{"id":47500,"date":"2007-09-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/billy-sherwood-the-daily-vault-interview-2007\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:57:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:57:43","slug":"billy-sherwood-the-daily-vault-interview-2007","status":"publish","type":"feature","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/billy-sherwood-the-daily-vault-interview-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Sherwood: The Daily Vault Interview (2007)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><i><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" width=\"115\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/billysherwood_150.jpg\" title=\"billysherwood_150\" alt=\"billysherwood_150\" \/><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Progressive rock fans \u2013 and perhaps especially Yes fans &#8212; are a breed apart.\u00a0 Deeply devoted and often just as deeply opinionated, they have a tendency to put the fan in \u201cfanatic.\u201d\u00a0 But what happens when you put two lifelong Yes fans on the phone, one a music writer and the other a longtime prog musician and &#8212; to his own lasting amazement and pride &#8212; former member of Yes? <\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>The topic at hand was the new album by <\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.circahq.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Circa<\/i><\/a><i>, a fresh conglomeration of Yes associates past and present that includes Billy Sherwood on bass and vocals, Tony Kaye on keyboards, Alan White on drums and Jimmy Haun on guitars.\u00a0 The group<b> <\/b>sprang from a collaboration between interviewee Sherwood &#8212; multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, producer and longtime Yes collaborator \u2013 and founding\u00a0member of Yes Kaye.\u00a0 And while we covered a lot of ground related to Circa, Billy also took the time to share stories from his time in Yes, delve into the mechanics of record-making in the digital age, and release his inner prog fan long enough to wonder at the places his musical path has taken him.\u00a0 A good time was had by all! <\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><br \/><\/i><b>DAILY VAULT:\u00a0 <b>There\u2019s sort of an obvious question here to start off with.\u00a0 With all four members of Circa having played on Yes albums at one time or another, three of you having been in the band, and Tony Kaye having been a founding member, it seems impossible to talk about Circa without talking about Yes, too.\u00a0 And my sense is that you\u2019re all fine with that, that you really welcome people drawing (pardon the pun) parallels between Circa and Yes.<\/b> <\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>BILLY SHERWOOD<\/b>:\u00a0 Well, as you said we all lived in that band for years, and so it\u2019s natural that when you get this mix of people together, it\u2019s going to generate that kind of music.\u00a0 It\u2019s not meant to be Yes, it\u2019s meant to be Circa, but obviously the music we make together has a very Yes flavor.\u00a0 And that\u2019s fine with us, because that\u2019s who we are and where we\u2019ve been and it\u2019s in all of our souls to make this kind of music.<\/p>\n<p><b><br \/>Yes fans have been hoping to hear some new music from the band since 2002, and I think most of them are pretty excited to hear Circa. <\/b><\/p>\n<p>So far it\u2019s been very well received, and the die-hard Yes fans have accepted it and dig it and it\u2019s our goal to remain this particular lineup and carry on and make records and hopefully tour and just continue on, pushing down that musical road.<\/p>\n<p><b><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.circahq.com\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/circa_st_150.jpg\" title=\"circa_st_150\" alt=\"circa_st_150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Getting into the origins of the group a little more, you and Jimmy Haun had played together off and on for a long time, and you knew Alan White and Tony Kaye from your time working with Yes.\u00a0 But how did this particular lineup and set of songs come together? <\/p>\n<p><\/b><\/p>\n<p>I had just completed <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Back-Against-Wall-Various-Artists\/dp\/B000AE8GCA\/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1\/104-5066331-1194318?ie=UTF8&#038;s=music&#038;qid=1190050443&#038;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\">Back Against The Wall<\/a><\/i>, which was a remake of [Pink Floyd\u2019s] <i>The Wall<\/i> that I did with a bunch of great \u201cprog icon\u201d guys, and Tony was among them, as was Alan.\u00a0 So at some point I said to Tony, because he lives near me, \u201cHey, we\u2019re local and we\u2019re friends, maybe we should get together and make some music.