Trevor Rabin discusses his new solo album "RIO" and more!

Episode # 215 - Trevor Rabin discusses his new solo album "RIO" and more!
Trevor Rabin, the South African guitarist, singer, multi-musician, writer and producer, recently announced ‘Rio’, his first solo album of vocal material in 34 years, set for release in just a week’s time on the 6th October 2023 worldwide.
Given that his previous vocal-led solo album, ‘Can’t Look Away’, was released in 1989 (2012’s ‘Jacaranda’ was all-instrumental), Rabin has kept us waiting for more than three decades for a follow-up. Trevor admits that there was pressure from all sides, including his own family, to have speeded up the process. However, the delay is excusable. Since leaving Yes following the ‘Talk’ album in 1994 and largely as a prequel to touring as part of ARW in 2016, the guitarist entered the time-consuming world of movie soundtracks. Not just any old movies, either. Trevor’s name appears as composer for such blockbusters as Con Air, Armageddon, Remember the Titans, Enemy Of The State, Deep Blue Sea, Glory Road, and Gone In 60 Seconds and both National Treasure movies, amongst many others. “Over the past ten years I was having ideas, concepts that I couldn’t implement due to my busy schedule,” he explains, adding: “To be honest, those years flew by in a flurry. I knew that this was the time, and once I found my momentum I worked on the album 24/7.”

The process proved a labour of love and as with his first and second solo records, ‘Trevor Rabin’ and ‘Face To Face’ (from 1977 and ’79 respectively), Rabin handled just about all of the instruments himself.

Stylistically, ‘Rio’– is tough to categorise. Besides guitar-driven rock-meets-pop, ‘Goodbye’ is Country & Western with an edgy drive, while ‘Tumbleweed’ begins in a burst of harmonies. No wonder its working title was ‘The Demographic Nightmare’.

“I wanted to get into many different areas,” Rabin states. “Of course there are ‘prog things’, but overall there are a lot of styles going on.”

As mentioned, Trevor plays the majority of the instruments on the record. However, on drums for a number of tracks is Lou Molino, while Trevor also contributes some drums and percussion. Vinnie Colaiuta provides drums on ‘Push’, and Rabin’s son Ryan Rabin helped out with some of the most important percussive arrangements. Along the way Trevor also drafted in a couple of friends, Dante Marchi and Liz Constantine, to sing back up on two songs, as well as Charlie Bisharat on violin.