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YAK
“Flying High”
Interview
with
Martin Morgan. A really
brilliant musician.
By Sergio
Vilar
Tell us how Yak came into being and who
was involved?
The
idea for a band called Yak was one I had just after
leaving school at 18 (back in 1982). I had been very involved
with music at school & played keyboards for a number of
different bands including “Acid Fantasy” for who Yak’s
drummer John Wynn also played.
Robin Hodder
and John Wynn lived close together in Loughton, Essex and
during December ’82 they called me to say they were getting
together to Jam and would I like to be involved? The music we
initially played was basically Rock, a few Santana and
Rolling Stones covers and much time was spent improvising
in, what is generally now accepted to be, the saddest of all
keys – D minor.
We added bass in the form of Simon Snell and I realised
that this was a good format within which to try out some new
material I had been working on, which was a bit of a departure
from what we had been playing to date. Why Yak? Well at
the time we were generally interested in anything of a mystical
nature & I found the whole area of Tibet and the Himalayas
fascinating and it wasn’t long before I came up with the name
Yak!
What about your influences?
I
went through the usual classical training on the Piano to
Diploma standard and then realised that there was a whole
other world of ‘playing’ which I knew nothing about – ‘Chords’
– they never teach you about ‘Chords’ when you learn
classically - well other than major or minor - and at 17, when I
joined a Jazz Rock group, I was completely blown away by the
musical approach. I had to quickly learn how to read and play
these “jazzy chords” (maj & min 7ths, 9ths,
11ths,
etc
– well some of them anyway - and in the year or so I played with
those musicians I learned a hell of a lot.
With regard to specific musical influences, At 16 I was lent a
cassette of Rick Wakeman’s “Journey to the Centre of
the Earth”. Although initially I wasn’t sure about it, it
grew on me and I quickly got hold of the other classic early
Wakeman albums, which still inspire me. Realising that
Wakeman was not just a solo artist, I got hold of my first
Yes album, “Close to the Edge” and have to admit I
couldn’t make head or tail of it when I first listened to it –
but I persisted and after a few plays, it ‘clicked”. I was
hooked in a major way! I got into Camel round about the
same time, being lent a copy of the “Snow Goose” by
John Wynn at School. This album quickly became and remains
one of my all time favourites. Later I got into bands like
UK,
Weather Report, The Alan Parsons Project and
Hillage, etc. Funnily enough I never got into Genesis
at the time, I only very recently have started to listen to
their early stuff and am enjoying it very much.
What did it
take you to develop this musical style?
This is a
good question and I’m not sure I really know the answer. I know I do not
like to conform to any particular musical structure; it’s just not the
way I write. Typically I tend to start off with an improvised riff or
theme and play around with it with the band, sometimes for many months
to see where it goes. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t – I
have dozens of unfinished pieces that hopefully will come together one
day!
Does an artistic or aesthetic concept exist in
particular that you want to express through Yak?
I certainly regard the music as artistic and hope that people will view
it as that – it is certainly contains much that is energetic but in
contrast the quieter tracks tend to be of a reflective nature. I feel
personally very close to the music, and I do see it as a form of
communication – just as soon as I figure out what it is that I am trying
to say, I will be sure to let you know! :0)
Yak 1984: Left to
Right, Martin Morgan (Keys), SySnell (Bass), John Wynn (Drums)
& Robin Hodder (Guitar)r)
“Dark Side
Of The Duck” is a work of significant composition and instrumentation.
How long did it take you to produce it?
Well over
all, I have harboured the idea of making this CD for 20 years! However
it was only recently that I decided to make get my act together and make
it happen. End to end the project was around five months elapsed time to
complete – however in terms of actual hours spent programming and
recording I would guess a week – 10 days effort. My main problem has
been finding the time to do it - I work full time and at home we run an
animal sanctuary with over 250 rescues to look after (www.towerhillstables.com)
so as you can imagine my time for music is somewhat limited!
Most of the material was written back in the early 80’s so I knew all
the parts inside out and I have previously made multitrack tape
recordings of many of the tracks, however the quality was poor & many of
the tracks were incomplete. I have never had much luck with the ‘PC
based’ recording model – things just never seem to work on my PC
– instead I had been waiting for a decent workstation to come along that
would allow me to do everything without having to plug anything into
anything else!
I managed to get hold of a Kurzweil workstation in Oct 2001 and spent
about a few years playing around with it whenever I had a spare five
minutes, but in October ’03 it suddenly dawned on me that unless I moved
very quickly I would not see my first album released whilst I was still
in my 30’s! The CD was released in February of 2004 - with 2 months to
spare!
When
composing, do you have preconceived ideas or do you simply allow the
music to develop naturally?
Most of the
tracks on the CD were written on my Memorymoog synthesiser, which now
sadly no longer works. When I had this keyboard, I still lived at home &
would spend most evenings playing/improvising with headphones on for
hours on end. Any time I hit upon a riff I liked, I recorded it onto
cassette & carried on. When I had a number of new riffs, I would take
them to the next Yak rehearsal at Robin’s Parents house (when
they were out) and we would the play them arranged for the
instruments we had, the other musicians, notably Robin,
contributing elements - and this too I would record on cassette. I still
have all the original Yak cassettes and I listen to them now and
then and anything that still stands out as being “good” I will pick up
and work on with the Kurzweil.
