RockLine: Kako ste?
Steve Hackett: OK. Zelo dobro, hvala.
RockLine: Mi lahko poveste kaj o Djabe? Kaj vas je pritegnilo v njihovi glasbi?
Steve Hackett: Najprej sem sodeloval z Attilo, ki je bil distributer za solo album na Madžarskem. Ko so prišli igrati v London, sem igral z njimi. Bilo je zelo lahko, svobodno in izkušnja mi je bila všeč. Mislil sem si, da bi bilo to lepo ponoviti. Kasneje so me poklicali, ker je umrl njihov tolkalist (Sipos Andras). V Budimpešti so imeli koncert v njegovo čast in tudi sam sem nastopil. Igral sem na električni in klasični kitari. Na odru je bilo veliko ljudi, ki so stalno prihajali in odhajali. Nastop je bil zelo dober. Izkušnja je bila res lepa in ozračje nabito s čustvi. Z njimi rad igram tudi na angklung. Vsak koncert je drugačen. Včasih igram in ne vem kaj bo sledilo. Je res nepredvidljivo. V glavnem improviziramo, zato imamo veliko svobode. V njihovi glasbi se opazijo jazz, svetovna glasba, fusion, nekaj progresive. Mislim, da v duhu gre za jazz, a se opazi tudi romska glasba in improvizacija. Vse to imam z njimi skupnega.
RockLine: Torej uživate igrati z njimi?
Steve Hackett: Da. Skupaj igramo že kar nekaj časa. Odigral sem že lepo število koncertov z njimi. Pred kratkim sem bil na turneji s svojo skupino in igral sem tudi na teh nastopih. S svojo zasedbo grem naslednji teden na turnejo po Italiji. Z Djabe še igramo v Grazu, v Avstriji. Že smo bili v Dubrovniku, kar je bilo zelo lepo, saj še nikoli nisem bil tam.
RockLine: Ste že kdaj bili v Sloveniji?
Steve Hackett: Ne, to je prvič?
RockLine: Tukaj niste bili niti z Genesis?
Steve Hackett: Ne, niti z njimi.
RockLine: Opazil sem, da velikokrat igrate nastope v Italiji. Ali to pomeni, da ste na Italijo posebej navezani?
Steve Hackett: Na Italijo sem zelo navezan in mislim, da Italijani zelo spoštujejo ne le stvari, ki jih igramo danes, temveč tudi ideje, ki smo jih imeli z zgodnjimi Genesis. To je bilo prvo območje, ki se je zares odzvalo na Genesis. Genesis so tam postali slavni prej kot kjerkoli drugje.
RockLine: Nekako podobno kot Van Der Graaf Generator.
Steve Hackett: Mislim da.
RockLine: Vas kdaj moti, da ljudje o vas še vedno govorijo kot o Genesis kitaristu?
Steve Hackett: Ne, to mi je v veselje. To je bil pomemben del mojega razvoja in še vedno mi je glasba, ki sem jo igral z Genesis, zelo pri srcu. Šlo je za dobre zamisli, dobre glasbenike, dobre pesmi in tudi za dobre prijatelje.
RockLine: Torej se niste razšli neprijateljsko?
Steve Hackett: Ne, sploh ne. Mislim, da smo takrat vsi menili, da je to pravilen korak. Vsi drug drugega spoštujemo kot glasbenike in posameznike.
RockLine: Kaj pa ponovna združitev Genesis? Ste si ogledali kateri nastop?
Steve Hackett: Ne, nisem videl, vendar sem slišal, da je bilo zelo dobro. Vesel sem, da se je to zgodilo. Pogovarjali smo se s Petrom Gabrielom, če bi naredil The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Morda nekega dne, a trenutno smo preveč zaposleni z drugimi rečmi.
RockLine: Mislite, da je dobra zamisel, da se vračate 35 let v preteklost ali pa bi raje šli naprej in naredili nekaj popolnoma novega?
