Allan Holdsworth (Gitarre Und Basse 1997): Difference between revisions

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you create a topWould Ten of the most innovative electric guitarists since the development of this instrument, then Allan Holdsworth deserved certainly one of the front Charts positions. After all, sometimes frankly, so many musicians there are now not have been that as an individual game on its six strings simultaneously, were able to realize new sonic concepts and unambiguous recognition.

 

Allan Holdsworth now lives with his wife and three children known to arid Southern California. Next to his house he set up in a garage a small studio, which, however, is still by his own admission for years under construction - good equipment costs known to some, and Allan, despite its high reputation among musicians never heard of those who earned more than they needed to live.

Holdsworth is both a very reserved, almost abrasive person, but this full-friendliness and helpfulness. "Call me before you losfährst" he said on the phone, "I'll pick you up from the station then." Said and done - and two hours later we were sitting in his studio between guitars, amps and effects pedals. It could start.

G & B: How did it happen that you are emigrated several years ago in the United States.

AH: After working with Bill Bruford, which was about the late 70s, I wanted to finally compile your own lineup. I was only a member of bands other musicians and now planned times to realize my ideas, because I already had a number of compositions in the drawer. At that time I met the drummer Gary Husband, and we got along great. We searched a long time for a bassist and eventually found Paul Carmichael. Then we had to get no real gigs the problem and played mostly only in some London pubs, fifteen people. A friend of mine, the singer Paul Williams, was living in California, and he had worried about Mike Varney (now head of Shrapnel Records, d. Ed.) Three gigs. Mike was a kind of a fan of us, and he had convinced a club owner in San Francisco, us to book. For me and the band Was that an incredible thing, because the place was full! Every evening, over 500 people came by, and in London it had previously really been only 15th I did not understand at the first, but I realized that there was good in spite of everything an audience for our music. And since that time I had also read my name occasionally in American magazines, I decided to stay in the United States. In England, I saw no way to survive as a musician; If I had stayed, I would certainly have given up this job. Sure, I could have continued to play guitar, but not as a professional. So that was the reason for my move.  

G & B: You've hardly taken in recent years Studio jobs in addition to your own productions.  

AH: No, at the time Mach calibration nothing in this direction.  

G & B: you Is not the principle, or lack there of offers?  

AH: No, I do not want that. I'm not good at doing something that other peopleto me

writebefore.I would not be a good soldier. Me it is more to do my own stuff. This is of course not easy, whitish no money can earn it, if I only work on my music. If we can go for a while on tour, then that's OK. But in the months that I spend here at home, it looks in financial terms have sometimes rather hard from. But that's fine. In all this years, I've bought a lot of equipment, maybe I have indeed in ten years enough stuff that I can produce even my music completely and am no longer rely on record companies. Then everything would look already quite different.  

G & B: Michael Landau told me, for him there was a very clear separation between his own music and the studio jobs. You could not imagine such an ambivalent life you accordingly.  

AH: I do not think so. Often, when I was playing times for other people, they have my post then not used, but later someone else range covered. They always called and told me: "We like the way you played and want that you will contribute to this song exactly your thing. Doing exactly what you imagine. "After setting

them firmly th then that they did not like it. Actually they want most but that one little power to which one is not himself. I am not interested in such work also for another important reason: I have a lot of people know, great musicians who afterwards but no longer found in this studio scene Kamen, the Wegraus. Because if you so deserve a lot of money, it's not so easy if you want to be realized from this Lebensstilwegzukommen, ne own music. And since I never had much money, I've just gotten used to it. Of course, it is better to become over time gradually; and I like that even more than if I'd suddenly become rich with one thing, I do not like and then do not wegkäme it. All I want to do is play, and such studio jobs are not always necessarily music to me. Sure, I'll do well gels: sionally job when I make certain electronic devices for people that always bring me some money, if we are, as in previous months, not on tour. But I'm building rather for someone any device, except that I'm playing in the studio for other people something to which I am not.  

G & B: But you beentothe penultimate Al

listening bum Level 42nd How could you struggle through like that?  

AH: That was several years ago. Gary Husband was at that time at level 42, and her guitarist then suddenly died. They asked me to see if I could not come to England to record a few solos. I knew that they are all very nice guys, and therefore I have then made. I helped them while they were looking for a new guitarist - that was an exceptional situation. And there was really no typical session atmosphere, I felt something in the tape-related integrated.  

