[Adam's
notes, 2007: I really loved George Lynch's playing in the
hey-day of Dokken, the band that only mattered (to me) because
of his incredible guitar playing. I used to put on Dokken's
Tooth and Nail album and solo over it again and again, trying
to keep up with George, and workin' my legato rolls (hey,
I teach those in Logical Lead Guitar!). But into the 21st
century, Lynch is still out there tearin' up stages and
recording sessions. Read on and be inspired!]
As shredders go, George Lynch is probably one of the most
successful. With the multi-platinum rock act Dokken during
the 1980s, millions of albums featuring George’s incredible
soloing found their way into the homes of rock fans worldwide.
George’s blistering riffs moved more front and center when
he put together Lynch Mob in the early ’90s.
 Since the hey-day of hair bands, George has kept himself
busy, and his fans satisfied, with releases bearing a number
of monikers. Two 2003 releases testified to his phenomenal
six-string skills: Lynch/Pilson’s Wicked Underground, a
collaboration with long-time friend and former Dokken bandmate,
bassist Jeff Pilson, and REvolution by Lynch Mob, a revisit
to many of his most popular songs of the past.
In this interview, George talks about juggling numerous
musical projects, recording using both old- and new-school
technology, his arsenal of gear, and his very experimental
method of playing and writing on guitar.
Lynch: Hey, Adam, this is George.
St. James: Hello George. So how are things today? Are you
at home today?
Lynch: I’m at the Woodside office.
St. James: Oh I see. You live in L.A. right?
Lynch: Yeah.
St. James: Cool.
Lynch: I live in the valley - North Valley. You?
St. James: I’m in Chicago, but I lived in southern California
most of my life.
Lynch: I work in Hollywood. The studio I work at is in
Hollywood - A&M or Henson.
St. James: It was A&M studios on La Brea, right? I
was down there a few times, with Extreme and a few other
bands.
Lynch: Yeah. It changed in the last two years.
St. James: Are you down there today working on some stuff?
Lynch: I actually need to get down there. We’re working
on a DVD right now.
St. James: Oh yeah, from the live show at the Key Club
in L.A.? Cool. How was that experience filming a DVD?
Lynch: It was pretty treacherous.
St. James: Yeah, cameras everywhere?
Lynch: That and you know, just pressure dealing. It was
only our third show…it was a big show…sold out.
St. James: Right
Lynch: A lot of industry people there so we were kind of
dealing with our business as well as all our fans, plus
the DVD. It was kind of overwhelming, but you know, we dealt
with it and it was a good show.
St. James: So it’s been a busy month for you.
Lynch: A busy two years. Is this an LP or just a general
interview?
St. James: Well, general. The publicist contacted me on
the Lynch/Pilson record.
Lynch: Both records are being released concurrently and
then I’m doing interviews for people. I
forget which label or person set it up and I have to be
sure I start talking about the right thing.
St. James: Well, let’s just talk about everything. Actually,
I only have the Lynch/Pilson record, Wicked Underground,
I don’t have your new record; the new Lynch Mob REvolution
record.
Lynch: OK, he’ll send you a little kit that should be cool.
The first 1000 or something is a kinda special edition.
St. James: Cool
Lynch: We give the endorsers little packages – stuff but
I don’t know what they put in there.
St. James: Cool. So you keep Lynch Mob on the road as much
as possible, right?
Lynch: Right
Lynch: We did a show with Ratt, kind of custom orders.
St. James: Who’s playing guitar with them these days?
Lynch: Without Steven, it’s Warren DeMartini and Bobby
Blotzer and John Corabi on background vocals and rhythm
guitar and Robbie Crane on bass. It’s Jizzy Pearl on vocals.
St. James: and John Corabi is playing guitar, not singing?
Lynch: Right – singing backups.
St. James – hmm….
Lynch: Yeah, my thought.
St. James: And there was something about that show you
did with Ratt….it escapes me….something about that show….Oh
Thin Lizzy! Who’s playing guitar with them, do you know?