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>Through that process we started working up this material, and after awhile I said maybe we should talk to Alan and see if he wants to jump in and play on some of this stuff, because it sounds like something he\u2019d be able to enhance and make his own and make it even better.\u00a0 So we gave Alan a buzz, he came down and played on the stuff, and all of a sudden it started sounding like more of a band thing than a project.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>Even though I play a lot of instruments, on this project I just wanted to play bass and sing.\u00a0 So we needed a guitar player.\u00a0 Jimmy had been a friend of all of ours for ages and he\u2019s a dear friend of mine, plus he\u2019s a great player and I knew he would fit like a glove, so I called him and that\u2019s how we put it all together.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><b><br \/>Speaking of your bass playing, it definitely feels like you were focusing on that in this lineup.\u00a0 Your approach on \u201cCut The Ties\u201d in particular struck me as very evocative of <i>Fragil<\/i>e-era Chris Squire playing, very big and aggressive and melodic. \u00a0Just curious &#8212; were you just kind of playing what felt right there or were you thinking wow, Chris would really get into this? <\/b><\/p>\n<p>Well, Chris has been a huge influence on my bass playing, and when I started I used to play along to Yes records to learn how to play.\u00a0 As I evolved as a player I took on other influences like Jaco [Pastorius] and various other bass players.\u00a0 But Chris\u2019 influence on me was big, playing with a pick and trying to get that kind of aggressive tone.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t like I sat in the studio and thought \u201cThis is what Chris would do,\u201d I just did my thing, which is highly influenced by that kind of playing.\u00a0\u00a0 It fits in that style of music, and when you do it in that style of music, it tends to sound like that kind of \u201cSquire-y\u201d tone and approach.\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t mind the comparison at all because Chris is a great bass player and I\u2019m happy to be compared to someone who plays that well!<\/p>\n<p>I guess the thing that starts making it sound less like a standard bass and more like kind of a Squire or Geddy Lee approach is when the bass is moving around at a hundred miles an hour and there\u2019s eight million notes and everything.\u00a0 That\u2019s kind of breaking the mold of the traditional session bass player! [laughter] So it starts immediately fitting into a different kind of model and that\u2019s a model I\u2019m very comfortable working with.<\/p>\n<p><b>I know you guys played a live show in <place><\/place>Southern California recently.\u00a0 With Yes on hiatus, this seems like a great time to get out and play.\u00a0 Are you guys working on putting some more shows together? <\/b><\/p>\n<p>We played the Coach House in <city><\/city><place><\/place>San Juan Capistrano last month and filmed it and recorded it and I\u2019m actually working on getting the mixing together now and talking to a few different people about trying to get the band booked.\u00a0 We would love nothing more than to play a bunch of shows.\u00a0 Hopefully there\u2019s an agent out there who sees the same vision we do and is willing to help us along.\u00a0 At the moment, there\u2019s nothing scheduled, but we\u2019re pursuing a lot of different avenues, looking to plug someone in who can help us get it to the next level.\u00a0 So, stay tuned.<\/p>\n<p><b><br \/>Will do. I caught <\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=O4d6M7Yh1uY\" target=\"_blank\"><b>the cell phone video that\u2019s up on YouTube<\/b><\/a><b>\u00a0of you guys at that show, and the sound is poor, but you can tell the crowd\u2019s having a great time and I thought I caught snippets of \u201cRoundabout\u201d and \u201cClose To The Edge.\u201d\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n<p>Yeah! We captured that show on 11 cameras, three of which were high-definition cameras, and the raw footage looks amazing to me.\u00a0 I\u2019m really picky and personally not very big on filmed concerts, but what I saw was really impressive, so I\u2019m pretty excited about trying to get this live DVD done.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p><b><\/p>\n<p><b>That sounds great.