0:09

Hi everybody, welcome to a very special Parkourport

0:11

interview. We have the great Ian Anderson of Jethro

0:13

Toll here. Ian, how are you? Well,

0:16

about the same as yesterday, but at my age, that's the

0:18

best I can hope for. Wonderful.

0:21

Well, joining me is Jeff Bailey here,

0:23

who's a big longtime Jethro Toll fan,

0:25

and we wanted a chance to get

0:28

to ask a few questions. There's a

0:30

new album out. coming out on March

0:32

7th called Curious Ruminant, another fantastic record,

0:34

your third in almost three years. You

0:38

know, talk about what's been

0:40

so inspirational for you over the last few

0:42

years that has given you this creative

0:45

kind of renaissance, I guess, I don't know.

0:47

I mean, it

0:49

seems pretty exciting. You look

0:51

back at the history of the most recent

0:53

recordings, then

0:57

The Zealot Gene which was

0:59

released in 2022 that actually

1:01

began the first recordings were

1:04

done in 2017 but due

1:06

to the pressure of

1:08

touring concerts and then

1:11

COVID it didn't get

1:13

finished until 2022 and

1:15

then the next one

1:17

was recorded and released a

1:19

year later and then May

1:21

of last year I started

1:23

work on what was to

1:26

become curious ruminant. But

1:28

we have to remember also

1:30

in the new millennium there

1:32

have been many, many solo

1:34

records, live recordings, compilation

1:37

albums, remixes, reissues,

1:40

all that stuff has been constant

1:43

stream of material for the Jethro

1:45

Tull fans who want to dip

1:47

into the into their

1:49

pockets and shell out some

1:51

dosh to buy something either

1:53

new or reworked. So there's

1:55

been a constant stream of

1:57

material. When it comes to

2:00

doing a new album, it's just, you

2:02

know, whenever the time is right, as

2:04

the time is right, the visitation of

2:06

the muse won't get turned down, preferably.

2:09

preferably she should book an appointment in

2:11

advance, but that doesn't always happen. Sometimes

2:14

just a surprise encounter and you have

2:16

a little notion planted in your head,

2:18

an idea for something, a song or

2:20

a title. And

2:23

I think then and

2:25

now, by then I

2:27

mean in 1970 or

2:29

now, when you

2:31

have that germ of an idea, it's

2:33

good to get on with it. Don't

2:37

sit fiddling with it, just get

2:39

on with it. Time is too

2:41

short and you always have to

2:44

be aware that you may not

2:46

be around to do something with

2:48

it six months later or a

2:50

year later, so get on with

2:52

it while you can. And at

2:54

the moment, my mental and physical

2:57

capabilities allow me to think about

2:59

not only a new album, but

3:01

a whole series of tours. I'm

3:04

just signed off on

3:06

some to,

3:08

well, a UK tour next

3:10

April, May, and

3:13

with other things to come in

3:15

2026. And so you kind of

3:17

feel a little bit confident about

3:20

being able to do that. And

3:22

clearly with each passing year, there

3:24

is a finite horizon when it

3:26

comes to having those mental and

3:29

physical capabilities. It will draw to

3:31

a close sooner or later. hopefully

3:33

later rather than sooner but you

3:36

know I'm prepared for the worst.

3:45

It seems that the fan bases have

3:47

been as interested as ever to add

3:50

on to what you were just saying

3:52

with all the stuff that's available and

3:54

the new albums with social media. This

3:57

has to be a whole new world

3:59

that you're now getting into. Do you

4:01

pay attention to that? Are you still

4:03

interested in what the fans are saying

4:06

and getting those comments back in 2025?

4:13

as uninterested as I was

4:15

back in 1968 -69 because

4:17

I think there's a degree

4:19

to which it's nice if

4:22

someone gives you a little

4:24

smile or asks for an

4:26

autograph at the right time.

