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HACKETT TO BITS
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE HACKETT
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Steve
Hackett has come a long way since his days in Genesis.
Hackett, who first rose to fame in the '70s as the
band's lead axeman, has explored musical genres
ranging from rock to blues to classical. 20 plus years
after leaving the group behind, Hackett has
established himself as a talent in the industry with a
career as distinctive as his guitar sound.
On August 14, 2001 World of Genesis' own Dave Negrin
sat down with Steve to talk about his 2001 South
American tour, his up-coming studio projects, and
reflections on his past accomplishments both as a solo
artist and in successful acts like Genesis and GTR.
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WOG: So far, you've recorded
rock albums, a blues album, and a few classical albums. Are
there any other musical genres that you would like to explore
in the future that you haven't so far?
SH: Well, the style of music that I have been working on with
the current band, particularly some of the live work, I've
been calling "Collision"... Like when two worlds
collide. You might have many different styles |
World of Genesis: I recall you mentioning something on
your website about running into some problems in Sao
Paulo, Brazil while you were on the latest tour. Can
you tell me what happened?
Steve Hackett: Well, the police decided to
hijack the equipment, and we has to pay one thousand
dollars ransom to them to let it go!
WOG: How was that justified by the Sao Paulo police?
SH: Oh, it was some sort of claim about paperwork that
wasn't in order, during its transit... would you
believe... from Rio to Sao Paulo... Within the
country! So, it was just a scam that they came up
with. Actually, it was our promoter that came up with
the thousand dollars ransom to them. It's just one of
those things, so the show went on very, very late
indeed. Basically, we mounted a show that was due to
go on at 8 p.m. at 11 p.m. So, the audience was a
little fractious by then, as I'm sure you can
imagine...but we did the show!
WOG: Did you record any of the dates from the 2001
tour or from your 2000 Italian tour?
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of music. Some of the guys in
the band come from very different backgrounds. A number
of guys are music teachers in the band, whose immediate
backgrounds you would probably say are in jazz, but they're
equally interested in working in other genres like folk music
and rock music in general.
I was hoping to talk about them a little bit. Roger (King), who is the guy who has engineered many of my recent
projects, was trained as a cathedral organist originally. My
drummer, Gary O'Toole, is also a
kickboxing instructor. Then there's Rob
Townshend who plays organ with me for the moment. He plays
everything from soprano sax to penny whistle, wooden flutes,
concert flutes, and so on. His background is jazz. I think the
first rock concert he ever saw when he was about 14, I
believe, was a show that I did at the Hammersmith Odeon here
in London. Lastly, my bass player, Terry Gregory, has a jazz
band called The Four Corners, and the name came from the idea
that the influences came from the four corners of the
Earth.
They're all very open to different kinds of music, which is
why it's been such a joy to work with them. Everything else
we've been talking about has been fairly ridged in the past,
but I have new material up and running with them, and its been
a joy to work with them on the South American tour.
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SH: There are recordings. I haven't had a chance to
check them all out yet, but some of the shows were
recorded.
WOG: How did you get involved with writing the Outwitting
Hitler soundtrack?
SH: Chris Ward called up, who was the director, and he
gave us various bits of information about his film
which was a work in progress at that point. He gave us
a tremendous amount of background, so that's how that
happened.
WOG: Did you plan to release those tracks officially
on one of your CDs in the future?
SH: Well, the last I've heard, we were actually going
to release the soundtrack of that. Now, I don't know
what the latest is, because there have been rather a
lot of projects that have been mooted recently, so
whether or not there is priority to that I couldn't
tell you. That's another conversation I'd have to have
with my manager, frankly. But as far as I know, at
some point, we will release that intact as a
soundtrack. Having said that, there was a heavy amount
of reuse in terms of stuff that had been released
already.
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WOG: Record Collector Magazine wrote that you plan to
join forces with some ex-King Crimson members to record under
the name Crimson. Is that true?
SH: It's not strictly true. Mike Giles, who was the
original King Crimson drummer, phoned me up and asked if I
would be interested in playing at a concert over a re-formed
King Crimson with all of the original members; because, they'd
assumed that Robert Fripp wouldn't want to do it. So, he asked
would I be interested having worked with Ian (McDonald). So, I said,
"tell me more." It seems that there may be a
number of guest musicians for this. They may have a number of
guitarists too, perhaps, help them get over the fact that they
are without their original guitarist.
