Michael Fath Interview

by Matt Baamonde.

Given his proximity to the United States' capital, it's not surprising that guitarist Michael Fath is enriched by the city's diversity and fueled by its high-energy lifestyle. It's a perfect haven for a multi-faceted musician and Michael Fath has planted roots deep in the local soil while building a solid full-spectrum music career and garnering four Washington Area Music Awards in the Best Rock Instrumentalist category.

Fath started out on trumpet at age nine and classical piano at 12. By the time he reached his teens he discovered the excitement of early rock guitar. He loved and was inspired by Jeff Beck, studied jazz guitar with Bill Biesecker then classical guitar with Jeffrey Meyerriecks. Later he found flamenco to his liking and studied with Paco Ramos and international grand master Paco De Malaga.

Michael Fath's reputation grew as a working musician, a writer, and a producer of a series of guitar education publications and videos. He has recorded and authored nine CD books, filmed three Hot Licks videos including the internationally acclaimed CD Rock Guitar Project for the Phillips Corporation. Michael's titles cover hard rock, country, shred, bluegrass, classical and jazz studies. He's been a member of rock bands Wizard and Orphan!, as well as toured with Peaches and Herb. With over 20 instrumental guitar albums to his name, he's a journeyman known for his technical abilities and willingness to travel down many musical roads.

Michael's business acumen and ambition roll out in the form of private and seminar-format guitar classes, publishing, video instruction projects, music career counseling, production and gigging as a soloist, as well as a member of a jazz trio and a rock-fusion quartet. al music scene, Michael is a rarity, featuring rock, pop, shred, flamenco, classical, bluegrass, jazz, blues, country, and more (sometimes on the same album), at a level few reach in any one category. His approach to his career is equally diverse, with private and seminar training, publishing, video instruction projects, music career consulting, production, and gigging as a solo performer, as part of a duo, and as a member of a jazz trio and a rock/fusion quartet. He's now building a graphic design company and record company with a recording studio.

Michael Fath seems to have mirrored the D.C. culture closely with a focus and ambition that have sustained a viable career for decades.

Modern Guitars columnist, Matt Baamonde, recently "discovered" Michael Fath near Baamonde's hometown of Herndon, Virginia, and found in him a mentor who could offer sound advice on career strategies and management that can keep the guitar fires burning and the rent paid.

Listen to two tunes by Michael Fath

Interview

One thing that stuns me since I’ve been listening to your music is the wide variety of styles that you tackle. Is there any kind of music that you don’t play or don’t like to listen to?

Michael Fath: That’s a good question. There are so many types of music out there that it’s hard to say.

You can only play so much in one sitting or in one band. I used to play solos on dance records back in the '80s in New York and it was very heavy club and disco dance stuff. with a lot of rock solos.

Part of the reason that I really enjoy my fusion group is because we cover so many styles. We cross so many boundaries in one show. Very few people can actually do that. And so I love heavy rock and I love certain kinds of metal bands. I don’t know if I could just sit tight and do any one straight thing unless I was getting paid a stupid amount of money for it.

I toured with a country singer for a year. It was cool but it got old. I’ve been in some pretty big rock and roll bands, I don’t know if I could do Ozzy. You know what I mean? But the money would sure make me think about it a little!

Do you ever dabble into pop, rap, or hip-hop, or do you even listen to it all?

MF: No, but let me say this, I’m hugely influenced by pop music and specifically the Beatles. So I have no problem with pop music in general, but you’ll hear this from every professional guitarist you ever talk with and that's that I do have a problem with how it’s presented to us these days.

I don’t deal rap records, but I have played on a couple of rap tracks. Its just one of those things. It doesn’t excite me; I’ve got to have a lot of guitar. I listen to a lot of things but I don’t want to play them.

I’m very surprised at how many different styles you have on your latest CD. You venture into acoustic classical music; rockabilly, Spanish, bluegrass, and other solo guitar styles. How do you decide what goes on a CD?

MF: I know what you’re saying. It’s different today. If I’m in charge of the production and I have an interested record label I can do what the hell I want.

