Alex Skolnick: metal jazz interview

Alex Skolnick interviewed by Metal Jazz interview.

Eric Peterson mentioned that you brought some jazz elements such as strange time signatures into “The Formation of Damnation.”
“An example of that would be the song ‘Dangers of the Faithless,’ which goes back and forth from 5/4 time to 4/4 time. And yeah, that’s something that comes from jazz. And then some of the harmonic elements. The thing about jazz is that you tend to focus on different melodic choices than you would in rock. Most rock is very root-based, based on the main notes, the foundations of chords, the thirds and fifths. In jazz they have the ninths, elevenths, thirteenths.”
So you use those in the compositions as well as in the improvisations.
“Yeah, you learn to emphasize those, and sometimes even to develop a solo with those as a framework. And it expands your melodic ideas. I think in some ways, that finds its way into my contributions with Testament. I try to make sure that whatever I bring in is respectful to the music -- I’m not gonna try to change it. There’s a thin line between being too different and being constructively experimental. I try different stuff, and we see what works. I think in that song in particular, both the melody in the beginning and the odd time signature are examples of things that I would bring in that come from other styles of music.”

full interview