Interviews
Latest album Clann is a proud family affair with its roots in the 80s, when leader Andy Glass set an ambitious agenda with no regard for commercial gain
Putting the final touches to the last part in a trilogy of albums, Solstice were astonished to discover they’d stormed the 2024 Prog Readers’ Poll, including winning the coveted Best Band title. With that album, Clann, now released, and a busy live schedule ahead, Andy Glass tells Prog how he’s still processing such monumental success 45 years after forming the band.
When Prog spoke to Solstice founder Andy Glass in 2020 prior to the release of their sixth studio album Sia, he was bubbling with excitement about the band's more youthful new line-up. Fast-forward five years and Glass fizzes with abundant delight: a few months ago, Solstice swept the board in the 2024 Prog Readers' Poll in the manner of Marillion, Steven Wilson and Big Big Train in previous years.
Being voted Best Band is the crowning glory – but Glass is equally stunned to clinch the hotly-contested Best Guitarist accolade ahead of Steve Rothery, Steve Hackett and David Gilmour. Ebony Buckle, backing vocalist who often opens their shows, completes their winning hat-trick with Best New Artist.
“It’s so incredibly motivating and brilliant – and it means the world to us,” says Glass. “Our poll success isn’t about us being ‘the best,’ but far more a reflection of an incredibly motivated audience who’ve been enjoying the music. It’s actually a win for everyone who's helped and supported us along the way.
“When we started, we were very ambitious about the music, but not about industry success. We weren’t chasing that at all. We were just doing what we did back then without a plan. For it to happen now is just amazing.”
Of his own award he says: “It’s absolutely astonishing. After coming second to Steve Rothery the previous year, we had a laugh about it and I thought back then, ‘Rothers, you’d better look out!’”
The Solstice roll of honour extends to Best Vocalist second place for Jess Holland and third Best Keyboard Player for Steve McDaniel, while Peter Hemsley is eighth Best Drummer. Singer/guitarist Leoni Jane Kennedy, the newest addition who’ll open at several upcoming shows, took fourth place in the Best New Artist category. To top it all, Prog readers recently chose Firefly, the single from latest album Clann, as a Tracks of the Week winner.
“I can frame all this, put it on the wall and die a happy man, even though it’s taken us 45 years to do it – but that makes it all the sweeter,” Glass muses. “It feels much more important now because of my age, whereas when you’re 20, you take it all for granted.”
The band line-up is completed by Glass’s wife Jenny Newman on violin, bassist Robin Phillips and another newcomer, backing vocalist Dyane Crutcher. With no studio album release last year, Solstice instead issued a live album, Return To Cropredy, to mark 25 years since they first played the iconic festival. That album brings their 2023 return into people’s living rooms, pulsating with the transcendent feelgood factor that makes them one of the live circuit’s current hottest tickets.
Their shows are life-affirming celebrations, combining euphoric, explosive energy and exuberant dancing with exquisite multi-layered folky, funky, often otherworldly songs, on which all eight make massive contributions.
“It’s 100% genuine, simply because of all the pleasure we get from playing live,” Glass says. “And these wonderful young women seem to feel the same way as we do. Jess, Ebony and Dyane have this dynamic energy. They really are in the moment when they’re onstage, so it’s not just a performance: it’s a genuine response to the way they’re feeling. It’s such an incredible, serendipitous thing to have happened.”
Their shows are captivating new fans above and beyond their 80s halcyon days, when their music was more folkish. The devotion of their core supporters, affectionately called ‘guardians,’ ensures the band’s continuation by providing valuable financial support. “I feel really blessed that at the moment we can make it work because of the guardians. Then there’s the wider audience and their willingness to buy a vinyl or pre-order something, so we’re in a very special position.”
It’s not in the same league or space as Robert Fripp’s playing; so it’s a bit of an homage to him
Calling the new album Clann, the Gaelic word for extended family, eloquently sums up their current all-embracing spirit. “We’re now a band with three generations in it and a real family feel,” Glass says. “That’s where the title comes from. Clearly Leoni Jane is also going to be part of this collective family vibe, which always feels like a get-together in the best possible way.”
Some supporters contributed to Clann not just financially, but also pictorially. The inner gatefold shows the guardians, fans and their clans with the band in a happy family portrait taken at a school near Solstice’s Northamptonshire HQ.
Glass laughingly describes the album as “a prog sandwich” – it starts triumphantly with the luscious Firefly and ends with a deeply affecting epic, Twin Peaks. Three characteristically upbeat songs, all with infectious danceable jazz-funk grooves, provide the filling.