They wanted to do the
classic material, early stuff. Whether or not they'll still do
this, I don't know, but I gather that various people apart
from Robert (Fripp) have given it the thumbs up... from the
original 1969 Crimson.
WOG: So, this is more of a one-off thing? There are no plans
for an album?
SH: Well, I think this is talking about a one-off thing. I
don't think that they intend to get together to record an
album. It's nice to be asked is all I can say. |
By the time the contract was
signed, they needed the soundtrack by the end of that
weekend, and I could barely get hold of an engineer in
time. It was a soundtrack that was actually done in a
day. It included some material that I had actually
intended for a classical project involving guitar and
orchestra. I had it to the stage where I had guitar,
but I was working with samples most of the time. So, in some ways it's an insight
into a future classical project. So we plundered some
of the future, and we plundered some of the past, and
we spent the day editing that Sunday in order to come
up with this. So, it was a
very quick job, but luckily they were very happy with
it.
There was always the thought in the back of my mind
that having sent this thing off that they would be
very much up against it, in terms of time... But there
was always a chance that they might have hated every
note and asked for it to be redone. So, in some
ways... I hope this doesn't sound too disrespectful to
the film business... It seems to me you're better off
just spending a day doing a soundtrack, because they
might just decide to change the whole damn thing on
you anyway. At the end of the day, you're in charge of
this thing. You're a hired gun. Very often directors
and producers and God knows who will turn around and
say, "Well, we don't like a single damn thing!
Can you rewrite it on the spot?" And you might
have a symphony orchestra sitting there on hold. I've
heard this from guys who work fairly consistently in
the world of films.
I was actually very proud of the stuff that we used
for it, but nothing was actually tailor-made for it.
It was a case of numerous telephone calls across the
Atlantic, and playing this guy stuff as we were doing
it on the phone. So, it was more of a quick skirmish
rather than a major pitch battle (laughs)!
WOG: At what point did you decide to start-up Camino
Records? Was that decision based more upon creative
desire or necessity?
SH: It was both things; you're quite right. It was out
of both creative desire and necessity. Working with
major record companies is extremely restrictive. The
way a major record company sees someone like myself is
the following... In general, they really aren't
interested in solo projects. At the most, they would
be interested in having four or five other
"names" involved in a project. Then, maybe,
they would be interested. So, that doesn't leave one a
tremendous amount of creative freedom.
When you get record company after record company
saying, "Well, wouldn't it be great if you were
working with..." any one of a bunch of chaps who were in
similar bands in the '70s...Blah. Blah. Blah... And
I'm sure you could put that list together almost
immediately. You know, they would be thinking of the
major progressive bands. So that, for me, is not
really interesting. I'd far prefer to work with new
people. So, I've long thought that (starting an
independent record label) was the way forward.
Since we did form Camino Records, I have managed to
produce a tremendous amount of stuff, in various
territories, which has been better distributed than
ever before... With or without the majors. Now, that
is not the case the The States, but the rest of the
world is a very big place. So, distribution throughout
Europe has been good, growing throughout South
America, and very good in Japan.
I was worried that when we formed Camino that we would
be running a mail order business only, but, in fact,
its been the absolute reverse. Yeah, sure we have
healthy mail order sales, but its improved the
distribution in the shops tremendously.
WOG: Were your recordings with Brian May (of the rock
band Queen) brought about by some major label's
suggestion?
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WOG: You mentioned that
the GTR line-up was falling apart by the time the
first tour was ending. What exactly happened that made
the band break-up?
 SH:
Brian Lane, who was managing the project, was
finding it very hard to get a record deal initially.
His management style has been well documented as a
sort of divide and conquer approach. So, he thought
the best way to go about this was to sow the seeds of
discontent within the band and tend to set various
individuals against other individuals. His idea was to
come up with a recording contract which would be an
offer that nobody could refuse having invested so
much time and money... and then pull it all together
at the end of the day and come up smelling like a
rose.
So, Indeed, he managed to pull off a substantial
record deal. Nonetheless, I think the real problem was
that we spent a tremendous amount of time producing
the record. So, although that album was a hit in The
States, we were dealing with a bankrupt company in
London. In order to create or maintain that level of
success, the band was functioning on an extremely
insecure footing financially. Someone had to be the
bad guy and say, "I'm calling an extraordinary
general meeting and closing down the company."
