Growing up, you spent practically every waking hour playing and practicing guitar. Looking back, what motivated you and what was your ultimate goal?
Well, when I started playing guitar around age 10 I quickly realized that technique came more easily to me than to most others, and it was exciting to see where the limit of that might lie, so I was always looking for the next hardest thing to practice and master. I got really addicted to playing and pushing my skill and I started staying up all through the night playing guitar unplugged. I guess it’s always been, “I want to be Eddie Van Halen,” though such a feat is obviously impossible!

You’ve said that by the time you were 16 or 17, you could basically do everything that you can do today on a technical level. Looking at yourself as a player, though, what is the difference between now and then on an overall level?
Honestly, I might take that statement back these days! I was probably faster back then in terms of raw speed, my hands aren’t getting any faster anymore. But where I’ve improved massively since then is control and expression. Control of vibrato, timing, dynamic, cleanliness, etc. Also how to phrase a solo, or write a song. I am a bit of a music theory nerd as well and am always looking for a new harmony trick to add to my bag. 

Which are some of the players that you think helped shape your sound?
Eddie and Yngwie are the first to come to mind as they were and remain my original two guitar gods. But right up there for me as well are Blues Saraceno, John Sykes, Paul Gilbert, Jason Becker, Mattias IA Eklundh, Michael Romeo. These guys have all had considerable influence on my musical mind, my hand tone, and my techniques. But there are also some guitar players who inspire me greatly with their songwriting finesse, they are no slouches but maybe not influences on my actual guitar playing. Some guys like that for me right now are Trevor Rabin, Kerry Livgren, Nik Kershaw. My wheelhouse as a listener is really that style of art music from the ‘70s and ‘80s which lies somewhere between prog and pop.

To you, what is the most important trait in a guitar player?
Always to me, the most important aspect of guitar playing is in bringing the notes to life, playing the passage with the right feeling. I was actually always a little jealous of pianists, because they have access to so many notes across so many fingers, can play rhythm and lead simultaneously, etc. So to make the most of my choice to be a guitar player, I decided I should try to master the thing that I felt only guitar can do. String bending, vibrato, sliding, legato, the overtones and harmonics of a distorted guitar, all tools of expression that allow your guitar to sing like a voice. So the most important trait to me, is how GREAT can you make a simple set of note sound and feel? I usually judge a guitar player in the first handful of notes I hear them play! I don’t need to hear anything fancy, just their delivery.

Do you still practice your instrument regularly? If so, what does your routine look like?
Most of my time spent playing these days involves a task, to write songs or solos, make instructional content for my Patreon, shootout tones for engineering. But there is an amount of time I spend sitting on my couch running some exercises. Generally I pick a technique I feel I could be better at and just work through it. Hybrid picking with my pinky for instance has been a focus lately, as well as mastering pickslanting for alternate picking. I’ve always relied on my economy and sweep picking to get around, or downstroking on rhythms, selecting my pick directions carefully. So I never really felt like a master of alternate picking! I chip away at those kinds of deficiencies in my spare time. But no I don’t have a serious practice routine, the way I play now is very economical to the point where there is really no maintenance necessary to keep my usual lead chops up.

You were in several bands before joining The Black Dahlia Murder in 2016. Looking back on your journey so far, what are some of the most standout moments to you on a personal and/or musical level?
Sure, I started out just taking every gig that would come my way because I was determined to get my foot in the industry and network. It landed me in some funny positions, wearing prosthetic elf ears onstage with Finntroll, etc. Filling in for Exodus was probably my most bucket list moment so far, sharing the stage with those legends and playing the hits at the open air fests in Europe was definitely a pinch-me-moment and one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Another standout moment was Rock Al Parque in Colombia. It was when I was still very green with The Black Dahlia Murder and I really didn’t know what it was but when we got there it turned out that we were playing to about 90,000 people for an hour set at primetime in the evening! I have yet to play a more frightening show! Would love to do it again someday. That was before I even had an album out with them, on the Abysmal cycle.

What does your writing spot/home studio look like in terms of gear?
I have a small wing of my house dedicated to music and recording. There are 50+ guitars, mostly Jackson/Charvel, some basses of course, a wall of amp heads… My control room is just treated modestly with prefab acoustic panels and bass traps, and I have an iso room completely deadened with foam, blankets, and roxul, which is full of guitar cabs with a couple of mics on Dynamounts. I also use it as a vocal booth and I run a second screen/keyboard/mouse from my PC so I can go in there and record my own vocals. My DAW is Reaper. I use a Prism Sound Titan as my interface which is great. I have a handful of nice mic preamps, one nice compressor, but not a ton of toys in that department. I do have a drum kit for inspiration but I really don’t have much skill there. I have everything I need to do my job at home basically, which is amazing. When we make an album, the drums get recorded elsewhere but then the guys come over to my house and I track everybody else. But it is a goal of mine to get set up to do it all in-house someday!

Where in your process does Toontrack’s gear come in and how does it help? Which Toontrack products do you use?
Superior Drummer 3 is crucial to my songwriting actually, I’ve always been the guy who can’t even tell if a riff or song is going to be cool or not without hearing it alongside the perfect flow of drum parts. When I write a song for The Black Dahlia Murder, I record basically a complete draft of all of the instrumentation, with Superior Drummer 3 as the drummer. I click in all of the hits by hand. When I’m done, I export the MIDI and send it to our drummer so he can trick it out and school me. We share a Superior Drummer 3 preset for both the kit and the note mapping, so that he can play with his v-kit and send me the MIDI back, and then I can mix it how I like in my session. We go back and forth on drum and arrangement ideas like that until things are slaying. The nice thing is, Superior Drummer 3 is so high quality that I can make it sound virtually like an album already in just the demo stage, which really helps keep the process inspiring.

Out of everything that comes with being a musician and in a band – writing, recording, jamming, touring, traveling (the list goes on)…what is your favorite part and why?
Honestly the coolest part is probably to go out in the world on tour or at a clinic and actually meet the people I inspire. When I’m at home I’m so holed up in my studio in front of the computer all of the time, I forget that there are real people out there in the world that our music means something to, and it’s surreal to actually go out and hear our fans’ stories of how our music has helped them in their life or inspired them to play.