----------------------------------------------------- MARCH 16, 2000 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: Kuno http://kuno.senserdesign.com/shnews.php?id=14 Chris Squire of YES By Sven Kardelke Interview  - This interview was conducted on March 16th, 2000 in Berlin, Germany. What is a typical Yes tour day like?  Chris: As you can see we are in the Four Seasons and that's the nice part. Then there is the drive-down on the wet motorway for three hours. Over a hundred miles an hour - which is scary. Of course, then there is always the show in the evening which is the best part. So that's the typical day.  Talking about "The Ladder": It starts with the most brilliant Homeworld that offers everything Yes has always stood for. On the other hand, AOR songs like Lighting Strikes or Face To Face certainly want to be played on radio. Is "The Ladder" a compromise album to satisfy both the seventies fans and the pop fans from the eighties?  Chris: No, not really. It was just an album that we started working on different tunes. Along with Bruce Fairbairn´s help we selected the ones we wanted to put on the album. It wasn't really because of any reason just other than what sounded good, musically. Obviously, we wanted to have some tracks that are more upbeat and others that are more ballady. So we tried to have a mixture. It was no compromise on purpose for that reason.  What's the difference working with Yes nowadays compared to "Fragile" times?  Chris: Not much difference, really. Some of the faces have changed. We have Billy Sherwood instead of Rick Wakeman now -- and Igor. But the people's personalities don't change much.  Does it still matter to you for the chemistry of the band what people are in?  Chris: Of course! Everybody who has been in the band has their own personality and changed the chemistry. When Trevor Rabin was in the band, we had a different chemistry, because he had different things that he brought to the band...of course, every time there is a change.  After Rick Wakeman left again in 1997, did you think of getting the "Swiss Poodle" back in the fold?  Chris: The what? Swiss ... poodle?  I read in the Chris Welch Yes biography that the band called Patrick Moraz so because of his hair cut.  Chris: I never heard that!  Then that one must have been a hoax, but did you never think of recrute him a second time?  Chris: No, we didn´t think about that at all.  You and Jon Anderson are said to be quite different personalities. How do you get along these days, do you still fight each other?  Chris: Yeah (laughing), Jon always says we are the Yin and the Yang of Yes. It's not that we would fight, but if he thinks of something, I usually think the other way naturally. I don't know why, but that's what it's like.  Talking about the previous album, Steve Howe recently told me that "Open Your Eyes" was a complete disaster, because the whole thinking behind it was commercial. How do you value that release?  Chris: Well, Steve had very little to do with "Open Your Eyes." Therefore he was not really in a good position to say that. He was only was around for the last month doing some guitar overdubs. So he wasn't very involved. So he was a little bit on the outside with that album. But it wasn't a complete disaster at all. It probably got more airplay than "The Ladder" has done so far. We got a lot of good reviews from that album, so that's just his opinion.  What is true about the impression that there are two different parties within the band, the pop department with you, Alan and Billy -- and Jon and Steve as the progressive defenders?  Chris: I don't know. You'd better listen to "Fish Out Of Water" and tell me if that's not a progressive album. I like all kinds of music. I like the long and the short music of Yes.  How is it that the arrangements and songs in the Seventies were far more edgy than anything you do today? Just compare Sound Chaser to If Only You Knew. The earlier albums were just like today´s alternative rock music, nowadays every single chord has its own cheesy keyboard layer. Why don´t you be more rougher these days?  Chris: If Only You Knew is not my song, really. A lot of it was written by Igor. In some ways I quite like it, but as you say it´s not very aggressive. In Yes you could do many different things.  But where is the rough side of Yes, it has become too poppy recently...  Chris: You missed "90125" and think it was too poppy?  It was the poppiest album you´ve ever done...  Chris: ...and it was the most successful by four times! If you were in the business, which way would you go? (laughs)  Another topic: Why did the band fall apart after the "Drama" album? The album sold well...  Chris: Yeah, but we were really tired then. We worked so hard in the seventies, and we've done so much and then having the change at the end of the seventies with Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. So we just decided to have a rest, really. During that time Trevor Horn started producing other things and Steve Howe formed Asia. He went with that with Geoff Downes. Alan White and I were playing with Jimmy Page for a while, but that didn't work out. Then we just started Yes again in 1983.  The Page stuff was the basis for the "Keys To Ascension" material, wasn't it?  Chris: Yes, one of the tracks we did with Jimmy later became Mind Drive.  So when the band started again in 1983 Tony Kaye was back on keyboards. Twelve years before you fired him, because you wanted to improve on keyboards and got Rick Wakeman to join the band. So did he have any bad feelings during that time?  Chris: Not towards me that much. The problem was that when Tony left the band and Rick Wakeman came in, after a while by the time we got to the "Tormato" album, Steve and Rick were playing both so many notes that no-one was playing rhythm anymore -- except me and Alan. So when Trevor Rabin joined the band and I realised that he was very good technically, I thought it was more sensible to get a keyboard player who is more simple to play with a very good guitar player. I was right, because it made the album work very well. So that's one thing to learn: If everybody is a vituoso, it can be more difficult. It's sometimes better to have a couple of people who aren't. (laughs)  When you did "Big Generator," did you desperately try to repeat the success of "90125"?  Chris: "Big Generator" was quite a difficult album for us, because we started it off in Italy. We spend time there and we decided that it wasn't really working. Then we went back to London, back to Trevor Horn's studio. And then we ended up going back to Los Angeles where we started rehearsing the thing. I think, Alan White and I finished the bass and drum parts of the album two years before it was released. So it was not an easy album to make, but at the end of the day it has got some good things on it. All Yes albums have some good things and some not so good things.  Alan White regarded "Talk" as the most underrated Yes album ever. Would you agree?  Chris (disbelief): Alan White did? The problem with "Talk" is that it sounds too much like a computer to me -- which it was. The whole album was made without tape direct to hard disc. It takes on a certain flavour which is a little bit cold. Too clinical.  The last bit of Endless Dreams sounds a bit like a Christmas song...  Chris: Yeah, that too.  Just some days ago, "Conspiracy" was released which isn't quite the long-awaited second Squire solo effort, but a collection of older songs done with Billy Sherwood. Do you have any plans to record a proper successor for "Fish Out Of Water"?  Chris: I am gonna probably do another orchestral album in the near future. Probably before 2005.  Jon Anderson said to me that the next Yes album is going to be a two-CD epic album, and Billy Sherwood said in some interview that the next album will include a whole orchestra. Can you confirm those plans?  Chris: There is talk from the Boston Symphony Orchestra that they want to make an album with Yes. I think that's what they were talking about. They wanted to make versions of old tracks. I don't know which ones. They are negotiating this right now.  And what about the epic album?  Chris: I don't know what that is. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com