1) Hi Michael and welcome to Virtuosa. Tell us a bit about where you’re from and what its like to live there. Greetings - I feel fortunate to live in the U.S.A., the land of opportunity and cultural microcosm of the world. In spite of the fact that there’s TONS of stuff to do here, I am what they call a HOMEBODY. I was born in the town of Dayton in the state of Ohio, and lived there until 1994, when I moved 1000 miles away to Dallas, Texas. There are good people in both states. 2) What made you want to pick up the guitar to begin with I started to become obsessed with rock music from seeing guitarists on TV & local bands, and the guitar felt like the ultimate weapon for me to express it. 3) Did you practice specific things to start with or have any specific exercises with you found helpful to build up your technique I took some lessons which taught me mostly how to read. I learned the rock music that I wanted to learn on my own by picking up ideas, licks, and songs from recordings, resulting in a level of noise that bothered my mother from time to time, who was teaching piano in the other room. But in retro, she was very tolerant. I didn’t really have a specific practice regimen at the time, I just practiced anything and everything. 4) Did you know from the start what sort of style you wanted to play in Not really. I dove into music head first and absorbed every style I could. I definitely liked playing anything that challenged me and deviated from the norm. 5) What was your first few bands like starting out After having played for about 6 months, I formed a band with some friends, Mike Smith on bass and Mike Duncan on drums, making 3 Mikes. We played obscure stuff like Robin Trower & Thin Lizzy and toured garages. 6) The first I heard of you was not until quite a bit later with the excellent 'Ego Decimation Profile' album. I really dig that album...was that a typical musical statement for you and do you still like the album today Thank you. “Ego” was one of my heavier instrumental records, although it did have a lot of dynamics. I used 4 drummers, one of which was Keith Carlock, now Sting’s drummer. (I now prefer using one drummer per record, as one drumkit is tough enough to mix, not to mention 4!) I normally prefer a wetter mix than the “EDP” mix, and am hoping to remix it in 2007 for a re-release. Yes, I still like the record, although it is difficult to listen back to most of my own material and not hear lots of stuff that I would do differently now. I would say the song “Julius Seizure” was the highlight of the record for me, along with the opening piece, “Forewarning”, which was my 1st “mini-symphony”. 7) The next I saw you, you had hooked up with Lion Music for 'Words Collide'. Tell us a bit about this album and what you wanted to achieve
I had formed my
own live band around that time and was singing more, so I wanted to see what I
could do in the studio vocally. My vision was to make a stylistically diverse
record that toggled a lot between electric & acoustic, yet to somehow make it
cohesive. The only musicians were myself and my drumming bro, Brian Harris, who
did an amazing job as usual, nailing every style I threw at him. I actually
wrote a lot of material that didn’t make the record, as I had to focus on the
material that I could sing the best. Although the acoustic mixes were
good (and among my favorite songs on the record), I didn’t like the mixes on the
heavier tunes for various reasons. An interesting aspect of the record was that
although there are lots of keyboard / orchestral sounds, I didn’t use any
keyboards. Those sounds were all achieved with my Roland GR33 guitar synth.
Although primarily a vocal CD, it did include one of my fave instrumentals,
“Prosthetic Brain”, which gave my bro & I a chance to have fun with some fusion.