Steve Hackett: To je zanimiva reč, a ne? Mislim, da je za glasbenike, ki se morajo na novo dokazati, novost vedno najboljša. Glasbenik vedno gleda naprej, vsakič skuša ustvariti kaj novega. Občinstvo si vedno želi biti spet staro šestnajst let, tako da je vedno poudarek na preteklosti, z namenom, da se uživa glasba, ki si jo poslušal, ko si bil zelo mlad. Tudi sam sem poslušal določene izvajalce, ko sem bil mlad in tista glasba mi pomeni več kot karkoli, kar bi lahko storili danes, ker se želim vrniti v adolescenco, kjer ti divjajo hormoni in nenehno sanjariš.
RockLine: A je imela tudi glasba Genesis kakšno povezavo s hormoni?
Steve Hackett: No, vse, kar smo počeli z Genesis, je bilo popolnoma aseksualno. Vse smo jemali iz knjig, brez strasti.
RockLine: Še posebej aseksualna so bila oblačila Petra Gabriela.
Steve Hackett: Natanko tako.
RockLine: Vem, da je bilo takrat mnogo konfliktov zaradi Petrovih kostumov. Ste bili eden izmed tistih, ki so bili proti temu kar je počel?
Steve Hackett: Nikoli se nisem pritoževal nad tem. Mislim, da je bilo nujno, da je to počel, ker smo igrali zelo težavno glasbo, ki ni bila skoraj nikomur všeč, vse dokler se ni začel preoblačiti in potem je bila tudi glasba kar naenkrat ljudem všeč. Zelo pomembno je, da imaš pevca, ki se zna sporazumevati s hormoni občinstva, ki zna te hormone tudi zmesti.
RockLine: A Genesis niso nikoli bili tako popularni, ko je bil Peter pevec, kot takrat, ko je to počel Phil.
Steve Hackett: S Petrom nismo bili tako popularni. Ko smo bili štirje, smo bili nekoliko bolj uspešni, še večji uspeh pa so doživeli kot trojica. A ko se ljudje dandanes zanimajo za Genesis, jih najbolj zanima kaj smo počeli, ko nas je bilo pet. V glavnem se zanimajo za to obdobje zaradi sposobnosti posameznikov. Zdaj bolj spoštujejo to kot takrat, ko je bilo aktualno. To je pogosto v vseh vejah kreativne umetnosti.
RockLine: Se vam morda zdi ironično, da ste največje uspehe dosegli, ko ste se razšli? Peter je bil popularen kot solo izvajalec, vi ste doživeli lep uspeh z GTR, Genesis pa so ravno tako poželi lepe uspehe z albumi kot je Invisible Touch.
Steve Hackett: Če želiš imeti hite, si ponavadi deležen tudi igre, ki te hite spremlja. Ponavadi to pomeni kompromise, a sam ne maram kompromisov v glasbi, saj bi drugače vsi delali stvari, ki jih podpirajo korporacije. Mislim, da je pomembno biti odprt za nove stvari. Zanimiva stvar, kajne? Ves čas gre za mitologije. Včasih občinstvo sprejme delo umetnika, včasih pa ga zavrne. Včasih sami umetniki rečejo: "Ustvaril sem ta album in bil je zanič. Nič ni delovalo." Občinstvo lahko misli, da je stvar božanska, medtem ko lahko umetnik meni, da je peklenska. Podobno je pri živih nastopih, saj nihče ne ve o čem razmišljajo ljudje, ko so na odru. A tudi sam igraš?
RockLine: Igram od časa do časa, a sem precej slab.
Steve Hackett: A v tem uživaš?
RockLine: Jaz že, vendar mislim, da nihče drug.
Steve Hackett: Res? No, mislim, da je najbolj pomembno, da sam uživaš v tem kar počneš. Mislim, da sem sam najbolj užival v igranju kitare, ko sem lahko igral le tri akorde. Nisem imel tehnike, a že same osnove so me zelo vznemirile. Več kot znaš, več si želiš znati. Gre za neskončno iskanje. Nikoli ne moreš storiti vsega, kar si želiš. Je nemogoče.
RockLine: Prej ste govorili o kompromisih. Ste morali delati veliko kompromisov v skupinah, v katerih ste delovali, na primer Genesis in GTR?