Lynch: John Sykes and Scott Gorham
St. James: Is it Scott? I went to Glendale Community College
with Scott’s brother, Tag. I ought to track Scott down and
interview him and find out what his brother is doing all
these years down the road. But doing a full tour is tentative
at this point?
Lynch: Yeah, you know, things change daily.
St. James: Yeah.
Lynch: So there’s always another dramatic moment you know.
Everything is up in the air again. At this level, there
are so many people involved that you know like for the Ratt
thing, for instance, I mean it’s Maureen and I, who really
always wanted this to happen and now knowing it can happen.
It’s just that getting the whole machine rolling and getting
past politics and activating the process and everybody going
forward in the same direction is pretty difficult.
St. James: Hasn’t that sort of been something that’s bothered
you through your whole career: the whole politics of the
situation, of the music industry?
Lynch: Well part of it bothers everybody that’s involved
in the business to some extent. I imagine there are guys
like Gene Simmons that probably thrive on it and there are
guys that are just pure artists who can’t even deal with
being involved at any level. I’m kind of in the middle.
I have a healthy balance of loving it and hating it. So
I know, I mean, just like anything else I enjoy dealing
with it as long as it’s going forward and we’re accomplishing
something. It’s when everything that does work, there are
probably 20 things that didn’t work. Probably like any other
business so that can be pretty frustrating and dealing with
a huge amount of flaky, sleazy people in this business.
It probably isn’t any worse than Enron, but you know….you
know, you really gotta pick and choose the people you work
with and try to work with somewhat ethical, honest people.
That’s kind of challenging. Could you give me one second?
(pause) Sorry about that. I’m like always on call to be
checking on a mix. When he calls me is when I’m busy and
then he gets pissed off. I’ll just set up a little pup tent
outside the studio there and they can knock on my door when
they’re ready for me to come in, ’cause I don’t have a life,
you know.
St. James: With the comment you made about finding the
right people and all that, That’s really so key. And especially
right from the start finding fellow musicians that really
are on the same wave length as you. Do you have any words
of advice for young players along those lines?
Lynch: Well, you have less options when you don’t have
as many resources to pick and choose from and to be highly
selective about who you play with, unfortunately. So when
you’re not famous, or you haven’t had much success commercially,
you can’t afford to fly people in, you can’t afford to network
and pick and choose, from hundreds of thousands of people,
who you decide would make the ideal band. It’s more challenging.
In my case, I have the luxury of people coming to me. The
downside of that is because I’ve sort of established and
have this pre-conceived notion in people’s minds of what
I’m about, I only draw from a limited group of people. It’s
not necessarily doin’ what I want to do.
St. James: Right
Lynch: So I’m kind of a slave to that as well. At least
when you haven’t established anything yet, you may not have
as many options and resources, but you have the freedom
of going in any direction you may want to go. Finding those
right people on a player level and band-mate level and someone
who administers to your business and helps you through the
labyrinth of the machine is all, you know, critical stuff.
And I think probably the best one single piece of advice
I could give and should take myself as well, is try to think
long-term when you decide to pair up with someone because
a lot of times you go out and find the ideal guy, whether
it’s a manager or drummer. But when it doesn’t work out,
it’s gonna set you right back to square one all over again
and you’re just gonna get frustrated. So you’d better hold
out and find the right people. And you know in your heart
whether they are or not.
I occasionally teach over at MI [Editor’s
Note: Musician’s
Institute in Hollywood, California. ]. I
just donate my time once in a while cause it’s real close
to the school and I give a few guitar lessons now and then
and it’s good for me as I’m sitting around with these kids
and they are the same place, and the most common thing I
hear is they can’t hook up with like-minded players, which
is at the center of guitar shredding. I mean they have drum
school, they have a bass school, they have a vocal school,
a recording school. They all live together – at the music
college – I mean these guys can’t find people to play with.
So what’s the answer to that? I don’t know. I think most
bands are built really around two people: A lot of time,
generally, it’s the guitarist and the vocalist. It’s really
finding that strong duo that has the vision or idea of what
the band should be and what the song should be. They need
to build it around that. You know, find your “other” guy,
that other one person who is your counterpart. For me it
was Jeff (Pilson). So instead of finding three other people,
now you only have to find one other person.
