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Episodes Interview Specials

R.I.P. Alan White, Yes’ stalwart drummer throughout decades of Perpetual Change – 535

Produced by Jeffrey Crecelius and Wayne Hall

Next week’s YMP episode will be a proper tribute to Alan White so please add your contributions in the comments section below.

This week, rather than a ‘standard’ episode we thought it would be appropriate to re-play our interview with Alan from January 2020. He was in fine form, as always and it was a joy to speak to him.

‘Legendary’ is an entirely apt description of this true gentleman, extraordinary musician and friend to all he encountered. R.I.P. Alan.

Original interview episode show notes:

Mark and I have ticked off another of our top ambitions on the podcast by speaking to Yes drum legend, Alan White. We cover a number of different topics and Alan is absolutely delightful, as I’m sure you know.

For the first time in ages, I also managed to do a news catch-up which features a few highlights from around the social webs in recent days and/or weeks and do listen out for a couple of new items. I hope you enjoy the whole episode!

  • What did Alan think of From A Page?
  • What is Alan’s favourite Yes album??
  • What is Relayer going to be like to play live in 2020?
Alan White from the Ramshackled album

Listen to the episode and let us know what you think.


Categories
Episodes Interview Specials YMP Classic Feed

Interview Special with Yes guitar legend, Steve Howe – 486

Produced by Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius and Preston Frazier

In a special, extra episode, I have the pleasure of talking to the man who helped Yes to transform their sound and approach in 1970, Steve Howe.

He told us about his time in Asia and how the band got back together in 2007 with its original line-up which is featured on the latest release, Asia, The Reunion Albums, 2007-2012.

We also had a chance to hear about the slightly different approach on Steve’s latest Homebrew collection, which is to be released in July 2021.

As always, it was a delight to speak to Steve, one of my all-time musical heroes.

Let me know what you think of the interview.

Categories
Episodes Interview Specials

Who’s that under the stage? It’s Casey Young! (And he’s happy to talk about it!) – 444

Produced by Jeffrey Crecelius, Wayne Hall, Preston Frazier and Bill Govier

Casey in that infamous rehearsal video

It was a genuine pleasure to speak to Casey Young this week about his contributions to the 90125 Tour. This conversation was suggested by Keith Hoisington.

  • Why was Casey under the stage?
  • What did he do?
  • How does he feel about his role now?

Listen to the episode and let us know what you think!

Spot Casey in this classic video!

Join us as a Patron!

If you would like to support the Yes Music Podcast financially and also have access to exclusive activity and opportunities, there is a special page you can use to sign up and 2020 is the time to join us:

Become a Patron!

Bag yourself a fabulous piece of YMP history before it’s too late…

Why not get yourself one of these? Head over to the YMP Emporium. While you’re there, pre-order a YMP Trivia Card Game and other lovely items!


Show notes and links:

YMP Patrons:

Producers:

  • Jeffrey Crecelius
  • Preston Frazier
  • Bill Govier and
  • Wayne Hall

Patrons:

Aaron Steelman

Dave Owen

Mark James Lang

Paul Tomei

Joost Maglev

David Heyden

Martin Kjellberg

Paul Wilson

Bob Martilotta

Lind

Michael O’Connor

William Hayes
Brian Sullivan

David Pannell

Miguel Falcão

Lobate Scarp

Chris Bandini

David Watkinson

Neal Kaforey

Rachel Hadaway

Craig Estenes

Dem

Paul Hailes

Mark ‘Zarkol’ Baggs

Doug Curran

Robert Nasir

Fergus Cubbage

Scott Colombo

Fred Barringer

Scott Smith
Geoff Bailie

Simon Barrow
Geoffrey Mason

Stephen Lambe

Guy R DeRome

Steve Dill

Henrik Antonsson

Steve Perry

Hogne Bø Pettersen

Steve Rode

IanNB

Steve Scott

Jamie McQuinn

Steven Roehr

Ken Fuller

Terence Sadler

Michael Handerhan

Tim Stannard

Jim

Todd Dudley

John Cowan

Tony Handley

John Holden

Joseph Cottrell

John Parry

Keith Hoisington

John Thomson

Barry Gorsky


Robert and David

Please subscribe!

If you are still listening to the podcast on the website, please consider subscribing so you don’t risk missing anything:

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Subscribe on Android
Listen on Stitcher

Theme music

The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from the following two creative commons sources: thanvannispen and archive.org

Categories
Episodes Interview Specials

Steve Howe tells us what ‘Love Is’ all about – 442

Produced by Jeffrey Crecelius, Wayne Hall, Preston Frazier and Bill Govier

After a few technical hitches, we managed to speak to legendary Yes guitarist, Steve Howe, about his brand new solo album, ‘Love Is’. It features his son and recent YMP interviewee, Dylan Howe, on drums and Steve’s fellow Yes member, Jon Davison, on backing vocals and bass guitar.

