Greg Howe Interview

by Mark Rabuffo.

Mention the name Greg Howe to an aficionado of contemporary electric guitar music and aural visions of smooth legato runs, wah-laden solos and funky, syncopated rhythms will run through his or her head. Greg has garnered a well-deserved reputation as a guitar virtuoso with one of the most recognizable voices in the instrumental electric guitar pantheon.

Greg has been making records since 1988 after Mike Varney heard the Howe demo submitted for Varney’s Spotlight column in Guitar Player magazine. The album, Greg Howe, featured drummer Atma Anur and bass phenom Billy Sheehan, and marked the beginning of a long and fruitful solo career. Greg has also lent his guitar prowess to well-known pop superstars such as Michael Jackson, Enrique Iglesias, *NSYNC and Justin Timberlake.

Howe’s most recent CD, Sound Proof, on Varney's Shrapnel/Tone Center label, features a new band and further cements his position as one of the electric guitar’s most unique voices. I spoke to Greg on July 6, 2008, about Sound Proof and a number of general, career-oriented topics.

Mark Rabuffo: Congratulations on the release of Sound Proof. What was the inspiration for making this record?

Greg Howe: I don’t know that there was any specific thing; I was contracted to do it and I was two years late on it. Left to my own devices I don’t know when it would have gotten done. I told the record company to just book some studio time at Prairie Sun Studios outside of San Francisco in October 2007 and I would somehow come up with material. It was a way to lock me in to having to produce something.

Mark: How would you describe this new CD?

Greg: That’s a good question; it really is. I never really write music based on trying to fit within some sort of genre. I just kind of write music knowing it’s most likely going to be instrumental music, and then I just go from there. I don’t really know what’s going to happen.

I guess I would say that there’s a mixture of influences, but also a mix of musical genres, because there’s stuff that goes fromJohn Mayer-ish kind of pop to extreme Mahavishnu-influenced fusion. So, it would be tough for me to describe what someone is going to get.

Mark: I think you have a very unique guitar voice.

Greg: From the time I was very young, that was my goal – obviously, to make good music – but to also have a recognizable signature to my sound so that I wasn’t just another guy. There are tons of great guitar players, but there are only a select few who have a distinct, signature sound where after four or five notes you know who it is. I do feel that I have finally gotten that – and it’s a great feeling.

Mark: Some of your previous CDs have contained covers of classic fusion tunes yet on this record you cover Rufus and Chaka Khan’s “Tell Me Something Good.” How did you choose that song?

Greg: When I was in the studio, I didn’t have a whole lot of writing time. I didn’t put a lot of time aside for writing, just because I don’t have a lot of time. Which is why I booked the studio time; I figured I’ll show up with something. But I did put time aside whenever I could to put material together, and most of the time I put aside was shortly before we left to go to San Francisco. So when we got there, I showed up with probably five or six tunes, and then a lot the writing actually went on while we were in the studio. A lot of times the drummer would be tracking material, the bass player would be tracking, and I’d be at the hotel writing a song or finishing up the writing or modifying an idea that I’ve had sitting around for a long time.

That’s kind of how it went; we only had about four days to track the basic stuff. Throughout the course of all of the sessions, the keyboard player, Dave, would periodically dial in certain tones and play the intro to “Tell Me Something Good.” He would play it occasionally, and we’d all go, “Wow, that’s a cool song.” It didn’t occur to anybody that we would re-make that until it came down to being short on material and someone suggested we try that song. It was kind of weird, because at first, I couldn’t really imagine what I could do with that song as an instrumental. But then, as I thought about it, I thought it would be a great opportunity to do something really different. I think it came out pretty cool.

Mark: You’ve got some new players on this CD. How did you hook up with them?

Greg: John Reshard [bass] I’ve known for about five years. His father contacted me back when Extraction first came out, just to let me know his son played bass and was really good, and wanted to know if we were auditioning any bass players because he had already learned the whole CD. Now, I get a lot of emails and phone calls like that, so at first I didn’t take it that seriously. But they were persistent and they sent me a disc of John’s to check out. Now, I get a lot of discs but don’t often get a chance to listen to them. But for some reason, I was motivated to play his and when I did I thought, “Wow. This guy’s a serious bass player” – and he was only 18 years old.

At that time I had a project that I was working on with a female singer, and because of the fact that I didn’t really know John or anything about his personality, I figured I’d fly him up to be a part of this project so I’d get a chance to meet him and work with him. We worked on that project and he was just a super guy and an unbelievable musician, much better live, in person, than anything the CD showed. We’ve worked together since then, things like NAMM shows, but along the way I told him that eventually, when I do my album, I want to have him on it and do whatever I can to get his name out there.

