EXCLUSIVE: Anthony Phillips interview (Part Two)

As I said yesterday, one of the most eagerly awaited releases from Gonzo this spring is a double CD from Anthony Phillips and Andrew Skeet. The album - which is called Seventh Heaven - contains some of the lushest and most beautiful music that I have heard for a long time.

On Monday I interviewed Anthony about the new album. The first part of the interview went up yesterday. We continue talking about the opera singer whose extraordinary voice is showcased on the album...

Jon: Now Lucy Crowe – what a voice

Anthony: Yes, we got her originally through a fixer friend called Dominic Kelly, and she is with a very big agency but we got her for considerably less than we would have done through the big agency. She’s a lovely lady and she’s also very approachable – she’s not a kind of diva, she’s a brilliant opera singer, but she likes singing other stuff as well so she’s quite an all-rounder.

She literally just came in and just did the track for us. It’s about the only time the next neighbours have said to me.... 'oh I really liked what you were doing'. We we actually recorded her in a downstairs non-soundproofed room to try and get a bit of ambience, and so they could hear her, but they couldn’t hear the music because it was obviously on headphones, and they were saying, gosh that singer was very good.

It’s about the only compliment I’ve ever had from them actually.... but she was absolutely delightful. But I haven’t seen her since, because almost immediately afterwards she went off to have a baby and I think it is probably now...the baby was born around Christmas... so I would think she would be starting to perform again soon. Yes, a lovely, lovely voice and obviously been very successful and we were very, very lucky to get her. We hope to do some more stuff with her clearly.

Jon: The thing that I thought was the most striking about the whole album. You were talking earlier about how the computer age has changed everything for everybody, and everybody I speak to - without any exception - for the Gonzo blog says that. Its changed for writers too: I’m writing things that instead of going through the three month editorial process, are now up being read three or four hours after I’ve written them, which I think is exciting. I like being able to do that.

But working with a real orchestra and going all the way to Prague – it’s an oddly old-fashioned, but rather satisfying way of doing it. That’s really rather nice.

Anthony: It is in a way, although I don’t think the analogy quite holds up, I know what you saying about the whole process. Because obviously all the major, major scores for films are still recorded in a studio with real players. Now I know where we are heading here, with samples are getting more and more sophisticated and soon you possibly won’t not need players etc.. This has been said, but it’s going to take many, many more years before you are going to be able to actually imitate the multitudinous nuances of all the different instruments and the inter-play between them, to replace that, so I think whilst a lot of studios have lost ground for the intermediate stuff - as you rightly say, the computer stuff, a lot of the rock music and stuff.

I think for classical music, and for orchestral scores, I think the old studio – the conventional studio – with bits of orchestra is very much still here to stay for a while.

Jon: Which is a good thing, I think

Anthony: Which is a great thing, and also keeps people in work as well. There is just something about hearing players; it’s that humanity, it’s that inter-relation between all those people that is so exciting. You won’t get I mean if you work at home and just build it up layer by layer.

Jon: No that is something that Pro-tools just doesn’t give you.

Anthony: Well that’s quite right. Yes, I’m learning how to edit that at the moment, having a battle with it, but I’m getting there.

Jon: Well the bits I have heard of the new album, I think are absolutely wonderful

Anthony: Thank you very much indeed

Jon: And I’m very much looking forward to Anne-Marie at Gonzo getting the copies in, in a couple of weeks time of the complete thing so I can blag one of her then I would like at some point to go through some of the tracks in more detail

Anthony: Please do. The good news is that it has already been picked up and scheduled on Classic FM, which we are very lucky about. Diane Hinds who Rob found me. She badgered them and they are going to profile it as the Featured CD on Drive with John Brunning w/c 7th May. This means the album will get a daily play at around 6.15pm, every day that week. It will also be played on several other shows across the station in the coming weeks.

We chatted for a few more minutes about this and that, and particularly about my late father who loved Classic FM, and then we said our farewells and put the 'phones down. What a nice chap he is. I am very much looking forward to our next chat..

Check out the Gonzo page for his new album

THE NEW ANTHONY PHILLIPS ALBUM

I have only heard fragments of it so far, but I think that the new Anthony Phillips/Andrew Skeet album Seventh Heaven is really going to be one of the major releases of this spring.

