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P4Y: You've always seemed to prefer hollow body electric guitars. Any particular
reason for the preference?
 STEVE: I guess, not only did I start on those kind of guitars, which also
gave me a bit of a headstart in that direction, there is a puritanical side to me
where I do like not exclusively, I play Steinbergers and other guitars, but I do have
certain preference for the greatness of great ideas. It's like if you look at
car design, you know, you look at great makes, you can see a consistent greatness
about their designs and maybe they lead. I guess in guitars it's the same. The
design, the way of guitar is crafted and the fact that I still play the guitar I
bought brand new in 1964, which was 38 years ago, means that you sometimes can buy
something that lasts. In today's society that's quite significant because there is
an awful lot of things that don't last so well and wear so well. And I'm pleased
that I found those guitars. The sound, yeah, there is something obviously within the
sound that I like, and also the scale of having a guitar that the neck isn't
close to your body. I play Steinberger and other guitars, but primarily,
you are right, I play full-body.
P4Y: I just wanted to touch base back on the album again. What is your favorite
track off this new album?
STEVE: This album, oddly enough, does feature a great deal of hollow-body guitar,
my 175(Gibsons ES-175D) because,
primarily, that's the voice that I like for my improvisational stuff. On this album
that guitar does get quite an airing, I'm pleased to say. What's your question
again?
P4Y: You have twelve tracks on this album, what was your favorite track off the album?
STEVE: I have a thing about Avenue De Bel Air. It's an intriguing track. I think
for me it was a track where I had done an early guitar, listened to it and
considered it had good ideas on it, but I didn't like the overall performance. I did
this with Camera Obscura as well. I listened to some earlier work and took some
ideas from it and reorganized and played them again and then put in my improvisation
based on improvisation, as opposed to just based on a melody. So the melodies are
using that tune, as my key melodies were actually improvised originally. I like
that ingredient. But there again, I'm playing them again in a more structured way so
they come again, they repeat sometimes, and they are obviously not improvised at
that time because otherwise they wouldn't be structured in the way that they are.
But that will enable me to jump off and do improvisation yet again on top of that
knowledge. So the more you know about a track, the more understanding you have of
its structure. It is implications of the bass movements, the length of it, the balance of it, the
color that you've had to bring to it; it gets really important. So, you know,
usually I say Meridian Strings. It's the first track that starts the real journey.
In other words, it's more like Acts of Human Kindness, in my mind sort of an
overture of the album. It sort of clicks. It's about the album more than it's like
the album; it presents the album. And therefore, it's a premature, it's warning of
some of the basic messages, certainly about kindness, and about, you know, small
acts of
human kindness can be a very powerful thing. And it's a great tool. I guess music
is a bit like that. And that's really it; I was compiling my ideas. So Meridian Strings is usually the track that I say; I pick Meridian because I feel that
opens the track out, opens the album out. It's kind of -- this is really what the
album is about, this sort of music, whereas, partly melodic and partly
improvisational.
P4Y: It's a beautiful track.
STEVE: It's a long word, improvisation; I shouldn't use that too often.
P4Y: And as you age gracefully, how much can you improve? Do you feel that you are
getting stronger as far as your guitar playing, or do you feel that you've reached
your pinnacle as far as your art form is concerned?
STEVE: Unfortunately not. Don't ask me two questions; quite often I'll
forget one of them.
P4Y: Sorry.
