Please talk a little bit about your new album A Demons Dream...

This album I have really went for new textures of guitar sounds.  I spent a lot of time trying to get new and different tones than the regular heavy sound.  I wanted the album to be texturally progressive.  I think I achieved in making a guitar album without it sounding like a guitar album.  I wanted to reach wider demographics of listeners that could groove with it.  Groove plays an important factor on “A Demons Dream”.   The album is more cohesive than the eclectic “Zone” album.

Which guys would you consider to be your main influences?

I would say that Patrick O’Hearn, Peter Gabriel (The Passion album) Strunz and Farah, Allan Holdsworth and Greg Howe would be the main ones at this point in my learning process. 

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

I have played some of the new tracks for different people and some say “ I don’t understand” others say that it is the newest, freshest sounding music that they have heard in along time.I would say that I write for pleasure and am not worried about what others say.  I would say that it is music with many surprises in it.  Just when you think it is going somewhere it totally makes a 180 into something else without loosing the element of groove.    I like mysterious melodic sounds and am not afraid to step out on a limb to try something!

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

The best I can say is that all of my influences over time have been placed into a blender.  I turn on the blender and pour out a glass of everything that I have ever liked and that is what my style tastes like. 

My father John started me off at 6 years old playing.  I started to play left handed since I am a lefty.  He would always switch the guitar back to the other way.  I would switch it back to the left, and so on.  He eventually made me play the regular way.  I think however that it has helped my legato technique since my left hand is pretty strong. 

I hated to practice when I was that young.  My dad actually had to bribe me to play.  He would pay me a whopping 10 cents an hour to practice.  I  was earning a musicians salary quite early on!!  He had me study with this guy named Gary Santucci from Spain.  He taught me classical guitar and this is what I played up until around 13.  This is when I heard my first rock album.  It was a Sabbath album and I just freaked out.  I had never heard anything like that in my life.  It was so heavy and dark.  War Pigs left a permanent musical scar with me that will never go away… and I never want it to!!!  From 13-22 I just jammed with different bands and learned from different magazines and tapes that I had.  Gary Moore and Tony Macalpine were big influences early on.  I would just try and emulate their solos and riffs.  The best part of learning was just jamming to different cds and different radio stations.  I would put anything on and try and improvise over it and playback as fast as possible different things that I heard in the music.

A great disk that I would improvise over for about a year was “Surfing with the Alien” from Satch.  I would jam to this disk every night for hours until I drove myself nuts!!! 

I then went on to Berklee College of Music in Boston USA.  Here I studied music and tons of theory.  I ate it up because I wanted to know how to do more and more.  Harmony is so cool and I was harmonically retarded before I went to Berklee.  I cannot begin to explain how important all of this knowledge was to my style.  They were cool  and let me apply all knowledge to the style that I was going for.  Some people think that it is all jazz but that is not true at all!!  After Berklee I started to get back into the classical again.  This time it was more Flamenco.  I admit that I know nothing about the style and everything that I do with it is all feel.  I am probably doing everything wrong but what the hell!! I like the way it sounds.  I did an album called “Synesthesia” in London England with my mate Navid.  This was the start of what was to come on the latest album. I was still figuring it out.  At this point there is this cool mixture of heavy electric with the nylon string.  I think that this is finally coming into the sound that I am hearing in my head.  Most of the tracks on the new album have a nylon string on them even if it is very far back in the mix.  It just adds this passion to it for me.

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

I am a big fan of both.  What you play has to say something even if it is crazy shit!!  I used to be all about speed.  I wanted to be the fastest gun out there when I was around 18-22.  I tried so hard and was really missing the picture.  I only saw one side and missed everything else.  I was a lick player and could not improvise  but I was learning how too.  I think that a lot of players are lick based.  This is ok but improvising is where it is at!!  For the most part, most of the new album is roughly improvised.  There are some things that I can play note for note, but most of it I have no clue.  I think this is the manly man way of doing it.  When you are playing this way you are using feeling and technique.  You are not using your head, but using your ears and inner emotion.  Could I survive with only one??? I would probably pick feeling at this point.