4:30

But I don't depend on

4:32

it and I certainly don't

4:34

want to be smothered with

4:37

affection or congratulatory. communications

4:40

from people. I'm

4:42

embarrassed by it. You

4:44

know, people want to be negative and nasty. Well,

4:47

I haven't got much time for that either. So

4:49

I've never, although we have

4:51

a presence obviously on social media

4:53

on a number of platforms, which

4:55

professionally speaking, we are rather obliged

4:57

to do. But in

5:00

terms of personal communication,

5:02

I absolutely no interest

5:04

in reading people's Twitterings.

5:08

Whatever it's called these days, whatever

5:10

battery man calls it these X

5:12

isn't it's called X. You

5:16

know so it's all of

5:18

these. Dependencies

5:20

that people have seemingly on

5:22

social media particularly when you

5:25

know people who are blogging

5:27

or in some way making

5:29

their presence felt they they

5:31

count. The the happiness

5:33

of their days in how many

5:35

followers they have gained and they

5:38

fall into desperate Senses of malaise

5:40

and self -loathing because the number

5:42

of followers is reduced It's a

5:45

it can really play havoc with

5:47

your life who take too much

5:49

notice of what people think of

5:52

you just have the confidence in

5:54

your own ability and your own

5:56

sense of who you are and

5:59

don't rely on other people to

6:02

Somehow bolster Some insecurity or lack

6:04

of confidence that it's not good

6:06

for the soul So no, I

6:09

don't personally do social media There

6:11

are other people who do it

6:13

on my behalf in the sense

6:16

of making sure people are aware

6:18

of what's going on but not

6:20

not to to and fro with

6:23

Conversations whether they're upbeat and friendly

6:25

or negative and destructive. I just

6:27

haven't got you know really time

6:30

or inclination for

6:32

that kind of discourse. So

6:35

I'm not that I'm old fashioned so

6:37

much as I do. I'm

6:40

at the front of,

6:43

in terms of operating programs

6:45

and software, in terms of

6:47

the things that I really

6:49

do need to do, musically

6:52

speaking, I'm using advanced stuff

6:54

in terms of digital recording.