 STEVE: So I'll answer this one. I think that your mind goes through different test
pads. In the 70's, obviously with the success Yes was having and feeling of being
on top of it, you keep going forward. And there are times in the next 20 years, in
the 80's and 90's, when I look back at the 70's and thought, no, I was actually
playing better than I liked that performance. And I saw some improvising from Yes tours as an early
disgrace in 1972. And I thought I don't know, I don't think I play like that any
more, which I did. But gradually, I've turned that around to my advantage where, not
because I want to say this, but because it helps answer the question, but a lot of
times now people are saying to me they really haven't seen me playing better. There is
some heat turned. They are really still surprised that I'm still pushing the
envelope, going forward, and that endorses me to what I believe too, and that is
that there was a lull, there was a performance lull or a guitaristic lull while I
was gaining strength in my writing and collaborating and production, sometimes
helping other musicians do stuff. But then I think coming back onto the stage I -- what I
would like to say here is that it's stage performance that really keeps you pushing
forward because I just don't want to be redundant on stage. I
don't want anybody to think this isn't the best they've seen me perform. So I'm
always on that leading edge of trying to do better. But you don't do better but
just trying; you do better by allowing yourself to be better, by projecting and
working. But also not just demanding that you are, but somehow looking and hoping
that you'll be seeding yourself into the right kind of potentials that will allow
you to be better. And then, I guess, in the studio, it's about the people you are
around. Then that the danger is if you have any negativity in the studio, then it's
pretty hard to expound on going forward. But as often happens on my own solo albums, I
get so much freedom that I can find I can fulfill a goal in me. Not easily, but
it's quite achievable. But within the group, you've got to try and
keep everybody happy all of the time really, which isn't always that easy. So I
guess part of my exploration or a lot of my exploration happens on stage.
P4Y: Steve, a Yes question. Yes has gone through so many transformations over the
years, and yet you've been there almost from the beginning. What was it like for
you working with so many different forms of the band?
 STEVE: Well, you know, I guess that's the opportunist in me. I saw them as
opportunity. And Patrick Moraz was the first one I had. Tony Kaye and Rick Wakeman,
that was the first crossroads. And then the most difficult one that ever has been
in the band was losing Bill Bruford because I really didn't want Bill to go. I saw
no reason on earth why he should leave.
P4Y: None of us see wanted to see Bill go either.
STEVE: He did want to go and he did want to further his musical venture, which is
one of the things that I did appreciate about his desire. But having said that,
that was tough. Now with Patrick, and there was Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn and
then there was the Igor Khoroshev and the Billy Sherwood, I would say at
times it's tested my patience at times, not so much as in 70's because there
was almost like a driving force going on in the band in the late 90's when we were
flexing with Billy and Igor. I guess I was extremely restless. I
was wondering if I should stay in Yes, whether Yes really gives me very much to do
with so many other people sort of clambering for input into the band. And
suddenly it got rather exclusive; you know or even get a song across or an
idea, incomplete, something that had
a total theory. So it got hard. I would say that was a very restless period.
Fortunately, right now after Magnification, which wasn't an easy record in any sense
or form, but now Rick is back, I feel a different quality in the band totally. It's
really, I mean --
P4Y: Like an old glove Steve?
 STEVE: Well, not quite as as calm as that, but Rick only comes back to the
band, and we only had him back because this was the right time to do it. We weren't
going to do it. Before he wasn't working. It wasn't looking like his sense of
commitment was different. Now we've got Rick very committed. Although there is the
old glove syndrome, I would say that's it's a bit like a new glove that fits really well
because Rick's musicality and my guitar work fit together like a glove. We're using
that expression too often, but enjoyably so because I really do need Rick in this
band. I wasn't enjoying it without him as much as I am now. And I guess that shows,
it shows in my face more than I can believe sometimes when I see the DVD from
The House of Blues. I see this really miserable pissed of looking guitarist. In a way,
although I didn't think that I looked like that, I couldn't
help but hide that. In a way that group wasn't all that I wanted Yes to be and the
difficulties within it were the work of making a very creative entity. But now with
Rick back, I feel that things are worth going on with. Things are worth putting up
with sometimes, and things are worth achieving that Rick and I could achieve
together, which is to be a greater force, you know, in a directional sense, a great
power to this group. And I don't want to be used by Jon and Chris. I'm not here to
be used by anybody. I'm here to collaborate and expound and make things better and
take on some real musical challenges, not anything less than that. Anything less
than that, and I don't want to.