St. James: And when a band goes through changes like you’ve
gone through with Lynch Mob, how did you find the people
you’re with now?
Lynch: Well, we went there opting for getting a convenient
guy. For the last couple of years I went out with – and
I can’t take it away from any of these guys – but I went
out with musicians from other ’80s bands let’s say, and
kind of through it together and it was sort of a hodge-podge.
And so what I learned from that was that I originally had
a vision band back in the day, back in 1989 or ’90 when
I originally built Lynch Mob. So I went back to the original
band as best I could; with Anthony and Robert. That was
something that worked. It worked within the limitations
of that, but you know, I guess what I was trying to do over
the last few years (and I don’t regret it), was to completely
reinvent myself and do good music, which is all great, but
I kinda went through that, got it out of my system and now
I’m able to still play fresh, new stuff with the same guys
that I’m used to playing with. They’re all great players.
You know, you’re never gonna get it all. I put this band
together and thought it was an amazing band. I love playing
with those guys, but we were not critically accepted and
fans didn’t like it, a lot of them because it was you know,
sometimes it was rap metal (that whole thing) so it was
rap related like Limp Bizkit. It was really fun. It was
great, but it was so far away from what people expected
that it just threw them for a loop and it was, “What the
hell is this”? I guess what I’m saying is if you find somebody,
if you’re lucky enough to find somebody you can work with
and it works 65-70%, that’s enough. Work with them. It’s
never gonna be perfect.
St. James: So how do you, from the artistic standpoint,
how do you separate two projects in your mind – such as
Lynch/Pilson and Lynch Mob – or do you? Are they very similar?
Lynch: They are very dissimilar. Yeah, the LP record has
got a lot of time on it…almost two years, about 15 months
at least, and it’s a complex record and it has a lot of
depth to it. We worked on it, we essentially re-recorded
it at least twice if not more than that. We mixed it three
times and mastered it twice. It’s a pretty long process
and not un-painful at times.
But in contrast, the Lynch Mob REvolution record was done
very quickly right after I finished the LP record. I just
went right in and did the Lynch Mob record. I just wanted
to keep working. I wasn’t thinking very long-term at all.
I didn’t see beyond my own foot in front of me. I just wanted
to keep working and recording and I went right in and did
that record. That record was relatively quick – three months
– and 1/3 of that was mixing. Tracking was really six weeks
so it was pretty quick. We re-wrote some songs arrangement-wise
and groove-wise, but, you know, not very lyrically, so it
wasn’t that much work. We actually did that in about two
days.
The recording process was about six weeks, but it was a
relatively quick record so we ended up coming out simultaneously
which is just a tragic thing to do business-wise. It’s horrible
to have two records coming out at the same time. I wasn’t
intending on that happening, but the end result is that
the Lynch Mob REvolution record is just ballsy, straight
up tape without a lot of overdubs and no Pro Tools. We didn’t
Tool anything it was just all what we did. Throw a solo
in there, an extra guitar to thicken it up and there you
go, minimum background vocals. We tried to make it sound
as powerful and get a good quality recording. We did it
in a real recording studio, you know. World-class deal.
The Lynch Mob record was just, you know, just a piece of
art, I mean we really just got in there and tweaked and
rewrote it and rewrote it again. It was kind of a work in
progress that was never really finished. It’s still out
there…I’m still listening…I would have rewrote half that
record again. In a lot of ways it’s very satisfying and
in a lot of ways it’s very frustrating. Two complete different
animals. I cannot imagine going out with Lynch/Pilson. When
we do go out we want to go out 3-piece. It’s a very complex
record. How am I going to play seven guitars at the same
time?
St. James: Right
Lynch: The Lynch Mob record I can do it….we are doing it.
We’re out there playing it and it sounds like the record.
So it’s going to be a lot more challenging than the LP thing,
but it’s a completely different animal.