6:56

And when it comes to

7:00

photography, for example. I mean,

7:02

I'm up there with a

7:05

state of the art in

7:07

terms of what I do

7:09

and delivering finished product to

7:11

people. So, I mean, I

7:14

think I'm not a person

7:16

who lives in a sublime

7:18

dislocated period of either analogue

7:20

or old fashioned values. I'm

7:22

very much in touch with

7:25

what's happening today, including what's

7:27

happening in terms

7:29

of news and current affairs

7:31

and politics and religious strife

7:33

and all the other things

7:35

that beset our increasingly crowded

7:37

planet. Well

7:39

Ian, just linking on from that,

7:43

I was reading the other day something

7:45

you said around about the time that

7:47

the JTUL .com album came out where

7:49

you talked about using high -tech processes

7:51

to make low -tech music. Do

7:54

you want to tell us a

7:56

bit about how does the Jethro

7:58

Tull album come together in 2024

8:00

-2025 because you have a sort

8:02

of core active band but do

8:04

they work together or is it

8:06

working separately or a combination of

8:08

the that? Well essentially

8:11

nothing really changes a lot you know

8:13

most of most of what's on this

8:15

record and most of what's on the

8:17

previous two records began with you know

8:20

a bunch of guys in this rehearsal

8:22

studio playing their instruments in real time

8:24

and working out the

8:26

arrangements and parts to record. But

8:29

they're then slots into place,

8:32

the more deliberate process of

8:34

adding final vocals and flutes

8:37

and other overdubbed bits and

8:39

bobs and the mixing and

8:42

mastering and all of that

8:44

becomes a lot more, a

8:47

lot more technical and a

8:49

lot more objective. But

8:52

I like a song to begin in a

8:55

an organic way where, you know, it

8:57

comes from an idea that I have

8:59

and maybe I make a simple demo

9:01

or I write some guideline notes to

9:03

the other guys as to what it's

9:05

about so that they come into rehearsal

9:07

with a good idea of what it

9:09

is that we're going to do. And

9:13

so, you know, the process is, I

9:15

think, very much the same as it

9:18

always was. And even though

9:20

I use the

9:25

digital recording process with seemingly

9:27

unlimited tracks at my disposal,

9:30

I tend only to ever

9:32

use in reality, maybe 20

9:34

or 24 tracks, just like

9:37

I did in the days

9:39

of analog recording. I

9:41

tend to employ what is

9:43

called destructive recording. In

9:46

other words, rather like analog tape, if you

9:48

go over to record on top of something,

9:50

it is gone forever. those

9:54

previous takes have vanished. They can't

9:56

be recovered. And I like

9:58

that. I like to make decisions. So when

10:00

I record digitally, I

10:02

know the instant I've made

10:04

a mistake or done something

10:06

not very good, I

10:09

stop, I stop, wind back, drop in

10:11

again, and whatever I did is gone.

10:13

I don't want to keep it. I

10:15

don't keep lots of useless takes of

10:17

bad music. It seems utterly pointless to

10:19

do that. It's just more stuff to

10:21

have to go through later. But

10:23

other musicians have got used to, dare

10:25

I say, maybe got lazy about making

10:27

decisions along the way. And they want

10:29

to do, you know, keep 10 takes

10:32

of drums and the drum tracks, you

10:34

know, could have eight or nine or

10:36

10 different tracks devoted just to drums

10:38

times 10 takes. It's so much to

10:40

have to go and listen to. I

10:42

don't want to be in the room

10:44

when that's going on. I just I

10:46

just just just haven't, you know, I'd

10:48

rather I'd rather go and you

10:51

know, God, I think I'd rather do

10:53

social media than sit in the room

10:55

with a drummer going through all the

10:58

the the the outtakes looking for the

11:00

the perfect one. So go

11:02

ahead. And linking in with that, I

11:04

suppose, I mean, there has been a

11:07

lot of interest in the reissues. And,

11:09

you know, a lot of that is

11:11

looking back over over over the past

11:13

and the history. Are you Are you

11:16

very closely connected to that or is

11:18

that something that kind of comes to

11:20

you as a sort of partially packaged

11:22

thing that you then approve or how

11:25

closely you're involved in that? Well,

11:27

it differs from a re

11:30

-release to re -release, but

11:32

you know, sometimes I'm confident

11:34

about whoever's doing any remixing

11:37

or surround sound mixing that

11:39

I'm quite happy just to

11:41

listen to work in progress

11:43

and sign off on it

11:46

at the end. Sometimes

11:48

if there's a lot of material

11:50

in a booklet, you know, to

11:52

go with the album, then I

11:54

will be involved with that to

11:56

a greater or lesser degree. But,

11:59

you know, I'm very happy

12:02

for other people to shoulder

12:04

the burden of that because

12:06

my job I

12:09

felt was done when I did the

12:11

original recording. And although

12:13

I can accept that there are

12:16

different ways to present that, particularly

12:18

with surround sound or Dolby Atmos

12:20

and different formats for different people's

12:22

preferences, whether it's streaming, downloading or

12:24

purchasing a vinyl version of it,

12:26

you know, then, I mean, all

12:28

of those things are choices you

12:30

give to people, which I

12:32

think is appropriate for this day

12:34

and age that people have and

12:37

probably expect to be able to

12:39

choose a format or formats that

12:41

are their preferred way of listening.

12:45

So all of those things are part and

12:47

parcel of re -releases and box sets and

12:49

all the rest of it. And,

12:52

you know, yes, of course,

12:54

I am involved and sometimes

12:56

heavily involved. Sometimes I'm there

12:58

really as a chairman of

13:00

the board, you know, I

13:02

come in for a meeting

13:04

just to sound important and

13:06

then Sign

13:09

the annual account. There

13:11

you go. I want to

13:13

make sure we talk about the new

13:15

album, Curious Ruminant, again out on March

13:17

7th. Talk about the concept for

13:19

the record and how you approached the writing for this

13:21

one. What were you trying to go for on this

13:24

album? Well, it began

13:26

with a piece of music that

13:28

my son sent to me from

13:30

an old computer, the computer that

13:33

we're dedicated for use for recording.