P4Y: What is the future state of affairs for Yes and for, actually, the rest for
the band? Are we looking forward to brand new material with the lineup?
STEVE: Yeah, eventually. We're not exactly just going to rush around doing that.
We want to build up the strength of the writing and the sense of collaboration that
we've got together. So certainly that's on our agenda. We're going to be doing
that. This time next year in October or December we should be recording. That may
seem surprising, and that's a long time away, and Europe hasn't seen this band yet
in this lineup. And we haven't been to Australia for 30 years, and Japan, for a
few. So we're continuing in a live mode for a bit longer. And we did
Japan and Australia at the end of February and beginning of March. And we actually
do Europe in June and July. And after that our work will be done, obviously, as far
as showing the areas that we work in, that this band is back and is healthy. Then is
the time most probably to go and make a record. It has to be discussed yet, and
there are certain parameters, geography and timing and style. I think style
is a key word for Yes. Style is Yes. Yes has style, had style, needs style, and must keep style, otherwise, you
know, it needs a certain style of music and I think we'll look for that.
P4Y: In the interim can we hopefully look forward to another Steve Howe solo
album?
STEVE: Between now and then?
P4Y: Yes.
STEVE: Let me look. I have plans, you know, but having just got Skyline off and
running, I feel that what I'm hopefully showing my audience is that my desire to
make a cohesive record in a particular style is increasing. When I go to another
style, like I did with Natural Timbres, is acoustic, this one is electric, laid
back, very moody. I'm certainly not going to do anything
very predictable. After that I'm going to want to make a record that's powerful
and maybe, you know, has some strong elements of rock in it, because, you know,
that's one of my leading edges, that's one of the leading things that I like about
Yes. I want Yes to be moody and understated as well, and I don't always want to
make --I hope we don't look like Status Quo, something about being on stage, as if
we are that sort of a band. But
I think the style of Yes and the quality would mean that the record from us and the
style of writing would have to fit in the story. There is a very big story on Yes.
You know, it's been on a lot of curves and deviations and sometimes it's played as
radio music and that didn't do the band any long-term good, although in the short
term, everybody thought it was great that we had a hit record. But in the
long-term, sometimes those things, you can never change the path. After that it's
very hard to get back on your original brief and do music that's progressive, un-commercial, sometimes purposely un-commercial. I just realized really how Gentle
Giant fit into this story. And they are one of the most innovative groups
England ever had. More innovative then Yes, actually. King Crimson may have set
the ball rolling quite a lot, but truly Gentle Giant is a phenomenal band,
phenomenal writing and also phenomenal social awareness in that band, very much like
a sort
of Mothers of Invention meets Ian Jury. And I've got a lot of respect for the
band, the people who put this kind of music on the table like Yes did with Close to
the Edge, Topographic and said, we're going to stand by this, you know. I stood by
Close to the Edge while people were smacking it rotten. I was going, no, sorry I
actually like this record, piss off. And I'm glad I did that. I'm glad that I
stuck by it as much as I can I think Asia was a bit more semi-proggy but much
more poppy rock band, but I keep my head above the water.
P4Y: So you are very happy with InsideOut Records then?
STEVE: Yeah. I'm very excited. The enthusiasm when we met up in Holland some time
back, and I met Tom and the whole thing started to roll between them being very
aware of the atmosphere that was needed or expected or required or wanted to be on my
records. And as soon as they heard some of Skyline, they wanted to be part of it,
and it's a continuing relationship, hopefully, much like Rick coming back and
continuing a relationship for Yes. I would like to see InsideOut be a stable
for me as well.
P4Y: Speaking of unpredictable, any particular reason why you chose Bob Dylan for a
tribute album?
