Interview w/Yngwie Malmsteen
His name is synonymous with neoclassical shredding, executing technical arpeggio scales that are nearly impossible to replicate…who is he? It’s Yngwie Malmsteen, that’s who! For a career that spans decades, with various bands (Steeler, Alcatrazz), a mass of solo endeavors that spawned gems such as "I'll See The Light Tonight" and "Heaven Tonight," to even melding his metallic drive with real symphony orchestras (Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in Em, Opus 1); the axeman is truly a legend. His newest album, Perpetual Flame is his first to feature notable vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens (Beyond Fear, ex-Iced Earth, ex-Judas Preist) for a record of blistering melodically heavy tunes, one of Malmsteen’s finest in years – complete with gripping hooks and monstrous leads that pull you in. The record itself is, in his own words, a continuation of the way he has always worked – just letting it flow.
"The way I do things, I just sort of start writing songs and I let it flow…whatever comes out naturally," begins Malmsteen. "I just go with it. I don’t try to go into this direction or that direction or anything like that I do exactly what comes out and follow it, because to me that seems like the right thing to do. What happened was that I went on tour and I came back and started recording some drums and went back on tours and came back and recorded guitars and keyboards, started writing lyrics, went back on tour again, and in the middle of all this I realized that I needed a lead singer for all of this because the way the songs were taking shape. So I know what I am looking for, I know what I hear in my head, and Ripper has always been discussed," he says.
"We had talked a couple of times so he came down and sang a couple of songs and we both said ‘this is great.’ It was a long process, I started writing songs back in the beginning ’07, and I would listen to the songs in a different way and hear different things. To me Ripper was playing the roles as DeNiro or Pachino would, and I am the Director/Screenwriter so to speak, that’s how I work. I know what I want, I know where I am going with it; that’s why I don’t use an outside producer or anything like that. I’m very efficient in that sense. A lot of times that is a dangerous thing to do because you can get locked in, but again I did some writing and recording, went on tour and came back and everything would sound different, so it was great to be able to record some do some recording at a time in respect to not getting locked in."
With the record industry being in shambles at this point on all ends of the spectrum, just about everybody has been affected, and it’s no surprise that after having dealt with several major and independent labels for years (including Polygram, Pony Canyon Japan, and Spitfire to name a few), that the guitarist would go out and finally form his own label, Rising Force Records, to keep a better grip on the business end of things to keep making music on his own terms in this time of downloading and new media.
"It’s no secret that the whole music industry and the whole scene of making and selling records has changed for the worst in the last few years," elaborates Malmsteen. "A lot have things have changed for the worse, such as a lot of things or support that you would normally get from your record label in the past, you don’t get anymore, and so they can do what they want to do. But I don’t want any part of that anymore; I want to make sure things get done. It's my wife/manager's (April Malmsteen) thing, it’s distributed by Koch in North America and Pinnacle in Europe, Pinnacle are pretty big in
In 1998, he composed his first concerto for orchestra and guitar featuring himself and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, fulfilling a lifelong dream – he even later released a DVD with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra to further express this exquisite musical endeavor. It is something that he hopes to do in the future, but for now, it’s all about the metal, “Of course (I want to do that again), but right now in my life & career I just want to rock out. Just turn it up and rock; there will be plenty of time to other things like that later on. That was a dream come true and I am very pleased with the results.”
Malmsteen's influence comes from a wide variety of performers, from early classical composers to axeslingers such as Hendrix and Blackmore; he explains in detail on how hearing music in his early life and the first records influenced the musical virtuosity he is known for. "When I was five, on my fifth birthday, I was given a guitar and my own brother and sister are really good musicians," explains Malmsteen, "but it wasn’t until I saw Hendrix on the news, burning his guitar when I was seven; there was no music per say and I said this is what I want to do, I want to burn the guitar – so Hendrix’s impact to me was that I saw him burn his guitar and that’s when I really wanted to start playing."
"A year later my older sister gave me Deep Purple's Fireball, now I’m eight years old, next week I get Deep Purple In Rock, which is another very powerful record – having a huge impact on me. So I started playing in bands when I was ten, playing all over the place and being very active, after I learned all the blues and platonic scales I decided that I wanted to go somewhere else and that’s where the classical music came in, eventually having a much stronger impact on everything I did."
"It always has the sense of power and energy and that’s something I have always held dear to my heart, and combined with the
Besides being known his constant use of the Strats,
(Click on the CD cover to buy Perpetual Flame from Amazon.com)
Labels: yngwie malmsteen
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