ActoGuitar Blog with Kid Mercury

Interview With Robert Eldridge

Next up in our interview series of guitarists/songwriters is Robert Eldridge, guitarist and member of the band Zeut. Eldridge, who has been featured on NPR and PBS (among others) prides himself in creating a different type of sound -- one that he describes as "mental guitar music." You can check out his work at his web site.

We asked him:

You refer to your music as "mental guitar music." Can you elaborate on what that means, and how that may differ from other styles of guitar playing?

I actually call my style a self-described or self-nominated style entitled "eclectic and mental guitar music". The eclectic portion would encompass your traditional genres or styles of guitar including classical, jazz, blues etc....the mental guitar paradigm is more of style that transcends the traditional style of guitar while trying to provoke a aural setting musically utilizing a cerebral angle to it. I am basically trying to turn concrete and also abstract theme into an aural setting or thought provoking listening experience. Traditional guitar may play the guitar in order for their audience to basically listen. Mental guitar music is played in order for people, animals, or other living organism to do more than just listen. It is the intersection of the human senses. I am trying to turn the visual into the aural. I am basically trying to make the listener elicit their own "endorphin factory". ++

New Fragrance from Marilyn Manson

That's right folks....Marilyn Manson is in the process of going from shock rocker to spokesman for his own designer fragrance. Ultimate Guitar has the full scoop.

So...your next bottle of cologne may come from this man....

How to Read Guitar Chord Diagrams

Not sure how to read a chord diagram? You're not alone. Fortunately, Guitar Musician has posted a nice explanation showing how it all works. Check it out.

Setting SMART Goals

The secret to learning to play guitar? Practice. That's all there really is to it. Practice, and a lot of it.

Of course, there's a good way to practice, and a not so good way to practice. Check out the martial arts inspired article on how to set goals and practice to become a better guitarist. Good stuff.

Gibson Partners With Intel

Gibson continues to aggressively promote their new digital guitar, as they've just recently announced that they'll be showcasing the guitar at the Intel booth at the Digital Life Conference.

Based on the description on the Gibson Digital site, it sounds interesting -- although I'm not sure it's worth all the hoopla it's been getting. Is this really a big deal?

Macs Best for Guitarist?

Apple seems to think so. Apple UK is offering free seminars for guitarists in the UK to show how Macs are the ideal platform for guitarists. Check out this MacWorld article for more.

Personally, I'm not a believer. I'm a big fan of Windows, and think it can do the trick in terms of audio recording. What do you think?

Dave Barry: Guys and Electric Guitars are a Match

Dave Barry has a funny take on the appeal of electric guitars to guys. Check out the article for some laughs.

Interview With Rob Szabo

In my opinion, one of the more unfortunate consequences of popular culture is that it often forces talented artists who reach popularity to be confined to one single genre, as it's less risky for the labels to financially support an artist who transcends genres. Fortunately, there are exceptions, and one such exception is Rob Szabo: a man who performed as a guitarist in a metal band prior to assuming his current role as singer/songwriter with acoustic guitar.

Below is an audio clip of song he wrote and performs, entitled "Good Son."

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We asked Rob:

From a compositional standpoint, how does the process of writing a heavy, metal song differ from writing a softer, acoustic song for you?

He replied:

For me the process doesn't differ very much at all musically. Music is music. The kinds of chord progressions and melodies that I gravitate to, and that move me, are not affected by the style that I'm working in. I try to strive for a goal of (hopefully) universal beauty in what I do. It sounds a little high-minded but you gotta have goals right?

The only big difference that I can think of in my experience of writing for a more "mellow" singer-songwiter(myself) or a heavy band is that with the bands that I've been in, we sometimes wrote together as a band, all together in one room, which obviously affects the process ... you can't help but be affected by the energy in the room in the moment. This is a good thing for heavy music obviously. That's something I never do as a singer-songwriter these days, which is probably just as well, since the vibe i'm going for is much different.

As far as lyrics go, I tend to focus much more on lyrics these days. I think it's because the singer-songwriter stuff I'm doing these days is much more lyrically driven, whereas the heavier music was really about getting the energy and aggression across, and the lyrics tended to be more "impressionistic" -- more to create an ambience than to be really specific, or to tell a story. ++

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For more on Rob Szabo, visit his web site at www.robszabo.com.

Ani, Aimee, and Prince

I always love to see artists cover songs from completely different genres. Usually with Western songs, the melody is preserved or slightly modified while the instrumentation is changed significantly.

Compare, for instance, the two versions of "When Doves Cry," the wildly successful single from Prince's film and album, Purple Rain. The first one is Prince's original version. The latter is a version by Ani DiFranco and Aimee Mann; they found a way to take a Prince song and transform it into a quirky folk pop song.

Prince:

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Ani DiFranco & Aimee Mann:

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Interview With Peter Katz

Next up in our series of interviews with real guitarists is Peter Katz, an award-winning Canadian singer, songwriter, guitarist, and artist in general. Check out an audio clip of his song "Taking on the World" below. Exemplary guitar work and songwriting, if I do say so myself.

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In addition to writing his own original songs, Katz also writes songs for other artists. So we asked him:

In addition to writing and performing your own songs, you write songs for other artists. How does the creative process differ when writing songs for other projects as opposed to writing material for yourself?

His response:

Funnily enough, most of my writing for other artists is not really straightforward 'songwriting'. I tend to work with modern dancers, coming up with original 'soundtracks' for their work. It definitely gives me the freedom to move away from the guitar and my voice and really get creative with instrumentation and finding all kinds of different sounds. I also get into very heavy layering, sometimes having up to 50 different tracks running simultaneously, creating various soundscapes and such. What I like most about the whole process is the fact that unlike the very personal nature of my songwriting (where I'm really looking within), on other people's projects I am forced to look outside of myself and complement somebody else's inner-expression. It's almost a second-hand interpretation and the onus is not on me to come up with the 'soul' of the piece. The challenge is really to identify what I think is going on (in a general or specific way) and figure out how I can musically enhance it.

When I was asked to write music for a play a few years back, in that instance, I did have to write a song. Similarly to what I love about writing for dance, what I enjoyed about that particular experience was that I was given what the main inspiration for the song by an outside source. It was then up to me to figure out how I was going to go about coming up with an appropriate piece, what mood I felt it should take on, what perspective I should write from. The song that I wrote was called 'The Fence' and the whole piece was so important to me, I refused to force it out in any way. Once that little piece of the chorus spilled out of me, I just sat on it and played it every night for about 6 weeks. Every once in a while, I'd have a little breakthrough and a little more would come out. Eventually, I had a full song.

When I'm writing my own songs, it's much different. It's much more unsure, it's a lot more of a mystery and there's no guarantee it will ever be fully-realized or finished. When I actually get to the end of writing a song, I'm so relieved. Most of them die long before they ever get finished...and many die soon after they're completed. NO song actually feels ready though until I've played it live at least 10 times.

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For more on Peter Katz, visit his web site at www.peterkatz.org. And if you know of any other guitarists who could share their insight into the craft with us, shoot me an email at kmercury@gmail.com.