Steve Hackett: Mislim da. Mislim, da je do kompromisov prišlo, ker skušaš delati v situacijah, kjer so nekatere osebnosti bolj težavne od drugih. Vedno sem čutil, da moram jaz biti tisto vezivo in da moram iz drugih ljudi izbezati najboljše stvari. Vedno sem bil zelo nekompetitiven kar se tiče lastnih prispevkov v skupini, ker ko slišim, da nekdo igra nekaj odličnega, to tudi povem. Mislim, da je to zelo pomembno, ne glede na starost glasbenikov.
RockLine: Torej ne bi nikoli poskušali česa nadomestiti s svojim delom?
Steve Hackett: Ne. Vsaj mislim, da ne. Mislim, da je skupina le toliko močna kot posamezniki. Vsak mora vsakemu puščati dovolj prostora, tako da lahko vsi skupaj zasijemo.
RockLine: Kaj pa vaša solo kariera? Igrali ste že s tako veliko glasbeniki. Kako se prilagodite igranju vsakega posameznika?
Steve Hackett: Mislim, da gre v glasbi vedno za prilagajanje. Pred kratkim sem posnel album s klasično kitaro, ki se imenuje Tribute, kjer igram Bachove kompozicije. To so bile najtežje skladbe, kar sem jih kdajkoli igral, vendar je bilo vredno truda, saj je glasba tako spektakularna. Že vso življenje čutim strast do Bachove glasbe in stvari, ki jih skušam doseči s svojimi klasičnimi projekti, je on dosegel že pred mnogimi leti. Ta glasba je čudovita, ker jo je možno uporabiti kjerkoli. Ni važno na katerem instrumentu jo igraš. Zveni imenitno na vseh glasbilih. Mislim, da vsi glasbeniki stremijo k takšnim kompozicijam.
RockLine: V Genesis ste bili najprej znani kot električni kitarist. Kako ste odkrili svojo ljubezen do klasične kitare?
Steve Hackett: Odraščal sem ob The Beatles, The Stones in r'n'b glasbi, potem pa sem, ko sem bil star 15 let, slišal kako Segovia igra Bacha na klasični kitari, tako, da sem vedno v glasbi imel dva interesa. Eden je bil mogoča kariera - moje električne stvari, vendar si nisem mislil, da bi lahko skupina vključila klasične vplive, srednjeveške zadeve, celo nekaj flamenka, kar zadnje čase bolj pogosto počnem, še posebej na novem albumu. Pri skupinah, ki so se začele pojavljati v poznih 60ih in zgodnjih 70ih, sem opazil, da so tovrstni vplivi možni. V eni sami skupini je bilo mogoče vključiti vplive klasike, jazza, popa, rocka, bluesa in celo humorja. Srečo imam, da sem se rodil v času, ko glasba ni bila trivializirana. V 50ih, ko sem odraščal, mešanje zvrsti v glasbi sploh ni obstajalo. Imel si ali opero, ali pa lahkotno glasbo. Rock se je šele rojeval iz bluesa. Srečo sem imel, da sem živel v času, ko se ni zdelo napačno vključiti vso glasbeno zgodovino v eno pesem in se še poleg tega dotakniti prihodnosti. To je bilo na nek način surrealistično in obenem magično.
RockLine: Ali so Genesis za vas zadovoljili oba ta vidika?
Steve Hackett: Po pravici povedano, nikoli nisem popolnoma zadovoljen in nikoli nisem bil popolnoma zadovoljen z eno samo skupino. Ko imaš glasbene sanje, jih vedno loviš in ponosen sem lahko na mnoge albume, ki sem jih ustvaril, z Genesis, samostojno in z drugimi ljudmi, vendar je moja duša nemirna in nomadska, tako da vedno čutim željo po potovanju in po izkušnjah z različnimi kulturami na različnih mestih. Želim si proučevati okolje, kulturo in glasbene razlike. Vedno se mi zdi, da me vleče na vzhod. Tudi pri Djabe obstajajo določeni takšni elementi, nek pridih, še posebej s Ferijem, violinistom, ki prav tako igra trobento.
RockLine: Romski vplivi.
Steve Hackett: Da, v njegovem igranju je res nekaj romskega in sam snema zelo zanimive albume z romsko glasbo, kjer je violina zelo strastna in divja. Zelo je zanimivo in ko igram z njimi, je vsak koncert drugačen. Včasih se mi zdi, da sem z njimi igral zelo dobro, včasih pa se mi zdi, da ničesar nisem storil prav. Vedno vse skupaj ocenjujem zelo človeško. Vedno lovim glasbeno perfekcijo.
