US Guitarist, Composer and Teacher, George Bellas is a true musician's musician. A prolific composer and virtuoso (in every sense of the word), George's newest CD, The Dawn of Time, was released on July 16th 2010 on Lion Music. To those unfamiliar with George's work, prepare to be absolutely blown away by his technique, musicality, compositional skills and tone! Do Fret had the great pleasure of catching up with George ahead of the release of The Dawn of Time to talk about his music.  Q: Hey George - many
thanks for agreeing to do an interview for Do Fret - your time is much
appreciated. Your new CD, The Dawn Of Time, is released via Lion Music
on 16th July 2010. Can you tell us a bit about the new album? It's my pleasure to share
some insight into my new album and also various aspects of my music and
the process of making it. My new album, "The Dawn Of Time", is an
instrumental album that is rich in Romanticism and Futurism with insane
performances by Marco Minnemann on drums, and myself on guitar, bass,
and keyboards. The album contains 19 songs in the neoclassical,
neo-romantic and also progressive styles. The production is dynamic,
clean, and has an open sound to it allowing the music to breath
naturally. Very minimal amounts of compression were used during the
production of "The Dawn Of Time", which yielded a much more natural
sounding album than one that has been squashed to a pulp with
compression and limiting. The album contains a myriad of lyrical
melodies, virtuosic instrumental melodies, counterpoint, improvised
guitar solos, odd-meters, poly-meters, rich instrumentation, and a
plethora of awe-inspiring drum playing by Marco Minnemann. The writing
process began shortly after my last album was turned into the record
label and was completed within a 3-4 week period. After all the parts
were composed I contacted Marco Minnemann and we began recording. The
total running time for the album is mere seconds under the maximum
capacity of a CD, which is 80 minutes. I actually had way more than 80
mins of music, so I had to cut some notes to shorten it up a bit, and
that was indeed a challenge. Q: I loved the 2 preview tracks and
accompanying videos from The Dawn of Time (Machine Man and the title
track)! One thing that struck me was the bass tone - it sounds really
great. Did you approach this recording in a different way? Were you
aiming for a more accessible sounding CD overall? Thank you for the comment
about the bass tone. I have always loved the bass guitar, after all, it
is guitar and is just another spectrum of pitches. For this new album I
really wanted to kick it up a notch with the bass tone and playing.
So, for the bass recordings I used a Fender Precision hybrid bass along
with a Musicman Stingray bass going into an Ampeg SVT Classic amp and
cabinet. I used a Sennheiser MD421 to mic the cabinet and also took a
direct line out of the amp, and during mix-down I combined the direct
and mic signals to varying degrees for each song. Another unique factor
of the bass recording was that I used a custom made isolation box
(thanks to Greg Amidon). The iso-box was designed to only encompass the
microphone and a few of it's surrounding speakers, not the entire
speaker cabinet. The objective with using this iso-box was to have the
ability to selectively use as much or as little of the room tone as I
wanted. I did several A/B tests to hear and analyze the effects of the
iso-box and I could not believe the difference; it worked great! And yes, I was aiming for a
more accessible album with this release. My last album "Step Into The
Future" was a single 75 min song with no breaks, which is a lot to ask
from somebody to listen to in one sitting. But, that's the way I wrote
that album and am happy with the way it came out. So, for "The Dawn Of
Time" I wanted to keep the song lengths a tad bit shorter than 75 mins,
more like anywhere between 3 - 7 mins. The songs on "The Dawn Of Time"
are also tonal and more consonant as a whole, although there are a few
progressive songs that utilize odd-meters, poly-meters, exotic scales,
and unusual chords, but most of the album is in a tonal neo-classical /
neo-romantic style. Q: Can you tell us about your collaboration with Marco Minnemann? He has appeared on a number of your recent releases. Were the parts written out for him? Yes, all the parts were scored and given to
Marco in sheet music form for each album that we've done together. But
the extra personal Minnemann character he adds is astounding and
unmatchable. Marco is a truly amazing talent, he blows my mind each and
every album we do together. Finding a drummer that can play the complex
rhythms that I compose has always been a challenge for me, so, to me,
Marco has been a real godsend. Even so, some of the material is still
quite challenging, but he learns it and plows right through it, all the
while adding his own unique staple to the material. I can't speak
highly enough of Marco's talent.  Q: Tell us about your
guitars? I understand you favour Fender Strats and Gibsons (Les Paul's
and V's)? Yes, that is correct. I play Fender '57 Strats along with
Gibson Flying V's and Les Paul's. My two all time favorite guitars are a
candy apple red '57 strat and a daphne blue '57 strat, both with
vintage style frets and maple fretboards. I use .010 gauge strings on
all of my guitars. When I was growing up I used .013 - .058 gauge
strings on a Fender acoustic that I played for 10 - 18 hours a day. And I
mean intense workouts; constantly pushing my abilities with the