John has also done some things on his own. He’s had pretty big ads in magazines for bass companies, so he’s been making a name for himself apart from his association with me, but I am hoping that this album helps his popularity even more.

Gianluca was a guy we auditioned, because I wanted to have a band, a young band with fresh energy – guys who would be available for touring, and who were hungry. I wanted that deliberately, because one of the problems with albums like Extraction is that – they’re really cool, and it’s nice to hear these high-profile guys together, but it becomes more or less a novelty act that you never get to see live because trying to get a schedule together that will allow me, Victor and Dennis to plan a tour is almost impossible. It’s just not realistic that I could ever take that out on the road, and because of the fact that I’ve never really established the “Greg Howe Band” I figured this would be a great opportunity to have killer players in a higher profile situation.

It’s worked out great for me because I’ll have a band that will most likely be available to tour, and if not, it will be easier to coordinate our schedules to do so. On a number of different levels it was cool to do that. Also, in the past, because of popularity reasons, it wouldn’t have been as easy for me to book a tour – say, in Europe - just based on my name. It could have been done, but it was always “Yeah, we can do a tour, but we can get you a lot more money if you could have Victor or Dennis with you.” I think at this point, my name alone is enough of a marquee.

Mark: What is it that you look for in players when putting a band together? Obviously, the chops have to be there, and personality, but is there anything in particular that you look for?

Greg: It’s a combination of everything, including the two points you brought up. Obviously they have to be good players, but after a player becomes really good, it’s always tough to determine exactly who’s better. I don’t really listen to musicians once they attain a certain level of ability; I’m listening for style – does it fit with what I’m doing? That’s what I look for.

Personality is also part of it. I’ve been out on the road enough to know that personality is a huge part of what’s going to make a band click. The better we like each other, the better we’re going to play together, and the more we’re going to enjoy playing together. That’s when those magical moments happen – when everyone is clicking. A lot of times it has nothing to do with a single person’s ability; it’s more the collective energy of the band. It’s really important that there’s that chemistry.

Mark: You’ve also got some humorous sound bytes on the new CD, in particular “Connoisseur Part 2.” How did those come about?

Greg: I was poking fun at myself and at the guitar community. I’ve been really getting my tone together lately and I’ve been dealing with various companies – some of whom I won’t be able to talk about because we don’t have an agreement actually set in stone yet – and what I’ve noticed as I dive more into the music products is that there really are these connoisseurs! I’ve always known that, but it’s humorous to me sometimes because I’ve seen so many people create these things that sound amazing, and do things with equipment that you’re not supposed to be able to do great things with. Then there are guys who spend tons of money getting the best stuff, and their recordings don’t sound good. It’s just making fun of the whole thing. I think all of us, me included, lose sight of what the whole objective is – to make good music. We all want to make music that’s going to affect people.

I like to talk shop as much as the next guy, but in the end it really comes down to creativity. It comes down to what you’re going to do with what you have that’s ultimately going to connect with people.

I’ve seen a lot of my favorite guitar players as well as other great musicians, and it really doesn’t matter what they plug into or what they’re playing. The essence of who they are really shines through, no matter what.

Mark: Any plans to tour in support of this CD, particularly the US?

Greg: We have shows scheduled this year in Europe, and have plans to tour the US, but not until 2009. I would love to tour the US, and with the newer software on my website, we can keep track of how many hits we get and from where, which helps keep track of the fan base.

There are pockets in the world where I have big groups of fans, and the US is still one of the big ones for me. It’s a little bit tougher to do it in the states and make the same kind of money as elsewhere, but I think we can do it as long as we plan it correctly.

Mark: It’s been about five years between Extraction and Sound Proof. What have you been up to in the interim?

Greg: Yeah, I didn’t realize it had been that long. One of the main things is I relocated to California, and I started an internet business which will be launched this year. I am still creating the content for it, but it’s something I am really passionate about. It’s a website that will feature artists like me – initially it will probably just be me - who will give information to people about guitar playing.

A lot of the questions that I get these day from advanced players, who tend to be young and have a lot of technique but aren’t sure what to do with it. They want to know how to translate their technique into music. And I think that’s really important because the last time guitar was really popular and having good chops was cool, was probably in the late '80s. But I remember predicting that it was going to crash and burn because it got to the point that anyone who could play a sweep-picked arpeggio was getting on the cover of a magazine. There wasn’t that much focus on substance and all the other elements that go into music.