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s early, but do you have any sort of timeline on that project yet? <\/b><\/p>\n<p><\/b><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m working on it right now. It\u2019s an arduous task to mix a live show because you\u2019ve got microphones everywhere and to try to get some clarity out of the mix is a daunting task. It\u2019s not going to happen overnight. I would imagine in a couple of months\u2019 time I might have something together, but it\u2019s going to take awhile. That\u2019ll be the next Circa release for sure, a live DVD, and we\u2019re talking about maybe making it a triple-disc set, one disc being the Circa material, the second being the Yes medley, and the third being bonus footage, background goofing-around kind of stuff.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.circahq.com\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"200\" width=\"277\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/circa_277.jpg\" title=\"circa_277\" alt=\"circa_277\" \/><\/a><br \/>\u00a0<\/b><i>Billy Sherwood, Jimmy Haun, Alan White, Tony Kaye<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b><br \/>On the Circa album, I really got into \u201cBrotherhood of Man\u201d in particular, which to me comes closer to the feel of a Classic Yes epic than anything the band itself has done since probably <i>Going For The One<\/i>.\u00a0 Were you guys aiming to create a new epic, or was it just one of those songs that kept stretching out and going new directions? <\/b><\/p>\n<p>Tony Kaye was very influential in pushing that song in that direction and wanting a big, epic-y piece.\u00a0 It\u2019s one thing to say, \u201cLet\u2019s write something long,\u201d and it\u2019s another to be ten minutes down the pipe and going \u201cUm, is this any good\u2026 or is this just long?\u201d\u00a0 [laughter]\u00a0 I was actually quite happy with the way that track came out.\u00a0 Tony Kaye\u2019s influence on the whole production really benefited the making of this record in a big way, and he had a big role in getting that song into that kind of shape.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><b><br \/><\/b><b>I see from the liner notes that Trevor Rabin got a co-writing credit with the band on a couple of tracks [\u201cDon\u2019t Let Go\u201d and \u201cLook Inside\u201d].\u00a0 I\u2019m assuming he\u2019s heard the finished product by now.\u00a0 What was his reaction? <\/b><\/p>\n<p>He dug it!\u00a0 After the <i>Talk<\/i> tour in 1995 I said to him, hey, we should write some tunes.\u00a0 We had a great time hanging out on the road on that tour, so it just kind of evolved.\u00a0 He gave me a DAT tape with five musical ideas on it with no melody and lyric, and I took it and wrote lyrics and melody over the top, and we both dug what we had come up with, and said we were going to do something with it, but time and scheduling got in the way and it never happened.\u00a0 So then flash forward to about a year and a half ago or so, and I\u2019m looking at that material again and saying \u201cMan, this is really cool, let me mess around with this.\u201d\u00a0 And so I started sketching it out and then presented a couple of those ideas to Tony and said \u201cWhat do you think about this?\u201d and \u201cMaybe we can develop it for this project.\u201d\u00a0 He really dug what he heard and we took it, reshaped it, and turned it into a Circa-sounding thing.\u00a0 But you still hear Rabin\u2019s stamp [on those two tracks] big-time.<\/p>\n<p><b><br \/><\/b><b>Here\u2019s a question that, as a Yes fan myself, I\u2019ve got to ask.\u00a0 You grew up a Yes fan and ended up first playing with and then producing and finally joining the band.\u00a0 I\u2019ve read about how you and Jimmy got together as teenagers and played Yes songs in the back room for many, many years.\u00a0 Stepping back from who you are today for a minute and imagining yourself as that teenaged Yes fan again, how amazing has this path you\u2019ve taken been? <\/b><\/p>\n<p>During the gig we just did Jimmy and I were tripping, because it was like, God, we did this when we were fourteen and we used to pretend that was Alan White behind the drums &#8212; and now it is!\u00a0 [laughter]\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>It trips me out to think about it.\u00a0 There\u2019s a certain amount of fate involved in my life that I used to wonder about that I don\u2019t even question any more, I just wake up and go with it.\u00a0 My time in Yes is just one of those things.\u00a0 For me, it was an amazing thing to grow up loving a band that much and ending up working with them and then even more amazing to end up joining and having a say and all that kind of stuff.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>It was a mind-blower on many levels\u00a0&#8212; musically, business-wise, personally.\u00a0 I mean, that was my dream and I achieved it, you know?\u00a0 It\u2019s an amazing thing and I wouldn\u2019t trade any of that for the world, even though part of it was magical and exciting and fun, and then there was part that was really rough and tumble and all about business and sometimes in your face, too.