RockLine: Prej ste govorili o solo albumu. Obetata se dva projekta, kajne?
Steve Hackett: Posneli bomo rock album, ki bo vseboval mnogo različnih slogov. To bo izšlo tudi kot posebna izdaja, ki bo vsebovala tudi živ material, a to bo z mojo lastno zasedbo. Prepričan sem, da bom tudi z Djabe še sodeloval. Na albumu bo veliko različnih stvari. Ne morem se domisliti še enega albuma.
RockLine: Kaj pa projekt Squackett?
Steve Hackett: Saj res, zadeva s Chrisom Squireom (Yes). Skupaj sva delala na mnogih rečeh. Upam, da bova skupaj delala avgusta, ko bo prišel v Anglijo. Trenutno je tudi on zaposlen s turnejo po Ameriki. Živiva v različnih državah, a skupaj sva ustvarila že nekaj odlične glasbe. Veselim se že temu.
RockLine: Pred kratkim smo doživeli tudi ponovne izdaje Genesis albumov. Kako ste zadovoljni s tistimi, na katerih ste igrali?
Steve Hackett: Mislim, da je produkcija precej boljša in tudi miksi zvenijo bolje, še posebej bobni. Vedno želim vse spremeniti. Ti albumi so izdelki zelo mlade skupine v času, ko smo iskali način, da se izrazimo. Ustvarili smo nekaj zelo posebnega, a ne popolnega. Ne smeš pričakovati popolnosti. Meni so, na primer, všeč Beatli. V njih ne iščem perfekcije, le želim si spet biti toliko star. Slišim jih s tedanjimi ušesi. Vse jim oprostim, ker je bila ta glasba tako bogata in tako pomemben del mojega življenja, kot to velja pri nekaterih ljudeh za Genesis.
RockLine: Morda naredijo nepopolnosti glasbo zanimivo.
Steve Hackett: Mislim, da je nepopolnost v tem, da se zavedaš, da smo se vsi mučili s to glasbo. Tako lahko drugi glasbeniki rečejo: "Tudi jaz lahko to storim in še bolje od njih." Vedno obstaja povabilo, štafeta se vedno podaja mlajšim glasbenikom in pevcem.
RockLine: Je kakšen član zasedbe vplival na zvok novih izdaj ali je bilo vse zasluga Nicka Davisa?
Steve Hackett: Če povem po pravici, sem pustil Nicka, da opravi svoje delo. Včasih sem mu kaj predlagal, a v glavnem je opravil dobro delo in slišim tudi več kitare kot prej. Mislim, da ima rad kitare v ospredju in menim, da to deluje dobro. A imaš tako stare kot nove izdaje. Kmalu bodo izšle tudi nove izdaje živih posnetkov.
RockLine: Ste že slišali Seconds Out?
Steve Hackett: Sem, da.
RockLine: Ali je vaša kitara kaj glasnejša, saj je bila v originalu kar tiha?
Steve Hackett: No, nisem še primerjal obeh posnetkov enega ob drugem, a mislim, da zvenita kar podobno.
RockLine: Le še eno vprašanje. Mi lahko poveste kaj o vaši inspiraciji v glasbi. Je to včasih tudi poezija, literatura?
Steve Hackett: Vse to me inspirira, saj lahko na glasbo vpliva veliko zadev. Mislim, da je veliko pevcev znanih zaradi svoje poezije. Hkrati pa mislim, da obstaja tudi neka zarota, ki nam skuša dopovedati kaj lahko en človek stori in mi moramo to idejo spremeniti. Na primer Bob Dylan. Vsi so govorili, da ne zna peti, potem pa je posnel Nashville Skyline s popolnoma drugim glasom. Torej, del stvari, ki sem jih počel v preteklosti, je bil povezan s poezijo. Menim, da te kitarsko junaštvo omejuje. Ne vem kako pogosto bi lahko poslušal ves allbum električne kitare. Poslušal bom in skušal kaj pobrati, kot nekakšen slovarček, a če hočeš imeti popolnoma zaokroženo glasbeno delo, moraš imeti močne pesmi in imenitne aranžmaje, kot da bi vsi instrumenti govorili med sabo in počeli ravno prave stvari ob ravno pravem času. Jaz s svojo glasbo skušam ustvariti nekaj takšnega.