The release sheet describes it as:

A brand new studio 2 CD set from ex-GENESIS guitarist ANTHONY PHILLIPS and composer ANDREW SKEET.

ANDREW SKEET is a composer primarily for television and film, and is much in demand as a conductor and arranger and has worked with GEORGE MICHAEL, SUEDE, UNKLE, SINEAD O’CONNOR, as well as establishing his own orchestra. His music has been featured in The Apprentice, Banged up Abroad, and What Katie Did Next amongst many others.

Featuring on the album is BELINDA SYKES who sings on the track ‘Seven Ancient Wonders’. Belinda has performed at the Carnegie Hall in New York, and has recorded with KARL JENKINS and directs the medieval band JOGLARESA.

Also performing is JOHN PARRICELLI, one of the key figures on the British Jazz scene co-founding the jazz orchestra LOOSE TUBES. He has featured on over 200 movie scores including Lord of the Rings, Shakespeare in Love and The Constant Gardener. He has also recorded with LEONA LEWIS, DUFFY, WESTLIFE, ROBBIE WILLIAMS, RUMER, amongst many others.

All in all an amazing package.

Tracks:
Disc 1: Credo In Cantus, A Richer Earth, Circle of Light, Grand Central, Kissing Gate, Pasquinade, Rain on Sag Harbor, Ice maiden, River of Life, Desert Passage, Seven Ancient Wonders, Desert Passage, Under The Infinite Sky, Forgotten Angels, Courtesan, Ghosts of New York, Shipwreck of St Paul, Cortege.

Disc 2: Credo In Cantus (instrumental), Sojourn, Speak of Remarkable Things, Nocturne, Long Road Home, Golden Leaves of Fall, Credo, Under The Infinite Sky, The Stuff of Dreams, Old Sarum Suite, For Eloise, Winter Song, Ghosts of New York, Daniel’s Theme, Study In Scarlet, The Lives of Others, Pas de Deux, Forever Always.

Anthony Edwin "Ant" Phillips (b. 23 December 1951, Chiswick, west London) is an English multi instrumentalist, best known as a founding member of the band Genesis.

He played guitar and sang backing vocals until leaving in 1970, following the recording of their second album, Trespass. He left due to suffering from stage fright, after being told by his doctor that the best thing would be to leave the band.

He is known for his twelve string guitar work, and his influence can be heard throughout Genesis's early output. Genesis's first album after Phillips's departure, Nursery Cryme, featured two songs which were holdovers from the days when Phillips was in the band: "The Musical Box" (originally called F#) and "The Fountain Of Salmacis." "The Musical Box" especially remains a favourite of fans.

After leaving Genesis, Phillips studied classical music (especially classical guitar) and made recordings in collaboration with Harry Williamson, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins, among others.He played the keyboards on the demos for Peter Gabriel in 1976. His first solo album, The Geese and the Ghost, was issued in 1977.Phillips released his second album in 1978, entitled Wise After the Event. This was followed the next year by Sides. Both of these albums were produced by Rupert Hine and were intended to reach a mainstream audience, though neither album was successful in that regard.

In its initial release in the UK, Sides was accompanied by a more experimental album entitled Private Parts and Pieces; in the U.S. and Canada the two albums were issued separately. Private Parts and Pieces II: Back to the Pavilion followed the next year, and several further sequels were issued in the 1980s and 1990s.

Phillips began writing material with Andrew Latimer of Camel in 1981, and was a featured performer on that band's album, The Single Factor (released in 1982).Phillips released a mainstream pop album entitled Invisible Men in 1983. He later claimed that this project went "horribly wrong" as a result of commercial pressures, and would subsequently eschew mainstream success in favour of more specialised material.Phillips remains involved in a variety of musical projects, including extensive soundtrack work in England often for the label Atmosphere part the Universal Music Group. In the mid-1990s, he released an album entitled The Living Room Concert, which featured solo acoustic versions of his earlier material. He also provided archival material for the first Genesis box set, Genesis Archive 1967-75, released in 1998.Several of his albums feature artwork by Peter Cross.

Check out the Gonzo page for this album