Milan Polak: guitar club interview

News:
09-11-2008:

Thanks to Milan Polak for this interview, which is featured in the latest issue of one of Italy's biggest guitar mags called "Guitar Club". Milan talks about his next CD, gear and future plans. This is the whole interview with Milan's answers translated into English ( as translated by Milan who realises most of you do not speak Italian).

Milan says:

The questions remained original but I guess you'll be able to figure them out by reading my answers... :-)

All the best,
Milan

1- Ciao Milan, il tuo nuovo album è quasi completato. Cosa ci puoi anticipare?

Hello, thank you for this interview. To be precise, so far I have written all the songs and finished the pre-production in my studio. I have started recording the actual album which is not so easy because again I am working with high-class musicians who are scattered all over the world and are permanently busy doing other things as well.
For now I can tell you this much:
The album will be more modern, more heavy, less bluesy, more prog and more guitar hero than 'Straight'. I am sure it will surprise many people. I am very excited and can't wait to have the final result in my hands!

2- Quanti pezzi avrà?

Out of all the songs that I have written I have chosen 12 - one of them an extra long tune - and I hope they will all end up on the album. I personally do not believe in putting more than 12 songs on a CD. It has become a bad habit of today that bands often put 14, 15 songs on an album just because a CD has a playing time of about 70 minutes. But the truth is nobody cares and I personally prefer listening to 12 GOOD songs than 15 songs that all sound the same, are bad or boring.

3- C'è un brano del nuovo album in cui ti rispecchi maggiormente?

As always, all my songs are true stories based upon life in general, my own life and my personal experiences. Therefor every song I write has a unique, important meaning to me. I never write a song just to have a filler on the album. On this album my challenge was (and still is) to have 12 songs in the same style but still not boring. So there will be some twists and surprises...

4- Come sei solito comporre?

I usually write all the songs alone but I also listen to input coming from others. If somebody has a good idea or suggestion about a sound or a change in the arrangement, I'll take it into consideration. If I had a steady band I would prefer writing songs together but as this is not the case at the moment unfortunately, I am pretty much on my own with everything.

5- Come definiresti il tuo stile?

Oh, good question. That's a tough one. You tell me...! hahaha
I guess, it depends on what you are looking at or listening to. I like a lot of difference styles and grew up with a lot of different music ranging from classic to jazz to blues to rock. Everything had an impact on me obviously.
I recorded albums that were in the jazz charts, I recorded albums that were in the rock charts. I have worked as a studio musician for pop productions such as Falco or Haddaway, I worked with a classical violin player on Tchaikovsky scores, I even recorded Arabian music. Last year I co-wrote the album 'Bastard' for the German band Subway To Sally (no. 7 in the German top album charts) and I played all the guitars on it (and electric sitar). I even write & record music for TV jingles such as Red Bull, washing powders, etc.... hahaha
So I guess it is hard to define my style. Also I don't like being labeled.

If it comes to my vocals and what I am doing as my main thing I would say it's safe to call it "guitar oriented rock".

6- Nel 2007 è uscito il tuo primo album che ti vede anche come cantante, come è nata questa idea?

Well, after all my instrumental albums I realized that I kind of had reached the ceiling of what I wanted to do. I showed every musical side of me, I could not play any faster or more technically complicated and I was fortunate to have all the success one could have at this level. I realized that it would take a lot more emphasis and determination to reach the next level of success and I asked myself if I really wanted to dedicate the rest of my life, all my energy, every minute, every hour to that. And the answer was "No".
I have always wanted to play "real" songs - songs with lyrics and vocals, songs that also "normal" people could listen and relate to, not just music for musicians.

With all the respect in the world but I just did not want to talk about what kind of strings I use or what pickups I play after a concert anymore.

So I decided to enter a new phase of my life and since for some reason it seemed impossible to find a decent singer, I decided to give it a try and do the vocals myself. I have always sung background vocals in various bands and many people had told me that I sounded better than the actual singer. Many times I was asked why I did not sing myself and I guess, the idea had to grow and develop in my mind.

7- L'album si intitola "Straight" come mai hai scelto questo nome?