“The second track, Life, is like a summery Steely Dan with a pop sensibility, then we have a funk track and a crazy-nuts track!” Glass says. Plunk is a nod to his funk sensibilities and features a sassy brass section. “I built its main riff on a classical guitar. I thought it was proggy; but in essence, it’s funk so it became Plunk. We played it a few times without giving it a proper title, but as nobody thought up a better name, we kept it!”
The inspiration behind the crazy-nuts track, Frippa, is another prog guitar legend: “It happened during a break from teaching guitar at a school. Every once in a while a kid won’t turn up, so I have a free 20-minute slot. I started noodling and came up with a Robert Fripp-type thing, and put some other ideas around it. Of course, it’s not in the same league or space as Fripp’s playing; so it’s a bit of an homage to him.”
The lyrics are a lament for war-torn places… it became almost unbearable being in the same room when Jess was singing it.
Twin Peaks may prove to be Clann’s Close To The Edge moment – it inhabits a vast atmospheric sonic landscape and even contains a “dream sequence.” Glass explains; “Jenny bought me a twin-necked guitar for my birthday in 2023. I was playing some nice chords on its 12-string neck, which I called Twin Peaks. I also happen to love David Lynch’s series. The song ended up with two peaks, at around five minutes and at the end.
“At the same time, Gaza was happening. I thought about the children there, and the lyrics are a lament for them and other war-torn places, written from a parent’s perspective. I explained it to Jess, and it really affected her emotionally. Her vocals on it are incredible: it became almost unbearable being in the same room when she was singing it. I found it really difficult to work on it because of those emotional aspects.
“I think this song is the ultimate expression of ‘the feels.’ Because it’s so long, it’s recorded in three different sections and has 199 tracks of audio on it! But unlike any other song, I respond emotionally every time I listen to it.”
When the band recorded Sia, Glass asked Holland to reinterpret the haunting Cheyenne from their 1984 debut album, Silent Dance. For Clann’s CD bonus track, he returned to the first record for its ethereal Earthsong, which Buckle now owns with her angelic soprano vocals.
“Jess said Earthsong was too high for her, and Ebony should sing it as it’s in her range – and she was dead right. We started playing it live and people really responded, so we’ve played it at just about every gig since. Ebony loves the song. It’s a beautiful way to bookend the trilogy of albums.”
I always tell young creators and artists never to give up on their passion – and never let anyone tell you not to do it
He took a monastic approach to Clann’s production, with longtime Solstice fan Steven Wilson being the guiding light. “I remember Steven telling me I was getting better and better. When I heard The Harmony Codex I thought its sound was truly inspiring, so I used it as my reference point for mixing and mastering.
“Apart from Christmas Day with my family, I spent two months working in this room, only coming out for coffee. Jenny handled everything, giving me space and support so I could really zone in on it. I’m really pleased with the way it’s come out – but believe me, I’m still learning! I feel really driven right across the board, but creating music is the most important thing to me.”
During Glass’s previous chat with Prog, he mentioned the third album would be their sweet spot. “I still feel like that,” he says. “Jess and the band have continued to grow into their roles, and I think we’re beginning to produce our best work now. The bond is there. It’s that kind of telepathic thing that you get when you’ve been working together a long time. But it’s always felt like a new band, and it still does five years on.”
Now the band are taking Clann out on the road, including to the family- friendly Wokingham Festival and as Thursday night headliners at Summer’s End in October. Glass is also excited to be on the Q&A panel at the launch of A Playground Of Broken Hearts, the second instalment of author Andrew Wild’s history of 80s prog rock (issued by Kingmaker Publishing, run by another avid Solstice fan, Big Big Train’s Gregory Spawton).
What advice does he have for budding musicians based on his own 45 years as both performer and teacher? “It’s so incredibly hard to generate an audience these days, cutting through the noise and connecting with people. My sons, who are building careers in the music industry, can’t do that. Their audience expects their music for free from their dads’ Spotify accounts!
“It’s hard enough for us to make it work; doing it for money is a complete non-starter. I always tell young creators and artists never to give up on their passion – and never let anyone tell you not to do it. It’s not about fame or money. It’s about fulfilling your dreams, and if someone digs what you’re doing and gets joy from it, you’ve won. Just keep going. It’s been a long time coming for us, but I can honestly say it’s been a fantastic journey.”
Stephen Lambe of CRS interviews Andy Glass following the release of Prophecy
SL This is the 2nd Solstice album in 3 years. You have become almost prolific? What’s going on?
