Guthrie Govan talks Asia in new interview

[Dan Roth]

Just a few questions, but interesting to hear his perspective and how he wound up in the band:

Q: How did you get involved with Asia?

Govan: Asia, that happened when I was teaching in a school in Guilford called the ACM. The head of the drum department there was Mike Sturgis, who had been drumming with Asia for some time. They were recording an album called "Aura", and they were running late and over budget. All the guests who had promised to come in and record guest solos on the album, people like Brian May and Steve Lukather, all of them couldn't do it for some reason. So they needed an affordable guitar player who could do a lot of different things to come in and fill in all the gaps. Mike recommended me, so we recorded the album, and we just got on and they liked my playing, so they invited me to go on tour with them.

Q: You recorded two albums with them. Why did you leave?

Govan: Yeah, it just kind of disintegrated. When I joined Asia there was only one original member in the lineup. Then one year an important anniversary came around of the first major album, the one that sold nine million copies worldwide. So all the original members decided they would do a reunion tour, and it would just have been weird to have two bands claiming to be Asia, and one of them didn't have any original members. So we found a different keyboard player, a guy called Ryo Okumoto of Spock's Beard. We made a band called GPS, and we recorded an album. So Asia kind of faded out of my life, rather than I left them.

Full interview here: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/inter..._an_album.html

[bondegezou]

Interesting that he seems to, in effect, dismiss the idea of Asia Featuring John Payne, which he was initially a member of, but soon left. (AFJP is now on its 4th and 5th guitarists.) This year, Payne was still saying there would be a second GPS album at some point, while Okumoto has now become the second keyboardist in AFJP.

Henry

[Scott Bails]

Interesting that he seems to, in effect, dismiss the idea of Asia Featuring John Payne, which he was initially a member of, but soon left. (AFJP is now on its 4th and 5th guitarists.)

Well, can you blame him?

[bondegezou]

^ Not at all. I quite agree with him. I was just wasn't expecting that opinion from someone who was actually in AFJP!

For me, Govan was the most interesting part of AFJP and he did well to get out of what has become a somewhat embarrassing affair. I was sympathetic to Payne's plight, but his inability to deliver stability or a coherent future for the band has been unfortunate.

Henry

[JKL2000]

Wait, who was in GPS? Not sure I heard of this.

[Dan Roth]

I found the part about Brian May and Steve Lukather interesting.

I wonder if this: "...they were running...over budget." is the reason for this: "All the guests who had promised to come in and record guest solos on the album, people like Brian May and Steve Lukather, all of them couldn't do it for some reason"

[bondegezou]

Wait, who was in GPS? Not sure I heard of this.

When Downes left Asia to re-join Asia, the Payne Asia had been halfway through writing an album. The rest of Asia (Payne, Govan, Schellen) formed a new band GPS, cannibalised the Asia demos and released Window to the Soul on InsideOut as GPS, with Okumoto playing keys. All the compositions are credited to Payne/Govan/Schellen. GPS played some live shows, largely avoiding any Asia material until their last few shows in Japan, but Payne has basically said that he went back to the Asia name because GPS couldn't attract promoter interest.

Govan/Payne/Schellen then launched Asia Featuring John Payne in mid-2007, with Erik Norlander joining on keys and a live show about 50/50 Wetton era and Payne era material. They started work on a new album, including using ideas from the aforementioned Asia demos. Some touring work followed, with at least some audience members and even promoters unaware that AFJP != original Asia reunion. However, since then, Govan has left the band and various guitarists have been and gone. An album has been promised, but never quite finished. Payne and Schellen got distracted by the Raiding the Rock Vault show in Las Vegas, although Payne got fired from that in May. Norlander appears to have gotten fed up with delays and left, to be replaced by Okumoto. And while the promised album of new material has yet to appear, Payne did a covers album that was belatedly labelled an AFJP project: Recollections: A Tribute to British Prog came out earlier this year.

Henry

[Scott Bails]

Payne and Jon Anderson really need to get together.

[BravadoNJ]

GPS was new material at the time. there was an unfinished Asia album called Architects Of Time, that material was never released. JP keeps promising new stuff but hardy delivers.

[bondegezou]

Some of GPS was recycled from the unfinished Asia album, to have been called Architects of Time. I quote from a 2007 interview:

Interviewer: Were some of the songs on ‘Window To The Soul’ originally planned as Asia songs?

Payne: Yes, some of the songs were originally written for Asia. If they had been recorded as Asia songs, they would have been shorter with bigger harmonies and smoother production. We decided that, with a few days rehearsal, these songs could be made to sound very different to Asia songs. About 50% of the songs were actually written for ‘Architect Of Time’.

Henry

[iguana]

When Downes left Asia to re-join Asia

liking that phrase very much – highly representative of the band's situation

[Paulrus]

Payne and Jon Anderson really need to get together.

Why does that reek of some hilarious old Second City skit? (skip ahead to 1:45)



(Hey, not to thread jump, but this could be Jon Anderson's answer to funding the APB album!)