When I wrote the album I was looking for a short, simple term that would best define and describe me. The term "Straight" has a lot of different meanings and they all apply to me, to my personality, to the album, the song writing, the attitude and the sound of this album. I wanted to make a cut from everything I had done so far and I wanted it to be as distinctive as possible. The cover shows me completely naked with just my guitar which was meant to be symbolic. I wanted to say, "This is just me and my guitar - no cover..."
Unfortunately, some people only see the muscles and the six-pack and do not get the meaning. I mean of course, it is nicer to look at a well trained body than a fat, ugly beer belly... hahaha however my intention was not to show off my muscles but to strip down musically and to get this message across also via the cover - nothing to hide: the album is very live sounding without any effects, compromise or bullshit.

8- Vanti una discografia da virtuoso di tutto rispetto, quando hai deciso di lasciare il virtuosismo, e per quale motivo?

Like I explained before, it just did not do anything for me anymore. To me music is an art and not the olympic games. I never sat at home and practiced for 16 hours/day to become the fastest guitar player in the world. I guess I am very fortunate because I have always had advanced motor skills. When I first picked up my guitar and learned a pentatonic scale I could already play it faster than most of the others. But playing fast has never been my main focus. In fact, I have been trying to get away from it for the last years but it just keeps coming back like a ghost to haunt me... hahaha
Ironically, I was voted one of the world's 50 fastest guitar players by Guitar World Magazine this year...

9- 20 anni di carriera sono molti, ci fai un bilancio?

Well, I have somehow managed to survive and I am still alive & kicking... hahaha
I am very fortunate to be still doing what I love most every day and I was fortunate to meet and play with some great musicians such as Billy Sheehan, Marty Friedman and Dimebag Darrell.
I have been on CD's with the likes of Steve Vai and other great musicians, I am friends with Steve Lukather - one of the greatest musicians and one of the coolest guys you will ever meet - and I have some really cool endorsements with Yamaha, T-Rex, Dunlop, AKG, DiMarzio, TubeThomsen and others. I have a lot of really cool fans all over the world and especially here in Italy. So I guess I can't complain... hahaha

10- Come hai iniziato?

I have always wanted to be a musician, originally I wanted to be a drummer. I grew up in a family where there was almost always music playing somewhere - on the radio, the record player, the tape player, in the car. I started learning Beatles songs with a song book by teaching myself. I was born with a natural ear and I knew all the Beatles songs, so it was not too difficult for me. And then I just kept transcribing solos and riffs from records and tapes of all my favorite guitar players and bands. First AC/DC, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Queen and then I went on to Randy Rhoads and Van Halen. Later on I got into Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Vinnie Moore and some jazz/fusion guitarists like Henderson, Holdsworth, Carlton, etc.
The funny thing is, when I started I only had an acoustic guitar. At home I listened a lot to "Friday Night In San Francisco" by Di Meola, De Lucia & Mc Laughlin and at that time I thought this was the "normal" way of playing the guitar. I thought, "Well, if you want to play the guitar you have to be able to play like this"... hahaha
So next to learning Beatles songs I started to transcribe "Mediterranean Sundance". Only later did I realize that these guys are some of the greatest guitarists ever.

11- Ricordi la tua prima chitarra?

Yes, in fact I do. It was a cheap acoustic guitar with a very high action. It might explain why my fingers are so strong because until this very day I play 11 gauge strings on guitars with a fixed bridge.
After 2 years or so I got my first electric guitar and a little amp. And from then on there was no stopping me... haha

12- Quali erano i tuoi riferimenti musicali quando iniziasti?

Well pretty much all of the before mentioned. I also had a phase later on after all the shred virtuoso stuff when I really got into the studio guitarists such as Steve Lukather and Dann Huff. I prefer their kind of playing anytime to shred. These guys have great phrasing, a good ear for melody, great tone and are proficient in various styles.

13- Il primo riff che hai suonato?

"Hells Bells" by AC/DC and "Der Kommissar" by Falco. Right there the signs were already obvious that I had a very strange and varied taste of music... hahaha

14- I primi album che hanno influenzato la tua formazione?