G & B: Tempest, Soft Machine, Lifetime, Jean-Luc Ponty, UK, Gong, Bill Bruford - these are probably the most important formations and musicians with whom you have worked. Which phase was in retrospect the most important for you?  

AH: They were all important, every band in their time. For me it was of equal importance, and all formations have given me for different reasons fun. UK perhaps the least. I liked it very much, Bill (Bruford, drummer of the UK, for the author.) To work: On his solo albums, especially on the second, One Of A Kind ", I still felt most likely in a band. Before that were always more sessions.  

G & B: But at UK even ran the cooperation from less well?  

AH No, that was not so great. Although they are all very nice people, I still like them and am also happy when I see her once, but that was a kind of musical incompatibility, we wanted to never do what everyone wanted to do individual. It was actually Eddies (violinist / keyboardist Eddie Jobson, d Ed.) Band, and he and (singer / bassist) John Wetton saw things in their own way, Bill Stand in the middle and I am very different end. (grins). I really was not a good guy for this band, I think today. I could change things, play things differently, but that never had an effect on other musicians. It was as'd calibration with a machine games, and that made me mad. When I play, for example, along with Gary Husband, I get a response to every little thing that I do. I like this organic thing, but in the UK in this regard was no life - that was dead, that was pasteurized music. There was no room for improvisation, and they asked me live the same soloists play like on the plate. I can

not, because that contradicts everything what I believe. (laughing). It is not a solo when it is not improvised!  

G & B: Was that in the band of Jean-Luc Ponty different?  

AH: Oh yes, I was able to play my solos | as I wanted. Of course, I had to learn the compositions, but I always had my freedom.  

G & B: Probably Jean-Luc Ponty more jazz musicians, as one might guess his fusion albums from the Endsiebzigern.  

AH: I think he's great, and it is simply underestimated by many people.

I've seen him on stage, and that was fascinating. This time was a lot of fun for me, also because I him as a man Very Imag

G & B: Have you ever worked with Miles Davis and Frank Zappa? Combining with you I would have imagined interesting.  

Ah no. I have Frank times met by Chad Wackerman, who worked with him. Frank was very good to me, he helped me a lot. He has always been very generously supported me, and I really miss him. What I loved about him was that he was in many ways was a man in the you look up, not only as a musician. He was an organizer of his life, he made his way around with record companies and took out all the best possible. I thought that was great. He was a guy like Clint Eastwood, someone who did everything in his own way without directly deep to put in the business - and with success, Frank Zappa was successful with what he did, and all this was only his own income. This is something I admire, although my own not succeed; I think differently. But I would love to come to the point of being able to live well in this way in my own world, without ever since to have to figure out. My own little Disneyland, that would be great (laughs).  

G & B: I just mentioned Miles Davis, Weiler you as a guitarist also greatly admired.  

AH: I did not know that then. Then I got a call from his sometime manager or one of his musicians, and they asked me if I wanted to play with him. And of course I wanted that! But just at that time already stand a tour with my own band, and I was in a total conflict. This tour I could cancel impossible whitish not want to let down my musicians. Yes, and I think he did not call me again (laughs). But that would have been a great thing.  

G & B: Who is your favorite among Milosavas guitarists?  

AH: Oh, I like them all, I think every one of them was great: John McLaughlin, Mike Stern, John Scofield - they are all more than fantastic.  

G & B: Is there any guitarists from which you feel affected you?  

I heard John Scofield and John McLaughlin, I found them both very inspiring in different ways. But I never wanted to analyze something or go deeper there. I take that as to how it is: as something that I hear and like. That is my benchmark for quality I accept the high standard of these musicians and try to achieve both a high level, without doing anything, what other people do already. To achieve this kind of quality level, I try in my music. If I so rich approach these people, to musicians that I find really impressive, I do not know. Time will tell.  

G & B: You once said that there are a lot of shots in which you were involved for which you are ashamed of yourself, John Scofield told me the same thing recently in an interview.  

AH Yes, that's a horrible feeling, the worst feeling in the world. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who do not care what the artist says, and wants - Bootlegger, producers want to make just any lousy plate. A good example of this is my album Velvet Darkness "which is and always has been awful: just how it was done, no one had a fair chance to listen to the recording time in the control room, etc. It was also a great financial rip-off of all participating musicians , At first I was told that the album would not appear, and I just thought Toll, the worry you're going. Then suddenly came several Bootlegger with these recordings on the market, and then the worst happened at all: A large major company, Epic Records, just took these shots out again, and this at a time when all seven albums that I had recorded and I was really proud just were not mehrerhältlich! I went to the shops, and the only record I found it I was, Velvet Darkness, "Do you know when these things happen, I tell myself only," since "and wants to plunk down everything me a job search and otherwise only still ride a bicycle. This aspect of the music business is so sick, because it's all about money, everything boils down to the money  

G & B: And on this plate then you have nothing to deserve this?  

