An Interview with Andy Timmons

IC: I'm here with Andy Timmons, here on tour in Houston...

Andy: The fabulous, U.S. three day tour! [Laughs]

IC: So, your last record was "Resolution." How has the reception been for it?

Andy: It's been really awesome. I have to say, of all the stuff I've done, I was really - as a whole - more proud of this one than previous stuff, largely because we took more time with it. Several years actually. A lot of stops and starts, but we spent a lot of time on the tone especially. And in doing so I also kind of worked on a lot of new ideas, instead of just kinda blowing some solos and repeating the kind of stuff I've been doing before.

IC: Yeah, I was going to ask you what led to the decision to not have any rhythm guitar layering?

Andy: That was actually something that Steve Vai mentioned when we did "That Was Then, This is Now." When I signed with Favored Nations, he wanted to release a best-of "Ear X-tacy" one and two, and so we put together a greatest hits - you know, no hits [laughs] - "attempted guitar playing!" But we decided to record new songs to put on there to pad it a little bit, and in those songs there were sections that were strictly power-trio, and he mentioned to me when I handed him the songs and he listened to them, "I really love those sections where it's just the trio and you really hear the fingers on the frets." And so I kinda remembered that, and several years later when we were working on the record, it was taking me awhile because I wasn't that inspired to be honest. I mean, we'd done the basic tracks and I was kind of approaching it like another guitar record… you know, "I'll do some rhythm stuff, and I'll double some leads…" But I just wasn't feeling it, like I'd already done it enough, and it just wasn't sounding fresh. But I thought about what Steven said about that, and I thought, "What if I could pull off doing the whole record with just one guitar on each song," and that's when I got inspired, because I didn't think it'd been done that much in the guitar world, and I also thought it'd be really hard! You know, like, "How am I gonna pull this off?" Because, you know, carrying chords and melody on some of the tunes --

IC: You kinda have to reinvent your playing style, right?

Andy: That was it! Yeah, and it really… it kicked my butt! I was awesome! [Laughs] And in doing so I really had to construct a lot of the parts, because on the basic tracks I improvised a lot, like the solos and some parts of it, but there were bits where I didn't like it, and normally I would have punched in parts I didn't like and fix them or whatever… but this time it was several years after the basic tracks had been done, and I had to relearn the bits that I liked and try to figure out what I did! But then that gave me the ability to compose around the parts I didn't like. I could replace them and ask, "What would really make that make more sense or sound cool?" So in doing so I kind of pre-composed a lot of the parts.

IC: Like a "best-of" your other takes?

Andy: Absolutely! That was the thing. Mike Daane, the bassist in my band, also co-produced it with me and engineered all the guitar tracks in his studio. So, two things we didn't want to do: we didn't want to have to tune anything or move anything. We allowed ourselves to comp from different takes if we needed to - you know, I was playing the same thing in all the takes… so we allowed ourselves to pick the bits we thought were the best, but with Pro Tools it's so easy to play God. You know what I mean? You can fix every little thing but to the point where you suck the personality out of it. So I wanted to be able to play it start to finish.

IC: Almost like a live record, in a way?

Andy: In a way, I've played so much with Mitch and Mike over the years, that even though by the time I recorded my parts it was pretty worked out, I still made it sound fresh as if we were playing it live. That was the hope anyway…

IC: So in the end were the solos themselves improvised?

Andy: Actually in the end they were composed. Another hurdle I had to get over was kind of coming from a partial Jazz background, where that's kind of a no-no. There's a stigma against that, and you have to play it fresh every time. And I still believe in that in many ways, but as we got into I realized, "What's more important here… to be able to say, 'Oh yeah, that's the first take'?" You know… there's a lot of our recordings where I've been able to do that, but I wanted to be able to listen to it and really like it! Yeah, so I like the structure of it, the dynamic of it, so I thought, "I'm gonna treat this like a songwriter," which… I am at some point hopefully! [Laughs] But as a songwriter, I'm able to pre-compose the whole thing. "What would I really want to hear melodically throughout everything?" So… in that way, I made it okay.

