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OCTOBER 4, 2003
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Source: Classic Rock Revisited
http://www.classicrockrevisited.com/interviews03/Steve Howe Interview 03.htm
Interview with Steve Howe
By Bret Adams
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 35 years, chances are
you’ve heard Steve Howe’s guitar playing in some form or another, whether
it’s been with progressive rock icons Yes or his other projects, Asia and
GTR, not to mention his numerous solo outings, one thing remains constant
and that is Steve Howe is one hell of an excellent guitarist. He has never
been afraid to take risks in his playing and he is one of the most tasteful
players out there and a heck of a nice guy to talk to as well. He has just
released a stunningly eclectic new album called Elements under the moniker
Steve Howe’s Remedy. I had a chance to catch up with him on the day that he
was playing Yes’ only North American date this year. He was more than happy
not only to discuss the creative process behind his new album but he also
offered some interesting comments and insights on what it was like to
record with Yes some of the most exciting, challenging and timeless music
the rock world has ever heard. With that said, I bring you Steve Howe.
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Q: Elements is the new cd, it’s a very diverse and eclectic album. It’s
also very much a family affair as you have your two sons playing on it with
you as well. How did that come about?
A: Well it’s been coming about gradually, Dylan’s been working on my
albums for 10 years now when I’ve needed a drummer. I call him and we have
fun doing that together. Virgil appeared on The Grand Scheme of Things as
well, playing some keyboards. It’s taken awhile to have them both on the
same album, but Dylan’s professionalism and expertise on the drums is
unquestionable and now Vigil has developed his piano/keyboard work and
writing as well. He’s drumming also but not on this album. There’s been a
collective force of family Howe coming along and I like this very much, I
like to see them having more things to do. Dylan’s actually very busy, he’s
on tour at the moment with The Blockheads which was Ian Drury’s group
before Ian passed away. Dylan was with Ian for many, many years. He’s had
things to do, like his tour with Gabriella, who’s a very successful
European singer and he also has his own record out now called The Way I
Hear It. They’re showing versatility that just when you think you’ve got us
pigeonholed, we turn around and go and do something else.
Q: There’s a distinct jazz and blues feel throughout a lot of the songs,
yet it still sounds like a Steve Howe album. When you were writing the
songs did these musical styles just come out naturally?
A: Very much yeah. I didn’t force produce any of the music at all. In fact
what I did was on the two tracks, “Bee Sting” and “Smoke Silver”, which
were the most recent tracks, when I recorded them I thought to myself this
is the styling for an album. This is an album I should make a bit like
Quantum Guitar or a bit like Turbulence. As I did that I decided to
accumulate tracks that were more aggressively blues or jazz as opposed to
just doing a progressive rock guitar approach. I really like this, I
thought that this was something that came out of my desire to be honest and
to let people know what I’m really thinking. This album is very much what
I’m really thinking. I like who I am in progressive rock but I like to show
the influences that I accumulated in the 60’s in particular, because by the
time I was in Yes I was already informed about the diversities that I
enjoyed. Between starting in a blues band then going to a soul band and
then to a psychedelic band, the word jazz was really non existent except
that jazz was also a parallel force in psychedelic music. There were a lot
of jazz groups who seemed to be appreciated because the music was
improvised and spontaneous. Guitarists like John McLaughlin who’s known for
jazz was actually playing in a soul band in the mid 60’s and I admired him
a lot even then. So you can see, what I’m saying is that there is a story
that hasn’t really been told which is that, progressive rock didn’t just
come about, it didn’t just suddenly flower out of the ground like a new
weed. It got developed out of the interest that so many players that were
influenced by forces of music outside of the genre they were working in.
This was really rejuvenating and I think it’s rejuvenated me, because
playing songs like “Where I Belong”, which is basically a country picking
blues song, like a reworking of Big Bill Broonzy, some people say it’s a
bit like Canned Heat that one. I feel that one is a straight ahead 60’s
rock approach to playing R&B. I guess I’m enjoying this because normally
I’m very precious and I’ve never played blues or rock clichés in any of my
recordings for the last 30 years (laughs), so I’ve let go of that and I’m
really liking it.
