By Andrew Bansal
Firewind mastermind and guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne’s band, Gus G has had an illustrious career thus far, and even at a young age, he has accomplished a lot. Now he’s ready to take the next logical step in his musical creativity in the form of his solo debut album ‘I Am The Fire’, due out on March 17th in Europe and March 18th in North America via Century Media Records. The album features plenty of guest musicians and portrays a different facet of Gus’ musicianship. A couple of weeks ago, I spoke to Gus to talk about the making of the album, the guest musicians, future plans and more. Check out the conversation below.
Gus, it’s good to have you again on Metal Assault. Your solo debut album is coming out very soon. First of all, how did you decide to do this now?
It was really a combination of circumstances, I would say. First of all, I had all these idea somewhere in the middle of 2012 that were not really so much on the metal side and were more on the hard rock side of things. I knew it was not going to fit in a Firewind record. And then at the end of 2012, the Firewind singer quit and even though we had some tours in 2013, we decided with the guys that we were not going to rush to go back into the studio and probably should take a break after the tours were done. So that really gave me the opportunity to work on the ideas I’ve had, and I started working with Mats Levén, and once me and him got 2 or 3 songs down, I knew that I probably could develop this into a proper solo project. So I guess it was kind of perfect timing.
So you’ve done all guitars as well as bass and keyboards on this album. Did that make it a different experience?
Well, I always did that on Firewind so I’m used to doing it. I loved playing bass on the demos and I loved doing that for this solo record. The album doesn’t have that much keyboards on it but just enough to create the sound I wanted. The whole idea was to just step outside of the whole band thing. I’ve been a band guy forever, so just not really having the whole band drams for once (laughs), was a liberating feeling, just being in the studio and when I was done with a track, it was like, ‘This is it!’ It was not like I had to check with some other people to see what they think about it. If I liked it, it was cool. So it was a different vibe and atmosphere in that way and I enjoyed doing that. I’ve got to tell you also that I did it for myself. I just had a few songs and I wanted to get them out. I was not after anything to be honest with you.
You mentioned that Mats Levén worked with you on this album, but you’ve had a few guest musicians as well. How did you go about selecting these people?
The thing is, I didn’t really know who I wanted on the album. I had no clue (laughs). Obviously Mats was one of the guys I definitely wanted to do something with, and then I actually did a song with Jeff Scott Soto. So he was the second guy, and once we did that song Summer Days, I thought may be we could a little bit of a Slash type of record where I can have different people. I just didn’t know who it was going to be, but when I hooked up with Jay Ruston, the guy who mixed my record, things changed because he was the guy that helped me put this together and he suggested me names. He helped me find a drummer for the project and find some other people. He brought in Billy Sheehan and David Ellefson to the project and Jacob Bunton from Adler, and suggested a bunch of people that really helped me put this together.
Despite all these musicians coming in and doing their part, the album still portrays your individual style, right?
Yeah, but what I really wanted to do was to co-write with different people. So I would send the music to people to collaborate with and write the other half of the song. I just wanted to get that experience happening. But I was the captain of the ship and I did whatever I liked. It was a cool feeling, and something different for me.
You recorded this partly in LA and partly in Greece. What parts did you do in LA?
We tracked the drums in LA and Jay engineered it. I think that was the wisest choice I made for this album. The guy who mixed the album, I wanted him to do the drums as well. It’s very important and it’s the foundation of the album. If you’ve got a great drum sound, the guy’s life is going to be ten thousand times easier when he mixes the record and you’re going to end up with a great sounding mix. So I’m glad Jay did that, and then I went back home to Greece and did my guitars and everything. Obviously all the different people that contributed on it were in different places, some in LA, some in other parts of the States, some in Sweden. Everybody did their thing in their studios.
You said that the music is more on the hard rock side as opposed to metal. Firewind has been a power metal band and obviously Ozzy is its own thing. So do you think this album showcases more of your influences as compared to anything else you’ve done so far?
Well, you could say that. I write a big part of the music in Firewind as well, but that’s a different thing. It’s more of my traditional heavy metal side. But my playing is not just about that. I grew up listening to 70s and 80s classic hard rock and I love blues rock. You get to hear different sides of that on this record. There’s a lot of acoustic stuff on there as well, there’s some modern contemporary rock stuff, and all kinds of things. You get to hear me play some more blues rock stuff on there. Not to say that the record isn’t rocking, and it’s not a straight-up blues record or anything but I’m just playing bluesier than what I would do in Firewind, for example.
Right, that’s interesting. You wanted to do it only for yourself and you didn’t really have an aim with it, but now that it’s coming out on Century Media and you’re promoting it full-on, with both Firewind and Ozzy on a break, where do you want to take this solo project?
Well, depending on the feedback and what people think about it, if there’s a demand for it I’m prepared to commit to it 100 per cent and tour it. I’ve already lined up a tour here in Greece actually, with Uli Jon Roth and then I’m going to Europe with Marty Friedman. We’re co-headlining a tour called ‘Guitar Universe 2’. But I would love to take this all over the world, to be honest, to the States and South America and everywhere else. We’ll have to see what happens when the album comes out.
I was going to ask you about Uli Jon Roth and Marty Friedman. Have those guys been an influence on your guitar playing?
Oh yeah, without a doubt. I grew up stealing their licks, to put it simply (laughs). Uli Jon Roth’s second Electric Sun record Firewind is where I got my band name from!
Visit Gus G on the web:
GusGofficial.com
facebook.com/OfficialGusG
twitter.com/
youtube.com/FireTV
GUS G. w/ Marty Friedman “Guitar Universe 2” Co-Headline Tour:
May 1 – Tampere (Finland) – Klubi
May 2 – Helsinki (Finland) – Nosturi
May 3 – Stockholm (Sweden) – Stockholm Rocks Festival
May 5 – Gothenburg (Sweden) – Trädgårn
May 7 – Malmö (Sweden) – KB
May 9 – Krakow (Poland) – Lizzard King
May 10 – Warsaw (Poland) – Progresja
May 12 – Munich (Germany) – Backstage
May 13 – Colmar (France) – Grillen
May 15 – Essen (Germany) – Turock
May 16 – Zoetermeer (The Netherlands) – De Boerderij
May 17 – Hasselt (Belgium) – MuziekoDroom
May 18 – Uden (The Netherlands) – De Pul
May 20 – Savigny Le Temple (France) – L’ Impreinte
May 21 – London (UK) – O2 Islington Academy
May 22 – Nuneaton (UK) – Queens Hall