Which is what I did, because we had far too many money
issues to be able to continue. I think that management
also may have had a vested interest in loading the
costs, shall we say. He may deny this, and for all I
know what I'm saying here may be libelous, but I don't
blame any of the individuals, and
I just think that people don't always realize when
their buttons are being pushed.
I suspect that GTR may have lasted longer or may have
been an easier sell if it had been just a project
rather than a band. If we had called it Howe and
Hackett or Hackett and Howe, it would have
been, perhaps, probably seen as a kind of jazz album
or something or "file under geo-projects,"
but perhaps wouldn't have gotten the degree of
attention that it did from Arista Records. I must say,
Clive Davis, with all due credit, did a tremendous job
promoting the band.
WOG: The band did return to the studio briefly after
the tour to record a second album that never
materialized....
SH: Not with yours truly! I believe that Steve (Howe)
took the other guys in, and I don't know to what
extent he recorded with them. I don't know if that was
home studio vibe or demos or finished masters. I don't
know, but it strikes me that if you've got a band
called GTR, you need at least one other guitarist to
make it viable. I think by then, Arista had gone off
the boil, understandably.
I always felt that something like GTR had novelty
value. As soon as people start mentioning the word
"Super Group," it basically has novelty
value for one album. I suspect that no one was really
that surprised that Steve and I, although we are very
good friends these days, didn't ride off into the
sunset together making albums for
infinity.
WOG:
When it came time to record your Genesis Revisited album,
you involved many talented musicians (including: Tony
Levin, Paul Carrack, John Wetton, Chester Thompson,
etc.), did you ever think to call up one of your old band mates
and ask them to get involved on a track?
SH: I didn't really feel that any of the other Genesis
members of the Hackett, Collins, Rutherford, Gabriel,
Banks era would really want to participate in something
that would essentially a solo project of mine. I did
test the water by asking Tony Banks if he was
interested, and initially he said he was interested in
playing on a version of "Los Endos," but he
had time to think about it and he later said he had been
talked out of it. |
 SH: At the close of GTR with Steve Howe, it seemed as
if record companies at that time were very much
responding to the two guitar combination... Two known
guitarists working together. At the time, it looked
like either Steve Howe or I might jump ship with GTR,
and I think the possibility of it being an on-going
entity was mooted. I approached Brian originally in
the spirit of asking him very casually if he would be
interested in taking on GTR or something like
it. At the time, I saw GTR as becoming more of a
project than a band. Perhaps the idea of a number of
guitarists all getting together.
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I feel that this was the case with all of them. I didn't
feel that they would want to participate; however, I
felt people like Chester (Thompson) and Bill (Bruford),
who hadn't really had a chance to record with the band,
would be interested to show how they would have
interpreted that material themselves out of Phil's
shadow as it were.
There were a number of people who had been involved with
Genesis over the years, in a live sense, like Alphonso
Johnson, a fantastic bass player.
I know at one time, he'd been mooted for possible
inclusion in Genesis, but may have fallen foul of the
politics... I don't know why he didn't join the
band, but I think it's got nothing to do with his
capability as a musician, this is what I am trying to
say. You're talking about a top-flight guy here. A
fantastic musician! Probably the most organized musician
I've ever met. Alphonso is the kind of guy who, if you
leave a message on his answering machine, wherever he is
in the world, he'll get a fax or an e-mail back to you
in the same day if he can manage it. |
Brian was initially very enthusiastic about doing
something together, but he was still heavily involved
with Queen which was up and running at the time and
Freddie (Mercury) was very much alive. Plus, he had
the occasional projects he was working on at the time
himself as well. At the end of the day, we did three
tracks. One that we worked on together, which was
"Slot Machine." I worked on it for a while,
and he said, "Why don't you give me the tape and
I'll work on it for a while and throw all my ideas at
it." So, we had one track which was up and
running which we mixed together.