Ah no! Never, not a penny. My lawyer has but then hunted, and the album was subsequently withdrawn from the market. And that's why I can people

understandlike John Scofield, when some shots just do not want to listen. Of course there are things that to me, not as fallen today after a long time, as also point when I took it - that's something else. But as for Velvet Darkness, "it is absolutely impossible to listen to me today.  

G & B: Similar negative You once said you through your recordings with drummer John Stevens.  

inexcusable, because he was finally one of us, it was a musician who did this! If it had been someone from the record company, I might have been able to swallow it, but he was one of the band. I hope I will never have anything to do with him again, I do not want to meet him. (laughs) At least not in the coming years.  

G & B: Let's talk about more enjoyable matters. Joe Satriani has, in an interview for a series of workshops in this magazine, even mentioned how important you were on his musical development.  

AH: Oh, really?  

G & B: He said, among other things, how important "Believe It by Tony Williams Lifetime, with you as a guitarist, influenced him has (seeauthor..).  

G & B, edition 2/94, for the  A key message was that erin Deiner Artzuspielen, was the model for the development and realization of his own ideas.  

AH: Oh, that's great. I am very pleased to hear that. We met only a few times briefly.  

G & B: Let's go back to your beginnings: Before you solely as a musician Your Money Worth Have, Have you an ordinary worker.  

AH: I have a lot of jobs behind me, and even after I focused on the music, I often worked even in passing.

(laughing). These magnificent eight-hour jobs  

G & B: Can you still remember you, from When Your guitar playing showed that typical flowing character who is your brand today?  

AH Something like that. I have not been all too soon begin to play. I loved always the music that I grew up in a very musical environment, because my father played constantly plates of excellent musicians, dieichmirimmeranhörte. I love the music since I was three or four years old, since I used to sit in front of this old record player and explored my father's collection. On the other hand, I never had much interest, even to become a musician that came into existence rather by accident. I always nudelte around a bit on a guitar that we had at home. I really wanted back then but love to play the saxophone, my parents, however, such an instrument could not afford. With 17griffich then finally to the guitar, and when I 19 or 20 years old stock, then asked me friends, if I wanted to play in their bands. Then then I also began to deal intensively with the instrument. I played in a Top 40 band about three years in England, that was my first chance to work professionally. They paid me good money, I think it was 25 pounds

a week, that was a lot. In the factory at that time I earned only 13 or 14 pounds weekly, and by the job in the band, I was able to practice every day and still had more money than before. And it is at this stage in 1969/70, just before I with Tempest Played, then I first heard things in my game that I've always wanted to hear. Before that I sounded exactly different from what I wanted, which was a constant struggle.  

G & B: Back then you played yet on a Strat or a Gibson SG.  

AH: It was a red SG Standard, then I had a White SG Custom, the Strat came later. I also had a Vox AC30, then I played a Marshall JCM 45, or whatever his name was, a huge 8 x 10 "box. I have them but then turned into an equally large 4 × 12" box, which is very sounded good. The SG and the Marshall I have very long time Played, even at Tony Williams, Just before I then worked with Jean-Luc Ponty, I experimented with humbuckers on a Stratocaster around - that worked very well, and now makes almost everyone. (grins). That was a thousand years, I sometimes think.  

G & B: Going back to your "trademark": When did you bewußteinensustainreichen For the first time, heard distorted guitar tone?  

finally generated by the preamp distortion was only 50% of what I wanted. Preampsklingen very good for clean sounds, but for other things-I do not know. Do of course characteristic calibration other people, the excellent things with preamps, but I will be happy only with a complete amp.  

G & B: In recent years, did you also deals with the theme "volume reduction".  

AH: This ancient Load box only served to reduce the volume of cranked amps. The first model of that time I have even more. My new device also simulates but still the frequency-dependent impedance of a loudspeaker. The tapped at the speaker output amp signal comes as a line-level out of my unit out, so it turns simple terms, a complete amp in a preamp. Then this signal I can give Hall, an IT etc. The top must thereby not be connected to a speaker then. That's what I've worked for many years, and now it sounds really good.  

