01	The Secret Language of Birds						04:17
	02	The Little Flower Girl						03:36
	03	Montserrat						03:19
	04	Postcard Day						05:03
	05	The Water Carrier						02:54
	06	Set-Aside						01:26
	07	A Better Moon						03:45
	08	Sanctuary						04:38
	09	The Jasmine Corridor						03:53
	10	The Habanero Reel						03:59
	11	Panama Freighter						03:19
	12	The Secret Language of Birds, PT II						03:04
	13	Boris Dancing						03:06
	14	Circular Breathing						03:43
	15	The Stormont Shuffle						04:10
	16	Introduction For The Next Track						00:08
	17	In The Grip Of Stronger Stuff						02:49
	18	Thick As A Brick (Abstract)						02:37

Ian Anderson: The Secret Language of Birds

Ian Anderson, vocals, flute, acoustic guitar, bouzouki, acoustic bass guitar, mandolin, percussion, piccolo;
Andrew Giddings, accordion, piano, organ, marimba, percussion, electric bass, keyboards, orchestral sounds;
with
Gerry Conway, drums;
Darren Mooney, drums;
James Duncan, drums;
Martin Barre, electric guitar

This album is due to be released March 6th. Here is the official press release provided to me by Jan Voorbij at http://www.cupofwonder.com.

On March 6th Papillon/ Roadrunner Records is to release 'THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF BIRDS' the new solo album from Ian Anderson. While Anderson is best known as the leader of Jethro Tull, his third and latest solo album sees a more pastoral approach as he returns to his roots.

"For 31 years, I've been the unplugged guy in a rock and roll band, but I always like to come back to the simple and essential elements of singer/songwriter music."

"Although I wasn't very brave at the beginning of Tull, by the time we made the 'Aqualung' album I had included 3 or 4 genuine acoustic pieces, which were predominantly me playing alone in the studio with acoustic guitar, usually with a live vocal and maybe embellished with piano or a string quartet."

"For that reason I've always felt that the kind of acoustic album that I would make would probably sound like at least a part of Jethro Tull's history so I avoided it. But this time round I thought I'd do what I believe the fans expected of me; so I guess I'm doing the personal, sometimes introverted, sometimes humorous and sometimes quite revealing kind of music that wouldn't really work for me in the context of Jethro Tull. This is just me in the studio doing my rather private little thing with a few musicians who kindly came along to adorn the product."

Anderson resides in the South West of England, a rural setting that provided part of the inspiration behind the record. "I don't get out and wander the countryside as much as I'd like to, for me it's more a state of mind. I tour the biggest and busiest cities of the world and when I come home I like the contrast and the peace, I'm eternally grateful that I can work from home."

"If you're lucky enough to live in the country, and wake up in the morning to the sound of birds, you may wonder sometimes what it is those birds actually see as the not so silent witnesses to bedroom shenanigans. In 'The Secret Language Of Birds' I'm imagining the ultimate in corny chat up lines, where the guy says to the girl 'Hey, come home with me and learn the secret language of birds!"

"There are several tracks on this record which make considerable reference to visual images, often specific images by specific artists. Like many people of my generation, I began not as a musician but actually studying painting, therefore everything I write does have a visual reference. Indeed the track 'The Little Flower Girl' comes from the painting of that name by Sir William Russell Flint, 'A Better Moon' refers to a work by Balraker while L.S.Lowry, who is famous for his townscapes peopled by matchstick-like figures, was somewhere in the back of my head while I was writing the song 'Circular Breathing'. Even the songs not directly connected to a painting or artist start from pictures, when I go on tour or holiday it is always visual references that are the genesis of the lyrics to my songs. I tend to be an illustrator in that sense, I use lyrics to substitute for the paintings I don't paint, it's my stock in trade."

"The favourite over-asked question is whether I write the music or lyrics first. It's never the same thing sometimes it's a title, a line of melody or a chord progression, or it can be more cerebral an intellectual proposition or a gut feeling that I want to express in words." "Sometimes the music comes and already has a degree of completeness and doesn't require to be developed necessarily with lyrics. Equally there are occasions when I think, I really like this lyric, what a shame I have to ruin it by putting it to music, but I'm not a poet and never wanted to be, so I end up having to find some music to go with them. Then again I can just have a nice little tune, but just scratch my head for hours and still not come up with a title I'm comfortable with. It often helps to have a title in the first place and a picture in my head, that's the ideal. It doesn't have to be a big colour glossy image, it could be a simple black & white, but the form, line and tone are just the same tools of expression that the visual artist uses, they all cross over very neatly in to the musical domain. The semantics are the same, but the end results are poles apart, yet in some ways irrevocably linked."