St. James: You dealt with a lot of that kind of thing during
the Dokken years too, didn’t you? With a lot of extra guitar
tracks? At least I seem to remember a few songs that I was
trying to learn how to play…where there were more than one
guitar track at a time.
Lynch: With Dokken?
St. James: Yeah
Lynch: Oh yeah, sure.
St. James: Is that the nature of when you’re recording
an album and really especially if you’re on a major label
and it’s a large budget or whatever the case may be? Is
that one of the recording secrets to just lay down a whole
bunch of rhythm guitar tracks to really get a beefy sound
out of it?
Lynch: Yeah, I mean any new band like the new metal stuff,
you know I work along side a lot of…A few of these big producers
that do a lot of this stuff and layer upon layer upon layer
and everything’s Pro Tooled and nothing’s real and everything’s
cut and pasted and chopped and diced and processed to the
max. I mean it’s great and it sounds amazing. I love that
stuff, I really, really do and it’s really taking what we
did in the ’80s and really going way beyond that. You know,
a Dokken record compared to a Dio record or something that
compares, you know, layering and processing and the way
they get in just to manipulate the tracks…every little space
between the drums cut out and the way the guitar is carved
out and tuned and tweaked and re-amped and doubled, tripled
and quadrupled.
I love the process, it’s just a whole other world, it’s
just you basically do as much as you…you’re limited by imagination
at this point and it’s really just a matter of having the
time, which translates into money to do that. And wanting
to do that. I mean, some bands aren’t built like that. I
kind of like the fact that I’ve been able to go a little
bit in either direction…not dedicated, like I’m not old
school, I’m not new school, I’m both schools hopefully.
 St. James: Why did you decide to do the new Lynch Mob record
analog as opposed to using Pro Tools like you did with the
LP record?
Lynch: Well, we did REvolution analog…it was really our
engineer’s call, Dave Reed. And he’s really not a Pro Tools
guy, and not a – he can use computers – it’s just not his
favorite medium. He really wanted to go to tape, and tape
is a luxury these days. And we really wanted to make it
happen so we thought that was a good thing. The LP record
was all Pro Tools. The Lynch Mob record was analog all the
way to the last minute. Never hit hard drive until that
point.
St. James: Why did you say, “I wanted to go analog?”
Lynch: I would have to say that the advantage of hard disk
recording is that you get what you put into it. It doesn’t
change for the most part, as where analog recording can
change. We had problems with alignment. The problem was
we would – and this has happened to me before while recording
records and throughout the ’80s, where everything went to
2” tape. You would get this great guitar sound, let’s say,
and put it up and it sounds amazing and somewhere in the
process you’d go to a different chain or it would get balanced
to 2-track whatever, but you end up losing something and
that doesn’t happen with Pro Tools. And so that’s the trade
off. I mean, tape changes because you’re dealing with tape,
that’s just the nature of it. Things can happen, you know.
Just running that tape across the head hundreds of times
degrades the quality that’s there….the magnetic information.
So when you go to a different machine, it’s a mechanical
machine, it’s not just numbers. You’re dealing with physical
things that can change, and that’s a little bit scary.
St. James: Right
Lynch: And of course, what we do nowadays, is we go to
both at the same time. You do Pro Tools as you record and
then you can manipulate the tracks and do your editing and
you have to wait at mix down. So no matter what else happens
you have that as backup and so it’s the best, but it’s very
costly. You have to have a nice budget to be able to go
a Pro Tools guy with a really beefy system, to be in a real
room where you can record real drums with a real board and
lots of head room, all the operatives that you need in the
environment – that’s expensive.
St. James: Was the LP record your first Pro Tools experience
or your first complete album with Pro Tools?
Lynch: My first complete album with Pro Tools? Yes. And
it was done in a real studio as well, but….
St. James: Will that be the way you go from now on? Pro
Tools?
Lynch: Tape will always be in there somewhere. I’m sure
we’ll always be doing that with double blind tests. Every
time I’ve done the double blind test we opted for the Pro
Tools: ‘OK, I’m not going to tell you what you’re listening
to, you tell me what you like.’ I always pick Pro Tools,
as much as I hate to admit that and didn’t want to pick
Pro Tools.
