Detritus
Mini-Issue #511.5
July 31, 2009
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*** CAST OF CHARACTERS ***
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Patrick Brower, Editor
patrickbrower@...

Sean P. Gahgan, Editor
spgahgan@...
http://www.lakeoffire.net/
http://www.myspace.com/visionlakeoffire

Tim Wadzinski, Owner
tsw512@...

Steve Shumake, Co-owner
vongoober@...
http://www.myspace.com/kdsteve

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*** LET IT BE KNOWN ***
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-Happy Friday! Check out Neal's interview with axe master Vinnie
Moore. - Tim

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*** SPECIAL REPORT ***
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by Neal Woodall (MysticX9@...)

-Interview w/ Vinnie Moore
July 1, 2009

One sure indication of an artist's quality is the longevity of his
work, so it's testament to Vinnie Moore's stature as a consummate
musician that his solo albums from the late '80s MIND'S EYE and TIME
ODYSSEY are still frequently referenced by guitarists and instrumental
rock fans as some of the best of the genre. This criterion is even
more apt in the case of UFO, whose catalog extends back to the early
'70s and includes such seminal works as FORCE IT, LIGHTS OUT,
OBSESSION and the benchmark live document STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT.
Recently I had a chance to talk with Vinnie about his recently
released solo album TO THE CORE as well as the new UFO disc THE
VISITOR, plus get some info on his current endorsement deal with Dean
Guitars. Read on and discover why Vinnie has been one of my favorite
musicians for over 20 years...

DETRITUS: It's been eight years since your last solo album DEFYING
GRAVITY, I'm guessing we can blame UFO for the delay?

VINNIE MOORE: Yeah, it's just that I've been so busy touring and
recording that it has been hard to get the solo record finished; also,
I'm kind of a perfectionist by nature -- to a fault sometimes --
'cause you know I'll take more time than I should making a record, and
that also came into play with this one.

D: There is a nice diversity on TO THE CORE, do you feel that it's
pretty representative of where you are as a musician now?

VM: Yeah, I think more so than any other record I've done actually,
because it shows more of the influences I have musically, which is
good. I just wanted to be free and be able to go anywhere, throw in
anything I wanted or felt at any given moment and that's pretty much
what I did, just kind of went for it.

D: Right, I really like the Jeff Beck flavor found throughout the
album...

VM: He's a huge influence on me, always has been since the very
beginning, that's one guy that is just magical as a player.

D: Did that just kind of come out in your playing over the years or
did you purposefully try to inject that as you went along? I don't
remember hearing that on MIND'S EYE! (laughs)

VM: No, definitely not, although one of his melodies was actually the
first lead I ever learned when I was a kid, on "Blue Wind," so I've
been studying him since way back. It's come up a little bit here and
there like on THE MAZE people have mentioned it but maybe it shows up
more on this one; but no, it wasn't intentional, it's just part of
what I do I guess. I always like to say that it's Jeff Beck's fault
that I'm an instrumentalist! (laughs) I heard him from such an early
age and he was the first guy who was doing instrumental stuff so it's
his fault that I'm in this genre...

D: So you think you favor WIRED over BLOW BY BLOW?

VM: I like WIRED the best, I had been playing guitar for six months
and I heard an ad for Jeff Beck, I guess he was playing in
Philadelphia and I heard an ad for it at the time and I went out and
got that record and it just became a huge, huge, monumental record for
me.

D: It's hard to pick a favorite on TO THE CORE but I really gravitate
to "Remorse." I think you're about the best there is for blending
creativity with melody and technique...

VM: Oh man, thank you very much!

D: Do you have a favorite on there, anything that you thought came out
particularly well?

VM: I kinda like things that I haven't done before and "Soul Caravan"
is one of them...

D: I like the sax on that one, that was cool...

VM: Yeah, it has more of an R&B/hip-hop vibe and I've never done
anything like that so it was exciting, it's always exciting for me to
do something that I haven't done before, cover new territory and that
always inspires me. "Transcendence" was the same way with all the
exotic percussion and then I've never done anything with an Indian
influence like that.

D: "Into The Sunset" was another one I really like. What's more
challenging for you now, something intricate and demanding like "Eye
Of The Beholder" from THE MAZE or something more majestic and
atmospheric like "Into The Sunset?"