What kind of equipment are you using live or in the studio?

Live is very simple these days.  I use a Yamaha GW-50 guitar processor and a Digitech Whammy Pedal.  This is it!!!  The Yamaha has killer sounds in it and I have been screwing with it now for about 4 years.  The main lead sound is using an overdrive, compressor, delay and a little reverb. 

The guitar of choice is the Parker Fly Deluxe.  This thing is part of me now.  So many people think that I just play if for the company but this thing is an integral part to my style and sound!! The amps are always changing.  It really doesn’t matter.  A Fender Twin is cool but I do not own one.  Since I am playing everywhere but home, I will just request a good tube amp and a great solid-state amp.  I will split the signal out of the Yamaha going to each of these amps.  The Whammy Pedal is great and has so many purposes you just have to get one to check it out!

The studio is a whole other nightmare.  Basically anything goes here.  I have many different things to use in the studio and whatever sounds the best for the song I will use.  I don’t care what it is!  Some of the stuff I use is the Sans Amp PSA 1 rack pre-amp.  I use this for most of the heavy sounds.  I also use the Vanous Evolution amp www.vanoustech.com.  This head is amazing.  I run it into a 4x12 boogie cab loaded with EV’s and Celestions. I might use a Boss Super Overdrive every now and again to give it some extra snot!  The Johnson J150 is a great amp that I have used for some cool clean sounds or keyboard like sounds.  I did not like it at first but am really getting into it now.  I also use the Digitech Genesis 3 desktop processor.  This has some whacked sounds in it.  For some tracks I just used the Creamware Pulsar card for guitar sounds.  It has some wicked insert plug-ins to get that strange sound.  I also use the Yamaha GW-50 for some direct lead sounds.  I use a custom classical that my father John made for me for all rhythm nylon parts.  For lead nylon parts I use a Wechter Guitar www. wechterguitars.com

This thing is a strange animal and you just have to try one to see what I am talking about.  Everything is recorded dry and I put the goop (fx) on after in the mix.  I find this the best way to operate.  One of the most important things is the Drawmer 1960 tube mic/pre compressor.  This is my main front-end piece for the studio and all the guitars go through it.  The mics that I use are only 2.  One is a Neuman TLM 103 and also an AKG C1000.  They are both condenser microphones and help warm it all up. 

How was the album recorded?

For the most part I would write in my home studio called BrainWorks.  It is a very simple computer-recording studio.  I used Cakewalk 9.03 for the whole album and used the Pulsar Creamware card for mixing.  I would put in drum loops to start the song off.  Then I would build all the guitar parts, melodies and keys with the loops.  I would then give Daniel Adair (drums) the mixes with the loops in 3 versions.  One with just the click.  One with just the loops and one with the click and the loops.  We would then go to an outside studio and I would bring my computer system.  All of the drums would be processed through the studio and fed right into my system.  I would grab 2 takes of Daniel playing for each track and then take my system back home.  I would decide which tracks to use from him and then would probably redo most of the rhythm guitar parts since he had different pushes and polyrhythms to the groove.  Some of the loops might be kept for production and I would have real drums and loops mixed in different parts.  This was an interesting way of doing it since Zone was all recorded together in the studio.  The bass would be added next.  I played many of the tracks and Dave Spidel played on the album also.  He is an amazing bass player.  The only reason that I did not use him  more was that I was working so hard and wanted to get the tracks done with bass that I just put them on.  It was great to see the kick drum wave file when recording because it enabled me to lock the low end to be super tight!!! I love that sound.  Most of all of the heavy rhythm sounds were brought into Sound Forge ( wave editing program ) and cleaned up.  I like that very tight sound and this enabled me to do that without gating the sound.  The mixing of the album was quite a challenge.  I learned many tricks with using a computer to mix.  One of my friends Yanni, a mastering engineer in Vancouver showed me how to deal with a multi-band limiter which I found priceless on the bass, kick drum and overheads on the kit.  It is a whole different world to mix in a computer system than on a desk, which is what I was used to.  My mastering engineer Jamie Sitar was invaluable also for information.  I was bringing him different mixes that I was doing for different compilation albums that I have done and would ask him constructive criticism on the mixes.  He gave me loads of info on how to make the mixes shine.  Thanks bro!!!