Back in the day when I was with Relativity or Musicmaker out of London the parameters were a little more closed. Because at one point we had [Steve] Vai, [Joe] Satriani, Yngwie [Malmsteen], Steve Morse, and John Petrucci doing all this stuff. There was kind of a format, I guess, where it was heavy fusion rock.

The records basically had a format all the way through. Today, none of us have deals with major labels anymore, or even large Indies. So why not do what you want to do If you’re marketing yourself? One last thing is that I don’t have the stomach to do the same record for twelve cuts anyway. It would just boor the crap out of me.

How did you become so accomplished so you're comfortable showcasing so many different guitar styles? Does it come easy to you?

MF: Oh, hell no! Did it come easy for you? How long have you been playing, Matt?

About ten years.

MF: Okay, I’ve been playing for 40 and I’m still working at it. I work really hard. I think if you look at a lot of the great players there is a common thread for many of them. Part of its natural ability, of course, but the other is just unquenching thirst to keep creating something.

To compete you’ve got to be able to play. Everyone can make their own CD nowadays, but back then we all had deals. And you didn’t get a deal if you weren’t good. I mean, it just didn’t happen at least in that genre. But one thing that was in common was that everybody could play!

So I keep motivated by trying stuff.I have not lost interest in classical guitar to some degree, but I don’t really feel on top of that anymore. My fusion rock and fusion jazz and straight-ahead stuff are the kind of things that I work at.

How has being from Virginia and the South influenced your playing?

MF: Greatly in terms of bluegrass and country. Specifically bluegrass, this being Bluegrass Mecca! You’re from here too right? It might be a little tougher to find that stuff today because you’re what, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one?

I'm 19.

MF: Thirty years ago this was Bluegrass-Central. A lot of of the best country guitarists I’ve heard came out of here. But, to be honest, I’m a rocker through and through. I tell my students to try and excel at what they love, but every once in a while check out something else, because that can put a smile on your face. And really hot banjo has always done that for me. I love it! And so my interest will vary.

One of the world’s greatest classical guitarists lives down the street from you and he might compel you to go study with him. That's one of the things I did. It's like "Oh wow, this guy is here. I’m going to go hang with him for a year." So, you just do what you can do.

When you’re going through all these styles on a CD are you picturing a specific audience, especially with the fusion and the harder rock songs, or are you just playing what you want to hear?

MF: No,I’m not going to be so stupid as to indulge myself on stage. That would be ridiculous and foolish. Half the enjoyment of a concert is having everybody be into it!

I enjoy playing! Live performances are my favorite thing! In the mid to late '80s I started getting a lot of huge critical acclaim and not just from the magazines but from players lie Michael Angel [Batio], Reb Beech, and Andy Timmons.and I’ve done many gigs with Steve Morse and Eric Johnson. These are all players that I really like.

And, when they are coming up to you and saying things that are beyond, ‘Hey man, great playing,’that kind of becomes your personalit which for me at the time was Fusion Rock.

Even on the early records I would go from the heavy metal tunes to a tune called, ‘Le Jazz Metallique."That’s jazz and metal in the same title! So consciously, I was trying to do much more or from a different aspect than anybody out there,. I wanted to come at it with my own perspective.

Basically what I like to do is something very rock based whether its heavy or pop. Then you’ll hear some burning country tune or you’ll hear some funk thing. That’s how I like to change directions.

And at a live performance I always pick two or three tunes or sometimes openwith an instrumental version of "Highway Guitar". It's a kick-ass opener! Then half-way through the set I’ll sing ‘Manic Depression,’ or some Stone Temple Pilots' tune. We reach a lot of market that way.

You’ve got to sell your guitar playing. You’ve got to be playing melodies that are just great. That's why I think [Joe] Satriani is so freakin’ popular. He writes very catchy tunes. I’m not going to say he’s one of my favorite guitarists, but he is one of my favorite musicians. He writes better than anybody or as well as anybody in terms of what we do. Compositionally I rate him the best. I believe that whole-heartedly.

I try to get that idea across to my young guitarists. I tell them, ‘Look guys, chops are great, but our character still make songs.’ You've got to develop a sensibility and that’s the pop thing that I was alluding to earlier or specifically when I mentioned the Beatles. I mean, it’s a huge deal with me, even when I play jazz. It’s got that pop sensibility.

