It was a long time coming, but after several years under wraps, Yes bassist Chris Squire and former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett released A Life Within A Day â the only album they made as Squackett â in 2012. Three years before Squireâs passing, they gave Prog the backstory.
The union of Chris Squire and Steve Hackett has been mentioned in dispatches for almost half a decade. In recent years Squire has guested on Hackettâs solo albums, contributing his distinctive bass guitar to tracks on 2009âs Out Of The Tunnelâs Mouth and last yearâs Beyond The Shrouded Horizon. But a full-blown collaboration between the Genesis and Yes legends has taken longer to come to fruition. At one point, Squackett looked like it would become an elusive, mythical beast â until the release of A Life Within A Day.
At just 46 minutes it might seem a modest dividend for the patience invested those awaiting this rare foray from Squire outside Yes and Hackettâs most notable collaboration since GTR (with Yesâ Steve Howe). But never mind the quantity of music on offer â just revel in the quality: A Life Within A Dayâs nine tracks both surprise and delight.
While theyâve never until now been in a band together, Squire and Hackett have shared history. âI first started working with Steve in 2006 on my Christmas album [Chris Squireâs Swiss Choir],â he explains. Squireâs original vision was to involve a number of guitarists on different tracks. âI was hoping to get Jeff Beck, Brian May⊠but everyone was busy.â
His drummer, Jeremy Stacey, suggested asking Hackett. Surprisingly, given their respective track records, Squire and Hackettâs paths had barely crossed. âI havenât done a lot of things outside of Yes,â acknowledges the bassist. Initially he sent Hackett a couple of the songs destined for Swiss Choir. The guitarist took little persuasion. âI would have worked on anything that Chris had offered me because heâs such an icon,â he says. âWhen people think of bass sounds, they think of Chris.â

âWhat Steve did was so good that I immediately asked if he could do the whole album,â says Squire. âAfter that, I said that Iâd be happy to reciprocate with anything he needed me to play or sing on.â As a result, he guested on Hackettâs last two solo albums. They considered writing a musical together, but ultimately settled for the more realistic album solution.
At the time, though, the bassist wasnât actively seeking an outlet outside Yes. âI was living in London, doing the Christmas album, and Steve and I just developed a relationship.â It was uncomplicated and remarkably free of the titanic clash of egos that can bedevil such projects. âWe got on easily and were able to create at a fast pace without feeling any pressure. Thatâs very valuable and helped move things along really smoothly.â
But A Life Within A Day has had a lengthy gestation, due to the belated return of Yes, the search for a suitable record label and simple geography. âWhen we started, Chris lived in this country and we were near neighbours,â Hackett recalls. âSuddenly America beckoned, and I had to put the album on hold for a while.â But the interregnum had an upside. âIt meant that when we came back to it, it was all the stronger for that gap and there were things that we shifted around.â
Unusually in an age when many records are tracked by solitary musicians sending files to each other, the pair recorded most of the songs together in Hackettâs studio or at his house. âMost of it was done eyeball to eyeball,â he confirms. âI didnât want to work in splendid isolation.â
He reports the writing sessions were painless. As a starting point heâd suggested that they pooled material, and Squire offered Aliens â which had already been performed live by Yes â while Hackett contributed Stormchaser. âI had three or four songs that I had written ostensibly for a solo project,â says Squire. âBut that never happened, which is the story of my life!â In the end he, Hackett and keyboardist Roger King are all credited on each composition, with the tour-de-force title track and another highlight, Tall Ships, written specifically for the album.
Tall Ships came from Squire experimenting with a new bass and playing a sinuous, muscular riff that inspired Hackett. âIt sounded like it had some swing to it,â the guitarist recalls. âNinety nine per cent of people Iâve worked with canât remember the wonderful thing theyâve just played. So unless the tapes were running, youâve had it. But Chris remembered it, and we had the rhythm which runs throughout the whole song. There was the unvarying link which provides the engine to the journey.â
He added a guitar phrase, the lyric and the chorus tune, while Squire provided the verse melody. âIt was very easy to write together â a bunch of mates sat round in the living room, chipping in ideas,â Hackett continues. âIt was like a giant jigsaw puzzle with three people going, âHereâs another piece â does that fit?â We avoided the downside of composition by committee where people whittle each other down to the bare essentials and often end up with the lowest common denominator. That can be the downside of working with a group.â
My voice and Steveâs blend well together. Thatâs something I was surprised about
Chris Squire
The Squackett scenario of avoiding the dilution of ideas and feeding off but also deferring to each other was largely unfamiliar to Hackett as, since 1986âs GTR album with, heâs largely been captain of his own ship with his solo band. âI didnât mind handing the wheel to Chris and we didnât have too many moments where we thrashed it out,â he says. âMost of the time it was plain sailing. Occasionally weâd hit a sticky patch, but it seemed as if Chris and I had been working together all our lives.â
He cites the intensely commercial Divided Self as an example: âChris played wonderfully and transformed it. He doesnât just play a bass line. It must be his choral background; he comes up with another melody, counterpoint, descant, and makes it swing. He does things naturally that I suspect other bass players dream of. He plays with a guitaristâs sensibility. Thereâs that sense of the size of the bass sound, but thereâs also that twang and ring, so you can always focus on the bass part. Itâs always clear as a bell and itâs not just all about how loud it is in the mix.â
Another striking feature of A Life Within A Day is the significant use of harmony vocals. âChris and I are both fans of the great harmony bands â The Beatles, The Who, Crosby Stills & Nash,â says Hackett. While vocal harmonies featured prominently in Yes, they were less prevalent in Genesis. âI was often trying to steer it that way with my own stuff. We made them a raison dâĂȘtre on this album.â

