Joe Stump
is rapidly becoming a household name amongst fans of neo-classical
metal. Whether it be the ball blistering intensity of his solo
output, or the well crafted metal of Reign Of Terror; Joe Stump
is one artist that is continuing to grow and push back boundaries
with every release. VirtuosityOne catched up with Joe to discuss
his new masterpiece Speed Metal Messiah and also find out what
else is on the agenda in 2004.
Speed Metal Messiah is about to be
released via Lion Music, its certainly the best solo album
you have done as far as I am concerned, how do you feel about
it?
I'm pretty pleased with the new record, its certainly my finest
hour. Every aspect of the new record is as close to my final
vision as anything that I've ever recorded. The tunes are
well crafted, the production is real nice, the guitar tone
is killer, glassy and crystal clear and of course you get
a lethal dose of insane extreme shredding and neo-classical
mayhem.
As always there is the usual dose of
arpeggios, linear lines and harmonic minor madness, but there
is also a much more accessible sound present that non-guitarists
could dig. What led to this increased dose of melody?
Well I've always had quite a bit of melody on all of my records.
But the themes and melodies on this record are some of my
best. Weapon of Choice, the ballad Reflection, parts of the
Red Priest, Unleashing The Fury a ton of really nice very
classically influenced music. And that's what music is, it's
themes and melodies and great harmonies and chord sequences.
It's not some mindless impossible string skipping excercise
that's passed off as a tune. All that shit gets tired if there's
no melody and if it doesn't rock.
Is appealing to none guitar player important
to you as a solo recording artist, and do you think its possible
to produce an instrumental album that will please the average
(non-muso) listener?
Joe Satriani is certainly proof of that. His music reaches
a hugely diverse audience that includes all types of people,
from hard core guitar fans and players to older folks and
young kids. My stuff is much more specialised and a bit more
of an underground type of thing. Even though I have a lot
of melody in my music I don't have those same type of pop
sensibilities in my songwriting. I'm far too dark and evil
for that. My stuff is very heavy, aggressive and of course
metal driven. So when I think of my records appealing to a
non -guitarist I think of someone who's also a real fan of
educated hard rock/metal music.
The production and mix on the album
is finally at the point that your music has deserved. Have
the advancements in recording technology over recent years
made it possible for you to achieve a better sonic clarity
for the kind of budget you have to work with?
Most of my earlier records were all made on 2-inch tape, all
analogue. Where the new record and just about all records
made today are made on a hard disc format. The 2-inch stuff
is really fat and warm sounding but can get a little mushy
and you can lose some clarity in various low-end frequencies.
And of course my records are made on a fraction of the budget
that many other artists I'm often compared to or grouped in
with make theirs. But in this day and age technology has made
recording much more cost efficient. So I guess it's a combination
of a bunch of things that make this such a good sounding record
sonically. But a lot of it is attributed to all the quality
people I had involved in the thing. Great musicians playing
on it and Mike Vescera (engineer) and Gary Fulton (assistant
engineer and mastering engineer) worked very hard and did
a great job. I was also very specific about what I wanted
production -wise.
You have signed for Lion Music for
this album, is this just for Europe or worldwide?
No the deal with Lion is for Europe and the States, pretty
much worldwide. They'll also license it to other companies
in other regions like Russia, South America and Asia. But
it's theirs exclusively this time around.
How long did the album take to write
and record?
The recording didn't take too long at all, that happened over
the course of a month or so give or take a few weeks. I have
all the stuff fully rehearsed with my live band before we
go in to bang it out, so I'm very well prepared. As far as
composing the music, there's things on the new record that
I've had laying around for awhile and a bunch of newer things
as well. I'm always coming up with things so composing is
something I tend to do all the time.
Who are the band personnel on this release?