\u00a0 But I\u2019m a big boy and I dealt with both sides and just kind of put it in context.<\/p>\n<p>All these years later, I wouldn\u2019t change it for the world, I\u2019m very proud of having been a part of Yes and been able to help it along.\u00a0 A lot of people when I joined were asking \u201cHow did he get in there?\u00a0 What a lucky guy, overnight he just joined Yes!\u201d\u00a0 They didn\u2019t realize the history that led up to that point.\u00a0 I\u2019d been involved with those guys since about 1990 behind the scenes.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>There was an evolution; once I met them, and knew them and was working with them, the magic part of \u201cOh my God, I\u2019ve finally met these guys!\u201d starts to go away, and you just begin having regular relationships and you realize these are just people with families.\u00a0 And then you meet their families, and you become part of the family.\u00a0 It was a magical thing.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>I have other dreams, I\u2019d love to play with Genesis and Pink Floyd, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to happen in the same way that it did with Yes!\u00a0 And the good news is, out of all the bands that I could have joined, Yes was my number one all-time favorite.\u00a0 So I can\u2019t really complain.\u00a0 [laughter]<\/p>\n<p><b>Well, I get the sense the internal politics in Pink Floyd put Yes\u2019 to shame! <\/b><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, probably!\u00a0 I mean, there\u2019s probably a lot more money on the line with Pink Floyd.\u00a0 It can get intense, but you know, it comes with the territory, and when I was in the thick of it, as rough as it might have been sometimes, you couldn\u2019t really match the feeling of being able to play \u201cAwaken\u201d on stage with the band.\u00a0 And I got to play it so many times that it really sunk in just how cool it was.<b><\/b><b> <\/p>\n<p><b><br \/>That story made me remember when I picked up <i>Yesyears<\/i>, the 1991 boxed set, and saw\u00a0that last song on there, \u201cLove Conquers All,\u201d and\u00a0looked at the credits and\u00a0said to myself \u201cWho\u2019s this Billy Sherwood guy, and why&#8217;s he writing songs with Chris Squire?\u201d <\/b><\/p>\n<p><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Exactly!\u00a0 [laughter]\u00a0 It took many years for people to figure out the history and how it evolved.\u00a0 Yes is a very precious thing to the fans \u2013 the super-fans \u2013 and I know, because I\u2019m part of that guild!\u00a0 And people wanted to know \u201cWho\u2019s this stranger in Yes?\u201d\u00a0 But after all this time, I think the people who may have been skeptics have realized what I did and that my participation, good, bad or indifferent, at least continued to propel the band through the late 90s.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p><b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><b><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/yes_years.jpg\" title=\"yes_years\" style=\"width: 150px; height: 150px\" alt=\"yes_years\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/yes_keys2.jpg\" title=\"yes_keys2\" style=\"width: 150px; height: 150px\" alt=\"yes_keys2\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/yes_open.jpg\" title=\"yes_open\" style=\"width: 150px; height: 150px\" alt=\"yes_open\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/yes_theladder.jpg\" title=\"yes_theladder\" style=\"width: 150px; height: 150px\" alt=\"yes_theladder\" \/><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><b><b>Absolutely.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t seen Yes live in almost twenty years when I caught a couple of those shows on the <i>Open Your Eyes<\/i> and <i>Ladder<\/i> tours, and it was a different configuration and a different chemistry, but it was still Yes and I loved it. <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">I thought it was really, really good and the band was playing great.\u00a0 It was my goal when I joined the band to get Yes back on the radar, because it was fading out, and I really didn\u2019t want to see that happen to my favorite band.\u00a0 At the time I joined, Rick [Wakeman] had just quit, the <i>Keys To Ascension<\/i> cycle was done because there was no tour, and the band was splintering off and heading into the abyss.\u00a0 And for whatever reason, I just decided \u201cI can\u2019t watch this happen, I\u2019ve got to try to motivate these cats to get back on the radar and get in the game.\u201d\u00a0 And I did.\u00a0 And then when I turned around and looked, it was like, \u201cWait a minute. Why am I getting such grief for this?\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>But over time that\u2019s evolved into acceptance and now a lot of people who might have been nay-sayers about my joining the band at the time seem like they\u2019ve realized things were different than they thought or assumed.