Genesis co-founded Anthony Phillips fears his study of classical music and guitar may have had a negative effect on his natural creativity.
He launched himself into an education programme after leaving the band in 1970, following the recording of second album Trespass.
And in a Facebook Q&A session he accepts there might he a downside to his learning.
Asked whether he feels more accomplished as an artist, Phillips says: “Very good question. Definitely more accomplished and have more technique – but worry that some of the formal study may have robbed me of my albeit clumsy originality!”
He believes that he and his former bandmates all carried their teenage experiences at Surrey’s Charterhouse School into their music. “We were all quite influenced by the English choral tradition. Tony Banks was influenced by his piano teacher but the rest of us were self-taught at that stage.”
Phillips says of the establishment’s strict rules: “Poor Mike Rutherford had a very difficult sadistic housemaster, which made it worse for him. Our housemaster – Pete, Tony and I – was a kinder man.”
In other answers he reveals that he has two favourite vocalists – “Peter Collins and Phil Gabriel!” – that he’s had unofficial talks about a potential Steve Hackett collaboration, and that he’s not planning a return to the stage after ending his live career when he left Genesis.
Phillips just released a three-disc remastered version of acclaimed 1977 solo debut The Geese & The Ghost. A vinyl edition will be launched on Record Store Day, April 18.