It hasn’t always been guitar for you, too. You’ve played trumpet since you were nine, and you were quite good, becoming All-State, and then going on to piano at twelve, and then finally moving on to guitar at fourteen. How has playing those instruments affected your music and does that still last with you today?

MF: I think even if you play oboe for a year in the fourth grade it’s going to influence you somehow. If you’re a sixteen year old who’s taken lessons from me, and I say, “Hey, any musical background?” and you say, “No.” And I say, “Did you do anything?” and you say, “Yes, I played oboe in the fourth grade.” And I go, “Well, it’s going to mean something to you.”

But for me,personally, as good as I was a trumpet player,and that was a definite pro career there too, it just didn’t do anything for me. Once I graduated high school I never played again. Piano, I played for a couple years, same thing. It just didn’t do anything for me.

Guitar? I actually started playing guitar when I was thirteen. When I started playing guitar all bets were off. That was it! Of course there were the Beatles and Elvis! And there was something magical about guitar. But all those instruments influence you.

Now, since I just set-up my Pro Tools studio and I have a keyboard in there, I have played keyboard parts on several records. And I can do that but I wouldn’t consider myself a keyboard player. But it is interesting to play around on that. Maybe I'd practice an hour a day, but as you know, guitar is hard enough!

Since we are talking about that, why don’t you tell us a little about your studio, the kind of gear you use, and how you record.

MF: It’s interesting. This is all brand new to me! Even though I’ve done twenty different records and I've played on fifteen others, I've never paid attention to the engineering process. Now I sometimes have to engineer a track or two, like when my bass player is cutting, then I engineer. I’m producing the whole thing and if my bass player has got to play, how can he engineer? Having said all that I never paid attention to it before. It never interested me until recently. I’m going to be honest, this all brand new.

I got the Digidesign O2 console model. I’ve got the Apple G5 and just a little Pro Tools setup. But I’m going to simplify. I’ve got the POD XT Pro, which I adore, Mic Pres, and stereo headphone preamps. I’ve got a pretty killer drum machine all hooked up to the Apple G5. So it’s all just getting going for me. I do plan on doing lots of recording. I was fairly prolific in the old days but that was because everybody else was paying for it. I mean I had label deals with Hal Leonard, Cherry Lane, Warner Brothers, you know, you name it, I was constantly in the studio doing records.

Like I said earlier, nobody’s got major deals anymore. So we're all financing ourselves. That's why Steve Vai with Favored Nations has his own label. You’re putting up your own money.

Is there a way to be more efficient and more cost effective about it? Yes, there is. The stuff that I’ve heard from Pro Tools is just amazing these days,and so that’s where I’m going. I’m new at it so I can’t answer any engineering questions. But I can promise you I am going to be as good an engineer as I am producer. I’m going to be very, very prolific with the recordings from here on out.

How has the financial aspect been? Is commercial success a concern or desire for you?

MF: Of course it is! This is what I do for a living. I’ve got a twenty-year-old daughter and a seventeen year old daughter,. The twenty year old daughter' is going to college. I’ve supported my family my whole life. So, of course, commercial success is important. But there are many ways to do that. At last count I think I've had sixteen record deals, video deals, book deals, although that’s all gone away. I did have a record that that came in this year with Cherry Lane called, “Essential Country Guitar [Technique].” Cherry Lane put it out and it’s distributed by Hal Leonard. You have different streams of income. My private teaching is very good. I get quite a lot for a private lesson, I’ve developed an aspect recently of marketing to high school students to help them to go for full scholarships that last three years.

I’ve sent three kids on scholarships. Two on full rides, and one had most of the scholarship to the New England Conservatory for classical guitar. I had a guy at the University of South Carolina that’s now on full ride this year and two years ago I sent a guy to Shenandoah Conservatory with a full scholarship in jazz. And so that’s a marketing thing there. That’s substantial.

