"Paganini's Voodoo Child,"
Guitar World, January 1987
You will be hearing a lot of fast arpeggios soon. Not only has Yngwie Malmsteen stormed into the music magazine headlines these past few years, he has apparently won over the hordes of guitarists who follow his music and try to emulate his unique style. While the two-hands-on-the-neck technique has been the influence of choice for guitar acolytes these past eight years, more aspiring players are following the fretsteps of Malmsteen's ultra-fast, classically-composed guitar work now. A recent survey of New York-area guitar instructors bears this out: the demand for learning Malmsteen solos has increased substantially within the past year.
"Of the 40 kids I teach guitar to, most of them want to learn how to play Yngwie licks," says one of these guitar instructors. "Yngwie has gotten so many kids interested in learning what an arpeggio is, and what Phrygian and harmonic-minor scales are. He has also exposed a lot of kids to classical music and has pushed them to practice more and be very disciplined as far as developing their technique. Yngwie has actually driven the kids to the books. Technically, Yngwie has few flaws. He's made kids realize that in order to play tastefully and fast at the same time, it takes a lot dedication and practice. Yngwie has boosted the level of technique beyond belief."
Indeed, Malmsteen has accomplished much since moving to America in early 1983, recording six albums in less than four years. His first U.S. release, the self-titled Steeler album, was a typical heavy metal slugfest, but it did establish the young Swede as a guitar force with a bright future. Malmsteen got the chance to play several shows with Steeler in California. And though there were scores of new guitarists playing the club circuit at the time, few, if any, exhibited the outright originality and off-the-wall intensity that Malmsteen possessed on stage.
It wasn't until Malmsteen left Steeler and joined Alcatrazz that he found a respectable presentation for his guitar playing on record. Though he was never particularly fond of the band, he did do a lot of songwriting--something he was never given the chance to do in Steeler. The first Alcatrazz album, No Parole From Rock 'n' Roll, proved to the guitar world that Malmsteen was no hype. Guitar fans were amazed by his sheer speed and wildly articulate playing style. He left the band mainly because of two reasons--personal conflicts with the members of the band and Malmsteen's desire to pursue his own project. Live Sentence, Alcatrazz' poorly-produced live album, was his only other recorded work with the band.
While still in Alcatrazz, Malmsteen recorded his own album, the mostly instrumental Rising Force. It didn't appeal to many people apart from guitar fans, but received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance nonetheless. And though Yngwie didn't win--a track from Jeff Beck's Flash, "Escape," won the award--Malmsteen was hailed as a guitar virtuoso by more people than ever.
His very next release, Marching Out, was intended to be more of a band effort, yet Malmsteen's flaming fretwork still dominated the album. But you never know what to expect from Yngwie Malmsteen--except for the unexpected, of course. Trilogy, his third solo release, comes across more as a presentation of songs than as a vehicle for excessive soloing.
Guitar World: Trilogy is a bit different from your last two albums.
Yngwie Malmsteen: I wanted it to be different. I already proved myself as a good guitar player; now I want people to know that I can also write good songs. The only reason I didn't write any commercial-sounding songs on my last two albums was because I didn't want to. I mean, it's a lot harder to write a composition like "Far Beyond The Sun." Of course, I would never do anything that I didn't want to do. And I would never release anything that I didn't totally love. I created everything on this record especially for this record, whereas many of the tracks on the other two albums are about five years old. And just because there's a few commercial-sounding songs on Trilogy, I didn't sell out. I love writing a song that has a good groove to it; that's why I didn't produce the record from a guitarist's point of view. I want to share my music, so it's not enough anymore for only me to love it. I would be very disappointed if I did something and no one else liked it. I'm at a point where I'd rather play something less great and have more people enjoy it.
Was a lot of pre-production done?
Yes, quite a lot. I used a brand-new Tascam eight-track mixer and a three-band parametric equalizer with an incredible reel-to-reel tape recorder to record on before I went into the studio. I worked day and night on this and criticized myself severely. I composed the whole record like a mini-symphony, but not as sophisticated, of course.
How close were the demos to the final songs that appear on the record?
Some of the songs changed radically, but most of them were very similar to the final versions. I programmed a drum machine so it sounded like a real drummer was actually playing. It was hard to do, but when it worked it sounded pretty cool.
