KNOW WHAT’S WEIRD?

I never set out to be an instrumental artist. It all happened purely by accident via my Ibanez endorsement 21 years ago. I used to do instrumental demos in the hopes of finding a big-named band but who knew that it would ultimately by my so-called career?

Certainly not me.

When I would play in bands during my awkward high school and college years, my dad would tell me “Ditch the singer, go instrumental.” I would say “Well, you need a frontman to get noticed, get signed” and all that. I always had this inability to work with singers. I can blame myself because I am stubborn and want the attention. Some singers were damn near difficult to be around and work with (or work FOR, depending on how they over-estimated themselves). But still, if I wanted to make it, I had to be in a band with a vocalist.

Or so I thought.

After I did the first album TWISTED METAL in 2003, a funny thing happened. It got nice press. People said they liked it, but added things like “It’s kinda weird”. What else is new, right? Did I think I would do a second album, a third, etc, up to a ninth?

Certainly not me.

As a teenager, I was sucked into the whole Yngwie Malmsteen thing and it was easy to see why. Then I bought albums by other instrumental artists and ultimately thought “Where are the songs?” I can see why some people can’t dig instrumentals but it was all the rage in the 80s with Shrapnel Records.

Know what’s weird? I wasn’t crazy about most of those albums on that label. Boring as toast for the most part.

However…

Upon hearing Joe Satriani’s SURFING WITH THE ALIEN, I thought “Now there’s songs along with crazy guitar work!” Of course, another benchmark called PASSION AND WARFARE by Steve Vai, who was once a student of Satriani’s, really spun my head around. Still never thought I could be an instrumental artist.

I check out instrumental albums on YouTube and honestly, nothing grabs me. Some things are cool but again, if I can’t tap my foot to it, or do the slow mile-wide headbang, forget it. I am a fan of Steve Steven’s MEMORY CRASH album. Two songs have vocals but overall, the album has really incredible guitar work! And the tunes are cool!

So will I ever have vocals on a song? Probably not, unless Freddie Mercury or Ronnie James Dio come back from their graves.

Maybe if Mike Patton isn’t busy…or Corey Glover.

I don’t have that kind of money though.

So I stick to doing instrumentals.