I think it’s really important to talk about how you interact with other players, methods of inspiration, and what you are trying to say. When I write a song, I am deliberately trying to move someone and make them feel a specific thing. What is it I am trying to do, and how am I trying to achieve that?. What chords am I going to use? What kind of feeling do you get when you add a 9 to a chord? How do you sequence drums? How do use software for recording? How do you get into the music industry? What are some of the things happening now with the industry changing like it is? How can you take advantage of the Internet? How can I tell the difference between a legitimate company and a scam one? These are some of the topics I want to get into and what the website will be based on.

Mark: You are recognized as a guitar virtuoso. You started off as a “shredder” but have expanded into the fusion genre. Was that a conscious transition or did it just happen?

Greg: I think it just happened. Surprisingly, I never went through the whole '70s Mahavishnu/Return To Forever fusion thing when I was a teenager. When I first started playing guitar, my influences were strictly rock players – Jimmy Page and then Van Halen. It wasn’t until later that I started listening to other types of guitar players. But even as I expanded and started listening to people like John Scofield, Pat Metheny, and George Benson, simultaneously I was listening to people like Yngwie Malmsteen. My influences were always from these extremely different places.

After my first album, I got into really wanting to expand and push the envelope wherever I could. And if that meant getting better technically, then I did that. If it meant investigating different harmonies, I did that too. I’m always intrigued by things I haven’t done; there’s always brand new territory for me to personally explore.

The only things that are different about my music now than what was on my first album is, I think, that it’s gotten a little more sophisticated harmonically and rhythmically. So it really wasn’t a conscious thing; I just sort of walked into this territory that is reminiscent of what was happening in the mid-'70s.

I really, really don’t write songs with a specific genre in mind – ever. I just write the song, and the only criterion is that I like it. It doesn’t have to be sophisticated; it doesn’t have to be simple, or in odd time. I just have to like it.

It’s funny, but I was never really heavily influenced my Hendrix. When I was young and learning these Van Halen solos, I remember people saying “What about Hendrix?” To my ears then – I wasn’t educated or sophisticated yet – I was only hearing technique. I didn’t understand what the big deal was. It wasn’t until I got older and re-visited his music and listened to it from a completely different place that I heard it differently. I heard the richness and innovative qualities in his music that had just gone completely over my head earlier.

When we’re young we sometimes think, “I can execute this lick faster and cleaner than that person, therefore I am better than him.” That’s how we think when we’re young. We haven’t expanded ourselves to understand how a guy who plays just one note can just floor you. I had to grow up before I could hear the other qualities that Hendrix had that are just so incredibly powerful. Now I am just a huge Hendrix fanatic.

Mark: Did you take lessons or are you self-taught?

Greg: I took about three lessons when I was roughly ten years old. I didn’t learn anything because they were teaching me things like “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. I had good ears, and when I was told to learn the song for the next lesson, I would come in without ever having practiced it. But I knew that all I’d have to do is remember the song right before I walked in and I’d be able to pretend to read it – and that’s what I did.

It doesn’t make any sense to teach someone to read music by showing them something they already know, because there’s no reason to really read it. So I didn’t learn anything, because during the week I was figuring out bar chords. I wanted to play The Who; I wanted to play stuff that was on the radio. I was actually more interested in chords than in melodies because, to me, the guitar was what Pete Townshend was doing. My older sister had friends, who played guitar, and they showed me chords, and once I learned chords I just went from there. Beyond that I just started listening and figured out stuff off of records.

Mark: How did you hook up with Tetsuo Sakurai for the Gentle Hearts CD?

Greg: Tetsuo contacted me. He was working on an album and he had already decided who he wanted on this record. He knew of my playing and had some of my albums, and wanted me to play guitar on it and Dennis Chambers to pay drums on it. So he contacted me and we worked out a deal; his record company had a nice budget and we ended up tracking the music at my house when I lived in Pennsylvania. It was easy because Dennis is based out of Baltimore, so he just drove up to my house and Tetsuo flew over.

We went over the songs and tracked the drums, for the most part, during the first three days. Tetsuo did a lot of writing in the studio, and I was doing a lot of “Can I get you some more coffee?” kind of stuff just waiting for the songs to become more defined. Once they did, we sat down and worked out some of the guitar parts. It was great because it wasn’t that much work – it just kind of fell into place. Most of the lead guitar work I only had only one day to do, and sometimes, when I don’t think too hard, it comes out better.

It was a great album; it came out really nice and went down real smooth.

Mark: Tell us about Extraction.