Which musicians would you like to play with some day?

There are so many great ones out there.  It is very hard to say.  I would like to play with people that would inspire me to play differently.  I am getting into tabla playing at the moment.  My buddy Cassius Khan is showing me the tabla world and I am loving that.

I would like to jam with Macey O Parker.  That dude is funky.  Maybe Victor Wooten and Dennis Chambers.  That would be creative!

What kinds of music do you like the least?

I really don’t dislike anything.  All styles have something to offer.  If you close something out you might miss an integral part to your style as being inspired from it.   I am just thinking of all the things that I grabbed from many different styles and how important that they are.  I would say that if the song has no groove, or catch then I would not like it.

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

I was getting into Indian music for the last year but that is leaving me now for some reason.  I love listening to straight ahead jazz.  I think the atmosphere is great that those cats have it going on and it just chills me out.  I have recently got into Radio Head.  They are a pretty cool band.  I honestly do not listen to that much music in general. After practicing or recording all day all I want to listen to is silence!!

Are there any plans to tour?

Nothing in the works yet.  I am hoping that Lion is going to hook something up for next year.  That would be great.  I would have to find a person that could play guitar and keys quite proficiently.  This would be an integral part and I would probably use Cassius Khan on tablas.  I have been doing clinic tours around and smaller concerts in different parts of the US with hired backing bands.  This is ok but there is no time to learn all the difficult songs from the albums so they are always the easier ones.  I want to let people hear the stranger ones live next!

What other plans do you have for the near future?

I am producing Nenah Barkley from Canada.  She is a killer singer songwriter.  This will be in the next 2 months.  I am also working with my other group Kadabra for a release.  This music is more traditional Latin, funk, and flamenco.  I have a blast with Brian and Mike in this group and it is almost healing to play and improvise with just a nylon string.  More clinics are on the horizon for Parker and Digitech.  I have just finished a 2 and a half-month tour through the US doing clinics and seminars for The National Guitar Workshop and Berklee College of Music.  I need about a week to get my head back on straight and will resume work.  I am starting on the next Martone album also.  Daniel has just been picked up from the group “3 Doors Down” and will be on tour with them for a while.  I will be writing and when he gets back we will start the tracking process.  I have been talking to a Filmmaker here in Vancouver about scoring some parts for an upcoming movie but that is not in the bag yet. 

How is the musical climate for hard rock in Canada?

I would say right now it is pretty good.  We have had Nickleback, Default, Our Lady Piece, Strapping Young Lads, Econoline Crush, and Sum 41 to name a few that are making a big dent in the world music market.  Canada is relatively a small country in respect to others such as the US and Europe.  I think more of my market is in Europe but there are still pockets of it everywhere.  That is a good thing.  I think that radio dictates quite a bit what people will listen to.  We do have the internet today and cable radio to listen to what we want, but we have to watch what people are feeding the public musically because if it is crap, people will start lowering their standards and that would suck.  Look at how music was thousands of years ago.  We had all of the crazy composers like Bach etc.  True writers and players.  They have stood the test of time.  How many groups today will leave that lasting impression!!!! Not many!

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

I think that the world is pretty fucked up.  So many people fighting all of the time.  Killing, rape, starvation, disease, etc.  This is how the world has been forever.  It is time to change this and get to the next level.  How long can we go on like this before we kill everyone and there is no one left!!!  That pisses me off so much. We have to do something about this.  Bono from U2 is doing something.  That is great.  We need more people like that in the world.  Musicians are very influential people and I hope that these people do something good instead of showing us that you can help people sell Pepsi!!!