IC: It has a real classic type of sound! What kind of equipment were you using to record?

Andy: Yeah, well, we wanted a real vintage, 70's, raw sound. We didn't want to use any EQ either, especially on the guitars, so it's vintage Marshall basically. A '68 Plexi and a '79 JMV Master Volume. Both mostly, not all the time, but mostly running loud and clean, with gain boxes and tape echo. So yeah, we wanted that really raw, 70's kind of unprocessed sound. It was just strictly 57's into mic-pre, you know…

IC: So backtracking a ways, what led you to play instrumental music, and who were your main inspirations there?

Andy: Joe Satriani's "Surfing With The Alien," what was that? Thirty years ago now?

IC: … Is it thirty or was it just twenty?

Andy: Twenty! Yeah, it was twenty years ago… I think it inspired a lot of guitar players. I thought, "Wow, I can make some music that's just instrumental!" So I formed a band in '87, and in 1988 the first Andy Timmons Band gigs started happening, and we would do some Satriani and Vai, a lot of Hendrix and Cream… I'd sing some songs, and I started writing my own material. "It's Getting Better" was actually recorded twenty years ago now.

IC: Your first song as a band?

Andy: Our first instrumental thing, yeah! It's on the, "That Was Then, This Is Now" CD.

IC: Do you remember your first instrumental gig?

Andy: Yeah, I played a place called the Gravity Room, in Denton, TX. We played a lot there over the years!

IC: Every time I interview someone on my site, I ask them what they've been liking recently - instrumentally - and your album comes up almost EVERY interview! [Laughs]

Andy: [Laughs] Awesome! I was the only one to release an instrumental record recently I guess, so I was the only one by default! [Laughs] No, I mean, that's a huge honor, because there's a lot of guitar music out there, so uh… it sound like we made the right record.

IC: It was put out on Favored Nations, correct?

Andy: Yeah, Steve Vai's Favored Nations.

IC: How did you hook up with him originally?

Andy: Steve I met, I mean, I ran into quite a bit through Ibanez Guitars over the years. Different Ibanez events, different jams, and so we kept bumping into each other. Then when he started forming Favored Nations, he did a G3 jam and invited me to come up and play, and said, "Hey, I'm forming this label…" and just the way he was structuring it business-wise, it was really a partnership with the artist, so it was the first U.S. label that made sense to me. After my time with Danger Danger, I realized how screwy it is… I mean, I didn't get into music to make money, but at some point you have to take care of -- that's your intellectual property, ay know? So the fact that somebody else owns all the work that band has done…

IC: So with Favored Nations you get to hold on to--

Andy: Well, my deal is a licensing deal, so I make and record the records on my own budget and then license the record to them to release it.

IC: Cool! So I recently read that you used to be more of a session musician in Dallas... and that your first session was recording a jingle for Chuck E. Cheese?

Andy: [Lauhgs] Chuck E. Cheese! Woo! That's a true story, folks… [Laughs] I'm proud of it actually. Being a session guy was really more of my goal than being and kind of a rock-star recording artist.

IC: You focused on playing in many styles?

Andy: Yeah, I did. I mean, I was in rock bands growing up, but I realized that making it in the Rock and Roll world was probably a pretty good long shot. But I read about Tommy Tedesco, Larry Carlton and Steve Lukather, and thought, "How cool would that be to play on everybody's records in all these different styles?!" So that was really what I wanted to do, and that's what I still get to do! I'm still doing jingles; I've got a session on Monday when I get back. Probably for a car dealer. I do some stuff for CNN, Sports Illustrated, whatever it takes… It's all the same challenge to me, doing my records or touring with Olivia Newton-John, it's all pretty different, but it's all getting the right part for what's going on musically.

