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by
Jeb Wright
Often I find myself
back in '82 remembering the day I borrowed a cassette from this
girl named Stacy's older brother.
Stacy was not a girlfriend.
I think she wanted to be but she was far too cool to risk
blowing it on a physical thing.
I even hooked her up with a buddy of mine when I was dating her
friend Debbie.
I had heard a lot
about the new band that was created from members of Yes, UK and
ELP and looked forward to hearing the tunes.
Stacy gave it a good rating and this girl knew more about music
than me.
I remember being
attracted to the cover, the giant sea monster created by
legendary cover artist Roger Dean.
My mother is also an artist and painted the cover on my bedroom
wall when I made the B honor role for the first time in my life.
Asia, however, was not just a cool cover.
Had the music sucked I would not have even cared about the
artwork. When
I plopped the cassette in the car and heard the opening notes to
"Heat of the Moment" I was hooked for life.
Every song on the debut album is a classic and the album has
been a favorite of mine since that summer day when I bummed the
cassette from Stacy's brother.
The years have faded and I have no idea what became of Stacy,
her older brother or the girl I was dating.
I do, however, hold fond memories of the Asia album.
I still listen to it all the time but no longer on cassette,
vinyl or CD.
Now I listen to it on my iPod.
When I heard the news
the original super group had reunited I could not wait to talk
to a member of the band.
I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to interview
my favorite member of Asia, John Wetton.
To me, John's vocals and lyrics are the soul of the band.
His voice has a solemn yet reassuring quality to it and his
words describe the emotions that separate humanity from the rest
of the animal kingdom.
In this interview we discuss how Asia came to reunite as well as
John's health (he recently underwent bypass surgery).
Wetton talks openly about his own past failures and triumphs and
how he came to reconcile with guitarist Steve Howe.
The second song on
the debut album was titled "Only Time Will Tell."
This was the attitude Asia fans were forced to live with for a
quarter of a century.
Luckily for us, time has told and the news is good.
Jeb: How did Asia
get back together?
I would imagine that the hard part must have been Steve Howe and
you reconciling.
John: We had a
meeting before this whole thing kicked off.
We wanted to see if there were any skeletons left.
You are right; Steve and myself were the main protagonists.
We decided to meet on neutral territory on January 6th.
We met at a hotel and, lo and behold, as fate would have it,
Steve and I actually met in the lobby before we could even get
to where the elevators were.
There was an impromptu hug and we said no more about it.
If the four of us could stand in the same room and say hello and
shake hands then we knew we had a proposition and there was a
possibility that we could do it.
If we couldn't do that then we knew there was no way we could do
it. Nobody
brought any baggage to the meeting so it worked out.
Jeb: How long had
it been since the four of you were in the same room?
John: It had been
twenty-three years.
The three of us have worked together since then - Geoff, Carl
and myself.
Steve was out of the equation.
He and I have never been in any reincarnation of the band with
each other; we kept well enough away from each other.
Jeb: Did time help
things?
John: I think it did.
We are actually a better band live than we were twenty-five
years ago. We
are the real deal now.
Even though we had all been around the block many times when we
first came out, there was a lot of paranoia.
When we started, we didn't want to play any material from any of
our previous bands yet we only had forty minutes of material as
Asia. We were
doing a lot of solos and stuff like that.
Eventually, we started putting in songs from the second album.
This time we have no
qualms about it at all.
We chose pieces from each other's past that we wanted to play
live. For
instance, Carl didn't have a say in whether we did "Fanfare for
the Common Man" as the other three chose it for him.
We each had other pieces we would have chosen but it was the
other people in the band that said, "I want to play
'Roundabout'" or "I want to play 'In the Court of the Crimson
King.'" We
really don't have the paranoia in the band that we had the first
time around.
Jeb: So you didn't choose "In the Court of the Crimson King?"
John: I like playing
it. If I
didn't do it well then I wouldn't even think about it because I
didn't play on the original song but, then again, Carl didn't
play on the original "Fanfare."
I had enough of the association with the band that I don't mind
doing it. I
played it live on stage for years.
Jeb: Did you have
any reservations playing "Roundabout?"
Jon Anderson has a voice about an octave higher than yours.
John: He is not
higher than me.
I sing it in the same key that he sings it.
It sounds like I am singing it lower but it is an illusion.
It is the timber of his voice that makes it sound like he is
singing it high.
Pitch-wise he is not singing it that high in "Roundabout."
My top note in that song is "A" I think.
It is in the neck of the woods that most Asia songs are in.
My top note is "A" in "Sole Survivor" and "Don't Cry."
