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“I was trying to write a rock album with the kind of outlook I associate with the orchestral perspectives used in cinema,” explains former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett on the sweeping majesty on his latest solo album, Wolflight. The album was released to world wide acclaim back in March and some of which will be performed on tour across the UK and Europe during the Autumn, including gigs at The Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and The Lowry in Salford.
“I’m particularly looking forward to playing The Philharmonic Hall again and, also, The Lowry. I’ve got a great many friends in those areas and of course both have a terrific musical and cultural history. For instance, with regards to Liverpool, visiting the Slave museum was a part of the research for Black Thunder on Wolflight, as it deals with the Civil Rights movement under Martin Luther King. It’s also pretty impossible not to be affected by the impact Liverpool has made on music over the years, and not only The Beatles but other great bands too. As for The Lowry, it’s a venue I’ve played a number of times before and it is one I always look forward to playing.”
“To do an album that sounds big was pretty much uppermost in my mind from the outset, because I wanted it to breathe and also wanted to combine that space with the power of Rock. On top of this there is the World Music aspect, which is featured through stories that emanate from across Europe. I think it is the first project I’ve done that sounds and feels quite like this and I’ve been trying to make this kind of album for a very long time. Wolflight is something I’m very proud of and I think its sound and size has a very immersive quality. I can’t wait to hear a live audience’s reaction to the new material we’ll be performing.”
This is Hackett’s first album since Shrouded Horizon was released in 2011 but, despite the hiatus, he has been far from lazy. “I’ve been involved in some Genesis re-records over the past few years or so, been on tour with a Genesis revisited tour and worked with the late, great Chris Squire in forming a band called Squackett. So, between Shrouded Horizon and Wolf Light I’ve been really busy doing other stuff as well as writing and composing and producing the new material.”
If Wolflight is Hackett’s first solo project in 6 years, 2015 also marks the 40th anniversary of his debut solo album, Voyage of the Acolyte, and the guitarist acknowledges that he has come some way musically in the intervening years. “It’s been a long journey and the From Acolyte to Wolflight tour is going to reflect that. It’ll be a show of two halves, comprising of solo stuff first then Genesis material going back even further than 40 years and including songs I’ve not done for a very long time. Among them will be the likes of Cinema Show, Can Utility and the Coast Liners, Get ‘em Out by Friday and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and I’m really looking forward to this tour as it mixes the solo stuff with the very early Genesis material. We’ll be doing the gig in Surround Sound this time out too, so some of the pieces will never have been heard in quite this way before, certainly not in a live setting which is pretty exciting.”
Chris Squire, founder member of progressive rock icons Yes and the only member of the group to feature on every studio album, passed away just over a month after revealing that he was suffering from a rare form of leukaemia, on June 27 this year. Squire also appears on Wolflight, playing Bass on Love Song to a Vampire. “Chris and I were influenced by a lot of the same things musically, I think. He also had a great love of classical music and had been a choir boy, which you can hear through some of the Yes vocals. He loved orchestras and so with his work everybody was invited to the party. With Fish out of Water, Chris’ first solo album, for example, he had the organ of St. Paul’s cathedral being played throughout Hold Your Hand and he always held the notion, as do I, of Rock’s shoulders being broad enough to create something different.”
Hackett has developed a pretty impressive fan base over the years. When he last performed at The Liverpool Philharmonic Hall in 2013, for instance, it was an evening famously described by one critic as being ‘beyond extraordinary’ in the way ‘the crowd seemed to not breathe for the entirety of the opening song’ and he admits his audiences do have a part to play in making what are already huge gigs even bigger. “That was a really nice thing to say and, when performing, I am aware of the audience’s enthusiasm for what’s being played; after all it’s why we do it,” he laughed. “Quite how deeply people are affected at the time is pretty difficult to quantify though because, when you’re playing live, there’s an aspect of concentration that’s required so as to be able to perform, but I really enjoy being responsible for everyone enjoying their night out.”
So having played around the world, in front of hundreds of thousands of people and having recorded a plethora of albums both solo and with one of the most iconic bands in Rock history, would Steve Hackett like to be starting out in the music business today? “You know, I’m not sure I would. There are so many pressures to be instantly successful for new acts now. That said though, if anybody wants to play the kind of music they want to and not worry too much about being incredibly popular at the outset they may just end up like a band like Muse who are just incredible. It takes time to build acceptance and sometimes that might be a lifelong quest so you really do need to put aside any notions of cracking it by the time you’ve reached 21. Because Stevie Wonder was singing and writing musically like he was 44 by the time he was 12, doesn’t happen to for everybody.”
“You need to take your time building a track record and a consistent catalogue of material so you can develop your own style and not capitulate to commercial demands; to my mind doing so is instant artistic death. When some executive says that you should be performing and releasing records that sound like such-and-such, listen to another executive because you really should be creating music and writing lyrics that appeal to you first because you are the one who really has to feel it. If somebody else likes it brilliant but, if not, just keep on trying and have patience. So many people in the business want instant returns and are unprepared to allow bands and artists time to develop their own style, which is such a shame.”
As well as the tour and new album, there is a 14 Disc box set of re-mastered and previously unseen material from the period covering 1975 to 1983 set for release. What has brought about the Premonitions project? “Mark Powell first of all started talking me into it, then EMI into it then Universal got involved so by the time it all coalesced, several albums had been remixed in 5:1 sound along with 3 lives shows that hadn’t been released in their entirety before. It’s quite a collection and I’m pretty thrilled with the way it all looks and sounds and I think it is pretty definitive of those early years.”
For Show Tickets & Tour Information: http://www.hackettsongs.com/tour.html