Friends of Dan transcript - Revision history

Per at 09:49, 5 November 2026

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			This is an edited version of the "Friends of Dan" raw transcript. Almost all the editing has been done by AI, and I have not checked every single quote, but done a quick readthrough that seems to be acceptable. It is still a work in progress.

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 [Music plays: "Metal Fatigue"]
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	AH: I just want to thank everybody for being so kind to me, and all those great musicians who've said those nice things about me. It's very moving, and I appreciate it. I was very happy that Dan and Evan Cohen from Manifesto Records asked about doing a compilation, as an old guy and everything, and just kind of reissuing this stuff—because of the fact that they were mostly either discontinued, bootlegs, or remastered who knows where.		AH: I just want to thank everybody for being so kind to me, and all those great musicians who've said those nice things about me. It's very moving, and I appreciate it. I was very happy that Dan and Evan Cohen from Manifesto Records asked about doing a compilation, as an old guy and everything, and just kind of reissuing this stuff—because of the fact that they were mostly either discontinued, bootlegs, or remastered who knows where.

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Part 5

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	Here is the cleaned-up transcript for Part 5 in plain text, with double line breaks separating each paragraph and speaker labels abbreviated as DM for Dan Miles and AH for Allan Holdsworth.

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Part 4

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			Here is the cleaned-up transcript for Part 5 in plain text, with double line breaks separating each paragraph and speaker labels abbreviated as DM for Dan Miles and AH for Allan Holdsworth.

			===

			AH: I just want to thank everybody for being so kind to me, and all those great musicians who've said those nice things about me. It's very moving, and I appreciate it. I was very happy that Dan and Evan Cohen from Manifesto Records asked about doing a compilation, as an old guy and everything, and just kind of reissuing this stuff—because of the fact that they were mostly either discontinued, bootlegs, or remastered who knows where.

			AH: They wanted to do a nice job, and I think they did a great job, actually. Obviously, depending on how old the material was, some of it was on two-inch, some of it was half-inch, and some of it was digital tape machines. Overall, I think they did a great job, and it was kind of like looking back over my shoulder—which I don't really like to do—but as an old man now, I feel that it was okay to do that.

			AH: I was not happy with the title of the compilation box, because it's outside the realm of my normal way of thinking to self-promote in that way. But they'd already spent time and money doing the cover, and I was only concerned with the music—I just wanted to make sure that the music was okay.

			AH: I think they did a wonderful job. Really, what I'm trying to focus on now is the new album—the newest one I'm working on with Virgil Donati and Jimmy Johnson. I don't know how long this will take, but we'll see!

			DM: I'm glad you summarized the project the way you did, because as I said, I have an advance copy of Eidolon, which is the two-disc set, and then the 12-CD set. I had forgotten that Road Games had been out of print for a while and there had been problems getting some of these things. It's very nice to be able to have I.O.U. through Flat Tire—Flat Tire: Music for a Non-Existent Movie—and there's also the live album at the end (Then). As you've also stated, you're not finished making music—you have more music you're going to continue to make. But it's really nice to have this set; there's a lot of music for people to chew on while they're waiting for the next one. I want to stress the point that when the next one is done, please come back so we can talk about it! I'm very curious to hear it.

			AH: You bet, you bet! Thank you so much.

			DM: So everybody, if you're new to Allan's music or if you're a long-time fan, now is the perfect time to discover or rediscover his solo recordings, because they've literally never sounded better. It sounds really great; the remastering was a roaring success. Again, the release date for both the expanded and abridged collections is April 7th, but both are available right now for pre-order on Amazon.com, so reserve yours today!

			DM: For our exit music, we're going to treat everyone to that Jack Bruce version of "Road Games" we mentioned earlier, and then after that, we're going to hear Allan's rendition of the Irving Berlin standard, "How Deep Is the Ocean?"

			DM: Well, Allan, I want to thank you for joining me today. You've been a musical hero of mine for many years now, so I really appreciate this opportunity to speak with you.

			AH: Well, it's been my pleasure. Thank you so very much for giving me the opportunity! And just like I said to all the people that have stuck with me over the years: I really, truly appreciate it. Thank you all so very much.

			DM: I want to thank everyone who sent in a comment or an audio clip. I also want to thank Allan's collaborator, Dan Perloff. Extra special thanks to Anne Leighton for her assistance arranging this interview. Thanks to Tom Bowers for engineering and editing the podcast, and thanks once again to the one and only Allan Holdsworth.

