FZ: Well, the funny thing about the way I play is that I never practice. And everytime a tour ends and I put my guitar away I usually dont touch it until the next seasons rehearsals. And every time I pick it up its like learning to play all over again, I dont have any callouses, it hurts, I cant bend the string, you know, the guitar feels too heavy when I put it on, I feel awkward holding it. Its like somebody hands you a piece of lumber. And now you are supposed to perform again and I was off-the-road for nine months before this tour. And I didnt hardly play at all, I mean, a couple of times in the studio and that was it. I lost all of my technique, and didnt have any callouses. It was really hard to play. And so, this tour started and it was with a brand new drummer which usually takes some amount of time adjusting to. And I suddenly found that I didnt have any problem playing, I just went out there on the stage and started blasting away. I have been playing good since the beginning of the tour, and a few nights Ive played things that I think are really remarkable even by my own standards, or by my own aesthetic, of what I am trying to do when I play, I think Ive exceeded my goals on a couple of nights. I really do. GW: Can you describe how that feels when youve hit that point? FZ: Well, its great. You just know that for that point double 00000009% thats out there in the audience that understands whats going on, that person really got the message and the rest of the people say, Wow, hes playing loud. Whatever they think is going on. Hes going crazy. But, you know, you get to the point where you know you have just said something that nobody has ever heard before, that nobody has ever thought of before and there you did it. And on top of that, its recorded. And you can play it for somebody later and say, Would you believe that on such and such a night at such and such a time giving this set of circumstances under these climatic conditions this occurred? I am looking for things that are just unlikely. Rhythmic events that are unlikely. Melodic events that are unlikely. Youve already heard all of the good licks that all of the good guitar players play. Youve already heard every pentatonic scale there ever was. You have heard all of the chromatic scales there ever was. Youve heard the Aeolian mode played with a muted palm of the hand. You have heard all of the nice bent notes. You have heard clean playing, accurate playing. You have heard it all, you know. I dont give a shit about that stuff. I want to play whats on my mind and I think I succeed when I can directly convert my compositional idea, my instant compositional idea into sound patterns right there on stage on the moment, and if the rest of the band accompanies that properly so that it obviates the musical idea, then I did it. But, thats a lot of variables, because it means that everybody on stage has to hear each other just enough so that it works, and that everybody elses musical imagination and the support function of the rhythm section is tuned into what Im doing. You dont have any go-for-yourselfers out there. And thats the thing that usually ruins a solo. If a drummer overplays, if the bass player overplays or the keyboard overplays ... if they dont have any sensitivity to what Im doing or if they arent smart enough to track the direction that I am going in its like dragging an anchor. In fact, Ill point out the way that song, Watermelon in Easter Hay got its name. Its from the statement that playing a solo with this band is like trying to grow a watermelon in Easter hay. And most of the bands that Ive had it was like that. Its been just recently where Ive had rhythm sections that dont get in my way and let me do what I am going to do. And also guys playing behind me who are fans of what I play. Not just fans of the group or whatever, but they really enjoy listening to what I am capable of doing given optimum circumstances and they get off on it. When you have somebody pushing you like that and working with you to help make a musical event unnatural or unknown or alien or beyond or scientific or whatever, then its great. So I enjoy that.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 13:14:35 +0000
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