Jon Anderson Teams Up With Jean Luc Ponty, Talks Former YES Bandmates & Creative Visions (INTERVIEW)

The phone rings on the other end and a person with an uncommonly high voice answers. Truth be told, the gender is uncertain. Nevertheless, it’s no real surprise. The voice sounds exactly what one would expect to find in a man whose elfin like demeanour has become rather iconic over the course of more than 40 years.

While Jon Anderson’s solo career has occupied at least 30 of those 40 years, inevitably, it’s his role as the front man for Yes, the band he started with the late Chris Squire in 1968 (following an otherwise forgettable stint with his first band, The Warriors earlier in the decade) for which he’s best remembered. With Yes, he found almost immediate worldwide fame and for the next decade or so, his life was spent spawning hit albums from a prog palette and traveling the world playing to sell out stadiums. Even though he left the band for the first time at the end of the ‘70s, he’d reconnect with Yes and its various alumni on an on-again off-again basis several times thereafter, ensuring that for all his outside success — including more than a dozen albums credited to him alone — he’d forever be associated with the band he helped to launch.

Regardless, a good portion of Anderson’s later efforts were spent focusing on more celestial realms and in frequent collaboration with others. Indeed, his work with Greek keyboardist Vangelis alone afforded him further success worldwide. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that his latest project finds him teaming with veteran jazz violinist Jean Luc Ponty in a band they’ve dubbed, appropriately, APB. The group recently released a CD/DVD entitled Better Late Than Never, one which finds them reinventing songs from their early individual repertoires. Glide was thrilled to find Anderson living up to his exuberant image, exuding a breathless energy and irrepressible enthusiasm befitting a man with an inexhaustible appetite for making music, music and…more music.

First off, congratulations. The new album is quite a surprise. When we saw you had teamed with Jean Luc Ponty we got the impression this might be an album of violin music.

(Laughs)

How did you meet Jean Luc originally?

I met him in the ‘70s and ‘80s when he was with Mahavishnu Orchestra. We actually did a couple of shows with them and I got on with him very well and so the idea of working together popped up in our heads at the same time. We exchanged numbers and talked about getting together in Paris some time. Then time and life moved on.

How did you recruit the other members of the band? It really sounds like a full group effort.

These are guys Jean Luc knows. He’s worked with them in various formations over the last 20 years. They’ve very, very talented, very, very open and very, very thankful to be musicians, which is really what me and Jean Luc are all about. Making music is such a gift and it’s an incredible feeling to be a musician all your life. Who would have thought?

It’s so incredible that you’ve been able to keep your vocal chops intact. You can still hit the same notes. You still have the same range. How have you been able to sustain that ability over these many years?

I enjoy singing. With the internet I’m able to work with different people all over the world, and I think right now, I’m working with a dozen people on different projects. When you get into that routine, you wake up, you clean up the breakfast dishes, tell your wife, “I’m just going to the studio, darling” and then you disappear into the garden where I find myself at home again. I love going into the studio. It’s my favorite place to be. I write my lyrics and I’ve got so much music, it’s unbelievable. I know the next 20, 30 years of my life will be an extension of what I’ve been doing.

You do seem remarkably prolific. Some of your most notable work has been in tandem with others. How do you keep it all straight? Do you sometimes find yourself wondering which project is with whom?

I agree. It can be confusing. But I write it all down and sometimes I find the list and realize, “Oh my gosh, I’ve got more going on than I figured and I’m supposed to do this with that one.” (laughs) A friend of mine, Timothy Drury, a really great musician, emailed me yesterday for example. I hadn’t heard from him in two years and I’ve been asking him to finish this opera we’ve been working on. So he got in touch with me yesterday and says, “I’m ready!”  But I couldn’t remember what the hell it was that we were working on. (laughs) “Oh yes, I remember now. We need some very dark tragedy music. An opera has to have some tragedy.

So are you preparing to tour now behind this new album?

We actually start rehearsing next week. We leave next Sunday for this place near Philadelphia where we’ll rehearse and we’ll get the band together and do our first show in Philadelphia, then go up to New York, and Boston and so on. It’s just 18 shows altogether, spread over a period of about six weeks. We’re going to take it easy and put on a great show. We’re really interested in seeing the reaction from different cities and different groups of people and to see what life brings us.

