Yes in the Press: The Day the Earth Stood Still: Chris Squire Interview

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OCTOBER 7, 2004
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Source: Kajagoogoo

http://www.kajagoogoo.com/ChrisNickInterview.shtml

The Day the Earth Stood Still: Chris Squire Interview

By Nick Beggs

One of the most powerful things about music is how it freezes time for the listener. You always remember where you where when you first heard your favourite song.

I always remember how old I was, what day it was in which year and on what type of hi-fi equipment I first heard Chris Squires’ bass. I also knew that not long after that experience I would become a professional bass player. And it was all because of HIM. Therefore dear reader I can not express eloquently enough with words alone, the depth of feeling that was evoked by the mere thought of interviewing HIM for your pleasure. And I thank you all for the opportunity. NB.

NB: So who were your early influences?

CS: Oh. McCartney, Jack Bruce, Bill Wyman and John Entwistle really. Because I was a big WHO fan when I was fifteen. I used to go to the MARQUEE club and listen John and watch Pete. That was my moulding as a 15 year old kid. But then there was Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker and of course Bill Wyman who I later got to know and he also had a big influence. McCartney was so important to me because he had such melodic bass lines and I listen to a bit of each of these guys.

NB: So who do you like now?

CS: Aw well the music has changed now. People don’t play in quite the same way as they did in those days. Because at that time I think music was still moving out of the Jazz era. Players used to use loads of notes and then rock thinned it down a bit. Now you have bands like NO DOUBT, which are one of my favourite bands, I know the bass player in NO DOUBT and their grooves. I like their remake of that TALK TALK track, IT’S MY LIFE. It’s really good. You can tell the bass player obviously wanted to cover that track because it’s got a great bass line written all over it. FLEE I like, too. FLEE’S really good. I guess NO DOUBT and THE CHILLI PEPPERS are kind of alike. I know FLEE and have hung out with him a bit. The STEVIE WONDER cover they did was great through to their newer stuff. Yeah FLEE’S always doing something interesting.

NB: So do you have a copy of the new NO DOUBT album?

CS: Oh I’ve seen them live a couple of times. I think they are really good. She’s really good and the band’s really good. The drummer’s F##king loud! Loudest drummer I’ve seen for a long time. And as we know in Rock n Roll it’s all about how loud you are.

NB: That’s very true. The sound tonight was really good. Not too loud, very comfortable to listen to.

CS: Certain members of the YES like to portray things a little more evenly. But I’m one of the last remnants of the rock n roll side of the band (and maybe Alan’s with me), but I like it loud! Jon and Steve like to have things a little bit more measured and I guess it’s all about maturity and if it comes across well that’s fine with me.

NB: Let me tell you from a fan’s perspective it was a fantastic show. I’ve seen YES live four times now. Twice on the GOING FOR THE ONE tour once on TORMATO and tonight. And mere words are not enough.

CS: Oh Good. Thank you! Though I thought all the tempos felt too slow tonight. Maybe it was because we were rushing down from London.

NB: So what was the last CD you bought that you really liked. What CD did you feel that you needed to buy recently?

CS: LINKIN PARK! Yeah I like them. I think they’ve had an interesting transition because they were more track originally and now they’re more song. It sounds whiter than it used to be. They seem to be moving in that direction and I like their last album. BUT! One thing I have to say about a lot of those bands is, “Does every track have to have DSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHhhhhhhhh guitars all the way through each track? Wall to wall? I think they’re missing out on something by having that in every song. Maybe they’ll develop into a more sensitive sound but they obviously know their market for now, and they are very big. And they are very good.

NB: One of the things about the YES arrangements is that they are very powerful but then there’s this sensitivity which is quite amazing.

CS: Yeah. Well. You know during our thirty-five years of being together as a band we have had to explore more and more and we still try to improve what we do.

NB: So do you actually have a practice routine?

CS: No! (Laughs)

NB: Did you in the early days?

CS: Yeah probably. In the early days you learn other peoples lines and stuff to figure out what you’re doing. But that was 1965.

NB: So how did you arrive at the sound and technique you have today?