Q: Two of the stand out tracks that I love on the album are the one’s
where you expanded the band and brought in the brass section, “Westwinds”
and “Pacific Haze.” You mentioned that you would have loved to have had Gil
Evans arrange “Westwinds”, I think those two tracks really show just what a
diverse player you really are. Have you ever thought of doing a whole album
in that particular vein?
A: I guess the music is kind of pointing that way. This album is very much
about those pipe dreams that got left dormant waiting. “Westwinds” was so
important to me. I don’t like to rush my music and then think later there
was something I missed. I nurtured that song in particular. I carried it
like a labor of love for a few years. I played it for Dylan and he said it
was amazing and couldn’t wait to play on it. So I thought lets do this
right. The arrangement that I created, MIDI keyboards with brass was never
going to go far with me, it was the correct arrangement minus a few notes.
I had it scored out, that to me was the turning point. It went from being a
demo to being a master. It went from being synthesized to being
un-synthesized (laughs). Just having the organic strength of the tone and
the wind and the speaker movement that you can get with real instruments
with a microphone makes a hell of a difference. I guess that’s what this
album wanted was the not so clinical over dub phase of my life, more of
what I did on Beginnings. It was virtually a predecessor of the whole
album. If you listen to Beginnings it’s got saxophone, bass, drums and me
playing guitar. I’ve had to go all the way around and to a lot of different
places to come back to realizing and enjoying immensely the idea of having
less responsibility but to just writing the music and being the central
performer.
Q: When I heard those two songs, I thought immediately of Wes Montgomery
and some of the stuff that he did in the early 60’s with a big band.
A: I’m totally beyond myself that you said that, besides flattery will get
you everywhere (laughs). Wes has a particular presence with me because I
actually saw the guy live and he was one of the few jazz guitarists that I
was able to see in that era. I later saw Kenny Burrell who I love as well.
Q: Yeah he’s another great player.
A: Yeah, I like guitarists who are cool. I don’t like guitarists who are
un-cool, who do too much who fall over themselves doing it like some of the
blues players started to do. They got their reputation and then they
started to play a hundred notes.
Q: Right, it’s important that it’s tasteful and they don’t over do it.
A: That’s right. Wes was almost a revolution in my mind because being
young, I was 16 at the time; I thought I was going to go and see someone
who I could pick things from (laughs) and when he came out of the dressing
room he had this big smile on his face and he never lost that smile. He’s
was one of the few musicians who actually smiled when he played. It was a
wonderful thing to see, so Wes was onstage at Ronnie’s (Ronnie Scott’s a
popular club in London) and he just sat on this stool and played his ass
off. It was just amazing.
Q: You saw him you were only 16. That must have been a real eye opening experience.
A: It was a total thrill, but I learned nothing visually because watching
his hand was like watching a glove go across a walking stick. You couldn’t
really see how he formed his octaves. They were mainly what I call back
ended, where the higher figured finger is actually on top and the lower
figured finger is below, and he strummed these octaves much more than he
ever picked them. What I did get from it was this marvelous feeling of
being able to close my eyes and feel that what I was absorbing was actually
from the man himself. This guy was sitting in front of me and that was
enormous. I think one of the attributes that guitarists have to have and
it’s as true in jazz as it is in all other forms of guitar music, is they
have to be very caring about their sound, they have to be very loving about
their sound. You’re nurturing and your learning and this is an important
thing that I think that maybe some Yes members haven’t realized is that
over the years you are expected to learn about you’re craft. You are
expected to be more sensible, more practical, more realistic about what
makes this tick, what makes it happen. So now when I walk into the studio,
sure I know certain ingredients I know I’ve got to have if I’m going to do
certain things. I go for them, experience tells me it’s right and then they
are actually, but if I was a fool like many musicians are I’d walk around
thinking it’s just me that has to do it. I just have to be there and it’s
right, bullshit! I’ve heard that from musicians for a long time, you know
they think that their presence is sufficient. They have to bring with them
the wealth of knowledge that they learned along their career, not just
bringing their career along.
Q: And what you can still learn as a player.
A: Oh yeah, that’s the challenge because to make a song like “Westwinds”
and “Pacific Haze” was like, you know I’ve never wanted to pastiche other
guitarists. I’m not a guy who’s really good at copying, even guys like Chet
Atkins who is one of my favorites. I’m not a big copyist but what I am is,
I absorb, I’m like a big sponge. For example Wes gave me rhythm, he showed
me that a guitarist without a strong sense of rhythm is nothing you know?