Then there was a track called "Cassandra,"
which I worked on, and he came in and just did a solo
on that one day. The last track, which was called
"Don't Fall In Love With Me," he liked the
idea of the lyric and wanted to do a ballad version of
that. So, again, maybe it was the best of an afternoon
of throwing some ideas out. That track was never
really finished. In the end, that ended up being
called "Don't Fall Away From Me" and it was
released on an album called The Unofficial
Biography, which was a compilation put together by
Virgin Records. It wasn't really widely circulated,
but it was essentially a compilation album with
archive material with one or two new tracks on
it. And this one track, "Don't Fall Away From
Me," was on it along with "Present
Dreams" which was an acoustic guitar piece
that was recorded right around the time of Midsummer
Night's Dream.
Brian and I are sill very much friends. While it
didn't turn into a long-term project, I also worked
with Brian on a charity single, which I organized,
called Rock Against Repatriotation which
was to help the Vietnamese boat people. So, he's
played on a number of things with me. |
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WOG: I was pretty impressed with his website, actually.
He has a bulletin board up on the site for people who
are into his music to post questions. I was surprised to
see that he actually responds fairly regularly on that
bulletin board, which is rare. You don't often see that
kind of interaction with fans...
SH: He's the only guy I've ever worked with who manages
to play something funky in 7/8! There's a mid-point on
the "Dance On A Volcano" track that I worked
on (on the Genesis Revisited album), where we
actually took the drums out and we just left vocal and
bass going at one point... which sounded absolutely
amazing! He came up with this slap bass figure that
worked. It was partly slap and partly played normally.
It was just such a fantastic figure... (Steve does his
best Alphonso Johnson bass line impression...) that we
switched the drums out for a few bars and let him
go!
WOG: After you re-record the new version of "Carpet
Crawlers" (a.k.a. "Carpet Crawlers '99")
with Genesis, were you pleased with the final product?
It sounds like on most of the song you're pretty buried
in the mix...
SH: Well, I think that my contribution to the song was
only used at the very beginning. Either Trevor Horn (the
producer) mixed it or handed it off to someone else, and I'm not sure if he
was as hands-on as he could have been with it. I don't think it got the best
out of anybody to be honest. That's my take on the track and a number of
people may disagree with me, but if you're looking for brilliant guitar
playing most of it's on the cutting room floor! ...Well, you'll never know
if it was brilliant or run of the mill (laughs)!
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WOG: As
I'm sure you know, Virgin Records hasn't been the best
about remastering your back catalog...
SH: That's true (laughs)!
WOG: ...Can you tell me if you've attempted to buy back
or negotiate for the rights for your early solo albums?
SH: Well, some record companies have been more
cooperative. For instance, EMI was extremely cooperative
and gave us back the rights to A Midsummer Night's
Dream. Virgin, on the other hand, have been less
than enthusiastic about parting hands with the masters of my early stuff.
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Genesis in 1977 with
Hackett (far left)
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What I am saying is, I included the guitar figure that was always intended
for inclusion on the chorus of "Carpet Crawlers." I have a mix of that
which, at one point, I was thinking of including on the website so people
could actually hear the removed guitar parts restored, but contractually, I
might be on a sticky wicket there. At the end of the day, you're only
allowed to do what you're allowed to do.
If I can answer a common question, when people ask me
about Genesis reunions, I feel as though I've got that
as an example of something that's likely to happen.
Reunions, on this level, end up becoming pretty
corporate affairs as you can tell with the credits on
"Carpet Crawlers." I haven't worked
corporately like this for many, many years, and I'm
actually extremely proud of every note that I include on
anything these days. Extremely proud. So, I think you
can sacrifice quite a lot just to be part of a band
again.
WOG: Were you all in the
studio recording that together or did each member do
their own thing and just have it put together in the
studio later?
SH: No! I think it was put together over a period of
about three years or so I seem to recall. My
contribution was two hours in an afternoon... in my own
studio. I don't think anyone really wanted to meet up
and work together on that thing. Again, there's the
inevitable question of reunions and the wisdom of those
things is that it's really only worth doing if everyone
is going to see eyeball to eyeball.
The problem is,
handing it off to another producer is a bit of a lottery
isn't it? ...As to what's going to be included. I
don't know if I'm prepared to take those sort of
chances.
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Most of the time, we've not been able
to negotiate anything satisfactory with them. So, those
albums will remain as they are and all attempts to try
and improve them have fallen by the wayside so far. One
day, perhaps, we'll come to some kind of agreement with
them.