CS: It’s just over a period of years. The funny thing is that my technique now is so much more highly developed than it was even ten years ago. I do stuff now that I never ever used to do. I play with my fingernails and my thumb. And I use the pick and the thumb together, so I’ve got an attack and a smooth follow through. Stuff that I could never do back twenty years ago.

NB: I never saw you play blues harp before. How long have you been doing that?

CS: ARRRR……… I did that when I used to walk home from school. I was fourteen or fifteen.

NB: Have you always used it in the YES shows?

CS: Yeah. It’s come in and been on various albums, too.

NB: Wow I didn’t know you did that.

CS: Yeah. Actually on that particular song (AND YOU AND I) I play more like a Dylan style of thing. It’s not really blues harp, though I can do the blues harp. That’s what I used to do when I walked home from school to the station and from the station back to my house.

NB: So it’s all been quite a natural kind of development for you. You haven’t ever really sat down and thought I’m gonna do it this way?

CS: No!…. You know the great thing about having been in YES the whole time and having had lots of other talented people to play with; even though it can be a pain in the arse some times, is it’s great for your musical development, and even more so with this line up which is probably the most well-known line up. I played with BILL BRUFORD for the first four albums or was it five? Then ALAN WHITE came in who was a completely different drummer so I had to then relearn the way of playing with ALAN. So I began to realise toward the end of the 70s how good this was for me to have other people to interact with. So I just picked up on what they could do. And of course TREVOR RABIN bought in his expertise and I learnt a lot from his strategy. Him and MUT LANG were so close and they had learnt a lot together, of course I then learnt from that camp. It’s always good to interact. Not copy but broaden your vocabulary.

NB: There’s been a remarkable cross-section of line-ups in the band. I can imagine BILL was a very methodical player.

CS: Well BILL BRUFORD was probably part of the reason for my success. Because he basically had a jazz drummers approach. Very often the snare drum was the bass drum. And the bass drum was very often playing the accents. So therefore, through EDDIE OFFORD's perception (the engineer on those early records) he got BILL to play around me. It was also interesting because I was loud in the mix, (coming back to that point) the whole reason for that was because the producer of TIME AND A WORD, TONY COLTON decided to mix the album on head phones and there was no bass response on the head phones. He plugged them into this tinny little headphone socket that had no low end, so he kept saying to EDDIE the engineer, “More bass, more bass”. There was bass in the speakers but none in the headphones. STEVE HOWE who had just joined the band, said to me, “The bass is really loud isn’t it Chris?” And I went, “Well he’s the producer, I guess that’s how he hears it.” (Smirks.) And that album came out like that and got all these audiophile magazine revues saying about how it was the best sounding record they’d ever heard.

NB: The sensitivity to bass on modern records is not acknowledged the way it was during that era.

CS: I was lucky to be in a period in time where it was just something that happened in music even all those funk records had loud bass. SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE you know.

NB: So after the TIME AND A WORD sessions was it the natural progression for EDDIE to take over as producer?

CS: Well after all the great reviews about the bass sound in all these really formal hi-fi magazines we felt we should stick with him. On THE YES ALBUM and FRAGILE the bass was still pretty loud and that was down to EDDIE OFFORD.

NB: It seemed like everybody else wanted that sound around that time, because EDDIE ended up doing a whole swath of stuff.

CS: Yeah! And all he used to do was wack the Urie compressor right up. That’s what he did.

NB: What’s your favourite YES album Chris?

CS: Oh they’ve all had something for me. Of course we were developing for years. And there was great surprise at FRAGILE doing so well in the States. That was the exciting turning point. Especially after THE YES ALBUM, Atlantic records were probably going to drop us if something didn’t happen. As I’ve said before in various articles, the only reason THE YES ALBUM became number one in England was because of the big postal strike of 1970. Back in those days, pre-computer, all the record stores needed to report back by mail, about what they had sold that week to the record retailer or whoever it was who compiled the charts. But there was a postal strike. So, they decided to take the charts from RICHARD BRANSONS’ first Virgin record store in Oxford Street. So of course BRIAN LANE went in they’re saying, “'Ere, I’ll tell ya wot. Why don’t we 'ave a load of YES albums in 'ere, ya na, an I’ll buy a bunch and it’ll be numba one.”

NB: So he was the first one to do it. Hype?

