Gianni Rojatti: solos video and Guglielmo Malusardi interview

Gianni Rojatti - Solos and Sounds samples


Gianni Rojatti. In studio con The Casual's

Guglielmo Malusardi: Well, I think we could start talking about "Deep Forest", the CD released with Marco Cardona, available on this web site. Describe for us how this project took form.

Gianni Rojatti: Marco and I have always been friends, and we live in the same city too. We share lots of musical interests, and we come from the same guitar generation that took form in the '90s, greatly influenced by shred. We've always followed each other's musical projects, and it's been a natural thing that we ended up doing something together. We are ordinary guitarist friends that can spend long hours on the phone or having a beer talking about amps and guitars.

Between 2002 and 2003, by a funny coincidence, we found ourselves involved in a jazz-funk band; this band really crap, but it was a well paying situation, so we were having lots of fun soloing like Racer X on Miles Davis songs, getting on everybody else's nerves! We really were off our heads! Anyhow at this time, we recorded a couple of demos for fun. At the same time, coming back from Disma (the biggest music fair in Italy, where we were playing at some clinic), we in a car driving with Gregg Bissonette, because Marco was playing with him on his italian tour. We played the demo on the car stereo, and Gregg gave us lots of compliments, and said that Marco and I should do something together, and offered himself as guest artist for one song. The wonderful thing was that, initially, he was supposed to play as a guest for one song only, but when we sent him the material he got so enthusiastic that he offered to play on whole album!

It's been so emotional primarily because Gregg is a drummer that I adore. He's played on "Eat'em And Smile", one of the greatest albums of history, with one of the greatest rock bands, and now he was about to play a record with me! I was in seventh heaven! Also when he got his hands on our demo,he enriched it so much with extraordinary rhythmic breaks, that it really made the difference in our work!


Guglielmo Malusardi: Let's analyze the CD from a technical point of view. Give us a comment track by track.

Gianni Rojatti: "Tera's Sweat" is, in my opinion, one of the most significant songs of the album. I love the unison break that we play in the middle - built on blues pentatonics with three notes per string. It also contains the solo that I love most on the record. It the most "fusiony" solo of the album, with lots of legato phrases and pick and fingers technique, and it has a great sound. My Manne guitar through a small Fender 15 watt amp at maximum volume! On this song, Bissonette plays divinely!

"Blue" is the most melodic song of the CD. The first solo is played with a Telecaster and it also has lots of pick, fingers and tapping licks. The second solo is a lot more rock-like by contrast, with a very funny break using string skipping and alternate picking!

"Without Fenobarbital" was one of the hardest songs! The solo is one of the most difficult I play. There's a small section in the middle that starts with alternate picking on B and E strings and then it develops into string skipping that move from the first to the last string. I love this part!

"Legio Nova" features a middle section in which Marco and I trade tapping arpeggios and string skipping, which was very funny! Also, the short solo I play starting at 1:05 was one of the most difficult of the album because it showcases complicated rhythmic phrases and fingerings. But the thing that I most love about this song is the wonderful bass solo by Bobo Comand!

"BBM" has a solo by Cardona that is worth the price of the album. Here, Marco kicks ass! The only thing I could do after this solo was to play my solo with the Black & Decker - so that's what i did! A great Matt Bissonette on this track as well!

"Too Cold To Play" was a real technical suicide. It's very fast, difficult and hard to play. But it's the most suggestive, and the one I love the most. I think that in the middle section solos, and in the many harmonizations, Marco and I did our best playing. If one day I have to be remembered for something, I'd like to be remembered for the playing on this song!

"One For Jason" is a touching remembrance to the greatest and undisputed shred master of all time: Jason Becker. I wanted to leave my solo totally improvised. When I recorded it I just closed my eyes and thought of Jason's music, his talent, his incredible career and his terrible destiny. I think I documented all the emotions, rage and pain that I felt for his tragic fate.

In "Lunotta Jones", the middle solo section is a concentration of pure fun!

"Showtime" is a song from Marco that was like pure hell. Most of the lines had originally been written to be played using sweep picking that he's really good at. I had to sweat a lot to play all the parts, changing many things to string skipping and tapping! The beginning of the solo in which we harmonize is, in my opinion, one of the most emotional parts on the album!

The story behind "July": it was a really hot July afternoon, and Marco and I were playing with acoustic guitars and my mandolin. Some beers, a lot of fun, a bit of '70s psychedelic attitude, and some strange cigarettes - when the temperature started chilling out in the evening there was another song on Marco's hard disk - perfect to close out the album. more http://www.guitar9.com/interview105.html