G & B: What amps do you use then to make the signal back "heard"?  

AH: With the power amp, which then control the Speaker, I have experimented a lot, including I use a Mesa / Boogie amplifier. Together with my device I do not need then of course necessarily a tube power amp; actually I had it most like a hi-fi amplifier, because the actual sound is already when it comes to the final stage. I would thus ultimately only reproduce the sound created, much like they do these things with the monitors in the control room of a studio. However, my device has no speaker simulation, no equalizer function, so I can not play with it directly into the console. It's just meant for live work, so the sound must eventually be removed from speakers. This is of course at very low volume possible with very good sound. When shooting geheich follows: The speaker, whose signal is picked up via the microphone is not in a housing coupon on a rack mounted, thus depends virtually anywhere in the room; the receiving micro located very close to the membrane. My amp setting sees it like this: the bass all the way down, mid, treble and volume controls being in the 1 o'clock position.  

G & B: What amp are you using now?

AH: For about four years I use amps Mesa / Boogie, but when we're on tour, I must often cope with the equipment, which is sent to me. Then I play sometimes two Fender Twin Reverb for clean sound and two Marshalls for the distorted things. I used a lot of rack equipment a few years ago, but I no longer use. I have all reduced the extent as humanly possible. Of what I still insets today, two Intellifexes, a Lexicon Alex and an equalizer to live I'm playing a boogie-top box plus for the lead sound and two combos for the

rhythm stuff; for that I take very like the satellites 60s, they are incredibly clean and I like that. In all Boogies are Celestion Speakers - I've never actually used other speakers.

I used to have two racks that were really as big as refrigerators. They are still in England, and I would like to bring them over. Maybe it works for the next tour, otherwise the freight costs are just too high. But I come with the small setup doing exceptionally well, because it just sounds. Many people do not realize that the guitar and the amp make the sound and not the other technical

devices. I am happy to denne sounds better and I have less to haul. If wirirgendwohinzueinem Konzertflie gen, it just costs too much money, when I take my own equipment. I've only ever doing a small compressor in March, which I like a preamp for clean sounds use; so I control then the two Intellifexes, and then go the signals to the amps that to set me up on stage. That does not sound as good as my own amplifier, but it works to some extent. I can now all I need in a small tool box (hardware store, DM 29.80; d. Verf) store and so can take it wherever you go. Occasionally I also use another TC-booster, but only in the Clean function. The pickups of my guitars have a very low output, and the booster then it brings about on the level of Super Distortion pickups. The sound of high-output pickups I namely not like. Then I use for some time yet the Mesa / Boogie V-Twin, a tube preamp with which you can directly into the mixer going. (Holdsworth played during the call temporarily on one of his guitars, without amp. And it was more than amazing How authentic came over his sound, you had the feeling that even this unplugged version includes everything that makes up the uniqueness of the siez musician. his secret is obviously "solid hand work," with a perfect blend of notes played, discreet Hamme ring and Slurs where beidierechte hand with her perfect Attack control is as important as the rapid fretboard runs; for the author)and..

G & B: the interaction of head fingers is you probably a lot more important than a particular guitar or an amplifier  

AH: some Leutenbedeutet the equipment too much, I see it only as my tool. The sound really begins in the mind of a musician, and also vielleichtkommtmandann still so far that it works in practice. Of course the right tools to help a while, but they are not the most important.  

G & B: Let's still the guitars that you play today  

AH: You are from a Californian named Bill Delap, they Erhat for me built. Bill lives in Monterey. I have two guitars from him, which differ only very slightly. The design of its instru

ments based on the Steinberger. All guitars I play the way have passive systems and custom pickups by Seymour Duncan. The hardware comes mostly from Steinberger: transtrem, groove, etc. However, with the vibrato I put on little. I especially like the sound of Alder wood, Male Necks and Ebony fingerboards.  

G & B: What about the Baritone Gintaras, do you use it for?  

AH: I had two of these instruments, but they have sold, ie exchanged. Then for that I got a synthaxe; the hatteichnämlich sold a few years ago until I missed then. The Baritone Guitar I had used on some tracks, most recently at Wardenclyffe Tower ". She has a 38'-scale and was very difficult to play; However, for this they sounded exceptionally well.  

G & B: What plectrums do you use?  

AH: Big Jim Dunlop Picks, 1mm thick. I think the pick relatively far back, and by the thickness and the material they are still very quiet. They do not generate unwanted noise in the attack  

G & B: How did you set the string height at your guitars?  

