Guitarist extraordinaire Guthrie Govan may not be the most prolific musician around, but he’s one of the most respected and in demand players around. He recently toured with Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) in support of The Raven Who Refused To Sing album and he is also about to release a new album with The Aristocrats, his other musical project with fellow musical mavericks Bryan Beller (Dethklok, James LaBrie) and Marco Minnemann (Adrian Belew Power Trio, Kreator). Ghost Cult caught up with Guthrie as he returns from a clinic tour in Brazil..
Hi there and thank you for doing this interview. What’s the latest in the Guthrie Govan world?
I’ve just returned from an exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable clinic tour in Brazil, so right now I’m recovering from a gruelling (well, 20+ hours!) trek back home. Immediately prior to that, I was on tour in the US with the Steven Wilson band, so this is actually the first day I’ve spent at home for six weeks or so… In other words: business as usual: it’s all good!
When listening to Culture Clash the joy of three expert musicians having fun is almost palpable. How do you see things?
I guess I see things in much the same way. A lot of instrumental rock-fusion music can tend to be quite serious – “behold our mighty chops, and despair!” – but we genuinely enjoy playing together and we don’t take ourselves too seriously, so… I’m happy to hear that some of that fun element is being conveyed to the listener! I should add that all three of us strongly feel that this album represents a big leap forward for the band, and that we really hope the public feels the same way when the album is released next month!
What I really like about Culture Clash is the myriad of styles (jazz, blues, funk, prog rock just to name a few) used on the album and how you guys manage to make them flow naturally. What’s your secret?
I think the sound of this band comes mainly from a certain kind of interpersonal chemistry which seems to emerge automatically whenever we play together, rather than from strict adherence to any particular musical genre. Also, we all listen to (and enjoy) a lot of different music – a cursory inspection of what’s on our Aristocratic iPods would probably shock some of our “muso” listeners! – so, in a sense, covering a lot of stylistic ground is probably the most natural approach we could take.
How did the writing and recording sessions go for the new album compared to previous recording experiences?
The writing process was similar to that of the first Aristocrats album in the sense that, once again, it was a manic “race against the clock”. This was particularly true in my case – I think I emailed my demo for ‘And Finally’ to the other guys about two days before the recording sessions were scheduled to start! – but I know for a fact that Bryan wrote ‘Living The Dream’ whilst suffering from total exhaustion and “touring overdose”! All of us have pretty hectic schedules, so we had to cram the writing into whatever gaps our calendars provided…
Marco, I should add, is pretty much a law unto himself – he’s definitely one of the most prolific writers I’ve ever known. Whilst Bryan and I were struggling to muster up three tunes each for the new album, Marco somehow managed to send us demos for 6 or 7 tunes!)
At any rate, I think we all felt the benefits of having got to know each other a lot better, both personally and musically, over the last couple of years. Each of us tried to do something unexpected during the writing process for this album – Marco’s main priority this time around seemed to be focusing on simple, solid grooves (as opposed to impossible time signatures!) whilst I was going through a phase of exploring certain chord voicing ideas which require the bass and guitar to “share” some of the notes… and Bryan was apparently determined to cover an unfeasibly wide range of stylistic references!
The actual recording process felt more natural than it did last time – we all learned a variety of important lessons from the way everything happened during the recording of our debut album. This time, the way we set up in the studio made it much easier to maximise eye contact and communication between the band members during a take… plus, we had the luxury of using the same guy (the very talented Mark Niemiec) both to engineer and to mix the album. Little details like those can make a huge difference in terms of the overall workflow…
Also, we abandoned our purist “no overdubs” philosophy for Culture Clash – we decided that it would be okay to add some layered parts on top of our basic live take whenever we thought it might help a particular tune to sound more “complete” and polished. Marco’s contributions, in particular, demonstrate the results of this new approach… and, much to our relief, all the tunes still seem to come across really well in a live trio setting!
You were a part of touring entourage of Steven Wilson in support of his The Raven That Refused To Sing album. How do you look back on the whole experience?
It’s really too early for me to “look back” – various commitments with Steven’s band have already filled up the bulk of my diary between now and the end of November!
Well, it’s been a real learning curve – I had to design an entirely new kind of guitar rig to deliver some of the weird sounds which Steven’s music requires, plus this is the first touring experience in which I’ve used in-ear monitors. (We really have no choice, incidentally – during the show, all the music has to sync up with various film projections, so we need to be aware of the click track at all times…) Anyhow, I always welcome it when a gig presents some new challenges and forces me out of my “comfort zone”!
How is it like to work with someone like Steven Wilson and how would you like to describe the recording sessions for Raven?
