On Facebook, X and Instagram… You asked… and he answered.
In this Q&A, Billy Sherwood answers questions from YESfans ahead of The Classic Tales of YES Tour 2024 – tickets available now!
#askYES: Billy Sherwood
Lennon Ashton:
Hey Billy! I was wondering if you have a favorite YES song to play on the bass and which one you find to be the greatest challenge.
Billy:
“On The Silent Wings Of Freedom“. We played an edited version of the song on a recent YES tour and it was always so much fun to play. The composition of the bass part was always something I loved. It’s such a soaring and melodic bass line, it moves around the neck of the bass in such an interesting way. There are many great bass parts within the “YES/Squire” legacy but for me personally… “Silent Wings” stands apart from all the rest. The other factor is the sound, I always loved Chris’s sense of exploration, when it came to a bass sound. That track and more songs on that same record, “Tormato“, have some of my all time favorite “Squire” bass sounds. Chris and I would speak about it a lot, mostly me asking questions like, “What device did you use on this or that?“.
James Muir:
You are currently one of my top influences as a bass player, balancing tightness in the band with a significant level of dynamic and interesting choices of tone. I want to ask how your bass playing for YES developed… Did you come into the band playing in a way that continues your own style progression, or did you at all alter the way you play to suit YES?
I notice that you have a very different way of picking, and take solo spots in songs that are completely new, so I’m curious to know a bit more about your thought process as the bass player in YES.
Thank you all, and please bring this great lineup to Australia!
Billy:
Thank you for the kind words James. I wish you the best on your bass journey!! In answer to the question…
I started playing bass when I was 16, I’d play along to YES records everyday/night. For me it was a great experience, because right out of the gate I began to understand how a bass could have it’s own “voice” within a band. As I began playing “professionally”, so to speak, I brought that line of thinking into the songs we’d play. I’d always try to compose the bass parts in a manner that were as interesting as possible and worked best for the song. This approach was due to Squire and his style. You could say… it charted the course for me, push my own boundaries and look for interesting ways to go about being a bass player. There are many other influences, great bass players I admire, Jaco Pastorious, Greg Lake, John Wetton, Tony Levin, Ray Schulman, Colin Moulding, Sting, Ross Valory, Nathan East, Lee Sklar… and many more. All of those guys found their own voice within the music, they play a huge role in creating the overall “vibe”, if you will, for whatever songs they are playing. This is what I wanted to do. It just so happens that “YES” was my favorite band and so that’s what I focused on the most in my youth, getting my chops together, playing along to records. I guess you can say… “I’ve always played this way“.
Re: Picking style… The “angle of attack” on the string is key, depending on what type of part is being played. I’ll hold the pick stronger, so it’s a firm to attack the string with force. “Roundabout” for instance, it’s such an articulate part and I dare say a bit tricky, I find myself needing that “pressure”, holding the pick. On the other hand a more gentle piece of music, “Turn Of The Century“, I find myself with the pick almost slipping out of my fingers, this makes it so the gentle “strike” of the string happens. I’d say there’s the extremes, as far as picking goes. I go back and forth between those two extremes all night on stage with YES.
Brauer:
I’m a young fan and aspiring bassist who saw you guys in Greenboro back in October and I wanted to say the show was amazing!
Do you have any advice or tricks to singing while you’re while playing guitar/bass? I can do it sometimes while playing guitar but I find it very difficult, especially on bass, and I wondered if any of you had any tips. Thank you!
Billy:
Thanks Mr. Brauer, glad you enjoyed the show!! As for as playing and singing at the same time goes…
I’ve been doing it a long time now and ultimately it’s become second nature. I do however have an approach to putting the two very different worlds of playing and singing together. At the YES rehearsals, I’ll just be playing bass for the first few days, to get a grip on the bass stuff. Then I’ll add the singing, after that it just sort of goes into auto-pilot and “happens” for the lack of a better word. A lot of my bass hero’s were also great singers. I wanted to do that type of thing.
Donald Thompson:
What modern artists (if any) inspire you, and why?
Billy:
Hi Donald…
I tend to think in terms of “music” and not so much when it was recorded. Modern, Older etc… It’s all music and so hard to chose a favorite, as there are so many. At present I’ve been listening to Peter Gabriel’s “I/O” and loving it, sounds modern, in the sense of pushing boundaries. Creativity in music inspires me to want to create music.
Peter Sedge:
This maybe rather a basic question, but how long does it take to set up and be ready for a sound check? Looking forward to seeing you all in Southend!
Billy:
Hi Peter…
The amazing crew we have work very hard, they are all gifted in what they do and are part of the YES family. I don’t know the exact amount of time spent, I just know the stage is always “plug and play” by the time we arrive to do our sound check. It’s a lot of work for the guys and we greatly appreciate what they do, so we can do what we do.
