----------------------------------------------------- AUGUST 1, 2001 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: City's TONE Interviews http://www.citys-tone.com/page33.htm INTERVIEW with Alan White, Drummer for the band YES By John Costello The word "magnify" means "to cause to be held in greater esteem or respect" or "to increase in significance," and the progressive-rock group Yes strives for those with its new album, Magnification (with a tentative release date of Sept. 11), and tour that comes to the Historic State Theatre in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Aug. 7. What makes the album and the tour fascinating is that both will include an orchestra. Orchestrations for the songs were created by Emmy Award-winning television and film (The Contender) composer Larry Groupe, who will also conduct the orchestra at several shows. The current Yes lineup features the four members with the most seniority in the group: vocalist Jon Anderson, guitarist Steve Howe, bassist Chris Squire and drummer/percussionist Alan White. City's Tone caught up with (and woke up) White in Reno, Nev., on July 20, two days before the band's first show of the tour there, to ask him about the tour and the album. TONE: What's it like out there in Reno? ALAN WHITE: We've been living in the world of slot machines for two weeks. I feel like a slot machine right now [snickers]. We have to walk to pass about a thousand slot machines to get to the rehearsal room, so you start to hear the bells go off in your head all the time. All those winning streaks. TONE: Why did Yes decide to tour with, and also record a new album with, an orchestra? WHITE: We're just finishing up the album right now, which we recorded with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, who are very good players. It absolutely sounds wonderful, I'm even surprised myself, but the music, I think, lends itself to that kind of orchestration. We've always had that in mind with the keyboards and modern technology, so we're kind of taking a step backward, but a step forward at the same time. What I think has been in the back of people's minds for a long time, in the band and the fans too, is, "It really would sound good if you guys did that kind of thing." I think it was a general consensus of opinion within the band of, "Yeah, that's a really good idea, we should do this." Jon is always a driving force behind that kind of stuff. TONE: Why did the band decide to title the new album Magnification? What does it refer to or mean? ALAN: We bantered about with titles; every day it seemed like there was a change of title for the album. One of the tracks on the album is called "Magnification," and it sounded sweet to us, the idea of magnifying the details in life and the intensity that goes on most days. TONE: In 1993, Steve and [former Yes drummer] Bill Bruford did an album together with the English Chamber Orchestra called Symphonic Music of Yes (RCA Victor). In your opinion, how will the new album be different from that one? ALAN: It's quite different from that. Basically, that was classic pieces of music that the band did from the '70s that were put into a context with Steve and Bill, while we [White, Anderson, Squire, and former Yes members Trevor Rabin and Tony Kaye] were doing what we call the West Coast version of Yes. This is diverse, we've left a lot of space for the orchestra on the new album and it's sounding very, very good. We've created the right spaces, I think. TONE: Will you be doing material from Magnification live? ALAN: Yes, we're doing two tracks onstage from the new album. One has the working title of  "Deeper," but the actual title on the album is "In the Presence Of." We're also doing another track called "Don't Go." TONE: For this tour, is Yes playing with a different orchestra in each city? ALAN: Yes, a different orchestra in each city. We're bringing the first violinist, some of the other major parts of the orchestra, and the conductor, who will rehearse with the orchestra in the afternoon, and then we play in the evening. TONE: Who is the orchestra that you'll be teaming up with here in the Twin Cities? ALAN: I'm not sure. I haven't got a list of orchestras yet, but usually it's a compilation of good players from around town, and I suppose, people that are into the genres of rock 'n' roll and progressive types  of music. TONE: You have a different keyboardist for this tour, Tom Brislin [who has worked with Meatloaf]. Please tell me about his background and how he fits into the Yes scheme of things. ALAN: Actually, he came from our management company, because we have the same management as Meatloaf and a bunch of different artists. He's a young guy, he's 23 years old, and he fits in really well. He just takes care of business, and he's been a Yes fan for a lot of years. He fits in the mold, but the thing on this tour is that myself, Chris, Jon and Steve are at the forefront of the band, and the keyboards are kind of like part of the orchestra. It's a little bit of a fail-safe situation, too, so if we get in some cities and [the orchestra] is not quite making it, he's there. TONE: How would you compare him to some of the past Yes keyboard players like Rick Wakeman and Igor Khoroshev? ALAN: He's an educated man who's very quiet, he's young, but he's got all the chops like all of them. He can play all the stuff, he's good. TONE: For you as a drummer, how is it different playing with an orchestra in addition to the band, compared to playing in the usual situation with the band? ALAN: I have yet to find that out, I find out tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to it. You're kind of the fulcrum of everything. I'm right in the middle of everything, I'm controlling the band and trying to control the conductor and 45 people behind me, so I've got a wing