When you add a real distinct phraseology to your playing like Django
(Reinhardt) did and Wes did it so brilliantly. His phrasing is all about
use of keen and interesting rhythmical patterns as opposed to lamenting on
the straight ( makes simplistic guitar sounds), that’s nowhere. It means
nothing. Sorry that’s not music. So yeah I’m totally a Wes fanatic.
Q: Would you have thought 35 years ago around the time you joined Yes that
one day you’d be playing pieces of music like “Westwinds?”
A: Well, I’ll actually say yes. That was my aim and my goal. When I was a
boy playing, jazz was strictly for older people and as I got older it
seemed to get older and older and in my mind you always avoided accepting
it. My son is 34 and he’s been playing jazz for 10 years. He didn’t need
the age to play the jazz, but I guess in my preconception I was prepared to
wait. I was prepared to think that maybe when I’m 60 I’ll just be playing
jazz guitar, but I don’t ever want to step up on the stage and say that I’m
playing like these people. I don’t think I ever will. I will always play
with a rock/ blues and jazz tinge but look at my experience in acoustic
music, my country pickin’ and my classical guitar. Those are very complex
pictures, many of the guitarists that I liked didn’t do all that stuff, not
many of them recorded in different ways, like Chet Atkins is the only one
who did. He played Spanish guitar and electric guitar, so what I’m really
saying is because I’m experienced and everything I don’t think my jazz will
ever be the same and I don’t want it to be. I’m not trying to follow in
somebody’s footsteps. I’m trying to carve out my own version, it will be
Steve Howe’s version. It won’t be emulating or imitating. I don’t think
that would do me any good.
Q: You’ve also done a few sessions over the years, maybe not too many
people realize that both you and Rick(Wakeman) played on Lou Reed’s debut
solo album, How did that come about?
A: Well, we were recording Tales from Topographic Oceans and Lou hadn’t
really recorded any albums on his own at that point.
Q: This was just after he left the Velvet Underground?
A: That’s right. We were in I think it was called studio 3 or studio 4
which was in Morgan Studios in London. We were just sitting there and I
think it was Rick who got the invitation first I believe. Lou said ‘I’d
like Rick to play and I’d like Steve as well.’”
At the time it seemed reasonably ordinary, it wasn’t that weird. I suppose
as we got more successful you got less of the sort of off the wall type of
sessions. I remember going into the studio with Rick and he was very
organized. What I learned from Lou very early on was that you can work with
anybody but you can’t be confused about what you are expecting, so what Lou
had done which is what most writers do even today is have a demo where he
was just thrashing away on the guitar and singing the song, but it gave you
an idea of what the song was about. People who say he doesn’t write the
lyrics later are really laughing up their arse (laughs). I think you have
to know what the song is about before you play it, you have to have written
it and I think those are the best songs. Paul McCartney didn’t walk in and
go (sings) “Sunny day, it was such a lovely day”, he went “Yesterday… “ He
knew what he was singing. So anyway Lou had some songs and we played on
them. Rick and I were kind of used to doing sessions at that time and we
were off the road recording with Yes, so somehow we took an afternoon out
and it was so long ago I can hardly remember that much about it. I can
still the studio, I can see the control room, I can see Lou bending over
the desk going “That’s where the chord changes happen” Lou made it very
easy for us to walk in there and play with his rhythm section, basically
Rick and I were just wonderfully anonymous. I’m always very proud of the
things I’ve been asked to do, like playing on the last Queen album Innuendo.
Q: Innuendo yeah.
A: That really warms my blood up when you get invitations that really switch your thinking.
Q: On the first two Yes albums that you played on there were only 2 of
your own compositions, “Clap” and “Mood For A Day”, whereas on the
following two, Close To The Edge and Tales From Topographic Oceans you had
more of a writing or co-writing credit. Were you pushing to get more of
your ideas out or was it just a case of feeling more comfortable writing
with the others in the band?
A: Well, I’d like to correct that if I may. On the Yes Album, “Clap” was
my contribution but I also wrote “Wurm” and co-wrote “Yours Is No
Disgrace”. On Fragile we did up the ante and show you the direction we were
heading, because “Roundabout” was actually written by Jon and I.
