Where are they now? - Steve Howe
This page last updated: 14 Feb 2012
On this page: Solo projects - Guest appearances
On other pages: Yes news - Asia
Steve Howe's official site: Homepage -
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Yes & Asia
Howe is in Yes—see details on main
news page. He is also in Asia with
Geoff Downes, John Wetton and Carl Palmer. Touring with Yes and studio and
live work with Asia take up much of 2012 for him.
Discussing his many projects in a Jun
2010 interview, Howe said: "Yes is central to my work [...]
It's always played an important role, and we have an interesting
lineup. I plot my year out to do as many projects as I can." In an
interview conducted in Apr 2010, Aymeric
Leroy asked Howe about his busy schedule with multiple acts;
Howe answered:
In an interview
published Jan 2011, but seemingly done before Oct 2010, Howe
talks about being in Yes and Asia:
Howe's
latest solo album is Time (Warner Classics; samples now available),
now out in the UK/Europe, but delayed until Jan in North
America. (Import copies available now in the US.) The album
has been 5 years in the making and sees Howe working with a
classical ensemble. Tracks:
|
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from Amazon (UK): |
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import from Amazon (US): |
As far back as a Nov 2002 interview, Howe referred to "an
orchestral project that would likely turn some ears". Joyce said
in an Aug
2009 interview that he is collaborating with Howe: "I am
producing his new solo album and a track of mine is on it. Steve
has done the guitar, electronic and acoustic, and there's a small
orchestral group. It's a very precise, compact sound that I love,
no over-the-top arrangements."
Howe has been working further with Paul Sutin. In a Jan 2012 interview, Howe they have some "new tracks we haven't released yet", "kind of a mix up of some things we've done where we've re-arranged them, re-played them, they're almost like different tunes because they have such a different feel", plus some new tracks which are "almost Europop influenced". He goes on to describe how they've worked together: "What I like to do [...] if you've got a sort of semi Euro dance track, I don't play like semi Euro dance track guitar. [...] I play [...] different sorts of things [...] It came alive because of the contrast."
Howe's previous solo
album was Motif Volume 1
(HoweSound). This solo guitar album consists of existing pieces
plus four new compositions. Howe explained that the album:
He has been working on a second volume, due "perhaps this year
[2009]" according to a May
2009 Billboard article, and "soon" according to a Jul
2009 article. In an update on his
website in Mar 2010, Howe describes Volume 2 as being "in the
planning stage" and that he will tour in support of it in due
course. In the Oct
2011 interview, he talks of working on Volume 2 and says
"maybe next year [2012]" for when it will appear. In another Oct 2011
interview, Howe said:
Yes and Asia have kept me busy
for three years [...] that's got to stop, and I do want to play
solo. I'm a solo guitarist, and that means that I do want to go
out and do it. I am writing new material, I am going to follow
up 'Motif, Volume 1' with, surprisingly, wait for it, 'Motif,
Volume 2'. I've got new material, I'm going to record it in the
studio, as opposed to how I've done it before. I enjoy that side
of my life, probably more than Yes or Asia, I don't want to make
that seem unappreciative, but the older I've got the more I've
dug in to that solo side. That's why 'Motif, Volume 1' was a
very important release for me, because it pulled together that
side of my life that had been spread over Yes, Asia, solo
records, Trio records
| Homebrew 4, in the same
style as the previous Homebrew
releases, is now out. Tracks: "Beginnings (Themes)", "The
Inner Battle", "Take It in Hand", "Mainland", "Distant
Seas", "Wayward Course II", "Georgia's Song", "Solar Winds
II", "High Flyer", "Sensitive Chaos", "Really Know", "White"
(early version of Asia's "Wish I'd Known All Along"), "Up
Above Somewhere" (alternate version of material on Natural Timbre and in
Asia's "Over and Over"), "Closer than Before", "Lily's in
the Field", "Have You Forgotten Love" (with Geoff Downes on keys and harmony
vocals), "Go to This" (early version of the Yes song "Go
Through This"), "What am I?" (alternate version of "The Go
Between" on Homebrew 2
and used in ABWH's "Quartet: I Wanna Learn"), "Nothing to
Cry for". See details in Yescography.
A 4CD Homebrew Complete
box set (ARC-1151) collating all four releases is out in
Japan. "High Flyer" on Homebrew 4 is described as having also been developed by GTR for an unreleased song called "The Future". The liner notes then continue, "which I plan to release as part of a forthcoming project called Radar which contains unreleased songs and tunes with friends". So Far is the name given to a planned 3CD anthology of Steve Howe's career to date with accompanying DVD which was originally due in 2001. This appears to be the same project earlier tentatively entitled Headstock, being compiled by Howe for Rhino. At least at some point, So Far was to include "Traveller" (written by Currie/Howe—Currie: keyboards, viola; Howe: guitar, bass; Toby Anderson: synth) from Billy Currie's 1988 Transportation. Comments from Howe suggest So Far may also include some Yes or Yes-related material. It has been years since anything was heard of this project. However, in his Jan 2009 interview for Notes from the Edge, Howe talks about "a lot of my films that I've been preparing for many years that will eventually come out on a DVD" (including performances of "Corkscrew"), which may be the same project. Howe has previously talked about a documentary of his career, concentrating on his solo work from 1975-1994, which may also be somehow related, and two new books, one called "The Guitarist's Survival Kit", the second a collaboration. At the Steve Howe Appreciation Society workshop in Jun 2005, Howe read a chapter from an autobiography that he is writing (which I guess may be related to some of these other projects). In a Feb 2011 interview, asked about his autobiography, Howe said: Quite a few years ago
I started talking about the fact that I’d written up
quite a lot of my book. What I did, I got up to 1972, I
think, in the book. And that was quite an achievement.