8) You also appeared on the Guitar Masters series for Leviathan Records alongside players like Joe Stump and Corbin King. Was that good fun to record (Hurricane X) Well, I appreciated the opportunity to do that record, but I have to say that I didn’t know it was going to be released (I was told it was just going to be posted on a website as “rare MP3 tracks”), so I don’t endorse it. I feel composition is what I express myself with best, and that CD was basically just playing over backing tracks. I enjoy improv, but these tracks were incredibly tedious and uninspiring, not to mention way too long. Nonetheless, many fans seem to enjoy it. I guess it reflects a more raw and spontaneous side of my playing. 9) Your playing is very interesting to me because you although you delve into the Neo Classical you generally appear to be more free-flowing and less confined to the more rigid scales of the harmonic minor sequences like say Joe Stump. You also are a very versatile player as albums like 'Ego..' shows. Thank you. I have always been interested in many styles, which I kind of feel like has been to my detriment at times, at least in the context of a single album. I make a conscious effort, in the course of a record, to avoid cliches and to focus more on composition than an endless onslaught of technique. I don’t consider myself a “shredder”. Oliver North was a shredder. 10) Tell us how you met Vitalij Kuprij and what it was like working on the 'Revenge' album, and what Vitalij is like to work with Before we met, Vitalij & I had, as we discovered later, 2 mutual friends, Dan Pluta and Noaharu Yasuoka, and I’m grateful to both for recommending me to VK. Besides being the virtuoso that he is, Vitalij is the nicest, most down to earth musician ever. He definitely gives me a lot of freedom on his recordings, letting me do my own thing, analyzing it from there, and giving me suggestions. I just finished his new record, “Glacial Inferno”, which is really amazing. Along with the high level of technique that was required, I’m glad to say we succeeded in getting some really SLOW solos in there as well. I feel we captured some of my best solos ever on this record. LION Music is releasing it early ‘07. 11) What guitars and gear do you use I have been using Hamer Scarab II guitars for years, but recently purchased a Brian Moore 2.13, which I have been playing lately. Amp-wise, in the studio I use mostly a Mesa Dual Rectifier and Line 6 POD - almost all POD for solos. 12) Moving on quite a bit, tell us about your new album 'Orchestrate' (which I absolutely dig by the way!!) and what this is all about I feel many of my earlier records are a bit too diverse, so I decided awhile back to compose a whole record in the neo classical style, as I’ve always loved the genre and have written a lot of neo classical compositions in the past from record to record. As the record developed, I realized “neo-orchestral” was a more accurate term for what I was doing than “neo-classical”. The goal on “Orchestrate” was to treat the backing parts like scoring / tracking an orchestra, and using the keyboard & guitar synth to record one instrument at a time, rather than say, trying to cover a whole string section with synth chords. And Matt Thompson’s drumming on the record was stellar, to say the least! 13) What direction will your music take in the future? The next record I am releasing is a new progressive band with vocals, called “Thought Chamber”. The band features Ted Leonard (from Enchant) on vocals, Derek Blakley and Rob Stankiewicz on bass & drums (from Haji’s Kitchen, formerly on Shrapnel records), myself on guitar & kybds, and Bobby Williamson from Outworld on keyboards. The style is progressive rock / metal influenced by Kansas, Rush, Yes, etc and features several ‘over the top’ instrumentals as well. I am also working on a solo instrumental jazz/prog fusion record and a metal record with DARKOLOGY, featuring myself, brother Brian, and bassist Mike Neal. The DARKOLOGY recording is finished except the final vocals - we are looking for a vocalist. 14) With labels like Leviathan and Lion and so many great guitarists out there today, are there any new players who have impressed you? Nowadays, there seems to be more young guitarists with great technique than there ever has been, and I respect that, but it’s always been musicians (and not necessarily just guitarists) with great compositional chops that have influenced / inspired me, such as Kerry Livgren, Keith Emerson, Paul McCartney, Steve Morse, Todd Rundgren, classical masters such as Bach, etc. From a playing standpoint, I’d have to say my fave guitarists are Uli Roth, Michael Schenker, Frank Marino, and in a fusion realm, Brett Garsed, Clint Strong, & Scott Henderson. 15) What are your top 5 albums of all time Always a tough one, but today we’ll say it’s Brain Salad Surgery – ELP Hemispheres – Rush Captain Beyond – Captain Beyond Masque - Kansas Magical Mystery Tour – The Beatles Close to the Edge – Yes Uh oh, that was six:-) 16) What does Michael Harris do to relax Watch TV, sports, a movie, talk about music, do interviews, sleep! Thanks Nick j Hinton VIRTUOSA Much thanks Nick! Michael
|