Anderson also explains the stories behind more of the tracks on 'THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF BIRDS', "I've always had a soft spot for Boris Yeltsin, I wrote the music to 'Boris Dancing' based on a visual image of a CNN news report from when Boris was seeking re-election. He was filmed in Red Square, sweating profusely, bright red in the face, boogieing frantically in front of a young Moscow rock band. He nearly died from a heart attack just a couple of days later. The song is in several rather difficult to follow time signatures, as when Boris was dancing he wasn't quite on the beat. 'Boris Dancing' is just a celebration of his strange, individual dance style."

"The song 'Postcard Day' is really about the point in mid-holiday when that sense of guilt comes upon you and you think 'God, I'd better send some postcards home, cos if I leave it to the end, we'll get home before they do' - which rather negates the point."

'Set Aside' probably doesn't mean a lot to our friends in North America, but the agricultural policies that are necessary, it would appear, in this day and age are to literally set aside areas of agricultural land in rotation, in order NOT to produce crops. The ridiculous irony is that although there are millions of starving people throughout the world. In richer Western countries farmers are actually being paid not to grow anything. This song dwells on the dereliction that attaches itself to farms and farmers from this policy, because it becomes a sadly infectious, depressive state of mind which visits itself upon those farmers who are intrinsically paid not to grow crops. It's a sad world, make the best of it."

"On a lighter note, I think quite a few people know that I'm keen on spicy food, particularly those who have visited our website . I use a lot of chilli peppers when I cook at home and the generally accepted number 10 strength killer is the habanero - in the Caribbean a close relative of this is the Scotch Bonnet, which I also refer to in this song. 'The Habanero Reel' is just an ode to capsicum, which gives off that excessive, burning heat. Of course, the best thing about it, as I say in the song, is that it is strictly legal!"

Ian Anderson is preparing to play a short series of low-key, acoustic club shows around the release of 'THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF BIRDS'. Subsequently, he is to tour Scandinavia and Eastern Europe with Jethro Tull, whose most recent album 'J-TULL.DOT COM' was released in autumn last year. Anderson will also be appearing in Venezuela, where he will be performing with the Caracas Symphony Orchestra. In addition Sky Choice will be broadcasting a major documentary on Ian Anderson during the week of release.

'THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF BIRDS', which features a stunning sleeve by celebrated artist Bogdan Zarkowski, will be released by Roadrunner on CD only - RR 8557-2.



Eric Porter:
This may be the solo CD every Tull fan has been licking their lips in anticipation of. Anderson's prior solo effort Divinities: 12 Dances with God was good (and also featured Andy Giddings), but was more keyboard based; this one has more of a folky feel, with most songs structured around Anderson's acoustic guitar and flute, with Giddings flavoring the tracks with various sounds from the keys. The title track was included on Tull's Dot Com release as a bonus, and was instantly one of my favorites from that disc. With its intricate instrumentation and excellent melodies, this one should be a classic at least in the Tull family.
"The Little Flower Girl" reminds me of the Songs From The Wood era, as do a few others. The Mid-Eastern sounds that have permeated the last two Tull releases find their way here on tracks like "The Water Carrier". In the back of the CD booklet, Ian devotes a sentence or two explaining the thoughts behind each track, which is interesting to read while listening. There is a track from "Divinities" and a version of the classic "Thick as a Brick" as a little treat at the end. Anyone who enjoys Tull tracks like "Mother Goose" and "Nursie" should love this; there is plenty of flute, guitar and Anderson's tales. An excellent CD from an under-appreciated songsmith.

Brandon Wu:
This is an almost entirely acoustic album that should remind Tull aficionados of that band's folkier outings. Completely unpretentious and based on conventional song forms, Anderson's third solo album is inoffensive, pleasant, and tuneful. Vaguely Celtic and Eastern influences weave their way periodically through the music, and throughout the orchestration is excellent: despite the relative paucity of instrumentalists, this is a very full-sounding album. The production is clean and clear, allowing the instruments - dominated by acoustic guitar and, of course, flute - to come through sunnily. The entire album is cheery; though I admit to paying little attention to lyrics, the lyrics here seem pretty average, neither terrible nor terribly good. "Progressive" elements are limited, for the most part, to a diverse array of timbres.
Aside from Tull, I am reminded here and there of Renaissance and, strangely enough, Mark Knopfler or Dire Straits. Although the album seems somewhat overly long to me - the light, airy sound wears thin after a full hour. However, I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys this sort of music.


conrad

Ian Anderson's first two solo albums were both strongly reminiscent of the Jethro Tull albums that preceded them, but were overall a more satisfactory listening experience. This third album continues the trend.
With the exception of Giddings' bass and a guest appearance by Martin Barre, this album is performed exclusively on acoustic instruments. The result is a very laid back album. Acoustic guitar, played with Anderson's distinctive sense of rhythm, dominates, while given support in places by Giddings on accordion of all things. The feel of the album harks back to the acoustic pieces from Living in the Past, but with the occasional Middle Eastern interjection reminding the listener of the most recent Tull album.