âMy voice and Steveâs blend well together,â adds Squire. âThatâs something I was surprised about, and the more we worked on harmonies the better they became.â Hackett and former choirboy Squire are responsible for all the vocals on the album, save for an appearance from Amanda Lehmann, a Hackett band regular who supplies some backing vocals, most notably on the smooth-as-silk Canât Stop The Rain. Hackett thought that the track had an âa Burt Bacharach aspect to the chorus, so I suggested we go the whole hog and make it sound really luxurious and get some girls in. It needed something feminine.â
As the Bacharach reference suggests, A Life Within A Day contains some surprises, but it shouldnât disappoint fans of Hackett or Squire. Hackett confirms the tempo for much of the album is very laidback, but itâs hugely atmospheric and rich in detail. There are some exceptions â most notably the frenetic middle section of the title track, which should sate the appetites of those wanting the two to cut loose instrumentally.
For years Iâve been trying to deny the fact that I love slow powerful rhythms â I thought they might be a bit soggy for people who want their rock to be fast
Steve Hackett
Any suspicions that the record might be a cynically contrived âGeneYesâ product prove wide of the mark. Itâs not an album you might expect two such veterans to make, mainly because there was no masterplan. âIt happened naturally,â Hackett explains. âWe were working on a number of things for each other, and from the very first thing that Chris did on something of mine, I could see he was genuinely enjoying it. His whole body was moving. I realised that I had this top bass player â such a hero to a lot of people â giving it everything. Chris runs on enthusiasm.â
While they didnât set out to cater to the Yes/Genesis audience, one track comes close. âThe Summer Backwards is a nod to all things psychedelic and the 1960s,â reveals Hackett. âListening to it a few days ago, I came to the conclusion that with two 12-strings and harmonies weâve got Yes and Genesis, really. But thatâs not what I was intending to do at the time.â In fact, The Summer Backwards was originally earmarked for a Hackett solo album before Squire intervened.
They drew on a wide array of reference points. Led Zeppelin influences are most apparent on Stormchaser and the title track. âItâs John Bonham meets Phil Collins meets Jason Bonham meets Jeremy Stacey meets the production values of the 1980s,â laughs Hackett. âMany years ago in Genesis, we were driving around the Shepherdâs Bush roundabout, having just driven back from Belgium or Italy with no sleep all night, and Kashmir by Zeppelin came on. We all stopped in our tracks, particularly Peter Gabriel and myself. The drums were enormous. It was Radio Luxembourg so it was probably even more distorted and strange coming to us in mono.
âIt was nectar to the ears, a breath of fresh air. I loved the simple, demonic, relentless, mechanical approach to drums that just marched through time itself. It was a huge influence on Phil, Peter and me. Chriss favourite Zep track is Kashmir â surprise, surprise! In a sense itâs the model for something that can be both orchestral but minimal; something that has pauses.
âFor years Iâve been trying to deny the fact that I love slow powerful rhythms â I thought they might be a bit soggy for people who want their rock to be fast. Again, I noticed these slow, heavy rhythms crop up on Joe Bonamassaâs stuff, like The Ballad Of John Henry. Thereâs something about the earthiness of that.
Iâd like to think thereâs time in our busy schedules to play live. But I donât want to make promises I canât keep
Steve Hackett
âIâm like a gannet,â adds Hackett. âI donât have any prejudice against any musical form any more, because Iâve been caught out before.â He doesnât disagree with the suggestion that heâs a musical contrarian. After all, choosing to exit Genesis in 1977 was a brave move. âIâve always tried to prove a point,â he admits. âIâve always wanted to prove people wrong.â
While Squackett is certainly varied, Squire is keen to point out that Yes have always been willing to head off in different musical directions: âI never put limits on Yes. Weâve delved into so many different areas over the years. We were more of a rock band in the 80s, more of a proggy jazz band in the 70s. Iâm not afraid of moving in and out of different areas with Yes.â
An album whose longest tracks are under seven minutes might confound anyone expecting prog rock epics. Squire: âThere was no conscious effort to go, âThis is what weâve done in our various bands, so letâs do something different.â We just got on with it. If something had turned out to be a 10-minute plus track and weâd liked it, weâd have used it. There were no guidelines.â
As a teenager, Porcupine Tree mainman Steven Wilson was a swift convert to Hackettâs solo material. âWhen I was discovering the wonderful world of progressive music, one of the first albums I happened across was Steveâs Please Donât Touch album, which totally blew me away,â Wilson says. âThe second side especially remains for me one of the most inspiring 20-minute sequences of music ever recorded, covering everything from beautiful orchestral soul ballads to the dark nihilism of the title track, and all points in between.â

Wilson declares himself a fan of Hackettâs other early solo albums, and also an enthusiast of his more recent work: âItâs been inspiring to hear how Steveâs last few albums have recaptured the very best of that 70s work, but with a modern twist. His music is epic and musically dazzling â but always retains great songwriting and melody at its core.â
While Hackettâs recent solo albums have many merits, Squackett arguably has greater commercial potential. Whether that potential will be fully realised may depend on how much time and effort the musicians put into promoting it. Hackett relishes the opportunity to continue the partnership: âThereâs a sense of harmony between us. Nobody was trying to knock anyone down.â But itâs unclear whether Squackett will tour â Squireâs schedule with Yes having nixed a potential opportunity to play at last yearâs High Voltage festival in London.
âI would like to think thereâs time in the midst of our busy schedules to play live together,â admits Hackett. âBut I donât want to make promises I canât keep.â He continues to put in plenty of time on the road. âMy attitude is that the clock is ticking for me. I love playing live. I do it because I must. I always want to do everything at 100 miles an hour. I think Chris has a more measured approach.â





