Alesis

Allan Holdsworth on Reissuing FLATTire (Guitar Player 2014)

“Most of the things I played weren’t particularly technical in the sense of requiring exceptional dexterity,” he explains. “They were all about the emotion and staying true to supporting visual images. That’s very different from making a normal record, where the focus is on pieces of music and soloing within them. Also, other than having Dave Carpenter play upright bass on two of the pieces, I played all of the parts myself, including the ‘drum’ parts, which were done with an Alesis HR-16 drum machine. From a compositional standpoint, I’m most happy with the final piece, ‘Don’t You Know,’ which has the fake clarinets in the middle. That’s definitely the highlight of the album for me. I managed to do something I am quite proud of.”