The liner notes contain "Some thoughts on the subject matter of the lyrics". While on the surface obscure, I personally found it helpful to understand what Anderson was getting at with each of his songs. Certainly "The Little Flower Girl" is a lot less worrying when you find out it's about a painter. A lyrical highlight for me is "Sanctuary", which combines Anderson's passion for animal welfare with imagery of society's ill treated.

In the end this album does not soar to the great heights that Tull once reached, but there is also little here to complain about. This is a good solid album that adds value to the later Jethro Tull catalogue. Tull completists will be glad they bought it, and some who think that Ian Anderson hasn't done anything decent since Songs From the Wood may be pleasantly surprised, though they won't necessarily rave about this album.

5-1-03








Ian Anderson Interview regarding Gentle Giant
By Arlo West, July 3, 1995

Ian Anderson is currently on tour supporting his wonderful new solo album and I caught up to him in Boston Massachusetts at the Orpheum Theater on June 1st 1995. His newest solo effort is an extreme departure from the Tull arena yet strikingly Tullish in it's Ian'esqueness. In other words it's everything the true Anderson fan could hope for and more. It's now 12:33 am the night before the Divinities show and I am using my computer to type up this quick interview and thinking how incredible these things ( computers ) are really. After all it was my computer which proved that there is still a lot of devoted Gentle Giant fans out there (considering their demise in 81 ) in cyber space and most are also big Tull fans as well. It may seem odd that anyone would want to interview a modern day minstrel such as Ian about a band that doesn't exist any more except in the fond memories and dusty record collections of its devoted fans. But that is the essence of it all there music seems to (if I may borrow a phrase from Ian) have a "timeless quality".

AW: Ian in 71 Gentle Giant went on tour with Tull do you remember them?

IA: Yes, I remember Gentle Giant well and still own many of their records.

AW: Their music is described frequently as being quirky, complex, and hauntingly beautiful, does this in anyway rekindle your recollection of them?

IA: My recollection places them in the "research and adventure" category and, at their best, they found exactly what they were looking for!

AW: Do you own any of there CD's? If so which is your favorite?

IA: I own no CD's of Gentle Giant, only original vinyl copies and somewhere I think there is even a single of "Kites" by Simon Dupree. A "Pictures of Matchstick Men" -like moment which some devotees might wish to forget.

AW: Kerry Minnear the Keyboard player would have made a great member of Tull were there ever any thoughts of hiring him when you were looking?

IA: Yes, we considered contacting Kerry but were told that he had, more or less, given up thoughts of music as a full-time profession along with Gary Green. I am not sure if this information was entirely accurate, but that's what we heard at the time.

AW: Did you know that in the fanzine "Proclamation" which is about G.G. Derek Shulman the lead vocalist listed Aqualung as one of his most liked albums and Gary Green the guitarist lists you personally as one of his favorite songwriters, and also in a "Proclamation" poll of G.G. fans Jethro Tull was voted #1 band in best other groups category?

IA: No I didn't know about the comments in the fanzine "Proclamation", but I am sure the mutual respect of the members of both bands would rank high.

AW: I have heard some traces of Tull in Gentle Giant but its seems to be a subtle interplay and not a blatant plagiarism. Does it feel strange to know that Tull and Gentle Giant seem to attract the same audience and share some similarities?

IA: Many of the influences common to Jethro Tull and Gentle Giant will have come to bear at around the same time in our separate musical developments and there is bound to be some similarity here and there in our musical styles and phrasings as well as attention to detail and the concern to improve as musicians.

AW: Can you share a moment or highlight that you would remember about Gentle Giant from the 71 tour?

IA: I have never heard a band scream, shout, rant and rave each other on an almost nightly basis as soon as they return to there dressing room. In this respect they did not give the impression of being happy bunnies.

AW: Would you have thought in 1971 that both Tull and Gentle Giant music would be so incredibly important to people and that the computer would play such a big part in the transfer of information about the bands to the extent that it has?