13:36

And he was about to trash it and smash up

13:38

the hard disk because it was just that old computer

13:40

lying around his house. But

13:42

he came across some various

13:44

files. He thought he'd better

13:46

check with me to make

13:48

sure that I didn't want

13:50

them. And one of

13:52

the things he sent me

13:54

was a track that I

13:56

immediately recognized as having made

13:58

back in 2007 as a

14:00

demo for a piece of

14:02

music. I proposed to play

14:05

with Harry Prasad Chirazi, the

14:07

Indian classical flautist, I mean

14:09

traditional bamboo flute flautist, that

14:11

we were going to hopefully

14:13

play together on some concerts

14:15

in India and Dubai. But

14:18

he decided he preferred to do a traditional

14:20

Indian raga, so we ended up playing that.

14:22

And this piece of music, which

14:25

had been recorded as a demo

14:27

with Andrew Giddings, our then keyboard

14:29

player and me, just the two

14:31

of us, It

14:33

sat doing nothing until

14:35

May of last year

14:37

when I thought, wow,

14:39

this is an amazing

14:42

duet for two flutes.

14:44

And it had lots

14:46

of empty space in

14:48

the demo where unfinished

14:50

ideas, other people solo

14:52

and whatever could be

14:55

interspersed with the flute

14:57

themes. And it

14:59

was 18 minutes long. So

15:01

I edited it down and

15:03

kept Andy's original keyboard parts

15:05

and re -recorded some flutes

15:07

and bass, guitars,

15:10

drums, cajon. And

15:13

the first thing I did actually

15:15

was to write the lyrics when

15:17

I heard it. I

15:19

thought I'm going to write lyrics and then see

15:21

how I can put all that together. And

15:26

it was the first piece that I worked

15:28

on for the new album. I didn't complete

15:30

it because I was waiting for the availability

15:32

of some of the other guys in the

15:34

band to perform their parts. But

15:36

it was the first one that

15:38

I began work on. The second

15:40

one was, I think, Curious Ruminant,

15:42

which in a way set a

15:45

tone for the album in describing

15:47

my daily habit of acquiring some

15:49

new knowledge that I didn't have

15:51

yesterday. and having

15:53

acquired some raw data onto

15:56

this seemingly infinite cranial hard

15:58

disk up here, I

16:01

like to mull it over, to think

16:03

about it, put it into perspective in

16:05

terms of my own life and time.

16:08

So that's a daily habit of mine,

16:10

is to try and learn some new

16:12

stuff every day. And

16:15

sometimes that might...

16:17

could figure in something that

16:20

becomes a song lyric Other

16:22

times it's just for the

16:25

sake of having the knowledge

16:27

and giving it consideration and

16:29

putting alongside the rest of

16:32

that mental encyclopedia cerebral encyclopedia

16:34

So that that that was

16:36

the kind of principle of

16:39

the that title track and

16:41

in a way became symbolic

16:44

of the songs on the

16:47

album as a whole. So

16:49

whilst it's not a concept

16:51

album, the songs do feel

16:53

to me like they belong

16:55

on the same record. They

16:57

are comrades walking hand in hand.

17:00

They feel like they belong on the

17:02

same record. And that's something I like

17:04

to feel. And I

17:06

had that with Aquilon. You know, that wasn't

17:08

a concept album either, but the songs felt

17:10

like they belonged in two

17:13

different kind of ways, in two different

17:15

batches of songs, they felt like they

17:17

belonged together. And

17:19

indeed they were drawn together by

17:21

being separated into side one and

17:23

side two on what then was

17:26

a vinyl album only. And

17:28

also in terms of the artwork

17:30

and the liner notes and the

17:32

presentation, it gave it more of

17:34

a feeling of being a cohesive

17:36

album than it might otherwise have

17:38

had. But it still didn't make

17:40

it a concept album. And this

17:42

too is not a concept album.