Jay Rigney on bass, he's been with me since 98, great bass
player and a very cool guy as well. We've logged quite a few
miles together on the road, he's a total road dog, loves to
travel and loves to play live. Jay Gates on drums, a killer
hard hitting old school metal monster, Cozy Powell, Alex Van
Halen, Scott Travis type of player. He has been with me a
few years as well and used to play with me back in the late
80`s, early 90`s in Trash Broadway. We both played together
on my very first record, the Trash Broadway debut on Torrid
Records back in 1989. So it's great that we've reconnected.
On keys its that crazy hard-drinking Swede ex-Yngwie keyboard
player Mats Olausson. Just a brilliant musician and a great
orchestrater as far as great sounds and classical orchestral
type things go. I `m lucky to have such great guys playing
with me, it's a very cool band type of vibe.
Do you have any favourite performances
on the album or pieces that you are particularly proud of?
I love Weapon of Choice its a very well crafted track in all
aspects in that you have all the insane stuff but with beautiful
melodies and killer riffage. The Red Priest, the title track,
The Killer Instinct and the whole Psycho Shred Suite are all
pretty scary as far as extreme neo-classical playing goes.
Both the lengthy solos at the end of The Killer Instinct and
the ballad Reflection are all done in one pass, one take,
no fixing or punching in. I worked my balls off on this record
so there's many things that I'm fairly pleased with.
There's a real Blackmore vibe on Eastern
Beast from the moody intro to the main lead lines, and I reckon
this track would surprise many people. What did you aim for
on this track?
Eastern Beast is a real Blackmore/ Uli Jon Roth type of track.
The intro pure Blackmore and many of the other sections very
Uli inspired especially the end solo very Uli Jon Roth induced.
I don't think that would surprise anybody in that Blackmore
is my hero and one of my main influences if not my main influence.
Uli as well. Because I play a such fast speeds and so technical
at times a lot of people think its exclusively like an Yngwie
thing. Don't get me wrong Yngwie is right up there with Ritchie
as far as being one of my main sources of inspiration. It's
just that many of the things I do content wise are really
quite heavily Blackmore influenced and at times that gets
a bit overlooked.
Unleashing The Fury, I guess that's
a dedication to Yngwie yet is home to more of the Blackmore
vibe, did you manage to catch any of Yngwie's recent G3 or
Attack tour?
That one's dedicated to both Blackmore and Yngwie. Almost
like in the solo section my interpretation of what it might
sound like if they were trading solos back and forth. I thought
it be a fun to have the track be a real combination of the
two, since my playing contains so many elements and influences
from them both. The intro arpeggios and scalular riff at the
beginning are very Marching Out/Trilogy era Malmsteen. Then
the bluesier riff and the melody very Rising era Rainbow inspired.
You got the middle Baroque section, the Purple/Rainbow part
before the solo, then the duelling solo section begins. I
did see Yngwie on several shows on the G3 and a show on the
Attack tour and he was completely on top of his game. I've
probably seen him at least 20-30 times and he's always inspiring
to me.
The Psycho Shred Suite's are both rather
intense pieces of work! How do you keep that kind of momentum
and agility up for the length of those pieces?
Lots of practice and dedication, and believe me endurance-wise
those pieces are very demanding, some of the hardest stuff
I've ever recorded. That's the thing about having a lot of
technical command. It enables you to play very difficult high
velocity pieces for lengthy time periods.
Retroactivity is the blues track for
Speed Metal Messiah, I believe that you are doing a European
tour where you will be playing more bluesy material?
Just over in Holland and maybe Belgium. I have an agent over
there that books tours for me so I've been going over and
touring on a fairly regular basis, like 2x a year. I'm hoping
to do a more extensive tour in Europe early next year. This
one will be fun; I'll be playing a bunch of Hendrix stuff,
some Gary Moore and some of my bluesier hard rock material.
But I will play a few things from the new record, Eastern
Beast, Retroactivity and the ballad Reflection. Last time
I went with The Reign of Terror last April I was playing clinics
during the day and concerts at night so I was playing like
3 1/2 hours at each venue. All my calluses were ripped open
and my hands were shredded by the end of that tour. I was
very cool doing that much playing though. There's nothing
better for your playing than performing live, you can sit
in your room and practice and record all you like but it ain't
the same. You can't match the intensity of a live show.