It’s a unique gig for me, to be sure: I think my role is to find the right balance between doing what the song requires and also adding some kind of personal element. I came into the band fully aware that quite a few guitar players had preceded me in the line-up, so right from the start I had a vague notion that Steven might be very particular about certain guitar-related issues (particularly in view of the fact that he’s a more than capable guitarist himself) As it turned out, however, we seem to be able to communicate very well – I think I generally understand what he’s looking for, and he seems very receptive to my input, also.
Steven is one of those “big picture” guys – I think of him more as a writer and a producer, rather than someone who wants to focus on any one particular instrument and “conquer” it – whereas the musical place I’m coming from is probably a little more guitar-centric, so I suppose that might explain how we can work together effectively: each of us understands where the other is coming from!
The music is great, anyhow, and I very much like SW’s current angle of assembling musicians with some jazz-fusion experience to play something resembling 70s prog rock – the formula makes for an interesting balance between structure and improvisation, and I’m very happy to be a part of it 😉
You’re active as a guitar teacher, session/recording artist and also a touring musician. Which of these roles do you find most fulfilling and why?
I enjoy recording and touring equally, I guess – I suspect that I need equal doses of each to maintain a musically balanced “diet”. The teaching element is something different: I can always find a way to enjoy teaching whilst I’m actually doing it, but to be honest I’m currently trying to phase all the educational stuff out of my musical life: as an entirely self-taught guitarist, I feel somehow more genuine when I’m just playing.
There’s an on-going discussion whether “feel” or technical prowess is more important when it comes down to playing guitar. What’s your stance on this?
I don’t subscribe to the idea that you should ever need to choose one or the other. To me, it’s all about the expression of whatever it is that you’re hearing in your head – having some kind of musical identity and being able to communicate it effectively. Achieving this will obviously demand a slightly different set of mechanical skills, depending on exactly what it is that you’re trying to say.
Clearly it requires technical prowess to play something like an Yngwie Malmsteen solo, but… when you hear BB King playing that famous “one-note lick” and you just know it couldn’t be anyone other than BB himself, that (to my way of thinking) is just a different kind of technique: you’re listening to someone who has developed great control over his instrument, to the extent that every nuance of each note comes across in precisely the way intended. To ascribe this to some mystical, nebulous quality called “feel” is temptingly easy, but in reality I think it’s the result of a painstakingly refined playing technique. You don’t magically acquire that kind of skill simply by aligning yourself with the “feel” camp and dismissing anyone who can play faster than you – you acquire it by listening honestly to every note that comes out of your amp and asking yourself, “how could I make this sound more perfect?” (Interestingly, I think Yngwie cares about this stuff just as much – when you hear him play a long, sustained note, the tone is impeccable and the vibrato sounds like an opera singer!)
If we re-frame the debate as one of “feel” vs. “speed“… I concede that some players are fascinated by the idea of speed for its own sake, and that the results can sometimes be less than musical, but… players like that suck not because they’re fast but because they’re unmusical and really have nothing to say: I really don’t consider the speed itself to be the problem. (After all, there are plenty of unmusical slow players, too!) If you can seriously listen to someone like Allan Holdsworth and hear nothing more than gratuitous trickery, it’s not Allan’s fault for playing too fast – I would contend that he’s expressing exactly what he needs to express, and you’re just listening too slowly, ha-ha.
What advice do you have for aspiring musicians who are striving to become tomorrow’s guitar heroes?
“Find your own voice”, I suppose. If you have a unique musical statement to make, then… make it, as honestly and identifiably as you possibly can!
Other than that, I’m not really sure what to say. The whole musical climate has evolved so much since I started playing guitar for a living a couple of decades ago, and of course the one huge change I’ve seen has been the emergence of the internet. This is a mixed bag: on the one hand, moral conscience would now appear to be the only serious motivation for anyone to buy your music (or, indeed, guitar tuitional products) these days, but on the other hand it’s never been easier to reach your target audience, all around the globe, at little or no cost…
I can’t claim to have any real understanding of how things will evolve from here, but it’ll certainly be interesting… In fact, “tomorrow’s guitar heroes” probably have a much deeper understanding of the internet’s true potential than I ever will, because they’ve grown up with it, ha-ha.
Finally, what has the rest of this year in store for you as far as clinics, touring and possible projects go?
In a couple of days time, I’ll be embarking on a run of European summer festivals with Steven Wilson, followed by a big Aristocrats tour of the US in July/August and then plenty more gigging with Steven until the end of November… It’s good to be busy, I guess 😉
Raymond Westland