what would later be played by the orchestra. i have to admit that we knew from the start that the orchestra could easily replace the mellotron, but there was no way the orchestra could replace a Moog synthesizer. so we were really in need of a keyboardist.
"through our management we were recommended to check out 23-year-old tom brislin, a young guy who had proven his skills alongside meatloaf. during this tour, the guy doesnt know what hits him as the polish orchestra we're using consists mainly of of girls between the ages of 20 and 30 years old! although tom's style leans heavily towards jazz, the fact he was raised on Yes music allows him to perform difficult pieces like 'close to the edge' with ease.
"the orchestra we used in europe is the same orchestra we used night after night for six weeks. in all, we rehearsed three days together. yet as time goes by you notice that the orchestra is getting more and more into the music. in america, things were different, because we used a different orchestra every night. those orchestras got three hours to rehearse every afternoon. we'd see the orchestra for the very first time once we climbed onstage seconds before the concert would start. night after night there would be musicians who couldnt understand the scores they were given, yet who made sure they played exactly what they were asked to.
"during [guitarist steve howe's] acoustic piece, some of these musicians would come up to me smiling and with the same remark: "you just made my life!" when these guys rehearsed during the afternoon, they couldnt understand what they were playing. yet once Yes got onstage and they played the same parts with the band, everything fell into place. they enjoyed every second of it. another weird thing is that, every night, someone would admit to having been raised on yesmusic."
before the orchestral 'magnification', Yes had never employed a violin solo in the studio. white admits that working with strings has opened the bands ears after all this time, and "it strikes me that there's always [potential for] a violin solo somewhere." he termed the orchestral tour a definite learning process for Yes.
personnel changes have been integral to the Yes legacy-to the band's benefit or detriment, depending on on which fan you ask. there was patrick moraz replacing wakeman on 'relayer'. there was the trevor rabin era, the khoroshev era. when singer trevor horn and keyboardist geoff downes joined Yes in 1980, many die-hard fans were cynical. the consequent album 'drama' also received it's share of critical derision. but the years have been kind to 'drama' which holds up well as a musical statement from that chapter of Yes history, white says. the same goes for other eras distinguished by varied lineups.
"in the Yes camp, we have always believed in the saying 'you gain some-you lose some.' we gain some new fans, we lose some old fans. you have to see Yes like an egg that's rolling down from a mountain. at one point, the egg will look dirty. yet although it is by now covered in moss and dirt, the egg itself remains untouched. as in life, that same egg now and again, cracks.
"not so long ago, i talked with jon about the 'drama' material, and he has no problem singing the material. so we are now thinking of adding 'tempus fugit' to our set list. dont forget that we played madison square garden to a sold out audience four days in a row with trevor and geoff-something never achieved with other line-ups! i remember that trevor horn used to move further and further away from the microphone during high notes in 'and you and i' because he didnt have jon's volume and pitch. that's the sort of things fans reacted to. not once was trevor credited for for the 'drama' material, yet the media would slag him time after time where the anderson songs were concerned."
regarding songs for the symphonic tour, it became obvious that a lot of 'older' pieces should be played. a similar approach comprised the 'masterworks' tour performances, and white says the band acknowledges fan interest in vintage Yes compositions. white notes that personally, he would enjoy incorporating more recent material. "we have been playing the title track 'magnification', which is not easy to perform live. because it contains such a wonderful orchestral arrangement, we simply had to to include it. every time we embark on a tour, we ask our fans via our website, which songs they'd like to hear. if we played all the songs fans ask for, we would be onstage all day!"
talk turned to the previous studio work, 'the ladder' white says that producer, bruce fairbairn, who died suddenly near the albums completion, could have remained at the Yes studio helm indefinitely.
" i am convinced that when you put certain people into one room, you can create magic. yet with igor and billy in the same room, you lost a bit of that magic. the 'ladder' became a wonderful project but it took us a long time. i enormoussly loved the way bruce was working, because he controlled it all perfectly. bruce could have stayed with Yes as long as our collaboration with eddie offord lasted. fate had to decide otherwise, so we will never know the answer to that question.
