In a new interview with Guitarist Magazine, former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett discussed his new album, The Circus And The Nightwhale. Following is an excerpt from the chat.

Guitarist: One of the acknowledged millstones of a concept album is that there’s the expectation that it has to be performed in its complete form – something you will have experienced before in Genesis with The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Are you going to get a chance to perform this album as a whole?

Hackett: "That’s a huge challenge. I hadn’t expected that it was going to be so well received. One of the videos has gone viral – the one for 'People Of The Smoke' – and I’m at this point where I’ve only got a certain amount of time on my hands. I’d like to do the whole thing, but at the moment I’m supposed to be celebrating Foxtrot in America, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway over here – not in its entirety. It’s a real conundrum. 

I’ve headed towards doing Genesis albums in total; the two that I’ve really gone for have been Foxtrot and Selling England By The Pound from ’72 and ’73. That was when John Lennon said he thought that Genesis were true sons of The Beatles, so as far as I’m concerned that’s the golden era of Genesis to celebrate."

Guitarist: How much of your own story is wrapped up in the album’s storyline – or are you going to let people draw their own conclusions?

Hackett: "I have to be a little bit careful because I don’t want to point fingers at people and blame them for my extremely screwed-up state of mind at various points. There was an aspect of claustrophobia that invaded my time with Genesis, and I had to work outside the band. I think if you’re feeling creative and you’ve got that album or that book or that film inside you, you don’t want to let it fester. You’ve got to get it out there. 

Genesis was becoming a little bit too much of a closed shop and it was affecting my ability to sleep. I agonised over leaving the band for a good two years and then I thought, ‘No, I’ve got to make a leap of faith at this point in time.’ And there’s no doubt that I made the right decision. If you look at it purely in financial terms, you would have said, ‘Yeah, but you could afford Buckingham Palace by now if you’d stayed with the band.’ But on the other hand, music is its own currency. It’s what nourishes you, if you need to do it."

Hackett was a member of Genesis from 1971 – 1977. he recorded six albums with the band: Nursery Cryme (1971), Foxtrot (1972), Selling England By The Pound (1973, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974), A Trick Of The Tail (1976) and Wind & Wuthering (1976).

Read the complete interview here.

Hackett recently released his new studio album, The Circus And The Nightwhale, via InsideOut Music.

The Circus And The Nightwhale is Steve’s first new music in over two years. It follows the beautiful acoustic LP Under A Mediterranean Sky from January 2021 - which rose to #2 in the UK Classical chart - and, in September of that year, his metallic masterpiece Surrender Of Silence, which hit the UK Top 40. His 2023 live album, Foxtrot At Fifty + Hackett Highlights: Live in Brighton, reached #2 in the Rock & Metal Chart. Steve’s new LP promises ballads, blues, blistering progressive rock… and healthy measures of theatre and fantasia.

Recorded between tours in 2022 and 2023 at Siren studio in the UK - with guest parts beamed in from Sweden, Austria, the US, Azerbaijan and Denmark, the lineup for The Circus And The Nightwhale includes some familiar faces alongside Steve on electric and acoustic guitars, 12-string, mandolin, harmonica, percussion, bass and vocals. Roger King (keyboards, programming and orchestral arrangements), Rob Townsend (sax), Jonas Reingold (bass), Nad Sylvan (vocals), Craig Blundell (drums) and Amanda Lehmann on vocals. Nick D’Virgilio and Hugo Degenhardt return as guests on the drumstool, engineer extraordinaire Benedict Fenner appears on keyboards and Malik Mansurov is back with the tar. Finally, Steve’s brother John Hackett is present once more on flute.

The new album is available to order on several different formats, including a Limited CD+Blu-ray mediabook (including 5.1 Surround Sound & 24bit high resolution stereo mixes), Standard CD Jewelcase, Gatefold 180g Vinyl LP & as Digital Album. All feature the stunning cover painting by Denise Marsh. Order here.

Tracklisting:

"People Of The Smoke"
"These Passing Clouds"
"Taking You Down"
"Found And Lost"
"Enter The Ring"
"Get Me Out!"
"Ghost Moon And Living Love"
"Circo Inferno"
"Breakout"
"All At Sea"
"Into The Nightwhale"
"Wherever You Are"
"White Dove"

"Circo Inferno" visualizer:

"People Of The Smoke" video:

"Wherever You Are" video:

For Steve Hackett's upcoming live dates, head here.

(Photo - Tina Korhonen)