IC: What's it like doing, for instance, a ten-second jingle? I mean, what's your writing process there, and what's going through your head?

Andy: Well, I usually don't write them, but am just hired to come in and play. But sometimes it ends up… me writing them. [Laughs] But it's one of those things where you just really try to get into the head of the producer and ask, "What are they looking to hear?" A lot of these guys don't go out writing complicated parts. They go, "Here's the chords, play like…" whoever! They know that I can come up with something, since I'm so familiar with so many different players and styles, I can usually get inside what they're looking for.

IC: So your listening really pays off for you as well then?

Andy: Yeah, absolutely, and that's the key I think for any musician. The more you absorb, the more you're able to experience, and the more you can live through your instrument.

IC: I was curious about one of your songs… "Cry For You." Is there any story behind the song?

Andy: There is! Right when I joined Danger Danger, I moved to the East coast, to New Jersey, so it was purely a song out of missing my girlfriend, missing my friends, and kind of being in that situation. I mean, that girl is long gone, but the song is still fresh every night. It's always completely improvised, as far as the solo bits. No matter what's going on in my life, of maybe other people's lives… they're having a hard time or whatever it might be… I kind of dedicated it from myself to that person and let that feeling flow through the song.

IC: How about the song, "September?" I know that's one that a lot of your fans like a lot, at least I've heard online...

Andy: Oh, wow. I wasn't aware! I wrote that for two of my best friends down here, kind of folks who have a bunch of money… so I thought, "What am I gonna get them? I can't afford anything!" [Laughs] This goes back awhile… so I thought, "I'll write them a song for their wedding!" So I just wrote it completely for them, and I thought the recording turned out nice and that it might make a good bonus track somewhere.

IC: Any comments about the title track off "Resolution?"

Andy: When we were making the CD, like I said we decided to pretty much never use EQ, since we just wanted to do it all with mic placement or controls on the amp. And so… there was a lot of moving of the microphones while we were trying to get tones, and Mike would go out in the studio and I'd play a little bit, sometimes just practicing or maybe playing a little funny shit, trying to make him laugh you know! But one day, without even thinking that riff kinda just came. I kinda kept playing it all day when he'd go out and move the microphones for whatever song we were working on, and he was like, "Man, you've gotta finish that idea. It's a cool riff" So I said, "Maybe I'll go home and work on it." So I did that night and just kinda came up with the B section, a chorus… and so that needed to go on the record and so we just quickly recorded it in Mike's studio, but it was a song the record really needed because a lot of the mood of the record is dark, post-9/11 life, and some of the themes are about those things, so with this, at least there's some hope and optimism about it.

IC: Yeah, that kinda leads to my other question: What is your creative process like and what inspires your songwriting?

Andy: They're all different. Sometimes on the "Resolution" CD, the songs came out of jam sessions with Mike and Mitch. We just started playing, and Mitch would play a groove and it would immediately inspire me to play a certain way. So some things kinda start that way, but there are songs like, "Gone," which was written on September 11th... and "Deliver Us." I mean, some have very specific meanings, but it just depends on when I'm writing and what I might be going through at that moment. I try to get into it and put it into melody.

IC: I heard a live recording of you playing Charlie Parker's "Donna Lee." Do you have any formal Jazz training?

Andy: Yeah, a little bit, I guess you could call it formal. My first lessons I started taking when I was sixteen years old - but I've been playing since I was five...

IC: You were a late starter at five, man! [Laughs]

Andy: [Laughs] Yeah, I know. Back then I was more of a rocker guy, into Ted Nugent and 70's rock, but I was already realizing that music was what I wanted to do with my life. So the local guitar teacher, or the most well-known one was a guy named Ron Pritchett, and he started teaching me how to read very simple single note melodies and stuff out of a basic guitar series, and he'd also play me some Jazz stuff like Barney Kessel, Joe Pass, and Oscar Peterson's piano stuff. So he started broadening my ears and showing me changes to standards. He had great chord knowledge. So I just started getting it in my ear then and I eventually was a Jazz major for two years at the University of Miami.