VM: Ahh, I don't know, they're both different things, I wouldn't say
either way is more challenging, when I write I don't really have a
plan, I just kind of "go with the flow" and whatever comes out comes
out, so at the time that I'm doing it, no matter what it is musically
it just feels very natural and easy to do.

D: So you take a more intuitive approach to writing?

VM: Yeah, I don't like to plan or think too much, I think that's kind
of the enemy and that is the killer of inspiration, I think if you
just kind of "go with the flow" and wait for it to come to you it just
seems more natural and inspired and magical that way.

D: Do you still have a specific routine you use to keep up your
technique or do you find you can maintain it pretty much just by
playing?

VM: I can maintain it just by playing; in the old days I used to have
exercises and things that I worked on to develop and improve
technique, but now I just play guitar. You know on the road I don't
even play during the day, I actually like to save it for the show so I
just do the show and on an off day sometimes I don't even play there,
so I find that just doing the shows on the road is enough to keep me
in shape. At home I like to practice but nothing technical, I just
kind of sit around and play and improvise a lot, no drills or
exercises.

D: Do you find you come up with new ideas and techniques while you're
doing that?

VM: Yeah, I mean when I sit around and improvise obviously I'll try
new things instead of just playing the licks I already know, that I've
played a thousand times, I'll try to come up with things that are
different or a different approach, so I can keep playing new and
exciting things and going in different directions.

D: If you could recommend one thing to improve guitar skills, what
would that be?

VM: Hmm, well I would say play a lot of course, the more you do
something the better you get at it; find a great teacher who can help
you get better, that's always a big advantage, and listen to a lot of
different styles of music. Love what you are doing and take it all in.

D: What about composition, is there anything you would recommend as
far as getting into a space where you would be inspired to compose?

VM: Just be relaxed, play the guitar, don't think about it too much;
if you're just starting there's going to be a lot of trial and error,
you kind of have to learn to find your own thing, your own voice, your
own style. For me, the biggest thing in doing that was getting a 4-
track recorder when I was younger and just laying down rhythms and
putting melodies or solos over top of those rhythms, then it got to
the point where I would come up with two or three different parts,
come up with different melodies for each part, and gradually I got
better at writing songs, just honing in my skills to be creative and
lay down musically what I was feeling. It kind of just takes a lot of
practice and a lot of doing it and it starts to come natural.

D: I'm still waiting for it to come natural for me! (laughs)

VM: Oh man!

D: What was the most challenging aspect of playing guitar when you
first started out, and what kind of came easily?

VM: Ahh, I don't know if any of it came easily in the beginning;
probably the most challenging thing at the very beginning was the
soreness in the fingers, the pain when you first start playing.

D: Tell me a little about the Dean VM2000...

VM: We worked on that for quite awhile and it has come out awesome, I
couldn't be more happy with it, they made exactly the guitar I asked
them to make and we worked together refining it; I mean we talked a
little bit on the phone and I went down to Florida to their shop and
they presented me with a guitar which was just a prototype they threw
together really fast, and it was like 95% of the way there, I couldn't
believe they nailed it so closely on the first attempt. I told them I
could go on stage with this guitar and play it, I told them that that
first day, and from that point it was just a matter of honing in and
making a couple of small refinements, working on the style of it which
meant having the maple top -- it's really just 1/8th inch thick so
it's more of a look thing, more for cosmetics and not so much a tone
thing, it doesn't really change the tone 'cause it's so thin. We honed
in on the shape of the neck, we came up with three, four or five
prototypes before I got their stats to where I actually wanted it. I
experimented with some different pickups -- Dean is actually doing
their own pickup line now called DMT and we did a signature pickup for
the guitar which you can also buy separate, it's called a Shredhead,
so we did a lot of testing of pickups, like 10 different things just
to get it where I wanted it, and then I'm using the DiMarzio DP181 in
the neck which I've used for quite a long time, then a DiMarzio
Virtual Vintage Blues in the middle which is something new.

D: Very cool! What happened with Music Man, did you just become
dissatisfied with that?