I play out! II love playing solo jazz guitar gigs. I have a running jazz gig that I’ve been doing for well over six years now. YI do music career consulting. And I've got a record label with two business partners. I produce people. I’ve produced a young guitar duo and I’ve produced pop and rock acts. So it’s a lot of things. Of course you’ve got to do the gigs you hate, but thankfully I’ve gotten rid of most of that kind of stuff. I was always touring and doing the guitarhero thing or whatever you want to call it.

You've produced a lot of instructional books and videos. Is that a lucrative side career?

MF: It can be. But, first of all, nothing's lucrative, so get that out of your head. It does depend on what you think lucrative means and your version of lucrative and mine are two different things. But it's okay. If you’re smart and talented you can make a good living as a pro guitarist.

Things are different now than back in 1987. I had four tracks in the can of a pretty groundbreaking record called, Flick of the Wrist. It was not the first record I ever did, but it was the first solo instrumental and was on a major independent, That got me international acclaim.

Back then I could walk up to Arlen Roth from Hot Licks videos at a dance show, he didn’t know me from Adam, and I could go, “Hi Mr. Roth, my name’s Michael Fath yada yada yada,” introduce myself and tell him, “I think I have four tracks here that will blow you away.”

Now, of course he’s gotta hear that all the time. But, I was real polite and I said what I did, and I told him, “I’m not kidding, I think you might really, really like this.”

And so the next day he came up to me and signed me on the spot. That doesn’t happen anymore, Matt, those days are gone and I only said that to make that point. The book deals and everything can be good, but today, everything is getting so specialized like if you’re a writer that’s what you do, you write.

The Berklee Press is only going focus on their own teachers. Things are more competitive and more closed. The market market is not there anymore, Matt, t the main thing is there is nothing driving the market. I remember going up to the head of the guitar division of Hal Leonard say, “John, I’ve got a great idea for a method.” “Oh Michael, what is that?” And I’d tell him, "Well, it's etudes for progressive rock guitar.” And he reply with, "Interesting concept.” “Yea, it’s never been done.” I’d sit there and I’d play him one and I’d get a deal for four of those. And they sold twenty thousand copies.So, you would see in the magazines full page ads just for my products. Doesn’t happen anymore.

It’s just like the endorsements we all had in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. Things are a lot more closed. And I’m not saying that to put a damper on everything, it’s just that that’s the way the industry is now. You know, name me one guitar player that’s doing instrumental music on a major label. I can’t think of anybody. That wasn’t the case back then.

So the book deals, when you say are they lucrative, well they used to be. And then the market would facilitate that, and someone would actually buy a Steve Morse instructional DVD, someone would buy an Eric Johnson, or a Michael Fath, or a Danny Gatton DVD. But today what’s going on out there? IThat part of the industry is very closed to any outsiders.

I’m still known as a rocker. That’s a good thing and a bad thing, I mean getting this country thing with Cherry Lane with a a killer book and CD is great. There’s some great country ideas on it.

Two years later they, but you know nobody’s going press ten thousand units of anything anymore. They're going to press maybe two thousand. So the market is not there. You know the site Guitar 9? How many titles are they selling on there? I’m just saying that there are probably two thousand instrumental CD’s if not more. How many people are going to buy all these?

What you have to do today is prioritize stuff. And you have to adapt and be smart.

I have one student named Peter, he’s in his second year on a full scholarship, adn I ask him “Who do you think your competition is in two years when you graduate?” And he goes, “Well, there’s a lot.” And I say, “How many guitarists do you think are graduating from school?”

And he responds “Well, there’s probably several,” and I say, “Yes, but who else is your competition?” He couldn’t think of it, he didn’t know where I was going. I said, “I am. And so is Steve Morse!"

We’re not sitting on our asses you know! I’m not going to let anybody take my title! But at the same time I coach these guys and I say, “Guys, listen, this is how you can succeed! Look at it from this angle!"

Talent has a way of breaking through! But you got to be real smart. And I’m not trying to tell you that the book deals or the DVD deals are dead, but they don’t exist like they used to.

Today things are more geared towards generic and more pedagogical approaches than the personality approach. I do want to say one thing that's real important. I think anybody can win if they try. I believe anybody can succeed, if you got talent and you work your ass off, and you’re smart! You can succeed!