 STEVE: I guess I felt that he was he was about my biggest influence as far as the
guy who's done so many albums. And in a way, at the time it seemed his music was a
little obscure. And I could pick from a big repertoire and not pick all of the hits
that he had, although I did Just Like a Woman. Bar that, most of the other songs
were not as well-known as Like A Rolling Stone. So the reason I did that was, I
think, to avoid the mish-mash of doing songs that have been covered lots of times.
And who has ever covered I Can Believe You? No one has every covered that. I
enjoyed covering Going, Going, Gone, you know, and the songs like that which were so
deep in me, partly the lyrical strength. I'll tell you why I did Bob Dylan. It just
so happened that he was the writer who had collectively written more about the
difficulties with love, you know, the way love is so great and yet love is also an
entanglement that you sometimes can't control or can't keep it the way you want. So
most of the songs, every one of them, but nearly all of the songs are actually
about that twist in love. The album was going to be called Signals Crossed at one
time, which is a line from one of his records, we got our signals crossed. And in a
way that, to an English person, means actually they got mixed up. I think over here
in America it can be interpreted slightly different; people think of railroad
tracks. But, you know, having our signals crossed means that we don't know what the
other person is thinking. So it was a great vehicle for a subtle yet compelling
lyrical continuity in those songs about love is great but loves also
kind of difficult and I need to learn about love and I need to understand it. I mean Bob certainly wasn't a small-fry to
consider. The wealth of his songs was so enormous and there was another short list
that I had of another album, but I think it taught me a lot, doing Bob, it taught me
that you always take on a bit more than you think when you are not just doing your own
music, you are not just like planting your own songs. There were times when I kind
of wondered if Bob was going to hate this record because it wasn't recorded in
necessarily in the spirit of the way he did things, which is kind of thrown together
emotional, alive, maybe a little bit crazy, mixed upside of it, because everything
is working together. And I produced the record. And when I came to play lead guitar
I was very cautious not to be sort of flashy. I wanted to be full of emotion but
not at all speedy and flashy, and all of that kind of stuff, which all of those
lessons were good for me. So I really enjoyed doing that Paul Chase record.
P4Y: I have this dilemma. I've known Rick here for the longest time, and he's had
this question that's been bothering him for years, and I hope this is not something
that's as out of the norm, but I'm going to let him ask you this question.
RICK: Steve, I named my Siberian Husky, a beautiful dog Khatru, but I can't
find the definition of the word for khatru. I had gone back stage at the Tower Theater
in Philadelphia a couple of years ago, but John and you did not come out, and this
might be my last opportunity to try and find some sort of meaning for the word Khatru.
Any inside information into what John might have had in mind?
STEVE:
I think if you look in Sanskrit, I think that word is used; I think it might be used
there. What it means I don't really know. I'm not even sure John did when he did
this song. We've been asked it loads of times and there isn't a real answer, it
means ice cream with eggs. I don't know really what it means. I think it's a far
more subconscious meaning. I think it is Sanskrit and therefore it needs some
translation.
P4Y: I thought it might refer to, like, a sonnet or song or a poem or something
along those lines?
STEVE: I would love to be that simplistic, but I don't know.
RICK:
Thanks.
P4Y: Word-of-mouth suggests that this latest album will possibly be your
best-selling album and I have enjoyed it. And it's somewhat ambient in some
places, but I personally enjoyed it. It's a very comforting album to listen to, and
it gets me in a nice mood. And I really do appreciate you taking time out of your
busy schedule to conduct this interview with us.
STEVE: Nice talking to you.
P4Y: Is there anything that you would like to say to
your fans out there in conclusion?
STEVE: I don't deal well with that question. It always puts me on the spot too much.
P4Y: That's fine.
STEVE: This is good timing because, in fact, my bags are about to leave for San
Francisco, so I'm off on the road again.
P4Y: It's been a pleasure, Steve. Thank you very much.
STEVE: Thanks.
P4Y: Likewise, Steve. It's been a pleasure to interview such a distinguished
instrumentalist like yourself.
STEVE: Thank you very much.
P4Y: Thank you.
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