Quite often
I will be struck with a new riff or tune as I go about my normal daily
activities, however frustratingly these ‘flashes of inspiration’ will
occur when I am nowhere near my keyboard – typically I will have
forgotten the exact format of the riff by the time I get home and so the
idea will be lost forever! To prevent this from happening anymore, I got
hold of a digital Dictaphone that I now carry about with me. It’s great
for capturing any musical idea that might strike me at any time. I can
‘hum’ them in and later download the files and listen to them again
later - anything that still strikes me as “useable” I will work on – In
fact this is how the piece “Aragorn” was composed.
What is the
general idea of the work?
“Dark Side of the Duck – an instrumental album of concepts by
Yak”
is what I decided to put on the CD cover because basically this is what
it is! The CD is mostly a collection of ‘music’ that I came up with
during my late teens and early twenties but was never properly recorded.
I felt strongly that the material deserved better and I hope - given
suitable access to the music i.e. now available on CD - others will find
it enjoyable too.
Could you
make a comment about each one of the tracks on the album?
The opening
track the “Theme” is just simply a few notes that I always tended
to play on a particular patch on the memorymoog. I have always liked the
feeling those notes had on me – they have a kind of nostalgic but lonely
feel to them and I tried to recreate this feeling on the CD and hope
that I succeeded.
“Aragorn”
is one of the more recent compositions. The Piano part was the first
part I laid down to the click track & in some places it is not 100% in
time, however I decided not to try and quantize it back into time as I
liked the overall more “live” feel it gives being slightly out. Clearly
a real guitar at the beginning would be better and hopefully one day I
will re-record the track with the full band and perhaps some real
strings!
“Leylines of Yak”
is one of the very first tracks we played in this genre of music. It was
also one that was quite hard for the band to play all the way through
without pausing for breath! I am grateful for everyone’s contribution to
this track - from Sy’s bass ideas, John’s rhythms, to
Robin’s suggestion of the alternating ‘1’ and ‘3’ ‘hits’
during the final section of the track – just to catch you out! Overall
it has quite a few different sections and a number of time changes which
I think work well together.
“Yakrise”
is also an early Yak composition and for some time was known by
the band as the 8/8 7/8 riff, as the initial theme repeats a number of
times and alternately drops a beat which creates the kind of grove that
I really like. The introduction to the track is simply piano and flute
which contrasts nicely against the ‘thump’ you get when the main theme
comes in. One of the recent reviewers compared this track to Camel’s
“Lunar
Sea”, which is a terrific compliment, but the music is nothing
like it in my opinion. OK the track does fade out to wind noise a la
“Lunar
Sea”
and has some high strings in it - but hey there are quite a
few other tracks that do that too!
“Frustration”
is a track that I put together just after the band folded in ’84 and the
title says it all. The track was never originally completed and I
finished it as part of the DSoTD project. Again it has some
complex patterns and riffs going on, and I think this contrasts nicely
with the piano coda that closes the piece.
“Migration”
was another classic Yak track, and one of the simplest in
construction. The droning D pedal note bass in 7 time when enhanced by
Robin’s guitar work, became almost hypnotic against the changing
chords on the synthesiser. I have tried my best to re-create John’s
exact beat here electronically, but clearly real drums would be better.
We used to play this track for quite some time with alternating
experimental solos on guitar and keyboard. The CD version is cut down in
time, but when we get round to the live version I’m sure it will be
somewhat longer !
“Earthogrub”
was originally two different tracks that I have pulled together to make
the one piece of music. It starts with a ‘bang’ after the piano
introduction and uses some grinding tones under the main tune. The
middle section is another of the old 7 beat Yak riffs the band
used to play, embellished with a melody and the music closes as it
started with the main theme.
Yak version 2004. The same talent, but less hair...
“The
Swan” was a piece of improvised piano music that I have added
other sounds and samples to in order to create a piece which I find to
be both nostalgic and lonely, reflecting the feeling created by the
opening theme.
In the
future you will deepen more east sound or do you plan to experience with
other forms?
I don’t set
out to consciously create a particular sound or emotion with any of the
tracks that I produce, they just tend to evolve towards the Yak
sound which others have categorised as ‘Symphonic Progressive Rock’. To
be honest I only became aware of all the genres of progressive rock when
I started to try and promote the “Dark Side of the Duck” CD
on-line. I was horrified at the sheer number of sub-categorisations
there are! – To me it’s just instrumental music with melody, solo’s,
interesting rhythms, odd meter and lot’s of semi-complex things going on
at the same time – perhaps that is symphonic progressive rock!
In what are
you working at this time? Are you composing material for the next album?
Yes
absolutely, I am working on the 2nd album which is called
“Journey of the Yak” I am hoping to be in a position to release it
later this year, but as always it depends on how much time I am able to
spend on it.
What are
you immediate plans?
Well, we
are desperately trying to organise a Yak rehearsal at the moment
and we were very much hoping to re-create the weekend rehearsals we used
to enjoy in our youth – however as we all live in different parts of the
UK,
it is difficult to all meet up in the same place at the same time.
I was hoping to hire a cottage in the countryside for a weekend in May,
but the financial costs are a little prohibitive at the moment as no-one
has much in the way of spare cash – I continue to look for somewhere we
can get together for a few days to play some of the old music as well as
work on some of the new material I and Robin have been working
on. I find that musical ideas are better when bounced around the band as
everyone has their own creative element to throw in and this always has
a positive influence on the music.
Thank you
for granting us this interview Martin, Do you have any closing words?
Thank you
for asking for a copy of the CD and for taking the time to listen to it
and to give me the chance to tell you a little bit about the band and
it’s music. Copies of the CD can be ordered from the Yak website
www.yaksongs.com and 100% of all proceeds go to charity to help
towards the feeding costs of the rescued animals at Tower Hill Stables
Animal Sanctuary.
Nucleus
interview:
22/03/05
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