CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Jon Anderson is working on plenty of new music in the present, but the former Yes frontman is also doing a bit of living in the past.
Anderson’s most recent releases, in fact, have been new editions of his first two solo albums -- 1980′s album “Song of Seven,” which came out in December, and 1976′s “Olias of Sunhillow,” which came out during March. An expanded edition of “Animation,” from 1982, comes out April 30, and the British-born Anderson, who now resides in northern California with his wife, Jane, will also be featured as part of “Union 30 Live,” a box set from the 1991 tour that featured eight members from different eras of Yes playing together, out on May 28.
They’re all marks of a long and accomplished career that put Anderson, 76, in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with Yes, four years ago and also includes collaborations with Vangelis and Jean-Luc Ponty. He certainly plans to add to that legacy, but these days he has time, and some words, to talk about that robust past...
How have things been in your corner of the quarantine during the past year?
Anderson: We’re healthy, and I’m busy writing music and doing some interesting work, actually. I got my (vaccinations) and it’s the funniest thing -- I’m so stoned! Really. I got very high on the first one and it lasted all the way to the second one, and I’m still high. If affects people different, I suppose. (laughs)
You’re exhuming a lot of your past work at the moment. Is it like your life flashing before your eyes?
Anderson: Y’know, by the time you’ve actually gone through the experience of creating a piece of music and then you fix it and mix it 20 times, it’s not something you listen to much after you’ve done it. You kind of let it go. And then you hear it now and again, a song here, a song there. So going back and listening to (the albums) all the way through again, I was really surprised how enjoyable that was.
“Olias of Sunhillow” came when all of the members of Yes made solo albums at the same time. You chose to do yours as a one-man band, playing everything. What was your creative goal?
Anderson: The talk was, “Let’s all do solo albums,” so I said, “OK, I’ll do a REAL solo album, by myself. And I had a really nice time doing it. It was like going to school; I put myself in my garage with all these instruments and said, “OK...now get it done.” It was a day-to-day thing where you spend at least six hours a day working, maybe longer, and it started to piece itself together based on nine years of songs I had. I really enjoyed it. Mike Dunne, the engineer who suffered through three months as I learned to play all the instruments, was invaluable.
You’ve all expressed some ambivalence about the “Union” project over the years. There were a lot of cooks in that kitchen. With the box set coming out this spring, what’s your perspective of that endeavor?
Anderson: It was sort of a shaky start...but eventually we realized, “Hey, this band’s really good. No matter who we are, what we are, who writes the songs -- this band is really good!” So off we went and, believe me, we were good every show. Some nights it was pure magic; I remember we were doing the Forum in L.A., and the energy at the end of “Awaken” was, like, the roof disappeared, and I could look up and see the stars. Something miraculous happened on that tour. So even though musicians will complain about this or that, then you get on stage and everything’s great. (laughs)
Is your Yes collaboration with Rick Wakeman and Trevor Rabin dead in the water at this point?
Anderson: Maybe. It’s a long story. Life happens; You expect to go for a long journey, then all of a sudden, it’s not going to go on the long journey you expected because of life. People have the life they want to live and go through -- it’s not a good explanation, but it just doesn’t work at times. But it’s OK. I’ve been through so many changes with Yes -- I mean, 20 versions of Yes I’ve been in, and every one’s been fantastic. But it was always chaos in there, for some reason. Like I said, it’s a long story.
Yes did manage to get together for its Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. How was that?
Anderson: It was wonderful. It was a remarkable feeling to be presented with that honor. Me and my wife had been to the Hall of Fame about four years earlier, when I was doing a concert with the Cleveland Youth Orchestra. I did a lunchtime sessions there and sang and talked about my work and everything. And then I was walking around thinking, “These are all my heroes, all my childhood” -- Buddy Holly, Bill Haley and the Comets, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Little Richard. Me and my brothers went to see the Beatles in ’63. And then you walk around the Hall of Fame and your heroes are all there...and now there you are. So, it was fantastic, and Geddy Lee playing bass and helping along and Rick telling dirty jokes...It was a great time.
You put out a social media call a few years back asking for people to collaborate with you on songwriting. How’s that going?
Anderson: Amazing. I got hundreds of people sending me one minute of their music, and I liked a lot of it. It was, “Send me a minute of your music, and if I like it, I’ll get back to you” sort of thing. I picked out a couple dozen to start with, and that created a network of people, and a lot of them, around this music that I want to release maybe next year -- probably not this year, but you never know.
You’ve been working on a memoir?
Anderson: Yeah, I’m halfway through. I finished part one in 1987, and that was a good place to end it, and now I’ve got another 30 years of stuff to write. I love the book I’ve written. It’s called “Survival and Other Stories,” but it hasn’t come out yet. It became a little too much like business, and I don’t like that. So, I’ll take time and write the “up until now,” shall we say, and we’ll see what happens.
What else is on your wish list of things you’d like to do?
Anderson: Well, there’s too many. Too many dreams to fulfill. They will all come true eventually. I just love the fact I still love making music every day, creating. I treat it as an adventure. And I have a beautiful wife and a wonderful time together with her. We live out in the country and away from the world. It’s all very happy -- and happening.
"work" - Google News
April 07, 2021 at 05:04PM
https://ift.tt/3msXbaD
Jon Anderson talks Yes, Rock Hall induction, solo work, the pandemic & more - cleveland.com
"work" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3bUEaYA
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Jon Anderson talks Yes, Rock Hall induction, solo work, the pandemic & more - cleveland.com"
Post a Comment