I have a much fatter sounding voice than Jon Anderson.
His voice is more choirboy.
Jeb: I love that
you included the song "Ride Easy."
John: We say on stage
that the song is a thank you to the fans.
The song was never on an album, so if you know the song then you
are a fan. It
actually appeared on the Universal collection that came out but
that is a 'best of.'
I think it was the B-side of "Heat of the Moment."
It was my insistence that we did that song.
We did it acoustically because the lyrics have a message.
If you know our individual personal histories then the lyrics
really make sense.
The last line of the song was very prophetic for me when I wrote
it. I
actually had a problem with alcohol when I wrote the song and
the problem stumbled on another twenty years before it was
properly addressed.
This time around I wanted to convey a message to the audience.
Everyone stops playing and I literally speak the last line, "I
thought I saw a message in a bottle and I drifted away."
I get a huge round of applause at that point.
It is a tearjerker and it is autobiographical and it works
great.
Jeb: Before
continuing this interview I need to ask how you are recovering
from your heart surgery?
John: I am doing as
well as can be expected.
It will be two months tomorrow since I had the surgery.
They get you up right away these days; you don't get to just lie
around. They
get you up and walking the next day.
The accent is on getting you up and about and active again.
I am gradually working up to getting into rehab and exercise
classes. I
have to be careful with my diet.
At the moment I can't do any work.
I have been going to the studio and working with Geoff on songs
but I can't do any playing or singing at the moment.
Jeb: How many
bypasses was it?
John: Triple.
Jeb: That can be
life changing.
Did it affect you?
John: It kind of
knocked me sideways on another level.
You tend to become very aware of your mortality and your
vulnerability.
You really hand everything over to the people you trust.
You are totally and utterly in the hands of the surgeon and the
nurses. The
sooner I accepted that the better it was going to be for
everyone. I
had really nothing to do with any of it.
I was easily the best patient they had ever had.
I told them, "I understand I have absolutely nothing to do with
this. I am in
your hands and I will do anything you ask me to."
They said, "That's the way we like it."
Jeb: Musicians
tend to be control freaks.
Did you have a problem letting go?
John: The illness I
got thought through a few years ago [alcoholism] taught me that
I couldn't do anything on my own.
I have to trust and rely on other people.
I used to think it was all me for a long, long time.
It is a very selfish and destructive attitude.
I tend to be more giving and outgoing now.
I don't really want the responsibility of being perfect all the
time because I am not.
We don't exist on our own.
Every minute of the day I rely on other people.
It is really true in a band situation as we all really rely on
each other for everything.
Jeb: You have an
amazing vocal quality.
John: I used to hate
bands that had a guy out front and four musicians in the back.
It really used to piss me off.
I was so relieved when The Beatles came along and they all
played their own instruments.
You didn't have to have this idiot out in the front all the time
that really doesn't have a clue what he is doing.
The Beatles paved the way for me because all of them understood
music. They
did the singing and they played the music and they wrote the
music. It was
really unusual at the time.
Even Elvis used to do some appalling adlibs whereas the Beatles
would play and sing within the chord structure of the music.
They had great musicality.
Jeb: You are also
an accomplished bass player.
I would think it is difficult to play bass and sing lead vocals.
John: The bass is
really just a prop for me.
I loved playing it in King Crimson as I had a dream drummer in
Bill Bruford who allowed me to play whatever I wanted on the
bass. After
King Crimson, I had to kind of take over the bridge between the
bass and the drums and that meant I had to become the pedestrian
bass player again.
In King Crimson I was allowed to fly and it was wonderful.
After Crimson I put the emphasis on singing instead of on my
bass playing.
I knew my days as a super fast bass player were numbered.
I always felt the need to express myself vocally.
Writing is what I always wanted to do.
The bass is the natural bridge between the melody line and the
rhythm part.
Most of the songs that I write the bass and melody lines are
very connected.
Jeb: When you are
not following the melody then it is almost like playing the
piano, you are doing two things that are very different.
John: It is like
patting your head and rubbing your stomach.
It is the same kind of independence a piano player or a drummer
has. It
really has stuck with me.
I don't write anything on bass.
I write 90% on piano and 10% on guitar.
Jeb: Do you feel
King Crimson ended prematurely?
John: I do.
I was all set for another fifteen years with that band.
It really was everything that I wanted to do up to that point.
I was very disappointed when it did not go on.
I think it was getting too successful.
We were coming up with bands like Genesis and Pink Floyd who
were ramping it up to another point.
They were moving out of clubs and into theaters.
On our third album, Red, we reached that point.