Which guitars did you use on the album?
Basically, for the whole album I used a '59 white Fender Strat with a rosewood neck, a '64 black Fender Strat with a maple neck and a '56 cream-colored Fender Strat with a maple neck.
I was in a guitar store recently, and they were selling this really nice 1971 cream-colored Fender Stratocaster. Right next to it was a 1971 sunburst Fender Stratocaster, which they were selling for three hundred dollars less. When I asked the salesman why, he said it was all my fault. He said everyone wants a cream-colored Strat nowadays. I apparently made it so popular that they're selling it at a more expensive price.
Speed and clarity are two of your best qualities as a guitar player. How do you manage to pick every note so cleanly at such fast speeds? Many guitarists sound sloppy when they attempt playing fast.
It's difficult to explain exactly how I do it, but I can explain what my approach to music and playing the guitar is. In short, I would never play anything unless it sounds good. If I attempt to play something and I'm not able to play it the way I want, then I won't play it until I can play it the way I want. I know it's a very indirect answer to the question--and I would like to give a more specific explanation--but I really don't know how to describe exactly how I do it. As long as I hear what I want to hear, I really don't care how I do it. But I really don't always play cleanly--I play sloppy many times, especially live.
Do you find any weaknesses in your playing?
Oh yeah, lots of 'em. I'm probably one of the most inconsistent players around. Since I'm always improvising, everything that I play is spontaneous--I don't have too many prefabricated licks. It's often difficult for me to play a solo the same way I did on the record. If there's a particular solo on a record that I like, sometimes it's difficult for me to figure out what I exactly played. It's weird, but sometimes I can't even figure out my own solos. And if I try to play it the same exact way, I end up sounding like someone in a Top Forty band.
Do you think you'd be a better player nowadays had you taken lessons when you first started playing guitar?
I don't think anyone can actually teach you how to play guitar. The desire to play guitar should come from inside you. Guitar is at a stage where you have to do your own innovations. Playing electric guitar is not like playing classical violin, which has been around for hundreds of years. To play classical violin you need to be taught the specific skills needed to perform that particular kind of music. I'm better at creating music than actually learning something and using that. I'm too dumb to learn things--I can only create things [laughs].
That's why I never got into the rut of being taught how to play guitar. Even though I'm drawing from classical music, I'm not playing a classical instrument and I'm not really playing what classical musicians play. Although I'm improvising things within realms that have already been created, I'm not playing them exactly the way they've been played.
Do you know exactly what you're playing at all times?
Yes, I'm very aware of what I'm playing. It's very important to come to a point where you're totally knowledgeable of what it is you're playing--not necessarily to know what certain things are called--but to know what relative scales and relative keys are and how to blend the parts so that they fit together nicely. It's important to be aware of that. But once you start creating and once you start improvising, you shouldn't think about what it is you're playing. It should be in your subconscious and just flow out of you. I mean, when you're driving a car, you really don't think about it, right? The only way you can actually progress is by creating new things. Otherwise, you will only reproduce what you already know.
It seems that many new guitarists are trying to reproduce a lot of the licks that you've created.
You're right, a lot of people are copying me. Some people tell me, "Oh, don't worry about it. You know you did it first." I mean, of course I know I did it first. Certain things bother me and certain things don't. For instance, there's this guitarist who lives in Sweden. If you'd listen to a tape of this guy's playing, you wouldn't believe it. He used to buy rehearsal tapes from my band members and learn my licks note-for-note. He'd get the same exact gear that I had, wear the same exact clothes that I was wearing, and even listened to the classical stuff I was listening to. He even went out with my old Swedish girlfriend after I broke up with her. The guy copied everything I did.
Many people say you copy a lot of things from Ritchie Blackmore.
That doesn't bother me at all, it's their opinion. It just immediately determines that they have no musical ear whatsoever. Anyone who says that I play like Ritchie Blackmore has to be musically retarded. There aren't too many similarities between us. I love the way Ritchie plays, but I don't play like him. At one point I was doing some of the things that Ritchie was doing because I thought they were really cool, but I did them my own way.
Your guitar tech, Ian Ferguson, says that Blackmore is really fond of your playing.
