------------------------------------------------------- NOVEMBER 1998 ------------------------------------------------------- Source: Author's Personal Archive Donated by: Tim Morse Interview with Trevor Rabin By Tim Morse In November of 1998 Trevor graciously took some time out from his busy schedule for this interview to discuss Rick Wakeman, his soundtrack work and the state of the music business. TM: What is your involvement with Rick Wakeman's "Return to the Centre of the Earth"? TR: Well Rick and I from the minute we hit the stage on the Union tour had a vibe together and a musical empathy - we just got on famously. I've just loved the guy ever since...one of the Yes line-ups that has never happened which I think would be quite exciting would be Alan, myself, Chris, Jon and Rick. It's funny because Rick and I were talking about it last night and Rick said, "It's amazing that what I feel would be such an incredible line-up will never happen." Anyway he brought over this track from the new Journey project and I was completely blown away. (If I didn't like it) I would be diplomatic and say that it's nice, but it just reminded me of when I first heard "The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth" and (sings the keyboard line from "Catherine Parr"). I thought, "My goodness, that's beautiful!" And I worked it out on guitar and that's why I did it with him on his solo on the Union tour. I used to play that song when I was in Rabbitt. I loved it so much, I'm such a huge fan of Rick's. TM: Did you ever tell him that you played that song with Rabbitt? TR: No, the first he'll hear of it will be in your interview. We played it as a three piece; bass, drums and guitar and it sounded like Zeppelin on speed or something. Anyway this new piece of music hit me the same way. And it's a very rough version, there's no orchestra or choir and the real drums aren't there yet. If the rest of the album is the same quality as this then I think he's got something pretty amazing here. TM: I'm glad to hear that. I think we've all been excited that Rick is back with a major label now and that he has the support necessary to do this project the right way. TR: I haven't heard a lot of the stuff he's been doing recently and not because I haven't wanted to, but when you're so busy - I mean I haven't listened to Beethoven since I did my version of his Fifth Symphony. That should be coming out soon on Windham Hill, it's Steve Morse's project. TM: In my personal opinion with Rick's stuff it has been hit or miss. There have been certain things that have been brilliant like "Heritage Suite" and there have been some albums that seem less inspired. TR: I've been through this. When I was with Rabbitt I was inspired to do certain things and to this day I'll listen to it and cringe and say, "Why did I do that?" And then I hear things like my second solo album which has moments which I think are interesting, but I can hear myself struggling. You don't try any less, but if you're not inspired...if the wave is not at its peak there's still the energy of the wave, it's just not at it's height. I've been through those periods. I don't know if Rick has gone through those periods, but I can tell you he is a Tsunami now! TM: Will you be a part of the live shows that are planned for its premiere? TR: He's asked me to do the show on the 16th of January at Wembley with the orchestra and choir. If I'm remotely available I'll absolutely be there. I will be in the middle of another film project, but I'll try to take the time off. I'm also going to be doing an album too. I've got three songs that I feel are absolutely inspired and ready to go. I don't want to do an album just for the sake of putting out something. I think there's an arrogance in, "Even though it's not my best piece, it's still me." To me that's just the most arrogant way of doing things. If you haven't got something that you feel is your best effort and comes from a time when your best efforts were at their peak then why do it? What the movie work has done for me has been to open all kinds of different areas for myself that I knew existed, but I never really went there. With Yes I enjoyed doing a piece such as "Endless Dream", where I had to think about the structure, it was a long almost orchestrally thought piece. TM: I have to interject here that I was just looking at that piece and I realized that the fast bit that opens the song is actually a variation of the melody of where the first vocal comes in. TR: I'm glad you got that! Do you know that the band didn't get that? I'm totally serious, Alan White was the only guy that caught that. TM: But to me it shows the love and the care that went into structuring that piece of music. It wasn't a fast piano bit just because we need one here. TR: Nobody even thinks about that or nobody gets that. Doing all of that was really fun, but because I'd written "Owner" the record companies would come to me and say, "You've got to do the hit." There was always that pressure on me in the band, where all I wanted to do was play. And the only time I could do that was on stage, because making records was a different thing it's not like when Yes were in the seventies when you could do what you wanted to, because you had executives at the top level who were fans. They'd smoke a joint and listen to the bands they'd be signing not some guy who is there to make sure things are in the black. TM: I think it has become the music business and it's a shame. TR: It has and it's largely one of the reasons I decided to get out of it, because I thought this is a very dangerous place for me. The last thing I wanted to do was to take Fragile and Close To The Edge, 90125 and Talk and taint that by doing something that has to adhere to the market place today because rock radio formats are shrinking to such a level. TM: With classic rock stations you can't get new material played anymore. TR: They just play the old stuff. There's no point in it...It was time to try something different. TM: The thing about scoring movies is that it allows you many options. TR: Exactly. Even with Yes which has been allowed to explore some places you can start to become a caricature of yourself. It just started to become Groundhog Day for me. But with soundtracks you can go anywhere. I do the big movies like Con Air and The Glimmer Man because they're very exciting to do. TM: And you do get to touch millions of people with the music. TR: Yes, and working with Bruckheimer I got to work with a massive orchestra and choir. You can utilize whatever your heart desires. It's really a lot of fun. And then I'll go and do a movie like Homegrown which had a tiny budget, it's not something I'm going to make any money on, but I do it for the opportunity to use banjo, mandolin, slide guitar, dobro and double bass. I could do it all at home. TM: Let's talk a bit about scoring Armageddon. The last time we spoke it sounded like it was a pretty intense experience where you were working your twenty hour days to finish it. TR: It was definitely that and seven days a week for quite some time, but the challenge was to try and make moments where the music can live and do some economical melodies that can come through. TM: It worked particularly well with the strident string passages that accentuated what was happening visually. I know that Bruckheimer requires a lot of music for his films... TR: Yeah, for Armageddon it was two hours. TM: I was just curious - in that process how many cues were rejected? TR: Surprisingly on this movie it wasn't too bad - it was about twenty minutes that was rejected. And a lot of that was, "Well it's almost there, can we just change this bit here? Your build up is just a little too soon, you're telegraphing what's going to happen. I want it to be a little more of a surprise." Things like that. TM: I wanted to congratulate you on the success of the soundtrack album. TR: I'm very happy about it. It's the biggest album that I've ever had. It was great...unfortunately we couldn't put the orchestral version of my theme on there, the version that's on there is all electronic. It sounds reasonably similar. TM: Will there be a complete score that will be out? TR: I found out that there had been thousands of requests to put the score out...Sony is going to put it out to coincide with the video release. TM: What happened to the live album that was supposed to come out? TR: I still want to put it out, because I'm very happy with it. It's very rough, but it's definitely the best version of Can't Look Away that there is. It has to me a magic to it, whether it's liked or not is another thing. TM: It's a nice souvenir for the people that saw those shows. TR: Yeah and we had such a great time doing that. TM: It's been quite awhile since you've been on stage with the exception of the Prince's Trust concert. TR: Yes, that's why I'm looking forward to playing with Rick. I do want to get out and play and once my album is released I'll certainly be doing that. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, inquiries, corrections, or additions, contact yitp@yesservices.com