\u00a0 It is what it is, it\u2019s all good.\u00a0 I just wanted to motivate the band to keep making music together &#8212; that was my main reason to be there.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p><b><\/b><b><br \/>It\u2019s definitely taken time for some fans to come around and understand that.\u00a0 But as one myself, I appreciate it. <\/b><\/p>\n<p>Right on.\u00a0 I\u2019m happy to have done it.\u00a0 You know, I tell this story a lot now because I\u2019ve gotten involved on a lot of forums online, just saying hello and interacting with a lot of people.\u00a0 I\u2019m a computer junkie myself, so I figured why not jump in?\u00a0 But when I first joined the band, I\u2019d call my wife from wherever I was on the road and she\u2019d say \u201cWhatever you do, don\u2019t read the forum!\u201d\u00a0 [laughter]\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>And I\u2019d say \u201cWhy?\u00a0 What the hell did <i>I<\/i> do?\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s turned around now because, as I said, I think with time people have gained a little more context.\u00a0 At the time, the context was kind of confusing because of the <i>Keys To Ascension<\/i> \u2013 <i>Open Your Eyes<\/i> thing.\u00a0 A lot of people thought that when I joined I somehow physically stopped <i>Keys To Ascension 2<\/i> from coming out.\u00a0 But the reality was, <i>Keys 2<\/i> was dead in the water, the label had told the band it wasn\u2019t going to release it, and there was nothing happening.\u00a0 So after we got <i>Open Your Eyes<\/i> rolling, once we got momentum, then the label that was NOT going to put out <i>Keys To Ascension 2<\/i> suddenly decided \u201cNow\u2019s the <i>perfect<\/i> time to put out <i>Keys To Ascension 2<\/i>!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And of course that created confusion because the Yes fans thought \u201cWell, hang on a minute, why do we have this version [the <i>Open Your Eyes<\/i> lineup with Sherwood and keyboardist Igor Khoroshev] and that version [the classic-era lineup with Rick Wakeman on keyboards]?\u00a0 We want that version and not this version!\u201d\u00a0 It was a crazy, crazy time, but again, I wouldn\u2019t change it for anything.\u00a0 I did what I did out of respect and honor for the band and I took a lot of hits for it, but I really don\u2019t care because I\u2019ve gotta do what I\u2019ve gotta do.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p><b>Didn\u2019t you co-produce that second <i>Keys To Ascension <\/i>album? <\/b><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, I produced the studio stuff with the guys, \u201cMind Drive,\u201d \u201cFoot Prints\u201d and all that stuff. <\/p>\n<p><b>Those are great songs!<\/b> <\/p>\n<p>Yeah!\u00a0 I worked very closely with the classic lineup in my studio &#8212; where we made <i>Open Your Eyes <\/i>shortly after that &#8212; and I watched it all dissolving.\u00a0 I\u2019ve explained this before, but it was actually happening right there in my studio, I was watching everyone fighting and the group disbanding.\u00a0 Had I not taken some initiative &#8212; I\u2019m not saying Yes would have been over, but who knows when and where it would have done something again, and I decided in my hearts of hearts that I couldn\u2019t just watch that happening right in front of me.\u00a0 I had to take some initiative.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what I did.<\/p>\n<p><b><br \/>Having spent quite a bit of time in the various Yes forums myself, I\u2019m curious to hear more of your take on them.\u00a0 There are a lot of, ah, characters out there&#8230; <\/b><\/p>\n<p>Well, it\u2019s interesting, because on a forum you\u2019re free to say whatever the hell you want and you don\u2019t really think there\u2019ll be any repercussions.\u00a0 And usually there aren\u2019t, but I\u2019ve noticed a change now that I\u2019m there.\u00a0 It\u2019s like my wife says: \u201cAre you sure you want to do that?\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like Dad\u2019s in the room and the kids can\u2019t play!\u201d\u00a0 [laughter]\u00a0 But whatever the consequences, I\u2019m goin\u2019 in, and I entered as Billy Sherwood, I\u2019m not going to hide behind a screen name.\u00a0 I am who I am and I don\u2019t fear that interaction.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>Everyone said the same thing when I joined &#8212; \u201cI hope you\u2019ve got a thick skin, because it\u2019s gonna be nasty in here!\u201d\u00a0 And I said \u201cYeah, I do, so don\u2019t worry about it,\u201d and the reality is, it\u2019s been a very pleasant experience.