17:44

It is a collection of songs.

17:47

But they're songs that seem to

17:49

belong in the same time and

17:51

space, even on vinyl. Yeah.

17:55

Yeah, that's it. Strikes

17:57

me even over those last

17:59

three albums is that you you

18:01

take that kind of rumination the

18:04

source whether it's from you

18:06

know the Bible or in

18:08

the zealot gene or the Norse

18:10

mythology and Rockfoot and Relate

18:12

that to you know current

18:14

current Issues and thinking which I

18:17

think I think is it's

18:19

a very unusual kind of

18:21

approach, but it's Fantastic. Well, yeah,

18:23

on those two records on

18:25

the zealot gene and rock

18:27

flutter, it was knowledge that I

18:30

largely did not have. So

18:32

having decided on making a record on

18:34

a particular broad topic, then I had

18:36

to go and acquire that knowledge. So

18:38

that was a deliberate investigative piece of

18:43

work and daily effort to try

18:45

and acquire the material. But

18:48

this album is not researched in

18:50

advance at all. In fact, although

18:53

there might have been some checking of

18:55

facts and some information, but most of

18:57

it was It

18:59

was really off the top

19:01

of my head. I wasn't

19:04

acquiring... I wasn't glued into

19:06

Wikipedia or other sources of

19:08

information in order to do

19:10

some preparatory research to write

19:12

these songs. They just came

19:14

from up here and from

19:16

in here. They were just

19:18

much more personal and perhaps

19:20

more evocative of thoughts, impressions

19:22

and some opinions that I

19:24

already have. But I'm

19:26

careful not to preach and I

19:28

don't want to... Don't be able

19:30

to think that I'm telling them

19:33

what they should believe but it's

19:35

nice to Give people the ammunition

19:37

to form their own their own

19:39

thoughts if not conclusions at least

19:41

Steer them in a certain path

19:43

as a result of giving something

19:46

a bit more time

19:48

and credibility is a topic. Ian,

19:50

I think that's our time with you. I know you're really

19:52

busy and there's a lot of people that wanted to get

19:54

a chance to talk to you, so appreciate your time, Ian.

19:57

Always a pleasure talking to you. Thank

19:59

you for continuing to make new music.

20:01

Congratulations on the new album, Curious Ruminant,

20:04

again available on March 7th. A couple

20:06

of tracks out now, the title track

20:08

in Tipu House, both fantastic. Really

20:10

cool animation on the videos, by the way. Really neat

20:12

stuff. Nothing whatsoever to do with

20:14

me. It's just a person.

20:17

a very accomplished video maker that the

20:19

record company came up with, and he

20:21

gets a relatively free hand. I mean,

20:23

I don't impose myself too much on

20:26

what he does. I mean, there's a

20:28

couple of little things along the way.

20:30

I'll say, actually, that doesn't work, or

20:32

this is incorrect as a reference point.

20:35

But basically, he has a free hand.

20:37

And I think the end result is

20:39

quite different in terms of video making.

20:42

But it's It's

20:44

not the way I would do it

20:46

for sure, but then that's part and

20:48

parcel of working with somebody else. They

20:51

bring a different vision to something that,

20:53

after all, is a piece of promo

20:55

material that's ultimately, it's

20:57

there to serve a

20:59

purpose and present an

21:01

idea of a song

21:03

that people will, on

21:05

first hearing, be Hopefully

21:09

amused by so yes, but I

21:11

can't take credit for it or

21:13

or indeed if you didn't like

21:15

it, I can't take the blame

21:18

either Okay, well, thank you, sir.

21:20

Have a great rest of your

21:22

day. Yeah, same to you. Great.

21:24

Thank you. Bye bye. Bye bye.

21:26

Bye Hey, thanks for checking out

21:28

the podcast Don't forget to subscribe to your YouTube channel

21:30

wherever you get your podcasts follow us on all our

21:32

socials and park report comm and we'll see you all

21:34

again real soon. Thanks