@the_media_man:
What is your favorite song to perform live?
Billy:
Hello Media Man….
For me, it was “Silent Wings“. Perhaps it will resurface on a future tour, I’m honored to have played it on a tour and can only hope it happens again.
Stuart Chambers:
When the album Mirror to the Sky was finished, did the band get the same vibe that YES had elevated to the next level?
Billy:
I think we took a step forward in a good way. It was very well received by the YES fans and even some nay sayers.
When making a YES record you can’t help but to be standing in the shadows of what’s been before. Great records were recorded. That said… you do your best to push forward with integrity and grace, the rest is what it is. I’m proud of the record, just as I am proud of any YES record I was involved with, which are many at this point, if you include all the live records. Each has a place in the grande scheme of things, each has it’s own destiny within the YES legacy of music. The amazing thing to me and the most inspiring is that YES is pushing into the future. I’m honored to be a part of the journey and have no plans of stopping. Music is the driving force and may the force be with you… always.
@DorukuNoDoruku:
Do you have a single YES-album that has a special place in your heart?
🙂 Once more congrats on the Mirror to The Sky album by the way, I enjoyed it a lot!
Billy:
Hi DorukuNoDoruku…
The YES “Union” record, while controversial, holds a very special place in my heart. It houses the first ever song I wrote with Chris Squire, that being, “The More We Live – Let Go“. Chris and I wrote many songs together over the decades but that particular song remains the most significant to me, hopefully one day it will be played live at a YESshow.
Jeff Cooper:
Do you write your new material by getting together collectively in the same room or studio … or because of locations is everything done via file sharing these days? How do you feel about each approach and what works best for YES in 2023-2024 etc?
Billy:
Hiya Jeff….
Geography plays a big role in how we go about the writing. File sharing is something I’ve grown well accustomed to. We will send ideas around, pieces of music etc… and Steve manages to formulate these ideas into an arrangement and off we go. There’s a sense of trust in what each guy does, which makes everything just flow.
Simon Malia:
How do you know when a song you’re working on is finished?
Billy:
Hello Simon…
It’s hard to say, except that you know it when you know it. Of course with YES music the writing isn’t restricted into a format where time even matters. So the creativity can take off in directions you never imagined by this idea or that idea. Those are the determining factors as far as when it’s done. It’s a sense of knowing the beginning, middle and end. We all tend to think along those lines and so end up not so much looking at a stop watch, but rather feeling the moments and adjusting accordingly.
The CLASSIC TALES OF YES Tour 2024
Hot on the heels of their hugely successful ‘Classic Tales Of Yes’ American Tour, YES, are poised to hit the road in Europe and the UK once more between April and June 2024.
‘The Classic Tales Of Yes Tour’ will see YES mining their rich catalogue to deliver a career spanning set of classics, rarely played vintage cuts and new songs from 1970’s ‘Time and a Word’ right up to ‘Mirror To The Sky’, their 23rd album released last year, together with a special section celebrating the 50th anniversary of their momentous ‘Tales From Topographic Oceans’ opus.
Every show will feature a Roger Dean gallery in the venue’s foyer area. Dean’s masterful artwork of striking other-worldly landscapes has graced classic album covers and posters. Roger is planning to be at each show on the tour, to meet with fans.
2024 Tour Dates:
Date
Venue
Tickets
Tuesday 30 April, 2024
Sagres Campo Pequeno
Lisbon, Portugal
Show rescheduled from 2023, all tickets remain valid.
Lisbon, Portugal
Show rescheduled from 2023, all tickets remain valid.
Zurich, Switzerland
Show rescheduled from 2023, all tickets remain valid.
Arnheim, Netherlands
Show rescheduled from 2023, all tickets remain valid.
Mönchengladbach, Germany
Show rescheduled from 2023, all tickets remain valid.
Paris, France
Show rescheduled from 2023, all tickets remain valid.
Manchester
Show rescheduled from 2023, all tickets remain valid.
Glasgow
Show rescheduled from 2023, all tickets remain valid.
Liverpool
Show rescheduled from 2023, all tickets remain valid.
Southend
Show rescheduled from 2023, all tickets remain valid.
Birmingham
Show rescheduled from 2023, all tickets remain valid.
Gateshead
Show rescheduled from 2023, all tickets remain valid.
VIP Tour Package
- Limited Edition Roger Dean Print
- Exclusive YES Coaster Set
- Commemorative Tour Laminate
- Limited Availability
VIP Tour Package can be purchased as an upgrade from On Location Live.
Please note the VIP Tour Package does not include a concert ticket. If you do not purchase a concert ticket in addition to this upgrade, you will not be admitted to the event.