VM: I had been with those guys a long time and still have a lot of
good friends there, it's a great company and they make great products
but I just didn't see it going anywhere as far as me being... (pauses)
I don't think I really fit in, and I was starting to feel that more
and more, like I needed to kinda get away from that and move in a
different direction.

D: Did you use the Dean exclusively on TO THE CORE?

VM: I used a lot of different guitars, I used a couple of Deans, I
used my Les Paul, three different Stratocasters, the Music Man for a
little bit, and that's pretty much it.

D: The Dean is a beautiful guitar, I'd love to put one of those in my
collection...

VM: It's my favorite guitar that I've played so far. The cool thing is
I've gone out and done clinics and I won't even bring my axe, I'll
just grab one off the shelf in the music store, and it's just like
mine, and that's awesome.

D: That is great! Did they give you one of each color?

VM: I have an amber, a red, a custom sunburst which nobody has, it's
kind of amber in the middle and red, it's a typical sunburst type of
guitar. I have the original black prototype and then a couple of other
ones, trans black, that's one of the prototypes and a solid color red
that was also a prototype and that color is not even being made; but
the ones I play are not the prototypes, they're the regular stock
models.

D: Excellent. Well live I'm sure you are using it as your main guitar
with UFO but do you still pull out some of your other ones for some
tunes?

VM: No, live I've usually always been like a one guitar guy, I don't
like to change a whole lot, I've always had like one favorite guitar
and then I might use another one for a drop D tuning or some kind of
alternate tuning. On the tour we just did over in Europe I found that
I was attached to two different guitars, my red and my amber, and I
was kind of changing those back and forth, and then I had a white
Dean, Strat shaped body, a guitar they put together for me that I
could use as a utility guitar for drop D tuning and also open G
tuning, so that was constantly changing; but yeah I was using two
Vinman 2000's interchangeably and it's kinda great because in the past
I've gotten attached to one guitar and that would be the only thing I
wanted to play, but now I find if I close my eyes you can throw
several of the VM 2000's into my hand and I couldn't tell the
difference. They're set up.

D: Cool!

VM: Yeah, I don't take Les Pauls and Strats and... (pauses) I recently
saw the Eagles and my friend is Joe Walsh's guitar tech and he had
like 18 different guitars, totally insane! (laughs)

D: Yeah, I'd be afraid to do that! What about touring, will you be
able to tour behind TO THE CORE when you get finished with the UFO
dates?

VM: Actually I have some solo shows coming up in Italy...

D: Oh yeah, those with Kee Marcello?

VM: Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how that goes, it's the
first time I've done solo shows in awhile, then I want to do some in
America definitely, but nothing is planned yet.

D: When are we going to see you on a G3 tour?

VM: Well I don't know, Satriani is out with Chickenfoot now...

D: Yeah, I guess that's going to keep him busy for awhile.

VM: Yeah, in fact we just did some shows with those guys, one in
Belgium at the Graspop Festival, then they played the night after us
in London but unfortunately I didn't get to hang around to see them.

D: Well the new UFO album is also out -- how is Pete Way doing?

VM: Well, I don't know, I haven't talked to the guy in a long time, I
know he has health issues -- I never even really talked to him about
that so I just don't know.

D: You had another Pete fill in for him, right?

VM: We used Barry Sparks on the tour we just did, he's a great player,
worked out really well.

D: What about the album?

VM: Oh yeah, we used a guy from Germany named Peter Pichl, more of a
studio guy.

D: You already played with Barry...

VM: Yeah, I did play with Barry in the past on one of our American
tours.

D: I wrote in my review that I thought THE VISITOR was probably the
best UFO album since WALK ON WATER...

VM: Oh man, thank you so much!

D: Tell me a little on how you go about the songwriting process with
UFO.

VM: I pretty much approach it the way I do everything, you know I just
pick up the guitar and play and when an idea pops out I record it with
my little Walkman recorder, and usually once I have that initial idea,
that initial inspiration, it starts to flow and more related ideas
will come to me also. So I basically put together a lot of song
skeletons and send them to Phil (Mogg, vocalist] and he'll sift
through the stuff and pick the things that fit his voice the best, or
things that he likes the best, then we'll get together and rehearse
and kinda play through the ideas and like narrow them down and make
any changes that need to be made or whatever. Sometimes the songs stay
structurally the same exactly as I had written them originally.