AH: Very low. I therefore must operate with a relatively light, cautious stop technology.

G & B: You often currency exchange between plectrum and finger picking?  

AH: Only occasionally. The chords game Eich mostly with the fingers. What I never do, is the combination of pick and fingers.  

G & B: And the position at which beat Durie strings when Plektrumspielan?  

AH: I'm trying to strike almost exactly halfway between the two pickups; I use primarily a the bridge pickup. The neck pickup I use only for chords. With the many pickups that's even such a thing: the more pickups on a guitar, the stronger the magnetic fields prevent uninfluenced swing of Saioten.  

G & B: You are generating the fade-ins of chords with the knob on the guitar?  

AH: No, I have not mastered. For this, I use a volume pedal. My hand I need the strings.  

G & B: What strings do you use?  

AH: Libell strings 008er sets. But that depends somewhat on the particular instrument. I have already played 009er and 010er strings z. B. on the Charvel, I had some time ago. With the thin 008ern I could befriend me until I switched to Steinberger design. These guitars

have 25.5 "-Mensuren, short Scales I can not play; a Gibson feels to me like a toy atB.  

G & Your hands look even at relatively large: 18You...  

AH: are not all that great. how did this rumor comes, I do not know. (grins) your fingers are still twice as long as mine. I have very thin wrists, much easily see the hands therefore bigger than they are. My palm is large, .. but the fingers are really not very long however, I have learned it when I started to play very well to stretch, I knew a classical guitarist who agreed with her instrument by playing on all strings sound "e": so Siegriff simultaneously on the a string, the D string and B string, which with very small hands that time I realized that the size of the hands does not matter, it's more about the flexibility ofB...:

G & is there a special training that you complete to your H keeping hands agile, stretching exercises, etc.?  

AH: No, I just only play every day.  

G & B: And are you working here then only with your music, or do you play purely technical exercises?  

AH: I actually practice more.My compositions I only play when I prepare for a tour, and then I have to learn all over again. Practice at home and I improvise. And whenever I get the point, constantly the same things to play, I deal with scales, etc. However, if I am comfortable with what I'm doing, I just play off only on it.  

G & B: What about if you live start a solo: Is that something that starts in the head, so it is clearly thought through?  

AH: No, I never know exactly what happened. Of course characteristic calibration chords, the arrangements, but you never know in advance what I do Will (laughs) I think this course about chords and scales to, but always try with what I play to be as innovative as possible. I think about new and different melodic lines of; maybe I can come up with a new way from one chord to another.  

G & B: Is it relevant even before that you like | Selbstüberraschst; that Duz.B. discover by "mistake" new ways?  

AH: Not really. Do you know if a sound | now is wrong or right, that still depends only

on whether you want to play that sound at that moment, too. I think it does not even matter whether a particular note in a harmonious context does not fit or - it is only correct if you will also be placed deliberately. Of course passiertes in improvisations or attempting to implement a particular idea that I lay next to it totally. But that's when you improvise, this is fun so.  

G & B: So Surprising things happen eherin of interaction, the interplay of the musicians or in the friction between soloist and companions?  

AH: Yes, that's it. I get a lot of the other musicians.  

G & B: I saw you a few years ago once in Germany at a festival, which also "Marc Johnson Bass Desiree" occurred with the two guitarists John Scofield and Bill Frisell. At that time I asked myself the question of which guitarist you could work together in a band. Did you do you ever similar thoughts?  

AH: I have several times thought about it, but what dissuaded me again and again by the idea of a two-guitar band, was that I did not know, should be werder second man. And then passiertes so often that a war breaks out when two guitarists are playing together, (grinning) and I do not like, because that leads away from the music. I do not want to think about "war" or something similar when I make music, you know? Sure, with the right guitar together that would be an excellent thing. It's been a long time that I ever again with another guitarist in a band Played.  

G & B: Was that Ollie Halsall at Tempest?  

AH: No, I did not mean it now. With Ollie, I have only a few times together playing one, I was just about to leave the band, he was new there. That was only a brief period before I then Replaced Soft Machine. (Tempest drummer) Jon Hiseman magically very, a great person and drummer, but at that time I wanted to go nichtdenmusikalischen path that he had in mind. Jontendiertemehr to rock, sounded more to the back, like everyone else. I found that Tempest was a really good band that could also develop. (grins) Jon also kept telling me I should not play as much. Well, maybe I have too much played even then. But that's überhauptsoeinlustiges issue becausepage),compared

(next

to today I played absolutely nothing at this stage (laughs). Heutigstes yet so that one can no longer squeeze notes in one clock than most guitarists do it. That's crazy. Yes, that is with Ollie, that was just a brief period. Recently I read that he died. Sad.  

