The Ian Anderson Interview - Part 3
EMI continues to remaster the Tull catalog and I had the opportunity to review the first three releases. What's in store for the next batch?
That's a sore point. Not a sore point with me so much, but a sore point with EMI because I keep promising (laughs). I ran across an old photograph to send them a couple of days ago, and some of the other missing master tapes the week before, and I still have to write the liner notes about the early days next week. There are three new releases planned for the end September, beginning of October, which are Warchild, Minstrel In The Gallery, and Too Old To Rock N' Roll. There have been several more that have already been remastered, which I've got, and they haven't been released yet. I was looking in my studio, and there are three or four others that I haven't really checked out yet because we remastered pretty much everything in the early months of this year.
Last year, with the Beatles and Pink Floyd, there was an urgency to redo their stuff with the new generation of mastering hardware that's been around now for a year or so, and is now fairly well proven. So, obviously the bigger and more sensational acts tend to monopolize the time at Abbey Road for using up all that remastering stuff. But we were in the queue, and we got some of ours done towards the end of last year and during the early part of this year. I would say we probably got two-thirds to three-quarters of the material that could be used is now mastered....is now safely on hard disc at 24-bit/96k resolution. In terms of digital quality, it is now safely stored and, for all intents and purposes as far as the human ear can now discern digital at that standard, is really indistinguishable from analog.
The latest digital technology is a great improvement. In fact, yesterday I just ordered a new 24-bit mastering machine for my studio because, I guess, from here on in, anything I do in the studio will have to be at 24-bit. I don't really want to make any more 16-bit masters. Unfortunately, from '86 onwards until now, they're all at 16-bit because like everyone else I mastered them in the DAT format -- a 16-bit format that really defines the quality of the masters from there on. People might say there's no point in remastering anything from '86 onwards because it's already as good as it can be, but, in fact, there are substantial improvements that can be made from those original digital mixes. There are better converters, from analog to digital, digital to analog. You can actually get a better quality of 16-bit performance now than was the case a few years ago. But they're never going to be 24-bit, put it that way. Unfortunately, I stopped using the analog tape, I think about in '88. And so there are no analog master mixes. All the multi-tracks are analog, but the mixes were digital from then on. So it's only pre-86 that there's a real major benefit to be derived from remastering.
Have you ever considered doing any DVD-Audio or DTS releases?
It's sort of inevitable, but I certainly wouldn't be going back to do surround sound mixes of all Jethro Tull's albums. I just wouldn't. Not only would I not want to do it personally because it's an enormous amount of work; it just wouldn't capture, it would never sound the same. I actually don't really like surround sound music. I've worked with the medium extensively. In the early 70s, we did three albums, which I mixed in quadraphonic, and I found it a pretty daft business, really! I decided it was a bit irritating in order to justify the medium -- scattering instruments around in the audio field in such ways that makes people feel they don't defile you for money by hearing some guitar solo coming over their left shoulder. What's the point? It's actually irritating acoustically, disruptive and confusing. I'm not a big fan of surround sound in that context.
In a live performance, there's some justification for doing it. There's some justification in wrapping some of the sound around the ambience, but people would listen to my mixes and say, 'Oh they're far too subtle, it just sounds like stereo with a little bit of reverb coming from behind my head.' What the hell do you want? If you want to go and see some psychedelia in action, then I suppose you could surround sound mix some of that sort of music that might go with it. But most music I don't think really benefits from it at all.
I'm all for improving the bit rate of ...future music, DVD or whatever you want to call it. I think if we're ever going to do some surround sound, I'll probably limit it to a 'Best Of' album. I'm not sure I'd want to go back and tamper with the stereo mixes; you'll never get it to sound the same again, that's the thing. Mostly, analog tapes are unplayable; there's simply no chance of going back and working with all the analog tapes. The oxide started falling off years ago (laughs) and they're virtually unplayable now. I do have two or three that I did copy over to multi-track...for instance Aqualung, and I think, Thick As A Brick, and a few others were copied. We did some multi-track-to-multi-track transfers, so they ought to be good for a few more plays, but certainly we don't have all the albums.
Let me ask you about your upcoming solo tour. I understand that you'll be collaborating with radio personalities and having special guests, telling stories, taking questions from the audience...
Of course, it will be structured because anything like that, you know, you do have to have an underlying structure, not so much a free-for-all. The idea is to create a more intimate concert, focusing on more acoustic performances. I'll have some other musicians with me, but not Jethro Tull members.
Will you be performing Tull songs as well as your solo material?
Absolutely. There will be some Tull songs that we'll do in an acoustic format that will be quite different from the originals. We'll do some of the Tull acoustic things that I guess I'm known for. There'll be a few solo pieces. Yeah, we'll have some audience folks involved, a couple of guests from each location, and a radio person or two who will co-present the concert. It's really taking the sort of thing I do when I go to radio stations and play a few songs. It's really taking that context into a greater live, public performance. It's something I'm familiar with.
And what I like about it is the fact that it is very improvisational. Once you've thrown things open to people to have some input, whether it's the co-presenters, the audience members or other guests, then no two nights are ever going to be the same. There's always going to be some different stuff going on. And that appeals to me because it is a little bit on-the-edge-of-your-chair kind of thing. For me, as a performer and musician, I've got to be pretty alert and paying attention (laughs). It's all going to be different people, different personalities, but still primarily a musical performance. Two-thirds music, one-third talk show -- that's the way to describe it.
Sort of like VH1's Storytellers?
I'm not a TV watcher. I'm not a fan of music television of any sort, I'm afraid (laughs).
Ian, one last question: Are there any plans for a new Tull album or solo album?
There are certainly plans for some recording. I have a whole bunch of new songs I've been working on for the last few months, but unfortunately no time to get to the studio to start recording until probably November this year when I'll be finished up with touring. One reason or another, I'm just very busy at the moment. I have a couple of other projects I've promised to do for other people, which unfortunately I'm way behind on. I'll be working in the studio again from November through the first few months of next year. Yes, there'll be a new album, I guess, scheduled for sometime during the course of next year -- but whether it's a Jethro Tull one or a solo one, I'm not really sure yet. I know the other guys have got some other plans too, so I guess we'll talk about that during the next few weeks.
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