Q: Hi Andy - thanks for taking the time out to do an interview for Do Fret! Let's start at the beginning. At what age did you pick up the guitar? Did you have any formal tuition? What were your early influences?

 

A: Hi Trev, well I picked up the guitar just before my 12th birthday. I played piano for a few years before that, but didn't really feel it was musically what I wanted to do. A friend of mine went out one day with his dad and came back with a £2,000 Les Paul and Fender amp with a pile of Guns N' Roses books. My jaw hit the floor! He let me have a go on it and for some reason I could sort of get a tune out of it and thought this might go somewhere. The first song I ever learned was Don't Cry by GnR and I believe it might have been the same day or the day after. I remember saying to my Dad that I didn't want to play piano anymore and that I wanted to focus on guitar. He said it was OK and we went out on my 12th birthday and bought a Rockwood Fender copy and a Starfire practice amp (we didn't have as much money as my friend lol!).

I never put the thing down after that and played until that guitar fell apart and my Dad could see his way to upgrading it. I think he wanted to see if it was a fad, or if I really was serious about guitar. My next guitar was an Epiphone Les Paul, which I was over the moon about. At the time I was a very big GnR fan and this was amazing to get a guitar like Slash! I didn't really have lessons early on; I pretty much figured out stuff from tab books or by ear. I do remember having a couple of lessons with a guy called John Hardcastle. He was cool, he showed me what a pentatonic scale was and the notes involved. This was handy to know as I recognized the shape from learning solos but had no relationship with theory at that point. So it was cool to know a scale and give it a name. After that I moved away and ever since then I've been self taught pretty much.

 

A: Lol, I don't know about re-defining shred! There are a lot of awesome players out there. Yeah the new solo CD is underway. All the drums are done courtesy of Lee from Sacred Mother Tongue and all the rhythm guitars and clean guitars are done. I've just got to do bass then the rest of the solos and stuff. Scott Atkins (founder of  Grindstone Studios http://www.grindstonerecording.com/) is producing it. We talked about working together on a new solo album and he was up for it. I wanted this one to be a proper studio effort rather than trying to record an album at home again. I'm not very technically minded and recording is something I've always struggled with. Scott is amazing at what he does and he is a bit of a slave driver so I know my best playing will be squeezed out of me.

As for what the listener can expect, mmm, well with the stuff on this album I've really tried to go for more of an epic approach to writing. I would say it's written more like a band vocal album than an intrumental jam fest, which there is nothing wrong with, but it makes sense to me to write in this way as I find it translates to people better. You know your obvious intros and verse sections and then melodic hooked choruses. I've not really heard much instrumental stuff written this way, especially in more of a heavier vein, that is just guitar without vocals. There are some great instrumental releases coming out though that are really making me think "Jesus, I hope mine will be half as good as that". I'm talking Rick Graham's new album and Andy Wood's solo record. Both those guys scare me, not just because they are great players, but also because they show a great deal of versatility.

One thing with my album which I don't think is a bad thing, is that it's pretty much all in the same vein. Lets face it, I'm a rock/metal player and thats what I love to do. I know intstrumental albums seem to be judged on how versatile it is musically but this is a shred album for shred fans that has got technique, melody and hopefully good some songs (I'll let you guys be the judge). You have to play to your strengths, and I admire guys who can do it all.

 

A: I got a call from a friend of mine who said there was a band he knew looking for a guitar player. I looked them up on MySpace and liked the stuff and could see myself fitting into a band like this. I went for an audition and got the job. I remeber when I was picked up by the singer from the train station in Peterborough and within the first minute of meeting him he had called me a C&%t! I thought, we're gonna get on just fine :). Since then weve released a single, an album, 2 videos, done a few tours here and there - UK and abroad, played the Download Festival and are now due to play Sonishpere this year. So it has been going pretty well. I just hope things continue to get better for the band. It's a difficult time right now for people in the music industry, so to have a job and be working in a band and otherwise, I am grateful.

 

A: Thanks for your kind words! Well with regards to alternate picking, this is something (believe it or not) that I've always struggled with. I've been a big fan of Paul Gilbert over the years and really love the way he picks in his playing. I got a couple of his videos (didn't have DVD's back in the day !) and started to practice alternate picking. This got better pretty much straight away but it really is only in the last 2-3 years that it has become a more natural technique for me where I don't stress about it. Something just clicked, like so many other techniques you do all the time. You practice something so much, that one day the penny drops and it's a revelation!

I do a lot of playing - whether it is recording or learning something for Lick Library, or just playing with the band. All these things keep me on my toes on a technique level. I think the other thing that helps me play is that my thought process on the instrument is really basic. There is technique in my playing but the concepts behind a lot of it are simple. I'm not the brightest person to ever grace this world and I have to make allowances for that with my playing. Everything is visualised in little chunks on the guitar and basically is just using the framework of the pentatonic scale so I can see where I'm going. Even if I'm playing modal stuff or harmonic minor licks or using major scale shapes and sequences, the framework I will always see is pentatonic. I wonder if anyone else thinks  like this? I'm sure they do!

You do get people tell you how you should play and visualise the guitar, but I've never been one for rules much. It's the same with my little finger. Because I have a double joint in my little finger, I have a hard time playing 3 note per string shapes with the 3rd and 4th fingers together. I've had to overcome that and that's why I use the first 3 fingers a lot more. Simples! I had RSI once and didn't care for it much; I just went back to the drawing board and began to play everything with as little stress as possible. Also with the long lines plenty of gain and a playable action helps in many ways.

ESP have been really cool to me over the past year. I bought one of the guitars off Ebay, which is the one in the Metalcore Shred vid on You Tube. I started using it in Sacred, and realised I needed EMG's to play in a band like that. The sound was just transformed. There were some issues with that guitar and I had to sell it. With the money I bought another from ESP at an Artist Price as a part endorsement with them (this came about through SMT Management). About a month later they contacted me and offered me a full endorsement. I couldn't be happier, my playing really did improve alot when I moved to them. As for Blackstar, they have also been really cool. My bass player works for them and I went in to film some stuff for the new HT100 and got to know the guys there pretty well. They've helped me out with gear and supplied the gear for my solo album aswell, so it's worked out quite well really.

 

A: Yeah, it's been over 4 years now I think with Lick Library and they still give me work, which is nice. Owen and I have been working on this for a while. At this stage there isn't a huge amount I can say about it. There is still some dotting and teeing to do before I know anymore. The book will hopefully be a good insight into how I look at guitar playing and should be packed full of cool things to learn, watch this space as they say!

I have been doing online lessons via Skype. Things have been really busy for me lately and that has sort of taken a backseat as I need to be home to do it. Some people are understanding about that whereas others aren't. When I do get time to do some lessons it's mainly building technique in the player and improving your knowledge of the guitar to help you jam or write songs and solos. It's more for that than "please teach me the latest solo by Scar Symmetry" as if I could do that anyway, that guy is off his head! Any of you guys fancy it, just send me an e-mail at futureandyj@yahoo.co.uk and I'll be in touch.