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had a lot of interesting conversations with a lot of cool people, and maybe it\u2019s because \u201cDad\u2019s in the room\u201d or whatever, but the anti-Billy rhetoric has kind of chilled out.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s just because these people who might have been nay-sayers are now in direct contact with me and realize \u201cOh, wait, he\u2019s a human being\u201d &#8212; I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 But I\u2019m quite happy to be involved with it, and as I said I\u2019m a computer junkie, so what the hell\u2026<\/p>\n<p><b><br \/><\/b><b>That\u2019s so true.\u00a0 I think people do have a tendency to shoot from the hip when they\u2019re just sitting at the screen writing and it doesn\u2019t seem like they\u2019re having a real conversation about real people \u2013 I know I\u2019ve done that! &#8212; but the minute they think the person they\u2019re writing about might actually read their words &#8212; ! <\/b><\/p>\n<p>Yeah!\u00a0 It changes things.\u00a0 And you know, I\u2019ve seen comments on the forums that make me think \u201cI should really engage with this guy,\u201d but then it\u2019s like \u201cNah, I don\u2019t want to bum him out and ruin his world, he\u2019s enjoying taking the piss out of me, so just let him.\u201d\u00a0 [laughter]\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>But when Circa developed, we decided to go about it in a different way and use the Internet as a tool, so it felt like the right time to jump in and make direct contact.\u00a0 I\u2019m on all kinds of forums now talking with all kinds of people, not to mention our 11,000 friends on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/circahq\" target=\"_blank\">MySpace<\/a>.\u00a0 And I\u2019m quite happy to answer anyone who takes the time to write to me.\u00a0 I\u2019m not Mick Jagger; I\u2019m not going to get eight million e-mails and not be able to respond!\u00a0 I can actually take the time and have conversations with people if they want to interact, and I\u2019m quite happy to do that.<\/p>\n<p><b><br \/>That\u2019s a great tool for any musician in this day and age, but progressive rock in general and Yes in particular have always had a very active Internet fan base. <\/b><\/p>\n<p>I think that\u2019s because the whole prog movement, which we\u2019re obviously a part of, all grew up with computers.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure a lot of us owned <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/TRS-80\" target=\"_blank\">a TRS-80 from Radio Shack<\/a> when it first came out, because it was the coolest thing to have!\u00a0 [laughter]\u00a0 Here in 2007, I don\u2019t know any prog rock fan or musician who isn\u2019t net-savvy &#8212; I\u2019ve never met one.\u00a0 And I think MySpace has helped a lot of prog rock fans and musicians find each other and interact.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/billysherwood_comment_150.jpg\" title=\"billysherwood_comment_150\" alt=\"billysherwood_comment_150\" \/>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"150\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/billysherwood_peace_150.jpg\" title=\"billysherwood_peace_150\" alt=\"billysherwood_peace_150\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><b>It looks like you and Circa are primarily marketing the album over the Net &#8212; how\u2019s that going? <\/b><\/p>\n<p>Very well!\u00a0 We\u2019ve sold over 1,000 records in our first month with zero promotion and zero press, with me just out there shaking hands and saying hello, digitally speaking.\u00a0 For us, it\u2019s really good and we\u2019re happy about the pace.\u00a0 We\u2019re not looking for some landslide of 100,000 records sold, we\u2019re quite happy to just have a slow steady momentum and just keep climbing that hill.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>People ask me, \u201cWhat are the advantages or disadvantages of the do-it-yourself approach?\u201d\u00a0 At the moment, with the business collapsing in on itself everywhere you turn, and record stores dying \u2013 I mean, when Tower Records on Sunset closes, that\u2019s the shot heard around the world!\u00a0 It means that all of a sudden retail is a different ballgame, and that being able to do this on the Internet is a very cool thing.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>One thing that really sticks in my mind, having done this so many times with record companies, is attention span.\u00a0 Usually your record comes out after you work on it for a year or a year and a half, you hand it over to the label and they say great, we\u2019re going to press this thing and put it out and we\u2019re going to work it.\u00a0 And you\u2019re excited and it comes out and you get about six to eight weeks in the spotlight.\u00a0 But if it doesn\u2019t catch fire in that timeframe, they move on to the next thing.