GARY
SCHUTT
BY
NICKY BALDRIAN
For those of you who like to
rock to the sounds of the eighties let me introduce you to a
gentleman named Gary Schutt, you may here a lot about this man in
the future as he has just released one of my fave albums of 1999
"Playthings", which is a hard rock monster, so
naturally i wanted to speak to the man, here's what went down....
N.B: What happened with TAKARA?
G.S: I was great friends with Jeff Scott Soto at the time. He saw
an opportunity for me to get my foot in the door. Jeff and Neal
needed a bass player for the album and Jeff, knowing my
multi-instrumental-ability, recommended I tackle the bass tracks.
So I became Takara's bass player for a while. Then the Northridge
earthquake hit in early 94. That made me take inventory on my
life. I was living in L.A. with a less than minimum wage job, on
food stamps, no gig in sight and totally freaked out about the
earth moving. So I felt a change was needed and relocated to
Florida, unfortunately leaving Takara behind.
N.B: Having
relocated to Florida after the earthquake did you find it easy
making a come back?
G.S: Well, after the quake there really wasn't anything to make a
comeback from. I had played on Takara's "Eternal Faith"
and that was pretty much it. Soon after I moved to Florida me and
Soto secured the deal for my first solo album, which I was very
excited about. Then I got a job playing in a cover band making
good money. So I guess you could say that financially I made a
comeback.
N.B: Your
obviously a multi-instrumentalist, when did you start playing and
what made you decide to try out all instruments?
G.S: My father is a percussionist and he taught music at the
local schools. There was always a drum set and a piano in the
house. So at a real early age I started banging out Bay City
Rollers tunes on his drum kit, even
before my feet could reach the pedals. At the same time I was
figuring out Kiss tunes on the piano by ear. I wasn't playing
full chords yet, just one note riffs. I also had a cheap acoustic
guitar that I would "air-guitar"
along to "Kiss Alive". I took a couple lessons on that
but was very discouraged learning how to read music and playing
songs like "Three Blind Mice". So I gave up guitar.
Later on I would play drums with a guitar
player friend of mine. He, and hearing Van Halen's
"Eruption", inspired me to try electric guitar. It was
in the distortion pedal - that was the sound I was missing from
the acoustic! So I got an electric guitar for Christmas
that year and took lessons from the guy that taught my friend. I
was learning popular rock tunes, ya know - a lot more inspiring
than "Row Your Boat". After about a year of lessons
from that guy, my ear was developed
enough where I was hearing things that he figured out wrong so I
quit and taught myself, learning songs right off of records. Soon
after, picking up the bass guitar was just common sense and
second nature. My senior year in
high school I saved enough money to buy a four track recorder. I
experimented heavily playing all the instruments on my tapes and
singing really bad. At this point I still majored in drums in
school and self taught everything else myself at home.
N.B:So as a self
taught musician what would you say is the easiest instrument to
play?
G.S: There is no easy instrument. Everything takes time, patience
and dicipline. My father started teaching me drum rudiments and
how to sight read rythms at a very early age. I started playing
the drum set along to Bay City Rollers records by what I thought
was common sense. I just copied everything I heard off the
record. If it sounded like a snare drum, I'd hit the snare. If it
sounded like a cymbal, I'd hit a cymbal, and so on. I guess maybe
the easiest instrument is your voice, basically because it's low
maintenance. There's no strings, reeds, heads or mouth pieces to
change, there's nothing to but for it, and you always have it
with you. But if you play it wrong you can seriously damage it.
N.B: What
equpiment do you use?
G.S: On Playthings I used a Jackson Dinky Reverse, an Ibanez
RG140, an Ibanez RG565, an Ibanez EXB bass and a G&L Legacy
guitar. The amp I used was a Digitech RP6 through a Peavey 50/50
power amp into a Peavey 4X12 cabinet miced by a Shure SM57 in my
bathroom. I borrowed a friends Taylor acoustic for
"Sometimes in a Dream". The keyboard was an Ensoniq
ESQ1, the drums were programmed on a Roland R5, and the album was
recorded on a Tascam 488 8-track cassette recorder in my
apartment. Two Boss SE-50's were used as outboard effects. I have
a lot of new gear now that I used to record the album I just
finished. Still recorded on the Tascam though, and loved it!