mirror set up on my drum kit so I can see everybody behind me as well as in front, because Chris and I are pretty close on stage and we play a lot together, but it's going to be interesting trying to make the whole thing work as one piece. TONE: Have you used a mirror like that before in concert situations? ALAN: I just found it in one of my flight cases the other day, because Chris used to use it when we played And You and I to watch me while he was playing the bass pedals that have the low octave underneath his bass guitar, and he used to have a wing mirror so that he could watch me motion the part. He dispensed with that, because we've got it together after all these years [chuckles]. It's a very hard piece of music to play, because it's kind of an emotional piece of music and it's got very random notes in it. TONE: I know you don't want to give away too much of the setlist, but Yes usually does Roundabout and Owner of a Lonely Heart. Will you be doing orchestrated versions of those? ALAN: People keep asking me about the setlist, and it changes on a daily basis, but I know we'll definitely do "Roundabout." I think we're being a little bit more adventurous than that with the orchestra, playing some of the harder pieces to play. It's not only taxing to the band, it's going to be taxing for the orchestra, too. TONE: By that, do you mean "Close to the Edge" and some songs from the Tales of Topographic Oceans and Relayer (both Atlantic Records) albums? ALAN: Yes, things like "Close to the Edge" and "Gates of Delirium" [from Relayer], which is no easy thing to play with five people, so with 45 people it's really going to be something to try to get it to work every night. TONE: Yes has frequently opened concerts with an excerpt from Igor Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. Will the orchestra expand that arrangement to start the show? ALAN: It would be wonderful, but we've got something more original. There's a brand new piece of music that's going to open the show, a similar kind of thing [to Firebird Suite]. TONE: There have been pieces of music in Yes history where there was an orchestra or an orchestral sound, like the some of the songs on the Time and a Word album (Atlantic Records) and the song "Rhythm of Love." Will you try to do those pieces? ALAN: Not necessarily. In fact, that was one of the things I brought up. I said, "Well, there's certain tracks that you did years and years ago with an orchestra, why don't we do them on stage?" But I think we're trying to go for something different here, and I think it's really going to be an exciting show, because we're attempting some pieces that are difficult to play, but as far as the arrangements go, I think the conductor and orchestra will be able to pull it off. TONE: On your 1975 solo album Ramshackled (Atlantic), you did a song with Jon and Steve called Song of Innocence that would probably sound great with an orchestra. Did you suggest that as a possible song to perform on this tour? ALAN: That would be brilliant as a piece to do. I think everybody is kind of staying away from solo stuff. We're finding it really hard to fit in just the Yes stuff on stage. It's going to be two hours, twenty minutes, or two hours, thirty minutes on stage, and we're battling to get everything in that we want to do. So I think the solo stuff will have to be another tour. TONE: So Steve won't be doing his usual solo spot, and you and Chris won't be doing Whitefish, where you both get to do solos? ALAN: No, but some of the pieces we're doing have solo spots within those pieces, so we're not going to do a separate bass-drum solo thing. They're built into some of the songs. TONE: Are you also working on any solo projects at this time? ALAN: I've been writing a lot of music, and on this new album they've used a couple of pieces of mine.  I write on the piano, and I was classically trained when I was a kid, so I play with that kind of style, and they picked up on that orchestral element in my playing. They've got me playing piano on stage nowadays, and I said, "Well, I can't do everything" [laughs]. And I've been singing on the album, too, for the first time in about three albums. So they're working me out. TONE: How was your approach to writing material for the album, for an orchestra, different than it usually is? ALAN: You do that with [the orchestra] in mind. You're also thinking, Well, I've got to leave space here, because I know they're going to be doing something here because it's a perfect part, so you do create the space for the orchestra. But it's valuable because it's quite different; when you start to listen to the new album, you can tell that the band has left the spaces for that moment in time, and when you're writing stuff like that, you've got to leave that space, you can't crowd things out. TONE: Was it difficult to convince the record company to go for the idea of recording the album with an orchestra, because record companies are always concerned about whether an album will sell? ALAN: I don't think so, because, like I said, a lot of people have been mentioning this to us for a long time, and I think the time is now for something like this to happen, and this is going to be an interesting experiment that will turn out really good for us, because the music does lend itself to that kind of thing. TONE: Good luck with the album and tour, and thank you very much for your time. ALAN: Actually, I have some relations in Minneapolis. My wife's cousin lives there, and she's got a stallion that she breeds, and it's the most wonderful horse in the world. I've visited them quite a lot, and they're great people. I love it up there. For ticket and tour information, call (612) 989-5151 and visit the Notes from the Edge Website at www.nfte.org. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com