\u00a0 Your record doesn\u2019t get any more attention, and you don\u2019t get it back for seven or eight years.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>In our situation with Circa, we own the record for the rest of our lives.\u00a0 I could work this album slowly over the next ten years, and it\u2019s as new tomorrow as it was yesterday to people who don\u2019t know about it.\u00a0 So there\u2019s more of a chance for the music to surface and find an audience over the long term, as opposed to just giving it to a label right now that\u2019s going to move ten thousand copies in a hurry, and then it\u2019s over.\u00a0 For us, that advantage far supersedes any deal that we could get in 2007.\u00a0 And frankly there really aren\u2019t that many deals out there for our kind of genre and our kind of music.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also a way for us to make the kind of music we want to make, because I don\u2019t think you could get this kind of music past a record company these days.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think they\u2019re interested and I don\u2019t think they think it would be worth investing their money in.\u00a0 And it may sound clich\u00e9, but I\u2019m not doing this for the money &#8212; I go in there and I make the music I like to make.\u00a0 And when I\u2019m done, we have an incredibly uncommercial record on our hands!\u00a0 [laughter]<\/p>\n<p>So anyone who says we\u2019re doing what we\u2019re doing for the money, I\u2019m like \u201cReally?!\u201d\u00a0 For us, long term, it\u2019s just beneficial to be able to hold onto our work, to own it and distribute it at our pace, which is the world\u2019s pace.\u00a0 If the world decides it wants 30,000 records, we can service that; that\u2019s not an issue.\u00a0 The existence of the record over the long term has really become the issue for us, and so, by not putting it out through traditional means, we end up doing ourselves a service.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s an example of what I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got people constantly on MySpace telling me \u201cWhere do I find <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/No-Comment-Billy-Sherwood\/dp\/B0000C84PH\/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2\/104-5066331-1194318?ie=UTF8&#038;s=music&#038;qid=1190089718&#038;sr=8-2\" target=\"_blank\">No Comment<\/a><\/i>, where do I find <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Big-Peace-Billy-Sherwood\/dp\/B00000ID31\/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1\/104-5066331-1194318?ie=UTF8&#038;s=music&#038;qid=1190089718&#038;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\">The Big Peace<\/a><\/i>?\u201d\u00a0 [Billy&#8217;s two solo albums to date.]\u00a0 Well, I really can\u2019t even answer them, because I don\u2019t know if the label pressed up enough to service anybody.\u00a0 And that\u2019s frustrating, because those are my solo records that a label said they\u2019d take and work for me, but if they are, why am I getting strangers telling me they can\u2019t find it?<\/p>\n<p>The good news is, people who want Circa, know <a href=\"http:\/\/www.circahq.com\" target=\"_blank\">where to get Circa<\/a>.\u00a0 As far as I\u2019m concerned, the Internet is the new frontier.\u00a0 We\u2019re not the first to do this, but I think we\u2019re among the first, and I definitely don\u2019t think we\u2019ll be the last.\u00a0 I think you\u2019re going to see a lot of artists switching tracks as the business side of the music world continues to evolve.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><i>[Many thanks to Billy Sherwood for spending some time talking with us, and also to his personal assistant, <br \/>Webmaster, MySpace page developer and e-mail answerer &#8212; Mr. Billy Sherwood!] <\/i><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><i><br \/><\/i>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Progressive rock fans \u2013 and perhaps especially Yes fans &#8212; are a breed apart.\u00a0 Deeply devoted and often just as deeply opinionated, they have a tendency to put the fan in \u201cfanatic.\u201d\u00a0 But what happens when you put two lifelong Yes fans on the phone, one a music writer and the other a longtime prog [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":50905,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"feature_type":[32],"class_list":["post-47500","feature","type-feature","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","feature_type-feature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/feature"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"feature_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature_type?post=47500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}