IA: No, I would not have anticipated the ongoing reverence for such bands especially in the light of technological communication, but I guess you also find gun collectors and paedophiles on the internet if you look hard enough. I think, on balance, I would rather discuss and/or reminisce regarding Gentle Giant over a civilised glass or two at a cocktail party rather than journey in disembodied trance through the mysterious world of, as you put it, Cyber space. However, each to there own.

AW: I find myself listening to Tull and Gentle Giant all year round but they seem to take on a special feel in the Fall. Do you find this to be a mere coincidence or is it that the music takes on a magical almost mystical quality during that time of the year?

IA: I do not understand this question. Is this when the Magic Mushrooms ripen!

AW: In the last years of Gentle Giants existence they put forth a couple of albums which were considered to be pop or commercial oriented that were heavily criticized by the progressive rock crowd. And I have myself got into a few heated discussions with folks about the reasons a band does this. Having been accused of this yourself do you have a few words of advice to these armchair critics who only see one side of a band and are not receptive to change?

IA: I remember a great deal of pressure on the part of Chrysalis Records and there management being exerted on Gentle Giant at the time to attain a more commercial level of success. I suspect some return on investment was required by record company and management alike and I would guess that at least some of the band would have really liked to enjoy the tangible benefits accruing to such a move for having struggled for so many years to support themselves as musicians. Personally, I believe their finest song to have been "Turning Around" from the final part of their career embracing as it does, all the legacy of their musicianship and eclectic interests together with a direct and relatively simple approach.

P.S. I did actually call Derek Shulman with regard to a possible reformation of Gentle Giant with a view to playing a few concerts together with Tull. As I expected, he did not think that it would be possible but, as I equally expected he was very, very pleased to be asked. I am sure all the boys from Gentle Giant are most flattered of the longstanding interest and affection demonstrated by their numerous fans in many countries. I am happy for them.

Yours sincerely, Ian Anderson

AW: Well that's it for now Ian thank you for your thoughts and time and good luck on the Divinities tour. We all will look forward to hearing the new Tull CD which is being released this fall!

This interview that I conducted with Ian was done in a rather strange way. I first typed up the questionnaire and brought it to the Divinities show thinking I may not be allowed a person to person interview as I was afforded in 1991. This was the case and upon entering the backstage area and meeting briefly with Kenny Wiley I was assured that Ian would receive the script. I enclosed the questions in a self addressed envelope and awaited it's return not knowing if there would be a response or not. There was today! I also would like to thank Glen and Laura Gamarat, Ralph Thompson, Kenny Wiley, Lou Maurice and especially Ian's assistant Heather Bunting.

Thank you very much Ian for taking the time.

Your friend in Maine,

Arlo...In my own funny ways I find I learn much more...West






Ian Anderson
By George Roldan & Thomas Connolly


When I think of the legendary artist and frontman for Jethro Tull, I think Ian Anderson. He is one of the most respected and well known musicians throughout the world of rock music. He is the flute and voice behind the band Jethro Tull, and in 2002 he has celebrated his 39th year as a recording and concert musician.

Jethro Tull was formed in 1968 out of the amalgamation of the John Evan Band and McGregor's Engine, two blues-based local UK groups. The group has released over 30 albums, selling more than 60 million copies since the band first performed at London's famous Marquee club.

Jethro Tull is also known for it's constant gigging. In 35 years the music of Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull has delighted audiences far and wide they have performed more than 2500 concerts in 40 countries. Tull plays typically 100 concerts each year to longstanding, as well as new fans worldwide.

The music of Jethro Tull can best be described as original with a sound that is so noticeable and accessible by anyone who loves music. Their music combines the influences and styles of Blues, Jazz, Folk, Rock, World Music and Classical elements thus creating the recipe that has feed our appetite for great music.

Ian Anderson is famously recognized as the man who introduced the flute to rock music, to this date, he remains at the top of his game. Ian also plays ethnic flutes and whistles together with acoustic guitar and the mandolin family of instruments, providing the acoustic textures which are an integral part of most of the Tull repertoire.

Anderson has recorded three solo albums in his career: 1983's eclectic-electric "Walk Into Light"; the flute instrumental "Divinities" album for EMI's Classical Music Division in 1995 which reached number one in the relevant Billboard chart, and the more recently recorded acoustic collection of songs, "The Secret Language of Birds", released in 2000.

New solo recordings are scheduled after the live Tull classic "Living With The Past" CD and DVD released in May 2002. In addition to Tull concert tours, further Ian Anderson solo concerts with orchestra and other acoustic shows are planned for 2002 - 2004.

