Album: Arc of Life
Artist: Arc of Life
2021 Frontiers Records
CD: FR CD 1088
Billy Sherwood: vocals, bass
Jon Davison: vocals, acoustic guitar,
percussion
Jimmy Haun: guitars, vocals
Dave Kerzner: keys, vocals
Jay Schellen: drums
Produced by Arc of Life & Derek Shulman
Recorded and mixed by Billy Sherwood
Additional engineer: Scott Walton
Management: Martin Darvill & QEDG
Design/artwork: Michael Inns
Band photography: Erik Nielsen
Mastered by Maor Appelbaum (not credited)
Tracks:
1. "Life has a Way" [Sherwood/Davison] (5:14)
2. "Talking with Siri" [Sherwood/Davison] (4:25)
3. "You Make It Real" [Sherwood/Davison] (4:32)
4. "Until Further Notice" [Sherwood/Davison] (3:42)
5. "The Magic of It All" [Sherwood/Davison] (4:04)
6. "Just in Sight" [Sherwood/Davison] (6:15)
7. "I Want to Know You Better" [Sherwood/Davison] (4:04)
8. "Locked Down" [Sherwood/Davison] (9:45)
9. "Therefore We Are" [Sherwood/Davison] (9:29)
10. "The End Game" [Sherwood/Davison] (5:52)
Notes (**): The Japanese release comes with a bonus track, an
acoustic version of "You Make It Real". The (digital/promo) singles
were (3), (6) and (7), in that order. (1) is a new version of "In
the End" on Billy Sherwood's 2003 solo album No Comment. UK
iTunes originally had a listing of: "The Magic of It All", "You Make
It Real", "Locked Down", "Life has a Way", "I Want to Know You
Better", "Therefore We Are","Until Further Notice","The End Game",
"Just in Sight".
The songwriting is all credited to Sherwood/Davison. However, (1) is
a new version of "In the End" on Billy Sherwood's 2003 solo album No
Comment (there just credited to Sherwood). Sherwood described
writing the lyrics for (2) and (4), suggesting they're mostly from
him. For (4), he said the words came from his own experiences of
being in a "dark place" personally. Despite the name, (8), like all
the album, was written before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Back in Sep 2016 on Facebook, Sherwood described working on a song
entitled "Until Further Notice", also the working title for a solo
album of his. He also named another song, "Talking with Siri". In a
Jan 2021 interview, with Heavy New York, Sherwood described how he
began "Talking with Siri" while on a UK Yes tour, one night after a
show. In a Feb 2021 interview with SOAL Night Live, Sherwood
acknowledged that there were some older ideas used on the album, but
said most of the writing was from 2017 onwards. He and Davison
started writing together, without any particular intent, while
sharing a tour bus on Yes's 2017 tour: "We just started writing
songs. And once we had two or three things developed, they were kind
of obvious to he and I that this was something more than
songwriting, but it wasn't, like, destined for a Yes thing [...] It
was to become something bigger. [...] it was that point we realised
we needed to fill the band". In an interview with Yes Music Podcast,
Sherwood described how "before too long we had kinda three or four
ideas that were developing [...] we thought maybe we can start
steering this towards a band thing. It was at that point we kind of
made the decision and phoned Jay Schellen up [...] and Jimmy Haun
[...] and Dave Kerzner". He confirmed that the album was principally
written by him and Davison, but continued, "now that we've formed
the thing [...] I know that there's talented writers in the band
[...] the idea for the next one will be to just get it into a studio
and just sit down and have some fun for a week and see what we come
up with as a unit". Sherwood also said he "strummed a couple of
acoustic guitars along the way", but that largely each member
performs their instrument. He then continued, "I might have
sprinkled a couple of overdubs here and there [...] by virtue of
that's how the songs were written".
Sherwood and Davison met through Yes, of course. Schellen first
worked with Sherwood on the second World Trade album, while Haun has
known Sherwood from childhood, having been friends with his older
brother, Michael. Haun was babysitting for 6-year old Billy!
Sherwood and latterly Davison have worked with Kerzner on multple
projects in recent years. Shulman (ex-Gentle Giant) signed World
Trade and was managing Yes(West) after Big Generator and
Anderson's departure. It was Shulman who pushed the idea of Sherwood
becoming the lead vocalist for Yes.
In terms of how the album was recorded, Sherwood said to Yes Music
Podcast, "Jon and I recorded a lot of things in the back of the bus
[...] we also spent time at his house in LA [...] we knocked out a
lot of the vocals together there. [...] Jay Schellen's local to LA,
so we got [...] into a studio and tracked drums and bass together".
