New Steve Howe interview: "From Tomorrow to YES’s Mirror To The Sky"

[douglasgottlieb]

Asked Gottlieb Bros about this. Got a coy answer about psychadelic colours and somesuch. The style is reminiscent of Neville Brody's work with The Face magazine back in the 80's. Deffo more an 80's vibe than a 60's vibe.

A curious one, for sure.


#givedbaranadvancecopy

#professorofrockshouldinterviewjondavison

😉

[rabin105]

I can’t wait for the new album

[rePete]

I would love if Jon and the Geeks would do Relayer. That probably dissuade YesO from doing it even more.

I am/was curious to hear them do it. If I understand it correctly, they've been working on it for a couple of years now.

[Enlighten]

Yeah, that sounds a little like he's softening up the ground a little - get people used to the idea that Relayer may no longer be what they do in Europe in 2024.

I would love if Jon and the Geeks would do Relayer. That probably dissuade YesO from doing it even more.

[rePete]

Am I reading it correctly that Relayer is off the table now for the upcoming tour(s)?

So, really, we want to be able to do our best by knowing that what we’re doing is right and, by the time we got here this year, there were just so many things that were problematic. We will adjust that next year and come up with a new idea really for that because I feel taking Relayer along is a bit like taking Covid along. It’s become like, Oh no. Surely? Can we? Are we? Must we? No. We want to and the desire that we had in early 2020 when we’re all beavering away learning the detail of Relayer, not just the structure but actually all the notes. I was doing that. And we were all set to go off and play Relayer and I think we could have done it then. We could have done it in ’21. We could have done it in ’22 but, that’s what I mean, we kind of need to be able to book tours and adjust set lists accordingly to what we know is best for us and our audience at any given time.

Yeah, that sounds a little like he's softening up the ground a little - get people used to the idea that Relayer may no longer be what they do in Europe in 2024.

[Davy]

I think sometimes the double-speak is intentional; he wants to tell us something but is not sure he should. It is an odd interview, though, one moment he's discussing the new album, the next the postponed Relayer tour.

[Homemade Parachute]

Steve Howe sometimes doesn't express himself in a way I find easy to understand. I have no flipping idea what he means here.

Years of hanging with JA will do that to a fella…

[TerryTT]

Steve Howe sometimes doesn't express himself in a way I find easy to understand. I have no flipping idea what he means here.

It looks like planning for a 2023 US tour is fairly advanced, so I hope we'll hear something soon. Presumably a tour announcement would then say whether they're doing Relayer or not on that tour.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking this. I read this interview and more than once I was stumped trying to understand what he was trying to convey.

[Kevin W]

Yeah, I was scratching my head as well....

It's a case of 'why use ten words when a hundred will do!' 😁

[Mr. Holland]

Steve Howe sometimes doesn't express himself in a way I find easy to understand. I have no flipping idea what he means here.

Yeah, I was scratching my head as well....

[bondegezou]

Am I reading it correctly that Relayer is off the table now for the upcoming tour(s)?

So, really, we want to be able to do our best by knowing that what we’re doing is right and, by the time we got here this year, there were just so many things that were problematic. We will adjust that next year and come up with a new idea really for that because I feel taking Relayer along is a bit like taking Covid along. It’s become like, Oh no. Surely? Can we? Are we? Must we? No. We want to and the desire that we had in early 2020 when we’re all beavering away learning the detail of Relayer, not just the structure but actually all the notes. I was doing that. And we were all set to go off and play Relayer and I think we could have done it then. We could have done it in ’21. We could have done it in ’22 but, that’s what I mean, we kind of need to be able to book tours and adjust set lists accordingly to what we know is best for us and our audience at any given time.

Steve Howe sometimes doesn't express himself in a way I find easy to understand. I have no flipping idea what he means here.

It looks like planning for a 2023 US tour is fairly advanced, so I hope we'll hear something soon. Presumably a tour announcement would then say whether they're doing Relayer or not on that tour.