St. James: So what did you use for the drum tracks on the
LP record? Live drums?
Lynch: Oh yeah. When we first started out our first demos
were done…we just programmed and I used a drum machine.
But beyond that, we had to bring drummer Mike Frowein in.
And that’s what I’m saying, the LP record initially, Jeff
and I were thinking about a project….we were just going
to bang this out. We had no idea what was going to happen
and it grew into this monster. It was definitely a test
of our patience….Jeff’s to the large extent because he really
is set on this just kinda getting this out. It’s like, how
many chances do we have to make records here, Jeff, the
right way. Let’s make this count. This isn’t just a quick
pay day. This is a record we will have to live with. So
while we’re here, let’s do it right. And so we did have,
I wouldn’t call them battles, but we had some things we
had to come to terms with between ourselves and how we were
going to let things evolve and change. We had to accommodate
each other and it all worked out, it was great. I love Jeff
so it ended up being a wonderful, positive experience.
St. James: What kind of equipment did you use for the drum
tracks on the demos?
Lynch: An Akai MP3 2000. I’d love to get the 4000, I’d
love to get that.
St. James: What guitar gear do you use these days in the
studio and live? Is it two separate rigs?
Lynch: For the LP record I used Bogner Uberschall with
a Bogner cabinet and sometimes a Marshall cabinet. Mostly
a Bogner cabinet. And my other amp, for 50 percent of the
rhythm tracks, was a Diezel VH4. And then I ended up doing
all my overdubs and solos with a combination of the Bogner
-Uberschall and a GenzBenz cabinet and a Bogner cabinet.
The stuff I used …my ESP, it’s called, right now I call
it the Green Manalishi. It’s the baritone with the screaming
pickups with the neck-through.
St. James: You use that on what tracks?
Lynch: “Let it Bleed.” I think there’s only one B track
on that record and then for everything else I used a Les
Paul. And for solos I used my Tiger.
St. James: What about the Lynch Mob stuff?
Lynch: It was all Uberschall.
St. James: What about effects?
Lynch: At that point I was using a Fulltone Deja Vibe,
an MXR Phase 90, a Line 6 modulation pedal, Chandler delay
and I tried different things now and then. Sometimes it
was a Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive. Sometimes I used my Buddha
wah pedal, my Fulltone ’69 pedal and I also use the Fulltone
Octavia (I forget what it’s called).
St. James: With the Deja Vibe and the chorus type pedals,
do you have them on all the time or are they on only at
certain times?
Lynch: It depends. I use the Phase 90 pretty much on all
the solos all the time. On the LP record pretty much straight
through. I don’t think I used any distortion on those. I
wanted to get kind of a clearer tone, where you actually
hear the fingers on the guitar versus an amp being driven
way too hot. So more of an earthy tonality. It was Phase
90 all over that. I just love it and used that on everything
so …
St. James: So that’s the only pedal that was on that much?
Lynch: Yeah. The Deja Vibe was selectively used here and
there.
St. James: What kind of strings do you use, what gauge?
Lynch: Dean Markley for my Tiger, a standard light 10 set.
My Green Manalishi guitar, I believe 60/12, no I believe
it’s 11 with a plain 20 G. I use wound for rhythm and plain
for solos.
St. James: You know I saw a question on your web site in
one of your discussion boards where somebody was asking
about your tunings and I think they were referring to older
stuff, to Dokken stuff and all that. But you used to tune
down to E-flat? You’re tuning standard these days?
Lynch: No, (I use different tunings depending on the song.)
St. James: Oh, okay. And the question sort of was,’cause
with Dokken you were at E-flat basically?
Lynch: Right
St. James: But there was a question from one person who
was trying to play with some of your tracks, and they said
it seems like it’s off by ¼ step or something. Did you do
anything funny like that?
Lynch: Some people are against Pro Tools, some against
synthesizers. I’m against tuners.
St. James: Really? So you tuned by ear?
