Steve Howe-Guitarist from the band YES

Announcer:

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 Welcome to another special episode of taking a walk music history on foot You can find taking a walk on Apple podcasts Spotify iHeart the podcast Playground or wherever you get your podcast Please share this with your friends as well This is the podcast where we dive deep into the lives and careers of musicians of all type young and old Today Your host Buzz Knight is thrilled to be joined by Steve Howe legendary member of the band Yes He’s a guitar virtuoso and a progressive rock pioneer and we’ll welcome Steve Howe next on taking a walk

Buzz Knight:

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 Hello Steve

Steve Howe:

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 Oh

Buzz Knight:

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 it’s so great to talk to you How are you today

Steve Howe:

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 I’m not bad I’m not bad Yeah And yourself

Buzz Knight:

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 I’m doing excellent here I’m uh sitting in my backyard uh in Carlisle Massachusetts So you may hear the sound of some birds Uh I’d love to be taking a walk with you in person Where are you in London

Steve Howe:

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 Yeah I’m in London right now Yeah

Buzz Knight:

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 Well thanks for being on I really appreciate it Uh We’re gonna talk about the new Yes Album Mirror In the Sky and we’re gonna talk some history but um before I go on I don’t know if uh if you remember a moment that you bailed me out uh pretty significantly when I was doing a series of shows in London and you graciously recorded an interview with me at that time in person I got back to the studios in London and I realized there was nothing recorded And so I went back and tried to bribe you with a Duane Eddy album and a bottle of champagne And you were gracious enough to bail me out come back down to the studio and do the interview Do you remember that?

Steve Howe:

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 No I don’t But it was an exception because usually I’d say well tough luck no recording Goodbye But anyway I’m glad I did it That was a nice thought but I most probably I’d be hard pressed to do it again

Buzz Knight:

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 Well I’m really appreciative but thank you for for being on So as you  recall your career do you remember the first moment that you knew you were hooked on music And do you remember the first moment you knew you were hooked on being a guitarist

Steve Howe:

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 Well I guess when I was about 10 I thought I was getting pretty hooked to music and I my parents had wonderful records by Les Paul and Mary Ford and also Tennessee Ernie Ford with Speedy West and Jimmy Bryan playing great guitar solo on it But by the time I was 12 and I really wanted the guitar then I knew I was going to be a guitarist and you know I wanted to play the guitar more than anything else And 12 is pretty young although it’s not as young as some star but a couple of years later when everybody been twanging like mad you know the Ventures the Shadows all that stuff was kind of like you know I discovered Atkins and he was my guy you know he was the versatile all round guitarist He also a producer fun enough but also a great guitarist And he was my main inspiration

Buzz Knight:

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 And who are the folks that you would encounter that were guitarists that you admired who made an impact in you personally as you got to maybe know some of them

Steve Howe:

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 What do you mean People I knew Albert Lee he was the first guitarist that knocked me sideways In fact it’s not a not a made up story but when I opened for Chris Farley and the Thunderbirds and we went to watch them when Albert started playing my band had to hold me up He was so fantastic And Albert Lee is one of my I’m a really huge fan of Albert Lee And um basically you know of course Hank Marvin I did meet up with Hank I mean I met Albert thank goodness and met up with Hank a few times Um the very early players you know were in two schools they were either very good tune players like Hank and you know they knew how to carry a tune or like Albert Lee he knew how to improvise and that was what I named he wanted to do you know to learn about that So you know many guitarists you know I was only 16 when I saw Wes Montgomery play live That was unbelievable So I’ve been very lucky to catch some of the greats

Buzz Knight:

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 So you’ve been a creative songwriter your entire career Can you describe your songwriting approach

Steve Howe:

