I remember the first time I heard Testament. It was in junior high and my friend brought over Return To The Apocalyptic City. It was a mini live EP and the first song on the album was Over The Wall. We were playing San Francisco Rush on the Nintendo 64 when those lead guitar strains came out the stereo and rocked my cock like nothing else. I put down the controller, got up, and hit rewind on the stereo. I kept playing that song over and over again to the point where my friend said "Damn man, they have this at Hastings go buy it already." Unfortunately, someone else must have picked up that cool looking cd with the exploding head and I was without Testament for a couple of weeks. It wasn't until a visit to Austin where my dad scored me The Legacy at Tower Records that I entrenched myself in this California metal machine. Since then Testament has been one of the few mainstay thrash bands that never left my record collection.
Now in 2008 I have the opportunity to talk to lead six stringer Alex Skolnick. Testament are out touring on a monster package in their Metal Masters tour. A wet dream come to life for metal fans, Testament is playing alongside Motorhead, Black Sabbath (Heaven and Hell doesn't exist to me outside of the first BLACK SABBATH album with Dio), and Judas Priest. Since this wasn't my usual forty minute plus convo I had to keep things brief but covered all the bases. A little bit about the new album, The Formation Of Damnation, a little bit of guitar talk, sagely advice, and a trip down memory lane.
From left to right Testament is: Paul Bostaph, Alex Skolnick, Cuck Billy, Eric Peterson, and Greg Christian.
One of the first things I noticed about your new album The Formation Of Damnation was that the artwork appears to not be computer generated, and it also goes along with the Gustave Dore pictures that have popped up on recent tour shirts. How did this theme of angelic warriors come into being?
I couldn’t tell you. Eric Peterson does all the artwork so that question should be directed to him.
The next thing I noticed about the album is that you wrote the lyrics to F.E.A.R. Has this lyrical content been stewing in your head for awhile now or was there a specific even that made you write the lyrics?
It was really the line in the chorus that came first. FEAR is only what you feel, False Evidence Appearing Real. That line came about and it fit the music. I then wrote the rest of the lyrics around that line. I thought that it was relevant subject matter. Fear is a very, it’s handled a typical way in metal as far as supernatural subjects and horror movies, or violent episodes in history. Instead of that I wanted a song to examine the fear more through an academic perspective. The term False Evidence Appearing Real is something I read in a psychology textbook.
What psychology textbook was it if you don’t mind me asking?
I don’t remember actually. It was when I wasn’t with Testament for like twelve years, what I did was I went to a university. I got a music degree. One of the classes I took was a psychology class and I always remembered that. Fear is debilitating for the individual and also how its used by religious and political leaders to manipulate the public.
I’ve been looking at the setlist for the Metal Masters tour and I noticed that you are including songs from the Gathering and whatnot…
Actually we aren’t anymore we changed the setlist here. We will include them when we are headlining but not for the Metal Masters tour.
I guess this question would then apply more to the European fans. The couple from The Gathering or Low that do appear… Not to discredit any of the lead guitar players that played after you in Testament but I think that the lead quality dropped starting with Low. When you do play these songs live do you add anything to them, your own little touch, or do you follow the template from the album?
The songs that we’ve done don’t really have solos in them. There are a couple of melodies that are there. But the solo in Low was played by Eric so when we do that song he still does it. On the others, I do add some things like fills that I hear, that weren’t there originally. I tend to find my own place in the songs.
You’ve had a very storied career. Testament, you have your jazz band The Alex Skolnick Trio, as well as play with Trans Siberian Orchestra. What is it about Testament and thrash metal that gets your motor running compared to all your other musical endeavors?
It is a completely different kind of energy. Alex Skolnick Trio is more like the exploration of improvisation. That music is improvisational exploring inspired by my favorite musicians who play that style. Doing that gives me a broader musical talent I think and when I step into Testament I bring that with me. I also feel that there is something really unique to say and there’s no other type of energy like there is playing with Testament. It’s really like a tank only I am able to add my stamp to it. The fans of Testament are also really appreciative. It’s cool to play this really powerful music live and that it means so much to so many people.
What jazz elements do you incorporate into your lead technique with Testament?