CS: Oh Brian is responsible for the success of the PINK FLOYD, JIMMY HENDRIX because he was the record hyper of England. People used to pay him. LED ZEPPELIN, every one who became a success in that period of time, was because BRIAN LANE used to run around all over England to all these retailers in his car like a travelling sales man and give him fifteen quid and tell them what the charts were gonna be that week.

NB: He must have been onto something though Chris, because people wanted to hear that stuff.

CS: Yeah the funny thing was, he got it right. But one week he went on holiday and so he prepared the charts for the next couple of weeks. And MICKY MOST had a record that was supposed to come out but it got delayed. But it was number three in the charts before it was released!

NB: Uh oh!

CS: HA! Haaaaaaa.

NB: Never a good sign.

CS: And Brian was in the NEWS OF THE WORLD for that. And so Brian was YES’ first manager and we benefited tremendously from his experience and thank God for it. Because the YES ALBUM became number one through RICHARD BRANSONS’ first Virgin store and by the time the postal strike had finished, stores all over England were ordering it and it was number one.

NB: So how old were you then?

CS: Aaaaarrh? Twenty two.

NB: And how old were you when you knew you wanted to be a professional musician?

CS: Well that came about when I was about fifteen or sixteen and was at public school. My mate was quite a good classical guitar player and we formed a little band. And he said to me, “You’re tall and got big hands, you should play bass.” I said “OK.” ………….So that’s how I became a bass player. Then I grew my hair long and got expelled from school.

NB: Wow! You, too. I got hell for having long hair from my head master.

CS: Yeah. My Mum didn’t actually tell my Dad about that until she took me to BOOSEY & HAWKS and got me a job in the music shop sales department. Then she said, “Arr well CHRIS isn’t at school any more he actually working.”

NB: So what do you do outside of playing to relax?

CS: Um. Well I’m a bit of a hedonist.

NB: That’s a very good answer. By the way did you know that your daughter CARMEN was in a KAJAGOOGOO video?

CS: Yes I did.

NB: And did you know that you and I met at a DURAN DURAN party in 1982?

CS: Yes I remember.

NB: Wow, you have a good memory. I wondered how you remembered so many complex parts. So what piece of gear or equipment have you bought recently that you really swear by?

CS: Recently? Well ROLAND give me all their updated midi translation software. And I just made a DVD with my side project. I don’t know if you’ve heard about that, CONSPIRACY?

NB: Yeah.

CS: With BILLY SHERWOOD? Just before I left to come on this tour we made a live video with a drummer and two keyboard players. We did nine songs live and it’s being edited now.

NB: So the ROLAND conversion software is for a midi set up like the V-BASS?

CS: Yeah. I’m amazed at where it all was in the nineties to how it’s all developed now. I had the original PHOTON and stuff like that. The triggering was real slow. I ended up putting the top four strings from an eight string bass set on it and it worked fantastic. Strangely enough that’s developed into one of my main writing tools because the tracking now is unbelievable. I love the V-BASS. ROLAND has this new thing coming out and they want to use some of my sounds on it so I’m in negotiations with them for that.

NB: Do you have a studio set up at home?

CS: Huh! You know what? I try and avoid it like the plague because when I lived in Virginia Water in Surry (UK) I was the original 70s Prog rock guy with the studio in the house. It served its purpose then but now I prefer to go out of the home environment to go to work. At that time the Nanny would always bring the kids in and they’d start fiddling with stuff and it was fun and I could cope with it, but now I’m not such a big fan of the home studio.

NB: So you’re not such a big fan of Macs and Logic?

CS: Well no because BILLY SHERWOOD has it all at his house and I go over there.

NB: He’s a very talented guy Billy isn’t he?

CS: Yes he’s very talented. He’s a little bit of every guy. By that I mean he’ll say things like, “Oh you want TOTO’s guitar sound?” and he’ll dial it up on the system. Where I’m more of the random guy factor. Billy’s total master of the whole pro-tool way of processing every thing.

NB: You guys did that PINK FLOYD thing together didn’t you?

CS: Yeah the thing we did together. The cover! Yeah. Actually that turned out pretty well. Alan played on that, too. Did you hear that?

NB: Someone played me some bits from it, and I remember thinking I want to get into this more. What I heard I loved.

