Your recent remixes of King Crimson, Caravan, Jethro Tull and others have been a great way to get back into old classics and hear them with a new freshness. Listening to KC’s ‘Islands’ again with the clarity it deserved was a great moment for me. Are there any plans for further remixes in 2014?
You know about the Yes catalogue?
Is that the whole thing?
Well, Close To The Edge is coming out in October in a new stereo and new surround mix. There’s going to be another album in early 2014… I can’t tell you which at the moment. I’ve done it, but I’m not allowed to tell you [laughs]. Basically, the idea is to do most of the classic Yes albums. For most people, that was the 70s records. So we’re going to do I think all of the 70s records, and that’s obviously a big project if you are a fan of progressive music, or whatever you want to call it. Those bands certainly never called themselves progressive rock bands, but people do call them progressive rock bands nowadays. I like to acknowledge that.
Whatever your taste, if you like this kind of music then you have to consider the Yes catalogue as one of the most important of that whole genre, along with the [King] Crimson catalogue. So it’s exciting to get involved in that, and I’m looking forward to going through as much of that catalogue as possible.
Listening to The Raven, there is almost a fusiony influence to it. Any plans of delving into the back catalogues of 70s fusion records?
I think what you have to think about with surround sound is, realistically, what is there a market for? Unfortunately, there’s not a market for everything.
One of the things about so-called progressive music or the classic 70s album rock is that a lot of people that like that kind of music, tend to be quite interested in high-end audio and surround sound. I’m not sure that’s true of other genres: for example, I don’t think it would be a very good idea to start remixing rap albums in surround sound. Because I don’t believe the people that listen to rap music are that interested in high-end audio and that kind of immersive experience. But it’s certainly something that people who listen to 70s rock music are very interested in – or some of them are, anyway.
Fusion? There are some records I think…I would love to do Bitches’ Brew [Miles Davis] in 5.1, I’d love to do some of the early Mahavishnu Orchestra in 5.1. I think there would be a market for them. But [if] you get into more obscure territory, you’re talking literally about a handful of people that are really interested. So you have to take those things into account.