Lynch: I’m really lazy and I don’t want to tune; I just
like to go, ‘Fuck it, I got an idea, I want to do it, let’s
do it.’ And I end up with songs without a tuning to begin
with and I have to match everything, which we have a hell
of a time doing. We end up calibrating our tuners to what
I originally played. It’s just a nightmare. I’ve got to
stop doing that one of these days.
St. James: You still suffer from that, huh? Drives the
engineers crazy. Do you use an in-line
tuner these days?
Lynch: No
St. James: Not at all, huh?
Lynch: I don’t. My pedal switching is done off stage. I
don’t switch anything on stage except for the wah wah. So,
my guy just kind of has it set up on an AB box and I just
swap out and he tunes ’em.
St. James: And so, what are you taking on the road with
you these days?
Lynch: Two Uberschalls. I got a new Genz Benz coming out.
It’s a G-flex 412 ported extra tall for more bass response.
It’s front loaded. But I do like these for some reason with
the low tuning. It’s just more immediate. And a couple of
Bogner cabinets that are rear-loaded. I like them because
the sides are built…they have really thin wood. I forget
what kind of wood they use, but the cabinets are more like
an instrument too, and it sort of resonates. It just has
this resonance to it that’s really wonderful, especially
with low tuning instruments. The struggle I’ve been having
is to do a low tuning thing and still play and it’s just
been really challenging. It’s just a long scale guitar and
you really have to reach out there. Ergonomically it’s difficult.
It’s hard to reach, and then, of course, with the strange
tension of having it tuned so low in combination with the
heavier strings is just, it’s a bit of a struggle. But I
think I’ve got it to where it’s not ideal, but it’s good.
St. James: Why are you putting yourself through this?
Lynch: We built the record tuned down low and we’re going
out and trying to represent REvolution. I don’t know, it’s
heavier, it’s tougher, so it’s fun. A certain amount of
people are there to see me do my thing and so obviously
I’ve got that struggle to try to stay true to the record
and keep the band tuned down and sound heavy so it sounds
like the record, and not just do the same old thing that
we’ve been doing for the last 15 years.
St. James: What do you work on at home on the guitar. Do
you practice a lot?
Lynch: I never practice. I mean, I’m either working in
the studio and playing most of the time, I do my MI spins
now and then. That really gets my playing up. Especially
last week I did 45 one-hour lessons. It was crazy and by
that Friday, by 10 o’clock at night, after a ten-hour day,
I went to the studio after that.
St. James: What are you showing these people in these classes?
Single, solo, individual classes?
Lynch: Individual classes…
St. James: Whatever they want to know?
Lynch: If they have ideas, we go there. It’s totally open
to whatever they want to do. I’m not really the teacher.
I’m kind of faking it. I tell them that, but I just do the
best I can and the students run the gamut from girls that
come in that don’t know how to tune a guitar to guys that
have been there for years and they’re sandbaggers and they’re
like Joe Satriani times a hundred! So I have to deal with
that. But the kids are great, they’re all humble and sweet
people and technically, they have tremendous respect for
what I do. That’s why they’re there. I also learn from them
as well, which is why I’m there. So it really works out.
St. James: These are just MI students, right?
Lynch: Yeah, yeah.
St. James: Do you employ a lot of exotic scales and things
like that?
Lynch: I do unconsciously. I’m not a theory person so I
don’t really know what you’d call ’em, but looking at the
shapes I put together after years playing... I guess I’ve
always just responded to my environment, so tone is so critical
to me, which it is to a lot of people – most people I imagine
– but more so to me because I’m (a sensitive) player and
if everything is aligned and working properly and sounds
good, I’m inspired.
St. James: Was there ever a time when you practiced scales
or worked with a metronome or that kind of stuff?
Lynch: Sure, I had teachers. I’ve taught and taken lessons
all my life on and off. I want to be very careful that I
don’t get stale on it. I like to keep it exciting and I
like the mystery. The mystery is part of the music I create
and a lot of times if I don’t want to do it, I don’t know
where to go. I don’t have any rules or limitations so I
go to my own imagination.