We were playing stadiums with other bands and it was going over
really well.
It was getting very popular, very quickly at that point.
I think that was too much for Robert Fripp.
I am not saying this was the case but a lot of people have as
much fear of success as they do of failure.
I think it was all a little too much for Robert but Bill Bruford
and I were in our element and we loved it.
It was not to be and both Bill and myself were very
disappointed.
We both drifted into pick up gigs, Bill with Genesis and myself
with Uriah Heep and Roxy Music.
A few years later we formed UK, which was kind of an
afterthought to Crimson.
Jeb: How difficult
were the years between Crimson and UK?
John: I have always
had a good work ethic.
I have always thought that if I keep working then everything
will be okay.
It is about being driven.
I never wanted to be at home; I always wanted to be on the road.
I convinced myself I was doing the right thing because I was
making money.
I would be hired out to these bands for some fairly hefty moolah.
It was like falling off a log for me; I could just do what I
wanted.
John Kalodner was the
one who pushed me to get a band together.
He came backstage after a gig I did with Roxy Music and he
pushed his card into my hand and said, "John Kalodner from
Atlantic Records.
I would like to meet you for lunch tomorrow."
He took me out to lunch the next day and he said, "What are you
doing? You
are wasting your talent.
I am sure you are having lots of fun with Roxy Music but that is
not where you are meant to be."
I went about forming UK, which John said was close but was no
cigar. The
next opportunity that came for me to form a band, he was
involved all the way and we worked together to make sure it was
watertight.
Jeb: Was Asia
formed on paper?
John: No, not really.
That sits conveniently into the corporate boardroom, MTV, John
Kalodner thing.
In actual fact, you have to sit down and write the songs, which
I had already done.
"Ride Easy" and "Here Comes the Feeling" I had in my back pocket
already and that is what got us the deal.
The big revelation came when Geoff Downes and I started working
together. We
just kept churning songs out and that propelled the band, as we
were deeper than one song.
We were deeper than just being four guys who had been famous
before. Asia
held water anyway you looked at it.
You couldn't knock the guys for their playing ability and you
couldn't knock the guys for their integrity as everyone had
already been in bands that had critical acclaim.
We had respectability and we were putting out music that had
credibility that was also successful. That is when the daggers
came out. The
critics had to explain it so they said that we were just
corporate and put together on paper.
They said we were put together in the boardroom.
We rehearsed for six months.
If we were just interested in taking the money and running then
we wouldn't have done that.
Jeb: I remember
arguing with friends who were prog rock nuts and they said that
the best prog rock musicians were selling out because you were
having success.
I think the first album is a masterpiece because you have the
elements of progressive music in a pop format and no one had
ever been able to do that before.
John: It still sounds
good today.
If you listen to any other album from the early 80's then you
hear really crappy synthesizers and you can tell when it was
made. The
first Asia album does not sound like that at all.
It sounds like a really good rock album.
Jeb: You all had
success before Asia and you knew how to write songs.
Did you know you it was THAT good?
John: We knew it was
good but nobody knew it was going to go so huge within weeks of
its release.
Radio lapped it up.
MTV was the cream of the cake as it made sure that it was in one
in five households in America.
It was really radio that really got into it though.
They loved it.
They could play any song on the album and in Top 40 they could
play three singles from it.
Jeb: I agree it is
not a dated album other than the line in "Heat of the Moment"
where you say, "And now you find yourself in 82."
John: That is not a
year; it is a venue.
I am not at liberty to tell you where it was but everyone in the
band knew where it was.
It was not the year.
It was a institution, if you like.
It is a venue in London.
It never was meant to be a year.
If it was a year, it would have had an apostrophe in front of it
- my English is not that bad.
Jeb: Before Asia
reunited you had the Icon albums with Geoff Downes.
This was not what people would have predicted from you and
Geoff.
John: The first Icon
record was when I had just started to get sober.
I had a lot of personal issues going on with me.
Geoff was just about to take the step from leaving the
counterfeit Asia and going back to the original Asia.
We knew it had to have a different sound than Asia.
It has a completely different feel to it and I think parts of it
are absolutely beautiful.
I loved making that record.
Jeb: Are you
inspired to write from your emotions?
John: I couldn't do
it otherwise.
The moment I started writing in first person, which was around
the end of UK, was important to me.
I made a solo album called Caught in the Crossfire and I
gained the confidence to write about my experience rather than
observing someone else's.
When I took that step, it became a lot easier for me.
The floodgates opened up and it started pouring out.
The Asia album is just me telling stories of how the
romantic life can be full of people doing nasty things to each
other emotionally.
