BB: Oh, absolutely Union are just an awful waste of money; it’s an embarrassment. It’s a whole failure in the system that music should be produced that way. Clearly, one of the of the great beauties of running your own thing - running Summer Fold, running Winter Fold, or running Earthworks is that you can do it the way you like… and that’s absolutely great! 

At this point in my career, I would rather produce an artifact with which I am 100 percent pleased and proud and perform to the best of my ability – to my highest sensibilities – in front of 300 people than do a mega tour in front of 30,000 people.

On the rock side? I haven’t done much on the rock side in a long time, but there have been some good records, I think. A few that I have had the privilege of being a party to that seem to have changed things. I suppose, Discipline with King Crimson would be a good example.     

Special thanks to Bill Bruford for this interview. For more information on Bill Bruford, please visit his official website. The site is extremely informative and the comprehensive FAQ section made it very difficult to come up with unique questions! This interview is © 2005 David Negrin and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.





 

Bruford On The 1990 
Yes Union Tour:

...It was essentially a sort 
of fashion show with the 
full cast of Dallas or 
Dynasty all on stage.

SELECTED BILL BRUFORD DISCOGRAPHY

WOG: Knowing your dissatisfaction with that project, was it difficult to go on the road in support of the Union album?

BB: It was difficult. I mean, I’m a professional guy, and I don’t mind taking a two or three month summer vacation with old friends and prancing about on a stage, but there was no (new) music played so… It was do able, because no new, fresh music needed to be originated. So, it was essentially a sort of fashion show with the full cast of Dallas or Dynasty all on stage.

WOG: (laughs) Even with doing older material, was it difficult playing along side of a drummer like Alan White, who has a very different drumming style from your own? Or, for that matter, someone like Rick Wakeman playing along side of Tony Kaye, who is an equally different style keyboard player?

BB: Oh yes, it was all a dreadful, excessive mess as you would expect with Yes.

WOG: When you were approached by Steve Hackett about recording songs for his Genesis Revisited project, how did you feel about playing drums on songs like “Watcher of The Skies” and “Firth of Fifth” that you had played for a brief time with Genesis some 20 years earlier?   

BB: Again, I’m a professional musician. I don’t have to think about anything much if someone else is asking me. If he is a good musician, and he’s got good material, like that is, and its got an interesting slant on it, I think that’s fine, and we went off and did that. Again, it’s not something I want to do very much, and I might do it for Steve, but in general I try to steer clear of reunions and that sort of thing. It doesn’t get anybody very far. It may be that you get paid very well, which is great, because you can use the money to do more creative things.

Tim Garland (left) and Bill Bruford in 2004

WOG: For that Genesis Revisited album, did Steve basically say, “These are the songs I would like you to play,” or did you choose which tracks you want to play drums on?

BB: He said, “These are the ones I would like you to do.”

WOG: If you were to recommend one of your jazz projects and one of your rock projects from your extensive career as an example of your best work, which records would you suggest?

BB: Well, if you ask any jazz musician, or any musician for that matter, and he’s going to say his latest record. The reason he says that is because he believes he is getting better at what he does. That would be the case with me. On the jazz side, I would recommend Random Acts of Happiness, which is a recent CD I did with a hot tenor player here called Tim Garland, which was recorded in Oakland , California . I think it’s my best playing to date, but I would say that wouldn’t I? Because that’s what I do. I try and improve. I try to polish whatever it is that I have and try to remove excess and remove dirt and grime. So, to me, that’s a pretty affective record and is up there with the big guys. 

Special thanks to Bill Bruford for granting this interview. This interview is © 2005-2007 David Negrin and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission. For more on Bill Bruford, please visit his official website.