Greg: Mike Varney heard Gentle Hearts and he thought it was cool. I think he was working with Victor Wooten at the time, and he played some of my albums for Victor, who thought it would be cool to do a record together. So the record company thought about bringing in Dennis too since we had just played together and we’d have this super group. It was very cool.

I would love to record with them again, but like I said earlier, it is so difficult to try and put something together - especially with Victor. He is always on the road, always playing or involved in something and I don’t know how I would nail him down [laughs].

Mark: You’ve lent your guitar voice to a number of artists - “What Four” from Jordan Rudess’ CD Rhythm of Time, “Red Alert” from James Murphy’s Convergence, and Prashant Aswani’s Revelation, just to name a few. How did those guest shots come about?

Greg: Generally speaking, I just get asked. Someone will contact me and ask me if I’d like to do a solo. Usually they’ll just send me a track; I’ll load the software and just record to it.

Mark: You’ve played on some tribute CDs, too such as Freeway Jam: To Beck and Back – A Tribute, A Guitar Supreme – Giant Steps in Fusion Guitar and Visions of an Inner Mounting Apocalypse among others. Tell us about that.

Greg: The record company contacts me and asks if I want to participate. The project is based on having a cool concept and getting as many well-known players together as possible to market it.

Mark: How were the songs chosen? Your version of “Giant Steps” is very cool.

Greg: Jeff Richman oversaw the whole thing. Jeff and I had a conversation, and I was surprised the song was still available. I thought that would be really cool for me, because playing over “Giant Steps” is a pretty big mission. I though it would be a great challenge, so we talked about arrangement concepts that would enable me to do it.

I don’t think I could do what Coltrane does, or what a lot of other guys have done with that song, where they can just solo all day over it! I had a limited number of measures, and it was just enough that I could be interesting and work some things out that were cool, and at least show that side of me. I also didn’t want the tempo to be as fast as the original, so we decided to slow it down a little bit, and Jeff thought it would be cool to merge that into a Hendrix/funk kind of thing. I thought that was a great idea because it sounded like something I would do.

It was just great; he put the arrangement together and sent it to me and I remember thinking “Wow. This is really cool. It actually sounds like something I might have done.”

Mark: You’ve done some work as a hired gun for Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Enrique Iglesias, and *NSync - Tell me about those gigs.

Greg: Those gigs were great. It’s bizarre. You’re playing this intense music that’s just crazy, and you’ve got to really work to put a tour together and get your albums sold. You really have to be out there doing it and making things happen professionally. Then, you go from that to a situation where you’re getting paid an enormous amount of money and hardly doing anything – and hardly being asked to do anything.

These gigs are great. You’ve got to know three chords, a couple of presets on a pedal you’ve got to hit; you’re just vibing with the band. Yet, you’re getting this enormous amount of money and traveling the world, meeting different people. It’s kind of out of balance.

For a guy coming out of a typical musician mindset, to get compensated monetarily you’ve really got to do a lot. To go instantly from that to – y’know, make sure you’re in the lobby on time and get along with people. It’s like going on a big vacation, and at some point during the day – and not even every day – you’ve got to jump up on stage to play a show. Then you continue on with your vacation. It’s really weird…

Mark: What is your take on the state of guitar these days? Who are you listening to, and are there any new players who’ve caught your ear?

Greg: I don’t listen to guitar players that much, to be honest with you. Not that I’m against them – there are a lot of phenomenal players. I am kind of a weird person; inspiration for me always comes from places that are unrelated to what I’m doing. When I’m preparing for an album, I’m not listening to anything that’s even remotely close to what I’ll probably be recording. I’ll listen to Chris Daughtry or Beyonce. I’ll listen to pop music a lot.

It’s easy for me to think outside the box, it’s very natural for me to think strange or bizarre. I can write instrumental songs that are weird or in odd times; I can write that stuff all day long. It comes very easy for me. What I need is to be reeled in so that I can somehow have something – a hook – that keeps it understandable in a mainstream context. There has to be something that people can latch on to. No matter how complex your tastes are, or how advanced you are musically, everybody responds to a hook or a memorable theme. Everybody wants that. That’s what’s great about pop music; it’s based around only that and that’s what I need - the weird stuff is easy for me.

There aren’t any guitar players at this point in time that I’ve been listening to for the sake of inspiration or even for enjoyment. I just haven’t been listening to guitar music – not that there aren’t guys out there.

Mark: Of all the albums you’ve recorded as a leader, do you have a particular favorite?

