MS: Well back in the early days, I was totally into Edie Van Halen. You know when Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” came out that solo changed my life. I was listening to what ever was hair metal and glam metal back then, so bands like Europe, Kee Marcello, and then I discovered all the Shrapnel [Records] guys, you know the golden age of guitar. And, since I was really young I was—I had the pleasure actually, this is something that maybe a lot of contemporary guys missed out, but I in some ways lived that era, so I breathed that music when it came out. I’m pretty, happy about that and I’m grateful that I had the chance because I actually had… I have an older brother who played guitar who was lending me all these tapes and you know, you remember, of course you remember these [instructional] VHS tapes of “Star Licks” stuff and I remember my dad got me for my birthday the Vinnie Moore tape, and I couldn’t play that stuff, but I just tried to incorporate some of the stylistic stuff into my early playing.
So I definitely say the early Van Halen, then Joe Satriani of course. And then later on obviously I came through to Dream Theater and John Petrucci. That’s a cool story that few people know actually. When I first heard of Dream Theater, and it was right when Images and Words came out, my brother lent me this tape, and it wasn’t an original tape, he just copied the original stuff, and he scrambled the songs. And I was coming from the straight rock glam stuff, so when I heard that for the first time, I just said, What’s this crap? I just took it away, no, I threw the tape away and I went back to my usual listening. Then, next year I was cleaning my room and I found this tape again. And… it was instant love. So I wasn’t ready [laughs], I totally wasn’t ready the first time that I heard the band. And from then on, you know, I started listening to all the prog bands, like Rush, Yes, and… later on Genesis and King Crimson, all the prog stuff of the ‘70s. And then Andy Timmons who actually heavily influenced and shaped my playing to a new level, in terms of improvisation and, you know, even incorporating some jazzy leads into rock playing.
Today, today there are a lot of badass guys actually, which some of them I had the pleasure to work with or just meet some of them. I’m talking about Guthrie Govan, for example, or Andy James from UK, and Tom Quayle. These are, I think, killer players that will bring, that just set the bar really high on the guitar. So those are my past and present influences.
Full detailed interview http://www.musicplayers.com/features/guitars/2013/0913_MarcoSfogli.php
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