------------------------------------------------------- NOVEMBER 10, 2002 ------------------------------------------------------- Source: Asbury Park Press Steve Howe craves freedom? Yes By Mark Voger Their harmonies are perfect. But within Yes, things are not perfectly harmonious. In talking about his new solo album, Yes guitarist Steve Howe suddenly reveals a situation within Yes that has apparently irked him for some time. "I guess I don't get enough freedom in Yes to make me really feel again like I did in the '70s, when I had enough freedom in Yes to maximize on what I could do for Yes," Howe says. "I think they're missing out a little on what Steve Howe can bring to this party, just because they want things themselves. But it's a complex thing." The 55-year-old London native concedes that a bit of musical autonomy is important to him. "I need this enormous freedom," he says. "Yes is a complex and sometimes difficult, but worthwhile, sharing process. 'Sharing' is a word that maybe some of the other members should think about as much as I do," Howe adds with a laugh. "So when I come to do a solo album, it's really a relief. I feel that I can now design and paint this the way I want it to happen. There aren't rules. On my solo albums, I don't have any blooming rules to restrict me. "Because after all, Yes is a compromise. It's a great compromise, it's a well-designed compromise situation, but I can't live with that all the time. I have to have control. I have to have my destiny. I mean, Yes couldn't possibly record any of the music on (Howe's 2001 album) 'Natural Timbre,' for instance. I couldn't lay all that on Yes and say, 'Can we please record this?' "So I guess this compensates for some of the great collaborative compromises that you have to make to work with other people. It makes up for it, because I get a sense of glow and happiness about pulling this from an embryo right up to a finished record." That finished record is "Skyline" (InsideOut Music), Howe's eighth studio album, which was released on Tuesday. A hypnotic collection of ambient, sometimes jazzy instrumentals, "Skyline" features keyboards by Paul Sutin. Howe admits that he didn't have a game plan for "Skyline." Says the guitarist: "Not every project is a crystal clear 'One day I wake up and decide to build the Eiffel Tower,' and then three weeks later, it's finished. A lot of projects have to kind of fit and gain strength. This is no exception." Howe explains that he had a six-month hiatus from Yes, and decided to complete one of several projects he had brewing. "This album was kind of in progress," Howe tells CELEBS. "I'd been doing some tracks in Geneva with Paul over the last two or three years. I thought to finish up 'Skyline' would be the most worthy, particularly because of its style." Howe and Sutin previously collaborated on the joint album "Voyagers" (1995). "We never really seemed to follow that up -- a project that features keyboards as much as guitar," Howe says. "What we did on 'Skyline' was, Paul was really providing for me and delivering stuff really for me to expand on and take somewhere. Paul was able to build up tracks to a certain point -- start them off, get them going. "But he didn't want to guess where I'd take the music. He would enjoy that, because it would surprise him where I would take the track. Basically, I would take some of these tracks and reinvent them at my own discretion. We have that kind of relationship." "Skyline's" moody sounds are not necessarily typical of Howe's body of work. "I started to really like this more meditative, ambient music," the guitarist says. "Just piecing it together was relaxing and soothing. The criterias I had were all so reachable, because they were all about mellow, beautiful music that somehow didn't have a 'battle scene' to work from. I didn't have these extremes. "I never wanted to be typecast or easily pigeonholed. I always thought being pigeonholed was a sign of weakness. If somebody could say, 'Oh, Steve Howe is just a "this" guitarist,' then I wouldn't have succeeded. "But if people can keep saying, 'I don't know what kind of guitarist he is,' " Howe says, laughing again, "then that's OK. "That's because (guitarist) Chet Atkins primarily has been such a major influence on me, that I don't think I really want to be pigeonholed. I don't want to play one kind of music. "I was playing with Yes the other night, and in my solo spot -- which we do not every night, but some nights -- I really went to blues, you know? I started with a blues improvisation and just went with it. I don't know what happens to me; I just get weird like that. "I don't want to be stuck suddenly with one outfit -- like I've gotta wear one suit and play one guitar and play one kind of music. That would be kind of the end of me, really." Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, inquiries, corrections, or additions, contact yitp@yesservices.com