CS: Yeah it had a little Chinese bit in the middle. (Chris sings it to me.)

NB: So are you a fan of PINK FLOYD and is it some thing you always wanted to be involved with?

CS: No that was Billy’s’ idea. He’s a buddy and I did that for him and once again I was open for doing stuff like that because I liked it.

NB: You also did that save the Armenians DEEP PURPLE / SMOKE ON THE WATER charity record didn’t you?

CS: Yeah that was a bit strange but it worked out OK in the end.

NB: So have you every played the CHAPMAN STICK?

CS: Ah? Don’t bring that thing near me! That’s for other people.

NB: Ha ha! OK then. I’ve been listening to you’re records all my life so I’m gonna give you one of mine. (I hand him a copy of my new stick album.)

CS: Now do you play that? Actually I heard that you did, somebody said you did. Hey look at you there on the cover looking all groovy and Vienna like.

NB: I played it on one of STEVE's albums actually. THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS.

CS: Well it’s not a bass! It’s a different instrument. TONY LEVINE plays it, too. Do you play it like him? Or do you have a different style?

NB: TONY influenced me.

CS: Did TONY figure out what the instrument did in the first place, and you kinda like did the same thing or do you play it different or him?

NB: Well there is so much you can do on it and I think no two players are the same. I use a lot of midi stuff including the ROLAND V-BASS on my instrument, especially when I’m playing for JOHN PAUL JONES.

CS: Oh! Are you on that new JOHN PAUL JONES album?

NB: The THUNDER THIEF? Yeah.

CS: So what does JOHN PAUL JONES play then?

NB: Well………………When he plays bass, I play lead. When he plays lead, I play bass.

CS: I’ve got that album. Actually I think it’s called ZOOMA.

NB: Well I toured that album with him.

CS: Yeah I heard he did the HOUSE OF BLUES in LA and I got a lot of good reports back about it. I was around but was told after the event. So I didn’t know. I like JOHN.

NB: A very influential player!

CS: Yeah. Lets face it he was LED ZEPPELIN. You know. Ha! No one really knows that. But he was. They all kinda worked for him. Because he had employed them before JIMMY employed him. JIMMY did stuff for him on TOM JONES and stuff. Yeah. And KASHMIR, which was their best song ever, that was totally JOHN. Yet JIMMY always tries to tell me that him and JOHN BONHAM figured it all out. I know that they didn’t. I don’t understand why JOHN allowed them to get away with so much. He should have just put his foot down, but he’s not that kind of guy I guess.

NB: So did you have any traditional musical studies?

CS: Just Choral. I was in THE GUILDFORD CATHEDRAL CHOIR. You see what happened was my Mum wanted me to be in the Cub Scouts and I F##king hated it. But my best mate said, “Tell your mum if you join the choir you can make 2&6 for a wedding on Saturdays.” So I said, “Mum can I join the choir?” Then coincidentally the shining star of British church music at that time BARRY ROSE, left Cambridge University as a choir master and came to ST ANDREWS CHURCH KINGSBURY, he was twenty one and I was seven. When he came to our parish he threw out all the male voices and kept just six. And I was one of the six he kept. I was a soprano. Within two years we became the most important choir in England. Choir practice was supposed to be Wednesday and Friday nights for an hour but he inspired us to be their every night of the week for five hours.

NB: And did he ever go through any theory or rudiments with you?

CS: No he just picked who he thought were the best six boys and drilled us like a Sergeant. Then he got all his friends to come down from Cambridge University to be the male voices. Within two years we were recognised as the best choir in the country. That’s how I learnt, from an early age the importance of practice and making a unit that was fired up to be the best. He had this amazing inspiring effect on all of us that just sent us to this level. So much so that when ST PAULS’ CATHEDRAL CHOIR went on holiday we were there in ST PAULS’. By that time we were doing up to 19 weddings per weekend and I was coming home with like £20 and I was nine years old. It was ridiculous.

NB: This takes me back to the earlier question I asked you about practice. It sounds like you did all you real training during that period.

CS: Yeah. And it was all choral. And that’s how I understood music and the whole structure.

NB: Your vocal harmony work with in YES is very interesting. You seem to pick out very unusual intervals as counter melodies and harmony.

