Tim Morse talks
with Alan White
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The following interview took place on January 13, 2000. Alan was kind enough to give me some time before he dazzled a capacity crowd at Northridge Music Center with his drum clinic.
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TIM MORSE: Let's talk about The Ladder. One of the things that strikes me about it is the world beat influence, I'm guessing that a lot of that came from you. ALAN WHITE: Yeah, a lot of these songs came out when we were writing together up in Vancouver for The Ladder. We all used to go the rehearsal studio everyday and we'd play for five or six hours and all of these things started emerging. A couple of the songs were going different directions, almost being world beat-type, reggae-type things, but we made a more progressive version of it where it's in a different time signature. When it turned up in the songs everyone thought it was a great direction to go. TM: The first single "Lightning Strikes" is in odd meter, right? AW: Yes, it's in seven. TM: I like that on The Ladder you hear Yes exploring some new territory. AW: It was a good journey coming up with different things for the album like that. I think that it is reminiscent of parts of Open Your Eyes, but it has a lot of musical sections like the 70's material. It's really a nice combination of the 70's, 80's and 90's of Yes all rolled into a new thing. TM: I understand that most of the backing tracks were done live - that there wasn't a lot of overdubbing or touching up. AW: Not at all. Bruce (Fairbairn, producer) told us that we were supposed to know the song well enough to record it within three takes. If we couldn't get it within three shots he'd tell us to try it again tomorrow to keep everything fresh. TM: But it must have taken a little while to nail a song like "Homeworld" or "New Language"? AW: No, but we played them a lot before we went into the studio. "Homeworld" was done in three sections as was "New Language." But we did all three sections in a day. TM: When you were recording the backing tracks live, did you mike the kit up or trigger samples or use a combination of both? AW: I had something like 37 microphones on my kit that were permanently set up. They would use different combinations on my kit for the tracks. They'd have eight microphones on the bass drum at different intensities and distances. They'd use different combinations of all these things and change the drum sound accordingly. TM: Is that the most microphones you've had on a drum kit? AW: I don't know. On Tales From Topographic Oceans we had quite a lot on there. We've had as many as that before. TM: How do you feel about using a click track? AW: We don't normally use them, but on this album for about half the songs we used one. The nature of the music and the kind of stuff we were doing made it very easy to play with too. Bruce was adamant that if he needed to cut pieces that the band be on the money. It was a good exercise for me, because we don't usually use them. I found it to be relatively easy, I thought it would be a lot harder. TM: Many Yes fans have singled out the song "Homeworld" as a favorite. AW: A lot of people really love that song. You know it went down well live from day one? Even in South America when we started playing it down there. TM: And the album wasn't even out yet! AW: It feels good onstage and because we rehearsed it a lot the band knew it really well. When we were rehearsing in L.A., Steve came in from England a day later than the rest of us and he said, "Wow, this new stuff sounds great already." After a couple of days it was already sounding good. TM: It was nice to see a lot of new material in the set list on this tour. AW: That's what we wanted to do, we liked the album a lot and the good thing was that it sounded good straight away, so we tried to play as much as possible. TM: Is there a difference between a European and an American audience? AW: No, they're just as enthusiastic. They are a little more reserved in cities like London, it's kind of like playing L.A. Everybody is analyzing every note. It's just in those cities though, a lot of the places are great. TM: What about South America or Asia? AW: South America is pretty nuts every night. I mean they just go from the first song onwards and Asia used to be a lot more reserved than it is now. They used to stay in their seats for the whole show and at the very end - it's almost like someone holds up a sign that says "You Can Stand Up Now"- and they stand up and enjoy the last few numbers. They are all ruled by something over there, I don't know what it is. I was very, very surprised the first time I ever played Japan. We finished the last encore and everyone was clapping and the show finishes and they file the crowd out row by row! They say, "You can go out now..." It was pretty amazing, I just couldn't believe it. TM: What is the song that you'd like the band to play live? AW: "Mind Drive" definitely. And "Gates of Delirium" I've always wanted to play again, because it became very good on stage at one time and then we stopped playing it. But it actually gets to a point where it is one of the better numbers on stage. But it's not easy to play either, there's a lot of strange stuff in it. I think we will get around to it eventually. I know Igor really wants to play "Gates." TM: I think from a musician's standpoint that Relayer is the most "outside" album. AW: Yeah, especially the rhythm section stuff - Chris (Squire, bassist) and myself are doing some really weird things on it. TM: What's the toughest thing about being on the road for an extended period of time? AW: Being away from my family is a big thing, but you kind of get used to it and they're used to it now too. But the travel gets to you and the best part of the day is going on stage in the evening. It make it all worthwhile, to see so many people enjoying themselves. It does get to you, especially if you've been out for a month and you wake up and you have to travel 500 miles and do a gig that evening. You just don't feel like getting out of bed at all; your body is just telling you that it's tired. TM: What do you think Billy (Sherwood, guitarist) and Igor (Khoroshev, keyboardist) bring to Yes as the new members? AW: I think an awful lot. Billy's a great songwriter and Igor contributed a lot of chords and passages to the new music. They bring a sense of youthfulness to the band to a degree, even though the band has the same nature of