Michael Romeo: all out guitar interview part 1

News:
03-04-2008:
Here's a small excerpt from the comprehensive part 1 interview from all out guitar:

A lot of it was consciously trying to do something different: I mean, I was totally into the Malmsteen stuff - and all the Shrapnel guys - but if you were into it too much, then you would start to sound like this guy or that guy: you end up losing your own identity. All those guys you mentioned have something great about themselves, so it is really hard to take some of those things and make them your own.

So, I would perhaps try to take some sort of pattern that you'd usually sweep, and see if I could tap it and come up with some different kind of phrases. There was a time when I first got turned onto Allan Holdsworth - and he is such an amazingly fluid guitarist that I thought I'd try and emulate that sort of thing with the tapping...



I think there were a lot of little things that led to me finding my own voice. Working with a keyboard player is another thing, you know: when they say "Oh, let’s do this together" and they're playing stuff with the most impossibly uncomfortable intervals for conventional guitar playing to replicate - well, you have to be creative to be able to do it.

Eventually it starts to become something you can do all the time: it becomes your own style.

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