			DM: Now, as promised, here are a couple more tastes from his upcoming remastered collection. First, we have the title track from Road Games, featuring Chad Wackerman on drums, our friend Jeff Berlin on bass, and Jack Bruce with a previously unreleased alternate lead vocal. And then we have Allan's Irving Berlin cover, "How Deep Is the Ocean?", featuring Gary Willis on bass, Kirk Covington on drums, and Gordon Beck on keyboards. Basically, a whole lot of top-level musical content coming your way!

			DM: Don't forget to pre-order your Allan Holdsworth collection today, or if you're hearing this podcast after April 7th, 2017, don't forget to rush right out and pick it up! Thanks very much for listening, and we'll see you next time. So long, everybody!

			[Music plays: "Road Games" (feat. Jack Bruce)]

			[Music plays: "How Deep Is the Ocean?"]

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	DM: I don't know, do you need to pause and break a board or anything?		DM: I don't know, do you need to pause and break a board or anything?

			=Part 3=
			DM: I like that analogy, which basically says, "Don't fight this guy on guitar because you're going to lose!" But it was interesting what she said about your approach to time being tied to normal speech patterns—you know, your playing doesn't have to fit a particular time signature, and if you want to add a beat or lose one, go ahead and don't confine yourself to established practices. That's an interesting thought to have, because how weird would it be if we all spoke in perfect measures, or if we said everything in haiku or something, you know?

			DM: If you can speak with any rhythm you want, you should be able to play that way too. Did she get that right? Did Chad have that right?

			AH: Yeah, but also Frank Zappa said that, also. He said, "You don't speak in 4/4."

			DM: Tell me about your new album! Yeah, I guess it would be pretty much perfectly logical, actually. It is when you stop and think about it, but many people probably don't question it. In progressive rock, there are a lot of riffs that are built on odd time signatures, but in terms of soloing, I guess as long as the other players are really listening carefully... because Jennifer made that point about not knowing where the "one" is, as long as the guys on stage have a basic idea, I guess.

			DM: She also mentioned that technique that sounds like a whammy bar, but it's done with the fingers. Do you know what she was referring to?

			AH: I know exactly what she's referring to, yeah. It's just when you grab the string—if you pull the string from below the fret before you fret it and push towards the bridge, that will be very sharp. And likewise, if you grab... say, playing an A on the E string, and you grab it from above, when your finger lands on the note you want to play, if you pull it towards the nut, it will be really flat. So you can get it to move, like... actually, if you get good at it, you can actually stretch it a tone! I don't know that I've ever been able to do more than that, but usually a half step.

			DM: That's interesting! Well, that's why I reached out to these other players, because they have stuff on the brain that's not on my brain. I'm glad she was able to contribute that.

			DM: Well, I have a feeling you're going to enjoy this next clip. Let's spin it:

			DM: [Audio Clip - Carl Jah]: "Hey Dan Miles, this is Carl Jah from Atlanta, Georgia. When you told me that Allan Holdsworth is going to have a 12-CD box set released, my first thought was: 'Man, that's a lot of notes! A lot of notes! If I had a penny for all the notes on that collection, I'd be a wealthy man!' But seriously folks, no, Allan Holdsworth's a master—master brewer! The man likes to make beer... What is this, a roast? That concludes the comedy portion of our show. I'm here Mondays and Thursdays, try the veal! The name Allan Holdsworth first blipped on my radar when a friend brought an album to my house. He says, 'You've got to hear this guitar player, I've never heard anything like it!' It was called Bundles by a band called Soft Machine. They were a progressive English band, and it was groundbreaking. The highest compliment you can pay any musician is that they're original, and this was very original. It sounded like a crazy saxophone, and the tone was amazing. We were like, 'How does he play like that? What is this?' So we followed Allan Holdsworth, you know—I got Velvet Darkness, I still have a vinyl copy of Velvet Darkness as well as having a vinyl copy of Metal Fatigue. Metal Fatigue was an album that I think a lot of people embraced. It had a lot of rock overtones, and he got on a lot of people's radar, I think, with that album. But I've pretty much heard everything, and it's all great, it's all original, and brings something different to the table every time. I got to see Allan Holdsworth play twice: early on, I saw I.O.U. play at the Roxy Theatre—Jeff Berlin on bass, Chad Wackerman on drums—and man, a lot of noise coming off that stage for three guys! It was pretty amazing. Years later, I saw him at the Coach House down in San Juan Capistrano. Gary Husband was on drums, I can't remember the rest of the band, but again, an equally amazing show! And I actually met Allan Holdsworth one time: around 1990 or '91, Dread Zeppelin was touring England, and we were at this rehearsal studio playing in the studio for like a press thing, recording it and interviewing the band. So I went to this little corner coffee clutch thing to get a cup of coffee on the floor we were at, and who's standing there but Allan Holdsworth! So I introduced myself to him, and we chatted a bit. He was there rehearsing with Level 42—he did a tour with them, I think maybe an album even—and very nice guy, very personable, always ready to talk about guitars. Just had a little brief chat, and he was off, but he was very friendly and seemed like a real nice guy. So those are a few of the bright Allan Holdsworth moments in my life. I just want to say: Allan, you've inspired many people, many guitar players, many musicians. 12 CDs is an amazing accomplishment. I wish you many more, and I hoist my glass in your direction. Cheers! The one and only Carl Jah."

