Jon Anderson released his 16th solo album, True, in August. Along with The Band Geeks, the former Yes frontman delivered a work that celebrates the spirit of his best-known band, but also fits perfectly with his personal catalogue. Prog caught up with the singer to find out more.
The phrase “late-career renaissance” is an overused one, but it’s hard to think of anything better to describe the recent upswing in Jon Anderson’s fortunes. Following a well-publicised brush with severe illness in 2008 – which resulted in him parting ways with Yes, the band that had dominated his life for 40 years – and the subsequent rebuilding of both his life and his career, he then had to deal with the pandemic as a man in fragile health.
However, he’s has very much found his mojo in the last few years, thanks to an unlikely source of inspiration. “During Covid, I couldn’t go out much because, after my illness, I’d be first to go if I caught it,” he says. “So I thought I’d just upgrade my studio and try and learn all these instruments that I’ve got – I’ve got them everywhere.
“At the same time, somebody sent me a video of this phenomenon from north London called Jacob Collier. I’d been waiting for somebody to come along and wake me up, and here he was. I’m just fascinated by how brilliant he is. And he’s already done quite an extraordinary amount of work. He’s on tour all the time, and audiences adore him; I just felt that, well, if he can do it, I can do it.”
This new surge in creativity inspired progress in all kinds of directions. Anderson remains hugely excited about many of his projects – but despite his recent live work with them, a record with The Band Geeks seems to have come out of the blue. Yet here we are: an album with that group of crack musicians, True is an astonishing piece of work. Deeply progressive, it’s both true to the spirit of Yes, and also the legacy of Anderson’s prolific solo career.
It revolves around two thrilling long tracks, Counties And Countries and Once Upon A Dream. Three other songs – the pop-prog of Shine On, the heartfelt Thank God and the fusion-influenced progressive opener True Messenger – have already been heard live, having been played by the band during their recent live shows in the USA, so it’s the two longer pieces that really excite Yes fans.
The album wouldn’t have been possible without the talent and virtuosity of The Band Geeks themselves, a group of experienced musicians who came together to record cover versions of rock classics for fun. “A friend of mine, John Amick, who works at SiriusXM, sent me a video of these guys playing Heart Of The Sunrise,” Anderson says.
“John gave me Richie Castellano’s number. I rang him up and said, ‘Hey, Richie, I love what you’ve done with Heart Of The Sunrise – it’s so perfect.’ Then I suggested we go on tour, playing the epics and classics of Yes. I told him he’d have fun.”
Fortunately, The Band Geeks are no amateurs. Castellano has been part of Blue Öyster Cult’s live set-up for more than 20 years, first as their live sound engineer, then as bassist and now as multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and occasional lead vocalist. He had access to an astonishing array of musicians, including former Brand X keyboardist Chris Clark. With glee the band pulled together a set of Yes classics, including Heart Of The Sunrise, And You And I, The Gates Of Delirium and Close To The Edge, touring the USA in 2023 to great acclaim.
Once Upon A Dream comes from a song I’d written eight years ago… Richie Castellano Yes-ified it!
However, Anderson wasn’t content to leave the collaboration at live shows. “I mentioned to Richie, ‘Wouldn’t it be crazy if we made an album?’ At the end of the tour, he suggested I send him some music to see what might happen. We did that via Zoom – once or twice every couple of weeks, I would get together with the band, and we’d work out some music.”
It’s clear that much of the composition was collaborative, Anderson directing arrangements in the style he used during Yes’ heyday – albeit remotely, with the band on the East Coast and Anderson on the West. Their virtuosity brought Anderson’s innate creativity to life. “But Richie was more or less the creative force when it came to evolving the structure of certain songs,” the singer adds. “With Counties And Countries, I sent him the song with a bridge idea and he sent it back with a full orchestral sound, and it was incredible. It kind of blew my mind.”
As the songs developed they became increasinhly intricate, with Castellano picking which pieces to use from many offered by Anderson. “I’d send over short songs and Richie would come back with an extension of that or combine it with something else. We came to the second big piece, Once Upon A Dream – which is my wife’s favourite. That comes from a song I’d written eight years ago with a good friend of mine who does advert music. We’ve written a lot together over the years.”
That friend is composer Jonathan Elias, who also produced parts of Yes’ 1991 album Union. When Anderson handed the song over, the band transformed it into a progressive epic. “Richie Yes-ified it! He definitely stretched it out. I would ask whether it needed to be so long and he’d answer, ‘Wait until I do what I want to do.’ A day later it came back with – amongst many things – the voices returning from the beginning section. I got very involved emotionally because I could he’d constructed the track in a really clever way.
