Much like I pushed Asia and Yes to keep reinventing themselves, the trio is going through a bit of that. We may decide to do a completely original record this time without any jazz or blues references. We may not get that far — we may decide we like something and we want to do it, but we’re certainly going to combine musical styles to come up with another phase of the trio.Dylan had tweeted in Jul 2013 that the album was "soon to be released". In a Sep 2013 interview, Steve said, "We've got a lot of new material for the new album, and we've been recording that. [...] [Music] partly of mine, but also bringing their music into play." At a Sep 2014 solo show, he said the Trio may change their name to Howe Stanley Howe. I asked Dylan about the album on Facebook on 1 May 2014: he replied that it will be released, "Hopefully end of the year [2014] or before - still got some o/d's [overdubs] to do and then mix". Steve said in an Aug 2014 interview that in Oct 2014 he will be "doing recording, and finishing up a new trio album [...] that's all original in music. No direct Jazz music in it at all. But we do swing". In an interview with Vintage Rock conducted around the beginning of Apr 2014, Howe said: "We're going to release a new album eventually — well we've recorded most of it — which is completely original, and not relying on a jazz kind of repertoire, which is maybe going to hold us back. Because, strictly speaking, I'm not into playing standards." An Oct 2014 interview stated that Steve "[i]s currently planning to record a few of Bruford's compositions on the next release by [...] the Steve Howe Trio." In a Nov 2014 interview for YesFANZ, Steve said:
The Trio have just recorded a new album that should be out next year [2015] we hope, which is unlike, The Haunted Melody', because we just thought “I know what we will try to surprise them or we’ll deviate from the….’ The program was you know we will take music from my career sometimes but also Jimmy Smith, Kenny Burrell, Roland Kirk. A kind of jazz, but this time it’s all original and it’s new original music and I think that has been good for us.
In a Mar 2015 interview, Steve said:
we have almost finished – and it’s only a hairsbreadth away from being finished – a new Steve Howe Trio album. But we’re not in a hurry. [...] We’re just going to take our time [...] we may be looking at much later in the year [2015] to release that, but if the album’s not ready ‘til next year [2016], we won’t release it ‘til next year. I’m not really pushed to do anything.Steve described the album as having been completed in comments at his 8 Oct 2016 solo show.
Bill gave me some tunes years and years ago. They gathered a bit of dust but in this writing period with the Trio I played a couple of these tunes to the guys and they went, ‘Oh wow. This is great. Let’s arrange this.’
So, again, we developed them and [...] I, in particular, [...] kind of took those ideas on and developed them to which Bill wanted to share in the credit with me because he felt I had kind of brought them back into the frame by development.
[...]
music in a way often gets buried. Some good stuff gets buried along the way. I don’t think there was a way Bill and I could have done those tunes earlier than this, strangely enough. I didn’t have a vehicle and Bill had kind of left them with me and they’d just sort of sat there. I’d messed – I’d doodled with them. But once the Trio got hold of them we were able to bring the melodies into line with the other things we were doing.
In an Aug
2019 interview, he said, "it must have been about 10 years
ago, or maybe a bit more, when Bill he sent me some tunes – just
embryonic recordings of the melody – and I dabbled with them a bit
without really seeing how to use them at the time. But when the
Trio were composing different titles, I said 'look guys I've got
these tunes, what do you think about these?' And their faces lit
up and they said 'this fits, this works, we can take this and
build on it!'" That date when Bruford sent the tunes would be from
shortly before Bruford retired.
Howe talked to Bruford about the writing credits for the three
pieces and Bruford wanted them to be Bruford/Howe to acknowledge
Howe's work in developing them. The titles of the three pieces by
Bruford all look rather typical of Bruford's track naming style.
It was also Bruford who suggested Simon Heyworth do the mastering
for the album.