G & B: Ollie Halsallhabe I saw two years ago in the band of Kevin Ayers. He also was one of the guitarists who prefer very flowing lines. Something to play "relationship" to your kind was there already.  

AH: The amazing thing is this: When I was playing in the north of England in this Top 40 band, Friday joined special guestaus London in the larger room at our club on. If they then unsraufkamen to abzuchecken us, we have always played any instrumentals to look good. At that time, then any keyboard player from London came to me and said, ". Last night Did wirin a London Clubmiteiner band together Played whose guitarist sounded just like you and he had the same guitar" That was the first time that I have of Ollie Halsall heard; then he played even with this legato technique. And that's a much more normal matter than people think, if there are any matches. For me there was such a thing, for example, between Ollie and Eddie Van Halen; I could always hear a kind of relationship at a certain level, even if the musical styles are very different certainly. And I do not think Eddie had heard in the early days of Van Halen anything of Ollie Halsall. He had only just the same kind of attitude of mind he just played so because he liked it, without thinking consciously about it. Somehow, these guys probably have more fun than me. I always hang on every note, think always anxious about it, where everything moves. And in some of these other people seems just be more fun in the play. The sound then beeinflußtsie less. Well, Eddie has a great sound, but other guitarists that I would not call it playing so fantastic and sound while sometimes so bad oaarhhh! I can not imagine how they can use it to play well to me. That would not work with me. If I did not feel good at all, it is very difficult for me.

G & B: Which album that you have listened to you, because you had a good feeling last?  

AH: An album from someone else you think? My records I listen to that is usually not. Yes, (thinks) I like the Japan-CD by Claus Ogerman and Michael Brecker, City Scapes, this is a great album. But I do not listen to me really to many things. The people in my band - z. As our bass player SkuliSverrisson, a great young musicians - are there different. Skuli has the whole day headphones and practice 24 hours a day - (smiles) as I should do that too. (laughing). He exercises, while I go for a drink. That's really all you should know about me: I'm so lazy Skuli has certainly always tons of CDs of other musicians here, from people I do not know. (Drummer) Gary Husband also hears a lot. Will I be more influenced by the fact that I think to myself about music, but I have not necessarily heard. That's a crazy feeling I can not describe it. Sometimes I think that just as much music is in the air. I just have to find a way to make something of it. So do not get "me wrong, I listen to very much when other people make music. But I am working just more than many other musicians thus, easy to play my stuff to write, to learn -

andI discover always new things. Mir is doing every Malbewußt that the next thing on which I work history, will be more difficult than what I am doing currently. Every year I learn new things, and at the same time strengthens the feeling less and less to know to master of what is really possible. And this process Ends not: Even after 25 life I knew as good as nothing. And that's what keeps me alive. But I can not imagine in the deepest recesses of my head as it is, with the to be What you been up to absolutely happy and satisfied. I can not imagining it easy for me.  

G & B: But you've got good reason to be occasionally malglücklich?  

AH: I am glad to have to do with music, playing music to work with great musicians, I am also looking forward to play, only to play. But that's just it does not always, and then I am disappointed, I am looking forward again to the next chance you take True hate What do I do look forward to the next test, etc. I trials Simply my way to go. Maybe I'll come at some point malan the point where I find my things bearable - I must not they really like. I want to be able to say only to me. Okay, so bad that was not what you did. And then I will feel all right.

G & B: On the other hand you must surely have realized that you give with your music other people something positive?  

AH: I know that too, and it moves me very much when people so tell me something. That's the biggest thing a musician can wish to touch someone emotionally with his music. Although I will also never know how it works, because this is a very particular language with an unlimited vocabulary. People hear certain notes, but each note as it is played, etc., means something specific for a particular person. This can be a grunge guitar or an intense solo by Michael Brecker and Keith Jarrett - and on the other hand: although the musical vocabulary of a musician light years may be removed from that of another musician, it is possible that both touch the people alike. You know, I like it when musicians so crazy, can play ridiculous things that I have to laugh. Winnie Colaiuta can do that, he plays some unbelievable things on his drums, I beidenen then nothing else can do but laugh. And that's great.  

G & B: This somewhat uncertain trait can also be seen in the opening credits of "instructional videos" from you. Since You stress not to understand you as a teacher because you're not sure if that is what you also do really right.  

