www.GuitaristHeaven.com (Italy)

MAY 21, 2003


Hi Mr. Bumblefoot! What happened since our last talk?

Hi Max - always a pleasure to chat with ya :) Been producing a bunch of bands in the studio - 2 hardcore bands, a rock band, a Latin pop singer, and working on hip-hop tracks for Carlin Publishing's library cds. Just started teaching again in NJ & NYC. Gonna do a little less traveling this year...

You've just released a new album, 'Forgotten Anthology': what's the concept behind it?

I took all the songs that weren't released, all the songs where the recording wasn't finished or the songs weren't fully written and finished them. Put them all together on one cd, a compilation of music that goes from 1995 to 2002. People have told me they like hearing the changes in direction, how it started as 90s grunge, became more metal, then the loungey style, then the out-there fretless stuff - they say it's like listening to a musical biography. Cool.

The artwork is pretty essential. Is this to underline even more the 'forgotten' aspect?

Yes, like an uncovered fossilized, etched-in-stone thang. The face painted on the rock and all that stuff, to get that historic feel to it.

In the songs comin' from the earlier sessions, your solos are also very 'in line' with what you were playin' at the time. So were they already recorded from those days or were you able to re-wear your old clothes (if so you're not the 'such a fat bastard' you are claimin' you are!!! =)?

hahaha, the old stuff was all fully recorded - I just remixed them. (I can't fit into my old clothes...)

Especially the songs from the session for 'hands2' sound particularly cool! Have you have ever thought about workin' with Jeff (Thal, Bofoo's brother and first drummer for the band Bumblefoot) again, even only in the studio and then hirin' a drummer as you've done in your last tours?

He's doing his own thing, and lives far away...

The elder songs sound so angry. Are you so quiet now?

I'm the same - haha... some of the angrier vocals were done more recently - Day To Remember, myth... Wasted Away wasn't recorded at all - that was the last one I recorded, earlier this year.

So what about the instructional video? We've waited for it long enough, don't you think so??? =P

Yes, you've waited long enough! I just need more time to do everything :P With all the studio work, I barely have a free moment and the instructional stuff has to be pushed back. I have a camera now, so I'm a little closer to getting it done :P

Have you ever thought about goin' to Sweden for a couple of weeks and write and record an album with IA Eklundh?

I'd love to work with him - we met and played together for the first time last month in Holland and it was a bonding experience - quite a pleasure :) I'm gonna talk to him about doing an album together...

On 'Meat' are you usin' the fretless guitar? It sounds so... DRUNK!

Yeah, haha... There's a lot of fretless on the Anthology CD - Meat (solos), Day To Remember (sliding riff), Bagged A Big 1 (solos), Girl Like You (50's sounding guitar sliding into choruses), Crunch (all), Maricona (annoying noise throughout...), myth (solo), A Way Out (all except nylon-string), Wasted Away (all), Mafalda (all)

What about the signature guitar? Some news? Can we expect a shape like the one of your Swiss cheese guitar or the Bumblefoot guitar?

No news yet... I think the first few will be Swiss Cheese looking. After that it will be a standard Vigier guitar...

Do you train a lot to create such belches as the one in 'Bagged a big one'?

I had a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi and kept drinkin' and doing takes until I got a belch that was in key.

Have you ever thought about playin' jazz with Yngwie Malmsteen?

I think about this all the time...

'She knows' sounds pretty damn good! Sounds like you latest efforts have been towards findin' strong melodies.

Thank you sir.

Have you had some close encounters of the third kind with some wacky effect on your guitar? Or with the tommyknockers?

Yes. That's all I can say about it...

Why there aren't songs from the 'Adventures of Bumblefoot and other tales of woe' era?

There really weren't any unreleased songs from that time, other than the first 4 tracks on Anthology. Those were written during the time of the Adventures CD and were recorded as Adventures was being released. Had the intended grungy release happened, it would have been in late 95 / early 96 right after the Adventures CD. Things work out the way they were meant to :)