You try things out, and a couple of days later Richie and the band have been meddling with it … ‘Oh my God, it really is crazy’
“Of course, when I started singing it, I just felt so, so happy. Who would have thought that what started off as a very simple idea would become this – not noisy as such – but a beautiful, emotional push towards some of the lyrics that I threw in towards the end that were really off the top of my head. They just came to me, and I started to feel really, very grateful.”
Although the album is strongly influenced by the spirit of Yes, there are very few direct stylistic lifts from their music. One exception is Chris Clark’s synth solo at the end of Counties And Countries, which almost uncannily channels the style of Rick Wakeman’s Moog solos most evident at Yes shows (as those who have heard the many live recordings of the caped crusader playing Starship Trooper will understand). Anderson couldn’t be more proud of the obvious tribute to his friend.
“Rick should take it as a blessing that somebody reveres him so much,” he says. “When we were on tour doing a soundcheck, Chris started playing something. I said, ‘I know what you’re doing!’ He was playing a piece from Tales From Topographic Oceans. There we were, right in the middle of rehearsal, and he just wanted to play it. It was beautiful.”
Virtuoso guitarist Andy Graziano is quite a find too. There’s bound to be a debate as to whether he sounds stylistically more like Steve Howe or Trevor Rabin. But the answer may be a bit of both. “That’s right – and he’s a guitar tutor, he teaches kids. It’s remarkable. I think people are going to be very, very impressed by him.”
Given the progressive nature of the music, was the intention to specifically create an album that celebrates the spirit of Yes? “Absolutely. That spirit was there every time we’d Zoom. Some of the methods we used specifically recalled what we did 50 years ago. And I always remember when I was doing it with Rick, he’d look at me and sort of say, ‘What do you mean?’ I’d say, ‘Well, it’s something like a Morse code,’ [sings a section from the 1997 track Mind Drive] and Rick would play it.
“With this new album, you just try things out, and then a couple of days later, it comes back. Richie and the band have been meddling with it, and you think, ‘Oh my God, it really is crazy.’ We’d go through ideas, and I would ask Christopher, the keyboard player, ‘Can you just do a little bit of a ‘da-da-da’ sort of thing?’ And he would just do it!
That was the joy of working spontaneously with the band… It’s what Yes did with Close To The Edge
“I remember we’d done the song True Messenger – which is one I wrote with a friend of mine [Jamie Dunlap] who does the music for South Park! He’s a great writer of ideas. I’d sent that over to Richie and he made it into a powerful idea. I said it needed a really powerful guitar solo at the end. So rather than let the song fade away, suddenly, he brought in North African strings and this astonishing solo. I just said, ‘That was it. Thank you!’
“That was the joy of working spontaneously with the band, which normally you’d do in the studio with several people at the same time, all trying to get on with the next part of the song. It’s what Yes did with Close To The Edge. We did that in 12 different segments, I think. We couldn’t just write it and do it – it had to be done in sections. This was a similar process; it’s about having faith and loving what you’re trying to do. So both albums, more than 50 years apart, turned out to be very, very interesting on many levels.”
Strong emotions seem to be a theme of the lyrical content of True, as does spirituality, which is a regular topic. “I think the point of Counties And Countries specifically is that we are here for one reason and one reason alone, and that’s to find the connection to the divine within – the idea of waking up to your higher self eventually and being prepared to be received into the divine energy that we all deserve.
“You can talk about religion this, religion that, but then you read Rumi [13th-century Persian poet and philosopher] or certain other people who wrote down the actuality of why we’re here. It’s clear that it’s to wake up and dream: we could transform this world into a Garden of Eden for everybody, not just for the rich.
“We were just driving around New York State and I’d never seen so many trees in my life; thousands upon thousands of them. It was quite glorious to see, and the song reflects that. The words ‘only for you’ are the key: ‘only for you to be received by you’ – by your higher self. That’s why you’re here; the need to make that a personal gift to everybody. That’s what I’m excited to sing in that song.
My wife was in the front row, and I’m singing to her, and she’s looking at me saying, ‘Get the words right!’
“I’m equally excited to sing Once Upon A Dream because there’s this beautiful interaction between the introduction and a sort of lyrical dance later. Towards the end, Richie plays one of the most beautiful guitar solos and you’ve got the vocal line repeating, which is something he added.”
True’s nine tracks are beautifully sequenced – largely Anderson’s work – and end on a heartfelt note with Thank God, a song clearly written for his wife. “I was in the middle of an album with Yes in Vancouver [1999’s The Ladder], and we had Christmas off, so Jane and I went to visit Robin Crow, a friend with a place outside Nashville,” the singer says. “He has a beautiful studio and we wrote an album and Thank God was one of the songs, although the album was never released.