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 Well I mean initially it was like maybe still now it’s a vehicle you know for my guitar work So in other words you know the songs are kind of important thing to me and I’ve enjoyed writing about my life and the way I see the world if you like and the ideas I’ve got for it But it it’s also a vehicle for the guitar So the two things work in tandem And um then I found that yeah you can sit down and a lot but I started writing just words you know random sort of things And then I later I’d see if I could kind of edit them into some shape that might fit with this tune or that tune So basically it was a learning curve I did it a lot of different ways you know and I did it on cassette recorders on quarter inch machines you know on a track on digital track you know And now of course pro tools is remarkable but I still work at home fairly simply on a hard drive but it’s not a computer I don’t have to deal with computing So basically some writing is something if you want to do it you just you know you just can’t stop doing it really And I sometimes I think oh I’m not writing the lyrics anymore I’m fed up with that and then about three months later I get an idea and I think it’s pretty good So yeah like it comes back on me but mainly solo guitar work is what I like writing and those tunes on an album called Motif Volume One And I’ve got Motif Volume two coming out soon And basically that’s solo guitar And I love writing for that and playing other people’s tunes But basically it is a big vehicle for my for my writing is my solo guitar piece you know clap Moot for a day Those are the beginnings of it But since then I’ve written 25 30 more pieces that you know I enjoy in the song you know all sorts of things

Buzz Knight:

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 How have you been able to balance being technologically brilliant as a guitarist with the emotion of playing guitar

Steve Howe:

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 Well I don’t know that that’s got to be part of a natural process The two are kind of part of the same thing you know So basically I would say that I notice how people play very precisely and the emotion that you can you know it’s timing you know it’s all about how you how you position that not how you let it resonate or how you play a few more Um I don’t know where it’s a way to talk about that really Because yeah you’ve got to be proficient on your instrument before you can be proficient in expressing yourself really So the 1st 10 years a lot of noodling around having a lot of fun But I think after that and that was when I joined Yes I think I I knew that there was an emotional quality in this you know I mean I was playing blues a lot Yeah it was pretty soulful stuff And I was playing soul in a group called the In Crowd in the sixties with Keith West And basically I had dabbled with a lot of different music that did have an emotional sentiment you know So I think most music does you know

Buzz Knight:

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 do you have a position on what artificial intelligence is going to do To the technology of recording music

Steve Howe:

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 Well so far technology is an amazing amount of things you know pro tools is a great example of very high state of hey it’s unbelievable working in pro tools you know I do that when I’ve got my tracks and I’ve got something then I move into pro tools with Carry Schwartz usually the guy who’s engineered these Yes records for us So basically that is a process A I is a kind of scary factor I mean you know what it can do is it good that and nobody’s got the rain just like when the internet came along nobody had the reins on censorship or anything You know it’s all void of all the things that we valued about democracy was a sense of control But there again you know maybe that went too far but maybe this will go too far as well So I would think I’m a little pessimistic that that we need to be dominated by machines But there again you know we we’re talking on a fundamental you know machine you know telephone but basically since then we’ve gone to the moon you know so I mean you got to own up I mean technology is unstoppable really

Buzz Knight:

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 as a legacy member of the band Yes you’ve witnessed you know first hand lineup changes is there a common theme why you think changes occur And uh and do you have a reason why the band has been able to be so successful with this Amazing longevity

Steve Howe:

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 Well we’ve had to cope with all the changes but they’re never the same you know I mean take Bill you know he left We didn’t nobody wanted him to leave So there’s all sorts of paradoxical reasons why things happen One of the fundamental reason is the guy falls out of sync with really where the general sense of the band is heading and they become restless and we notice that and we think well this doesn’t seem right you know and sometimes it’s a shame you know but sometimes it’s it just has to be and there’s changes and there’s changes you don’t want you know nobody wants and then there’s changes that that the committee approach Well this isn’t working well So we’re gonna have to do something you know and it is a bit like an orchestra You know if you if the first violinist you can’t mess up you know you can’t keep messing up your tunes Otherwise we’ll get another first violinist And I guess yes it’s that it’s that important like the royal harmonic orchestra is you know it’s important that that what it does it does very well And that quality control that idea that there is a a level at which yes has to format It’s totally real I mean it’s a demand You know it’s an expectation but at the same time it’s a demand and those are the things that drive change

Buzz Knight:

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 How’s the relationship with you and Jon Anderson

Steve Howe:

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 Well you know we don’t have a lot of contact but what we do have is we have love for each other and we we’ve allowed each other to get on with our lives You know that’s a very important thing with without you know sort of incarcerating each other in some

it’s a Doric expectation You know we’re all free to move around and play the music we love and write the music we love and we record and perform the music we love So yeah I mean Jon and I have some nice contact sometimes and I think we’re very respectful of each other at all times

