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Michael Romeo Interview---
Added 18/Jul/07
Symphony
X Lead guitarist talks about new album "Paradise Lost"
and good old guitar stuff.
CLICK
HERE FOR THE AUDIO
Hey
Michael thanks for participating in this interview for shred academy,
it's truly an honour.
How
long have you been playing guitar for now and how many hours a
day do you practice now VS the amount you did before you formed
symphony x?
I practiced for a very long time back when I first started and
I was listening to many artists such as kiss. Nowadays being in
a band gives you a lot of the tools to write music but sure I
still practice a lot. I was getting into the likes of Yngwie Malmsteen,
Allan Holdsworth and also a lot of classical music. Randy Rhoads
was a major influence, so yeah I still practice a lot but not
so much as I did back then.
Let's
talk about the new album Paradise Lost, the album has been delayed
a few times, was this because of not being happy with the final
product or just really hard work?
A lot of issues arose like they do in the recording process, we
had the studio flooded, amp tubes blow, and hard drive crashes
and so forth so it's just a case of taking the blow and fixing
it.
Did
you use a variety of tunings on this album, some of the tracks
such as domination and eve of seduction sound heavier than others
such as set the world on fire and serpents kiss?
I have kept the same whole step down tuning we have used for years
but sure there is a little bit here and there that is in a different
tuning.
The
one thing that appealed to me was the layout and quality of each
song, the album seems to follow a storyline and there seems to
be a bit of everything for any kind of metal fan. Is this what
you set out to achieve?
Lyrically it's not a concept record, we didn't want to write
a concept record and we were using Milton's poem 'Paradise Lost'
for an idea, you know, a little inspiration and it kind of gave
us a little bit of direction too, you know, we didn't want to
get into this whole Satan and the garden of Eden and the apple
and Adam and eve, we didn't
want to get into all of that. It seemed a little silly to write
a story, and yeah you know, it just wasn't cool. But yeah instead
we just used the ideas, you know, the ideas of revenge and betrayal,
lust and greed, all these things which are pretty much the core
of what Milton's got going on.
So
the music... is pretty much the same direction. We did say in
the beginning that we wanted this album to be a little more guitar
riff driven and song based, you know just a lot of good guitar
riffs you know, the songs are based around the guitar. So right
from the beginning, just by that alone, the songs were a lot heavier
and once Milton's 'Paradise Lost' came in, you know, gave a little
bit of focus to some of the stuff and got a little darker. You
would have a guitar riff and you would just embellish it with
some choirs, dark orchestral strings or bells you know, it did
take on its own vibe do definitely a little bit heavier, a little
more aggressive and a little darker but yeah we did decide that
from right at the beginning and we tried to keep all the music
in that realm. But there is some softer songs with the acoustic
guitar and 12 string but, there is the classical guitar on one
song but still we did want it to have, you know, feel like it
was part of a whole but without being a concept record. So yeah
that was pretty much what we started out with, that was pretty
much the idea.
Lots
of other techniques have appeared on this album alongside your
trademark whole tone passages, economy picking and tapped arpeggios
such as the use of classical guitar and new orchestrations, the
intro to eve of seduction sounds like a folk violin part, what
made you try out these new ideas?
You always have to try new stuff, you know. Like you said, yeah
there is a lot of the things I do and it definitely appears here
and there but I think when you are writing, you are trying to
find something a little different or like you said something that
sounds like a violin line or some kind of riff so you know, always
try find something different. It keeps you being creative, try
and push you to find something cool and at the same time it sounds
cool. At the end of the day you are still trying to write a song,
you are still trying to balance the technique with something that
sounds cool and yeah you know just experiment, noodle around.
A lot of the riffs the come about by you just sitting there banging
on the guitar a little bit, just riffing around and noodling and
then all of a sudden you stumble on something you never did and
you are like oh wow that's kind of cool, let's see if I can build
on that and that is usually how it comes about. Most of the time,
most of the riffs and most of the little licks and things, you
just kind of stumble on it without thinking about it too much,
for me that is kind of what I like to do.
Do
you have a home studio? What software are you using, pro tools
seems to be the way forward
I use Steinberg Nuendo, I mean it's just a preference you know,
I've tried a lot of other things, I mean the bottom line is, they
all basically do the same thing. I just look for ease of work
flow. Like you said it's just a home studio and not a multi-million
dollar studio, just a couple of pretty powerful PC's one with
Nuendo and one with Tascam Giga Studio so just some good gear.
Good microphones, some good pre-amps and a few compressors. (Listen
to audio for in depth explanation)
One
thing that has always bothered me was how you get your tapped
arpeggios to sound so clean, how do you do it?