RockLine: Hvala.
Steve Hackett: Hvala tebi.
Fotografije: Ivana Kisegi
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Hackett first became famous as the guitarist of Genesis, the group he joined in 1970 and recorded six studio albums with. He left after Wind and Wuthering and this was followed by a highly versatile solo career, which is still going on. In between all this, he was also a member of the supergroup GTR (with Steve Howe) and he has recently been performing together with the Hungarian group Djabe. There's no doubt that he is one of the best and most influential guitarists ever. It was an honour for me to talk to him before his show with Djabe in Slovenj Gradec.
RockLine: How are you doing?
Steve Hackett: OK. Very good, thank you.
RockLine: Can you tell me something about Djabe? What grabbed your attention in their music?
Steve Hackett: Well, first of all I worked with Attila, who was the distributer of a solo product in Hungary. And then, when they were playing in London, I jammed with them. It was very easy, very free and I enjoyed the experience. I thought it would be nice to do it again sometime. They later phoned because their percussionist (Sipos Andras) died. There was a memorial concert in Budapest and I played at that. I was doing some electric and some nylon guitar. They had many people on stage, coming and going all the time. It was a very good show. It was a very good experience and the atmosphere was very emotional. I also like playing these angklungs with them. Every concert is different. Sometimes I play and I wonder what's going to happen next. It's very unpredictable. It's mainly improvised, so it's very free. There are aspects of jazz, world music, fusion, some progressive. I think that it's jazz in spirit, but there's an aspect of gipsy and improvisation. So, we share all of those things.
RockLine: So you've been enjoying playing with them?
Steve Hackett: Yes. We've been playing for quite some time. I've done quite a few shows with them. I've recently been touring with my own band and doing those shows. We start a tour of Italy next week. We have one show here with Djabe and another in Graz, in Austria. We already did Dubrovnik. That was very nice. I've never been to Dubrovnik.
RockLine: Have you ever been to Slovenia before?
Steve Hackett: No, this is my first time?
RockLine: You've never been here with Genesis?
Steve Hackett: No, this is the first time.
RockLine: I notice you travel to Italy a lot. Does that mean you have a fondness for Italy?
Steve Hackett: I have a tremendous fondness for Italy and I think Italy has a fondness for not just the things we play today, but for the ideas we had with early Genesis. It was really the first territory to respond to Genesis in a very big sort of way. Genesis became a famous band there before it was famous anywhere else.
RockLine: The same as with Van Der Graaf Generator.
Steve Hackett: I think so, yes.
RockLine: Does it ever bother you that people still talk of you as the guitarist of Genesis?
Steve Hackett: No, I'm happy to be known as the guitarist of Genesis. It was an important part of my development and I'm still very fond of the music I did with Genesis. There were lots of good ideas, good players, good songs and good friends too.
RockLine: So you didn't part on bad terms?
Steve Hackett: No, we didn't part on bad terms. I think it was something we all felt was right. We all respect each other musically and as individuals.
RockLine: What about the reunion? Did you catch any of those shows?
Steve Hackett: I didn't see that, but I hear it was very good. I'm very pleased that happened. At one point, we were all talking with Peter Gabriel to see if he would do something like The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Maybe one day, but at the moment we're too busy doing other things.
RockLine: Do you think it's a good idea to revisit stuff you did 35 years ago or would you rather look to the future and do something totally new?
Steve Hackett: It's very interesting, isn't it? I think that for musicians who have to reinvent themselves, new is always best. The musician always looks forward, tries to create something new each time. The audience always wants to be sixteen again, so there's always an emphasis on the past, with the function of enjoying the music you listened to when you were very young. There are artists I listened to when I was very young and that music means more to me than anything they could possibly do today because you want to return to adolescence, where your hormones are raging and your dreams are coming thick and fast.
RockLine: So, did the music of Genesis have anything to do with hormones?
Steve Hackett: Well, everything with Genesis was completely asexual. Everything was learned from books, no passion.