He declares a lifelong commitment to music as a profession, being far too young to hang up his hat or his flute, although the tights and codpiece have long since been consigned to some forgotten bottom drawer.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IAN ANDERSON
Interview by Iggy & Thomas Connolly.

P4Y: This is Prog4you.com can I help you.
IAN: Fine. How are you, this is Ian Anderson.

P4Y: Good evening Ian, how are you?

IAN: I'm okay. Just tell me, what is Prog4U.com? haven't looked it up. Is it the Internet? A magazine?

P4Y: An Internet website strictly. We cater to progressive rock and we do interviews and we write reviews. And that's what we do, we love doing it and we do it for the music.

IAN: Wow. Okay. Right. Let's lodge into it.

P4Y: I'm George, and I am going to introduce you to my friend, Tom.

TOM: Hi.

P4Y: How was your vacation in July, Ian?

IAN: I was away for four days with my wife, just briefly taking a break, but it was enjoyable. But other than that, I've been working every day since I came back from the last U.S. tour.

P4Y: So you don't have much time off?

IAN: The other guys in Jethro Tull get quite a bit of time, I guess, to go and relax and take a vacation here and there. But somebody has to do all the other stuff; like doing this, for example, all the promotional stuff. It takes a lot of hours every day.

P4Y: Where are you right now?
IAN: I'm in my office in England.

P4Y: Let's go ahead. It's been 10 years since the last Jethro Tull album and now you have the CD and DVD, Living with the Past, and you are currently on tour to support this new album. So you had this break in July, and I guess, a few days off. Are you ready to go back on tour?

IAN: Yeah. I haven't done a concert for about three weeks now since I was in Germany doing a couple of shows with an orchestra there. And three weeks is a long time not to do a live performance. And so, you know, in an ideal world, I guess I would rather play a few shows on a fairly regular basis rather than do three months of touring and have three months off. That would be just the worse kind of scenario. I am someone who likes to play pretty regularly. But I wouldn't naturally choose to go away from home for a month at a time; it's just the economic reality of doing concert tours. Once you take a road crew, trucks and busses and sound and lights, all of the other people have to service them. You can't just do it for the weekends. You need to be out there doing it on a pretty regular basis, you know. When we're on tour, we average around six shows a week. That's the way we do it. The economics demand it.

P4Y: How has the U.S. tour been treating you so far?

IAN: Fine. We've been doing a lot of U.S. tours for a lot of years. It is a place we know pretty well. Interestingly, of course, there is, with such a large country, there is always the opportunity to play some towns and venues that we've never played before. And I think on every tour I tell our agents the kind of, the prerequisite of touring, is trying to find two or three places we've never played before, just for the variety and the intriguing possibility that you go on stage and no one knows who you are or has heard your music before. And if you play some town in some part of the country you've never been to you have that feeling you are not playing to an audience that is necessarily as fair and impartial or familiar with or has such realistic expectations, having seen you a year or two before. And so it's as close as you can get to the feeling of going and playing for people for the first time. Obviously, I think the chances are that wherever you play some people have seen you on television or video or something, but you get the feeling that perhaps a lot of the people in the audience have never seen the show before.

P4Y: Certainly.

IAN: And that's always quite a healthy and good thing, to feel that challenge that you've got to win them over.

P4Y: The set list that you play for each tour, for each show, does that kind of change from show to show or is it based on who you are playing for?

IAN: It changes by a song or two from show to show based on perhaps just, let's play something different tonight, something we didn't play last night. But it always changes. I mean, if we're playing a state fair and we're competing with John Deere tractors for people's interest, then we're going to assume that kind of audience would not be so familiar with our music; they may be familiar with one or two songs, but for the most part, it's going to be a tougher crowd to play to, to keep them interested. So I've been inclined to drop one or more two more esoteric or acoustic pieces from a state fair. Having said that, we don't play very many state fairs, but once in a while we do those things. If there is a biker's festival, then you would want to be probably easing off to another, again, more to the gentler acoustic pieces than the people that hear rock music. And our kind of rock music embraces a lot of acoustic elements anyway. And that's about as far as we can stretch the attention of a biker crowd. So you have to be a little sensitive to the nature of the venue by the handling of it. But I don't think we find ourselves in the position where we have to tailor the set to the audience too much.

P4Y: I supposed you would have to tweak the set list.

IAN: It's just a song or two different than what we would otherwise be playing. From tour to tour the set list will change in a sense. This year in America the set list between tours is going to change a great deal because it is in a way like one long tour because you are playing different parts of the country, and geographically it's broken up into three tours. But next year, of course, I guess there will be a lot of changes in the set because we'll be going back into Europe and we will have to substantially change quite a lot of the stuff. We wouldn't want to be playing the same music as we played two years ago when we were playing around northern Europe. So we would, I guess, change 85 percent of the set to a bunch of different songs substantially.