CS: Yeah. And it’s all ingrained from that time. It was amazing to work with BARRY ROSE and he’s still doing it. He was the guy at CHARLES & DIANNAS’ wedding leading the choir. He’s got to be now in his 70s and he looks just like he did back then. So that was how my whole theory about working within groups was formed. And how you need to work like you’re in the army and drill it, with the right people if you’re going to achieve any level of excellence. JON ANDERSON, although he comes from a different background, has a similar ethic and that’s how we were able to eventually put this thing on the road. A lot of people dropped by the wayside.

NB: Well yeah. You see that in many situations. But the relationship the two of you have; the core of the band has always been you and JON.

CS: Yeah but he’s been out a couple of times. And when he left the first time and we did DRAMA with TREVOR HORN and GEOFF DOWNES, which I thought was a great album; if that had continued you never know what could have happened. But then TREVOR ended up producing 90125 and JON came back in and sang it.

NB: So there’s never really been a traditional way of making a YES album has there?

CS: Only that I’ve always been there.

NB: OK so you’re probably the only person who can answer the question then. Apart from yourself what are the most traditional aspects that appear in all the YES albums? What is the evaluation process that causes a YES album to be released?

CS: Basically everyone who has come into YES from BILLY SHERWOOD to PATRICK MORAZ to TREVOR RABIN has come in with a style and is responsible for an adaptation. It’s all been good for me because I’ve learnt another facet of how YES can be, because I have that kind of patience. I am very open to new ideas and trying different things. The fact that YES was very Prog rock in the 70s was turned on its head by TREVOR RABINS, who made the band more “rock” rock. But we were suitably different because TREVOR HORN was producing it. We weren’t American rock but more English rock. The whole 90125 album worked so well that we knew as we were recording it that it would be great. Well……….Or at least I did. And TREVOR HORN did.

NB: It was great to see you have such a big hit with that record.

CS: Oh! You should have seen the burning rubber at ATLANTIC RECORDS, because they’d already written us off. The record royalties were dwindling with each statement and they must have been thinking, “These guys aren’t going to be able to afford a big lawyer or accountant to do a audit.” But as soon as OWNER OF A LONLEY HEART went platinum, we found the back catalogue was generating lots of money. Because they knew then we could afford to audit them. All of a sudden it was like, “Oh guys! We’ve just found all this money we owe you.” It was then I realised this business will f##k you over like nothing else. Record companies have been working like that for years. A band has a big hit period and then when you’re winding down the record company starts to keep more and more of your money because they know you can’t afford to sue. But you should have seen them shift into gear when 90125 hit. Suddenly they found there was so much money owed to us.

NB: So regarding aspects of playing. Do you ever play any fretless?

CS: Yeah. We just did an acoustic thing where I play a MARTIN ACCOUSTIC FRETLESS. Which I hired actually from a place in LA. But prior to that I had a RICKENBACKER fretless which I didn’t like very much. I had a little GUILD fretless that I used on CLOSE TO THE EDGE, I put it through a VOX AC 30 and wound it up for that big bass figure on the track. But I’ve never played fretless like JACO.

NB: Did you like JACO?

CS: Yeah for what he did. I appreciate people who have their own thing you know? Shame the heroin got to him.

NB: Did you ever hang out with him?

CS: I met him I think but I don’t think he would have remembered.

NB: So why do you play a RICKENBACKER?

CS: Because when they originally can into England, PETE QUAIF from the KINKS bought one, JOHN ENTWISTLE bought one and I worked at BOOSEY & HAWKS who were the importers and I got the third one.

NB: It’s great to see you still playing the same one.

CS: It is the same one. It’s a brilliant brilliant guitar. But I have a relationship with it, it just plays itself really. Even though the pickups are all cockeyed and crappy, by modern standards they wouldn’t figure as being efficient at all. But it’s the inefficiency that makes it so good.

NB: And you run it in stereo?

CS: Yes! Still! I invented that whole thing and then RICKENBACKER started to make them in stereo.

NB: Did they give you a royalty on that?

CS: No but in those days they were just the guys who bought RICKENBACKER. The father was a business guy who saw a business opportunity and knew nothing about music. The son JOHN HALL persuaded his dad to buy it. I went in there I guess some time in the 70s and tried to explain to them the business they were in. And you know at that point in time they didn’t even give THE BEATLES free guitars. I said, “You’ve got to give PAUL McCartney a free bass, it will be good for you. You’ve got to understand marketing.”

