TONY HERNANDO INTERVIEW

1st July 2009

Hi Tony, thanks for agreeing to this interview with Virtuosity One.

No problem! Thank you for your interest!

Your new album “Actual Events” saw release in February and to these ears its your best solo album to date.  How has the initial response been?

Thanks for the compliment! Yeah, the album is getting a lot of great reviews everywhere, both from fans and from magazines. I’m just pleased with the response, I knew I had a potentially big album when I was writing and recording…a great vibe from the beginning of the process…it just felt right, you know?

What struck me about the album is the song writing seems more concise now, you seem to have fully developed your own style with the new album.

Thx again for your words, yeah, in the beginning you are just getting used to recording and in these days with almost no budgets for albums like these, you don’t even get an external producer, so you just make a lot of mistakes learning how to produce an album, and trying to please everyone, trying to cover too many styles, techniques, etc…so you are kind of “lost” in the middle of nowhere…but with the album “III” and more than ever with this last one, I just wrote and played what I just had in mind, I just wanted to please myself, and thankfully the people are enjoying the album!

How did the tracks come together for the album? Its been a few years since “III” so how have you changed as an artist over this time and how has this been reflected in “Actual Events”?

Of course, after a successful album like “III” and few little tours from which the DVD was shot, I become a member of the Metal band Saratoga, toured extensively and recorded a couple of albums by now, so I’ve been really busy and during 2007 and 2008 I started to write new ideas for the album and I ended up with about 20 songs…hopefully the next album will not take so much time!

A lot of the songs are built around strong riffs, and then the lead guitar sort of takes the role that a vocalist would.  Is this a conscience decision?

Yes, in my opinion, even instrumental music should be interesting in structures and have catchy melodies and stuff like that. I don’t like the albums where the player is really good technically speaking but there’s nothing more. Is like jamming all the time. That’s not composition to me. On the other side you have people like Satriani, Vai, Timmons who have showed us how to compose beautiful instrumental music, so I always keep that in mind.

The album sees you getting heavier than ever, what brought about this harder edge?

I just came back to my roots…Malmsteen, Macalpine, Cacophony…the music that inspired me to become a pro guitarist, and the fact that almost all songs are with either 7 strings guitar or Dropped tuning…that make the album heavier and crunchier. Also the drummer, Mike Terrana played as hard and good as ever, so it came out pretty intense, uh?

I know you recorded at Roland Grapow’s studio, what did this facility bring to the sound and the album as a whole?

It was a great experience, Roland is a great musician and was a pleasure working in his place, far away from distractions and getting the best sounds possible. Is good to change the method of working to learn…new people, new studio, whatever, it makes you better just for the fact of doing things in a different way, even if you go wrong.

Was this location helped by having Grapow’s friend Mike Terrana on drums once again?

Yes, Mike and I are friends for about 11 years and we have a good relation ship and respect. He enjoys playing this music which is good and there are no problems, egos or bullshit, just good vibes!

You state in the press information for the album that its one of Mike’s best drum performances in a long time.  How important is Mike for your music?

When I presented the songs to Mike he reacted very well, telling me these were some of my best songs ever and he was having a blast. He came to the studio with great ideas and we experimented a little bit. We had a great time, trying to make an instrumental album that was strong as the ones released on the late 80´s, where not only the guitar playing was outstanding, but the drumming too…on those albums they had drummers like Castronovo, Atma Anur…and Mike himself later! So we kept an eye on those references to make the album as solid as possible, no fillers, strong songs but interesting and melodic at the same time.

When did you two initially meet and how has that led to the productive working relationship?

I was living in L.A. attending G.I.T., and I used to spend all my saved money for years in attending concerts, master classes and even private lessons with some of the best guitarists…so I went to a Macalpine concert where I met Mikey and become friends. We kept in touch thru the years, when we both relocated in Europe and we become more and more friends when we start working together with my second album. Even with all my limitations and lack of experience I proved him being very serious and professional, so we kept working together when schedule permits, and is a pleasure for both, we really enjoy!

Can you give us a track by track run down of the album and what each track means/represents to you personally?

The album was recorded in the final running order…I had a complete concept in mind…

The first song, “Eyes of Orion” is like a tribute to my neoclassical roots…the opening lick is insane…7 strings madness with a lot of Malmsteen influences and great drumming.

“Totem”, strong and heavy, odd signatures, fusion moments…

“Stones of silence”, in the vein of some of my songs in the album “III”, catchy riffs and melodies, a great song for live playing.

“Tomorrow´s rain” a good moment to have catch the breath after 3 songs of intense playing…classical nylon guitar, classical finger picking techniques…trickier that it sounds, believe me! I studied classical guitar at Conservatory…writing stuff like this keeps my classical training.

“Land with no sun” is like a trilogy piece with 3 movements…very aggressive and with some of my best solos. “Signals of aggression”…probably my fav…strong riffs and melodies, hard work on composition!

“State of mind” an intense 7 strings song with many key changes!

“Deathly kiss”…has become one the people ´s fav…I did not expect that! It is a very neoclassical influenced piece…people keep asking me for more stuff like “Outsiders” which became very popular!

“Side effects”…like its title…this is what happens to a rock guy who listened and studied too much fusion…!

“Driven by fear” another strong piece, combining heavy riffing, close to Thrash metal with melodic soloing!

“The watcher”…is like an epilogue…I had Mikey playing percussion on odd time signatures with backing track I had played in a fusion-flamenco style…and then I added the electric improvised solos…

The album has a slightly more neo-classical slant than previous work, what brought in this extra edge?

As i´ve said, that´s my original first love in music…I grew up with guys like Macalpine and Malmsteen before fusion or blues oriented guitarists came to my attention.

Your guitar sound is your best yet.  What amps and guitars do you use to get your signature sound?

Being playing Ibanez guitars all my life, but I’ve just improved my sound and tone because I had time to do it…I wish I had a producer on the first two records, where I just played complete songs form start to finish on Adat machines!

What do you look for in particular guitars and amps you use?

Simplicity! I don’t like processors, I like comfortable guitars, and Ibanez are! There are many fine amps on the market but I love my Bogner amps…

How did you go about recording your guitar e.g. mic techniques, any outboard effects etc…

Just a cab miked with a 57 or a 414! That’s it. The distorted guitars are compressed already, so… a little delay on the mixdown, maybe some wah or phaser in some solos…nothing else.

Tony Hernando - THIII Live DVD clip

You released “III Live” a dual dvd/cd pack a few years back, its quite refreshing to see an instrumental artist actually playing live instead of being stuck in a home studio with only cheap YouTube videos to prove they actually exist.  Is playing live high on the agenda for promoting “Actual Events”?

I hope so. Unfortunately (or not?) I’m busy with another album with Saratoga with tons of concerts ahead…I hope I can make another GuitarFest tour soon.

How is the market for an instrumental artist such as yourself – can you make a living doing this?

You mean with just the albums?...no! you actually lose a lot of money! The whole music business is crazy right now, since the existence of Internet everything has changed, some things for good, but many others for really bad.

Speaking of Saratoga, I must admit to not being familiar with any of the bands material so what sort of band are you and what would you recommend as a starting place for a newbie such as myself in regards to recorded output?

Well, Saratoga is a Metal band with a long career, but I just replaced their original guitarist 2 years ago. I enjoy making this music too!!

Any final messages for our readers?

Thx so much for the interested, please, stop by my web or myspace and drop a line! I wish you all the best!

Tony, many thanks for your time and we wish all the best for the new album.

Thanks to you!!!

Official Websites
www.tonyhernando.com | http://www.myspace.com/tonyhernando