D: Have you ever tried your hand at writing any lyrics?

VM: I'm not very good at that; when I send him demos I'll often scat
out some lyrics or just write some temporary...

D: Guide lyrics?

VM: Yeah, guide form, not really so good of a lyricist, definitely
not.

D: Do you find you write specifically for one project or the other or
do you for example sometimes use things originally created for your
solo project for UFO?

VM: Usually the stuff that I write for my solo albums for the most
part probably wouldn't fit with UFO , I mean sometimes it would but
I'm usually very clear right from the beginning what's going to be a
good idea for UFO and what's going to be good for the solo thing. On
my solo stuff I can kinda go all over the place stylistically, explore
and do more things whereas with UFO it's more rock band so what I
write has to fit into that context.

D: "Hell Driver" and "Stop Breaking Down" are two of my favorites off
THE VISITOR, there's a strong mix of crunch and melody throughout
it...

VM: "Hell Driver" is one that we were doing live and was received very
well, people really seemed to like that, it went down really cool.

D: Great sound on the record too, did you do the guitar parts in your
own studio?

VM: Yep, I always do my guitar stuff at home and mail it in! (laughs)
I find it easier to be creative in my own environment and I prefer to
work that way by myself.

D: I imagine it's so much better that way...

VM: Yep, as opposed to being "on the clock" so to speak at a studio, I
don't find that very conducive to being creative.

D: Right. I understand you just finished some dates in England and
Germany; where are you going next?

VM: Well we have a gig this Saturday in Germany -- I came home for
like three days, pretty crazy -- after that we're off for a couple of
weeks and then I have my solo shows coming up in Italy and then I'm
staying over there doing some UFO shows, then we end up with one
festival in England on August 7 I think.

D: Shows been going pretty well?

VM: It has been going really well, everybody is concerned because the
economy is the way it is and our numbers were actually up on the
England tour, we had a really good time.

D: What's your favorite UFO song to play live?

VM: I like playing "Saving Me" a lot, that's one from the new record,
and I like playing "Rock Bottom" and "Too Hot To Handle."

D: Do you have a say in choosing the set list or is that pretty much a
band decision?

VM: It's pretty much a band decision, you know we all talk about it
together but with our stuff there are certain things you have to play,
classics...

D: Got to play "Rock Bottom..."

VM: You have to do "Rock Bottom," "This Kid's," "Lights Out..."

D: "Love To Love" probably too...

VM: "Love To Love" -- you know, to a certain extent it's obvious.

D: You've toured with Alice Cooper and UFO now, was it always your
intention to play in a band or were you pretty content as a solo
artist?

VM: I've always wanted to do both, have more of a rock band with a
singer and do solo stuff also. I write a lot, I have a lot of ideas so
I think it's important to have both places to go to get those ideas
out there.

D: Are you still making Vinman's Brew?

VM: I haven't in awhile, I've been too busy. I really have been
wanting to I just haven't had the time -- but it's a fun little hobby!

D: I'd like to taste some when you get ready to market it! (laughs)

VM: Okay!

D: I talked to Tony MacAlpine not too long ago, I interviewed him and
he said he hadn't spoken with you in awhile but he'd love to work with
you again on something; do you ever think about doing anything more
with him?

VM: I'd love to also, he was on two of my records and he's a great
player, hugely talented -- it's amazing that he can play guitar and
keyboards like that! Yeah, I'd definitely like to work with him in the
future.

D: Well Vinnie, anything you would like to add in closing?

VM: I think we've covered it.

D: I sure appreciate your time, you're one of my absolute favorite
musicians and I certainly hope to see you on tour real soon!

VM: Man thanks so much, I appreciate the kind words and great talking
to you!

Relevant links:

Dean Guitars
http://www.deanguitars.com/

Mascot Records
http://www.mascotrecords.com/
http://www.myspace.com/mascot

Vinnie Moore
http://www.vinniemoore.com/
http://www.myspace.com/vinniemoore

SPV
http://www.spv.de/
http://www.myspace.com/spvmusic

UFO
http://www.ufo-music.info/band.htm

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*** OUT ***
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