If you like Steve’s solo work, you’ll absolutely love this new album, which is packed full of his trademark multi-guitar work and contains half instrumental tracks and half songs. Steve is pleased with his lead vocals and we can see why!

  • Does Steve enjoy writing, producing, engineering and performing?
  • How does Steve choose from his incredible collection of guitars?
  • Are there any clues to future Yes happenings?
(Photo by Will Ireland/Prog Magazine)
Portrait of English progressive rock musician Steve Howe, taken on February 3, 2020. (Photo by Will Ireland/Prog Magazine)

Here’s the Press Release:

Legendary Yes guitarist Steve Howe has announced he is to release Love Is on 31st July through BMG Records. Love Is is Howe’s first solo album since the all-instrumental Time in 2011 and has a balance of five instrumental tracks and five songs. 

The album will be available as CD – gatefold digi-sleeve with 12 page booklet and LP – Black vinyl 180gm with gatefold sleeve, liner notes and lyrics. 

Link to Steve Howe Official store pre-orders:  https://SteveHowe.lnk.to/D2CPR

Link to Amazon pre-orders: https://SteveHowe.lnk.to/LoveIsPR

Steve Howe sings lead vocals and plays electric, acoustic and steel guitars, keyboards, percussion and bass guitar on the instrumentals while Yes vocalist Jon Davison provides vocal harmonies and plays bass guitar on the vocal tracks. The album also features Dylan Howe on drums.

Many years in the making, Love Is brings together a consistently strong and polished listening experience, forging the very best from the writing and playing throughout the album. This may well be considered the real ‘stand out’ album of Howe’s solo career. The instrumentals keep a highly progressive rock guitar style to the fore, with songs that explore stories of lives lived and lives only just begun. Love Is A River is the central longer song with several textural shifts, featuring a theme played on 12 string and steel guitars.

I called the album Love Is because it hints at the central idea that that love is important but also love of the universe and the ecology of the world is very important,” says Steve Howe. Alexander Humboldt went around the world and recognised we are destroying the planet but that was 200 years ago! We are still destroying the planet and, I suppose, my songs show the yearning I have for the love of nature and how beauty, art and music all stem from nature. There is a theme about those things, love, beauty, ecology, nature and wonderful people.

Love Is A River just seemed a very important track to me, a sort of quintessential track with lots of moods, lots of interesting things going on with steel guitars and acoustic guitars.  Further tracks grew from time spent writing in my studio.

See Me Through looks at the idea that we get through life by not driving ourselves that hard but attempting to achieve things with people who help you along the way and Imagination is dedicated to my granddaughter Zuni. It’s about how I see some of the things she’s experienced in her short seven years.”

I invited Jon Davison to sing harmonies with me and add bass on the songs. If he was singing on the songs I thought why doesn’t he play bass as well and it turned out nice. He’s been with Yes for seven or eight years and he’s a great guy, great performer and a great interpreter of Yes songs.

I’ve been singing for years, mainly in harmony but I’ve sung lead on lots of my own albums before and I feel that, as I’ve got older, I’ve got a grip on that and, hopefully, it’s improved over the years.

The album includes many distinctive Steve Howe signatures among the instrumental tracks from the delicate beauty of Fulcrum, Beyond The Call and Pause For Thought to upbeat rock, The Headlands, and the jazz-tinged Sound Picture.

The instrumentals are like a mood, a place I went to one day, thought this is nice and then I develop that to a point where it’s a finished track. There might be key ingredients that I thought about using musically that I like, that I’m drawn to, and then developing them into something.

Love Is was written, engineered and produced by Steve Howe with further engineering and mixing by Curtis Schwartz. “I write in my own studio and then go to see Curtis in his studio,” Howe explains. “We expand the tracks and put them on Pro Tools and everything starts to be possible. At some point, probably around 2 years ago, Dylan came down to Curtis’s studio and we recorded the drums on some of the tracks. I could see a balance of five instrumental tracks and five songs and there was a feeling that it was an album, sitting there, looking at me.”

The track listing for Steve Howe’s Love Is album is:

1 Fulcrum (instrumental)

2 See Me Through

3 Beyond The Call (instrumental)

4 Love Is A River

5 Sound Picture (instrumental)

6 It Ain’t Easy

7 Pause For Thought (instrumental)

8 Imagination

9 The Headlands (instrumental)

10 On The Balcony

Listen to the episode and let us know what you think!