What happened was, that I’ve had so much other things to
do, I haven’t really addressed that very much. But I
have a plan. The plan is about expansion [...] I look at
those 15,000 words and I think, ‘Right, well, that isn’t
quite right, it isn’t quite thick enough, there isn’t
quite enough depth,’ so I want to bring a little more to
it. So when I get another block period, I’ll get back to
it [...] What it’s about is work in music. [...] My book
will be about my work […] I hope to finish it, maybe
even next year. [...] It might be a realistic plan to
have it out by 2012.
|
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NVP (Nicolet Vidéo
Productions) describe on
their website (scroll down to second item) filming in Oct
2008 a 3D film and an accompanying one-hour, 2D film about Howe.
It is unclear what has happened with this project or how it may be
related to the projects described above.
|
The Steve Howe
Trio In the aforementioned Oct 2011 interview, Howe says: "We keep evolving and doing different things. Next year [2012], we plan to...they haven't exactly agreed yet, but I'm sure they will--we have a little bit of a run where we get a new album and some new tunes and jazz them up." In the Jan 2012 interview, Howe describes being busy with multiple projects: "I do the Trio [...] every other year, and it's this year [2012], so where am I going to fit in a bit of Trio? [...] I don't know how I'm going to do it because I have to jam out some time from Yes and Asia." Guest appearances & collaboration "I asked them if
they would work with me and they said yes," Steve
says. "It has taken some time, but I have not stopped
writing tunes [for the project]. I have a country side
that I want to explore. I will do country records."
[...] "Alison asked me why a guy from Yes likes [country] music so much," Steve recalls. "I really got into guitar because of country music. I loved Tennessee Ernie Ford, he was a fantastic jewel. I was so inspired by his playing, I started playing guitar. Then I heard Chet Atkins -- there are a lot of great guitarists but Chet is at the top -- and knew I wanted to go into country music sometime." Although Steve is now deeply involved with Yes [...] he thinks the time for the collaboration may well be around the corner. |
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from Amazon (UK): |
In the Jan
2012 interview, Howe describes planned work with Italian
classical guitarist Flavio
Sala, and then further possible collaborations:
At
the moment I've got a sort of beautiful backlog of guitarists
that I'm gonna be
playing with. I met a young guitarist a few years ago, he's
only 28, and he plays amazingly. So I'll play with Flavio Sala
[...] He's from Italy, highly, highly regarded classical
guitarist, but he, like me, he's not really going to be
content with one repertoire, y'know, he's looking to build
repertoires, and I hope we're going to do a couple of tunes
together.
[...] of course Steve Morse and I have always had a point in
destiny where [...] we're going to do more, but time might run
out, we might not do that, but I'd love to do that
[...] Martin Taylor [...] I'd love to get back with him
Sala's website
describes how he's been inspired by Howe, inter alia, and goes on that he is "working
on new CDs, that will be released between 2012 and 2014, with
classical, pop, flamenco and fusion repertoire."
| Buy Deluxe Edition from Amazon
(UK): |
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(US): |
Other news Howe guested on the Queen album Innuendo, playing a Spanish guitar solo on the title track. Originally released in 1991, as part of the band's remaster series, Innuendo has been re-released in the UK and is due 7 Feb 2012 in the US. There is both a standard release and a deluxe edition with a bonus 7-song EP. In the Jan 2012 interview, Howe was asked about the possibility of a Tomorrow reunion and said: [Keith West and I,] we'd love to do it.
[…] I know Twink would like to do it. […] Keith and I
have talked about it quite often. I think he's a bit
more retiring than I am […] I think he would jump at it
if he felt you could do it.
Howe guested with the Princeton School of Rock in Apr 2011, playing "Roundabout" among other pieces. Jonathan Mover, who drummed in GTR, is planning a "a two volume collection of works from various artists that I've played with over the past twenty or so years. Mainly, a variety of tracks that are dear to me in one way or another and have not had the chance to see the light of day." On his website, he refers to "unreleased GTR (1985)". As GTR was released in 1986, presuming this is not a typo, Mover would appear to be referring to material before the first album. Two tracks on Steve Hackett's (ex-Genesis, ex-GTR) new solo album, Beyond the Shrounded Horizon, are co-credited to Howe and Mover, presumably through Hackett re-using old GTR ideas: see details under Squire, who guests on the album. GTR's debut album is being re-released in Japan as an HQCD by Victor Entertainment with 5 bonus tracks possibly to be included, although there are no details yet as to their nature. |
Any news, additions or corrections, please e-mail Henry Potts.
Thanks.