nederlands

There are no stations that we are played at.

Interview with Guthrie Govan, Chris Slade and John Payne of Asia in The Spirit of 66 in Verviers on Februari 15th 2005 by Jo, pics Danny

Interviewing a band you have listened to for the last 20 years, always gives that extra thrill. So descending into the cellars of the Spirit of 66 and finally shaking hands with John, Guthrie and Chris, was a moment to cherish. When John heard, we were going to take some pictures, he first wanted a shave and we could fire some questions at Guthrie (guitars) and Chris (drums).

Guthrie

How did you get in contact with the band?

Guthrie: Well, I was working at a guitar school about 5 years ago, when they were recording the ‘Aura’ album. I think they were up against a time limit and there were lots of holes in the album that needed guitars put in. The drummer, who was playing on the most of ‘Aura’, turned out to be a teacher at the second school were I worked. So he recommended me, I came in and tried to get all the guitar parts recorded as fast as I could. And they never managed to get rid of me.

Which bands did you play in, before this one?

Guthrie: I still haven’t found a good answer to that. They ask me this question very often, on the road.

So Asia is your first real band?

Guthrie: That’s a little harsh to the other bands I played in. It’s the first band that anyone has heard of. Before I joined Asia I was working on 2 projects and I’m still working on both of those. One is a trio ‘Erotic Cakes’, playing instrumental guitar music and a jazz fusion quartet ‘Fellowship’.

Chris: and they are excellent. I’ve seen them and they are absolute first class.

Guthrie: How many euros is that gonna cost me? ;-)

Chris

How did you get in contact with Asia?

Chris: I didn’t have a phone number at the time, so Geoff and John wrote me a letter. They didn’t know me personally but they did know of me. I was living in the middle of the country in England and I wasn’t in contact with anybody. They sent a letter to my old address and that was forwarded to me.

Which band did you have, before Asia?

John: How much time have you got? ;-)

Chris: I started with Tom Jones, for seven years and then Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Uriah Heep, Gary Newman, Frankie Miller, Denny Laine, Mick Ralphs, Bad Company, David Gilmour, Pink Floyd, The Firm with Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers, Gary Moore, AC/DC, Asia.

On “Silent Nation” most of the songs were written by Geoff and John. Will you write songs with the four of you in the future?

Guthrie: Yeah, we felt when we were rehearsing that the material was written with a view to take it on the road, rather then a view, purely to make an album. So maybe that’s an angle for the next album that the band will do. Something that will really work when the band plays it live and rehearsing more before recording it, rather then piecing it together as we have done.

Chris: I don’t know if it will be used or not, but I put an idea down with John right before we left L.A.

John

“Silent Nation” was well received, but was a drastic change from the Asia format. No more A…A title, no more Roger Dean on the artwork, more rocking music,… Did you get positive reactions from the fans?

John: I think it’s probably more positive then I expected it to be. We had tried it once before, with a four men line-up, on the Aria album, which was an album that I particularly enjoyed doing, but Aria wasn’t received as well as I hoped. It happened a bit too late, with its rather nineties music. This album we thought we make same really definitive changes and we tried to find a good A…A title, but it almost started to become some sort of Spinal Tap, you know getting silly. We were joking with titles like Astma or AA and stuff like that.

Tour Manager: Or Amnesia.

John: Yeah, or Amnesia, I never remember that one. So, as we changed the title, we thought we had to change the cover as well. Although Roger Dean and Rodney Matthews are great artists, it was also because of being friendly with the two guys, it makes it more difficult to choose between them. Roger Dean’s last album cover was brilliant, really, really brilliant. But I wanted fresh start for the band and we all agreed, members and management to do it this way. And probably five minutes after I had thought of the title, I immediately saw images of guys without mouths. I had an idea of them being on a train carriage or something like that and when it was conveyed to the record company, they have a guy, Thomas, who works in the art department, who asked to get a chance to do the cover. He sent two or three trial versions that were brilliant. It has a bit more of a timeless feel about it, compared to the fantasy art, which is considered very eighties by the public. This adds more of a Pink Floyd, Rush feeling to the cover.

We suddenly hear a lot of classic rock in your music, e.g. the Hammond sound. Is that back to the roots?

John: I think soundwise particularly, because I got the chance to produce this album. I grew up listening to a Les Paul straight into a valve amp and listening to a Hammond. And then we both got into computers and Geoff has got a lot of virtual instruments in his PC, like a virtual Hammond, a virtual Moog, a virtual Electric Piano,… We tried those out on the album, but they just didn’t sound right. So we hired in a lot of gear for Guthrie and we tracked down a 1957 Les Paul Gold Top and it sounded great. Just these elements alone makes it sound classic rock for a start.