			AH: That's awesome! That was funny!

			DM: When Carl sent me his audio clip, he also sent me a picture of you guys together. It must have been that Level 42 event he was talking about.

			DM: Another aspect of your work that probably isn't mentioned enough is your sense of humor, which can often be found in your song titles and, more importantly, I often detect a sense of whimsy in your soloing. Humor is obviously an important tool just to get us through life in general, but in terms of musicianship, how important do you think it is to incorporate some humor now and then?

			AH: I think it's very important, actually, because if you look at life... you have to try to find something fun in it to ease the pain, you know? Most of the musicians I've worked with have a fantastic sense of humor; they're all usually very, very funny guys, you know. Chad's got one of the driest wits of all—he's very funny.

			DM: I think it relates to intelligence and playing the type of music you do. You're not going to have a lot of dummies playing bass and drums in your band, so it seems like it would go hand in hand that they would be smart, funny, and talented.

			AH: Well, I've been extremely lucky in that department. Most everybody that I've played with—keyboards, bass, drummers—are actually some of the most amazing musicians around, and it's been my pleasure to work with all of them. Most everybody I've worked with had their own personality, and they all bring something really different to the table, you know? I really enjoy that; I like to incorporate that in the music where I'm not very strict in terms of interpretation. If they want to interpret it for themselves, I let them do that, because I think that's a good thing. It makes them find their way through the music, and then hopefully make it more enjoyable. Trying to tell somebody, "Well, you do this here, and you do that there"... I tend to let them make their own rules, as long as they're playing the music, which they all do. They can interpret it in different ways.

			AH: One example is: I did a track with Gary Husband and Jimmy Johnson which was actually never released, and then I did the same song again with Joel Taylor and Ernest Tibbs, which is still unreleased. But I was going to put them both on the same record, because with the exception of being able to recognize the melody and the actual composition, the interpretation is completely different. It's just like two different universes! And I love that, I really like that—I like to let the guys find themselves. That inspires me, too, because it pushes me to evolve what I'm doing and fit into their interpretation, as opposed to trying to force a direction, if you know what I mean.

			DM: I know exactly what you mean. A lot of the guests we've had on this show have been professional studio players, and they will show up for a job and it can go either of those two ways: they can be told, "All right, play what's on that sheet music and do not bring yourself to it at all," or they can be given the freedom to really contribute. You would think that's what you would want—if Lee Ritenour comes in, or Jay Graydon, or Elliott Randall, or some player who's in the studio all the time—let them contribute, like you just said. And they said, "Yeah, you'd think so, but you'd be surprised how often you get in there and they give you something that anybody could have played; they're not putting their personal stamp on it at all," which seems kind of crazy to me. It's like: take advantage of the talent, you're paying for it!

			AH: Yeah, you would think so! I did a few session things, and sometimes I would go, "Well, why did you have me do this? Anybody could have done it!" If they don't want you to be yourself, then what's the point, you know?

			DM: I hear you, man. One thing—I can't remember which guest mentioned this to me, but he said there was a time, probably in the '70s, when record companies wanted to have lots of names in the liner notes. So instead of just getting one rhythm section, they would have a different bass player and a different drummer—the biggest names they could get—so you'd have Russ Kunkel on this one, but you'd have Jeff Porcaro on that one. They just liked having lots of names, and then, of course, the album is less cohesive when you do that, obviously.