I was a bit nervous the first time I hung out with Ritchie, because I heard a lot of weird stories about him. But when I met him he was really cool and he even let me play a couple of his guitars. He's one of the nicest guys I've ever met.
On the contrary, I read that Edward Van Halen is one of the nicest dudes in the world. I was looking forward to meeting him and hopefully becoming good friends with him. Whenever I'm somewhere that he happens to be, I ask someone to relay a message, saying that I was around and that I would love to meet him. But I still haven't met the guy--he seems to be hiding from me and suddenly disappears whenever he finds out I happen to be around.
It's a very sad and totally unnecessary situation. I've always respected him and I think he's a great guitar player--he's probably inspired more people to play guitar than Hendrix did. The bottom line is: he's got nothing to worry about. The impression I'm getting is that he's feeling threatened by me, but I may be totally wrong. If I were to become extremely famous and everyone started calling me the guitar hero, that would not delete what he is and what he's accomplished. Just because Van Halen has been called the new guitar hero, that didn't automatically diminish what Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page accomplished.
When I heard the first Van Halen album, I couldn't believe how great the guitar playing was. And when I heard that album, it was at a point when I didn't like any of the new players. I mean, he totally changed the whole guitar field. And he's still as great now as he's ever been. I would love to jam with him.
That would be interesting.
It would probably be great fun, too. I've never spent any time making a list of who is bigger, better or faster among guitar players, but I know it's a popular thing to do. I never compare anybody to anybody. I mean, everybody has their quality and value as a performer and a musician. Comparing one guitarist to another means very little to me. I just happen to be a guitar player. I admire musicians and composers--I don't care what instrument they're playing.
Do you like any of the newer guitarists who've hit the scene?
There's two guitarists that I think are real good--George Lynch and that guy in Ratt, Warren DeMartini. They probably think I say bad stuff about them, but I really like some of the things they've played.
You have a lot of Marshall amps onstage this tour. Did the company give them to you?
No, I bought them. I want excessive amounts of everything I like.
You also have a Bob Bradshaw effects rack.
The reason I got it is because I got sick and tired of having to rely on the monitor-mixer guy. Wherever I stand on the stage, I can hear myself perfectly now. A Marshall can be extremely loud if you're standing directly in front of it, but if you move, say, six feet to the side of a 4x12 cabinet, you can't hear it very well. So I said, "I want to have Marshall cabinets all over the stage." The [Bradshaw] rack helps my amps sound really great. I usually run about five or six heads. I put a microphone in front of one of my favorite amps, then I run the signal from the microphone through the rack so I get some ambiance. Then that signal goes through the mixer and into the power amp, which powers other Marshall cabinets on the stage. This allows me to hear my sound wherever I'm standing. If I were to run the Marshalls through the monitor and side fills, it would not sound as good. I'm really happy that I got the rack. I used to hear a lot of noise on stage, but not anymore.
Do you use the top cabinets of the Marshall stacks?
Only some of them, to get a punchy sound in my ear. If too many top cabinets are on, it's too much.
Are you choosy about the types of strings you use?
I used to be, but not anymore. As long as they're really fresh and stretched out well, that's good enough for me. I'm currently using Ernie Ball strings.
Do you ever turn down endorsements?
Oh yeah. As a matter of fact, I buy most of my stuff. I don't take anything unless I like it a lot.
Schecter made a couple of nice guitars for you, but you don't have them on the current tour.
They gave me a few guitars a while ago that were exceptional; the other ones they've given me weren't quite as good. It's not that I don't like them, it's just that the best necks they gave me weren't scalloped. I prefer playing scalloped necks on stage. I always run around a lot, so it's important that I get a good grip on the strings.
A scalloped neck is very important to you, right?
I can play just as well on a neck that isn't scalloped, but I like the feel of the scalloped neck. Besides getting a better grip on the strings, I don't really feel the fretboard since the wood is carved out between the frets.
Are there any disadvantages to playing on a scalloped neck?
Yes, it's harder to play fast; it took a while to get used to playing on them. Everyone always says, "Yngwie always plays fast." But I really never do [laughs].
How important is the tremolo bar to you?
I don't rely on it as much as other guitarists do. I use it mainly to achieve a very musical effect, like a glissando.
