John Payne has been known for the last fifteen years as one of the main creative and driving forces behind melodic rock band Asia. In 1992, at a time when the melodic rock superstars threatened to dry up, their sole surviving original member Geoff Downes formed a partnership with Payne. Payne’s strong vocals, powerful bass playing and most of all his instinct for extraordinary songwriting and production secured the existence of the band for their next five albums (“Silent Nation” was the last to be released in 2004). When Downes recently decided to reunite with the original Asia line-up, Payne moved on and soon founded a new group under the moniker of GPS along with remaining Asia sidemen Guthrie Govan and Jay Schellen together with Spock’s Beard keyboardist Ryo Okumoto.