How Jon Anderson Created His First Solo Album

After Yes completed their 1975 tour in support of the Relayer album, the individual members decided it was time for a break.

Naturally, though the progressive rock legends were putting their main project on pause, some time away merely meant they had time to focus on crafting their own solo albums. For vocalist Jon Anderson, the result was the birth of his 1976 solo debut, Olias of Sunhillow.

“The dream of Olias was to spend time learning how to play the numerous instruments I had collected over a period of time… which I kept in my garage…..ranging from guitars, Koto and ethnic flute instruments, harp and percussion to modern electronic keyboards,” Anderson shared in a press release, looking back at the album, which is being reissued by Mobile Fidelity on vinyl in honor of its 50th anniversary.

“I had sketched out the framework of a story relating to the power of music and connected to the Seven Sisters star system, The Pleiades,” he detailed. “All very simple, really. The evolution of the idea took me on an everlasting mission, driving me a bit crazy but nonetheless a satisfying experience which has stood the test of time.”

Creating the ‘Olias’ Album Was a Complicated Process.

As Anderson told UCR in an earlier interview, the vision he had for the album was one thing. But actually bringing it to life, was quite an adventure.

“I created this ship [the Moorglade Mover], that would travel through the powerful energies [of the Pleiades]. And the whole idea of the ship was something that was supernatural — and how to get there? Well, they had to sing….they weren’t rowing,” he explains with a laugh. “They had to sing ideas of energy, forcing the Moorglade to fly into the solar system. That was the whole concept. And they would sing a chant, like a Gregorian chant sort of thing.”

“I worked out there would be four specific categories of music. There’d be rhythmical series of guitars that I put together and then there was a series of percussion that I would put together, and then there was some keyboard parts that I put together. And then the final thing was the vocal parts,” he continues. “So I had myself singing over and over again, these chants.”

Anderson Found He Had a Problem

According to the songwriter, he had about 24 tracks of audio that he needed to get into sync, including a variety of instrumentation — he offers percussion and Middle Eastern guitar strums as two examples.

Progressively, you’d start the playback on the multiple tapes and the individual machines in order to hopefully get the music to line up in the way you were hearing it. This involved trial, error and lots of experimentation, as he recalls. He began to reach his wits’ end. “For four days, I couldn’t get them to sync together, play together, or be in time together and it drove me crazy,” he admits. “My wonderful engineer [and Yes associate, Mike Dunne], said, ‘I gotta go. I can’t take this anymore.'”

Anderson wasn’t ready to throw in the towel, as you can imagine. “I remember, it was midnight, and I was saying, ‘Okay, I’m going to do it just one more time for them all to sync in time with each other. I pressed the buttons after one minute, and then another after another minute, and so on,” he says. “And I went and fell asleep. I think I’d been drinking something.” [the vocalist chuckles]

How Did Things End Up?

“I remember waking up and the sun was shining through the garage window like crazy. It’s like the whole place was lit up,” he reflects. “And I woke up and thought, ‘What happened? What was I doing? Wait a minute, what was I doing?'”

“I went over to the main tape machine and I pressed it, and the first thing started, the Moroccan sitar sounds and stuff like that,” he says. “And then the percussion came in and I thought, wait a minute, it’s in time with each other. What’s going on? And then these keyboard sounds came and everything was in sync. And then the last thing is the choir came in and believe me, I was crying and looking out the window.”

What’s Jon Anderson Doing in 2026?

He’s got a lot going on. The 50th anniversary reissue of Olias of Sunhillow is available for preorder now and it’s only the second time it’s been available domestically on vinyl since its original issue in 1976.

Anderson has also been hard at work, looking to finish off a sequel to the Olias album, something he told UCR about late last year. On the heels of 2024’s True, he’s also got a new album continuing his collaboration with the Band Geeks. That’s close to completion and expected to be released later this year. He’s been previewing a song from the upcoming set, “Giving is Living” as part of the latest round of tour dates he’s playing with the Geeks.

The Yes vocal legend currently has shows on tap that will keep him busy for a good portion of the rest of 2026. The current U.S. leg runs through May 7 in Royal Oak, Michigan. The next round of dates here in the States starts in late June and will run through the end of July. He’s presently set to take the Band Geeks overseas in September for their first U.K. performances and will end the year with a show in Paris on Oct. 13.

READ MORE: Jon Anderson Reveals 2026 Tour Dates