On previous albums, you used a lot of guest musicians. Can we speak about a fixed line-up now?

John: I don’t think so, no. I’ve got my eyes on a couple of really, really good players, not these two guys. (everybody laughs)

This is been so much fun, working with these guys. And hopefully you will see tonight, even more so then when we toured previously, that it takes a long time, it’s been five years now, to really start to work together as a band. Luckily we all get on pretty well, we all socialize together and pretty agree about directions and what we are doing musically. Before, the band was a constantly changing sea of people. From Steve Howe leaving, from Greg Lake coming in, from Mandy Meyer coming in, Scott Gorham doing some stuff on the ‘Then And Now’ album, Michael Sturgis playing drums on that album and all that before I even joined. So I almost considered it as a floating band when I joined. That it was basically Geoff and myself and that has finished on the Aura album. That might be one of the reasons that the band has been received better, because there’s a definite sound on Silent Nation, while on Aura, you couldn’t match every single song together on it, e.g ‘Free’ was very different from ‘Kings of the Day’. We’re already talking about a next album, so as long as we are still alive, we will be together.

How did the tour go until now?

John: It’s been great, it’s been really good fun. I don’t want it to stop, actually. We’re now at the midpoint of the European tour. Touring before that has been pretty bitty. We hadn’t played for a month and then do a festival with Styx in the States. And that’s not enjoyable. It’s much better if you’re singing every night then just singing once in a while. So from playing point of view, it’s been great. And from the audience point of view, it’s been amazing. We had a good time in Germany. We just came back from Russia which was so organized. We played in a smallish hockey ice ring and they had 40 foot screens on the stage with all big projections on. It also has been a great change for us to change the setlist, because we were getting fed up with playing the same songs for three years.

And your voice gets better during the tour?

John: Well, it can go either way. If you try to look after yourself by getting enough sleep and not too much partying, it’s OK. But if you damage your voice, it hasn’t got time to recover. So if you look after it, your voice should get stronger and stronger.

Is it true you never rehearsed together until the beginning of this year?

John: We did just seven days rehearsal for this tour. Just in January.

Is it difficult being on a specialized label like InsideOut, knowing that you can reach the hardcore fans but never the mainstream?

John: Being the way that the business is now, unless we can get some serious plastic surgery and a dress put on Chris and make him look like Britney Spears, Universal isn’t going to turn round and put two million dollars into the promotion of Asia. It’s just not going to happen. The only way for bands like us to come through now, is usually through a track in a film. That way you’re going to be played on the radio. Look at Rush, they’re doing an amazing tour, but the radio isn’t interested and the major labels aren’t interested in that sort of bands. Plus side is that they have a database with people that are interested in what we are doing and the people of the record label are very into music. They are not run by suits and accountants. It’s not what I call McDonald’s music like the rest of it.

And the artwork and the digibooks they release are just fabulous.

So you wouldn’t give much chance for a new band to have a hit like ‘Heat of the Moment’?

John: It’s extremely hard. Even though we write stuff that can be played on the radio but, I don’t know about here in Belgium, but I know what’s happening in America and in Europe. There are no stations that we are played at. When we released ‘Who’ll stop the rain” in ’91 in Germany, it was playable on radio because there were rock stations in Germany. But now they don’t exist anymore. It’s all top 40 right now. And as I said, the only way to get something through is via a film.

You’ve never been contacted by Arrow rock festival?

John: No, but funny, I hadn’t heard about it until a week ago. Everyone says, why are you not playing on Arrow and I don’t know. This is something we love to do.

You worked with Van Morrison and Bonnie Raitt. Are there still other project you’re involved in?

John: I saw it on the InsideOut website, but I never ever worked with these people. I’ve met Van Morrison but I never met Bonnie Raitt.

Chris: I have

You must have played with them. ;-)

Chris: I have

John: Before Asia, I had just been working with ELO when I met Geoff. But before that I had been involved in a lot of backup singing for people. I did quite a lot of stuff for Roger Daltrey. And I worked with Mike Oldfield as well. But if Van Morrison or Bonnie Raitt wanna work with me, they gonna have to change their type of music.

You have more acoustic material, like on the single?

John: Only live stuff. Tonight you gonna see a 20 minute acoustic session. Cause Geoff and I went out on a pretour for this tour. We had the album so late, there wasn’t time to organize a tour, so we toured around for 30 days acoustically and we found out that some of the songs would work. Lots of people have been asking for acoustic versions.

Thanks for the interview. Have a great gig.

John: I hope you’ll enjoy the show.