Let’s talk a little about the other three main things you do, your guitar instruction service, your guitar clinics, and your music career consulting. Did you want to comment on each of those?

MF: The teaching thing has kind of gotten into two areas. One is the professional guitar teaching and I'm not kidding, I get a lot an hour. And I have a fair amount of clients. I always keep about twenty students and what I charge is more than enough. It's not like I want to teach full-time. I've had college gigs before. You know Larry [Baione] offered me a gig at Berklee twice. That’s not what I want to do. I’m a performer.

I've got two things. A professionally established group of students that includes two attorneys that study with me. I have graphics design people that study with me and computer programmers who are establishing their careers and have disposable income. And they adore guitar! Okay, that’s the make-up of one body of the students. The other are the young players that want to go for scholarships.

They're really intent on getting something. And then there are a couple of others that fit through the cracks. But that’s kind of the main gist there.

I will sometimes do the consulting thing, and many times that turns into private study. A scenario could be that a parent will call up and say, “We think our kid’s a good player, but we don’t know anything about the business, yada yada yada.” I’d say, “Okay, come in, and we’ll do a two hour consulting thing.” It’s not a lesson. I have both parents come in if possible plus the player and we talk about it and then we see if we want to proceed or how it should proceed from there.

Sometimes its just straight-ahead career consulting or sometimes when I used to go up to Berklee we'd talk about doing a class on marketing since you've got to know how to do that.

I’ve got one sixteen-year-old girl student and Nashville is looking hard at her. She’s a Christian singer songwriter. She’s meeting with the President of the labels right now.

Nothing ever means anything is going to happen. So I don’t want to make the consulting thing sound like bigger than it is. But someone may come in with an idea and I say, “Look, let’s let’s talk about this for two hours and see what you want to do?”

I have produced a lot of people but its not like I’m out there waving a banner as a producer. I’m not. I’m fairly comfortable with what I’ve got going. I'm always looking for the big rock project though. You never know. That’s what I really wanted to do!

How do you balance the time between all these lessons, the clinics, the performances, recording, practicing, writing the books, and counseling?

MF: And all my martial arts?

There you go! And having a normal life and having a family?

MF: My girls are older now, so it’s a little bit easier to do. Secondly, I don’t need to sleep nine hours a day. I was due for studying Jujitsu at seven this morning. I got up at five. It's crazy because I got to bed at one! It’s kind of your energy thing. And like I said, I don’t teach more than fifteen hours a week. There’s no way I’m going to teach more than fifteen hours a week! That’s all I do.

Now for what I get that’s a pretty decent amount of money. And so, what’s the normal work week for most people, 40? 45 hours?

I have a lot of time for myself! I’m a huge martial arts practitioner and I do several styles and am quite advanced at some of them. I have to say that because it balances me. It makes me appreciate music even more so. You’ve heard that you’ve got to pick and choose your battles. Well, you’ve got to pick and choose your times!

I don’t need to practice eight hours a day. But I do need to practice. What I do is very, very, very focused, specifically detailed, designed practice, so what I do in an hour used to take me three hours in the old days. You’ve just got to budget your time.

I always woodshed pretty heavily in the winter months because everything slows down. If you’ve got three feet of snow outside your door you go and practice. You’re in school so it's a different thing. You’ve got to meet all your requirements and stuff. This is a really important thing about discipline and being able budget yourself and get things done. Go after certain things and get ‘em done.

Like I said, there was a time that I used to practice classical guitar three hours a day. Just classical guitar. Well, I don’t do that anymore. Now my interest in classical guitar is more from if I have a student that needs to really get into it. Then it energizes me in that genre. But I don’t practice classical guitar anymore.

Well you mentioned martial arts, but you also have a very strong history in a lot of sports. You attended college on a basketball scholarship and played baseball. How have these impacted your musicianship and discipline?

MF: I think that most of you would find that there is a direct relationship with athletics and music. Certain things that you do you use discipline, like you just said. How hard you work at your jump shot?

Are you willing to take five hundred shots to a thousand shots a day? Which may take you a good hour and half and two hours on the court? If you’re not, then you’re not going to be a good shooter. It’s as simple as that.

