Howard Jones Talks ‘Dream Into Action’ And More

Jun 2, 2025 | Interviews

Words by Glenn Sargeant

Feature Image Photo Credit: Supplied By Kilimanjaro Live

Musician, singer and songwriter Howard Jones will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of his album ‘Dream Into Action’ with a November 2025 UK Tour. He very kindly spoke to us about the anniversary and much more:

Firstly, congratulations on the 40th anniversary of your album ‘Dream Into Action’. What are your memories of the album’s writing and recording sessions?

One of my key memories of making Dream Into Action is how different it was to the first album – Humans Lib where all the songs were written I’d been playing them live so at the studio it was recorded pretty quick. Then it came to Dream Into Action, I didn’t have any songs down at all. I mean loads of ideas, but it was the busiest time of my entire life, as I was on tour, traveling the world, without a day free so what I had to do was set up a little recording demo studio that my wonderful roadies set up for me in every dressing room and that’s where the songs were written and formed so it was quite hard to be disciplined about writing every day, but because there is such a buzz, you’re playing to audiences in the evening, in a way it informs the kind of songs you want to write because you know that the audience loves to sing a lot, so I’d write a chorus that people could easily join in. That was the thinking behind ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ with the ‘Whoa, Whoa, Whoa’s’, you don’t even have to know the lyrics to do it. Every time I was getting close to having a track down, I’d take it onto the tour bus and play it through the sound system to the band and check out what they thought, so it was a really interesting process. By the time the tour was over and I went into the studio with Rupert (Hine) and Steve (Tayler) I had all the songs and they were ready to go and in six weeks it was done.

You will be touring the UK in November 2025 to celebrate the anniversary alongside a greatest hits set. How are you feeling about the tour and do any of the venues/cities hold any personal significance for you?

We start in one of my favourite venues in Bath – Bath Forum. Somerset is where I live so I’ve been there to see shows myself and I can invite my friends to come which is always nice. Another great venue is Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall – its significant to me because I studied music in Manchester so I was there for 2 1/2 years, I saw loads of gigs in the city, I have a big connection with Manchester. Birmingham has always been a fabulous audience. I love playing there a lot, the Symphony Hall is such a historic building and it has a great acoustic.

The Palladium in London has got a great stage size and history oozing out of the walls! Gateshead is great, my wife Jan is from the North East so we actually have relatives up there who are proper Geordies and it’s great to have family at the shows. Glasgow well I’ve always had the most amazing reception there. I’ve been touring Scotland since the beginning, the very first time I played there was when I was opening up for China Crisis I got the most unbelievable reaction from the audience and it gave me such confidence. I carried that with me for the next few years, it was something special. And then Leicester – when I was a kid I used to live in a place called Blaby near Leicester so they’re lots of connections.

Who will be in your touring band for the UK Tour?

I’ got my my nephew Phil Jones on keys, and I’ got Rory Harvey on bass, my great friend Robin Boult, who’ always played guitar for me, on guitar and and also introducing Doug Yowell on electronic drum kit so It’ quite exciting for my UK fans because they haven’ seen this band yet.

Given your extensive back catalogue, is it difficult picking a setlist? Do you have a specific song selection process?

Picking a setlist is challenging – there’s certain songs that if I don’t play them people will be really upset – I’m not in the business of upsetting people, I don’t want to do that so there’s probably about 10 – 12 songs that if I don’t play them people will be in literal tears that I didn’t play them but as it’s the Dream Into Action anniversary I will include more tracks from that album. I’m thinking of doing Specialty, Things [Can Only Get Better], Life In One Day And maybe the title track itself, so more from that album. I will be including more hits, I always want to keep the energy high so not too many slow tempo vanity things but obviously I’ve gotta play Hide and Seek. I think it’s very important for me to maintain the energy for a show.

What two things do you hope to have achieved once you have left the stage?

I want to leave people with a spring in their step so that they feel a bit uplifted and ready to take on whatever problems and difficulties that we all have to face in life. We never know what’ around the corner, if we have a sort of positive spirit ready for whatever comes along, a sort of ‘I know I can deal with it and I know I can handle it’ that’ what I want to encourage. It’s what lots of the songs are about and I want people to feel a bit joyful.

Do you have any favoured stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones etc?

Of course Pianos and keyboards have got to be up there but I guess playing Keytar is great! I love a cleaner instrument because it means I can walk around the stage with it around my neck and I’ done that since the early days of my one man show when I used to strap a Moog around my neck and play it moving around so when that came along that was a real gift.