You redo a number of Yes classics here as well as some of Jean Luc’s well known fare. What’s fascinating is how you reinterpreted those familiar songs and how you gave them new life. How did you go about doing that? And how did you even decide which songs you wanted to redo?

I think most of all when we put together a show, you want to include songs people know along with the newer songs. Otherwise, your chance of keeping an audience happy becomes very slim. If I go to see an artist — let’s say Rickie Lee Jones for example — I want to hear her great songs. I saw her a couple of years ago, just her and her guitar player, and it blew my mind. But when you see any band, you want to hear their classic songs. So I picked “Roundabout,” “Wonderous Stories,” “Long Distance Runaround,” “And You and I” — these are songs I love singing. And of course, “Time and a Word,” which was a regular part of my solo show. I started playing it one day and the guys started playing along, and it just sounded so cool, so we thought it had to be in. When we start rehearsing next week, I’ll have another song I’m going to try and see what they can do with.

Which song would that be?

It’s a song I wrote last year, but gosh, I haven’t even got a title for it. I don’t know the title.

You do a reggae take on “Time and a Word” that’s quite surprising.

It was in my stage show. I just played it for the guys and they went right along with it. We’re in the process of designing our stage show right now, with the banners and such. We won’t do a lot of projection because that’s been done so well at such an advanced level already. You want to put on a visual show that looks cool, but also allows people to concentrate on the music.

You have a reputation for being a rather metaphysical kind of guy. Rumor has it that you have a tent backstage and that you go in there before every show and just sort of meditate and chill out for a while. Is that true?

That came about very simply because Yes were touring in all these big arenas. And these arenas were built for ice hockey and basketball, so the backstage rooms were very, very dull. Lifeless basically. One day, I just thought I’d go to a local store, get a tent, put it up, and that would be my world. And that’s what happened. I got a tent. I got a place to lie down there and I have a radio going, a ghetto blaster, and I got some lights and I started painting the tent and so on. It became a part of my life, so that everywhere I went, I was in my home. I was going to start marketing it to all the rock musicians. “Have your own tent!” Some of those backstage areas can be pretty rough, pretty dire. So it’s nice if you have your own tent.

Of course, there are certain musicians who are known for being a lot more demanding than insisting on their own tent. You have to take out all the brown M&Ms. I’m sure you’ve heard that story.

Oh yes (laughs) I saw the movie.

Your arrangement seems very genteel in comparison.

I’m very independent. When I’m on the road with anybody, I just want to put on a good show and have a good time. Life’s too short.

Given the material you’ve released on your own and with Yes, one gets the impression you’re a very deep thinking individual, very zen if you will. Is that an accurate description?

In some ways, we are all very connected and we’re all very spiritual beings. We tend to forget about that and life takes over. The reason we’re here is to find our connection with God, the Divine Entity, or whatever word you want to use. I think for me that comes from reading. When I was on tour in the very early days, I started reading Herman Hesse and various books that described the difference between religion and real life. Religion is only part of the reality of life. All religion go to the same ocean, just like all religions go to the same ocean, so I embrace them all. God bless them all.

Chris Squire, with whom you originally founded Yes, left us recently. Were you in touch with him in his final days? Were you aware of his illness?

Yes, I was. I was very fortunate to connect with him and to thank him for being such a big part of my life and that was the most important thing, to let him know that no matter what, we’re still musical brothers. Love you man! God bless!

You’ve reconnected with various Yes alumni over the years like Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford. Bill’s retired now, but are there any plans to hook up with any of your other former colleagues?

Bill’s decided to give it up, but I was just thinking about him yesterday. I saw this link that someone sent me to this show we did in 1971 where we talked about our world and about being in the band. Steve had just joined and Bill was talking about how Yes is a school. You go in there, you learn the music, and that’s what Yes is. A school of music. And so I was thinking, my gosh Bill, let’s get together again. So me and Rick and me and Trevor are talking too. You never know what will happen these days.

I’m sure the subject of a reunion comes up often. But how about a reunion with… the Warriors?