			DM: Speaking of humor... from my own experiences, I found this kind of humorous and ironic back in the day, because I used to tell people that I suspected you were a time traveler, because whenever I watched you play, I felt like I was looking into the future! And then you came out with this album called Atavachron, where you're wearing a Star Trek uniform on the cover and standing in front of a time portal, and I thought, "Hey, maybe my theory's not so far-fetched after all!"

			AH: I was going the wrong way! I was going back into the past!

			DM: It was just funny, because I had been making that joke about watching you play and looking into the future before Atavachron came out, so after Atavachron came out, it was a little bit too eerie—I didn't want to make that joke anymore!

			DM: As an example of your musical humor, I'm going to play a track that both Joel and Carl mentioned: the title track from Metal Fatigue, which appears to be a bit of a dig at metal guitarists. Were you trying to gently chide them for the repetitive nature?

			AH: No, no, no! It was just a play on words, really—it didn't have anything to do with that at all. It was just that when I first was writing that song, it kind of reminded me of heavy metal... And when I worked with Paul Williams, I originally used to write some lyrics of my own, but then I decided that it seemed best to give the vocalist the freedom to make sense out of the lyrics for themselves. So I would let Paul come up with his own lyrics, and he just happened to put that in there, so it became "heavy metal fatigue." It wasn't a dig at all, not at all! I mean, there are so many great metal guitarists. I thought it was kind of fun experimenting with pitch-shifting and all that stuff, which I've experimented with a lot, so it was basically just me having fun.

			DM: I'm glad you clarified that, because your playing on that track is really wild, and combining the lyrical thing... As a guy who was traveling in the circle of metal musicians when that came out, I can tell you no metal guitar players were offended.

			AH: It wasn't intended to be that way at all. Like I said, it was just fun—we were just having fun, you know. I quite often will have an idea of what the piece of music is going to be, and the title often will be based around that; I'll write the piece of music based around the idea I have for that title. But in that case it wasn't, it was just something that grew out of it.

			AH: Like when we did the album Hard Hat Area with Skúli Sverrisson on bass, Gary Husband, and Steve Hunt on keyboards: after a show, Skúli came up to me and goes, "Hey man, did you see all the people in the front row? They look like we needed to be handing out hard hats!" It was funny, because he's another very, very funny guy. And then I just came up with the title for the album, you know? But it was not a putdown in any way, it was just humor, really.

			DM: That's a good example of it! No matter what the intention, I think we can all agree that the result was pretty badass. So let me go ahead and enjoy the remastered version of "Metal Fatigue."

			[Music plays: "Metal Fatigue"]
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	DM: Well, speaking of compliments, as listeners of the show can attest, I know quite a few elite guitar players who are big fans of yours. I reached out to some of them to solicit their input—some responded in writing, others in audio. Don't worry, I'm not going to force you to sit there uncomfortably while I heap a lot of random praise on you; that's not what this is about. What I want to do is take some of their observations and use them to springboard into some interesting discussion points.		DM: Well, speaking of compliments, as listeners of the show can attest, I know quite a few elite guitar players who are big fans of yours. I reached out to some of them to solicit their input—some responded in writing, others in audio. Don't worry, I'm not going to force you to sit there uncomfortably while I heap a lot of random praise on you; that's not what this is about. What I want to do is take some of their observations and use them to springboard into some interesting discussion points.

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Part 2

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	Here is the cleaned-up transcript for Part 2 in plain text, with double line breaks separating each paragraph and speaker labels abbreviated as DM for Dan Miles and AH for Allan Holdsworth.

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Per at 00:49, 5 November 2026

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Show changes

Per: Created page with "Welcome to the Friends of Dan Music Podcast. I'm Dan Miles. My guest today, Allan Holdsworth, is one of the most influential guitarists in the history of the instrument. His name appears on a very short list of truly visionary players—like Django Reinhardt, Jimi Hendrix, and Eddie Van Halen—whose musical imaginations and unprecedented technical ability have led countless guitarists to completely rethink their approach to the instrument and forever expand its vocabul..."

