GEEEEEEEEETAR!!! #042

Something about having a f'n great guitarist in the room just totally makes me happy. Sure, I'm the bass monster for Juicy Mountain, but what so many people don't realise is that I was always a guitar dude first, and even during my bass playin' years. It just so happens that I've gotten substantially better on the bass, ergo it makes sense that I play bass for the band. Besides which, when I hear Juicy Mountain, I know exactly what to do on the bass, but only have inklings as to what the guitar should do, leaving a big gaping hole where the guitar should be.

Into this environment, we brought Michael, a kick-arse guitarist and all-round brother of Christian. And he knew exactly what to do. We had a jam with him, and I was of course just agape to see and hear his awesome soloing. In a way, I shouldn't be, because I've worked with just such a guitarist in a previous band (which was called ebb). Who cares? Guitar! Yeah!

I think it's especially easy to appreciate if you know what you're seeing -- when you recognise a master of his trade, as it were. Everyone knows something good when they hear it, but there's some extra satisfaction in knowing that what Michael was doing was "artificial harmonics" (also known as "pitch squeals"), and further knowing that he was doing it with such control! It bridges the gap for me -- in such a beat-heavy environment, where I'm hearing lots and lots of hip-hop and reggae, having guitars which are coming from a sort of rock place (and Michael is a total rocker: Kiss is his favourite band, I understand) is like endorphins for me.

So we have some guitar tracks for "Gov't Song" and "Sittin on a Rock". The Gov't Song now sounds majorly funky, which is awesome, and I think it really fills the hole nicely. Sittin on a Rock has some amazing acoustic work on it -- nothing fancy, exactly, but suddenly the song sounds the way it should. It's all very exciting.

So Michael is gonna come back and lay down some more tracks tomorrow, I believe. And this time, he'll be armed with some knowledge of the song. That was a half-issue last night, in that he was under a bit of pressure to perform, but he can now go home and listen to the stuff and work out his own thing and, theoretically, nail it tomorrow.

Oh, and for the record, this is the dude responsible for bringing Fozzy to Australia a few months ago, and is also in talks with Zakk Wylde about coming to Oz. Not to drop names or anything, but this is frigging cool.

Tom happy!

And for another quick update, we're laying down drums for "Got Issues" and "Don't Even Say Ya Livin" (which I enjoy referring to as DESYL), which are the songs that, we-ell, are more in line with my musical approach. Yeah! Can't wait for some geeetar on DESYL!

keeponrockin
Tom Hauville
Juicy Mountain Bass Monster and Guitar lover