I wrote songs with the guys from Air Supply for their record... So I was just writing songs.
Billy Sherwood
I mean, Beatles songs were two and a half minutes long, and they're fantastic.
So I was always around music and my dad was in his own way a progressive jazzer, a big band jazzer guy.
I don't have any assistants, I do it all myself, I don't have any secretaries.
So whenever I had some in-between producing time down in my studio I popped a tape in and started working on it. Working a little bit at a time, it actually took almost four years.
I'm very proud of it as a Yes record amongst many of the other Yes records.
We came off the road of the last tour very inspired to just keep playing, so we went to Canada.
So that studio served its purpose, and still is working very well for other people right now.
So one can say that I write all the time, that goes for the lyrics as well.
It's an album that is a little bit different and probably isn't easy to get out. It's not likely that a major label would have picked it up and said that they had a smash hit record.
I write on all instruments.
And as you said, everyone contributed; certain areas of material came from certain individuals.
And I found that when I built my own place and just shut the door, the creativity was endless.
Everyone is really getting along with each other and we enjoy each others company and love playing live.
I grew up in a very musical family, my father was a musician and a big band leader and made records.
I've had the luxury of owning my own studio, 24 analogue, 48 digital, endless effects, endless hardcore gear, that I don't have to rent, I don't get stuck with the bills, it's all mine.
So in one sense you don't have the classic keyboard player in Yes.
So when bands work with me and it's 10 o'clock, usually you'd have to be getting out of the studio, we could go on until 2 in the morning cause it's my place!
I also write poems, so that is something that I really enjoy.
When you're a songwriter and you click with someone, you tend to want to keep writing with that person.
I'd written songs with lots of people, from one spectrum to the other.
So for my studio purposes, I know that I'm in my studio with technicians who've done amazing things to my board and to my power amps and I know what I can deliver out of my studio.
I know that if I went to other studios, like in Vancouver, that those are set up to be as professional and as true, so it's just a different flavour, it's a different sound, but I think both have their place.
You know, I am just a musician and I have no idea these days what good and bad is in terms of labels.
I wasn't really writing with anything commercial in mind I just wanted to create some new music.
Sometimes I hear a drum groove in my head and I rush down to my studio.
I love the feeling of creating pictures in someone's mind just by spelling out the right lyrical combination.
I have always enjoyed different kinds of music.
I love all Yes music and love to play it live, but I'm most interested in making new music with Yes.
I think that the climate within the band has changed, it's now in a more functional situation.
