I write best when I'm not on guitar; maybe a few riffs or the basis, but strangely enough, you usually get the most perspective on a song when you're on an instrument that you're not accustomed to. I'm not accustomed to playing the piano and I find that quite inspiring, because your fingers fall on different patterns. Whereas on a guitar, I pick it up and know where my fingers are going to fall. Mostly I sit alone someplace and think about it. That's the best way. I don't think my songwriting has changed as much as the others in the group. I tend to write more traditional Queen material like Las Palabras De Amor. I still tend to write melodies and that certain sort of heaviness, which the group does well at its best; the guitar and piano which have that sort of thick sound. I really enjoy that, although these days it's used a little bit more sparingly.
For the record, as far as I remember, I played piano on: Doin' All Right, Father to Son, Now I'm Here, Dear Friends, Teo Toriatte, All Dead All Dead. Notably NOT on Sail Away Sweet Sister - I got Freddie to learn it and play it with Roger and John for the backing track - I wanted his marvellous rhythm and percussive feel on piano - but yes on Save Me, Las Palabras de Amor, Flash and The Hero (plus organ on the Wedding). But from here on in we began using synthesisers and there were many excursions from us all into keyboard territory… The only pure piece of piano from this era from me is Forever - which was a doodle done live in the studio which I rescued for a bonus track later on.
The minimalist era of Queen, liked by some and not by others. But this particular track, it was rather un-minimalist, nestled in the bosom of Hot Space is this track which is rather romantic. It's a very subtle song for Queen, this, of course, it's not the usual kind of overkill, and a sort of wistful atmosphere to it. It was born of my sort of feelings about the Spanish-speaking world, I suppose. I was playing keyboards on this, as you see in the video. I played more and more keyboards as time went on with the Queen tracks, as Freddie seemed to be less inclined to play keyboards, and some of the ideas came off keyboards rather than guitars, sometimes it's a good idea, gets you away from the usual kind of ruts of guitar playing. Rather understated, this, for a Queen track, which I like, it's nice that we were able to go in this direction as well, painted with a very light brush.