AG I know….it’s mad!! We’ve pretty much been fired up since recording Spirit in 2010 and the plan was to keep the music coming with a live album in 2011, which we managed, and then a new studio album in 2012, which we didn’t. So a year late’s not too bad and, as you say, for us a proverbial outpouring :))
SL The band line up has had a consistent line up for 6 years, which must be gratifying. What are your ambitions for the band now?
AG It’s about reaching a wider audience now. It’s frustrating that we’re unable to jump in a bus and live hand to mouth out on the road playing anywhere and everywhere as we did in the 80s. For one thing I used to spend a lot of time underneath the bloody bus keeping the old banger going and you’ve got to be young and preferably sedated to handle that kind of thing ….especially during a Scottish winter. Or how about starting the bus every morning by rolling down a steep hill (atop which you spent the previous night) with Marc Elton holding a burning diesel soaked rag over the air intake while I wait for just the right moment to pop the clutch ….yeah, because we’ve only got one shot at starting this thing before we run out of hill…oh and by the way the air brakes wont be working until that engine fires!! Christ it doesn’t bear too much contemplation.
So now we must find other ways to connect with people and making good albums that magazines like CRS want to talk about has got to help. I want to keep building on the creative momentum we have right now and the next album’s very much in the dreaming stage.
SL Can you give me thumbnail sketches of each member of the band?
Ok well Pete Hemsley is drummer #4 after Dave Harden, Martin Wright and Clive Bunker. Pete is a great musician and friend and convinced me to reform the band in 2007…thanks man! We met in ’87 while he was signed to Virgin with The Jazz Devils and I was just settling into the role of jobbing muso. This was towards the end of the period when, if you were well managed and had some tasty demos, you could reasonably expect a label to advance £250,000 against an album that existed largely in the imagination of the artist. We made a lot of music together including New Life and a cool album under the name of This before Pete emigrated to Australia in ’94. Once there he built an excellent reputation as a producer, winning awards for his work and signing to Sony for whom he recorded an ambient dance album called The Lord’s Garden that included radical remixes of Morning Light and The Journey. His reputation as a great drummer also bore some serious fruit when he played with Page and Plant during their Aussie TV promo tour.
During the 90s I was doing a lot engineering work in studios and took advantage of some downtime to work on Circles. I’d been recording with singer John McGuire (who’s contributed vocals to Prophecy) and he brought in a, just out uni, Emma Brown to add backing vocals to some tracks. It took me about 5 minutes to poach her and she’s been with the band ever since. Emma is singer #6 after Sue Robinson, Shelley Patt, Sandy Leigh, Barbara Deason and Heidi Kemp (phew!) and has carved out a career as a singing teacher and performer in numerous shows and gigs along the way.
I’ve known Robin Philips since he was about 9 years old around the time I formed the band with Marc Elton….I said to him….just give it a few years son:)) His mother Margaret is an amazing woman and wonderful pianist and her spiritual and practical support has been an essential constant for me throughout the bands existence. Rob grew up in a house filled with music so he was always going to be musical but seeing him grow into the fine player he is and then joining Solstice has been a kind of circle completed. Like all of us he makes a living from music that consists largely of jobbing gigs and teaching. Rob
Jenny Newman was already a well established player on the folk scene when I was introduced to her in ’92. I first saw playing a folk festival and thought, bloody hell, I’ve got to meet this woman!...and I did. Jenny was a Goldsmiths graduate who dropped her work as a classical player to concentrate on her passion for traditional fiddle music and it’s there that she made her mark. She’d agreed to play on Circles but delays in recording meant that by the time I was ready she was touring Canada and the States with Shetland folk/rockers Rock, Salt and Nails…bugger! So it wasn’t until we started gigging in support of the album that she actually joined the band. We worked together on her 2000 solo album before she put together 3sticks with myself and Pete. We’ve recorded two albums and continue to play ceilidhs and festivals. She’s had her tunes used in Radio 4 productions and had plenty of airplay on Beeb folk shows. Her tunes get played live in sessions all over the place.
Steve McDaniel is another muso that does a lot of recording and production work and I met him in 95??...anyway he was in the studio making poetry on a totally knackered Fender Rhodes. Steve’s always got a project on the go, production, writing, he was off playing shows in deepest Africa earlier in the year. He’s made a fine solo album under the name Zark and has just finished a classical piece for orchestra. Google Planet Zyz..