WOG: You mentioned some time ago that you had hoped to
work with Virgin jointly on a new retrospective of some
kind. Is that still in the works or is that frozen at
the moment as well?
SH: It's not being prioritized at the moment. We have a
couple of other things on the go, shall we say. One of
which you mentioned, the Outwitting Hitler
soundtrack. |
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WOG: What was your impression of the Genesis Archive
boxes? Did you think it was too much or did you think
there was anything excluded that should have been added?
SH: Well, funny enough, I actually thought that the
Archive box set that included the live Lamb (Lies
Down on Broadway) and some of the other unreleased
stuff I thought was very good indeed. I thought it came
out very, very well. It was Nick (Davis) who mixed that
without anybody interfering, so there was no
competition.
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There was also a project that started out as something
between Jim Diamond and myself. The idea was originally
that we would do songs that would be backed by an
acoustic guitar accompaniment... one guitarist and once
vocal performance.
Well, we've been nudging away at this
for years, and a number of tracks were done. Some of
them were given larger arrangements than that, but at
the end of last week, Billy (his manager) said to me on
Friday, "Why don't you release something like that
with some other tracks you've done with other people?
So, rather than a duet, we make it either a solo thing
with a number of different vocalists or we make it a
various artists project." So, what we have four or five days later is a potential
album sleeve, some potential sleeve notes, a complete
track listing, but we're not sure if it's going to be a
solo thing. We're not sure which banner to put it
under.
It sounds like we're very uncertain. When, in fact,
basically most people go through this sort of stuff when
they work with other people. In the end, you've got a
creative decision to make as to whose project this is.
I'm being totally honest with you when I say that Jim
felt it was more my project and a while back, I felt it
was more Jim's project as both of us had radically
departed from what we normally do for a living.
Still,
I'm very proud of the way it turned out. I think it
sounds extremely beautiful! There's the occasional Edith
Piaf track, Stevie Wonder track, some Carol King stuff,
Buffy Stainte-Marie stuff, a bit of early Elvis
(Presley), some Vivaldi... So, it really does go quite
across the board and the centuries in terms of
writers. |
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So, I
thought, "Well, the guitar parts came out loud and clear." I could hear what
everyone had done. I thought that it was, in many ways, superior to the
(studio) recorded version of The Lamb
Lies Down on Broadway. There were some subtleties
that were lost, but I felt that Pete's vocals were far
better, and I thought the drumming was tremendous!
WOG: There have been many reports that much of that
recording was overdubbed for the box set...
SH: No, No. Actually, the vocals were redone. The drums
were untouched. Mike's part was untouched as far as I'm
aware. Tony's I don't think was touched, but I can't be
certain, because I wasn't there. I retouched some guitar
parts, but very few.
WOG: Do you recall which pieces you touched up?
SH: Yes, the solo at the end of "The Lamia"
was redone, there was some on "Fly On A
Windshield"... and I can't off hand remember
anything else.
WOG: How about from the second box set? Did it bother
you that the band used a live version of "Ripples" recorded in 1980, after your departure
from Genesis?
SH: I'm less familiar with that box set as I was
involved in less tracks. We never did actually perform
"Ripples" live whilst I was in the band.
"Ripples" I thought was one of the best tracks
on Trick of The Tail. I thought it had something
interesting about it. Mainly, for the guitar
combinations to be honest. The 12-string work, from Mike
(Rutherford) and myself, and the thing that sounds like
a backwards guitar solo which was played forwards but
was a sign of things to come. |
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Hackett
On Working In The Studio With Genesis:
...I
remember that a lot of people would often complain...
(laughs) they would often complain that it was like
playing to a panel of Russian judges at an ice skating
contest. It was always something that I feel we
individually dreaded. We dreaded the moment of playing
these things to each other because the band could be
notoriously stiff upper lip about many things. In fact,
even when everyone was greatly moved and liked
something, it often wasn't shown at first. It's this
British insecurity of showing feelings... It always rose
to the surface on such occasions.
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WOG: Do you recall a particular moment when you were in
Genesis when you felt that it just wasn't worth staying
in the band anymore?
SH: Basically, the deciding factor was the fact that I
had material that I felt was very strong, but I felt was
outside the capability of the group to perform. Like,
for instance, the song that Randy Crawford sings,
"I Think Love Will Last," on Please Don't
Touch!, which was the opening track of side two of
that album. I thought the whole musical extravaganza of
that side was strong, and I still do.