2026-11-05T00:47:46Z

Created page with "Welcome to the Friends of Dan Music Podcast. I'm Dan Miles. My guest today, Allan Holdsworth, is one of the most influential guitarists in the history of the instrument. His name appears on a very short list of truly visionary players—like Django Reinhardt, Jimi Hendrix, and Eddie Van Halen—whose musical imaginations and unprecedented technical ability have led countless guitarists to completely rethink their approach to the instrument and forever expand its vocabul..."

New page

Welcome to the Friends of Dan Music Podcast. I'm Dan Miles.

My guest today, Allan Holdsworth, is one of the most influential guitarists in the history of the instrument. His name appears on a very short list of truly visionary players—like Django Reinhardt, Jimi Hendrix, and Eddie Van Halen—whose musical imaginations and unprecedented technical ability have led countless guitarists to completely rethink their approach to the instrument and forever expand its vocabulary and possibilities.

On April 7th, 2017, he'll be releasing a 12-CD box set featuring remastered versions of all 11 of his groundbreaking solo albums, from 1982's I.O.U. through 2001's Flat Tire, plus his 2003 live album, Then.

This epic career retrospective is called The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever: The Allan Holdsworth Album Collection. While that title is entirely appropriate, I can guarantee you that it was not Allan's idea to call it that, as he's always been quite modest about his achievements as a soloist and composer.

The set will also include a comprehensive 40-page booklet. Even though it's well worth the investment, understandably a 12-disc set is bound to be on the pricey side. So on the same day, he'll also be releasing a 2-CD set featuring 28 tracks he has hand-picked as examples of his finest moments.

Though we're recording this interview in March and neither product has been officially released, I'm happy to say I am in possession of an advance copy of the 2-CD set, which is called Eidolon: The Allan Holdsworth Collection.

So we're going to be able to listen to samples from the new remastered collection. I'm going to start things off with one of my personal favorite Holdsworth compositions, featuring one of my all-time favorite Holdsworth solos. For long-time fans of Allan's, this will serve as a nice reminder of his epic skill, and for the uninitiated who will be experiencing his artistry for the first time... well, prepare to have your mind blown.

As originally featured on his 1985 Metal Fatigue album, featuring Jimmy Johnson on bass and Chad Wackerman on drums, here is the newly remastered version of Allan's composition: "Devil Take the Hindmost."

[Music plays: "Devil Take the Hindmost"]

DM: Joining me on the phone from San Diego, California, is Allan Holdsworth. Welcome!

AH: Thank you.

DM: Well, through the courtesy of your co-producer, Dan Perloff, I have an advance copy of the two-disc set you'll be releasing next month. I recently drove from LA to Phoenix, and I took the opportunity to listen to all 28 tracks uninterrupted.

AH: Oh, great!

DM: It was exciting! So the first thing I want to do is compliment you on the sequencing of the album. I appreciate how the tracks flow together. It isn't purely chronological in either direction, but musically it's very logical. I was wondering about that at first, but as I listened to the tracks, it all made complete sense.

DM: The second thing I want to compliment you on is how good it sounds. I did side-by-side comparisons with the earlier versions, and there's a noticeable improvement. What were your specific goals for remastering this material?

AH: Well, I relied on Dan Perloff for that because he had a mastering company and a mastering engineer that he really liked to work with. So they sent samples of all the tracks, and I thought he did a wonderful job, actually—considering that the source material, the further back you go, wasn't as good as the newer ones, obviously. But I think he did a wonderful job on it.

DM: Yeah, all the instruments sound very present, but to me, it's the drums that really stand out. They have a depth and a rumble to them that wasn't there before. I was putting the actual CDs into my Bose system in the car and going, "Oh my, this sounds really great!"

DM: An exclusive feature of the set is a previously unreleased version of the song "Road Games" with Jack Bruce on lead vocals instead of Paul Williams. What was the story behind that?

AH: Well, the story behind that actually goes back to a big battle I had with Ted Templeman, who was a fantastic producer, as you know. One of the problems was when I signed with Warner Brothers, they didn't really tell me upfront what they wanted me to do. I thought I would do what I had done before—which was to do exactly what I wanted.

AH: But they decided that they wanted to change it. Ted didn't like Paul Williams for some reason—and I loved Paul, actually; I thought he was fabulous. But Ted wanted me to use different people and kind of forced the issue. In the end, I just kind of gave up on it, which is why the original EP just says "Produced by Circumstance." We were supposed to have at least eight to ten tracks on there, and we only ended up doing six. Then I was unceremoniously dropped by the label.

