Vigier Guitars

(Photo tir?e du magnifique DVD Anaheim Live (2008))

Quelques merveilles

(de gauche ? droite) :

atomicbee wrote: Being known primarily as an instrumentalist, what is your opinion on instrumental guitar today? Is "shred" dead?EJ: I think the most important thing is that they have something to say musically and that almost always has to do with the song you write or the composition or the music or the way you layer/ orchestrate the parts and that they're meaningful and have an impact. If you do it in a more refreshing/ re-invented way, then it's even better. Anything that doesn't quite go that direction, it's going to be static and sound dated. Because everybody's heard blistering electric guitar as it has been done in the format for 35 years for the most part, it's not really going to turn heads as much. There's really two options: take the course of jazz music where you have a lot of improvisation (and that's the whole heartbeat of jazz) - but within the framework, you have players that are reinventing the whole effect and being tasty and thinking musically. That's one option that be can used in progressive music which is not really used as much. The other option, because people are so burnt out on electric guitar (and understandably so), they just put it in the back of the mix as a songwriting tool which is where that is right now. I don't think too many people are interested in hearing someone go crazy on the guitar unless it was someone who was really re-inventive and had something strong musically to say.What advice would you have for aspiring musicians?EJ: I can only say what I'm trying to do which is just try to get into your intuitive nature of what speaks to you musically. If you just learn the book and study the radio, you're just going to be working out of your mind and it won't have the same depth or impact when people hear it. So if you try to develop that intuitive sense of music, you're seeking mechanism will try to find things that will respond on that frequency. I think that's the frequency that everybody responds to in the more sublime sense - it's good to get into that thing.