RockLine: The costumes of Peter Gabriel were especially asexual.
Steve Hackett: Exactly.
RockLine: I know that there were many conflicts at the time, about Peter's costumes. Were you one of the people against him doing that?
Steve Hackett: I never complained about it. I thought it was very necessary for Pete to do that because we were playing very difficult music that nobody really liked until he started dressing up and then suddenly everybody started to like the music. It's very important to have a front man who is able to speak to people's hormones, to confuse the hormones.
RockLine: But Genesis were never as popular with Peter as with Phil as the singer.
Steve Hackett: It wasn't as popular with Peter. It was slightly more popular with the four of us. It was even more popular with the three of them. But now, when people look at Genesis, they're mostly interested in what we did when there was five of us. The main interest is in that area because of what the individuals did. It's appreciated more now then when it was current, as is often the case with things in all branches of creative art.
RockLine: Do you perhaps find it ironic that all of you had the most success when you broke up? Peter had a huge solo career, you had a successful album with GTR and Genesis were huge with stuff like Invisible Touch.
Steve Hackett: There's something that goes with having hits. There's a game that accompanies it and it's partly to do with making compromises. But I prefer not to compromise music, otherwise we would always be doing things that are corporately viable. I think it's important to be open to something that is new. It's interesting, isn't it? You're dealing with mythologies the whole time. Sometimes the public embraces the work of an artist and sometimes they reject it. Sometimes the artists themselves say: "I did that album and it was terrible. Nothing worked." The audience may think it's heavenly, while the artist may think it's hellish. That's the same with a live concert as well because nobody knows what the people are thinking when they're on stage. Do you play yourself?
RockLine: I play from time to time, but I'm pretty bad.
Steve Hackett: But you enjoy it?
RockLine: I enjoy it, but I don't think anybody else enjoys it.
Steve Hackett: Really? Well, I think the most important thing is to enjoy what you do. I think I enjoyed guitar playing most of all when I was able to play just three chords. No technique, but just to be able to manage the basics was very exciting to me. The more you can do, the more you want to be able to do. It's an endless quest. You can never do everything you really want to do. It's impossible.
RockLine: You were talking about making compromises before. Did you have to make many compromises in the band projects you were involved with, like Genesis and GTR?
Steve Hackett: I think so, I think there were compromises because you're trying to work in situations where some personalities are more volatile than others. I always felt my role was to be the glue and to try and bring out the best in other people. As far as my own contributions go, I've always been very uncompetitive in a group context because if someone is playing something that sounds great, I always tell them if they've played something really good. I think it's very important, no matter how old musicians are.
RockLine: So you'd never try to replace something with your own part?
Steve Hackett: No. I hope not. I think that a band is only as strong as all the individuals. You all allow each other that space to be able to shine together.
RockLine: What about your solo career? You've played with so many different musicians over the years. How do you adjust to the playing of each musician?
Steve Hackett: I think that music is all about adjustment. I recorded an album of classical guitar music, called Tribute, with Bach pieces and I found those the most difficult of all the pieces I've done, but I thought it was worth it because the music is so spectacular. The music of Bach is a lifelong passion for me and the things that I try to do in a classical idiom always aspire to the same condition that his music already reached so many years ago. It's wonderful music because you can transpose it. It is indifferent to the instrument it's being played on. It sounds marvellous on everything. I think that all musicians aspire to write compositions like that.
RockLine: You were first known as an electric guitarist in Genesis. How did you discover your love for the classical guitar?
Steve Hackett: Many years ago, I grew up listening to The Beatles and The Stones and r'n'b, then when I was 15 I got to hear Segovia play Bach on the nylon guitar, so I always had two interests in music. One of them was a possible career move - which was all of the electric stuff, but I didn't think a band would be able to incorporate the classical influences, the mediaeval stuff, even some of the Flamenco stuff, which I've been doing a bit more of, especially on this new album I've just done. What I discovered with bands that started to appear in the late 60s and early 70s, those kinds of influences were possible. It was possible within one band to include classical influences, jazz influences, pop, rock, blues and humour as well. I was very fortunate to be born in a time when music was not trivialised. In the 1950s, when I was growing up, there was no such thing as fusion in music. There was either opera or there was light music. Rock was just starting to be born out of blues. I was lucky to be involved in a time where it was not considered gauche, in the course of one song, to run the gambit of the whole of the history of music and touch on some of the future as well. So, in that way, it was both surreal and magical.
