In 2008 former Yes singer Jon Anderson suffered a near-fatal respiratory failure, during which he came close to dying in his wife’s arms. Two years later he told Prog how his famously strong spirit had kept him going, and how the experience fed into his album Survival & Other Stories.
Jon Anderson is touring the States, but in a different way than he’s done in the past. “It’s just me, my wife Jane, some guitars in the back of the car, and every few days I do a show to pay for the petrol,” he says. “I just sing, and talk – I have all these stories I like to tell. I play piano, dulcimer, ukulele; get them all singing and just give them a good evening’s entertainment. I talk more now than I ever did with Yes.”
He joins us days after a “pretty wild” show in the beautiful town of Woodstock, Vermont. The crowd were up and dancing by the end, having been treated to a set list including Starship Trooper, I’ve Seen All Good People and Owner Of A Lonely Heart. While he doesn’t do meet-and-greets any more (they ended up taking longer than the shows), one guy approached him after the Woodstock show, desperate to know the name of the incredible song he closed with.
“I said it was State Of Independence; I did it with Vangelis. He must’ve been in his 40s and he’d never heard it, but it was his favourite tune of the night. It’s funny – those Jon and Vangelis albums never got a wide release in the USA.”
There’s an echo of that song’s insistent build in Sharpening The Sword, from Anderson’s new album Survival & Other Stories. It’s his first solo work since his near-death experience in 2008, following a severe asthma attack. The album takes much of its lyrical inspiration from that traumatic event and its aftermath, but it’s never once mawkish or self-pitying; instead it’s deep and uplifting.
“It’s a very special time to do an album,” says Anderson, now fully recovered. “Going through a serious illness and coming out the other end, you feel that every day counts. So I’ve been writing songs to explain the new world I’m in, and new feelings I have about life.”
The album’s meditative centrepiece, Incoming, was conceived while he walked round his garden in his convalescence. “It’s about nature and how powerful it is, how it surrounds you and how it has a music of its own.You go through these things and sing about them in some form.”
As far back as 2006 he’d put a notice on his website, asking musicians to send him their material. That led to him collaborating with dozens of different composers from the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Romania and beyond. Survival & Other Stories is the first fruit of the approach.
“I got hundreds of pieces, and I picked those that rang true – maybe a chord progression or just a feel – that inspired me to sing over them. If it really works I sing right away; download it in the studio, put the microphone on and go for it. I’d work on the track, they’d work on the music, send me the files and I’d mix it in my studio in LA.”
The album’s Yes-like, string-led opener New New World is a clarion call for Anderson’s revival and resurgence. It was co-written by Jamie Dunlap, whose film and TV work includes scores for the History Channel and even South Park. The upbeat Love Of The Life rests on a big beat rhythm provided by composer and teacher Dan Spollen. For all their talents, these aren’t what you’d call obvious major names. The ideas are what counts.
“It’s like a door’s opened,” says Anderson. “It’s a constant energy of people’s musical ideas coming to me. And I can balance and bounce off that, very much like I did with Yes. I would sit around with ideas for a song then listen to Rick or Steve playing. I’d say, ‘Can you play this there?’ or, ’Put this idea here’ – like a director of sorts Nowadays you can email and say, ‘Could you put some hand drums on it please?’ or, ‘I hate that snare; let’s lose it.’ A few days later it comes back to you.”
His wife Jane has been pivotal; her critical ear was honed as a musical supervisor for movie director Ron Howard, and she helped Anderson whittle two dozen songs down to the final list. From process to performance, music has been key to his recovery, and a theme of grace, of second chances, pervades the album. The beautiful song Unbroken Spirit lays bare his keen sense of mortality.
There are many years to go, many musical ideas left to explore. Jane and I know we’re out there to do something important
“It came from a Polish composer, Jann Castor. I had five operations, and after the second one I mumbled these words over it, then six months later I was singing it properly. It was a very poignant moment in my life. I’d been going through this transition of getting fixed; and the spirit hangs tough, hangs in there, no matter what happens to the body. There’s that cord that keeps us in this life.
“Singing that one on stage is interesting. I usually do it after Starship Trooper, with its wild ending, then while everybody’s going crazy I’ll start this very sombre piece of music, and everybody goes quiet – you can hear a pin drop. It’s a very emotional moment because I know a lot of people in the audience have gone through what I have. Many have told me, but you can sense it too; that quietness is very powerful.”
Big Buddha Song addresses various religious figures, from Muhammad and Jesus to Krishna. It reflects Anderson’s own pluralist spirituality. “It’s everything. Without that inner sense of connection with the Divine, or God, Mother Earth – whatever you want to call it – you’re lost. When you do feel that connection, that energy to survive is there. It’s a feeling that you love life so much that you’re going to keep going.
“There are many years to go, many musical ideas left to explore. Both Jane and I know that we’re both out there to do something important for our lives. Music is a really good healing power on many levels, so for me to be up there on stage singing, it’s an incredible joy to do it. After every show we hug each other; it’s emotional. We’re very very thankful.”
For a man whose life has gone through such tumultuous change, how is he feeling? “Very good; very healthy. We’ve been touring for five weeks at this point and everything’s worked out well. I don’t know how to explain how the shows have been. They’ve been… sparkling. These days the energy between the audience and me has been wonderful. Such beautiful evenings.”
