“Yes, we are going to be at the Beacon Theatre on April 3 and The Scottish Rite on April 7, 8 and 9. I’m looking forward to it because I always like playing at The Scottish Rite and The Beacon is a favorite because they both have great sound because they both act like an amplifier. So, when you thunder into the beginning of a number the building talks back to you which is great.”
Perhaps the only thing ringing truer than the above statement from the quintessential prog-rock guitarist and former member of Genesis Steve Hackett is the fact that after multiple decades the music of both are still capable of resonating and doing so emphatically.
Hackett released two albums during the pandemic and it is now time to take to the road and not only support them both but to revive the classic Genesis album “Seconds Out” as well. Recently he spoke about the tour, the NYC show, the three-night engagement in Collingswood, NJ, the albums, the popularity of “Seconds Out” and more.
“That’s right, “Seconds Out” which was originally recorded in ‘77 but of course it was really the whole stuff of the 1970’s prior to that which was the stuff that went on that album,” he began. “So, it’s stuff that spreads over six or seven years’ worth of material. I always liked the music that we did from that era; I must admit. There were many albums that had high points and odd enough, we are just mixing a live version of this from Manchester England; Roger King is downstairs working on the surround as we are talking upstairs and mixing the surround version of the album. The stereo sounds spectacular I have to say; he says modestly (laughs).”
“Surrender Of Silence” has been out for a while but I did two albums in the space of a year and that was great to do,” he continued as he elaborated on one of his two latest efforts. “I brought out two albums that were entirely different from each other. The first one was acoustic and the second is the heavier of the two but I had a great time doing both. I like both aspects, I like music that is compassionate and lyrical and melodic but I also like stuff that has the hooligan in it as well; hooligan drummers and wayward guitars. I love this stuff because music can embrace it all and it’s all part of what I love. I’ve got music from the Baroque era onwards and some dating back even further into the earliest music; it all has its appeal and it all influences. I think the past influences the future and it’s all part of it. You hear something like the most played FM track which they say is Led Zeppelin, “Stairway To Heaven” which of course has the sound of the recorders, it starts with early music and then goes electric and those wide dynamics are all part of what progressive is about or should be about I think. What’s funny is; I always liked the term fusion. I thought that was very apt and if there was another way of describing it I’d say collision; different schools of thought colliding which is what I have been all about. You have tracks like “The Devil’s Cathedral” from “Surrender Of Silence” and which is one that we do very well live which starts basically with pipe organ and soprano sax. So, you’ve got jazz and you’ve also got cathedral and it’s a heady mixture of the two and it’s a high point for me because it is different every night. When the guys play that, they have license to play anything they like within this kind of octatonic scale and it really does sound like the demons have arrived; it sounds wonderful and I really love that so much. We do a couple of new ones, we do that one and “Held In The Shadows” and they both work really well live and I have to say that I’m really proud of the solo set; even though it’s much shorter and of course you have the double album which is the much loved “Seconds Out” but for me it’s important to keep doing new stuff; it’s like leading a double life isn’t it? What are you currently doing? What were you doing? Are you going to be doing it live? Yes, we will deliver the whole album live as we have done so far in the UK, Scandinavia and France; which was hugely interesting playing France as we hadn’t really been able to leave the country in quite some time; that was great stuff.”
Never seemingly to have broken stride since leaving Genesis, Steve relishes the past and as he stated previously, feels it influences much of the present and future. So, to make sure he keeps his new music relevant to his audiences, most of whom recall “Seconds Out” being released on vinyl; how does he mix the combination of old and new and doesn’t that make for a lengthy show given the roughly 90-minute length of “Seconds Out”?
“Yes, I’m also doing a half an hour to 40 minutes of solo stuff as well. We get some more up to date things in there lest it seem like I’m just brushing off the antiques,” he said with a chuckle. “To your point, with the return to vinyl; my brother who lives in Sheffield here in the UK was saying that he went into HMV, a big record shop and it was all vinyl; everything was vinyl as if it was the second coming for the vinyl fetishists and it’s an extraordinary thing. When you have music that has silences in it the benefit of CD is laudable but if you like the sound of vinyl, when something is cranked up, you get the extra distortion and compression that goes with it and I understand why people like it. They have something weighty in their hands with increased artwork and the glory of all of that which is new to an audience that has been raised on downloads, CDs and all the rest.”
“That’s just the way it is but it has been a lot of fun doing that; it’s a challenge every night, it’s a memory test and all of those things but it’s what I do best. I love doing it, I love messing around with different guitars and it’s very interesting. There is a discovery every day when you’re playing the guitar,” he said as he changed gears a bit; “I can do this today but I couldn’t do this yesterday. Why is that? Because I made a new discovery by just plugging in a different guitar and just hearing it back and thinking, ah, this six-string now sounds like Jim Mcguinn’s 12-string; how is that possible? Well, it happens to be a guitar designed by Brian May that has got an outer face pick up facility and when I play that back through a device, that gives me an upper octave, suddenly it starts sounding extraordinarily like what I remember which was defining for 12-string guitarists. Genesis themselves mentioned when I joined them; can you make it sound like Jim Mcguinn? Can you do this? Can you do a cross between Jim Mcguinn and Joni Mitchell? I’d be thinking, well, yeah, all of those earlier sounds are possible and at the same time; can you make it sound like Andres Segovia and then can you make it sound like Jimi Hendrix only quieter? Can you do that? All of those things have been on the agenda so, guitarists become each other; don’t they? That’s really it, we’re all part of the same kind of network, the same cell or band of brothers in a way; we’re all wrestling with that thing. “The trial of harmony versus invention” as Vivaldi once said; try plugging it in from time to time and making it squeal, that’s good too (laughs).”
Happy to present new material, learn new techniques and celebrate his past successes are all part of this current “Agenda.” dubbed the “Seconds Out + More” tour and even now, years later; taking the stage with his traveling road show is always a pleasant nomadic experience.
“The Scottish Rite we’ve done lots of times and there are those who say it’s haunted and indeed it has that kind of, sort of strange atmosphere to it; I don’t know what it was designed for, maybe it was Free Masons or something but the building has got some strangeness yet it always welcomes you; we’ve had great times there and I’m looking forward to this tremendously. I can’t wait to be doing this and if we manage to do it and we keep everyone healthy and happy then it is like some semblance of the world returning to normal; at least for we itinerant travelers, circus performers and gypsies. We peddle the hair tonic and all that and we leave everyone happy and then we move on (laughs). We do make very good friends along the way which these days is not so easy because you’re travelling in a tour bubble. The way we were required to do it in the UK was; it was practically written in the contract that you don’t mix with the public apart from being on stage where they might be three feet away from you mind you but it has been great to be getting back to live gigs; it is what we live for. Rob Townsend our sax player wrote me saying he was “Looking forward to joining the circus again,” the rock ‘n’ roll circus will be coming to a town near you soon (laughs). Sometimes when you hit the stage and you know there is a level of excitement from people and there are those who have been starved of it for quite some time; yeah, sometimes it feels like the greatest moment for me.”
To discover more about Steve Hackett, The Beacon Theatre and The Scottish Rite Auditorium shows, please visit http://hackettsongs.com/.
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
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