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WOG:
Is that something we can expect before the holidays?
SH: No, I never know the time scale on these things,
because any artist sitting in the studio thinks,
"Oh, this is great! I've done this, so we can get
it out tomorrow, but what actually happens is that
most of the time you're talking about at least three
months time if not six. So, I never really know
exactly when things are going to be released. At this
point, we may approach Snapper (Music) with this and
ask if they are interested in this project. So, it may
be a project where we bypass Camino and take it to the
people who did Genesis Revisited and The
Tokyo Tapes (in Europe).
WOG: Jumping back to the Camino titles for a moment.
Several of your solo projects on Camino have been
reissued several times, some of which feature new or
slightly revised artwork. Why did you decide to go
back and change the artwork for albums like Bay of
Kings or even recently with A Midsummer
Night's Dream?
SH: Well, with Bay of Kings, Kim (Poor) was never
happy with the sleeve design. It was a painting of
hers that she'd already done in oils, and I said,
"I think that would make a marvelous front cover
for something." She wasn't so sure. Then, various
people came by the house and fell in love with the
woman on the cover. Maybe the fact that it
was a well endowed nude might have had something to do
with it? But, it seemed to do the trick for guys.
For years, Kim had said, "If you'd let me one
day, I'd really like to something else with this...
another kind of cover." So, who was I to argue at
this point? If the original artist was unhappy. So,
that's why that exists with a number of different
covers. In fact, the Japanese originally objected to
the fact that it was a nude on the cover, and stuck
their own design on the front of it... Just a picture
of a guitar that had been drawn... And presented it to
us as a fait accompli. So, that album has been
released with three different covers over the years in
different territories.
As for Midsummer Night's Dream, I think the
fact that we got the rights back to that album from
EMI, we wanted to make it obvious to people that we'd
gotten back the rights. It's a slightly changed cover.
It's a rearranged layout of things, but basically,
it's the same art work.
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I was really edging away from the group at that point. I
was getting tired of bringing ideas into the group which
I felt they weren't going to do. If the ideas were more
radical, they weren't necessarily going to do them. I
felt that the band was heading towards an area that was
becoming very safe.
WOG: There have been all sorts of rumors and speculation
that particular members of the band sort of steered
Genesis into a different musical direction. Was there a
natural progression into another style of music or was
there a conscious effort to do something more commercial?
SH: Well, nobody said, "Let's do something more
commercial." Not at that point. The last studio
album I had done with the band, which was Wind &
Wuthering, was still very much in the spirit of the
albums which had preceded it. I think when I left it was
another matter, but I still think we were employing a
kind of 70s philosophy at that point which was largely
album based rather than singles based. So, the music was
quite atmospheric, quite narrative, and still pretty
much long-form. There tended not to be too many short
songs.
WOG: When you would bring a song or demo to the band,
how did it work? When something was turned down was it a
band decision or did any one member have the right to
give it the thumbs down and exclude it from
consideration?
SH: Well, in those days, we didn't actually record
things and then play them to each other. We just sat
down and played each other ideas face to face. Nobody
was really involved in home recording at that stage.
There was always some conjecture within the group about
that because often somebody would play an idea to the
group who might sit around stony-faced (laughs). The
individual could be playing his heart out, putting his
soul into it, but if he was doing a bad version of what
turned out to be a very good song it was often counted
against the idea. I'm not saying specifically in my
case, because I was always Caruso on vocals, but I
remember that a lot of people would often complain...
(laughs) they would often complain that it was like
playing to a panel of Russian judges at an ice skating
contest. It was always something that I feel we
individually dreaded. We dreaded the moment of playing
these things to each other because the band could be
notoriously stiff upper lip about many things. In fact,
even when everyone was greatly moved and liked
something, it often wasn't shown at first. It's this
British insecurity of showing feelings... It always rose
to the surface on such occasions.
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WOG: Was
the success of the Genesis Archive box sets your
inspiration for releasing Feedback '86?
SH: No. Billy Budis, my manager, had long wanted to
release that as an album. At the time, it included all
of this material I had done with Brian May. It was a
heavily guested album a the time. It was not really a
band line-up. It didn't thrill potential record
companies at the time, so in 1986 or 1987 I got busy
doing what was really the follow up to Bay of Kings
which was called Momentum. So, Feedback sat on
the shelf for 15 years or so. There was no doubt
that all those years having elapsed, when released,
that it's firmly regarded as archive product.