Hmmm, difficult to say. Like I said, I grew up listening to the Beatles and Al Di Meola & Paco De Lucia but I also loved the "Back In Black" album by AC/DC (I still do). Queen also had a huge impact in my early days.

15- Ci parli della tua carriera di insegnante?

Well, very soon after I had started to play guitar I also started to give lessons. So I guess it's safe to say that I have been teaching for almost all of my music life. Since I am pretty much a self-taught guitarist, I knew how hard it was to learn the guitar. I knew all the difficulties and obstacles, so I could always keep my students from making the same mistakes that I had done in the beginning.

Later on I became co-head of the rock department of the American Institute of Music where I taught everything from ear training to rhythms to sight reading to technique to harmony & theory and much more.

I have also written 2 instructional books, one is called "Guitar Heroes - Real Technique" (UE 31401) and the other one is currently being looked at by one of the biggest publishing companies of Germany. It is a book about harmony & theory applied to the fretboard.

And once a year I teach master classes and do band coaching at the University of Music & Modern Art in Vienna.

16- Tornando a Straight, qual'è il brano più complesso dal punto di vista chitarristico?

Hmm, I don't know. You tell me...! hahaha
"Psychobitch" is pretty fast and has a string-skipping & tapping sequence followed by a very fast alternate picking run at the end of the solo. Also the riff in the middle section before the solo is just downstrokes.
The title track "Straight" is very fast (238 bpm) and has one of the fastest solos I have ever played but like I already said before, my intention was not at all to write complicated songs for 'Straight'. In fact, some of the songs do not even have a guitar solo...

17- Che progetti hai attualmente?

At the moment I am trying to coordinate the recordings for my next album. I also have an Italian management now and hopefully I will go on tour in Italy again at the beginning of 2009. Once in a while I have to record guitars for a studio job or write some music for a jingle. But my main focus is definitely my own career, the upcoming CD and the Italy tour.

18- Per il tour italiano, con quali criteri sceglierai la band che farà l'opening?

Well, obviously they have to fit musically. It does not make sense to have an opening act which plays some completely different kind of music. Other than that they just have to be cool guys. There are so many great musicians in Italy, so I guess it will be a difficult choice...

19- Parlando di strumentazione, qual'è il tuo attuale set up?

By the end of last year I started to work together with Yamaha. They are very, very supportive and give me all the guitars I need. The guy I am dealing with is a great guitarist himself, so he has all the knowledge and understanding for a guitarist's needs and desires. I don't have to explain why I need several guitars for different tunings, different sounds, etc. It sounds strange but I have experienced these kind of problems in the past where I had to explain and justify to a company that endorsed me why I need a spare guitar live...
My main guitars are different Pacifica models.

I also have some really cool stuff from Dunlop/MXR that I use both live & in the studio and some great pre-amps and effects from Damage Control that I use mainly in the studio.

Recently, I made contacts with T-Rex. They make awesome pedals and are one of the coolest companies I have ever worked with. They are very supportive and I have many of their pedals which I use both in the studio and live on tour. Some of the sounds of their pedals are very unique and can be heard on my next album...

20- Quali amplificatori usi?

Apart from the amps that Peavey gave me which I exclusively used on my last album "Straight", I recently hooked up with TubeThomsen - a great little company that makes hand-wired boutique amps. They gave me one of the best sounding tube amps I have ever heard in my life. It will definitely be the main amp on my next album.

21- Corde e pick up?

I use and play DiMazio pickups exclusively. I work together very closely with Steve Blucher, the guy who makes all the pickups for Vai, Satriani, Gilbert, Malmsteen, Petrucci - you name them. He is also very, very supportive and treats me just like one of them. I have very distinct conceptions of how I want a pickup to sound like and he always listens and is there for me. For cables I also use DiMarzio and I also have some Monster Cables in my studio. But my guitar cables are DiMarzios.

Ok, I guess we reached the end of this interview. Thank you again for your interest and for having me. I would like to thank all my Italian fans and I hope to see you on my Italy tour at the beginning of 2009!
A presto,
Milan

Official website: www.milanpolak.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/milanpolak
Management: www.suefish-promotion.de