Prog Rock Legend Trevor Rabin Talks About His New Solo Album, YES, Scoring Movies And More

Talkin' Rock With Meltdown Podcast

I'm a pretty big YES fan, so when I was contacted to speak to Trevor, I said, well, ummmm, "YES!!" immediately.

His new solo album "Rio" drops on October 6th. Trevor talks about the new record, his first solo album since 1989. "Jesus I haven't done a record in so long, I must get into it." he said after speaking to working on music scores for movies for the past three decades. He told me he felt fresh doing the album, almost like it was his first one. He talked about creating, not only the music, but the cover art as well. Yes, that's his painting on the cover.

He said the album is pretty diverse. "It still sounds like something from a record I'd make. I think while demographically it visits a lot of different areas, I think it's pretty coherent and cohesive, stylistically of a record I've penned, if you'd like."

We also discussed his working on movie scores and how it differs from making records. He's done several of them. He told me his favorite movie he's scored was either "Armageddon, or National Treasure or Bad Boys 2." But he said Remember the Titans was one he's really proud of also.

He told me about discovering music while growing up in South Africa. He said there was a lot of British rock. Led Zeppelin, Cream and the Beatles were big in his youth. Now, with the world a lot smaller, it's easier to find music and bands to listen to. His son is a musician and producer, but he's showing him music he's never seen or heard before as well.

I'm a huge Chris Squire fan. Trevor told me about playing with the bass legend. "Having Chris Squire playing bass behind you is like having a bulldozer back there. You can't relax." He said the he was literally like a brother to him. He went into how he got hooked up with YES, and went onto talk about really being the impedance to the rebirth of the band. He said Chris tried getting him back into the band in the 90s, but he had a lot going on with scoring movies. He told very funny story about Chris thanking him for "revitalizing the back catalog of YES" after they broke out in the 80s.

He also spoke to a kid from South Africa being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. "It's amazing...what an honor."

What a fun conversation. Another one checked off the list of people I've never spoken to before. I found Trevor to be fun and easy to speak with. Great guy and really talented!

-Meltdown-

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