IC: So what did you do to develop your ear when you were younger? Did you transcribe a lot of stuff?

Andy: There was no transcribing, it was just playing along with my records. I mean, you can call it transcription, but I never wrote it down. That's the key for any musician, they have to absorb as much as they can by listening, instead of off a written page. It's kind of a bummer, because there's so much written material, a lot of players go right to the tabs and videos. It's valuable, I use it too, but I'm thankful that I grew up in a time when there wasn't any of that, or at least not that much available, so you didn't have a choice, you had to figure it out by yourself. It connects much differently when you're getting it through your ears instead of your eyes, and that's the whole point of music: your ears are your most valuable tool as a player.

IC: Is there any live CD being planned or any new album plans?

Andy: Yeah, we're writing now for the new record, and we've taped a few live shows and video stuff, but you know... I'm hard to please in a lot of ways, but we'll see. I know we wana put more stuff out so we'll see how it goes.

IC: You probably get asked this a whole lot, but when you were younger, how much did you practice in your prime woodshedding days?

Andy: There was a lot of times where I just had a guitar in my hands because I love it and played whenever I could. It was never disciplined, it was always more about just playing along with the records and having fun. When I was in school, especially in Miami, there was a lot of transcribing at that time, and I started learning the modes. Before that, I'd never really thought of learning scales. So I tried to balance it as much as I could between ear training, some scale work, but there was never any set rule, "I've gotta practice eight hours a day..."

IC: Never got stuck in the whole neo-classical genre?

Andy: Not really, I tried a couple licks and my hands hurt. [Laughs] But nah, I just couldn't play that way very well.

IC: I wanted to ask you about a guitar player... you were familiar with Shawn Lane?

Andy: Oh yeah...

IC: I saw some videos of the two of you jamming at an A.I.M. clinic...

Andy: That was the first day we played together! We did a week-long clinic tour in '93 for Ibanez, and that was a brilliant week, man... He was such a sweet guy, and obviously a brilliant musician on every instrument. It was a really, really cool experience and we just had so much fun, man, we were laughing... There was this Ibanez rep there who just kept us rollin' the whole time, it was pretty cool. We realized we had a lot of common interests as far as favorite pop songs...

IC: He was quite an expert on music history?

Andy: He was. Just so intelligent, but you know, like me... my only intelligence is related to pop music. [Laughs] But he connected with me totally on that, so it was awesome.

IC: You've played with so many people, but is there anyone you'd still like to collaborate with someday?

Andy: Man... everybody, shoot! Of course, McCartney or Ringo. It would be the dream to play with one of the Beatles, that'd be the perfect thing... Brian Wilson, my other hero. Elvis Costello. And a lot of other great players, too. I haven't jammed with Lukather yet! We're friends and have been at each other's gigs, but I haven't gotten a chance to jam with him yet. Carlton would be great, too.

IC: As long as we're talking about other player, I wonder if I could get your thought on a few... Reb Beach, for instance.

Andy: Oh, Reb Beach, man! I love Reb because he's such a unique player. You know it's him within three notes. We got to be really good friends back in the Danger Danger to Winger days. We had a mutual friend in Dallas who said, "You guys are so much alike, you should meet," you know? And we did, we started jamming together... He's just a really sweet guy and an amazing player.

IC: Have you heard Danger Danger's new guitarist, Rob Marcello?

Andy: Yeah, he's awesome. [Laughs] ... I call him "Mini-Me!"

IC: [Laughs]

Andy: But he's not really "Mini-Me" at all, he's a monster player and he's got his own thing going. He's a really nice guy, too.

IC: How about Brett Garsed?

Andy: Brett's awesome, man! Somebody gave me a videotape of him outta G.I.T., and he's a brilliant player but I was especially impressed with his slide playing. God! It's awesome, man...