A lot of the lyrics on the first album are about that.
"Heat of the Moment" is an apology.
"I never meant to be so bad to you."
"Only Time Will Tell" is about being utterly rejected and "Sole
Survivor" is turning around and saying," Fuck you, I'll be
okay." They
all tell little parts of the story of the last decade of my
life.
Jeb: You had been
a successful musician but with the release of Asia you
became a rock star.
John: It is exactly
what it was.
It certainly took the breaks off my social life.
Certain aspects of my private life accelerated.
I look at it as it all happened at the same time.
I became a self-destructive party animal - although the party
usually just consisted of me.
I was hell-bent on self-destruction at that point.
It had nothing to do with the fame or pressure.
It was just a personal thing for me.
I put a lot of myself onto the first record and I got a lot of
criticism for that and I didn't take criticism well then.
I don't think it would be the same today as it just runs off my
back now. At
that time though, I had a lot of resentment to people who would
single me out and say things about the lyrics.
I would take it personally.
I think what happened with my chemical adventures would have
happened anyway.
I was worse before that and I was worse after that.
Jeb: It had to be
an amazing ride.
John: I did enjoy it.
I just wish it would have gone on a little while longer before
we started ripping each other's heads off.
We had to go in and repeat the whole thing on the second album
and we did it.
The first single, "Don't Cry," went straight to # 1.
I don't think you can expect everyone who bought the first album
to go out and buy the second album.
Some people didn't like it as well and some people did.
In some territories it sold more than the first one but in the
big territory, the US, it didn't.
We sold about a third as many of the second album as we did the
first. It
wasn't a disaster.
If it had been the other way around then it would have been
hailed as a huge success.
If we had sold two million on the first album and six million on
the second album then it would have been okay but it was the
other way around.
Jeb: It never
helps when your guitar player was one of the people who didn't
like the second album.
John: Yeah, there is know accounting for taste.
We were locked away in the studio in Canada by a lake with a
moose walking around, hundreds of miles from anywhere in the
middle of winter.
We were expected to come up with a equal.
The proof of the pudding is that we play five songs from the
second album on stage and they go over very well.
A lot of people like them better because they are not so used to
them and they are not overdone.
Jeb: You do an
acoustic version of "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes" on the new
DVD that is very powerful.
John: It certainly comes across better as an acoustic song.
Jeb: You are able
to touch what a lot of people have felt but not been able to
express in that song.
John: That is half
the battle.
If you can touch a nerve with someone and they realize that they
felt exactly like that but didn't know how to say it then you
have won half the battle.
Jeb: Do you blame yourself for the original breakup of the band?
John: It is all gone
now. All I
can say is that I am not like that today.
In our individual way we were all to blame.
You can even say that about some of the people who were around
the band. It
is all really irrelevant anymore.
What is important is that we all go out on stage and do it now.
Jeb: Before the meeting you had that day did you ever think
Asia would ever play together again as the original members?
John: No, I didn't.
Because Geoff and I were playing again together, I knew it was
going to be brought up but I didn't think it would happen.
To be honest, I think sometimes I would think maybe someday it
could happen.
I always knew it would have to be the original four.
That is who I would want to see in the band if I came to see the
band play. I
really didn't know if we were able to do it.
In fact, it came together just like it did when the original
band formed.
We didn't need any prodding.
They just put us in the room and we got on with it.
Jeb: Is the tour
and DVD a one-off or will there be another Asia album?
John: We are actually
starting a new Asia album as we speak.
With a bit of luck I can start singing in November and with a
little bit of luck we can have a new album on the street by
March of next year.
We hope it is more than a one-off.
You have to remember that the studio is where all the bad things
happened with Asia.
Jeb: Is there any
pressure to repeat the success of Asia?
John: No, the record
industry has changed.
The CD is almost a thing of the past.
The record we are making now might be one of the last ones we
make with the Roger Dean cover.
I have been told by everyone in the record industry that the CD
is over. No
one really knows what is going to happen at the moment.
All the other bands that are reforming are not releasing new
albums. There
is no new Police album and there is no new Led Zeppelin album.
They are just putting out greatest hit's packages.
We felt it was time to have a go and we will give it a shot and
see what happens.
Jeb: How about stylistically?
John: I would say it
should be the natural successor to the second album.
It will be not more of the same but you will be able to hear the
commonality.
Jeb: Tell me the
inspiration behind "Time Again."
John: That is where
it all started.
It is a shuffle and it was easy for us to all slot into that.
Jeb: The song does
not begin on the note it is supposed to start on.