AH: To clarify this matter: I See some people music-teaching, which in my opinion have no right. They know nothing and should teach nothing. Sometimes they bring their students also things in which I believe to be wrong. On the other hand, there are people like Peter Erskine, a fantastic drummer and teacher, both all makes sense to me what he says. What I do has such a strong self-respect, it is very specific, just whitish want to further develop myself with my own music itself. So I have no right to say that would be important and right for other people. Making music and teaching are two very different things. Some people can do this, but most do not. And one more thing to my video: In an hour you can not summarize it, what you have learned in a lifetime, for this video there were at that time still a book that some should be clarified. But then when I saw the finished tape later,realized

Iyet that some flippant misleading.

I can not easily imagine being a teacher; do not like this idea I already basically. Whitish'm convinced that we know so little, Little of what is worth knowing and possible - how can I bring near someone? I can only try to show how I approach things, the way I see chords and scales and modes why did not make sense to me. As I said, that's just my personal view. The relationships between chords and scales are not the ones to teach in schools. But I just think that this is wrong because it does not always work for me after this doctrine. Perhaps it all comes from this early period of music theory, as it was said that this chord is related to that and the chord should come only after that. But when the whole harmony developed in a more complicated way, all this did not work so easy. This is Like a mathematical formula that you want to change, if it does not work due to certain findings or circumstances. At some point you realize that it can not work like that. And then you go back up to the very beginning and developed a completely new formula. Exactly wollteichtun, and that's what I did for myself. My father had a very traditional education, and he also taught me occasionally. But after I had played a few years, I realized that these things did not make more sense to me. Could and then when I went all the way back to the beginning, I realized that I dihedral general music theory corresponded to none of the rules I had learned to use; they did not make more sense to me. For example, if one thinks about modes: the conventional scale has so and so many sounds and a corresponding number of modes. But what to do if you have a scale that goes over two octaves - what's the second mode, how to deal with it, wiebenenntmandiese modes? In the conventional scales and modes, there are also a lot of overlap - why is that? This is nonsense! It does not matter if two scales with different tones begin when they are structured the same. On the guitar you can still see very well how do they differ from each other scales that happens before the eyes on the fretboard. At first I played like everyone else only in patterns and be able to dress

nen groups of tones, but now I think differently about it, and thereby have very many options. I'm not very good at it and feel at the very beginning but that is one way. If I, for example, a Cmaj7vor have me, I never  about a particular voicing or

thinka special reversal. I think about what notes to this sound Adjust could, so I could superimpose him; the fact follows depending on which came chord before and which one. So I just try to think melodic. But what I wanted to say is: I can not dictate to anyone what and what is right wrong, because I'm doing just about how I selbstessehe. (laughs) So, that was a two-hour lecture.  

G & B: Then we come to practice back when I Your album "Hard Hat Area" heard, I found that it still sounds very European, although Dunja already lebist longer time on the West Coast.  

AH: By this is also not change, music is a very geographically-related matter and comes from the depth of your existence, your origin. (Pianist) Joe Zawinul grew up, for example, in Europe, and I do not think the move to America has really changed his music. Three people in my band are finally Europeans (laughs). And the last thing I wanted to do, was a West Coast-plate. But I like California.  

G & B: you record your compositions from ge nau?

AH: No, I never do. What is important to me, but are some titles that are a play on the images that are based on the music.  

G & B: From the mood here reminded me a lot of the new album to the sadness and loneliness that expresses the Norwegian guitarist Terje Rypdal in his music. I hear a juxtaposition of "organization" and "structure" and "loneliness".  

AH: That may be true. It's actually no matter how many people and Freundeman meet who you love and to whom you worry: "You come alone, you go alone" - that's an old saying, but which also expresses something very frightening. And maybe it is something in my music expresses.  

G & B: For me, your music partly Soundtrack atmosphere, this in the sense that it stimulates mental images.  

AH: I think this istgutso. When I hear music, then Dasso as if I saw a picture: Sometimes I be doing just inspired by the title of the composition, but essentially created the music Really pictures in the mind.  

G & B: And what does the title eg "Ruhkukah" from your latest album?  

AH: (laughs). That's a funny thing. Einguter friend of mine who died of cancer a few years ago, was a real type of woman - he was really very popular two ladies. And "return" was one of his personal euphemisms for "making love", where he on the sound, pronunciation, a lot of emphasis Lay. He was a funny guy, roundish thought of him when I Wrote the piece.  

