It seems quitting Asia, with whom Yes’ Steve Howe has recorded and performed in tandem since 2008, has only given the guitarist more to do. Even as he continues touring a trio of 1970s-era albums with Yes, plans are taking shape for a flurry of solo activity.
Yes’ tour — featuring The Yes Album (1971); Close to the Edge (1972) and Going for the One (1977) — resumes next month and continues through August.
In between, Howe will present a first-of-its-kind music retreat in New York, with solo UK appearances following in June. September will also see some trio dates. Meanwhile, Howe is at work on a best-of compilation of his solo work, and is in talks with Warner Classics about doing a follow up to last year’s classically inspired Time.
A desire to refocus on these more personal projects, Howe tells us in this exclusive SER Sitdown, was the reason forhis second split with Asia — the prog-pop group he co-founded in 1981.
“As I saw the end of 2012, I thought: I just can’t do another year where I am on call with two bands that aren’t solo,” Howe tells us. “I’m very excited to have forged a way for Yes to have a bit more of my time, but also being able to give time to my solo and trio projects.”
Elsewhere, Howe talks about returning to orchestral recording after the difficulties Yes had with the troubled sessions for 2001′s Magnification, how a chance meeting with Frank Zappa helped shape his career, the next albums Howe would like to see Yes perform on tour (one of the selections might surprise you) — and how new frontman Jon Davison has fit into with one of music’s most ever-evolving groups …
NICK DERISO: I typically point to the song “At the Gates of the New World” (from 1993′s The Grand Scheme of Things), a very Yes-sounding moment, when I’m making the case for your lyrical contributions to the band. I don’t think enough’s been said about your part on those collaborations with Jon Anderson.
STEVE HOWE: I’ve got to tell you, I’m getting chills up my spine. I don’t hear this a lot. I’m not an egotist, and I’m not going to get on people’s case, saying “You know, I invented this stuff.” But once we got to (1972′s) Close to the Edge, that had many of my lyrics on it. I don’t want to take anything away from Jon Anderson, because we became a good team — from “Awaken” (featured in concert now as part of Going for the One) on through to (Yes’ 1996-97)Keys to Ascension (combination live/studio albums). There were a lot of lyrical collaborations on (1973′s Tales from) Topographic (Oceans), too. But, in a way, I was ducking. It got to the mid-1970s, and people were trying to slag us off and say: “You can’t understand what these words are about.” Of course, mine weren’t so vague. I did write the lyric: “close to the edge, down by the river”; I also wrote the “in her white lace” section. I didn’t rush to try to get more credit because, after all, it says on there: “Anderson/Howe.” That was pretty much good enough for me. But then came this criticism, and they didn’t like certain kinds of lyrics. Mine were always clearer, and more common place, than Jon’s. Jon sometimes — and I liked it — would dream up stuff to go around it. It was much more interpretive, in a broader and vaguer sense, whereas mine were quite personal. Certainly, with “Close to the Edge,” I was living in Battersea and I could see the River Thames. My first reason for writing it was because I was actually living by a river, and I was very close to the edge! (Laughs.) But Jon, brilliantly, took that and just went with it.
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STEVE HOWE: I’ve got to tell you, I’m getting chills up my spine. I don’t hear this a lot. I’m not an egotist, and I’m not going to get on people’s case, saying “You know, I invented this stuff.” But once we got to (1972′s) Close to the Edge, that had many of my lyrics on it. I don’t want to take anything away from Jon Anderson, because we became a good team — from “Awaken” (featured in concert now as part of Going for the One) on through to (Yes’ 1996-97)Keys to Ascension (combination live/studio albums). There were a lot of lyrical collaborations on (1973′s Tales from) Topographic (Oceans), too. But, in a way, I was ducking. It got to the mid-1970s, and people were trying to slag us off and say: “You can’t understand what these words are about.” Of course, mine weren’t so vague. I did write the lyric: “close to the edge, down by the river”; I also wrote the “in her white lace” section. I didn’t rush to try to get more credit because, after all, it says on there: “Anderson/Howe.” That was pretty much good enough for me. But then came this criticism, and they didn’t like certain kinds of lyrics. Mine were always clearer, and more common place, than Jon’s. Jon sometimes — and I liked it — would dream up stuff to go around it. It was much more interpretive, in a broader and vaguer sense, whereas mine were quite personal. Certainly, with “Close to the Edge,” I was living in Battersea and I could see the River Thames. My first reason for writing it was because I was actually living by a river, and I was very close to the edge! (Laughs.) But Jon, brilliantly, took that and just went with it.
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