Buzz Knight:

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 So let’s talk about the new album Mirror To the Sky Tell me about the process of putting that together and describe maybe how you feel about it

Steve Howe:

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 So after we did the Quest we were quite surprised that we were still hungry for more But Thomas at the label inside out they were very encouraging said well you know if you want to you know we’ll definitely be there if you want to do it with us We want to be there with you So basically we took the opportunity um as that album was being released to start to conjure up this music And basically we’re quite a happy team We’ve got lots of ways that we work that work for everybody because that’s what a producer has to find is a way that works for everybody Not just for the producer that’s an awful idea But the idea is to make a harmonious place and build and have a good team and uh you know technical team as well But also you know we look at the management all those things are important and basically um you know we do want to make music and

 we do want to design it so that it has elements of what Yes music is about and can tell those kind of stories the kind of semi orchestrated of orchestrations and arrangement mainly Yes is an arranging band We don’t just like play a song with a lot of

 coming for three minutes and then then it ends we kind of develop lots of and counterparts and harmonies So basically yeah we do want to do this you know we’re happy doing it

Buzz Knight:

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 Oh congrats on to the sky I’m so happy for you I could hear the excitement in your in your voice When um when you think about being a pioneer of progressive rock can you describe what you think the impact of that entire great genre of music is

Steve Howe:

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 Well I guess it’s um it’s a widening of influences you know if you like the up to the mid sixties music was kind of contained within a certain format expectation But I think with psychedelic music that became ah that became kind of wild and free and improvisational and that carried on in progressive rock But what progressive rock brought to it was that word I used a minute ago arrangement because what that is mostly if you hear a good pro progressive rock piece of music it’s got a sense of arrangement but also a sense of fire and improvisation too because music is nothing without improvisation but improvisation is nothing without structure. you know could leap off the fingerboard providing he had a power that could hold it together Yeah And that’s what your team work is all about in a band It’s all about sharing and then the vocal section you know so everybody’s got to like ok find a place finding your place as a musician is what we’re doing all the time Finding the right sort of part at the right sort of level at the right sort of tone It’s fascinating you know it really is

Buzz Knight:

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 What advice would you give to aspiring musicians who might be listening to this podcast

Steve Howe:

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 I think I did something recently where they asked me for five tips One tip basically is find your comfort zone but be ready to kind of learn about making that work in other environments because your own comfort zone is really cushy You know you sit in the home and you’re noodling you know you’re recording But I think you know what I felt you know unless you speak you wonder or you know you’re somebody who can write everything and play everything then you should learn you know the trade And by doing that you learn about your comfort zone like encouraging some comment and then you are able to comment on what the other musical idea that might be coming to you And it’s about sharing Yeah you learn to share It’s not a very easy process I can tell you I was well sensitive when people said I don’t like that much You don’t like it You know it’s like how insulting but it’s not it’s a comment that you’ve got to learn to take on board and say I don’t like that bit you know and you’ve got to learn to be strong I guess

Buzz Knight:

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 as you reflect on your Hall of Fame career Is there anything that you might have done differently

Steve Howe:

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 Yeah I would have kept ABWH going and not become yes that that would have been a big difference But you know and that was yes union So I mean other people like the union but basically it was a kind of steal from thunder because ABWH did some great things and went out on tour and we were quite happy to do that And then suddenly we had the complications of I think three or four managers three or four accountants three or four s eight musicians It was really quite hard But um basically that that’s what I would have done differently

Buzz Knight:

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 Well I am so grateful for the music that you’ve given through your career and that you continue to give Congratulations on the new album Mirror To The Sky It’s so great to catch up with you again Steve Howe on taking a walk

Steve Howe:

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 All right Thanks very much Good to chat with you Thanks so much Thanks for your enthusiasm

Announcer:

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 Taking a walk with Buzz Knight is available on Spotify Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts

Buzz Knight is an established media executive with a long history of content creation and multi-platform distribution.

After a successful career as a Radio Executive, he formed Buzz Knight Media which focuses on strategic guidance and the development of new original content.