NB: So did you ever meet PAUL?

CS: Yeah I met him in an elevator in Manchester a few years ago. I was just going to the last gig of our tour actually and I heard, “Oh hold the lift, hold the lift.” (in a Liverpool accent.) And in he gets with Heather. So he looks at me and I go, “You're PAUL McCartney, aren’t you.”

NB: Did he say, “And you’re CHRIS SQUIRE aren’t you?”

CS: No he didn’t! Ha Ha Ha. But I said I was about to do a YES gig and the penny dropped. Then I got in the car with ALAN WHITE's mum and she said, “Oh I’d like PAUL McCartney’s autograph.” So I shouted out, “Paul, Alan’s mum wants your autograph.” And he came running over to the car to sign something for her. It was great. Of course you know that ALAN played with JOHN LENNON?

NB: Right. So do you have a new YES album on the horizon?

CS: Oh Jesus don’t talk to me about that. We are scheduled to do one and we owe it to ourselves. I’m not ever gonna let YES get into the ELP syndrome where we go out and play the twelve songs. Which is what GREG told me one day. “I go out and I play twelve songs. My life is twelve songs.”

NB: I don’t understand that because KEITH wants to do the EMERSON LAKE & PLAMER thing.

CS: They’re both Scorpios. A few times we tried to put together a tour with them opening for us but it never works.

NB: So as relationships go with in YES who do you have the closest relationship with. Is it ALAN WHITE as he’s the drummer?

CS: Yeah I have a close relationship with ALAN. Even though he’s been in the band since 1972 he’s still considered as the f##king new drummer.

NB: You seem to have a very comfortable kinetic relationship.

CS: Yeah. We do. After you play with some one for thirty-two years you’re gonna have something pretty special.

NB: So as far as relationships go, how did you manage with TREVOR HORN? I ask this because he has a reputation for being quite controlling in the studio.

CS: TREVOR? Well yeah. But not with me. Lets face it, it blew him away back in 1980 when we all decided to work together. RICK and JON were off chasing rainbows doing their solo things again and ALAN, STEVE and I were left in a rehearsal studio shrugging our shoulders saying, “Well we’re supposed to be doing a YES album.” The BUGGLES came to BRIAN LANE for management because he managed YES. That’s how we met them. I always respected TREVOR because he knew he wasn’t the singer that JON is but he still went for it and DRAMA is a very good album. It’s got very good lyrics which TREVOR and I wrote together. And very good musical content. We had four nights booked at MADISON SQUARE GARDEN and the fans thought it was the old line up. TREVOR went on and did a great job. The funny thing is there’s a new live DVD coming out of YES shows and the four best tracks on it are the four songs we did live with TREVOR HORN and GEOFF DOWNES.

NB: I remember reading and interview with TREVOR HORN talking about how nervous he was about doing those shows.

CS: Yes he was very nervous. But you know people kinda bought it. And it didn’t go that badly.

NB: So if you had a favourite period in the history of YES when would it have been?

CS: You know? I think that might have been it. I have a few favourites. To me it’s all been like an adventure. And………………….the question is, do these guys still know what’s going on in the music industry, do they still have the creativity? Probably not! Do we still need a producer to tell us if what we’re playing is great? I’m one of these guys who seems to be abreast of what people like. It’s because, I know what I like. Just like LINKIN PARK. They’ve moved into an area where they’re huge and I know why. And I have that connection. JON ANDERSON, RICK WAKEMAN and STEVE HOWE will have no idea about that. Strangely enough neither will my daughters who are kind of more techno freaks.

NB: So you feel like you have a commercial headspace?

CS: Oh I definitely do. I could run a record company easily.

NB: So do you have a template that you work to?

CS: Yes. And most of the time it’s the bass player who knows. You know that. The bass players are usually the producers. Just look at it, TEVEOR HORN, MUTT LANG they’re all bass players. We have that talent.

NB: Knowing what sells comes with it’s own responsibilities, do you shoulder the burden of management and defusing band tensions, too?