I got involved with the Genesis Archive stuff, because
they were going to release it anyway, so I thought it
better to try and effect the quality of this and give it
my blessing. So, I got involved with tidying that up
slightly.
WOG: Do you plan to release other rarities collections?
I seem to recall you saying something about releasing a
Bootleg Series of concert recordings?
SH: Well, there are always concert releases, but the
idea of this always comes up. We're looking back all the
time, and seeing what we think will fly... and we have
some acoustic stuff that may well fly. Some of it is
very good, so I'd like to think people will be
interested in that.
WOG: How did you come to get involved with David Palmer
on the symphonic tributes to Genesis and Pink Floyd? Was
that what sparked your interest in projects like A
Midsummer Night's Dream?
SH: Not really. I have to say, I was a hired gun on the
David Palmer stuff. He approached me with the idea of
the Genesis one. I must say, even when I was able to
give him exactly the original guitar part, he would
often argue with me that he knew what the part was, and
that it should be played thus... Again, from time to
time, I wear my mercenary hat, and I become a hired gun in
a situation like that. Really, you just join the
orchestra and you're just one of many. At the end of the
day, the umpire's decision is final as they say. You
need mein Fuhrer and the wish to obey. That certainly was
the case with the Genesis project and the Pink Floyd
one. So, I did what kept David happy. I don't think it's
the best of my playing. I don't think it's me at my
best, but I think that's largely because David turned a
deaf ear to my many suggestions, which is why I prefer
not to do that kind of thing for a living. So, I
occasionally guest on other people's things, but I'm
lucky I don't have to make a living that way... Thank
God! |
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 WOG: Did you have any
involvement with the new official Genesis website,
Genesis-Music.com?
SH: I don't really have hands-on involvement. I try making
encouraging noises at a distance.
WOG: On the official Genesis site, the group now
advocates the non-profit swapping of bootleg concerts.
As someone who has spoken out against bootlegs in the
past, does this concern you?
SH: Unfortunately, I think it's naive to assume people
will swap these things without money passing hands. I
would prefer that people don't propose ideas that are
supposed to be philanthropic, but blatantly potential
money spinners. I'd prefer that people didn't part money
for things that are going to be warts and all
performances. I prefer to vet them before people hear
them, naturally.
WOG: When Phil Collins eventually quit Genesis in 1993, in your
opinion, did Mike and Tony do the right thing by trying
to carry on?
SH: I think that Ray Wilson has a good voice. Whether or
not that was the right forum for him, where it sounds to
me like most of the songs have been written by Tony and
Mike... But I may be wrong. Maybe he was more involved
with the creative process. I
think that Ray is capable of a lot more than he was
allowed to be. So, I hope he keeps a firm head on his
shoulders and just realizes that it's a storm to be
ridden out and that there will be light at the end of
it. If he sees this as just more thing that he did
rather than the big break that didn't work out.
I mean,
you could look at it the same way as Trevor Horn having
joined Yes as a vocalist. It wasn't a great success, but
he was sufficiently determined to carry on and qualify
himself in another way. I'm not suggesting that Ray goes
and becomes a producer, but I'm sure the book isn't
closed on Ray. He's a good singer.
WOG: Can you tell me about any other new projects on the
horizon?
SH: I'm working on new rock material at the moment. I've
been working with the band on some new stuff... I have that on
the go. I have this classical thing on the go, some of
which is previewed on the Outwitting Hitler
project. I think both are very strong and I've enjoyed
myself greatly on these two projects. The other project
I mentioned was the album which started out with Jim
Diamond, which is an album of classic ballads. Those are
really the projects that are all in the pipeline at this
time.
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WOG: When you went to
record the Sketches of Satie album, due to the nature of
the compositions (reworking them for acoustic guitar and
flute), was that a difficult album to record?
SH: I had to use a lot of self discipline. I was very
proud of the way the album turned out. I worked long and
hard on it for many months to transfer arrangements from
piano to guitar and flute. The majority of the harmonies
are played on the guitar, so I spent a long time making
it viable for guitar. I worked many long hours in the
studio with guitar and computer, pro-tools, and a
combination of myself, John (Hackett), Roger King...