Q: Fragile was done quickly wasn’t it?
A: Yeah it was done in the same year as Close To The Edge. Done quickly? I
mean it was done right and if quickly is right then sure. We don’t make
many records that quickly anymore. I think because we were well rehearsed
and we had good songs it was a hell of a lot easier. When you’ve got songs
like “Heart Of The Sunrise” and “Roundabout” written, you don’t have a lot
of trouble making an album, ‘cause they’re good songs, they were well
arranged by the band. We didn’t scrimp on how the band’s input became part
of the song. I mean I added many things that I never got credited for and
I’m quite happy about that because other people added things to our music
and my music that they didn’t get credit for, so there’s a kind of balance
of credit. There were no guitar parts ever written for “Parallels”, I had
to invent them but that doesn’t mean I get credit or a songwriting credit
because I don’t. Anyway at that time Fragile was really the beginning of
the Anderson/ Howe style because “Roundabout” was not only the most
successful song we’d had so far but it was this big track, this new
conceptualization of a bigger Yes track. When we wrote Close To The Edge,
we were really taking on the bigger story and multiplying it. We were
looking for a new fruition for Yes. We knew we could do 3 minute songs, we
could do cover songs but could we do something that’s really symphonic in
length. 20 minutes is a symphony and even though it wasn’t called The Close
To The Edge Symphony, we were thinking symphonic without really realizing
it. Jon and I both really like classical music, I was into really early
baroque music and Jon was into more sophisticated stuff like Bartok and
things that were much more modern. I eventually made all those leaps. Close
to The Edge was a real achievement, the fact that the album only had 3
songs, it was a quite different from Fragile. We had a couple of long songs
on that one as well, but with Close To The Edge we really put a lot of
detail into it, I mean “And You and I” is such a beautiful song. A lot of
people are always hoping that our next album will be like one of these
albums, we’d all like it to be as well (laughs), but it’s quite difficult.
You can’t ask Bob Dylan to make another Freewheelin and The Beatles aren’t
about to record another Let it Be or Sgt Pepper. These things are landmarks
in our careers and what we do after that, I hope that we don’t go out and
try to recreate something that’s gone. We need to find new ways to make
satisfying and healthy music.
We finished certain records like Open Your Eyes and couldn’t play any more
than one song on stage, you may ask why. It’s hard to describe why we
couldn’t, but each time we rehearsed another song, something broke out that
was not healthy, some problem emerged. There was always some technical or
artistic grief and yet back when we played Fragile we were out the next
week playing it onstage. When I hear “Roundabout”, I remember we were
filled with this joyful music and Close To The Edge was the same, we had
stuff in there that we were just dreaming we could play. We had very good
material and that’s hard to get nowadays, that kind of depth.
Q: How has the writing process for the band changed over the years?
A: I guess it can’t be the same, if it could be the same we’d have to be
innocent young 25 year olds (laughs).
Q: Whereas back then you didn’t care as much?
A: We were pissing in the wind, we were having a great time. We didn’t
know about the troubles that were going to come to the group and in our own
personal lives. The difficulties with marriage and love. We didn’t know, we
were just in the heyday of pissing in the wind. We were playing anything we
liked, we were so proud and egotistical really that we were doing exactly,
no compromise, exactly what we wanted. Nobody told us anything and that
tells you something doesn’t it? Look at the music that came out of the
70’s. The record companies knew nothing, they knew how to market,
advertise, print and sell them, but they didn’t pretend that they
understood how a young band in the 70’s was thinking and how we could
create. When we came out with The Yes Album Atlantic were really relieved
because the band had already had two records out that hadn’t meant
anything, so the third one was really the make it or break it record,
believe me that is true, we were going to get dropped if that record didn’t
take. Now that record did take and it built the way for Fragile and Close
To The Edge. By the time we got to Close To The Edge we were headlining all
over the world, we never opened for another group.
Q: And to think that without that success of the Yes Album, none of the
others would have been possible.
A: That’s right.
Q: I’m sure back then it was even looked on as the kiss of death from a
commercial standpoint putting just one song on one side of a record.