wanting to produce something that's different all the time and look into the future instead of resting on its laurels. And they help in that way, Billy helps pull the band into a more rock n roll kind of way and Igor's got more of a classical kind of piano style. We all bring different aspects and they have some modern approaches to that stuff and I think that's what they add to the band. TM: They both seem to be very enthusiastic on stage and full of energy. AW: Well, they're both playing with their favorite band, so they obviously enjoy it. TM: I wanted to ask about the writing contribution you made to the song "Mind Drive." The first section of that song was originally from the XYZ (with Jimmy Page and Chris Squire) project, correct? AW: Yeah we did it for the XYZ project and so it was hanging around for quite awhile. Du-do-da-da-do. I was dreaming that riff one night and I woke up and just tapped it onto the microphone of a portable cassette player. TM: And then you came up with the moving fourths part? AW: Yeah, I came up with the chords and then (sings the ascending melody line) came up a couple of times in the XYZ version, but we embellished it a little more when Yes did it. TM: Was it your idea or Chris's to revisit that piece? AW: It was actually mine and Jon (Anderson, singer) had never heard it and I just played a demo that I had at home of it. Jon wanted to pursue it so we developed it. You know a lot of people ask us to play it onstage? All the time people ask we could play "Mind Drive" because it is a great piece and I know we could perform it well onstage. I think eventually we will get around to doing it sometime, maybe for the summer. TM: When you bring music to the band do you give them a demo or do you just play it on the piano? AW: I usually play it in the studio. I'm playing stuff and Jon will say, "Keep playing that!" So I do and everybody just picks up on the chords. TM: What about Chris Squire's Conspiracy Project-are you on that? AW: I did some of the tracks and Jay (Schellan) did some of them. All the time when we were in L.A. we were recording things on and off, but they've been sitting on a shelf and Billy got sick of looking at them and said, "Let's put these things out!" TM: I think Yes fans are interested in hearing this material. Are any of these songs left over from the lost Cherokee sessions from '89? AW: "Lonesome Trail" is a song I wrote with Billy and Chris - that will be on there. That song almost made it onto Union, but it got put to the side with a bunch of other things and we forgot about it for awhile. I was actually thinking about putting it on a solo album that I'm going to do down the line, because I think it's a good song. TM: Does this mean you are working on a solo album? AW: I've got tons of material, I just need the time to do it. Billy keeps at me all the time, "Get those tapes together and send them to me and we'll just pass tapes around and we'll have an Alan White album in two months." But if I do make a new album I want to make sure it's really good, I don't need to rush into it. I'll take my time and make sure it's something I really want to put out at the end of the day. TM: That makes sense, especially since it's been so long since your last one (Ramshackled was released in 1976)! AW: (laughs) I'd say! I've had the material hanging around for a long time, but even when I've had time off we worked on the Conspiracy thing. TM: Are you still considering using local Seattle talent for the album? AW: Possibly. I had an idea about using singers from different periods of my life. People like Joe Cocker and maybe Robert Plant on another track, that would make an entertaining album. But to get to that point is a long way from here. TM: Tell me about the company you've recently formed with Reek Havoc. AW: We're pretty much writing in our spare time really. The idea is to create music for games - Sierra Games is up there (in the Seattle area). But we've both been busy, I've been on the road a lot. It's just something where we intermittently get together and write stuff. Mostly techno kind of material. It's called Crash and Bang, but the main company is called Sounds Amazing. TM: Have you seen any new drummers that really grabbed you? AW: I don't know. I really haven't seen too many bands recently. When I'm off the road I don't usually go out and try and find any new talent; I like to spend time with my family. Mike Portnoy is a good player, he's a relatively new guy. I've done clinics with Mike, he's got a modern approach and is different. TM: Do you have any advice for young players? AW: Even if you feel you're walking down a corridor that's not going anywhere and you're fed up with practicing and you're not getting any breaks...I always say just keep at it and maybe like me you'll get that big break. It can happen to anybody. TM: Speaking of that big break, I'll wrap this up with a John Lennon question. I heard "Instant Karma" on the radio and I was wondering about those great drum fills - were they initially improvised? AW: I came up with that myself. John and Phil Spector, both gave me free rein in the studio. I'd been messing around with my own band, playing the drum fill in another meter completely and going back to the original meter. So I'd been playing around with that just prior to going into the studio. When I came up with it John liked it a lot and then they turned it way up in the mix and it became a part of the song. TM: It was your first claim to fame! AW: (laughs) It was good. I was really proud of the fact that they used it so loud. |
 Alan rehearsing for The Ladder Vancouver, B.C. - 1998 |
 Alan rehearsing for The Ladder Vancouver, B.C. - 1998 |
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 Alan rehearsing for The Ladder Vancouver, B.C. - 1998 |
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 Alan rehearsing for The Ladder Vancouver, B.C. - 1998 |
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 In Concert - The Ladder Tour San Francisco, CA - 1999 |
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 In Concert - Masterworks Tour Dallas, TX - 2000 |
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 In Concert - Masterworks Tour Reno, NV - 2000 |
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Tim Morse is the author of "Yesstories".
His new book is "Classic Rock Stories". Visit the Yesstories section on YesNet Sites at YesWorld.com. The entire contents of this interview are |
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