John Young

Spotlight by Severine, We7 PR Guru

Always on the road, John Young is a 30-year career artist who has played with some of the biggest names in Rock such as Asia, Scorpions and Robert Plant. We7 are proud to present this amazing keyboard player who passed the Tastemaker challenge and then climbed our charts to second position! We hope you will enjoy his music and can remain sitting down - his career is breath-taking!

The interview

You have an amazing career behind you, how do you feel about it?
It's strange really - in print it looks like a long and varied career, but in some ways I still feel like I'm just starting :-)

You played with Asia, The Scorpions, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page to name a few. Which was your best moment?
That's a really hard one to answer, so many memories; I think probably there will have to be several highlights rather than just one:

• Packed houses for jazz rock gigs in Liverpool in the early years
• The first World tour with Uli Jon Roth playing the Country Club in L.A. ...great show
• Playing with George and Ringo
• Joining Asia after being a fan for many a year
• Writing with John Wetton and Jon Anderson
• Headlining to 185,000 people in Vienna with Bonnie Tyler
• Playing my first gig with the Scorpions on my birthday... lots of fun plus of course the gig at the Pyramids :-)

There is a great deal more but one other moment would be playing my own work at a house concert in a forest in Connecticut (Wes's house) to 50 people who knew every word...magical! :-)

Who would be the artists or the bands you would still like to play with?
Another difficult one... I nearly joined a major American outfit a couple of weeks ago and I think I would really have enjoyed that but sadly it was not to be. Dare I say that in the future the band I would like to play with the most ...is my own! We've been ready to play shows for a few years now, but sadly as radio tends to work purely around chart based material it may take a little longer to achieve.

In which kind of music do you enjoy yourself most?
I think probably the music I play with my band, it is very fulfilling and they are great musicians.

Do you enjoy working with people more or working alone? Why?
Both really. I'm quite good at working on my own and since technology means that a keyboard player can play most things these days it means I can produce variable styles of music without actually leaving the keyboard. That said, it's good fun working with others. I write with Jon Anderson (Yes, Jon & Vangelis) via email which is quite surreal. Of course there is nothing like working with real instruments in the studio and the new ideas that other minds can bring to the musical table.

How different is it to produce music for a TV Channel to an album?
Not too difficult. I started writing for telly :-) about 10 years ago and most of the work I do is library based so to an extent I'm my own master. Usually I work on a theme for a CD's worth of material and I can either nominate a category i.e. news, sport, travel etc. or in turn I'll receive a brief for a specific subject. When you work directly for a company it can sometimes be a little more difficult as often the directors of the company may have their own ideas with regards to the soundtrack they require. Often directors of a company may have grandiose latent visions that rise to the surface the minute they walk into the studio!

You launched several albums in different genre. How does a song come together? How do you find your inspiration? Is the process different for each genre?
Songs and pieces in the main tend to just arrive and it usually becomes fairly evident as to whether they are worth pursuing. It might be a drum groove, a bass line or an ambient texture but if it has potential it generally shows itself in the early stages of composition.

Over the years my method of composition has changed fairly dramatically. Initially I would sit at an old upright piano but having been classically trained the songs could be somewhat lacking in diversity. I tried to counteract this by learning or at least acquainting myself with other forms of music but still my work could often feel far too rigid.

I tried various approaches towards this and gradually built up my dexterity mainly through working in jazz rock bands. That said I still wasn't happy with the final product. I started to work on the "less is more" principal and then about 10 years ago it just started to click.

A strange thing happened I stopped writing with my head and just let my hands do the work (whilst leaving the record button on!). It was incredible it felt like someone had taken the gloves off a new fluidity came into my work but beyond that there was still another level to reach.

One time my left hand played a really nice tune which I then gave to my right hand whilst the left worked the chords out. I realized as I went on that I really didn't feel in control and this showed itself even further when after writing the piece I had to learn it! It was almost like being a conduit for some other musical power or force...most bizarre.

I thought I best keep it to myself but on investigating further I found several composers who claimed to work in a similar manner; even the author Steven King seemed to use this system to write.

Have you always wanted to be an artist as a kid? If not, what did you want to be?
I guess so I started singing and playing the piano in public when I was 5 years old so it was almost as if it was destined. That said I really enjoyed my short time working in aviation and in truth I would love to have become a pilot but I'm afraid the time for that has probably come and gone.

Do you have passions other than music?
Well as in the above question aviation has definitely remained a passion. I also enjoy sport especially F1. I still enjoy football but I find it maddening that many football supporters view it as a form of tribalism as opposed to being just a game.

Which advice would you give to our new artists?
I think I'd like to answer this by giving a synopsis on some of the current problems within music and hopefully some of my meanderings will be of use to those wishing to pursue a career in this mad world.

I think for me it has been important to stick to my musical ideals and I think most musicians will have to make that decision at some point, and it may not always be an easy one. I find music and the music business have very little in common and are strange bedfellows.

Music is generational and you can quite often tell the age of a person by the music he or she listens to. Everyone grows older and generally the music they enjoy becomes less fashionable if not old fashioned. The people often change too from initially having opinions but remaining open to suggestion to becoming stalwart and opinionated.

Stepping outside this circle is hard. Why should red be in this year and out next ...why can't you just like red??!!!

Enjoying music across a wide variety of genres and not being a victim of fashion is a true test of musical integrity. The media is generally doing a good job in helping to dumb down society musically. So much so that people are glued to all things X-Factor & Pop Idol, reality is the name of the game and the celebrity is king.

The choice is stark, many folks join the cognoscenti and live a life of wealth, fame, fortune and musical mediocrity. Others choose to step outside and fight to be heard in a world with ever failing ears. I think it is really important to make a stand where you can and I hope those that listen to my music will think that stand was worth it.

If banality is the future of music then I want no part of it. I want music that stirs the soul filled with emotion and passion. Something that makes the hairs stand up on my arms and the back of my neck. Songs that continue to give pleasure and show new facets over months and years. Works that can lift my spirit on the one side or show me the depths of despair on the other.

Lyrics that can tell me a story, a thought, a viewpoint that will continue to push my imagination. Originality is a wonderful thing and in a world where covers and tributes are King, I feel that we have a duty to restore it to its rightful position.