RockLine: So, did Genesis satisfy both of those aspects for you?
Steve Hackett: Well, to tell you the truth, I've never really been totally satisfied and I've never really been totally satisfied with any one band. When you keep having musical dreams, you're always chasing them and I can be proud of many of the albums I've done, with Genesis, on my own and with other people, but I'm a restless nomadic spirit and I feel the need to travel and experience the different cultures of many places and to examine the terrain, the culture, the musical differences. I always feel I'm being drawn towards the East, in a way, the whole time. Even with Djabe, there's an aspect, an undercurrent, especially with Feri, the violinist, who also plays the trumpet.
RockLine: The gipsy influences.
Steve Hackett: There's something gipsy in there, yes and he makes very interesting gypsy albums with very passionate and wild violin. It's very interesting and when I play with them, every concert is different. I sometimes feel like I played very well with them and at other times I feel like I couldn't do anything right. I always have a very human assessment of it. I'm always chasing musical perfection.
RockLine: You talked about your solo album earlier. You have two projects coming up, right?
Steve Hackett: We have a rock album coming up, which has many different kinds of styles. We also have a special edition of that, which contains some live material as well, but this is with my own band. I'm sure I'll continue to do stuff with Djabe. There will be many different things. I can't think of another album.
RockLine: What about the Squackett thing?
Steve Hackett: Oh yeah, the thing with Chris Squire. He and I have a number of things that we've been working on. I hope I'm going to be working with him in August, when he's over in England. He's also busy touring in the States. So, we're living in different countries, but we have some great music we've done together. I'm looking forward to that.
RockLine: We've had the rereleases of Genesis albums. How are you satisfied with the ones you played on?
Steve Hackett: I think the production sounds much better now and the mixes sound much better, the drums in particular. I always want to change everything. The albums are products of a very young band, in a time when we were struggling to express ourselves. We made something very special, but not perfect. You shouldn't look for perfection. I like The Beatles, for example. I'm not looking for perfection in them, but I want to be that age again. I hear it with the ears of then. I forgive it everything because it was so rich and such an important part of my life, as I think Genesis is to many people.
RockLine: Perhaps the imperfections make it interesting.
Steve Hackett: I think the imperfection is in knowing that everyone was struggling to do it. It makes it possible for other musicians to say: "Hey, I could do that and I could do it better than them." There's always the invitation, the torch is always handed on to younger players and singers.
RockLine: Did any band member influence the mixes or was it Nick Davis alone?
Steve Hackett: To be honest, I let Nick get on with it. I'd sometimes suggest one or two things, but in the main, he does a very good mix and I can hear a lot more guitar than when I originally did it. I think he likes to have the guitars a little louder and it works very well. But you have both the old mixes and the new ones. There's also a live box set coming out.
RockLine: Have you heard the Seconds Out yet?
Steve Hackett: Yes, I did.
RockLine: So, is your guitar any louder now because it was quite quiet on the original mix?
Steve Hackett: Well, I'm not playing it side by side, but I think it sounds quite similar to the mixes before.
RockLine: Just one more question. Can you tell me something about your inspirations in music? Is it sometimes poetry, literature?
Steve Hackett: It's all of those things because there are so many ways to influence music. I think many singers are more known for their poetry. At the same time I think that there's almost a sort of conspiracy which fixes everybody's idea of what one person does and it's really up to all of us to change the idea of that. Like Bob Dylan. Everyone was saying that he can't sing and then he did National Skyline with a different voice entirely, so part of what I've done in the past has been involved with poetry. I think guitar heroics can be very limiting. I don't know how often I would sit down and listen to a whole album of electric guitar. I'll listen to it to take things from it, as a glossary of terms, but to have a fully rounded piece of music, you have to have powerful songs, exquisite arrangements, almost as if all the instruments are talking to each other and doing exactly the right thing at the right time. So, that's what I work towards.
RockLine: Thanks.
Steve Hackett: Thank you.
Photos: Ivana Kisegi
na vrh