"bruce had a vision as to how 'the ladder' should sound. sadly, he didnt live long enough to witness the end of the project, which meant the technician took over took over from bruce when he died. one of the major principles within Yes is that we should be able to reproduce live what we have done in the studio. where 'mag' is concerned, we constructed a lot of tracks with ProTools [computer software]. live, we now do 'magnification', 'in the presence of' and 'don't go'. and i can say that we have good control over these songs. i also have to admit that it took me half an hour to get the orchestra's percussionist to play the tambourine the way it has to be played!"
end of part one....
here is a small interview they did with alan..[dang! should have gotten those bi-focals] this is from issue #41-summer/fall 2002
ALAN WHITE:EXPOSED
long-time Yes drummer shares the nitty gritty of an illustrious career
by john 'bobo' bollenberg
No 'long distance runaround' when it comes to accessing members of yes in the 21st century-thank goodness for THAT!! The last time this writer visited the grand hotel, in amsterdam, holland, was when micheal jackson played the arena. the interview involved tour guitarist, jennifer batten, yet getting there on the Oudezijds Voorbugwal was next to impossible. hastily erected crush-barriers held back hundreds of jackson fans who braved a constant drizzle to glimpse their hero.
This time, no crush-barriers, no security on every street corner.. and the enticing possibility of bumping into vocalist/icon Jon Anderson with wife, jane, in the city center. the assignment: a sit down with with Yes drummer, alan white.
White was easily recognizable the moment he entered the hotel lobby. But summoning him required a bit of cloak and dagger, as the band members never register in their proper names. So even if you knew which hotel the band uses, never ask the clerk to ring White, Anderson, Squire or Wakeman, because they wont be listed. it was even worse when the guy behind the counter asked from which song he should know Yes.
"owner of a lonely heart" did the trick, even if it was necessary to sing a small part of the tune a capella [to the amusement of the passing guests]. Whites quick arrival and firm handshake were reassuring. "I have a short interview with someone from the sunday mirror", alan smiles. "I'll be 15 minutes or so and then i'll pick you up." in the 20 minutes that followed, Anderson entered the lobby. Jon was the only Yes member considered off limits to interviews, in deference to preserving his voice on tour.
"it's true that i i tend to sing rather loud and have to look after my voice. We are recording a dvd tonight, so i really have to look after that voice very well," he says. Not to worry. White soon returns and hunkers down with a cold beer to discuss all things Yes, plus a few other far-ranging subjects.
Of course, this session occured BEFORE wakemans unexpectedly welcome return to the Yes fold. The first thing alan asks is how rick is doing, recalling the longstanding friendship between yours truly and the venerated keyboard maestro. he knows about ricks live performance of 'return to the centre of the earth' in canada, and when told rick is in russia, he relates with enthusiasm.
"when we were performing in moscow with Yes, my wife and i were walking beside the kremlin and noticed a poster of rick wakeman. he looked like a comedian!" with russia in mind, the name of igor khoroshev comes up. "igor was a pure wakeman clone," white says of the now ex-Yes keyboardist. "russia is the cradle for clones! in fact, the arrival of igor was a learning experience for me because i could see someone who would take the best parts of someone else, then add a couple of of his own things to result in something original.
"as soon as you arrive in the airport in moscow you can read these wise words: 'welcome to a different world.' and that is exactly what it's all about because nothing, and i mean nothing, there, can be compared with the rest of the world. i have been in the subway in moscow and was amazed at the art and references to to the revolution and the war, which are all over the place. i have a lot of nice photos as souvenirs."
the interview quickly gets down to business. white addresses the fact that the bands latest studio work, 'magnification', was written and completed without presence of a keyboardist-a Yes first. "every day we would enter the studio and work non-stop for about eight hours writing new material. it even gave me the opportunity to play some piano, which would have been completely out of the question if we'd had a keyboard player in our ranks.
"the song 'in the presence of' had been in my head for two years, and i finally got the opportunity to develop it within the mold of Yes. we would give the backing tracks to [producer] larry groupe, and almost every week, he would arrive with new arrangements. strangely enough, groupe would play on keyboards what would later be played by the orchestra. i have to admit that we knew from the start that the orchestra could easily replace the mellotron, but there was no way the orchestra could replace a Moog synthesizer. so we were really in need of a keyboardist.