There’s some scales and patterns that I don’t hear other players doing. There’s also some specific note patterns. Occasionally I end up venturing outside of the scale, notes that really shouldn’t fit. There’s also more of a rhythmic awareness. A lot of guitar players tend to start and end phrases with the same parts of the beat and it gets very repetitive. I try to mix that up, I try to start in unpredictable places. That’s something that I think I carry over from jazz.
Do you yourself still buy albums? If you do, what is it that makes you buy the album. Is it because it’s a classic album that you lost and are rebuying, is it because of packaging with a DVD, or do you just simply buy albums instead of downloading?
I don’t buy a lot of albums, I’ll be honest. I’ll be in my late thirties now and I have acquired a lot of albums. (laughs). I really enjoy the positives of getting the music I like without all the packaging. So I tend to buy more downloaded music. Occasionally I will buy a cd. I just bought a cd the other day, it was on sale, and it had really nice looking packaging. It was by a favorite piano player of mine Brad Mehldau. I wanted to hear it and I might not remember to pick up this album if I didn’t snag it when I was feeling it. It was like an impulse buy which is fun to do in awhile.
With your experience playing music and being involved in the industry, what type of ideal advice would you give to someone that wants to form a band?
First of all, you want to find the best musicians that you can. You also have to learn from a lot of mistakes too. The drummer is the most important thing. You should start with the best drummer you can find and then go from there. If you don’t have a great drummer then it is going to be really hard build off of that. Everything is built off the drums. I would say if I learned one thing, if I had to impart only one piece of advice that would be the most important one.
The second part of the question would be with the internet nowadays you are seeing bands pop up whose members are on the other side of the Atlantic from each other. Now, through the internet they are able to make music together. What do you favor, this new style or the “ old school” way of guys in the same city rehearsing three times a week routine?
I like both aspects. We get together most when we are about to go on tour. Usually when we have a recording coming up we’ll set a time to specifically rehearse together and work on music. I do like to do a lot of the creative process on my own. I’ll come up with as much as I can and bring it to the other guys. When I do that occasionally I will record it and email it. I would say that the majority of what we come up with is hashed out in a room together the old school way.
This is a question I have been wanting to ask for a very long time. In Over The Wall, right after the first slow solo there is a theme that is played that leads into the “barnstormer” solo and that same theme is played again to lead it out into the quiet part of the song. This song, more specifically that solo section has been with me my whole life and inspired me from the moment I heard it. I would really like to know how you composed it way back in 87.
Thanks. It was a combination of different parts. At that time I just joined the band. That was some of the first material that I worked on. I liked what the guys were doing but I thought that everything was so fast, we needed to try something slow. I thought that the slow lead was a good way to introduce doing some slow music into the band. That section was done in a very fast song so it worked. The second part, that came about like this. I was a really big fan of a band called Y & T and they had a song I really liked called Forever. I really liked the solo in it so I wanted my solo to sound kind of like that, that kind of beat, and that kind of melody and fit it into what we do as Testament. That little melody that comes before and after the fast solo, that was just something that… We had all these guitar parts and we wanted a part for Eric to play as well that wasn’t just chords. So that part he would do live and then I would do the really fast solo and he would go back to that melody. Now actually when we play live we both play that melody part together in harmony and it sounds really cool.
Throughout all your experience as a professional musician, what is your favorite aspect of the life whether it is the creative process, playing live, touring and seeing the world and what is your least favorite part such as living in a van, record labels, or contracts?
My favorite part would be the performance itself. And feeling that what you are doing is having a major impact on people. Hearing people and talking to people at meet and greets after shows or on the street, to getting emails from someone, that means a lot. It’s like improving peoples lives, that’s how they react to this music. That gives me such a great feeling. That someone might take up playing guitar because of me is overwhelming. I was inspired by so many guitar players and to think that I am doing that to someone that’s just something. The least favorite part would be the travel. Not the traveling itself but when the travel goes awry, when there’s problems. A missed flight, a bad business promoter. Like we’d have to go deal with the promoter and the promoter turns out to be broke, stuff like that. That kind of stuff is no fun at all. However, the good parts more than make up for any bad things that may happen.
There are 2 comments on this interview. Last one on Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:44 pm
View and Post comments