A lot of people ask me and they say it is difficult but
it's just one of those things you just kind of do and I don't
really think about but I did take a look at what I was doing and
there is some muting going on with the flesh under my thumb of
my right hand. It's just kind of grazing the strings as I go across.
(Hear full explanation on the audio)
What
is it like playing alongside prog masters dream theater?
We first played with those guys on gigantour in the states and
it was awesome, they are all great musicians and even more important
they are all good guys, we got to become good friends. Petrucci
is just amazing, the whole band are just monsters. It's good man,
it inspires you to share a stage with guys like that.
Are
there any plans for a new solo cd from you like the dark chapter?
Yeah I think this year I am going to commit to doing one because
that CD is like ancient, back then I was using an 8-track back
then, so yeah I really want to do something and with this record
there was a lot of material left over that we ended up not using.
This year or early next year I'll start putting some stuff together.
You
have changed from ESP guitars and are now using caparison guitars,
why this company and what appeals to you most about their guitars?
I
used the ESP guitars for a while and I hooked up with those guys
when we were in Japan, we became friends with the band Ever Grey
and they were using these caparison guitars and they let me try
them out and I thought they played really well. I contacted the
caparison people and they said they would build me what I wanted
so that for me was the decision. (Hear Michael's specs and ideas
on the audio)
Any
chance of a Michael Romeo signature guitar?
Yeah
I just spoke to the guy the other day and they are going to go
ahead and do it, they sent me some other finishes to try. It's
pretty cool man, I'm pretty happy with that.
Both
you and Russell Allan have appeared on Arjen Lucassens Ayreon
projects, would you ever work alongside him again, what do you
think of his work?
Arjen is a really talented guy there is no questioning it
you know, and he's another cool guy, the nicest guy and a really
good songwriter too, if he ever wanted a little guitar work or
a little guest spot I'd be up for doing that.
Years
ago, you did a DVD called the guitar chapter, did you enjoy this
DVD and would you consider doing another in the future?
Yeah I'd like to do another one, I really would you know, the
first one I have to admit was a little overwhelming, I was a little
nervous at first because it was on a big sound stage and guys
with lights and microphones and up on ladders and there is 3 cameras
moving around and I was like wow, this was a little more than
I thought, it kind of caught me off guard a bit you know. In the
future I would like to do one and do a lot more things too, before
they were interested in the classical kind of stuff because it
was through the Japanese label and Japanese publication of young
guitar and they really liked a lot of the classical stuff. There
really wasn't anything about theory or chording or any kind of
things like that I think are just as important as some Paganini
lick so if I did another which I would like to, then I would offer
a little more knowledge.
Music
theory is an incredibly debated topic about musicianship; being
a music student myself I find it incredibly important, what are
your views on it?
Yeah man, for me I think it is really important. I was reading
a lot of books because a lot of my early inventions was kind of
basic chords and pentatonic, so all my real theory I got from
taking lessons for a bit so for me it really helps because if
I hear something I like I don't have to worry about working out
what chords or scales to go with whatever idea I'm using, the
tools are already there.
Symphony
X are a very successful band and have accomplished so much, for
bands and artists out there, what advice can you give them to
get noticed or to even form a band?
Get with a bunch of guys with the same kind of vision and direction
as you and really push yourselves as musicians. (Hear Michael's
advice on the audio)
What
do you think about Shawn lane, are you familiar with his work?
Shawn Lane, the guy, you know, it was a shame what happened but
he was one of the greatest guitar players in the world, not even
that, he was a great musician and more than just a guitar player.
The guy's technique and feel was just unbelievable, I mean the
guy played piano and the guy played drums, he understood music
theory and a lot of different styles of music and yeah man it
was just a shame because he was such a talented guy, I mean really
unbelievable. I remember the first time I heard him I was like
holy shit and I saw his instructional video soon after that and
you seen him doing this diminished thing with this gigantic stretch
across the strings and it’s like holy fuck you know haha
the guy is just a monster, Yeah definitely and influence of mine
and much respect of his music.
One
thing that has got out of hand is music and film piracy, what
are your views on music downloading?
Well it has it upsides as well as downsides, a lot of people discover
music through downloading and I myself I believe it's actually
better to support the artist and buy the cd because they might
need the money to get onto making another, it's just facing the
problem at the end of the day and dealing with it.
Any
other projects or plans for the year ahead?
Well
just this tour and hopefully on to making a new solo CD.
Thanks
for your time, any closing statement?
Thanks for the interview, you know, a lot of the interviews is
a lot about the band which is cool so it's good to get back into
the guitar stuff.
Interview
Arranged by world entertainment and conducted by Alistair Campbell
(Blackorchidx)
Thanks
to: Michael Romeo, Gunter Ford, Eric Corbin and Gary Levermore
for making this Interview possible
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