P4Y: You are about halfway through your U.S. tour, maybe three quarters of the way through your U.S. tour. What has been your favorite venue to play in so far?

IAN: I probably have to say it would be one of the nicer theaters, either Symphony Hall, or like the Benaroya Hall in Seattle, an example of that kind of venue, a building designed and really well-maintained for classical music concerts. And the reason I like those is not necessarily because the acoustics are great, because sometimes they're not really such good acoustics for amplified music, but it's because the toilets are usually really good. I have come to realize that the conductors and premier soloists of the classical world insist on good, clean working plumbing. And so I'm a grateful inheritor of that demand. On the other hand, there is lots of lovely art deco theaters that have been renovated from the 20's and 30's.

P4Y: Nostalgic.

IAN: American theaters that are gorgeous theaters that have had substantial money spent on renovation and it's a great place for the audience to go. But unfortunately, in most cases, they never seem to get around to renovating back stage, and some of them are just hideous in terms of the dressing rooms standards and the plumbing which, frankly, you certainly wouldn't want to spend any time in.

P4Y: I guess you would have to bring your own water then.

IAN: Basically, there is some pretty awful places. But being a flute player I'm a little sensitive about dirt and grime. You know, it's like -- playing an instrument that really does need to be kept very clean and free of grease, grime, dirt, germs, I tend to be someone who washes his hands a lot. And I really don't like people -- I mean, I have to accept that somebody is going to carry my guitar on stage because I make an entrance playing the flute, but I really don't like people touching my instruments. In most cases I put them in the cases and I take them out. I change the strings on my guitar. I clean my flute. I really wouldn't want any road crew or assistants or anybody touching my stuff; it's far too personal. And you want to make sure things are in good working order, and keeping them clean is a very important part of that. Whilst I'm not as quite as obsessional as maybe I'm making it sound, I do like during the important parts of my day to have soap, water and a towel at hand. And even if I'm having to change in some in a cubicle or some, you know, cabin or whatever they stick out of the back of the stage, outdoor venues sometimes, you know, I always have to have a bowl of water and towel and some soap. At least I know I can wash my hands and know everything is clean before I go on stage. Because I have had so many embarrassing moments with flutes that jam up on me because they have gotten some dirty, greasy stuff on them and it jammed up the mechanism.

P4Y: We wouldn't want that to happen on stage while you are playing.

IAN: No. It used to happen a great deal when I was not careful with my instruments. About 10 to 15 years ago, I started, you know. I was getting very disappointed with the number of times that I had equipment failures of that sort, and so I started just a different regime of treating my instruments in the same way a classical musician would, making sure it's always clean when I put it away, and dried. And I do that. But it applies to technical stuff as well, like lights. It's like, you know, before you go on the tour you really want to make sure that you are using equipment, all of which has been tested. And all that stuff takes a bit of a toll during a tour. And even things like guitar leads, they take a bit of punishment; people walking on them and stepping on them with sharp heels. And even brand new ones out of the box, you always want to make sure you check them out pretty carefully because a dry solder joint could let you down. So all of these things are part of the rigorous testing and checking of equipment because technical problems do manifest themselves; not on every show but, you know, a few times a week. Hopefully, the audience isn't aware of it. But you want to try and minimize all of that stuff. There is nothing more embarrassing then having a breakdown on stage that causes you to have to temporarily stop the show. And that's happened to me a few times in my life, and it's always an embarrassment.

P4Y: Ian, so is that almost like a ritual for you before the shows, to go through your instruments? I mean, is that something that you do before the show?

IAN: It's like warming up before the show. I mean, people do different things. There are a couple of guys in the band who don't even touch their instruments until they walk on stage. On the other hand, there are others of us who religiously warm up and play our instruments and run through a few things before we go on stage because we want to be fluid and conversant with things. And just, there is a lot of muscles and physicalness in place for all of the instruments. The drummer, for example, and me, we both have quite a rigorous warm-up period. But our keyboard player, for example, I think he comes back at the end of the tour and I don't think he plays his instrument again until he walks on stage to start the next tour. He's someone who hates practicing. Sometimes I think he can't actually really enjoy the instrument because he never plays it, but it's something that he just doesn't seem to do. If I was a keyboard player, I would insist on having some sort of small, portable keyboard in my dressing room so I could warm up before the show, you know. But he doesn't like to do that. And I think it appears that he doesn't need to do it. He has a dislike of doing it; almost as if he wants the moment where he walks on stage and plays the first note the first time to be that bit more special for him perhaps. I'm not really sure why, but I suspect it's just that he really, he assiduously does not want to play his instrument except during the concert and begrudgingly during the sound check, although I know for sure that if he could get away without doing sound checks he wouldn't do those either. But we wouldn't let him get away with that.