IC: Speaking of slide, have you heard Derek Trucks?

Andy: Yeah, he's awesome, too. Both great players there.

IC: How about Eric Johnson? I kind of heard a little bit of his influence on your last album...

Andy: Yeah, playing-wise I'm not trying to emulate him too much, but I think it happens accidentally. He's a dangerous guy to listen to too much because you start phrasing like that! But the tone, he sets the benchmark for me, and I think a lot of people... he set the bar really high for what great guitar tone is in the studio and even live. No doubt, he's a big inspiration to me.

IC: Did you ever happen to meet Mattias Eklundh on the Laney tours?

Andy: Yeah! We toured with Freak Kitchen. A.T.B., Tony Hernando and Freak Kitchen. We toured Spain together. Fantastic player!

IC: Are there any particular bands or players you'd recommend to your listeners, who effected you a lot?

Andy: Oh gosh, so many... Well, Pay Metheny, melodically, is the greatest guy out there. Certainly Larry Carlton's records. Early George Benson, Wes Montgomery, Robben Ford... This new Robben Ford record just came out, it's brilliant. Great, great kind of fusiony-blues playing. Fantastic.

IC: How about younger guys? Who do you see yourself kind of passing the torch on to?

Andy: I've heard some guys with a little influence, but it's kind of hard to quantify. It's an honor if I've inspired anybody in any way, but I have no idea.

IC: I've seen an old, mid-90's Ibanez "Beginning Acoustic Guitar" instructional video on VHS. Was that the only instructional released with you back then?

Andy: Yeah, there was a little "Beginning Electric Guitar," too. Ibanez asked me to do that for their little started kit. But yeah, I get asked personally, "Where's your instructional videos?" I just haven't made the time to do it. I've got plans for one, with kind of an outline of what I wana do... I could make a nice series actually, but it's just about finding the time to do it.

IC: I'm kinda surprised you never had one during the whole Paul Gilbert period, with all the other REH videos coming out at that time...

Andy: Yeah, but I'm not really a player like that. I mean, I don't have all these licks and stuff. I just play melodies, so it's just like... in those days, I couldn't get arrested! [Laughs] It's funny now, people kinda like my playing. But back then...

IC: Any parting advice for young players looking to better their playing and musicianship?

Andy: Well, just what we were talking about before. My advice is just: really develop your ears. And the way you do that is just off whatever your favorite records are. Play along with it and really try to figure it out just by ear first. There's going to be difficult stuff, and maybe you can go to your teacher or maybe some kind of transcription. But really just develop that. It really helps with your own music later, because you've got the aural experience instead of just the visual. It's a whole different thing. It helps you so much to be able to communicate with other musicians, and is just the strongest thing they could do.

IC: What are your remaining technical and musical aspirations?

Andy: Technical: there's just so much to learn, it gets a little daunting sometimes. But just to continue to grow. I think the instrumental music has a long way to go as far as what it's able to communicate emotionally. Obviously it's already expressive, but I think there's a lot more latitude and we can really get to the heart... so I wana develop more of that.

IC: Do you still spend much time practicing and developing your style?

Andy: As much as I can. I mean, the older you get, the busier your life gets it seems like. I mean, I'm married, with a child. I'm busy with sessions... but yeah, as much as I can I try and put in the time.

IC: If you had to pick maybe just five albums that are some of your favorites in the instrumental guitar world, what might they be?

Andy: That's a tough question! Obviously, Joe Satriani's "Surfing..." and "The Extremist" are his best sounding records to me. Eric Johnson's records, of course I love, but they're half-instrumental, half-vocal. Umm... and Pat Metheny stuff. "Travels" and "Offramp" are by far my favorite stuff. Larry Carlton's first record called "Room 335." Those are my favorites; they were the most influential to me.

IC: Thanks for doing the interview!

Andy: Well cool, brother! I appreciate it!

Purchase “Resolution” here.

Or visit: www.andytimmons.com