metronome during gruelingly long practice sessions with little or no
breaks at all. Doing so really helped me gain strength and develop my
picking and fret hand skills, although it is quite dangerous, as human
tendons aren't designed for such excessive workouts. During that period
my finger tips on my fret hand were black and green, yes, that's
right... black and green. I remember one year on the way to NAMM, Mike
Varney's photographer at the time, Ross Pelton, saw my finger tips and
could not believe it! It was kind of a funny reaction. I was (and
still am) beyond obsessed with becoming as proficient as I can possibly
be. I'll never be perfect, but I'll always strive for it. Q: Your playing is very
technical, super-precise, yet always melodic. Can you tell us about your
history with the guitar? How did you develop such a unique voice on the
instrument? Is it true you are self-taught? Yes it is true that I am an
autodidact. I am an extremely focused and disciplined person and have
been fortunate to have discovered amazing sources of inspiring
information when I was very young. It doesn't matter how one learns,
the point is to learn and understand how the information can be used,
and of course to have the creativity to use it. Although, I do believe
having an awe inspiring teacher can have a profound effect, not only on a
student's interest, but on their lifelong development. It would be
like having Albert Einstein as your 7th grade science teacher vs someone
less passionate about the field.  Q: How did you develop
your compositional skills? Learning, exploring, practicing, and getting creative.
Ever since I was very young I have loved to write music, even before I
understood any theory or composing techniques. What I did to develop
and hone my craft was study, explore, practice, refine, and ultimately
compose with what I had learned. This still goes on to this day, as I
am always reviewing old techniques and searching for new ones. In my
preteens I began to seriously study music theory and composing by
immersing myself within all types of music books; harmony, counterpoint,
form, and history. I also listened extensively to Bach, Beethoven,
Liszt and Chopin, to name a mere few. When I compose I will begin with
either a rhythmic or melodic motive, or perhaps an interesting harmonic
scheme. As an example, my album Planetary Alignement was composed by
writing all the rhythm and drum parts first. After all the drum parts
for every song were composed I then began choosing scales, creating
melodic motives and their respective harmonic underpinnings. Q: Who do you admire
amongst guitar players out there today? While there are certainly
many fine players out there today, what I get the most enjoyment out of
is composition. Who I enjoy listening to are composers that have
developed their writing skills to a level that only a rare few ever
achieve. I admire and deeply respect artistic and creative expressionism
which has been developed to that of the highest regard. Developing
composition skills is something I stress to all of my students, although
some people are quite content with playing other people's music, which I
can also respect very much. It's clear that when one is in the early
developmental stages of learning an instrument many will want to become
as proficient as they can, but at some point they will need to have
unique compositions to utilize their instrument skills within. There
are no limits to a creative mind. Q: How much of your time
is taking up teaching? What do you think students should look for in a
good teacher? Most of my time is spent focused on studying, exploring,
writing and recording music. Although I do enjoy teaching students that
are passionate about learning and increasing their performance and
compositional skills, but most of my time is devoted to composing. I
get excited each and every day about writing music, and the inspiration
never seems to dwindle, it's always on like a faucet without a shut-off
valve. Back to
your question about teaching... What students should look for in a
good teacher are: someone who is extremely knowledgeable; has vast
experience; has exceptional performance and composing skills; can
communicate well; can demonstrate to the point of being motivational
and inspiring; and goes above and beyond what is required to help the
student.  Q: I read with much interest your letter on "The Current
State of Music Piracy". Do you think people that steal music realize the
damage they are doing? What do you think is an alternative model for
the record business? Some people may not realize that when they steal music
they are hurting artists and the entire industry, but they are indeed.
It is a serious problem which affects everything from the quality of
releases, to the longevity of artists. An alternative? Don't Steal
Music. Q: Do you have any live dates or clinics lined up?
We would love to see you in the UK! I am very much interested in scheduling some
tour dates. The issue I am always confronted with is that... I am
always writing and recording which consumes my very being, but, I do
love to play live too. There is a good possibility for some concert and
clinic dates in the near future. All details will be posted on my
website. Thanks so much to George for sparing the time do chat with Do Fret! Be sure to check out George's music: http://www.georgebellas.com http://www.facebook.com/georgebellasmusic |
|
|
|
|
Interviews >
George Bellas Interview |