P4Y: I would like to chat a little about the DVD and CD. We both have the CD and DVD and it's an outstanding piece of work. It was a really nice surprise to see the original band play together, and you actually play three songs with them. What was it like getting together with the original Jethro Tull members on the DVD and CD and working with these guys again?

IAN: I'm sure we all thought it was a little strange because we all hadn't been on the same stage together for 34 years. And I don't think any of us doubted that we would be able to get up, you know, and make some music together but the actual, the sort of personality, the more soulful side, the more intuitive, mutual expression that comes through playing with other musicians, that's something that you can't really second-guess as to whether it's going to work or not. And when we got together it was in front of a small invited audience in a club where we were filming that morning, and we nervously ran through the music and we did a run-through. And we said, that's it. This is it. Let's roll the cameras because we might as well because we don't want to rehearse this too many times and go off the boil. We try and capture it while it's still fresh, you know.

P4Y: Was it your idea?

IAN: Yes, it was. I played with Glenn Cornick the bass player -- sorry. I have not played with Glenn Cornick I go, the bass player. He's the one that I haven't played with since I left the band. Mick Abrahams and Clive Bunker, I played with occasionally here and there, or they got up and played with us or I played on one of their albums or something.

P4Y: It looked like you had a lot of fun.

IAN: With Glenn it was a little different because he didn't -- he had a little technical problem at the last minute where the bass that he had, the one that he kept in the U.K. because he lives in Los Angeles, didn't work. And so we rehearsed and recorded with a backup bass that he had with him. I don't think it was his a fretless bass, but by the time we actually found another bass from a music store in a nearby town, we actually already kind of got the thing on tape. It was a little tricky. It wasn't as easy for him as it should have been because he wasn't playing a familiar instrument. But for the rest of us it was okay and interesting, if for no other reason than it stressed the limitations of the original band, that we didn't really have a lot of stuff that we could play together. Back in those days when we began, we used to play typically two half-hour sets at some little club and probably 50 percent of the time was taken up with a drum solo or guitar solo. So we didn't really have very many songs that we played in an early Jethro Tull performance. And so when it came to thinking what are we going to play, really there wasn't an awful lot to choose from really, typically, perhaps six or seven songs we could have played I suppose. We never really had a lot of material. So the idea of why weren't there any repeat efforts for reuniting the original band, well, they would be a little short of material, to say the least. And I have very, very great reservations about trying to procure other music within the blues idioms to play. And that would be a prerequisite because that's what Mick Abrahams does. He's a blues guitar player. He doesn't readily slot into any other kind of musical styles, at least one that I would want to play anyway. I think he might play country and western, but God forbid, he'd better not do that in front of me.

P4Y: We don't want that. You've been rocking the '70's, rocking the world of the '80's and '90's, and I guess we can say the 2000's now. What the heck is in those chili peppers?

IAN: Capsaicin is the vital ingredient in the chili pepper. It produces the hot. And it's a chemical which is extracted for the use in so-called pepper sprays, used by law enforcement officers and private individuals in America, where at least in some states I believe it's legal to possess. But yeah, it's pretty lethal stuff. And it causes great excitation for the receptors.

P4Y: So that's your secret?

IAN: And as a result it produces, causes an endorphin rush to calm and modify the pain. And the production of endorphins is something that produces a feeling of well-being. And it's sort of an exhilaration, it's kind of a legal high. It's the body's own mechanism for producing a mood of great -- sort of a mood of great exhilaration.

P4Y: Euphoria?

IAN: It's not a chemical that you want to fool around with because it's actually something that hurts. It's used in the context of spicy food. It's the reason that many people enjoy spicy food, whether it's Mexican food or Indian food or Thai food. It's actually because of one simple probably not so simple. It's probably quite a complex chemical. But it's called capsaicin, and it is literally that. Just like sodium chloride is a chemical that we call common salt, capsaicin is a more complex chemical which produces pain. But there is no sense in eating hot chili peppers for the point in eating hot chili peppers, just for the sense of being macho and demonstrating how hot is hot. It's something that you put into food because it gives it a certain bite, a certain zest.

P4Y: And how are the chili peppers coming along on your farms?

