DAVE WEINER INTERVIEW
OCTOBER 09 2006 BY JOHNNY C OF LOUD METAL RADIO



Please let's talk a little bit about  your album “Shove the Sun Aside”


You are probably most know as member of Steve Vai's band but what have you done before releasing this album?

Before I joined Vai’s band I was in school.  First college where I got a Bachelor’s in Accounting, then GIT at Musician’s Institute.  Back in my middle and highschool days, I had a band named Sunset Strip.  Oh yes, it was awesome as the name implies.  We recorded two full-length cd’s.  That was when I was 13-16.

Which guys would you consider to be your main influences?

Tom Scholtz from the band “Boston” is my main guitar influence.  Most of my other influences are not guitarists.   I get inspired from life.. from my experiences, both good and bad. As I grow older and encounter more and more, my music will reflect that and continuously advance. If your art doesn't evolve, you aren't living.

How would you describe your music to someone who is not familiar with it?

I call it 'Contemporary Mainstream Instrumentalism'. Instrumental (obviously) because there are no vocals. I wish I could sing well enough to put my voice out front but I can't so I use the guitar instead. I say it's Contemporary and Mainstream because I write with a songwriter's approach resulting in grooves, progressions, harmonies and melodies that could be heard on today's radio. I write for the sake of writing good songs, not for the sake of showing off guitar technique. That's done and done. A good song will transcend genre and time and is enjoyable for everyone, musician and non-musician alike. So that's what I shoot for.


 How did you develop your own style of playing, did you take any lessons?

I took lessons from age 10-14, then I taught myself until I went to GIT.  But that was all theory, mechanics, technique, etc.  To be original, you have to take your experiences, personality, attitude, vibe, mojo, presence, etc.. And make that come through your playing.  You can’t really be taught to be original.

What is the most important, feeling or technique? can you survive with only one of them?

Feeling and Phrasing is far more important than technique.  If all you have is technique and no feel or song writing ability, all you have to show for it is how long you practiced in your basement.
 
What kind of equipment are you using live or in the studio?

Live, my set up is always changing.  Lately with Vai, I’m taking the simpler approach.  A couple of my LACS 7 strings, a couple of pedals and whatever amp is there.  For my solo stuff, I take my full rig which consists of 2 VHT Ultraleads, my Bradshaw rack, some Mesa 2x12s and a couple of pedals on the floor (Whammy, 535Q wah, Keeley Blues driver and a TU-2.)

To see my studio setup, you can go to http://www.daveweiner.com/studio.html.  The only difference is now I’m using a Digidesign 002R and a Command 8.

 How was the album recorded?
 

When I set out to make this cd, I basically had no clue what it would take to make a real recording. I did, however, know that I didn't want to put up with other people's schedules, a clock running, engineers, producers, etc. If I was going to do this, I wanted to have complete freedom of choice over the entire process. So I started planning how to transform my apartment in Hollywood into a studio and prepared myself for the long process of how to become a producer, engineer and recording musician.

Anyone can make a real, professional recording in any place imaginable with great equipment and great knowledge of how to use it. After getting a lot of advice from Vai, his engineer Neil Citron and a few other people in the know, I learned that you need some great recording software and a REALLY good front end to get started. A front end is how your sound will get into your computer which is basically mic pre's and A/D (anolog to digital) converters.

I did about a year's worth of research (while on tour) figuring out what equipment I wanted to use. There are so many kinds of mic pre's, EQ's, compressors, software, sound cards, etc... it really can get overwhelming. But I did have a concept in mind. I wanted what the listener was hearing on the final cd to be as close to the original sound (that the mics were picking up during recording) as possible. So that meant using gear that wouldn't really color the sound on the way into the computer.

So here's a list of what I chose for the front end (see all of this in the GEAR section or click here):

Avalon 2022 Dual Mic Pre's
Avalon 2055 Dual Eq's
Manley Variable Mu Dual Compressor
Apogee PSX-100 SE A/D - D/A Converters

I chose the Avalon gear because it's Class A and tubeless. They have a very transparent quality which helped get what was coming out of the cabs into the computer with no coloration. The Manley Compressor is tube however. But I only compressed slightly on the way in so levels weren't going nuts from the get go. It also warmed up the sound a bit.

That went into an Apple G4 desktop with Protools software. I monitored with Yamaha NS-10M speakers.

Now that I had the recording gear, I had to figure out how I was going to record my guitar in my apartment. Tube amps have varying sonic qualities when they're used at different volumes. Most amps sound better when they're pushed a bit louder. I used a VHT Pitbull Ultralead head for this entire cd. It's a 120 watt tube head and is very loud to say the least. The Ultralead actually sounds just as amazing when it's down around 2.5 - 3 as well as cranked at 7 - 8. However, even 2.5 - 3 is way too loud for apartment playing. So to get these volums under control, I had Kriz Kraft build me 2 custom isolation boxes. These boxes each hold 1, 1x12" Mesa Rectifier cab (with a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker) and could utilize 3 mics at once. They were just what I needed.

So now that I had everything I would need to record, it was time to get started. Of course, I didn't really know how to use anything, so it was a learn as I went kind of thing (which is another reason this cd took so long). The first thing I did was record one scratch guitar track to a click for each song. I gave that to Virgil (Donati) and Steve (Wilson) so they could plan out their drums. We recorded the drums up at Vai's Mothership studio in a day.