Greg: Interesting question. I guess the way that I can try to be as honest as possible is if I were asked to pick one of my albums for a desert island disc. I think, not so much sonically or for production value, but there’s something that I really liked about “Five” because I felt like that album has what I consider to be a really well-rounded representation of where my head is at normally. It’s kind of funky, but at the same time it’s got heavy rock influences and it’s got some hooky stuff in there.

Collectively it has this fusion feel to it, but I think it leans a little bit towards rock than jazz, and realistically I lean a little bit more towards rock than jazz. I come from a rock background; I never did the whole Real Book thing, never did the standards thing. I love jazz, I’m always influenced by it and have been heavily influenced by the players from that world, but I am at heart a rock player. And I think “Five” comes as close to what I would consider a Greg Howe representation as I can imagine. If someone asks “Who’s Greg Howe? I’ve never heard him. What does he do?” I might whip out “Five” but I’m not 100% percent positive about that.

Mark: What do you think of the current shift from CDs to digital media? I’ve been on the lookout in iTunes for Greg Howe music but there’s unfortunately very little available.

Greg: I think Mike Varney from Shrapnel/Tone Center records is in the process of working a deal with iTunes that is actually happening now, and I think “Sound Proof” might be the first one that ends up being available on iTunes.

Realistically, I think digital media is great for the artist. Maybe it’s not great for the artist who is still with a label, but for the artist who decides to break away from the labels. That’s where this really becomes a benefit and levels the playing field. In the end I think this is a good thing.

The truth of the matter is, in general, the record labels get paid too much money. The artist doesn’t get near as much money in a typical record deal as they should. I don’t take anything away from record labels, obviously they do a lot for the promotion, and that’s what a record label really is. They are a financial backer with PR and distribution connections.

If you are an established artist and you already have connections in the industry, and don’t need PR and a marketing strategy, you really don’t need a label. In the past it was difficult with physical distribution, going to a distributor as an artist trying to bypass labels. Distributors typically don’t like to deal with artists because artists are not, generally speaking, business minded and they may not be reliable. In the past it would be tough for a distributor to say I’ll buy 10,00 records or 50,000 records from you but anything that’s returned we’ve got to talk about how we’re going to split that up. So one of the advantages of a distributor dealing with a record label is there’s a lot of catalog that they can offset expenses with. So if a distributor loses money on a certain album, they can make up for it on another album that was released by that same label.

Ultimately the digital age is a good thing – especially for the artists, but probably not for the record labels. I also think that with a lot of the music available digitally, it’s great for me personally. If I’m buying a song or a record by John Scofield and I see the recommendations, I will click on people whom I’ve never heard of before just to hear what they’re doing. A lot of times, I’ll find someone who is completely unknown to me, but I love what I hear and I buy the record. So I think it’s a great thing.

Mark: Anything else you’d like to tell our readers that I haven’t asked you?

Greg: I’m in the process right now of working with a big company – I’m not allowed to say their name yet – but I’ve designed a guitar that I feel great about. I’ve bounced around some different companies over the past year or two for various reasons, and it all comes down to relationships. There are a lot of companies that can make great guitars, but the real issue is what kind of arrangement can be worked out with an artist that allows a relationship that is mutually beneficial for both parties?

I like the idea of keeping it real, and being able to say this is a great product and I am certainly able to make great music with it. Because of the fact that it’s a great product, and because of the fact that we have a great relationship and they respect what I’m doing and they respect my music, I think we can do great things together. And because I was asked to help in the product design, it feels even better.

Mark: I’d like to ask you just one more question – just for fun. If you could put together a dream band with anyone – alive or dead – who would you choose?

Greg: Wow. I don’t know; I guess it depends on the context of what I was attempting to do. There are so many different kinds of musicians I like. I will say this – I would love to play with Dave Weckl. He is one of my favorite musicians. I think he’s incredible, and I think he’s accurate. His pocket is crazy deep - to me, it doesn’t get much better than that.

I would also love to play with Gary Willis. He’s a monster bass player, and he has a unique pocket. What I love about him is that it’s almost like having another percussionist in the group because he’s got so much ghost-note percussion stuff happening in his groove. The band can just be simmering on some vamp, and it just feels busy, and all the smaller time parts are filled in. As a soloist, I can really vibe off that because you’re not as afraid to let notes ring for a couple of bars and worry about it becoming too empty. I love that element that he’s got, so when I think about those two guys in the same band it’s pretty interesting to me.

Mark: Thanks so much for your time Greg, and good luck with the new CD.

Greg: Thank you.

[Mark Rabuffo is a free-lance writer from Connecticut.]

Related Links
Greg Howe (MySpace)
Shrapnel Label Group

---