Me, well highlights were starting the band whilst ‘living the life’ out of an caravan in the woods….yeah it was the genuine hippy deal and then, despite that and a total lack of aggressive ambition, finding ourselves playing to 17,000 at Reading and providing the soundtrack to the rising sun on the Solstice at Stonehenge Free Festival 1984. Beyond Solstice, and with an encroaching sense of professionalism, touring as Bill Wither’s guitarist in the 80s and as front of house sound engineer for Tull on long US and European tours still sounds pretty good. But for me playing with Solstice has always been my real passion.
SL You’ve signed to Esoteric for this album. Why the change?
AG Well, Solstice songs have long been published by Cherry Red and back before we recorded Spirit they’d suggested Esoteric Antenna, their prog label run by Mark and Vicky Powell, for a physical release. David Robinson’s superb Festival Music label had done an excellent job of releasing our back catalogue at that time and went on to do a great job with Spirit and Kindred Spirits. When we were working on Prophecy I was thinking about the possibility of accessing wider distribution when Stephen Wilson suggested Esoteric Antenna…that name again! This time I made contact with Mark Powell, he like what he heard and off we went. I feel disloyal to Festival Music of course who continue with 6 Solstice albums on the label. David knows what bloody prostitutes we all are, poor guy has to deal with all the time. Or maybe we just wanted to be on the same label as Todd Rundgren :))
SL The new album has a real 70s feel. Long tracks and lots of soloing. Was that intentional? What were you trying to achieve with this album?
AG No not all. To be honest there’s never any agenda when it comes to writing the music. I think this is why it’s such an obsession with me…it’s actually what comes out when I write music…totally honest and unadulterated. I actually start feeling incomplete without the creative outlet it provides. It’s what I want to hear and play and the rest of the band’s input just makes it (a lot) better.
I guess the 70s feel is unsurprising, they were my formative years in every sense and a period of incredible musical creativity that produced so much classic progressive, rock and pop music. I still listen to Yes, , Camel, Joni Mitchel, John Martyn, Hillage, Crimson, Bowie, Zeppelin …. the list goes on and on and I’m not sure there’s that much that compares since. Having said that I’m loving English Electric from Big Big Train and Steven Wilson’s The Raven has been getting a lot of plays in my car this year. Don’t get me wrong I hear a stack of new music, partly through working with a lot of teenage musicians but, you know what, most of them want to play the same stuff I loved at that age….and it’s not me that introduced them to it….honest! My 11 year old son is a huge Sabbath fan and we went to their Birmingham NIA show last night, they were thrilling…I rest my case.
SL The last two albums have seen a move away from the folkier elements of the band to something a lot rockier – again, is this an intentional move or the way that the material led you?
AG Has it? Ok well it’s certainly not a conscious move. Obviously the folk edge comes from Jenny’s fiddle which, with the exception of Eyes of Fire, inhabits the music pretty much throughout. In Black Water she plays a great tune called Beth Cohen’s that we’ve been playing at ceilidhs with 3sticks and it’s kind of migrated into this big fusiony Solstice piece.
SL You’ve produced the bands first really epic track in “Warriors” – why approach a song of that length for the first time?
AG Well with all the songs they generally start out as a guitar part, riff or even a groove and then kind of expand organically from there, and Warriors just kept on growingJ From the outset we’d liked the idea of a continuous conceptual piece so I felt encouraged to let the songs reach their natural conclusion….how ever long it took!
SL Can you tell me about some of the lyrical themes on the album?
AG Lyrics are the part of the writing process I find difficult, but with this album the songs are based on a Cree Indian prophecy that correctly predicted horrendous damage to the planet at the hands of corporate greed….and hopefully a way to avoid complete catastophe. That gave me plenty to think about when it came to words. Native American culture is a fairly common theme in our music but this is the first time it’s inspired a whole album.
SL I remember you were finding it hard to get good gigs. That seems to be changing – how has that come about?
AG We’ve certainly had some nice gigs of late and I’m optimistic for the future what with the new album and now that James Anderson (son of Ian) is our booking agent. Having said that, it’s incredibly hard for bands at our level to get viable shows, despite keeping costs to an absolute minimum.
SL Tell me about how some of your classic tracks came to be remixed by Steven Wilson? What has he brought to the songs?
