You know, what`s really weird about me is that I`m an artist, I consider myself as an artist and musician first, and a guitar player secondly, you know, guitar is not the thing that motivates me. Music is.
Having Steve Vai`s name associated with my project helped my credibility in the guitar community. I have a lot of respect for Steve, not only as a musician but as a businessman. I knew I could learn a lot - and I have!
I don`t care if things could go wrong because the most important thing is that someone like Mike Varney believes in me and in my music.
Since instrumental guitar music isn`t a big seller, it gets short changed quite often. As a matter of fact, finding the Guitar Nine website was a revelation to me. I didn`t realize there were so many musicians doing instrumental music.
I like to listen to players who take you on a journey and have a clear direction and build-up to their solos. Kind of like a composition within the composition.
I`ve never had a specific practice routine other than practicing everything out there! When I`m writing I tend to focus on any problems a song throws up, and I put a lot of work into melody and solo construction.
With this album I attempted to express all my musical influences throughout the years. I expected the album to go straight to the listener without being too simple.
I advise to all those who can, to work in their own recording studio, so you can be free from conditions such as timetables and costs! I opened my studio in 1996 when I worked doing TV spots and was tired of spending money and time at other recording studios.
My main aim with this album was to write songs that had really strong melodies and structure and that would be appreciated by a wide range of listeners other than just guitar players.
It was really important to me that all of the crazy shred guitar on the record be song driven and not the other way around. As a listener, I want to hear songs, not a brief melodic section and then eight minutes of jamming.
I like to compose instrumental songs, without the use of words, to communicate my emotions and my way of life. I`m not a singer, but I`m a guitarist, so I try "to speak" with my guitar.
My favorite album is "Phoenix Rising". The expectations after the success of "Into The Eye Of The Storm" were high, but everyone was highly motivated and we really put everything into it.