So, it was long and arduous, but very rewarding. I think
it's the cleanest, most perfect album I've ever
recorded. There's not an unwanted squeak or unwanted
breath that wasn't negotiated and left in for a sort of
flow. |
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WOG: And The Tokyo Tapes DVD?
SH: Yes. Well, that, for me, has been something the
company has been more involved with. That's a case of
alternative formatting and updating.
There is another project I've been working on, which
I've forgotten to mention. There is a box set coming of
live material from all my own bands from the 70s, the
80s, and the 90s which we are currently getting ready
for release. We're working on the sleeve now, and we
hope to get that out very shortly.
WOG: Will this be available before Christmas?
SH: That's right. I'm very pleased with the way that has
come out. We've looked at a number of concerts for that.
What we've tried to do is preserve entire concerts. So,
you've got a New Castle City Hall, or you've got a
Hammersmith concert, or a Castral Saint Angelo in Rome.
So, entire concerts. |
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SELECTED
STEVE HACKETT PROJECTS
So, you've purchased all the Genesis albums featuring Steve, but you don't
know where to start with his solo catalog? Here are a few suggestions...
CLICK ON THE ALBUM ART TO BUY THEM OR HEAR SOUND CLIPS FROM EACH ALBUM!
 Steve
Hackett - The Unauthorizied Biography
A compilation of Steve's early works covering the
Virgin Records years of his career. Also features two new recordings
including "Don't Fall Away" featuring Brian May of Queen! If you want one
retrospective covering the early solo works of Steve Hackett is one is
definitely it!
 Steve
Hackett - Live 70s, 80s, 90s (3-CD Box Set)
Three CD anthology spanning the decades of Hackett's live legacy with three
complete concerts from the 70s, 80s, and 90s! An amazing treasure trove of
previously unreleased live material featuring the various incarnations of
Hackett's band line-up in a stunning set of rarely heard classics from the
periods from which they came! Highly recommended!
Steve Hackett - Guitar Noir
 To this day, this
rock project by Steve is one of my absolute favorites. A hint of
commercialism and a plethora of influences and classic Hackett rock stylings make
this an unforgettable experience. Highly recommended!
For more reviews of
Steve's solo catalog click
here.
You'll find more than 20 years worth of Hackett album reviews and links to
buy them! |
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WOG: How many discs will that be?
SH: That will be a three album box set.
WOG: Your First project, The Quiet World - The Road,
has been reissued on compact disc a number of times in
Europe and Asia. What are your thoughts on the album,
and why don't you offer it on your website?
SH: Funny enough, just about every note on the
guitar and on the harmonica that I played was actually
audible! I thought that I would play it and think how
sloppy the playing was, but I was actually quite
impressed with the timing of it. It makes me realize, in
fact, whether you like the music or not, the band was
actually very well rehearsed by the time that it went
into the recording studio. So, I'm pleased with how
cohesive it seems. On the other hand, it is very much an
early effort, and not having really been involved with
the writing of most of it... Or officially with any of
it, I'm not sure whether I would say to somebody,
"Go out and spend your money on it."
I know the term completists has been used a lot. For completists, they may find it of interest. On the other
hand, I think with most sort of stuff of that era, as
soon as you've heard it, you realize why one had to move
on. At the time, joining that band had a big plus for
me, which was that they had a recording contract and I
was going to get some experience in a professional
recording studio. From my point of view, that was a big
leap forward. The music, in some ways, was incidental.
They were further up the ladder, and I needed to get on
that ladder. It was the first rung on that ladder which
I think, in the early stages, you've got to be prepared
to play that game. Otherwise, I think you'll just end up
playing guitar in your bedroom for the rest of your
life. I did what was necessary to move ahead.
Genesis, of course, was different. Genesis was a band
that, as far as I was concerned, showed promise. I felt
like I could add something to it. I felt I could make it
stronger. I was hired from a full creative capacity from
the word go. I was in love with the early Genesis
stuff... very much. |
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Special
thanks to Steve Hackett, Billy Budis, and Camino Records for
this interview. For more on Steve Hackett, check out
his
official
website. This interview
© 2001-2007 Dave Negrin and may not be reprinted in whole
or in part without permission.
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Here
To Return To The Interview Index.
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