St. James: And what about this instrumental record that
I saw mentioned in another interview someplace. Is it something
that you’re definitely gonna do?
Lynch: Yeah, definitely. It’s just a matter of time. Right
now I’ve been essentially in the studio for two years. I’ve
written a lot of music, recorded a lot of music that’s not
out. I hope to have it out – a friend of mine, Jason Slater,
a bass play in the Conspiracy, we used a variety of people.
There’s some great stuff, really the best stuff I’ve written.
I just have to get it out there. It’s like post-Alice in
Chains because it’s, you know, drug music…just cool, tricky
stuff. It’s all heavy and not tuned super low. It’s just
cool grooves and kind of the stuff I’ve always wanted to
do. Also this instrumental thing I’ve been playing with
for two years on and off, it’s semi-complete except most
of the solos I save for last. Some are done, some are still
programmed drums, so I need to get real drum and real bass
on there. Stuff is just time consuming. People on the outside
don’t realize how long all this takes, how tedious the process
is.
St. James: So do you have any advice for people when they
get in the studio for the first real time and they’re suddenly
faced with how long and tedious a lot of the processes are?
What’s you advice to people as far as dealing with that
and keeping your artistic spirit up.
Lynch: Really the key is to work with someone who has a
good sense of humor. That sounds silly, but it’s really
important. Look for somebody who is first of all very organized.
A logical thinker isn’t going to get bent out of shape when
things get bogged down, which they always do. And if you
have that, it’s down to being patient: while at the same
time keeping your eye on the objective and focused and really
forward, and that’s really all about problem solving. Recording,
that’s all it is. It’s just one problem after another for
musicians and hoping you’re making the right decision.
St. James: Is there a style of music that you play that
nobody knows you play? Do you ever play jazzy stuff or bluesy
stuff now and then?
Lynch: I played pseudo-fusion stuff. I don’t know what
I’m doing, but that’s OK. I guess that’s jazz, right? I
mean I hear it. It’s all here. I don’t know what I’m doing,
but I’m relating to something. I love that stuff. I love
weird cords. I do a lot of that stuff. I do sound-tracking
stuff at the library and stuff like that. That’s a whole
thing. It’s like you have to know who to go to.
St. James: Right.
Lynch: I don’t run in those circles. I have no idea. I’d
love to make connections in that world. I like electronic
music, ambient music. I write stuff like that. I mean I
write R&B and hip-hoppy stuff. I mean a lot of times
I listen to urban music and I just, I listen to their beats.
I wanna take those and I use them a lot for songs that I
write. I just build off them, you know, the rhythms, and
just reword it so that it works in a rock mode. Every time
I hear like cool girls or Nelly or some of those… I hear
guitar parts all over this stuff that would be so amazing.
St. James: Do you use sample CDs for drum tracks or rhythm
tracks?
Lynch: Uh huh.
St. James: What are some of your favorites?
Lynch: One that I use a lot is Chemical Beats and Zeppelin
stuff. You know, I just grab pieces of it and I lay it usually
with other stuff. Two, three, four, five scenarios to get
the right sound. I have a big library of stuff I get from
a lot of the producers I work with in the studio. I do all
my work right along side of big name people that I probably
shouldn’t be working next to, but I’m fortunate enough,
and they help me out a lot. Of course, the CD I use for
all my records (laughs) has got all the Pink Floyd sounds.
I also use the MPC CD that you can buy that goes with the
MPC2000. I use a couple of CDs: one is Planet of the Breaks
and Underneath the Planet of the Breaks. More R&B kind
of stuff. I pull stuff out of different genres and apply
it to an idea. That’s all the experimental stuff that ends
up not being on my records that I’ve got to get out there.
That’s why I think my website will be a good portal for
that where I’m able to throw stuff out there. It’s what
people expect of me and they’re not going to be so judgmental
and it doesn’t really need to be commercially successful,
but I can express myself.
St. James: Okay, cool.
Lynch: We good now?
St. James: Yeah, we are George. Thank you so much for your
time. Take care dude. Have a good time on the road.
Lynch: Okay, thanks Adam.
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