[Kevin W]

I thought this part was interesting reading:

Yes I thought that was interesting too. It sounds as if he has acknowledged the Yes of the 80s as being relevant for may be the first time. Possibly because he now has the luxury of being the band's leader. But good to read nevertheless. I still love all the YesWest stuff and think it was necessary for the band's survival. I'm sure the classic line up would have eventually reformed but there would have been several wilderness years and we wouldn't have great songs like Changes, I'm Running, Shoot High, Aim Low, and later, Endless Dream added to the catalogue.

[Kevin W]

Am I reading it correctly that Relayer is off the table now for the upcoming tour(s)?

So, really, we want to be able to do our best by knowing that what we’re doing is right and, by the time we got here this year, there were just so many things that were problematic. We will adjust that next year and come up with a new idea really for that because I feel taking Relayer along is a bit like taking Covid along. It’s become like, Oh no. Surely? Can we? Are we? Must we? No. We want to and the desire that we had in early 2020 when we’re all beavering away learning the detail of Relayer, not just the structure but actually all the notes. I was doing that. And we were all set to go off and play Relayer and I think we could have done it then. We could have done it in ’21. We could have done it in ’22 but, that’s what I mean, we kind of need to be able to book tours and adjust set lists accordingly to what we know is best for us and our audience at any given time.

Yep that's the way I read that too. There will be no tour of Relayer next year - they will be playing something else. I just think it's become too hard to do it justice - 4 years on is just too much. In fact he even seems to be saying that 2023 was beyond them to me. The consolation may be that we will get The Remembering possibly?

[downbyariver]

I thought this part was interesting reading:

Well it’s almost like, YES is a kind of bulldozer. When you look at the 70s and how often we’d change members and then we look at the 80s and how different that was then and then start to develop, so the way that we’ve managed to cope over the years, all different members have managed – not only me of course. Not only me being there but when other people – when I wasn’t there, is what I’m trying to say. So, when I wasn’t there, they still found ways of getting over the next hurdle. And they had a few hurdles in the 80s. A friend of mine tells me about the way they made those two albums and then the last album. YES get over problems. We continue because there is a sort of inner flame of YES that nobody holds. No one person holds it. It has to be a collective like kind of Olympic flame of YES. There has to be something going on even if I’m not there, even if so-and-so’s not there. So, basically, it’s a bit like a gauntlet that gets handed on to the next collective that is actually managing to get their heads around, not only playing retrospective YES music impeccably well, but also as we’ve shown, starting to demonstrate now with The Quest and now Mirror To The Sky, this band may be able to create relevant new music

[...]What we’re trying to do is to work on our songs individually as really beautiful things that we can create together and get everybody involved. Everybody has great parts. We get all the balancing right. We’ve got all the textual qualities right. But we don’t want to lose that flame and we want to keep the emotion and the excitement that we’ve got in that. So that’s all part of the YES thing. But also, behind the scenes of course, it’s also an organization. It has to work structurally, contractually, within rules that are applied to us and everybody else in the world. Also we are carrying on a flag of a band. So, in lots of ways, we are still working with everybody who’s ever been in YES in one respect or another, in different degrees, with different arms out from different eras.

[Mr. Holland]

Am I reading it correctly that Relayer is off the table now for the upcoming tour(s)?

So, really, we want to be able to do our best by knowing that what we’re doing is right and, by the time we got here this year, there were just so many things that were problematic. We will adjust that next year and come up with a new idea really for that because I feel taking Relayer along is a bit like taking Covid along. It’s become like, Oh no. Surely? Can we? Are we? Must we? No. We want to and the desire that we had in early 2020 when we’re all beavering away learning the detail of Relayer, not just the structure but actually all the notes. I was doing that. And we were all set to go off and play Relayer and I think we could have done it then. We could have done it in ’21. We could have done it in ’22 but, that’s what I mean, we kind of need to be able to book tours and adjust set lists accordingly to what we know is best for us and our audience at any given time.