N.B: What was the
idea behind "The Imperial March" cover on sentimnetal?
Was it difficult to dscale down?
G.S: I've always been a huge Star Wars fan and that tune was a
favorite of mine. So I decided what a cool thing it would be to
do an all guitar arrangement of that piece. Also thinking that it
would send a big buzz about the album too. I transcribed the
entire song the best I could, wrote it out on notation paper,
memorized each part, then laid the tracks. It was very difficult
and one of my proudest re-creations. I only wish I wrote the
song!
N.B:You mentioned
that you have re-created other music scores, which ones?
G.S: "The Imperial March" was the only classical work
that I transcribed and then performed it on tape. There's many
songs that I just transcribed for classes at Berklee. I
transcribed the entire song of David Lee Roth's "Two
Fools A Minute", horn sections and all, and various Steve
Vai, Joe Satriani, George Lynch, Randy Rhodes, Brad Gillis and
Jake E Lee guitar solos. I also recreated many songs on tape but
singing different lyrics over them, ya know, like a Wierd Al
Yankovic parody. I'd perform all the instruments note for note
and write some goofy words to sing over them. I've spoofed songs
by Dream Theater, David Lee Roth, Night Ranger, Extreme,
Talisman, Nirvana, Blue Oyster Cult, Queensryche and Metallica.
N.B: Your new
album rocks big time,tell me about?
G.S: Thank you. I intentionally didn't use certain old songs of
mine for Sentimetal, I wanted to save them for album #2. "In
The Middle" was one of them. Definitely had to be an album
opener. Very few of those songs were newly written during the
sessions, Those where "Animal Man", "Donut",
"Enemy Lines" and "Merry-Go-Round". I
recorded 19 songs for the CD but had to cut some. There
originally was an extended guitar solo outro for "Animal
Man" called "Feeding Frenzy", two different
rocked-out versions of "Sometimes in a Dream", a very
pissed original called "Wish You Dead", a short goofy
jazz number that intro-ed "Donut" and a cover of
Queen's "Death On Two Legs". I'm planning on releasing
those tracks on a B-side CD someday. Also, Playthings would have
been finished in the period of about a month or two if it wasn't
for a full time day job, a top-40 gig on the weekends and a live
in girlfriend.
N.B:Tell me about
your top 40 gig then?
G.S: For the past three years I've been playing in a band called
Disco Inferno. We dress up in afros and bell bottom pants and
platform shoes and all that garb and play the popular disco funk
tunes of the 70's. It's alot of fun, believe it or not. It's the
best job I ever had. Before that I was in a top 40 band called
The Orphans. We played alot of crap that I didn't like, but it
broadended my repitoire. We did stuff like Sheryl Crow, Garbage,
Bill Withers, Gin Blossoms and a lot of other popular house and
dance tunes that I didn't care for. Before that I was in a kick
ass rock cover band called Signal Zero. We where a three piece,
all with wireless headset mics
and we ran around all over the stage and just rocked out.
Sometimes I'd play drums while the drummer got out front and sang
a Nine Inch Nails tune. We played everything fron Eddie Money to
Pantera. I miss those days.
N.B: Did you attend
any music schools to get to where you are today?
G.S: Yes, aside from learning how to read music in the orchestra
and basic theory in high school, I attended the music school of
music schools - Berklee College of Music. My major instrument was
guitar, while I also soaked up as much as I could from other
guitarists and drummers and bass players and started to develop
better singing techniques. I graduated with a degree in
songwriting.
N.B:What are you
listening too at the momeny Gary?
1. Dokken - erase the slate
2. Judas Priest - '98 live meltdown
3. Kip Winger - thisconversationseemslikeadream
4. Lit - a place in the sun
5. Mullmuzzler - keep it to yourself
6. Joe Satriani - crystal planet
7. Tool - aenima
8. Yngwie Malmsteen - facing the animal
9. Dream Theater - awake
10. Echolyn - as the world
N.B: When you get
an idea for a song do you find a headache trying to put
everything together, or is everything pre-planned?