AG It’s true the old saying “you never know who’ll be in the audience” and Steven has been in ours a few times. A fact unbeknown to me until after the launch show for Spirit in 2010, a gig I believe you also attended. Steven showed up at our Underworld gig in Camden last summer and during an after show chat he asked if I had the original Silent Dance multi-track tapes. It turns out that Steven’s always been particularly fond of Earthsong and Cheyenne and he fancied having a go at remixing them. As luck would have it Nigel Mazlyn Jones, who recorded the album, had just had a clear out and sent me some of the tapes…talk about synchronicity.
Steven has an incredible ear and technical skill as you can hear not only in his own work but also his major league remixes like Aqualung and Close to the Edge. He manages to bring out the best in the recording technically and musically whilst staying true to the artist’s original intention. The clarity and openness he’s produced on Find Yourself is bloody brilliant, he’s breathed new life in to that track for sure. Sadly the Cheyenne master didn’t survive but it’s wonderful to hear Return of Spring, Earthsong and Find Yourself sounding the way we’d hoped for first time around.
SL Tell me about your collaboration with artist Barry Kitson?
AG Yeah, another amazing break! Again following the launch of Spirit, I got an email through the website from Barry saying how much he’d enjoyed the album. I’d no idea who he was at the time but I was in my sick bed that day and, unusually for me, I clicked on the signature link at the bottom of the message. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I found myself on the website of this incredibly successful artist for Marvel, 2000AD, DC comics and more besides. The guy’s a bloody icon in the comic art field. Like Steven, Barry is a bloody lovely guy and has been incredibly generous and supportive. Right away he offered to do a gig poster if we needed one but at the time we were putting Kindred Spirits together so I went…..”err Barry, we’ve go this live DVD coming out ummm would you consider doing the album cover??” Of course he went on to do a load of great artwork through out the booklet and has done the same again for Prophecy. We’re lucky buggers!!!
When we launched Spirit at the Pitz, Milton Keynes, UK we had no idea that Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree was in the audience and it was only afterwards that we discovered that he’s a fan! In fact, Steven has been into Solstice for many years, first seeing them at Cellar Club in Hemel Hempstead on 30th September 1982, and was more than happy to reminisce with Festival Music’s David Robinson.
“I had heard Marillion on the Friday Rock Show and, at the age of 14, went along to see them. Support on that night was Solstice and I was really impressed with them. The singer in the band at the time was Sue Robinson, and I bought a copy of their Pathways demo tape which I have to this day”.
Steven didn’t wait long to see the band again, this time at the Queensway Hall, Dunstable, England on 20/11/1982, where Solstice were playing one of their not infrequent gigs as a four piece. Since then Steven has seen quite a few Solstice gigs, most recently the launch gig for the latest studio CD release ‘Spirit’ in March 2010 and then again at the Underworld last summer (2013).
“I went to see a lot of the Prog bands around 1982 / 1983. At that time I was discovering this kind of music through my Dad’s record collection, but I was too young to see many of the bigger names and the places they were playing in were just too large. Seeing bands like Solstice allowed me to experience the approach to this kind of music on a far more personal level.”
“Many of the new Prog bands were playing live in and around Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, local to where I was living in Hemel Hempstead. The bands were always playing places like the Wheatsheaf in Dunstable. I was discovering bands like Marillion, Pallas, Haze, Twelfth Night, Gothique, As Above So Below and many others. But Solstice were the best. Musicianship wise, they really stood out and were very accomplished in what they were doing. And with the violin player adding a folk aspect to their music, they stood above the ‘rough and ready’ approach of many of the other bands. The live shows were always fun, another thing that stood them out from the crowd. Aged 14, I would stand in awe at the magical music being created.”
“I remember the guys in Solstice looked 100 years old at that time, with all the hair and beards…as if they had just pulled up with the cosmic caravan in tow…but they looked authentic. Seeing them at the ‘Spirit’ launch gig almost 28 years later, I couldn’t believe how much younger Andy looked!”
What does Steve think to the current band?
“It’s difficult to compare the old Solstice and the new Solstice. They are just different. The old Solstice was a regular gigging band, playing most nights of the week, and this really showed in their gigs. But the gig I saw on the last tour really brought back the magic. They are a great band.”
So have Solstice influenced Steven’s own music in anyway?
“It’s difficult to say if their music has influenced my approach to music at all, but when you hear this kind of music at that age, it becomes part of your DNA. Karma, my first band, was very derivative of bands from this era, but it was harder to be influenced by Solstice because we just didn’t have the same ability!”
“Songs like Earthsong and Cheyenne are amongst the best. Hearing those songs again recently brought back the same feelings I had when I first heard them as a 14 year old kid.”
Many thanks to Steven for taking the time to chat.