CS: Obviously we have business conflicts about management and agents. I feel that there’s some logic on both sides and there’s no definitive answer. But we have very good management in ALAN KOVACS.

NB: So how do you see the future?

CS: It’s difficult to know. The strange thing is YES have become a bit of a statistic in this whole resurgence of the prog rock genre. I think I know why but I’m not quite sure.

NB: It’s because you are working together as the most famous line up. And you have so much history. Which is rare.

CS: It’s really good having RICK back. We all have that unspoken connection of guys who grew up in England who absorbed certain influences there for we all have certain common denominators. I feel that with RICK being back as opposed to when we’ve had the hired keyboard players. Whenever new people have come into this band I’ve always tried to pick their brains rather than tell them what to do. Otherwise you defeat the point of having some one who has talent in the band. JON’S not quite in the same way of thinking, he’s much more, “You do this and you do this.”

NB: Singers are like that though.

CS: Yeeeeeeeeeeeah. Singers are different. Though you know, I’m a singer.

NB: Yeah but you understand where you fit within the whole thing from your years as a choirboy. That’s trained placement.

CS: Over all this period of time I’ve learnt how to be a lead singer too though. But I know JON doesn’t really dig that.

NB: So who’s responsible for all the ridiculous time signature changes in YES music? I tried to work them out on RELAYER once and f##king lost count.

CS: Yeah RELAYERS’ a bit tricky. Well I wrote some of that. There’s a 13/8 bass riff in the middle that I wrote. I just felt it. I think it was more prevalent in our earlier work I suppose. Because BRUFORD was so into that, “Oh lets try something in 17/8.” ALAN's a lot more 4/4. That was a big change for me to adapt to that from that. You know maybe a lot of YES’s more important work was done in that format.

NB: Well to round up CHRIS, I’m gonna ask you to sign my YESSONGS. I’ve had it since I was a kid and I was going to ask you to sign all my vinyl but that would make me just too much of a tragic fan.

CS: So do you still go out as KAJAGOOGOO?

NB: Yeah. We’re going out soon actually.

CS: So what do you do TOO SHY plus the other hits? (Chris then starts to sing TOO SHY to me. I laughed a lot…………………….. I’m still laughing.)

After the storm.

It’s hard to quantify just how far reaching Chris Squires’ influence on contemporary bass playing has been. Progressive Rock doesn’t seem to have a very hip PR now a days, so not a lot of players will openly discuss it. However the tide seems to be turning with a new generation of fresh-eared hopefuls picking up on the things that got me started back in the 70s. So I asked Chris if he was aware of the legacy he’d created for the player, but like most icons of any genre he seemed bemused by the idea and didn’t know how to answer the question.

During the interview I played Chris, Lewis Taylor’s’ version of the YES classic “Heart of the sunrise.” It’s an amazing version and if you haven’t heard it I suggest you get a copy. It’s from his covers album. Chris was very engaged by the arrangement and wanted to hear how the vocals had been approached.

“Well. I know who to call next time Jon goes off on a solo project.” He laughed.

One of the first things you notice about Chris Squire when meeting him is just how big he is. Big shoulders, big face and great big f##king fingers. This partly accounts for the tremendous power in his playing. I was fortunate enough to be given the full tour of Chris’s guitars and back like, by his guitar tech, Zang Angelfire. (Yes that is his real name.) His trademark bass, the Rickenbacker 4001 is quite amazing to hold. Because it’s been through so many refits and fret dressings the neck feels very thin, like it’s been shaved by a few mill along its entire length. It feels fantastically comfortable for a 4001. Marry this with Chris’s stature and you get another insight into where the hurricane comes from. After I held the original 4001, Zang let me feel the signature model in comparison that Rickenbacker produced for Chris. It was based on his 60s guitar but felt nothing like it. I was amazed. The looks were the same, but the neck was fat and uncomfortable with an action reminiscent of Lemmys’ axe. (Which I’ve also played at Lemmys’ smirking request.)

On the wall in my home studio I have a photo of me aged 17 holding a Rickenbacker copy, which I bought so I could be like Chris. (The words on the bottom of the photo where written by my mother months before she died of cancer.) With the completion of this interview / article I’m reminded of the reason why I ever bothered working hard at music at all. And it is…Chris Squire!

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