Steel Notes Magazine
January 2017
What are you doing presently ? I know you ’ ve got Day of Reckoning happening Yes , I ’ ve got Day of Reckoning . We ’ ve got a CD out and its one of two parts it ’ s Into the Fire Part 1 and we just released that well not just its been out for a little while but we released that and then ran into a couple of hiccups with band members and we got a new drummer which we had to import all the way from Bangalore India . It ’ s sad when you can ’ t find a drummer you know in your hometown or let alone in the United States but he ’ s an amazing drummer so he ’ s been back and forth a few times but he ’ s moving over and he ’ ll be a permanent feature after the first of the year . Then we had an issue with our bass player he just had too many commitments with some personal issues so we had to find somebody to replace him and I thought that was going to take forever but we actually found his replacement pretty quick and that ’ s not any reflections on his playing he ’ s an amazing bass player but I just got lucky and it was a guy I tried to get in the band a long time ago was available named Michael Milsap or aka Dr Froth he doesn ’ t actually play a bass he plays an AT Stick it ’ s got like 8 strings on it or something 7 or 8 strings and it ’ s got the full bass range and it ’ s got strings like you find on a guitar as well and he does all this tapping and crazy stuff so it fits in with all the insanity so just trying to get out there and get things rolling again you know . You know it ’ s been a long time between Outworld and Day of Reckoning so it ’ s just not easy finding guys that play on that level that are committed and dedicated and can do it so . We ’ ve done some cool things this year . We did a tour with Darkest Hour earlier this year and then we just opened for Alter Bridge in Dallas at their CD release party . That was cool and some other things just trying to get the momentum and get it rolling again you know what I mean ? It ’ s a long time in the process
I ’ ve been reading in 1996 you said you couldn ’ t find any musicians , you did not have any musicians in your hometown that just didn ’ t even satisfy you , you did your own solo thing , is that pretty much where it started ? At the time when I decided to do an instrumental album It wasn ’ t so much that I wasn ’ t satisfied with the level of players it was just you know sometimes you ’ ve just got to take a breather . I needed a change and that ’ s when I decided , you know I had my son and I had taken a year or so off from teaching and was trying to reevaluate life ; my assessment . I was 26 at the time you know I had to go through some changes ; metamorphosis and get back on the right track and really assess what I wanted to do and how I was going to do it . Luck of the draw it ’ s all a timing thing really because when I started writing that instrumental album I started playing 7 string at the same time as my first child and started going back to teaching and the internet started to take off and I just happened to be there at the right time to be known as ‘ internet guitarist ’ or whatever whether that has a positive or negative I ’ m not sure . I can surely tell you this if it wasn ’ t for the internet I wouldn ’ t who knows what would have happened and how else do you reach the world without getting out there touring ? Back then you would swap cassettes with everybody to find out about guitar players and bands you know so it ’ s just luck of the draw I guess , I don ’ t know but it all kind of came together at the same time and then I had to get back out there and find guys in my hometown that could play the stuff . So really my instrumental band became Outworld and that ’ s when we got a singer . The instrumental album didn ’ t have a real drummer on it me and my old keyboard player Bobby I would give him rough drafts of the songs that I had programmed drums for and I ’ m not a drummer by any means so I gave him the stuff and he spiced it up to what it became . Before he played keys , he was a drummer . Basically , the drums that ended up being on the instrumental album were a combination of the three drummers we had gone through in that year . We kind of took the best parts and spliced them in and turned them into what became so there ’ s a little bit of all them guys on there somewhere even though they didn ’ t play on it . It ’ s tough man ! I understand ! You started teaching your third year of playing
Yes
26
Steel Notes Magazine www . steelnotesmagazine . com