Have you explored any new feedback tricks with the tremolo?
I already explored that area very thoroughly, I think.
What kind of guitar necks to you prefer?
If I had to choose I'd have to say maple, but the type of neck really doesn't make much difference to me. Maple has a brighter sound, whereas rosewood necks have a bit more sustain.
Can you tell us about the DiMarzio HS-3 pickups that you helped design?
I didn't help design them, I just told them what I wanted. I wanted a pickup that would eliminate the noise so common to single-coil pickups. I asked the people at DiMarzio to put the coils on top of each other, because you need two coils to cancel out the hum when you crank up the volume.
Your new bassist, Wally Voss, thinks you're a great bass player. At first he says he was disappointed because he didn't get to play bass on Trilogy, but after he heard how good a job you did playing bass, he says he didn't mind having not played bass on the album. Wally says you know how to play along with the bass drum incredibly well.
I arrange it so that the bass line and the bass drum pattern sounds like one instrument. The reason I decided to play bass was because I wanted to give the album a foundation that I thought my last record, Marching Out lacked. I discovered how to do that with my bass playing and with my drum machine when I was preparing for the album. Wally was with me a lot when I was composing. He's a solid member of the band and he's very dedicated.
Did you play bass with a pick or with your fingers?
I can only play bass with a pick, so I didn't have a choice. Personally, I think it sounds better with a pick--each note is more defined. I really don't enjoy playing bass very much. Although I consider myself more a musician and a composer than someone who just plays guitar, the guitar is still one of the coolest instruments around.
It was Jimi Hendrix who made me realize it.
Right. I know I've said it many times, but ever since I saw Hendrix smash a guitar up, I thought it was a cool thing to do. When I was a kid, I thought being a musician was being a geek, until I saw Hendrix. I wanted to be a policeman or something like that. But after I saw Hendrix I got totally into guitar--he made me realize it was a cool thing to burn a guitar and then smash it to bits.
Do you remember your childhood well?
Yes. I remember everything about my childhood; I have a photographic memory. My first memory was that someone slapped me on the ass and said, "It's a boy." [laughs]
While growing up in Sweden, what specific classical pieces did you study?
I never got into playing any specific classical pieces. I just absorbed how classical music is composed. Most of the stuff I do is really just inspired by classical pieces, rather than exact copies of them.
Niccolo Paganini is one of your biggest classical influences. Have you ever attempted to play any of his "24 Caprices" on guitar?
That would be difficult to do. I think it's cooler to just get the vibe from it. I don't think I would be able to play his faster pieces on guitar at that same rate. That guy was a demon on violin.
Do you know how to play violin?
No. It would be great to learn how to play it, but I don't think I would have enough time to study it thoroughly. The sound of the violin is very appealing to me, and I sometimes approach the guitar as if it were a violin. I like a smooth, sharp, clean and fast sound that's very articulate
People say you're much more a technical player than an emotional one.
I consider myself a very emotional guitarist, personally. It's a bad thing that a lot of people consider that anyone who plays fast doesn't play with feeling. I would never play something unless I felt it deep inside. I really don't play much faster than some of the other guitar players. For instance, I was listening to a solo by Vivian Campbell and he was playing, if you'd measure it in notes-per-second, more notes than I ever play. I always make sure that what I'm playing has musical value; I would never play something just for the sake of playing it fast.
Your rhythm guitar work seems to have improved on Trilogy.
One of the reasons that the rhythm guitar parts didn't sound very good on the last two albums was because they were both poorly produced. And also, when I recorded the last album, I had a bad case of tendonitis. It was hell recording that album. Fortunately, my hand feels a lot better now. I also have some brand-new chord modulations on Trilogy that I've never used.
You also have a new engineer.
Yeah, Rick Delena. He did some work with Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck. The first time I found out about him was at the first show I did with Alcatrazz, which was probably one of the worst shows we've ever done. And it was being recorded for a radio show, too. Rick managed to mix it in such a way that it sounded incredible; all we did was re-do the vocals.
He really helped out a lot when we recorded the album, in spite of the fact that we had some conflicts--he thought I was taking too much control. I was all over the board, since I was left alone a lot. The end result was great, though. The sound quality and clarity on this album is probably the closest thing to anything I've ever wanted to hear
Do you know much about music theory?