But I think balance is the key here. And so for me, I’ve been playing for forty years. How do I stay motivated with guitar? You know, I mean, c’mon. How do you stay motivated? You haven’t been alive half of that. And you’ve been playing for ten years, I’ve been playing for four times as long as you, Matt, right? Well how do you keep motivated?

Part of the motivation is by having other interests. I’m not saying that you can’t excel at everything. But those that do just all guitar? It’ll drive you crazy!

I don’t know if Yngwie played tennis, but I do know that George Lynch lifts weights. He’s very much into bodybuilding. It’s interesting; it gives you a different mindset. I don’t know if Vai does anything else. I don’t know if Johnson does anything else. Steve Morse used to be a pilot. I

I just know that all guitar and no play for me makes Michael a dull whatever. I think that it’s a sports thing. There are some times in my life where it was equal. Now I would have to say martial arts and music are pretty equal now. It’s just one is my career and the other one is a huge passion or a hobby. If it was the reverse that would be fine too. I just think you need other stuff outside of music. I think it’s really important. It gives you perspective when you get away from your guitar.

Sometimes I don’t practice, You probably play the guitar everyday. Sometimes I’ll go a couple days and I won’t even touch the thing. I need a break. You just get sick of it. Its too much guitar!

Has doing all these different things proved to make a fulfilling life or is there anything you regret doing or wish you had accomplished?

MF: Well, no, I’m very, very happy with most everything I’ve ever I’ve done. I don’t really regret anything. I think it’s sad when people do regret. So, Jesus, if there’s anything you can take out of this at your age and keep in mind too, Matt, I feel your age. You know, many times I feel like I’m nineteen and its cool! That’s what keeps us going and keeps us looking young and feeling upbeat and young. But whatever I was doing at the time I was into.

Once I thought I was going to be the greatest rock guitar player in the world until I found out there was no such thing! And then I thought, okay, I’m going to be the greatest fusion-rock player in the world. And you know there's no such thing! I don’t want to get too cosmic on you, but I think things happen for a reason. And I think if you’re smart about your decisions, of course we are going to make some wrong decisions sometimes, but making the wrong decisions and then being regretful about it, that doesn’t necessarily have to be the same thing.

I mean I’ve made a couple of wrong decisions in my younger years. But I don’t regret them because I had a good reason to do them. But, they turned out to not be the right decision later.

Who can predict the future?

The only thing you can do is whatever you’re doing at the time that you’re doing it. Whatever your game plan is live it a hundred percent, practice it and do it a hundred percent! And if you decide okay this way or another way, fine. One of my pet peeves is people that second guess the past, because you can’t do that.

I’ve been asked to join a couple of national acts,. They were rock acts. I started with a couple very name players, and back then, the late '80s, that ended up as five gold singles off of one record. They were platinum selling rock and roll acts from L.A. and San Francisco.

And I left that because I got a deal with Relativity for my instrumental stuff! They went on to other stuff for a couple years and I didn’t stay with them because I wanted to do my thing. I don’t regret that because I made the right decision for me.

But what if I stayed with them? I might not have become the instrumental guitarist I am. I really don’t believe in second-guessing the past.

What were the circumstances when you first realized that music was your passion and your career?

MF: That’s a good one! I was already playing trumpet. Hearing the Beatles for the first time completely floored me! Completely!

And keep in mind I was already listening to a couple of guitarists but I wasn’t playing guitar.

When the Beatles first came out I started playing. I started playing when I was thirteen, and I’m trying to figure out when I was thirteen, oh shit, it was after the Beatles came out! Of course there was Elvis. This was over thirty years ago! But when the Beatles first came out I was just blown away by the whole thing! The pop energy of the Beatles!

I will defend the fact that they’re the greatest pop stars of all time. But that’s just me. You’d be surprised who might agree with that. Many other guitarists agree!

