Yes/Asia: Only Time Will Tell

Carl Palmer

JamBase: I think Emerson, Lake & Palmer's album covers were some of my first truly psychedelic experiences as a teen when I began experimenting with weed.

Carl Palmer: Well, we've all gone through that, haven't we? [laughs]

JamBase: One can hope. It's neat to see you back with Asia. It seemed a project where all four guys were really having a blast.

Carl Palmer: The first year it was a lot of fun, the second year it went sour quickly personality-wise. So, that's why we stopped it even though we had colossal success commercially, being No. 1 [on album charts] for nine weeks, as well as a top single for seven consecutive weeks. We've been back together for about three years now, and we decided to come back basically for the 25th anniversary. We've toured Japan, Europe and America several times and it's very easy and we're able to keep our own individual personalities. I've got my own band and [Asia] can run alongside whatever else we're doing and still do enough work for it to be serious, which we are about it.

This is a pretty serious group just in terms of the musicianship. You four collectively have more chops than most groups out there.

We have quite a thoroughbred history attached to the band. That's nice, but it can be a hindrance at times. The fact that the group had such success as an entity on its own is a nice thing to be attached to. So, we do draw from the past; we play music from ELP, King Crimson and The Buggles, that hit that they had with the video on TV in the U.S. We couldn't have done that when we started because it would have looked like a weakness; now it looks like a strength. We're all very happy with that.

Prior to Asia's debut in 1982, there'd been some pop success in your other projects but nothing specifically designed to be pop music except for Geoff's work in The Buggles. Asia struck me as you guys trying your hand in that realm.

The first album, to be honest with you, I consider one of the best albums I've made in terms of balance. I find that the first Asia album did have the prog rock influence in things like "Time Again" and "Cutting It Fine." "Wildest Dreams" is also on the proggy side. There was more than "Only Time Will Tell" and "Heat of the Moment," the pop stuff. We never achieved that again, we went too poppy, which was a mistake. The new album, Phoenix, is a lot more somber - beautiful melodies, well orchestrated and the playing doesn't have anyone show off unnecessarily. It's in its own category of where we are today. It's quite an honest musical picture of what the band's all about as we speak. When you put all those influences and ingredients together it's a nice show. The band is well balanced now, which is much nicer than it was before.

For you, as a drummer, what does this project bring you that's different than that wide open landscape you had in Emerson, Lake & Palmer and some of the more compositional stuff you do in your own band?

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

This is a lot more restrictive from the point of view of having to play to the song. I'm involved with a lot more instrumental music now with my own band. This music with Asia, I've sort of grown up with it, in a way. I was 30 when the band started and I'm 58 now, so there's a lot of attachment to it over the years. We've always stayed very friendly with each other – England's a very small space. For me, it's about having fun. I don't take it over-seriously; I just play it. It's just a nice alternative to be part of it, because the classical, instrumental prog rock that I am part of quite seriously in Europe – Germany, Austria, places like that where I play all the time with my group – that's a full-on musical expression. It takes up a lot of time and it's incredibly energetic and extremely hard work, and this is kind of easy. It's not that I don't take it seriously but they're radio friendly songs. They were very adult in their approach on Phoenix, so it's a much calmer existence. It's nice to have light and shade.

That's something one picks up on as a listener with Asia. It isn't as exhaustingly taxing as some of the other music you're all involved in [laughs].

We take an intermission now. We play for about an hour and 15 minutes, and then take a 15-minute break before coming back for another hour or so, and it seems to work out well. I can't say it's easy listening but it's on the commercial side. There are as many women in the audience as there are guys. At my concerts, for example, all you'll find is rangy guys. This goes across the board, female and male. It's the same demographic as we are – forties to sixties – and some of them are bringing their kids, which is nice. It is open to the female side of life, which makes it different as well. That's the way it is so I have fun with it.

I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about the chances for an Emerson, Lake & Palmer reunion. There's a faction in the States that would love to see another big U.S. tour.

Carl Palmer

All I can say to them is, "Not this week." I can't deny that Emerson, Lake & Palmer has been a major part of my life, and we're still all heavily involved in the band because we own all our recordings and publishing. We have various distribution deals around the world and we're involved with any remastering and bits and pieces like that. So, all in all, we are together but there are no plans to play or record or do anything. But you never know, do you? How long is a piece of string? No one would have thought Asia would come back together after 23 years.

I'll be very, very honest with you and say I'm in no rush to do Emerson, Lake & Palmer again. Nothing against the music, I play a lot of classical adaptations that weren't written by ELP in my own band, and I play some original pieces I wrote with my own band. I'm still very fond of the music. I'm still deeply attached to it, and the instrumental side of Emerson, Lake & Palmer is obviously very dear to me. I've carried on that, but as far as getting the three of us back together to play, it's not something that's on anyone's agenda BUT it's not something that couldn't be.

If we were to reform – which would be the third time, incidentally - the only thing that I really have to bring the hammer down on is I personally work with some really great, young musicians and they're FANTASTIC players. So, as long as everybody was up to speed and prepared to give it their all, including the same theatrical and production input, then obviously anything can happen. It's bad when you start to water down what you used to be or what you used to do. I don't like to see that for bands – and I'm not saying for one minute that Emerson, Lake & Palmer would do that – but it would have to be at least where we finished off and then we'd have to move the bar upwards again.

The ELP question was more out of general curiosity than a personal desire to see you on stage again with Greg and Keith. I'm always most interested and engaged when it's clear the musicians are reveling in their creation together, and sometimes that's not with the band that made them famous as time goes by.

To be honest with you, I started my band because the music is still very, very important to me. I couldn't go out and play like Emerson, Lake & Palmer because I'm only the Palmer in ELP. I don't want to be copying it. It's one of the reasons I have a guitar player and not a keyboard player. I want to be setting another standard in another area. To be honest, years ago if we could have had a guitar player that could have joined Emerson, Lake & Palmer and played the stuff we wanted him to play, say like the chap I have in my band [Paul Bielatowicz], then we would have had them, but the standard was just not that high then. So, this is just something that I would have had years ago that I can do in my own band. I can use a guitar player but I wouldn't use a keyboard player; that'd be so silly. This way it's fresh and a way to be original in the classical adaptations that I really am fond of. They mean a lot to me - I am a European. I love taking this music into the rock environment.

I've even recorded a whole version of Pictures at an Exhibition. I've taken the songs out and stayed more true to Mussorgsky's arrangements, but it's done as a power classical rock trio, and I've recorded that live. All of my [Carl Palmer Band] albums have been recorded live so far, because of my agreement with the company. I'm very close to that music, so to say if Emerson, Lake & Palmer would ever come back in their natural form as it was years ago, well, I'm always open to anything like that because I'm still deeply involved with it anyway. The music means a lot to me, and the same with Asia – that's why I do it.