Swanos solo on Dark World Burden

[FUBAR]

Just wonderd how it came about? cuz its a really cool solo, were u guys havin trouble ending the song? Did he offer or did u guys beg, lol

 

[NvmbrsDoom5]

It was pretty simple actually how it happened. We wrote and recorded it, and figured the ending would either just be instrumental with no solo, or that we'd fade it out perhaps. As part of the arrangement with Dan doing the mixing and stuff, we told him basically that if he had any ideas/suggestions for stuff that we'd be open to them. Apparently he really liked that song (he said it reminded him of an EoS feel) and had an idea for it, and he sent us the song back with his solo added. When we heard it of course right away we could tell that it was perfect for the song, and there you have it.

Now I get the fun task of playing it live, I really enjoy it, it's a good solo as you said. Another nice thing is that it kinda opened the door in my mind for putting more solos in our music. In the past I was never really into having longer more expressive solos in our music....I just never really thought it was necessary. After I heard how well Dan's solo worked in "Dark World Burden", I became more open to the idea. And now on this new cd, there's at least three songs where I perform full guitar solos. I'm nowhere near the player that Dan is, of course, but hopefully people will like the solos okay enough.

 

[FUBAR]

Interesting thanks for the quick reply. Its cool that he jus whacked it out for you...is it hard to play live?

Glad to hear that you've got some more solos on 'TNR' I really like solos especially your one on 'Through a Childs eyes'...seems like im kissing your ass but that solo is really emotive and effective.

 

[NvmbrsDoom5]

Dan's solo isn't really hard to play, it's just that his style of playing is a bit different from mine so I have to come at it with a different approach than I'm used to. Plus, Dan played it on a guitar in regular tuning so I had to transpose it to be played on a baritone guitar so that made some of it a bit awkward.

Thanks for the compliment on "Child's Eyes" solo. I don't like having really flashy shredder type solos much because too much of it just seems self-indulgent, though I admire alot of players who can play like that. So I try to keep it a bit more straight forward and melodic, the kind of solos you can sing or hum along with. On the new disc, I added a bit more flash to the solos, in more of that "Swano" kind of way as I'd said, but generally I think they're still the kind of solos that you can sing along with. No Dragonforce soloing for me, thanks! I couldn't play that fast and precise if I tried!

 

[BrandonS]

Yeah, I gave up on doing shredding solos. People like Jari Maenpaa are geniuses though as being able to write expressive shred-solos. I personally have listened to a TON of progressive rock, actually I discovered prog rock after discovering metal, hahah.... but I seem to apply what I learn to prog-rock to my metal much more than one would think appropriate. If you listen to these guys play solos, they aren't shreds... I mean sure, some of them are pretty complex and very hard to play, but you slap a wah-wah on a melodic solo and there's nothing better. I'm not so interested in shredding so much anymore, of course I'm not going to resign my education by just playing solos I am capable of, haha! I might learn how to shred just to have that window open incase I ever decide to take that path. But I am perfectly happy with more melodic non-shred solos.

I don't mean this to be bashing, but you ever hear John Petrucci play guitar? The guy is totally like a robot, where is the feeling? I wonder if he could pull off nicer melodic solos without shredding, hmmm...