I know you did some clinics in Korea
as well as some European dates late 2003/early 2004. How did
they go?
That was quite a trip lots of flying and I've never been to
Hong Kong and mainland China so that was pretty wild. The
people were wonderfully nice and I was treated really well.
The clinics were more like full on shows with me playing like
a 10 song set then answering a bunch of questions then doing
a full meet and greet type of thing. It was a blast, it was
a very international rock celebrity type of vibe with me playing
the clinic and then sometimes going straight to the airport
right after to fly to the next city. Needless to say I ate
nothing but Chinese food for over an entire weeks time.
What else will you be doing apart from
the aforementioned European tour to support SMM?
Some shows and clinics in the States. And more of that type
of thing after the holidays and starting up next year. And
of course the usual press stuff, interviews etc.
Is Reign Of Terror going to do anything
this year?
Mike's been going through some personal stuff, so we've been
a bit delayed in mixing the live stuff we recorded. But there
will be a live record and hopefully we'll have some time to
put that together before the end of this year so it can be
released earlier next year. And I've got a bunch of things
composed for the next Reign of Terror. Some tracks are quite
fast and classically influenced, very European. And they'll
be a few retro type things as well, real Deep Purple / UFO
type stuff, a nice mix.
I know that are a fan of metal music,
are there any recent releases or new artists that have caught
your attention - if so why?
As far as new artists go, Katsu Ohta from Ark Storm is a great
neo-classical player. Nice tone well executed lines and he's
got some vibrato, vibe and old school sensibilities too. Kind
of on the aggressive side of the neo-classical thing like
myself. I thought the Ark Storm record had some great stuff,
of course a bit derivative but none of us is exactly reinventing
the wheel at this point. When I was in Asia one of the promoters
told me about him and said I'd enjoy his stuff. But if I do
listen to music it's usually one of my favourites (Uli, Blackmore,
Yngwie, Jimi, Gary Moore, Schenker, Frank Marino , etc.) or
something classical.
What gear did you use of SMM to obtain
that great tone?
I used some old 50-watt Marshalls and the Rhino YJM Blackstar
mostly. And the British high patch on the line 6 POD. The
Blackstar is a great amp, I've used mine on numerous tours
and live dates and also to record and it sounds great. Guitar
-wise my 2 main ESP custom shop Strats, the arctic white one
with the black pickup covers and the cream one with the pearl
scratchplate. Both have scalloped maple necks, DiMarzio pickups,
jumbo frets, locking tuners, graphite nut, alder bodies and
vintage style Fender-type tremolos and backwards headstocks.
Effects-wise a DOD 250 and YJM 308 overdrive pedals, a boss
octave box on Eastern Beast and a Dunlop cry baby wah and
Rotovibe.
When can we expect the new DVD's that
have been promised on your website for a while?
Well, the Rhino guy shot the first one back in June and has
been dragging his feet as far as editing and finishing the
first one. But I'm shooting the second one in a couple weeks
and that one will be out very soon after I finish it. Probably
late Oct/early Nov. for sure. We're also going to release
a live bootleg type of thing with a lengthy show from the
last European Reign of Terror tour, some clinic footage from
Europe and a compilation of some recent live shows from the
states. So before the years end there will be a bunch of stuff
available through the website.
What are your plans for the rest of
2004?
Just a bunch of press for the new record, the DVD's, European
tour, and some shows later on in the year after I get back
from Europe. So along with working at Berklee fulltime I'd
say that's plenty to keep me busy.
Anything else you would like to add
to end the interview?
Just a huge, sincere thanks to all my fans who continue to
support my stuff. I really appreciate it. And of course to
check out the new record, The Messiah `s coming so repent.
Thanks to Joe from virtuosityone.com