In early Nov 2017, Sherwood shared a video on Facebook of a drum
session with Schellen for (2), although he revealed nothing about
the song's context at the time. Other tracks were recorded through
file sharing. Sherwood described how the album was done, prior to
the pandemic, around Yes being very busy. In yet another Jan 2021
interview, Sherwood said that none of the music was ever intended
for Yes. In an interview with Heavy New York, he was asked if they
had tried to make the music different to Yes. He replied, "Wasn't
really thinking about that — just being creative." In another Feb
2021 interview, Sherwood said they "were done with the record long
before COVID kicked in"; that is, they had recorded it. The album's
production is credited to the band and Shulman, although it appears
Sherwood led for the band.
At one point the band was to be a quartet (without Kerzner) called
AVA and to sign to Golden Robot Records. The first publicly heard
about a band project was when Kerzner wrote on Instagram in Jun 2019
about "an upcoming album I'm making with some of the guys from Yes
this year [2019]! A cool collaboration with Jon D and friends [...]
while Yes is on their Royal Affair Summer tour!" Answering a
question on Twitter about it, he expanded, "Working with Jon and
Billy on a new album/project and they're recording themselves
remotely with me on their @ikmultimedia iRig Pro IO and AXE IO set
ups while on tour with Yes this Summer!" Davison described the
project in a Jul 2020 interview, saying he and Sherwood "[ha]ve
written a lot of music together. We've got our own side project band
[...] we've got the album all ready to go [...] It should be coming
out at the last point of this year [2020] or early next year
[2021]." Kerzner talked more about the project on ProgessiveEars.com
in Dec 2020. He described, "I didn't write any of the songs on this
album but that's ok. I have so many other projects where I write the
songs and get to run the show. It's actually nice and quite
refreshing to just walk into someone else's band and have all the
pieces in place... a manager (great one too), agent, label and all
that. [...] you know what I like the most about this? It's a
band!!!! So, I'm not a sideman addition in this. I am in the band
and there's a great vibe and brotherhood to it." He later said, "It
sounds like the style of the songwriters as most albums do. They're
in Yes so... a complete departure is probably unrealistic. If I was
co-writing with them it would probably go further away from their
sound just by nature of blending styles and influences but...
hopefully that'll happen down the road." And: "The songs are mostly
written by Billy and Jon so naturally it would predominantly be
their style". And, later in the month, "I'm a late addition to the
band and came in after the songs were already written and mostly
recorded. I wouldn't normally do that but I love these guys and the
potential of what we can do together live and in collaboration is
exciting to me. [...] I hope my contributions will be part of the
equation in the future. That was the idea of me joining... that we'd
tour and co-write the next album together. Of course, a pandemic can
throw everything up in the air so who knows what will happen when?"
Likewise, on Facebook he said on 10 Dec, "It's Billy and Jon's new
tunes with a new line up. [...] I arrived late in the game after the
songs were already written. If someone came to me and said "Dave
what would you do IF you were wanting to make a sort of
next-generation Yes album" that would be different. That was never
mentioned whatsoever. These are just my pals from the latest Yes
line up who asked me to join their side project band that would tour
when Yes isn't touring." He's also talked about the possibility of
Arc of Life playing Yes material live.
The band are managed by Martin Darvill at QEDG Management, who also
manage Yes, Asia, Downes Braide Association and many others. The
idea for the cover art came from Sherwood, who also said in a Feb
2021 interview that he didn't want the cover to look like a Yes
album. The album peaked at #95 in the US iTunes chart (12 Feb 21).
The announcement of the band saw a lot of online discussion about
whether this was the future of Yes given it involves the
"youngsters" in the band, plus Haun who substituted for Howe on Union.
Promo talked up the Yes connections and the band's prog leanings,
which seemed at odds with the choice of the debut single, "You Make
It Real", which Kerzner subsequently described as "one of the more
pop songs on the album". Davison said in promo for the album that,
"Each YES member understands and supports when others may desire to
explore and thrive along new artistic avenues. We then each find
further inspiration to bring back to the YES fold." He also said
that, "Once the world gets over the COVID hump, Arc Of Life will be
planning as much touring as we can fit in between YES and our other
projects. Quite honestly, we're all chomping at the bit to be out
performing again!" The Jan 2021 issue of Prog magazine had
this: "Sherwood says there's a pop edge and "lots of ear candy," but
adds: "It flowers into a very progressive thing by the end." In the
interview with Yes Music Podcast, Sherwood said, "One of the things
we did on purpose was to show the range of expansion that's
available [...] how you go from the top of the album, which is
pretty straight ahead, even though it's proggy in its arranging, and
then by the time you get to "Therefore We Are", y'know, it's
flowered into these very long pieces of music [...] So I think that
shows the potential of what we can do".
In terms of what the band might play live, Sherwood said in a Feb
2021 interview, "we're going to have to find that line as we go, but
I'm not opposed to playing [...] material that Yes is not really
playing just to play some interesting music. There's a wealth of
material that I can bring to the table from other projects, Circa
has some great songs, Conspiracy..." (HP, 17 Feb 21)
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