I brought the drum tracks back down to my place and had Philip (Bynoe) and Graeme (Rappaport) come over to record the bass. With that done, I started back on the rhythm tracks and planning the structures of the songs. (This all sounds so streamlined but trust me, it wasn't as easy as I'm portraying. Now, I could get all this down in a matter of days, back then, it took a lot longer.) As far as creating these songs, you can read about that here, but for this section, I'm going to skip over that whole process.

So back to recording the guitars... Here's how the signal chain went:

guitar - amp - isolation boxes mic'd by a Shure SM57 in each box - Avalon 2022 - Avalon 2055 - Manley Compressor - Apogee Converters - optically into the G4 on Seagate 15 or 10k RPM SCSI harddrives - Protools.

I used 2 Ibanez LACS 7 strings for all the electric parts. The green/blue (DW7-1) one for all the cleans and the silver/orange (DW7-2) one for the distorted rhythms and leads. See them here.

I recorded completely dry; no effects. This was very uncomfortable at first but I did it this way because I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted any of the effects to sound. So I applied those after recording was done. Most of the effects were produced from a TC Electronic G-Force or a TC Electronic Fireworx. Recording dry also helped my guitar playing improve; it cleaned up alot of things I could get away with while using effects and made me pay more attention to the detail and articulation of every note.

Fast fowarding a bit...

After months and months and months of trial and error, running into every snag possible, being frustrated beyond belief and losing all faith in music and life in general, I finally was able to breathe a sigh of relief and get a sense of accomplishment. The recording was done and it was time to move onto the next step, mixing. Just when I thought I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.... mixing.

Mixing is the process of taking all of your individual tracks and eq'ing, compressing, adding fx, automating (volume, pan, mutes, etc) and making them all fit together to sound "like a song". Vai told me to mix with someone experienced to get to know how to do it and said it takes about 5 years to get really proficient at mixing. I of course didn't listen and start doing it myself. Big mistake. 6 months later, I had the concept down, but it's such a combination of art and science and really comes together with experience which I didn't have. I was running out of time and patience.

A fan contacted me and told me about this guy, David Franz, who is a recording engineering teacher at Berklee in Boston. I ended up getting together with him to get some help with mixing. We were able to get this experiment of a cd sounding better than I ever thought it would. Mixing was done. Now, onto the final step, Mastering.

Mastering is the process of taking the stereo tracks of your mixed songs and "polishing" them up. You can tweak the eq and compression in this process to bring it up to standard "pro" levels and get it sounding really nice and in your face. For this, I went to Scott Elson at Gateway Mastering in Maine. He banged it out in no time and all of a sudden.. after 2 and half years.. my first instrumental cd is done.

That may sound like a long time to do a cd.. and you're right. 2 and a half years is ridiculous. But it had to happen this way for 2 reasons: 1) I was on tour alot. 2) I didn't walk into Capitol Records Studio A with the top engineers in the world and a record label backing me. I did this by myself for the most part. I basically went through an entire college education of engineering to learn the process front to back. And now that I know it, it's all downhill from here. I've been producing and engineering other bands and plan on releasing a lot more cd's myself.

Do I recommend this process to other aspiring musicians? Yes and no. Definitely yes if you plan on being an independant artist and want to become self-sufficient. You can really get to know your way around a studio and be able to get the music that's in your head onto a disc in the best way possible. But don't get trapped in the perfectionist thing. With the technology now, you can record and re-record something so many times until it's perfect, but will probably be sterile. Plus most of the time, that first take will sound just as good to the listener as the 50th. Do the music your way, but don't sweat the details.

It's a frustrating and overwhelming process at first, but in the long run, the rewards are well worth it.

Which musicians would you like to play with some day?

Tom Scholtz, Enya, & Tom Delonge

What kind of music do you like the least?

Any music that doesn’t have a heart or soul.

Do you ever listen to music that is very different from what you do, if so what?

Sure, most of what I listen to is not instrumental guitar-related.  Some of my favorite stuff is ambient stuff like Enya, or pop like Blink 182 or heavy like Tool or classic rock like The Who or Boston and I even like some of the 60’s folk music.

Are there any plans to tour?

I just did a small solo tour in the MidWest.  I plan to do more touring after my new cd is finished.

What other plans do you have for the near future?

I’m doing 2 cd’s right now.  One is the follow up to STSA and the other is a side project that is a fusion of styles and is all improvised.  It’s basically a live record done in the studio.  Both will be out in ‘07.

How is the musical climate for instrumental rock guitar albums these days? Any worries there might be too many out there?

Instrumental rock guitar will never be huge but it will always have a solid, loyal following of old players and new players that want to hear and see what the greats are doing.  That’s what is awesome about this genre.  It’s not going to sell out arenas, but it’ll never go away.

Music is not a competition.  Good music will sell itself no matter how many artists are out there or what genre it is.

What are your feelings about the world we live in and how do you look upon yourself in 15 years from now?

Haha well to answer that question would take a long time.  I just use two philosophies in life:  “Teach a man to fish rather than give him a fish” and “Live and let live”. 

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