John: No, it doesn't.
It starts on the second note.
That is just the way Steve's mind works.
Take the obvious and then remove the obvious.
Jeb: "Wildest
Dreams"
John: That song is
anti-violence and antiwar.
We wanted to show the futility of war.
Geoff and I were just feeling that way that particular day.
Sometimes the way we approach lyrics is that we bounce things
off each other.
We just bounced it off each other and that is where it ended up.
Jeb: I found "Once
Step Closer" very inspirational.
I thought that might be a single.
John: By the time we
got to the third single off the album we were not selling
singles because everyone had the album.
We sold six million copies of the first record.
We really couldn't put any more singles out past the first two.
We put out "Sole Survivor" as a single but no one bought it
because they had the album already.
We had no problem at all with that reality but we were maxed out
with singles at that point.
"Heat of the Moment" should have been # 1 but it wasn't because
people bought the album instead of the single.
Jeb: "Heat of the Moment"
John: It really is an
apology.
Whatever I did I did in the heat of the moment and was not meant
to hurt
you. It was
an apology to my ex-wife.
Jeb: Did you write
the opening guitar riff?
John: Actually, that
was Geoff. I
wrote the chorus and he wrote the verse and it is my lyric.
A lot of our stuff works like that.
"Heat of the Moment's" chorus was a 6/8 Country song that I had
written years before.
We were sitting around one day and I said, "Let's try this song
and lets put it in 4/4."
Geoff said, "I have this verse that is in ten."
Somehow it worked.
Jeb: "Only Time
Will Tell."
John: It was the same
construction but it was my verse and his chorus, so it was the
other way around.
The lyrics were mine.
The feeling behind "Only Time Will Tell" is very obvious.
It is like looking back on a teen crush - which is a long way
back. You are
just trying to say that maybe you will be sorry one day for not
wanting me and you will regret it.
It is very much teen angst.
The fact that I was 31 at the time...
Jeb: "Without You"
John: It is very
popular live.
A lot of the real Asia fans love that song.
It has a lot of the progressive stuff in it that our pop singles
don't have.
The lyrics are pretty dark.
No one is really sure if the girl lives or dies in the end.
The last line says, "There will never be a day without you."
You can take that whichever way you want.
You can say that you will never forget her or you can take that
as she is there with him.
A lot of people on my website discuss that.
Does the girl get to live in the end?
I don't really know how to answer that.
It is really just the story of two people who are frantically in
love but it is not meant to be but they will always be together.
Jeb: "Cutting It
Fine."
John: That is angry.
You can say that is a bit misogynistic but would you say that if
I was gay? I
am not gay.
But everyone thinks I wrote that about a woman.
Sometimes I write songs by putting myself in someone else's
shoes and imagining how they would feel.
The song is about the frustration you feel in a relationship.
It is about trying to control someone else.
Jeb: "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes."
John: I walked out of
the studio one day and was getting ready to walk home.
I wrote the whole thing from leaving the studio to arriving at
my house, which was about a ten-minute walk.
It is one of the only times that has ever happened to me.
I walked through the reception area at the studio I saw Geoff
Downes ex-girlfriend and I knew that he was not with her
anymore. The
look on her face was so powerful that I couldn't get it out of
my head. I
imagined what both of them were feeling during this whole thing
and that is how it came out.
Jeb: "Don't Cry"
John: This is a very
positive song.
If anything it is making amends for the first record.
It is all the stuff that I said on the first album getting
turned on its head and going, "I love you so much.
It is going to be okay.
Don't cry."
It was just about the right time that I said that.
Most people take away from the first album songs like "Only Time
Will Tell" and "Heat of the Moment" and they see that as
someone's butt getting kicked.
"Don't Cry" is the exact opposite.
It is sort of out of character for me but it works really well.
Now we do it acoustically and it works really well as you can
really hear the message.
Jeb: The last one
I have deals with Asia folklore.
Was Trevor Rabin going to be in the original Asia?
John: He came over
because we had an idea that we could have two vocalists.
I had already worked with Trevor in Los Angeles, as he was
another one of Kalodner's protégées.
In 1981, John asked if Trevor could come over and see if it
would work out.
It didn't work out between him and Steve at all.
I think it would have been okay but Trevor is a pretty ripping
guitar player.
There always have been a little competition between the two and
there always will be as Trevor was part of Yes.
Jeb: It is like
you and Greg Lake.
John: At some point
in history each of us has had to learn the other's repertoire.
We are about even-Steven at this point.
I don't think that anything like that is going to happen again
in the near future.
But you never know; you really never know.
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