“All my solo albums have given pleasure in particular ways because none of them have been a headache,” asserts a jovial Steve Howe with a wry laugh. “Nobody got cross, everyone got paid, I walked away with a smile and the label were happy. You don’t group albums. You get internal problems, disagreements, different directions and people walking out. They’re quite hellish. Solo albums are not allowed to be like that. Solo albums have to be under my control but all fun from the word go. You’re doing your own album and you can do what the hell you like.”
Such sentiments do, of course, merely hint at some of the indoctrinated chaos that has blighted Yes over many decades. Indeed, there rarely seems to be any extended hiatus from the internal politics, splits, line-up alterations and public recriminations that have constantly distracted from their music. It’s not tricky then to determine that the source of Howe’s carefree demeanour is that we’re discussing his new solo album, the uplifting Love Is, his first solo release in almost a decade. A delay that, for someone as musically prolific and creative as Howe, seems almost inconceivable.