Entrevista con - Tony Smotherman

GL - Tony Smotherman, thanks for your time!
TS - Sure, of course !

GL - Please tell us about your personal history and background for the fans at Mexico.
TS - Im 24 years old and i live in Jacksonville ,Fl My family is Armenian , i started playing when i was about 15 and really got into instrumental players and basically dove into the world of crazy guitar playing.

GL - What motivated you to want to learn to play the guitar?
TS - Seeing a show about Jimie Hendrix. Later hearing Malmsteen for the first time pushed me over the edge !!

GL - What kind of music style do you like to play a lot?
TS - I played classical guitar for a long time, i really enjoy that but i just dont have much time to work on it for right now. When playing electric i have fun playing anything from blues to fusion to rock to neo-classical

GL - Tell us about your technique and how you developed it?
TS - Well i started working on my picking after i saw a Paul Gilbert video, i got really used to the aternate picking and it was lots of fun to see just how fast i work my picking speed up to,.and then i got into sweeping 2,3,4,5,6 string sweeps and i would practice over 10 hours a day sometime trying to get the techniques really clean . later the texas shredders started coming out,.like Derek Taylor,Scott Stine, and Rusty Cooley and i went back to my technique and just saw how undeveloped it really was. Those Texas guys really made me push myself again, there all great players and amazing people in general,.so i guess by this time i began working on 4 notes per string licks using alternate picking,legato,string skipping,.etc..,.that really helped out my technique a lot. Lots of practice and lots of inspiration is what it takes to really get a good technique i think.

GL - When you were a kid, did you ever think that you would someday be one of the best new guitar players of the world?
TS - Well, not really , i've always loved music and when i started playing guitar it felt very natural, even in the begining i saw so many possibilities of what could be done on the instrument so i started exploring and haven't stopped since.

GL - Who are your main influences?
TS - There are quite a few players who have had a big impact on me, most of them were pretty standard influences for a lot of guitarists into the shred thing, Yngwie Malmsteen,Paul Gilbert,Vinnie Moore,Ritchie Kotzen ,Marty Friedman ,Steve Vai,..right now im most likely to be listening to Shawn Lane, Ron Thal, Mattias IA Ecklund, Rusty Cooley, Derek Taylor, Scotty Mishoe, Allan Holdsworth, Adrian Legg and others instrumentalists like Ravi Shankar, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, and the great J.S. Bach !

GL -Who is your favorite guitar player?
TS - So many favorites...Shawn Lane may be my very favorite.

GL - What projects are you currently working on?
TS - Were in the studio finishing the second cd called "Lost in Time" which is like a Lord of the Rings soundtrack with shred guitar.. i have an amazing keyboard player now and new bassist since the first cd...Bruce Royal the drummer has been with me since the very begining

GL - Do you love doing live performances?
TS - For sure, it is definitely the best part of playing music to me, playing live is so important, and when the crowd gets what you do, theres not a better feeling in the world. Im very fortunate to be able to play this style of music and have people actually come out to the shows, its not mainstream music at all. I will do all i can to share the beauty of instrumental guitar to as many people as i personally can in my lifetime.

GL - Let's move on to the "Embracing The Spirit" record. Was this a particularly challenging album for you to make?
TS - I don't think it was challenging as much as it was more like a spiritual experience, everyone was comfortable with the music and playing it at ease.. We recorded the album with no over dubs basically completely "live" it wasn't multi-tracked because of the difference in vibe we were looking for.

GL - What´s the meaning of this record to you?
TS - "Embracing the Spirit" is all about happiness and looking for the happy things in life, finding yourself, finding peace, finding no racism. There is no singing on this album but if you put it on from begining to finish without skipping tracks i'm told will take you on an emotional rollercoaster. With a very cool and refreshed feeling at the end.

GL - What´s your favorite song from this record?
TS - I think Visions and Dreams is one of my favorites on there,.. the crowd really loves it when we play it live,. now with the whole choirs and harpsichord from the keyboardist made this song something really special live.
GL - Have you ever done a song that you wish you could go back in time and un-do? If so, which one, and why?
TS - I don't think so,. i do look back at demos i did in the past and say "What was i thinking"??

GL - What are your thoughts on the state of instrumental guitar these days?
TS - I think theres quite a lot of amazing players in the world today and lots of them want to keep instrumental guitar alive not because they can make money but because they truly love that style of music i would even consider it an "art form" at the same time a mojority of the buying public is into 3 or 4 chords and no solos,...so some of the current guitarists (most of the ones on the magazines) are not technically great players at all.

GL - What do you think about the new crop of talented Guitar player's that are currently out there making music?
TS - I think its incredible! lots of them are very creative and using really cool techniques and we have definitely came a long way since the 80's as far as technically adept players go.

GL - When all is said and done, years from now, how would you want people to remember Tony Smotherman?
TS - I think i would like to be remembered as a contributor to the guitar, someone who expanded on the instrument and sparked new ideas that would inspire others.

GL - What will be next for Tony Smotherman?
TS - More cds, guitar clinics, another instructional video and a Tour!

GL - And can we expect to see you in Mexico any time soon?
TS - Absolutely,. we just tied into a booking company who is very supportive of what were doing,. touring is definitely coming soon,.. the company also books bands like Deep Purple, Dream Theater and Yngwie ,.. so i'll catch you soon Jorge !

GL - Is there anything else you would like to share with us that I have not asked?
TS - Well my cd is available through www.guitar9.com and also www.cdbaby.com and my instrucional cd-rom along with my audio cd is avilable at www.chopsfromhell.com stop by and check it out,. lots of licks for the new shredder !

GL - Thanks for your time Tony, we really appreciated it!, all the best to you and the band!!
TS - No problem ,.thanks a milllion !

No olviden visitar www.tonysmotherman.fr.st