Join us as a Patron!

If you would like to support the Yes Music Podcast financially and also have access to exclusive activity and opportunities, there is a special page you can use to sign up and 2020 is the time to join us:

Become a Patron!

Bag yourself a fabulous piece of YMP history before it’s too late…

Why not get yourself one of these? Head over to the YMP Emporium. While you’re there, pre-order a YMP Trivia Card Game and other lovely items!


Show notes and links:

YMP Patrons:

Producers:

  • Jeffrey Crecelius
  • Preston Frazier
  • Bill Govier and
  • Wayne Hall

Patrons:

Aaron Steelman

Dave Owen

Mark James Lang

Paul Tomei

Joost Maglev

David Heyden

Martin Kjellberg

Paul Wilson

Bob Martilotta

Lind

Michael O’Connor

William Hayes
Brian Sullivan

David Pannell

Miguel Falcão

Lobate Scarp

Chris Bandini

David Watkinson

Neal Kaforey

Rachel Hadaway

Craig Estenes

Dem

Paul Hailes

Mark ‘Zarkol’ Baggs

Doug Curran

Robert Nasir

Fergus Cubbage

Scott Colombo

Fred Barringer

Scott Smith
Geoff Bailie

Simon Barrow
Geoffrey Mason

Stephen Lambe

Guy R DeRome

Steve Dill

Henrik Antonsson

Steve Perry

Hogne Bø Pettersen

Steve Rode

IanNB

Steve Scott

Jamie McQuinn

Steven Roehr

Ken Fuller

Terence Sadler

Michael Handerhan

Tim Stannard

Jim

Todd Dudley

John Cowan

Tony Handley

John Holden

Joseph Cottrell

John Parry

Keith Hoisington

John Thomson

Barry Gorsky


Robert and David

Please subscribe!

If you are still listening to the podcast on the website, please consider subscribing so you don’t risk missing anything:

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Subscribe on Android
Listen on Stitcher

Theme music

The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from the following two creative commons sources: thanvannispen and archive.org

Categories
Episodes Interview Specials YMP Classic Feed

Tales From Photographic Oceans and from Cruising to the Edge with Jon Kirkman – 420

Kevin interviewing Jon Kirkman

This week Mark and I caught up with Yes author and friend of the band, Jon Kirkman, who told us about his new Yes live photography book as well as the next Cruise to the Edge which he is co-hosting. The book is called Tales from Photographic Oceans and it promises to be an amazing publication, one which is limited to only 300 copies as well.

  • What’s the new book all about?
  • What’s the Cruise To The Edge all about?
  • How important is the Relayer Tour to the band?

Listen to the episode and let us know what you think!

If you would like to support the Yes Music Podcast financially and also have access to exclusive activity and opportunities, there is a special page you can use to sign up and 2019 is the time to join us:

Become a Patron!


Show notes and links:

Jon Kirkman's latest book

Get hold of the book here – https://jonkirkman.co.uk/tales-from-photographic-oceans-coming-soon/

Cruise to the Edge Official Website:

https://cruisetotheedge.com/

YMP Patrons:

Producers:

  • Jeffrey Crecelius
  • Preston Frazier
  • Bill Govier and
  • Wayne Hall

Patrons:

Aaron Steelman
Dave Owen
Mark James Lang
Paul Tomei
Joost Maglev
David Heyden
Martin Kjellberg
Paul Wilson
Bob Martilotta
Lind
Michael O’Connor
Peter Hearnden
Brian Sullivan
David Pannell
Miguel Falcão
Lobate Scarp
Chris Bandini
David Watkinson
Neal Kaforey
Rachel Hadaway
Craig Estenes
Dem
Paul Hailes
Mark ‘Zarkol’ Baggs
Doug Curran
Robert Nasir
Fergus Cubbage
Scott Colombo
Fred Barringer
Scott Smith
Geoff Bailie
Simon Barrow
Geoffrey Mason
Stephen Lambe
Guy R DeRome
Steve Dill
Henrik Antonsson
Steve Perry
Hogne Bø Pettersen
Steve Rode
IanNB
Steve Scott
Jamie McQuinn
Steven Roehr
Ken Fuller
Terence Sadler
Michael Handerhan
Tim Stannard
Jim
Todd Dudley
John Cowan
Tony Handley
John Holden
Joseph Cottrell
John Parry
Keith Hoisington
John Thomson
William Hayes
Barry Gorsky

Robert and David

Please subscribe!

If you are still listening to the podcast on the website, please consider subscribing so you don’t risk missing anything:

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Subscribe on Android
Listen on Stitcher

Theme music

The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from the following two creative commons sources: thanvannispen and archive.org