Album: A Life Within a Day
Artist: Squackett
2012 Esoteric Antenna
CD: EANTCD 1002

Chris Squire: bass, vocals
Steve Hackett: guitars, harmonica, vocals
Roger King: keyboards, programming
Jeremy Stacey: drums
Amanda Lehmann: backing vocals
Christine Townsend: viola (1), violin (1)
Richard Stewart: cello (1)
Dick Driver: double bass (1)


Produced by King
Cover image by Xu Bing
Project coordinator: Mark Powell


Tracks:
1. "A Life Within a Day" [Hackett/Squire/King] (6:35)
2. "Tall Ships" [Hackett/Squire/King] (6:18)
3. "Divided Self" [Hackett/Squire/King/Nick Clabburn] (4:06)
4. "Aliens" [Hackett/Squire/King/Fran Healy] (5:32)
5. "Sea of Smiles" [Hackett/Squire/King] (5:25)
6. "The Summer Backwards" [Hackett/Squire/King] (3:00)
7. "Stormchaser" [Hackett/Squire/King] (5:26)
8. "Can't Stop the Rain" [Hackett/Squire/King/Gerard Johnson/Simon Sessler] (5:47)
9. "Perfect Love Song" [Hackett/Squire/King/Johnson] (4:04)


Notes: Release formats included the standard CD, a limited edition vinyl (EANTLP 1002) and a limited edition 2-disc deluxe edition (EANTCD 2002) with hardback cover and a 5.1 Surround Sound bonus DVD. The US release came slightly later through MVD.

As part of International Record Store Day on 21 Apr 2012, there was a limited edition (2000 copies) 7" vinyl single (EANTS 1001) of "Sea of Smiles" (45 edit) b/w "Perfect Love Song".

After the collapse of the Syndestructible line-up, the rest of the band other than Steve Nardelli, i.e. Chris Squire, Gerard Johnson and the Stacey brothers, planned to record together what would have been released as a Chris Squire solo album. Squire, Johnson and P Stacey planned to do some writing, but with P Stacey often busy, just Squire and Johnson started, producing a set of ideas that would eventually appear here (8, 9) plus as a couple of Yes songs ("The Man You Always Wanted Me to Be", "The Game"). This was in 2006/7. In a Mar 2007 post to alt.music.yes, Johnson said, "Chris, Paul (Stacey) and I are working on material now, which will be ready when it's ready and not before." Another report in Mar 2007 talked of Squire, Johnson and P Stacey having demo'd four songs with lengths of around 5-10 minutes. In Oct 2007, Squire blogged that he "will resume recording my second solo album in November". In the interview done late 2006 for a re-release of Fish Out of Water, Squire said he had "29 minutes worth of ideas [...] not finished ideas, but ideas." He also described the material as "leaning in [the] direction" of having orchestral accompaniment. In a Nov 2007 Notes from the Edge interview, Squire said he's "got close to 80% I think of the material I'm working on for the solo record; I'm pretty much in good shape, a lot of the lyrics had gotten written". In Mar 2007, Jem Godfrey of the band Frost* blogged: "Chris is making a solo album, most of it is written, but he wanted to get together with me to kick a few ideas about as well. He played me some works in progress and there's some really good things going on. In particular, there was a track called "Can't Stop The Rain" (or something like that), which was really excellent." However, Godfrey was not to become involved.

However, the project stalled in 2007. In Sep 2008, Squire posted to Yesfans.com:
As for my solo album. Some, but not all, of the songs have been diverted to the project I'm working on with Steve Hackett.

I've been waiting to start production of my solo album with my friend and guitar player, Paul Stacey, who is finishing up on projects to which he was already pre-obligated. It will happen.
As a stopgap to doing a full solo album project, Squire, Johnson and J Stacey recorded Chris Squire's Swiss Choir, released for Xmas 2007. They decided to ask Steve Hackett to guest on guitar, which he did, and Hackett and Squire struck up a friendship.

In an early Nov 2008 interview, Squire explained, "I went round to his [Hackett's] studio and played on some things for him that he had been working on I think from a view to making a solo album. [...] he had been working on a new project and asked me to join in on it. Once I became involved in it, we started writing new material together and now it's developing into another project, which I think, is collaboration". These first recording sessions, around the end of 2007, were with Hackett, Squire and Simon Phillips on drums; their release was held up following legal issues around Hackett's divorce but eventually came out as Hackett's solo album, Beyond the Shrouded Horizon, in 2011.

The two also got together with Roger King, Hackett's long-time collaborator, for more writing sessions. Hackett, in a Feb 2009 interview, said, "people are already calling us the Squacketts, which was an idea Chris' wife Scotty came up with!" In a Sep 2008 post on Yesfans.com, Squire said that some of the songs he had been working on for his solo album "have been diverted to the project" with Hackett, including "Aliens", which Squire had worked on as a Yes song, with latterly input from Oliver Wakeman. (Yes played it live in 2008 and once in 2009.) In an Oct 2008 article, Squire said: "We're nearly 75 percent done. [...] Hackett is [...] a very good singer. We're doing a lot of harmonizing, and some of it is almost in the Crosby, Stills & Nash vein." Work then proceeded slower than first planned. In a Jan 2009 interview, Hackett said, "[Squire]'s a busy man [...] but the internet's a wonderful thing [...] we can just ping MP3s across the pond." In a May 2009 interview, Hackett said, "I should be visiting Chris Squire sometime in August [2009] and we intend to write more material for our joint project." Plans along the way that appear to have been abandoned as the project developed include the involvement of Steve Hackett's brother John (described in an early 2008 interview with S Hackett) and Taylor Hawkins on drums (Aug 2009 report from Squire).

The project pulled in J Stacey on drums, plus regular Hackett collaborators like Lehmann and Townsend. The album was eventually recorded in Hackett's home. In a spring 2010 interview, J Stacey said: "I did a Chris Squire/Steve Hackett session [...] which was a real honour for me because in my early years I was a Yes and Genesis fan. [...] There's a 'Prog' element to it and I used some different drums, power toms which I don't think I've ever recorded in my life, but it just seemed the right sound for this particular thing." In a May 2010 interview, asked about the project, Hackett said they were "very close to finishing". In an early Jun 2010 article, Squire said they had "just finished" the album in London; and in a late Jun article, he said: "I've just finished [the album] [...] It's actually one of my greatest achievements I think. The best achievements, I've always found, are always when you're working with someone else and of course when it's with someone new, I guess it's like a new relationship, so we really have made this work [...] The amazing thing is that Steve and I just work together so well and so naturally and we sing together really well and the combination of our talent is really something that doesn't happen often so we're both really pleased with the outcome of the record."

In late Jun 2010, Squire said, "A lot of the music that was going to be on the solo album is now on this collaboration". Fran Healy, credited as co-writer, is the lead singer and main writer in the band Travis. Hackett had played an early version of "Stormchaser" on some of his 2009 solo tour.

There was then a delay before release. Squire and Hackett reportedly disagreed about how to best release the album, Squire wanting a more high-profile label. The album eventually came out in 2012. Squackett talked about touring in autumn 2012, with a set list also including material from Fish Out of Water and Beyond the Shrouded Horizon. (HP, 20 Nov 21)
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