“I sent it to Richie and suggested he try it. It’s very simple, minimalistic music and he put it together beautifully. I sang it two days ago in New Jersey; my wife was in the front row, and I’m singing to her, and she’s looking at me saying, ‘Get the words right!’ The danger of doing all this music is that you register the lyrics are coming with slight nervousness. So you think, ‘Okay, I’ve got to remember the middle of Awaken, for instance, and I occasionally forget bits.”
In the middle of True there’s a suite of shorter, simpler songs that feel a little more like they come from his solo output. He has a strong affection for these pieces, too. “I love Build Me An Ocean. I wrote it with another good friend who does recording for movies, Jimmy Haun [who also played on Union]. I just stumbled on it one afternoon, but it really works for the album. It sort of calms things down a bit after the intensity of Counties And Countries.”
I actually died in my wife’s arms… You look back and say, ‘Well, that was supposed to happen’
A stylistic difference comes in Make It Right, which has a wonderful gospel-style section at the end, something that would be unlikely on a Yes album of any era. “That was definitely Richie and the band,” Anderson says. “They had an idea for that part at the end of the song. I suggested they repeat it a few more times. It sounds very like Paul Simon’s Graceland; I took a bit of persuading to keep that in, but now I think it’s great.”
There’s also Realization Part Two – although part one apparently doesn’t exist. Yet. “Richie said, ‘What are you going to call it?’ And I said, ‘Realization’ and he said, ‘No, that doesn’t work. Realization Part Two.’ Simple.”
Anderson is 80 on October 25, and seems in fine fettle for a man his age. But how does he feel about getting older? “I actually died in my wife’s arms,” he says of his 2008 illness. “Basically, I couldn’t stop coughing. I think I just had a leftover from a tour where they used a lot of smoke for the lights to make them look better. And in that smoke, there was something that really affected me. You look back and say, ‘Well, that was supposed to happen.’ I didn’t want it to happen, but I was just entrapped in the physicalness of life, and Jane was there for me.
“When I sing Thank God for her, it’s actually the period before I met her I’m singing about. I actually saw her in my meditations. So when I met her, I just shook her hand and I thought, ‘We’re going to get married later; I love you.’”
It can be dangerous when you’re sucking away at a lozenge and trying to sing at the same time
While his voice has certainly matured and aged a little over the years, it’s in incredible shape for a man his age. “I feel so grateful, thankful and amazed at times that I get up onstage and I’m warbling away without too much worry. There’s a certain energy you attain over a period of time when you’re singing. But at times you feel like it’s not you; it feels subliminal. When I’ve got to go for a high note, like, ‘I get up, I get down’ [from Close To The Edge] I wonder if I can get it this time. As I come up to it, I’m hoping that it will be okay,… and then there it is. ‘Thank you’ is all I can say.”
Does he do anything to keep his voice in shape? “Oh, lozenges! That’s basically what I use; it’s Chloraseptic. I should do an advert for them. I use them every day – though it can be dangerous when you’re sucking away at a lozenge and trying to sing at the same time.”
Exercise has also been an important aid. “I started walking just over a year ago. I live in a sort of very similar place to [Lancashire home town] Accrington; the topography is the same. I’m living up in the hills and I’d go for a walk every morning. Then, after about six months of doing this walk, I started trotting, and now I jog and walk. I do 10 minutes of each and it’s really helped me keep as fit as I would like to be at this age.
“I just went for my one-hour exercise, and I was listening to some music that I wrote a few years ago, but thinking about the new album. It’s going to be another challenge to go on tour and perform it. That’s going to be great.”
He’s doubtful they’ll perform the full album: “I don’t know if we can; I’d hate to do it all and then everybody says, ‘But what about Close To The Edge?’ But it would be good to play more of it than the three songs we’re currently doing.”
It’s a kind of miracle that we’re doing this… Perhaps it’s for the next two or three years, perhaps longer; who knows
Prog notes that the legacy of Heart Of The Sunrise, which acted as the catalyst for so much of Anderson’s recent activity, looms large over the album, to the extent that there’s a cheeky lyrical reference to it in the middle of Once Upon A Dream.
“We’re all aiming for the heart of the same sunrise. When I think about the album title, True, I think it’s an understanding of what this music is, what it means to a lot of people, what it means to me. We have to be true to ourselves and true to the idea of Yes, and not be afraid to say that.
“I said to Richie that it’s a kind of miracle that we’re doing this, as though we’re meant to be together. Perhaps it’s for the next two or three years, perhaps longer; who knows. But making an album like True is, I feel, like waving a big flag. Thank you, thank you, God. Thank you very much.”