IAN: Surprisingly, they are actually doing quite well. I brought a chili pepper into the house a couple of nights ago, and I picked up the telephone to call somebody. I absent-mindedly bit the end of the chili pepper and was chewing it, thinking that it was probably fairly mild. I didn't except it to be really, really hot, but it was. It was in fact incredibly hot for a simple little cayenne that I grew in the greenhouse in the U.K. So sometimes they can surprise you, even when you think you know them well. But even the same species, same chili pepper variety will be, from the same seed packet, will produce a number of plants, and the chili's that grow on the plant will not necessarily be all the same. Some plants will produce hotter chilis, and individual chilis on a chili plant will be hotter than others. It's just not too exact a science when it comes to growing chilis. So, you never really know quite what you are going to get. Sometimes you get more than you bargain for.

P4Y: They don't agree with me too much.

IAN: Perhaps it's an acquired taste that you work at, that you quietly work at, while there is nobody around.

P4Y: I think you're right. Getting back to the CD and DVD --

IAN: Yeah. This will be probably have to be the last topic because I've got to get on with the next interview.

P4Y: Okay. Can we ask about the solo tour?
IAN: Sure.

P4Y: We know that it's starting in the fall.
October 8th?

IAN: It's a few days that I'm doing that, kind of an intimate little improvisational, just something a bit different that brings an audience into rather more immediate contact. And it will be co-presented by some radio folks and will involve radio folks and some guests, and will involve a few musicians that I'm bringing with me; some from the UK, acoustic musicians that have a folk background. So there is an opportunity to play some acoustic pieces, Jethro Tull songs, solo pieces, whatever, just rearranged, but just in an intimate context. So it's just a little experiment really to see how that works out; rather like doing some concerts with orchestras, which I have done a couple of a few weeks ago and I have a couple coming up, which is an experiment of taking some of my music and putting it into a different context, less electric more acoustic.

P4Y: It's going to be quite special.

IAN: I guess that's natural because I am the acoustic musician in Jehtro Tull. That's what I am and what I've always done; that's what I've always been. And most of the instruments that I play, and those that I'm known for, are archetypal acoustic instruments. Obviously the flute is, being an orchestral instrument, the concert flute.

P4Y: Congratulations on your efforts on the Andes Mountain Cat with the Wildlife Conservation Network. And we understand that you raised $15,000 and it's a credit to you and to all of your Jethro Tull fans. They also made generous donations to the cause in the past.

IAN: Yes. I mean credit to the people who are prepared to support it. In reality what they are supporting is some scientific research. It's sponsoring folks to be able to actually carry out some research, usually in the field, to fill in some of the gaping holes in our knowledge of certain wild species. Unfortunately, the world of private sponsorship and support of the public is necessary. There isn't really the kind of national or global funding for those things. That does involve people having to raise money. But what I do is very little compared to the many people that do huge amounts of work and spend their lives effectively involved in conservation issues. I just do a little bit from time to time. But I guess it's easy for me to do because of some contact potentially with people who are prepared to put their hands in their pockets and put their money on the table to help out. So I'm just a catalyst.

P4Y: It's good to see that you are giving something back.

IAN: Anyway, with Sting looking after the rain forests and Elton John taking care of everyone with AIDS, the least I can do is look after the furry little guys.

P4Y: Is there a message that you would like to convey to your fans?

IAN: Well, be patient with us. Because I guess you know coming to any concert is not -- we don't deliver the meat and potatoes necessarily before we serve the starter or the hors d'oeuvre. I think when we do concerts it's always trying to give people a balanced meal. We try and put in a lot of changes of pace and changes of mood, changes of dynamics into the concerts. And some people, I guess they are a little overexcited and think of rock 'n roll as more like a sports event. But for those people I would say, be patient. Just learn to be a good listener, and just let us do the work of moving you through different levels of music intensity. Patience is a great virtue for any audience. Listening to varied music, if you expect the pay-off, if you expect the orgasm in the first three minutes, then you could be at the wrong show. Better go and look for the lap dancing.

P4Y: Well, we want to thank you.

IAN: I'm very happy to entertain most people most of the time but there is a point where I draw the line. Must get with on the next folks here. Good to talk to you.

P4Y: We want to thank you very much for taking time and talking to us.

IAN: As soon as I have some time I shall look you up.
P4Y: Enjoy yourself. I think you'll love the reading.

IAN: Thank you.
P4Y: Thank you. Have a great day.

P4Y: It was an extreme pleasure to interview an eloquent and distinguished gentleman as Ian Anderson.

Official Jethro Tull Website: jethrotull.com