A: Oh yeah, that’s where we lost a certain momentum in the band. Rick
started to hear from all his mates in the press that the this album was
crap and that he hadn’t played anything on it. He heard that so much that
he couldn’t help but believe it. He ended up leaving the band to follow his
solo opportunities, but he was back a few years later when I think he
realized that something didn’t go wrong with Topographic Oceans. The fans
adored that album when it came out and it’s gone on to be heralded by the
hardcore fans as one of the most epic things we ever did. Some people still
like to say should it all have been on a single album and then you get band
members sometimes saying it was a load of old dross or something or “I
didn’t like it, Jon and Steve dragged me into it”. I’ve heard all those
versions but in the end if you stand it up against the others, it was a
very experimental record to do but it was a great challenge and we rose to
the occasion.
Q: After Yes disbanded, how did Asia come about, you were working with
John Wetton?
A: Yeah John came to me through my manager at the time. He called me up
and said that “I just had John Wetton in, he’s not doing anything and
you’re not doing anything, why don’t you get together?” We had the most
remarkable afternoon where John played the most aggressive, impressive bass
playing I’d ever seen in my life. He outstripped Chris Squire.
Q: Kind of what he was doing in the latter period of King Crimson.
A: That’s right. A very phenomenal bass player, but then when we started
writing together and doing the Asia record all that stopped. There was very
little of this high power bass playing. He became a stable writer and
really plodded comparatively on the bass. In that early rehearsal where he
knocked me sideways, I saw a bass player who could outstrip anybody who I’d
just been working with. I was very impressed. That meeting was the
progressive spark behind Asia. The 1st record wasn’t that progressive but
the 2nd one was even less so. There was no real future in it after that for
me, although we tried and struggled and came back together and then John
came back and he didn’t like me anymore.
Q: The 1st album took off so quickly and the instant success must have
played with your heads a bit.
A: I think it played with some more than others. I’d already had ten years
of success in Yes and what I was thrilled about and what I was prepared to
tell anybody then, was that I was thrilled to bits to have further success
outside of Yes, because it showed me a different side of my own
personality. Asia wasn’t Yes and it wasn’t trying to be, it was trying to
be it’s own sort of band and it was prepared to be commercial, so when we
had commercial success it didn’t seem odd, but yes it did create enormous
problems and indulgences of champagne breakfasts. Asia sort of went into
the champagne breakfast era.
Q: Which ultimately blew the band apart.
A: It did. What it had to start with was this incredible credibility as a
live act and that’s all we needed. This is what David Geffen adored about
the band, was that we had this album, but by gosh when we got onstage it
was pretty red hot, but as that got knocked around and chipped away at we
lessened our impetus onstage and the band often fell apart with
arrangements or something or another. Geoff (Downes) and I were really
struggling, not to point the finger at anyone but Geoff and I had this
allegiance from Yes and we knew what performing was like onstage from that
experience. If Asia wasn't able to live up to that then we were going to
have to quit because there was more than Asia at stake, there was our
reputations as well and for me my reputation as a live performer. I’d won
top guitarist for 5 years in a row in Guitar Player so I must have done
something right and to do it wrong in Asia was going to be catastrophic.
Q: What’s next for you? I know your doing a show with Yes tonight, the
only American date of the year.
A: Yes, we’re doing a one off show here in America, the only we’re doing
this year.
Q: Is this the 35th Anniversary tour or is that next year?
A: That’s an interesting question. We’re trying to wrap it around both years.
Q: It started this year.
A: Yeah because it was in the latter half of 1968, so in a way there’s
been a slightly tongue in cheek idea that we can wrap it around because
it’s still the 35th year. So that’s what we’re doing. That’s the intention
of our dates next year. I guess titles like Full Circle Tour and 35th
Anniversary Tour can get a bit confusing even for us let alone for our
fans. There is a certain element, 35 years is something worth mentioning,
but it’s just dressing, it’s like adding more mayonnaise to your salad.
Q: After this show with Yes, what will you be doing, will you be touring
behind the Elements album?
A: In March I’m hoping to get my first tour together with the band, but
that would be just England and Europe. I’m hoping to get back to America
later in the year to show my face as a band leader if you like. It might be
a trio, it might be a quartet or we might stretch to a quintet. It’s really
a question of economics. I don’t want to stick my head in the gas oven
right now. Most of things that I’ve done have been successful so I’d like
to keep that up.
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