AH: Which was fine, because in the contract it said that they had to pay for me to do another demo. So I went back to the studio of my choice and recorded Metal Fatigue. It was just bureaucracy, you know—I had to send the tape to Ted Templeman, which they just declined (I don't think he even listened to it). But the fact is that they ended up paying for the majority of Metal Fatigue, and I gave that to my friend Bill Hein, who was the boss at Enigma Records.

AH: But coming back to your question: Jack was on the original recording. Actually, it was Paul on everything originally, but then we replaced him with Jack because it was part of the deal, and I couldn't get out of that.

AH: Eventually, what happened was we recorded it with Jack, but Ted Templeman never came to the studio once—he listened to all of the mixes over the phone in the end. I figured he knew that we weren't going to agree, so he said, "Okay, well, you just go finish it yourself."

AH: So I took the tape back—I snuck the tape out of Warner Brothers and took it back to the Music Grinder studio—and did a mix with Paul on it, which is why Paul was the only one on the original release. But we already had the Jack Bruce version, and I love Jack, obviously. So I thought it would be interesting for people to hear Jack sing that song, and I decided to use that version as opposed to the original.

DM: I know from your perspective Road Games was very problematic, but it's always going to be a sentimental favorite for me simply because it was my personal entry point to your solo work. Of course, Jack Bruce and Paul both sang vocals on the album, so it was interesting to see that resurface now. I like both performances, but the one that's been in my head all these years is Paul's.

DM: I don't have the 12-disc set yet, but I reviewed the track listing. For more exclusive content, people can look for three bonus tracks on Disc 7: "Tokyo Dream" and "The Un-Merry-Go-Round (Parts 4 & 5)," which I believe have been released before, but only in Japan. On Disc 12, there's a bonus version of "Funnels," and on Disc 10, there's a track called "Material Unreal," which is a title I don't recognize. What's the story behind that track?

AH: Basically, it was just an instrumental version of a track—there were no vocals on it from what I remember. I originally added that as a bonus track on The Sixteen Men of Tain, on a limited edition release that Eddie Jobson put out when he was distributing that record for a short time. I just used that version for this collection.

DM: Well, as I said, I haven't heard the 12-disc set yet, so I was only able to read the track listing. But the real point of it is just to hear the remastered collection, and I'm looking forward to that.

DM: What I want to know more generally: as you were developing your signature style—which is often characterized as being fluid or legato—was it a case of hearing a sound in your head and trying to develop a technique to capture what you heard, or was it more of an instinctive process of doing what felt natural?

AH: It was both. Originally, I wanted to play a horn—I really wanted to play saxophone, or any wind instrument, really. I did play clarinet for a while, and messed around with the saxophone many years later.

AH: But basically, it was instinctual for me to try to get the guitar to sound a little bit more liquid. As you know, the guitar is a percussive instrument, and I tried to get it to sound like a non-percussive instrument. I was always striving to find a way to make it more fluid. I guess it was just an unconscious desire to play the saxophone!

DM: Another thing that's frequently commented on—beyond the actual notes you play—is your tone. With very few exceptions, jazz guitarists tend to favor clean tones, avoiding any hint of distortion at all costs. But you've taken the best aspects of distortion—controlled feedback and warm sustain—to create a very rich and pleasant sound. Did you ever experiment with clean tones in your early days, or have you always been drawn to a more rock-oriented guitar sound?

AH: It's actually a blend, really. I needed to use some sort of distortion to assist with the sustain, because I knew that in order to make it sound more horn-like, I needed the notes to hold longer than they would with a clean tone.

AH: However, for the chordal stuff, I always used a very clean sound—at least, I thought it was clean! So it was a mixture. It wasn't easy in a way, because I wanted to make it sound fluid without sounding like heavy distortion—not quite as aggressive as a regular rock sound.

DM: Obviously your chord voicings are very clean—you really wouldn't be able to hear the details if those were distorted. I was really speaking of your lead guitar tone; I guess I should have been more specific.

AH: No, that's right! But that's basically what I did: I tried to control the distortion to a point where it didn't sound that distorted, at least later on. I kept pushing myself to find a way to get that sustain without having a nasty sound.

DM: You're right, it occupies a middle ground. To me, it sounds like a singing voice—it just sings, and it never sounds unpleasant. I appreciate that; thank you so much for the compliment!