Rock, metal, & acoustic guitar

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: For guitar solos, I find the the notes that ring out the best at given moments, then write phrases around them, crafting a song-within-a-song. I focus on feel, melody, mood, flow, and tasteful playing. A solo should be a highlight that complements the song but doesn't overshadow it. For rhythm guitar, I've been double-tracking for 40 years and excel at it. I also enjoy writing harmony parts or additional guitars, especially for acoustic pieces, where I can craft a wall of beauty.

Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

A: This comes from non-musicians: that artists are so sensitive - and in love with what we've created - that we can't handle even honest and constructive feedback. This myth makes it so hard to get anyone we know to say anything. They feel put on the spot, and like we'll get mad if they don't rave about it. We can handle - and would love - someone to point out areas for improvement. But all too often, artists have to go without. Over the years, it's made me stronger because I have to look for flaws harder myself, but I do love it when someone just tells me something I didn't notice myself!

Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?

A: My music history is a little tortured. I wanted to just do rock and metal, but my first guitar teacher insisted I start with the acoustic, and I'm glad he did, as that's where my creativity first showed up before spreading. I've written acoustic folk since, though I didn't know that was a thing or what it was called. I wanted to be a cross between Iron Maiden, Metallica, and Scorpions, and today my band Black Halo is exactly that and using some material from my teens. After I high school, I was goofing around at the local community college when I got interested in classical music, composition, and music theory, so I became a composition major. But my comp teacher taught me little, so when I was transferring to a four-year school, they all rejected me except one - and they made me switch to classical guitar! I was unhappy but figured my coursework would solve my issues as a budding Beethoven. I was right. As that was happening, I stumbled into doing instrumental guitar and have done ever since. I had two years of school left and needed to gain four years of classical guitar. I somehow pulled it off, passing all of the performance tests and recitals to earn a Bacherlor of Music in classical guitar, Magna cum Laude. But I paid the price by developing severe tendonitis that cost me my guitar playing altogether, literally destroyed my life, and ended plans to be a music professor and classical composer. It took years to recover and changed my approach to making recordings, but I then spent a decade releasing my own albums, sometimes even performing the drums, bass, and percussion, and adding string arrangements, and being the producer and record label. I still dabble in classical composition, but it's more of a hobby today.

Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?

A: 80s rock and metal inspired my own music, including my acoustic folk, as many such bands write great acoustic material and I fashioned that into my own style.

Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

A: Guitar parts! And I've love to get more work writing lyrics, and doing bass, drums, and string arrangements, all of which I've done for my own projects.

Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?

A: If you can be clear about what you want, and have a collaborative perspective, you'll get results you are thrilled with.

Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A: Try to know what you want and don't want, and how to communicate it - even if that means admitting you don't know the answer to that. Honesty always helps us move in the right direction together. And try to do constructive feedback. It's worth it's weight in gold. The best people I've worked with excelled at this AND got the best results. The worst ones created the opposite experience for everyone involved.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Intricate parts that nonetheless don't overshadow the song but instead add interest.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Being creative and making someone thrilled with the impact I've had on their song.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Do you want me to play parts you've written or come up with them? Both? Do you have a recording or style you'd like me to emulate? What guitar tone do you want? Is there a song of mine you liked my approach to and want me to emulate? Why do you want to hire me? What is your end goal?

Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?

A: Iron Maiden. I excel at writing multiple guitar parts, and while they do, too, it would be great fun to join forces on a song.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: I doubletrack almost all rhythm guitars, but I will alternate between pairs of tracks, at least on my own recordings. For example, the verse is one pair, and the chorus is another pair. I do this on my own songs even when I might know I want stereo guitars in the chorus but only one guitar (panned in the middle) in the verse, because it allows me to easily change my mind at mixing time without having to re-perform anything. I've already got these alternate performances. I recommend people try this. It can be done even with intricate parts if the player is skilled at doing it, and I've been doing that for 30 years, since a tendonitis injury in 1996 stopped me from being able to play all the way through a song for a few years. That problem is gone now, but I like the flexibility it gives me.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I'm trying to finish the follow-up to my SERENADE OF STRINGS album. More than half of it is songs I wrote as a teenager and have spruced up to match my current abilities. Some of it always had better potential that I'm much better at realizing today.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital. It's so much easier.

Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?

A: I'm assuming I'd have no electricity, so my black Alvarez acoustic guitar, a grand piano, an acoustic drum set, a marimba, and a kazoo.

Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

A: I largely focus on hard rock and metal, the heart and soul of what I do. I grew up on 80s rock and would've been the next generation in the 90s, but grunge music largely wiped out guys like me from having a chance! I also specialize in acoustic folk, from solo guitar to a wall of beautifully layered guitars.. This is most easily heard on my SERENADE OF STRINGS album. I have six different melodies going at once on "In the Round" - one in the rhythm guitar, one on bass, and four lead guitars entering one-by-one. I was a classical composition major but ended up getting the degree in guitar instead. While I no longer play it, I still write it, and I bring those skills to my other work.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Composition. It permeates everything I do. While I can play the parts someone else has written, you'll get the most out of me by letting me experiment with alternatives you can use or decline. Since I'm a composer, artist, and producer as much as a multi-instrumentalist, I always bring the big picture sensibility to what I'm doing for you.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Rock solid musicianship that people notice, and this is what's needed in guitar-driven music, as much as the top line. Even live, I'm the guy everyone else in the band is following, even taking for granted, because my musicianship is a solid foundation just as much, if not more so, than the drums. If a client wants it, I can take just chords and turn them into more melodic parts, and enliven what they've written. I genuinely love writing guitar parts, and you can tell by listening to my own discography, where the guitar is king.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Up-to-date ProTools on a Mac Studio that includes Superior Drummer 3 and Sibelius. 3 custom-built electric guitars. Schecter Demon 7-string. Roland GR-20 guitar synth. Alvarez acoustics: 6-strings (two) and a 12-string. Yamaha classical/nylon guitar. Alvarez acoustic bass. Ibanez SDGR 5-string bass. Peavey XXX Head and 412. Morley Bad Horsie 2 Wah. AKG C 414 LTD microphone. Roland TD-12 V-Drums.