"through our management we were recommended to check out 23-year-old tom brislin, a young guy who had proven his skills alongside meatloaf. during this tour, the guy doesnt know what hits him as the polish orchestra we're using consists mainly of of girls between the ages of 20 and 30 years old! although tom's style leans heavily towards jazz, the fact he was raised on Yes music allows him to perform difficult pieces like 'close to the edge' with ease.
"the orchestra we used in europe is the same orchestra we used night after night for six weeks. in all, we rehearsed three days together. yet as time goes by you notice that the orchestra is getting more and more into the music. in america, things were different, because we used a different orchestra every night. those orchestras got three hours to rehearse every afternoon. we'd see the orchestra for the very first time once we climbed onstage seconds before the concert would start. night after night there would be musicians who couldnt understand the scores they were given, yet who made sure they played exactly what they were asked to.
"during [guitarist steve howe's] acoustic piece, some of these musicians would come up to me smiling and with the same remark: "you just made my life!" when these guys rehearsed during the afternoon, they couldnt understand what they were playing. yet once Yes got onstage and they played the same parts with the band, everything fell into place. they enjoyed every second of it. another weird thing is that, every night, someone would admit to having been raised on yesmusic."
before the orchestral 'magnification', Yes had never employed a violin solo in the studio. white admits that working with strings has opened the bands ears after all this time, and "it strikes me that there's always [potential for] a violin solo somewhere." he termed the orchestral tour a definite learning process for Yes.
personnel changes have been integral to the Yes legacy-to the band's benefit or detriment, depending on on which fan you ask. there was patrick moraz replacing wakeman on 'relayer'. there was the trevor rabin era, the khoroshev era. when singer trevor horn and keyboardist geoff downes joined Yes in 1980, many die-hard fans were cynical. the consequent album 'drama' also received it's share of critical derision. but the years have been kind to 'drama' which holds up well as a musical statement from that chapter of Yes history, white says. the same goes for other eras distinguished by varied lineups.
"in the Yes camp, we have always believed in the saying 'you gain some-you lose some.' we gain some new fans, we lose some old fans. you have to see Yes like an egg that's rolling down from a mountain. at one point, the egg will look dirty. yet although it is by now covered in moss and dirt, the egg itself remains untouched. as in life, that same egg now and again, cracks.
"not so long ago, i talked with jon about the 'drama' material, and he has no problem singing the material. so we are now thinking of adding 'tempus fugit' to our set list. dont forget that we played madison square garden to a sold out audience four days in a row with trevor and geoff-something never achieved with other line-ups! i remember that trevor horn used to move further and further away from the microphone during high notes in 'and you and i' because he didnt have jon's volume and pitch. that's the sort of things fans reacted to. not once was trevor credited for for the 'drama' material, yet the media would slag him time after time where the anderson songs were concerned."
regarding songs for the symphonic tour, it became obvious that a lot of 'older' pieces should be played. a similar approach comprised the 'masterworks' tour performances, and white says the band acknowledges fan interest in vintage Yes compositions. white notes that personally, he would enjoy incorporating more recent material. "we have been playing the title track 'magnification', which is not easy to perform live. because it contains such a wonderful orchestral arrangement, we simply had to to include it. every time we embark on a tour, we ask our fans via our website, which songs they'd like to hear. if we played all the songs fans ask for, we would be onstage all day!"
talk turned to the previous studio work, 'the ladder' white says that producer, bruce fairbairn, who died suddenly near the albums completion, could have remained at the Yes studio helm indefinitely.
" i am convinced that when you put certain people into one room, you can create magic. yet with igor and billy in the same room, you lost a bit of that magic. the 'ladder' became a wonderful project but it took us a long time. i enormoussly loved the way bruce was working, because he controlled it all perfectly. bruce could have stayed with Yes as long as our collaboration with eddie offord lasted. fate had to decide otherwise, so we will never know the answer to that question.
"bruce had a vision as to how 'the ladder' should sound. sadly, he didnt live long enough to witness the end of the project, which meant the technician took over took over from bruce when he died. one of the major principles within Yes is that we should be able to reproduce live what we have done in the studio. where 'mag' is concerned, we constructed a lot of tracks with ProTools [computer software]. live, we now do 'magnification', 'in the presence of' and 'don't go'. and i can say that we have good control over these songs. i also have to admit that it took me half an hour to get the orchestra's percussionist to play the tambourine the way it has to be played!"
end of part one....