Yes. Although I didn't know much about it when I first started playing guitar, I found out about many things on my own, way before I knew what they were actually called. And when I stared to familiarize myself with theory, I said, "Fuck, I already know this stuff." I just didn't know what to call it.
When I first came to America I was totally handicapped, since I wasn't familiar with terms like E flat, B sharp or minor or major scales. I didn't know any of these terms. It was strange.
How did you learn them?
Nobody actually taught me; I just picked it up here and there. For instance, in Sweden, the music vocabulary is much different than it is in America. And when I first came to America, I moved into a very bad neighborhood in Los Angeles with the guys in Steeler. For some reason I thought all of America was like that.
A lot has happened to you since then.
You're right. So much has happened so quickly. I don't even have much free time anymore. I'm always working very hard now, whether it's writing songs, recording an album or touring. I hate all the traveling that goes along with touring, but I love playing live and having the audience really get off on my music--that's the highest high in the world.
Personally, I think I'm at my best live, in spite of the fact that I sacrifice some of the quality of my playing since I'm running around the stage all the time. It's very easy to lose control of the guitar when you play in different position. I want my concert to be as exciting as possible, so it's hard for me to put on a good show if I stand in one spot all night long.
Your fans must be very important to you.
Absolutely. It's not enough just for me to be happy with what I'm doing--the audience has to love it as much as I do. If it's only good for me, then it's not worth much. After all, it's the combination of me, together with the support of my fans, that has made me what I am.
In the last issue of Guitar World, your manager said it was difficult for you to adjust to all the attention that you were getting when you first started to make a name for yourself.
It was hard to adjust to it, he's right. More than ever before, I have a lot of confidence in myself now. I don't soak up all the praise that's been laid on me and think that I'm great because people tell me I'm great. I would never fall into that trap. I know a lot of people think I do, but I really don't.
You don't play pentatonic scales much. Is it because they're very common among guitarists?
No, it's not because most everyone else is doing it. It's basically because I don't like the sound of it, really. A pentatonic scale doesn't incorporate as many notes as, say, a minor scale, for instance. I like to combine different scales to give a really wide sound. You can elaborate a lot more with diminished and harmonic-minor stuff than if you'd just play pentatonic scales all the time. I also like playing in the Phrygian mode, which has a very nice Eastern-type sound to it.
Why do you disconnect the middle pickups in your guitars?
To me, it sounds very nasal. I prefer the sharpness of the treble pickup and the warm, round sound of the neck pickup.
How do you like playing with a wireless as opposed to using a guitar cable?
I've played live with a cord for many years. At first, I didn't like using a wireless. But now that I've gotten used to it, it's great. Playing with a cord is the equivalent of a dog on a leash--the dog can only move a certain distance before the leash pulls him back. Once you unleash the dog it goes wild and runs all over the place. When the dog finds out how great it is to run around without a leash, then it doesn't want to be restricted to a leash anymore.
Does your keyboardist, Jens Johansson, help you write songs?
I write the songs myself, but sometimes he helps inspire me. He's such a brilliant musician and he puts me straight by keeping my head on the ground. He's such an advanced player. Even if I ask him to play something very difficult, he can usually play it right away. He know exactly what to do at all times.
Is there anyone you look up to these days?
I don't idolize anybody now. Once you no longer have a hero, it makes it a lot harder to be inspired. When I used to look up to Hendrix and Blackmore, things were a lot easier. Once you come to a point where you're actually where you've always wanted to be, you go through a crisis; you lose faith in what you've always worked for because you already have it, so you don't know where to go next. I'm not influenced by anybody, really.
I'm at a point where I have to criticize myself so hard because I have to create everything myself. I'm both a listener and a creator, so I have to create something that will impress both me and my audience.
What would you like to be remembered for?
I would like to be appreciated for my guitar playing, of course, and my effort to have actually influenced, so to speak, a different style of guitar playing. But I would like to be remembered most as someone who did it all himself--play guitar, write and arrange all the songs, produce the albums, write the lyrics--everything. I'd rather be remembered more as a good composer and musician than as an influential guitarist.
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