Quotes by Geoff Downes

About Geoff Downes:

Geoffrey "Geoff" Downes is an English rock songwriter, record producer, and musician, mainly a keyboardist. He is mainly known as a member of the new wave duo The Buggles, progressive rock band Yes, and supergroup Asia.
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I've always been fascinated with the juxtaposition of technology in music, not only in recording, but in the keyboard. It's amazing the way you can apply technology to an art form.

Geoff Downes

Still, we view that old material very much like we view the new material so if this gives us a chance to go out and promote it then, yes we will go out and do that.

Geoff Downes

Ironically I think this is what sparked my interest in and passion for the NOAH, which is capable of creating all these old weird and wonderful sounds.

Geoff Downes

Just the actual physics of putting it all together, you know, the latter period is actually quite fragmented in terms of the licenses and all those things so it makes a compilation of the full twenty years really a technical minefield.

Geoff Downes

The Buggles was much more a studio environment idea, which we never actually took on the road.

Geoff Downes

We have always tried to treat every album differently and even from day one I think that each Asia album has been approached with care and thought and hopefully that shines through twenty years later.

Geoff Downes

Well, I think that it is complicated in that the first four albums were all with Universal so they have the rights to that and therefore it is a lot easier for them to do that period.

Geoff Downes

With NOAH, you can create some stunning, yet original soundscapes. Therefore, as a performance tool, it really comes into its own because you can make one single performance which has a lot of detail.

Geoff Downes

To some degree. I think that I've always been very much of a chordal person. The chords are the foundation of everything. Some of Yes' stuff is very linear, albeit complex, but it's single-line melodic stuff. So I kind of had to wear a different cap ...

Geoff Downes

Now with Pro Tools, you can play with layers and 100s and 100s of tracks. When we used to do it back in the day, you had one shot, or you would have to wipe it and carry on over that track.

Geoff Downes

I think when you follow a band, you're following a - and I don't like to use the term 'brand,' but you are following a kind of style, if you like. So I think you have to accept that there will be different people involved from time to time.

Geoff Downes

Styx has their own style of music, and I think that's justifiable, the same way that Asia and Yes have had - Yes particularly has a unique style that seems to have transcended all styles of music for 43 years.

Geoff Downes

I think that Yes' music is kind of on its own out there, and it goes through different chapters, and that involves different people. I don't think it's a case of 'any year is better than any other.' They can all co-exist quite comfortably.

Geoff Downes

Author Bio

  • NameGeoff Downes
  • DescriptionEnglish keyboardist
  • BornAugust 25, 1952
  • CountryEngland
  • ProfessionRecord Producer; Keyboardist