But here's the thing. When I heard Jeff Beck solo in theYardbirds that changed things. That changed my life when I was in the tenth grade. Huge thing! There’s been several huge impacting scenarios in my life musically with the Beatles being the first. But Beck being number two. I'd play guitar and think, "That’s the way I want to sound!” And then of course, when Blow by Blow came out in ’76 and I'd say, “Wow, here it is again!” CoincidentallyJeff had the same producer as the Beatles! Actually, that's not a coincidence There’s a reason that both things were so fantastic!

But what was the other thing you were going to say?

Just about Jeff Beck and how you got into him?

MF: It’s weird because he never had that rhythmic smoothness of Hendrix or Eddie Van Halen. I just liked something melodically about what he did that just got me. I loved the way he looked. Look at the shot that’s on the back of Yesterday’s Child. That was taken in 1978. I mean, c’mon, you know, that scene is a figure of Jeff Beck! So, huge of an influence that way.

I just liked different things that he did as a rock player. First of all, I think Blow by Blow has got to go down in history as being one of the greatest records of all time, at least in terms of impact. And, yeah we all can play a million miles an hour faster and all that shit, but I don’t care about that. Just in terms of impact, he’s just one of those guys! I mean, you look at all the great rock players. You know, [Jimmy] Page, I remember hearing “Good Times and Bad Times,” for the first time and going, “Holy God, what is that?”

Or hearing Blackmore doing “Lazy,” off of Machine Head and you’re going, “Wait a minute!.” You know? And then of course it goes on, Hendrix, Clapton, Brian May and Queen in the '80s and in the '70s it was Danny Gatton.

But the thing is, there was something special about Beck and there was something special about the Beatles that completely blew me away! Another thing that’s important is what hits you in adolescence. I mean, having an influence when you’re twenty-five or having an influence when you're fifteen is night and day.

I figure there’s a psychological, biological thing going on there too. II remember “All Right Now,” by Free and Paul Rogers singing it. I just remember that guitar solo! and thinking “Man, this just the greatest tune ever!” And with Beatles the same thing. But if you had to pick one rock player that influenced me more than anybody else, it was most definitely Jeff Beck.

What are you listening to now?

MF: First of all, I don’t even have an iPod. Screw technology! Remember me telling you about the engineering thing earlier. This whole learning curve?

My bass player in my fusion band has all his iTunes. He’s all hooked up to technology and he’s got an iPod. All of my students have iPods. I don’t have an iPod; I’m not that into it.

What have I listened to recently? Well, I’m going back through all the Beatles records again because of the Love CD that just came out. I’m also reading a brand new biography on the Beatles that's very detailed. And anytime that happens I go back and listen to everything that actually occurred in the book. Same thing with Hendrix. Whenever I read a new Hendrix thing or something I'll go back. You know Winger? I love that band! I think Reb’s a killer rock player. But I love Kip Winger's voice. I think his songwriting is excellent. And so “Winger IV,” just came out and I’m listening to it very closely because "a" vocally that’s kind of what I sound like anyway, but "b" its all done in Pro Tools.

And so I’m going, “Whoa, this record just rocks. It’s very, very good.” And, you know, the same thing with [George] Lynch. I like the old Lynch stuff. I kind of go all over the place. I don’t listen to that much jazz, but I like it a lot.

What gear are you using?

MF: I have a couple of custom shop vintage reissue pieces that were made and given to me from Fender. One’s a ’62 and one’s a ‘57. They were given to me in the early '90s from Fender. They’re vintage reissues. But they were put together in the Custom Shop by the head of the Custom Shop at the time with a lot of attention to detail.

Both Strats are scalloped with big fat frets on them. Those are my favorites. I’ve got a ’52 vintage reissue Tele. I’ve got an incredible Gretsch White Falcon. I love it and that’s what I do my solo jazz stuff on. I love that guitar.

I have several others. I’ve got a banjo that I love. I’ve got a Buddha Amp and I’ve got a Fender Amp and a Marshall. Old combos that are all smaller combo things. Also a lot of old pedals. I like the old analog stuff. Although I’ve got to say that Rocktron just sent me a bunch of new pedals and they’re just killer! So, you know, I’m kind of old school that way.

Related Links
Michael Fath
Matt Baamonde's Column on Modern Guitars - Berklee X
Photographer - Michael G. Stewart

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