How do you look after your voice?

I’ve had a vocal coach – James Windsor, for several years now, guiding me, to keep it in good shape. Before I go on stage I do 20 minutes or 30 minutes of vocal exercises and warmups James has given me and it means that when I hit the stage my voice is ready to go. I also know it isn’t good for singers to talk too much. I try not to do interviews on the day of the show because it can wear out your voice and by the evening its not quite as good as it could be. You know its like the Gym or Yoga however you keep your body in good shape its the same as the voice. The voice needs to be looked after.

You will also release a new album entitled ‘Piano Composed’ on 23rd May 2025 on Cherry Red Records. How did you want to approach the making of the album?

Piano Composed came about during the Covid lockdowns And so I had plenty of time to devote to composing the piano pieces. Originally I composed using my software and the computer and then my auntie left me some money and I bought this new Steinway Spirio and I was able to record these pieces that I’ composed using the new piano and so it was a really fun process. I approached it differently to other piano albums I’ done before. This time I wanted to really take time over the composition in the same way that I do with my songs, I didn’t want to just improvise something and it be of that moment, I wanted to give the pieces proper structure and develop the themes. It’ a very eclectic collection of pieces, but that’ who I am, I think it reflects all my different tastes and loves in music. With all kinds of influences from Ragtime piano, blues piano and Steve Reich to all the French impressionist influences expressed in this record.

Where did you record the album and who produced it?

During lockdown and I produced it myself.

Did you use any particular instruments, microphones, recording equipment to help you get a particular sound/tone for the record?

Earthworks piano mics

What is your earliest musical memory?

Probably singing ‘I’m a little Teapot’ for my auntie and uncles and doing a little dance in the middle of the room when I was about 3 and getting a great reaction from my family audience.

In doing some research, I discovered that you were also the first artist to make a recording of that night’ gig available on CD and it would include digital artwork of photos taken during the performance. How did that idea come about and is it something that you still do or would consider doing again?

I dunno if we were actually the first, but maybe one of the first. We thought it would be such fun to take a little CD burner on the road and record the shows and then make CDs on the premises, then Ian Waldon was taking photographs as well so we had a digital photograph of that evening with the CD. Sometimes we had problems with the sound, It would be so loud that the recording machine would cut out for a while so that would be included in that nights recording so I think people have still got those originals, we could only make about 10 or so each night and then a copy would be delivered to them later.

The great thing about it was that at the end of the tour I had 17 shows recorded and I was able to make an album editing between all the different shows and all the best bits, so there’ll be a piece of Glasgow in the verse and then there would be Southampton in the chorus. The album is called ‘The Peaceful Tour Live’ and it’s one of my favourite albums because it’s just pure energy.

What two pieces of advice do you have for a novice musician?

I mean my advice has always been if you want to be a musician you should try do it all the time. Like it doesn’t matter what the scale, so if you want to perform and you haven’t got any venues that want to take you, then have a little party in your front room or a friends front room and play some songs. You can always write a song wherever you are, whether with a piano, keyboard, laptop, you can always be composing and that’s where I started, doing the same thing. Nobody knows who you are, you’re not famous in anyway, you don’t have an audience, so what we used to do is create our own gigs. We used to phone up a pub and say ‘can we come and play, we’ll bring our friends and they’ll drink beer and it’ll be great’. So when you’re faced with seemingly no opportunities to do what you do, then create them yourself and when you do that doors start to open. It’s also the way you find out if this is really what you wanna do and spend the rest of your life doing because it’s not for everyone I mean travelling and going out in front of audiences who don’t know anything about you and things like that, it’s a challenging life so you need to find out if it is in your heart that this is really what you wanna do – then you have to pursue it. You have to keep going and not be taking no. There will be loads of people and situations that are telling you ‘oh this isn’t gonna work, don’t do this’ but if it’s your passion and your dream to do this, you must pursue it and take it to where it’s gonna lead you. I think if you give it 100% it will always take you somewhere interesting.

What makes Howard Jones happy and what makes you unhappy?

I’m very happy when I’ve got plenty to do and I’ve got plenty of challenges going on in my life. I mean going on tour is challenging, physically, mentally but that’s what I’ve realised I really enjoy. You feel like you’re alive! The things that make me unhappy is when you see the suffering that’s going on in the world due to people being disrespected and people not being cared for.