G & B: the frame of the album tracks form a "Prelude" and "Postlude, What is that about?  

AH: Both are spontaneous improvisations without prefabricated idea or concept. Therefore, it was for no title.  

G & B: You recorded mostly live in the studio, the other tracks. How significant was the proportion of the Over Dubs?  

AH: There were not many, but a few overdubs I always play one. What we tried with this album was to play a large part of the material live before we even went into the studio, and that made a big difference. Previously, we came up with new music to the recording dates and had nothing yet played them together. Therefore, we now always recorded everything at once, and only if one of us was not satisfied with his part, he could re-record it.

I have received all, always anxious that the bassist and drummer are satisfied with their parts. Our keyboardist Steve (Hunt) and I can still mess around a bit, but with the rhythm section is different. When I played a good solo and they do not like their part, then we'll have to take it all again; in the opposite case can iron out the. The basic tracks have We've always recorded very quickly, in three or four days. Then I start myself to wrestle and mix the recordings from - this can take ages, because I'm at home, which is very inexpensive. I own no tape machine, so rent me a device and thus come very vielbilligerweg than when I also was going for mixing in a studio. And then if still a keyboard or bass solo has to be recorded later, we do the same thing here

G & B: Which of your plates You can recommend young musicians who want to learn about your music?  

AH: Tell? (laughs) Yes, of course I like the new album a lot, because it sounds very organic again and has some of the spirit of the older, IOU "album. I like that. Some other albums I feel to be less closed, because different bands were involved, we worked in different studios, etc. In Wardencyffe Tower "was some music that I liked, but I do not like the whole album. My favorites would then perhaps "Hard Hat Area" and Secrets

"G& B: And what about with plates that you have received as a guest musician? I'm thinking of "Believe It" by Lifetime ...  

AH: Exactly in this album I reingehört me again recently A friend came with a CD, were summarized on the, Believe It "and one million US dollars backing bar" And. I could not listen to that guitar sounded so lame, unbelievable. But one must also consider when that was. And so I can also recommend any man of today a record that is ten years old. This music would you have to experience just then to darauszuholen anything.  

G & B: That was the way already 18 years old.  

Ah yes? Maybe. Klarl madness, that's a long time. Time flies!  

G & B: What interests besides music?  

AH: cycling, I love that. And beer I drink very much beer.  

G & B: Rumor has indeed that you were the owner of a brewery.  

AH: (smiles) No, that's not true. Earlier,

in England, although I have malversucht to brew beer itself, but there are so many great beers on its quality can not approach comes as a layman. This master brewers have a tradition hundreds of Jahrenaltist, and if I'm together pour a few things from it will never be a good beer (laughs). That's how, if you buy a guitar and would sound in two days as John McLaughlin. That just does not work. However, I have some English vacuum hand pumps for beer pins that I have imported themselves. I like, that is not a beer that is carbonated, what the Americans are doing very strong. Tapped with the hand pump will disappear carbon dioxide, and the beer tastes. These rumors come probably from the fact that I call my studio "The Bremer". (laughing). But here no beer is actually produced.

After the interview, Allan wanted but then go into more detail on his hobby. So we went to a pub near his house, where you could watch through glass as the in-house beer is brewed. And although Allan knew this location was a ray to see the sight of the gleaming brew kettle in his eyes. Holdsworth is a fanatic in the best sense, someone who is with love in the matter, quite egalobes now comes to the music or to hops and malt. Even on "beer" he had a lot to talk about, and then let it take not to take a few full cans home, where he introduced me to the aforementioned English Zapfpumpenin action. Undesschmeckte awesome. Cheers! Just as excited Holdsworth can tell about his preferences, so modest and reserved, he is, as far as his own person. With very few friends is actually anyone from his environment conscious that he is one of the most important, stylistically unique guitarists in the last two decades. No more - his neighbors consider him an occasional musicians and hobbyists, in the brewery pub, he is a welcome guest. On the other hand, is his name in virtually every known guitarist in the world a magic word, the effect is stronger than that of an expensive facelift. Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Steve Luther, Michael Landau and many others shone like the Honigkuchenpferdeundsahen now ten years younger when the name "Holdsworth" fell in the course of an interview. A larger live presence of Allan in Germany in recent years seems to always put away the stones; so unfortunately also already booked for October and Planned Tour did not state due strangest circumstances. One can only hope that this will change in the near future. Because of these musicians would deserve it.