Album: CIRCA: 2007
Artist: CIRCA:
2007 A Limited Addition Release in co-operation with The Lab
CD

Billy Sherwood: bass, lead vocals
Tony Kaye: keyboards
Alan White: drums, percussion, vocals
Jimmy Haun: electric guitars, acoustic guitars, vocals

with:
Cole Coleman: laúd (3)
Michael Sherwood: Vocoder
 

Recorded & mixed by B. Sherwood
Mastered by Joe Gastwirt
Studio techs: Ric Luxembourg, Mark Ferguson, John Cox, Scott Walton and everybody at Uncle Studios

Art direction and photography: Glen Wexler
Logo and graphic design: Carsten Steinhausen

Artist management: Len Fico Fuel Management
Business management: Ric Donalation
 

Tracks:
1. Cut the Ties [Sherwood/Kaye/White/Haun] (5:40)
2. Don't Let Go [Sherwood/Kaye/White/Haun/Trevor Rabin] (6:57)
3. Together We Are [Sherwood/Kaye/White/Haun] (6:31)
4. Information Overload [Sherwood/Kaye/White/Haun] (5:54)
5. Trust in Something [Sherwood/Kaye/White/Haun] (7:55)
6. Keeper of the Flame [Sherwood/Kaye/White/Haun] (2:32)
7. Life Going By [Sherwood/Kaye/White/Haun] (3:47)
8. Look Inside [Sherwood/Kaye/White/Haun/Rabin] (5:04)
9. Brotherhood of Man [Sherwood/Kaye/White/Haun] (11:48)
 

Notes: (****) News first leaked out of this project in 2006 under the working title of Family or variants thereof. The idea behind Family, as Sherwood described in a Notes from the Edge interview (Jan 2007), had been for a project involving multiple Yesmen: "I said to Tony [Kaye] "What about taking the Yes family tree and making a record?"" In early 2006, the plan was being discussed by Sherwood, White, Kaye, Peter Banks and maybe others. In the second part of the Jan interview, Sherwood talks of his "initial idea", coming out of the Pink Floyd tribute albums (which included multiple appearances by Yes members past and present), that:

maybe I can pull in Bruford and Wakeman, let's see what we can do […] there was some music being formed [...]

You can kind of think of it as in the process of a year, which was when I looked at Tony and said what do you think of let's get together and make some music, the first quarter was kind of spent messing around, getting musical idea together, and this kind of idea floating around of 'what if', this was that kind of project, and as the music started progressing, the sound of the thing was evolving [...] it kind of didn't make sense to keep pursuing that, and the idea was let's put together a band, so that we can actually create this sound, represent this sound live, and continue doing the sound, as opposed to it being a collective record of just various artists, so it was kind of at that point, like I said, when I called Jimmy

White made up the fourth member of the band. Rabin's and Downes' names had also been connected to early reports about the project, but it is unclear whether Bruford, Wakeman, Rabin or Downes were actually approached. However, (2) and (8) are co-written by Trevor Rabin, being based on material Sherwood and Rabin wrote after the Talk tour. Sherwood explained on MySpace:

Trevor [Rabin] had a few pieces of music that I had written lyrics and melodies to in 1995. They never went any further, fast forward to last year when I rediscovered the tape with the song ideas on it. I did a sketch of the track in my studio and showed it to TK {who I had already been wroking a lot with}, he said "let's see if we can reshape it a bit to fit along side the other music we have"... From that point forward we got more serious about making it a real track and had AW do his thing and add a few bits here and there as well as Jimmy.

Sherwood and Kaye were the lead composers otherwise, and wrote all the lyrics.In the Jan interview, White compared their music to "THE LADDER and that kind of [Yes] stuff when Billy was involved, because it's kind of like that, but it's like a new version of it. It's moved on". The discussion continued later in the interview:

Sherwood: [Yes] one day will probably come back and do their thing, but for the moment it's on hiatus, so perhaps this is a vehicle where we, as musicians, can kind of contribute to that void [...] [It's] us, so who's gonna be there? Yes fans. [...] They're not gonna be surprised, like "Wow! All the sudden I'm listening to a ska band." They're gonna kind of know what they're getting in to.

Kaye: [...] it's true, the Yes fans want to hear music, so you do it...

Sherwood: And as a Yes fan I know when it's not there, you sort of wish it was, but for whatever political reasons that it can't be and that's fine, because...

White: It's called ego.

Sherwood: [Yes i]s still an entity that will be; it's just that it isn't right now, so the fact that this is available, it wasn't a strategy, but it just so happens that the timing happens to work out

[...]

White: We're always looking forward, and we don't rest on our laurels [...]

Sherwood: It's forward-thinking music for sure when you hear it, yet it still harkens back to [Yes]... you get those feelings from the music. [...] But it doesn't sound like, OK, let's make a note to mentally try to get that feeling. It just accidentally happened that way because of who's involved and what they played.

Kaye: Yes fans are the important ingredient here. [...] if we can deliver that thing that they want, that feeling was worthwhile.

Kaye also described "add[ing] a sort of Yes concept in terms of arrangements". Haun, in the second part of the NftE interview, describes "the crux of [the material] is Tony and Billy's collaboration", but Sherwood added, "we started these things, but by the time they ended up with Alan [White] and Jim[ Haun]'s stamp on there…" Sherwood continued, "Perhaps next time we do this, now that we've done one, we'll get together in a room all four of us and play around with ideas, because that's now what we know what we are". Haun talked about the four of them being "completely committed" to continuing with the band. Asked about possible additional material not included on CIRCA: 2007, Sherwood said to Yesfans.com in Aug 2007, "there was a few tracks we cut but didn't finish...saving the [id]eas for the next CD so there won't be any "bonus" stuff floating around".

Guest Cole Coleman had previously worked on Daniela Torchia's Have No Fear, executive produced by Kaye, while Michael Sherwood is Billy's elder brother.

The band decided to release the album by themselves. The album sold over 400 copies in its first week and had sold 1000 copies by 31 Aug. The band initially released a 2-track download EP of "Trust in Something" and "Cut the Ties" (Circa Records/Fuel) on the US iTunes. However, with the full album due and with problems over making the EP available elsewhere in the world, the band decided to pull the EP. In the 21 May blog post, Sherwood said, "Due to the fact that the i-tunes EP is not available for worldwide consumption we have decided to remove it from the i-tunes catalog all together. We felt it unfair for some to have the chance to get it while others could not."

CIRCA:'s debut live show was on 23 Aug 2007 in California at which they played the whole album plus a largely instumental, hour-long Yes medley. The live band was augmented by Scott Walton (ex-Conspiracy; studio tech on CIRCA: 2007) on backing vocals, Vocoder and orchestral elements. Live mix was by Tom Fletcher (worked on Keys to Ascension). A DVD of the event followed. (HP, 14 Aug 07; updated 23 Feb 08)

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