I was actually just emailing Brian Chatton, the keyboard player, yesterday. He’s been pretty sick and he’s writing a book about it. I was reminding him about some of the things we did when we were young and crazy. I was laughing about it because it was so crazy.

You probably have a great book in you. Have you ever thought about writing one, like so many others of your generation have done?

I actually started a book, and I’m up to the point where I met Chris, and I’ll probably work on it while we’re out on tour. I’ll probably sketch some more things out. I actually put the first chapter in very, very, very tiny letters on the cover of my last album, Survival and Other Stories. I told them I wanted the tiniest letters possible on that CD cover, so if people want to read it they have to get a spyglass or get some serious glasses.

Some of us who have followed you over the years are getting on in age and losing our vision anyway. So it’s not necessary to put things in tiny letters to make it a challenge. It’s hard enough reading normal sized words.

I know, but it was just a joke for me. I wanted to put something special in those CD sleeves which are tinier anyway. So I said, can you make them tinier? I can read them, They’re not that tiny, but it is the first chapter of my life as a musician.

You must have some amazing memories of the way things were in the music world at the end of the ‘60s when Yes came together. Do you ever reminisce. Are you a nostalgic sort?

It’s true. A friend of mine sent me a link of Yes doing a show in London and during the rehearsal and we’re all talking about being in a band. I sent it my kids right away. “This is me when I was in a band as a teenager and I was so stoned.” (laughs) But I was so cool, man! The end of the ‘60s was such an extraordinary time. There was so much going on. I worked in a bar just above the Marquee Club  in London. I actually met Chris Squire in that bar. I was there serving drinks and Pete Townshend would walk in, or Keith Emerson would walk in, or Hendrix and some friends. And I’d be in there cleaning up. When we started Yes it was called Mabel Greer’s Toyshop and I kept saying, it’s too long! So we put names in the hat and it was Peter Banks that picked Yes. It was really cool.

It was certainly a positive name!

Yep!

One of the great things early on was how Yes would take songs by the Beatles and the Byrds and completely transform them and make them your own. Did you ever get any feedback from those bands on your versions?

No. You meet a Beatle and you don’t talk. I was dumbfounded when I met Paul McCartney. I shook hands with George but I didn’t know what to say. Me and Ringo have always had a good laugh about something, but I don’t know if he ever knew who I was. You meet these people and they’re the musical gods.

Do you still have a bucket list?

Oh yeah, as long as your arm. I have three symphonies I’m working on, but my first symphony I really love and I’ve just written lyrics for the choir to sing. It’s a symphonic choral work and it’s about children who are going to save the planet.

How did you come up with the concept?

I started creating it over the years. I did the writing and then the recording. I do it all the time. I’ve been writing music for a video game just this last month. I’m still working on things that are still in the future, that may come out five years in the future. You never know what’s going to happen these days.

You could probably compile an entire box set of brand new material.

I agree. And that would drive everybody crazy. But I’m trying to develop an App where people can buy the App at a nominal cost and every month they can install the App and download the new music. At the moment I have so many ideas about new music and stuff. So people can install the App and they’ll get three hours of new music and then in six months they’ll get another hour.

One gets the impression that you’re constantly working, that you get up every morning and go out to your studio and keep at it all day. It seems like you could release an album every month if you wanted to.

Yes. (laughs) Basically, you think all in good time. That’s the way to go about everything. I was very lucky to meet Marc Chagall when he was 90 years old. And over the ten years after he died I wrote a musical about him and it still works. It’s like good wine.

But the problem may be that by the time you do get around to releasing it, you’ll probably have written a dozen more pieces.

I’ve got about six or seven other projects I’ve been working on. I’m actually writing an opera about Hilary and Bill Clinton.

Considering it’s an election year next year, the time may be just right for that one. Perfect timing.

The guy who’s helping me hadn’t gotten in touch with me for a few years. So I contacted him and said we need to get this done because she may get in. The idea is that she gets in and then she gets involved with all the crazy things America’s done over the years. There’s this amazing dream sequence and then she starts speaking in tongues to the audience and the press, awakening everybody’s state of consciousness.

You live in the States now, right?

I’ve been living here for 30 years now, in Northern California. I became an American citizen five years ago so I can speak my mind without getting thrown out of the country. Life goes on.