G.S: Once I get an idea of a riff or chord progression, I can
usually vision how the rest of the song will flow. Sometimes it
changes, but I always hear the final product in my head while I'm
programming the drums and laying tracks, and I try to match
what's in my head as close as possible. It usually comes out
better. Most of the time I write the entire song musically then I
come up with a melody then words to match the melody. Rarely I
have written music and lyrics as I go along.
N.B: So you've been
around a bit with various bands and playing live, what is the
score for your future then?
G.S: I've been trying to but together an original band for years.
My expectations of the players I need are so high that it is very
frustrating looking for the right talent. A lot of players don't
meet my criteria, plus - of course- they have to like my music
and want to play it too. I have a fantastic drummer that I've
been jamming with for a year now named Mike Luciano. He slams out
my tunes really well. We recently recruted ex-Pat Travers bassist
Mars Cowling. Things are slowly coming together. In the short
future I hope to recruit a second guitarist. Somebody who can do
the guitar harmonies with me and sing the vocal harmonies with me
too. Until I can make good money playing my original music, I'll
be playing disco!
N.B: On the song
"Act of sympathy" i noticed that the riffs were quite
spooky, what was the idea behind that?
G.S: That was the first song I wrote after Sentimetal was done. I
was in a new location and a new point in my life musically. I had
a bunch of new influences for writting - Soundgarden, Alice In
Chains, Pantera and White Zombie. I was experimenting with a drop
D tuning and came up with basic chunky groove. I love polyrythmic
and odd time and over-the-bar-line stuff so of course I had to
incorporate that stuff in there. The verse chords were an
accident. I played a D9 for the first chord and when I went to
switch to the next chord, I fretted it wrong. I liked it because
it was different and erie sounding. Turned out to be a Fminor9
which produces a flat 5 against the root giving that evil sound.
Lyrically I can't remember how I got started on that lyrical
subject matter but it turned out to be a very dark story. And
unlike most of my tunes, it's NOT based on any of my
experiences.(laughs)
N.B: Tell me about
track six "Sometime's In A Dream"? It's so beautiful
and It reminded me of Michael Sweet?
G.S: Funny how you compared it to Michal Sweet since I never
heard any of his music after Stryper! I'm flattered, I think. I
always thought him a great writter and a fantastic singer. I
wrote that in 1993 in my roach infested one room apartment in
Panorama City, which is outside of L.A. I was in a very poor and
unfulfilling point in my life then and was writting a bunch of
depressing tunes. I'm fascinated with "dark" love
stories. I have a
couple tunes that deal with love beyond the grave.
"Sometimes In A Dream" is about a lonely girl's
deceased boyfriend visits her nightly in her dreams waiting for
her to join him. There's a song that will be on my next
album called "Apparition" that has a spirit from a past
life visit her true love in his soul's present form on Earth.
Pretty deep,huh? Just think of the crap I would come up with if I
did drugs!(laughs)
N.B: On
"Traumatized" the song opens up with some zanny
keyboard action before going into a jazz fushion swing, I love
the bass part, tell me about this song?
G.S: I also love funk, jazz fusion and big band stuff too, so I
try to show my different writting influences whenever possible. I
love doing guitar solos over key changes. It's challenging and
very out of the ordinary for a pop tune. Lyrically that song
described a very bitter and pissed off person dealing with a
failed relationship. The intro keyboard run reminds me of the
intro to Madonna's "Lucky Star". Haha.
N.B:How has the
reaction been to "Playthings"?
G.S: So far, Nicky, yours has been the best reaction! I'm waiting
to see what a few other magazines have to say still. Usually all
of the people that I've let hear it around here say they are very
impressed overall. Mostly
people miss my style of music and with it would come back to the
mainstream. Of course they also don't believe I performed
everything on it and that it was recorded on an 8-track cassette!
N.B: Finally is
there anything that you wish to say to your fans here in the UK
and Europe?
G.S: Yes, hello and I hope you see you all real soon on whatever
tour that may happen. I promise a kick-ass rock show with some
great musicians!!
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