Alissa Ordabai:  How are you feeling today?

 

Alex Skolnick:  I feel pretty good, a little tired.  I’m in Milwakee.

 

AO:  All right!

 

AS:  Played Minneapolis last night and to went great, went really good.

 

AO:  Have there been any highlights of the tour so far?

 

AS:  Well, we were on tour with Judas Priest for a week and it felt great.  We played with them a long time ago in the first few years of the band and it was kind of great to catch up with them.  They were also an inspiration to me because they are such a great band.  And it was a cool vibe.  It was great to get to know them better this time around.  When we toured with them before, it was a tough time for them.  And now they are back and they are having a great time.  We are watching them every night, like we did the OzzFest, which is actually called Ozzy’s Monsters of Rock in Calgary and that was a lot of fun.  We checked out some friends like Shadows Fall and Cavalera Conspiracy and watched Ozzy right in front of the stage, watched Zakk go crazy… (Laughs).

 

AO:  Your blog on the internet says that you are friends with both Zakk and the guys from Cavalera Conspiracy. 

 

AS:  Yeah, I actually don’t know the Cavalera guys that well, but their guitar player, Marc Rizzo, is from the New York area and we have some mutual friends.  And Zakk, we’ve just bumped into each other over the years and he’s actually a big supporter of my jazz.  One of his friends who tours with him told Zakk about my jazz stuff and he just flipped.  He’s been really supportive of it and talked about it in magazines.  He’s always animated and a fun guy to hang out with.

 

AO:  Yes, he is!

 

AS:  And then the other Cavalera guys – I kind of got to know them better.  When we were in London for the Metal Hammer Awards they were there and we stayed in the same hotel and hung out together.  They are really great.

 

AO:  Max told me recently that he doesn’t drink anymore. 

 

AS:  Oh yeah!  (Laughs).

 

AO:  But he says he doesn’t mind when other people drink around him.  He says he’s not like other guys in other bands who can’t stand anyone drinking around them when they quit drinking.

 

AS:  Some people are better than we know them.  (Laughs). 

 

AO:  You don’t say, haha!  Getting back to metal after years of doing other things, what sort of feeling are you getting from the metal scene in general these days?

 

AS:  It’s interesting.  It used to be a lot different.  There was definitely a lot more of a reckless youth factor to it.  I feel like there is a lot more diversity now.  You see more groups, more variety, more female fans, more things that don’t fit the stereotype.  And I perfectly appreciate that because one of the things that has always bothered me were the stereotypes.  I like diversity – whether it’s in the musical taste or social diversity.  And I think there is a lot more of that, and think metal now is more respected from the fact that they tried to kill it with the so-called “alternative revolution”, and it’s still here.  (Laughs).  And it has a coolness, even though there might be something jumpy about the high screams, and growls, and wailing guitar solos.  It has a certain charm to it that is appreciated now and has been for a long time.  And I think that with people getting older and then new people coming into it, it’s definitely taking on new characteristics.   I think it’s a much better time to be playing metal right now. 

 

AO:  When you are on stage with Testament these days, do you find yourself approaching the band’s catalogue from a slightly different angle, now that you’ve had all of your jazz training and jazz experience, and theatre experience?

 

AS:  Completely.  And it’s funny because so many people come up to me and they say, “We can totally recognise the solos from the record, so thank you for keeping it that way”.  And I tell them, “You know what, to me this is nothing like the record.”  (Laughs).  I mean, I do try to capture the melodic quality, but if you listen closely, I change a lot of things around.  I add embellishments and variations I would never have done before.  When I was younger, it was more like, we would record the solo and I would learn it for the tour, and I would try to stick to it.  Now from my experience of playing in different styles, which is mostly jazz, which is so musically challenging, it feels much more effortless now and there is much more room for creativity within the solos without losing the recognisable quality of them. 

 

AO:  These days it feels that you are kind of lifestyle surfing – one day you are a rock star playing to huge crowed of metal fans, the next day you are a jazz musician playing to connoisseurs in clubs, and after that you may find yourself on a theatre stage playing to a whole different audience altogether.  Is this as perfect as it gets or there still room for more scenarios, more situations, more musical experiences?

 

AS:  You know, it really depends on what comes up.  If a great opportunity comes up…  I’m not sure what else can happen.  (Laughs).  I’m open to all possibilities, at the same time I feel like I have my hands full, so I’m enjoying the balance I have.

 

AO:  Talking about “Last Day in Paradise”, it’s such an uplifting, fluent, coherent record…

 

AS:  Thank you.

 

AO:  But it’s true.  Did you have a concept from the start for this album or was a pretty free-flowing process?

 

AS:  No concept at all.  These were the songs that came together.  There were few thoughts that I had, but I wrote the balk of the material, and the other guys, Matt and Nathan, had a couple of different arrangements and stuff.  Nathan contributed a song…  And it kind of came together naturally.  Which is usually what I try to do, I try not to force anything, and let it happen.

 

AO:  On tracks like “Tom Sawyer” your playing sounds very contemplative, and the balance of energies is so nuanced and mindful, it’s almost like a Buddhist meditation.  Would you say that certain styles of music a capable of influencing a musician’s general disposition or frame of mind?

 

AS:  I would say so.  Hopefully it also influences the listeners’ disposition and frame of mind as well.  One of the things about the improvised music is that you have to pay closer attention to it.  It’s not in your face.  There are other musical forms that are in your face – metal.  (Laughs).  It just comes out and grabs you, you can’t miss it.  Hip hop is the same way.  And then there are other forms.  Improvisation, jazz improvisation is one of those.  You have to put a little more effort into it.  It takes a little more concentration and focus from the listener.  It not just gonna come out and scream at you.  And just because of that process it definitely puts you in a different frame of mind whether you are a musician or a listener. 

 

AO:  Would you say that playing jazz has influenced the way you feel about the world in general or do you more or less remain the same person? 

 

 

AS:  A little bit.  It definitely changes your frame of mind.  It also puts you in touch with different types of listeners and different types of people socially.  There is generally a different mentality to listening to jazz and because of that suddenly you have this connection, getting in touch with people that you may not have gotten in touch with otherwise. 

 

As far as my view of the world, I guess part of it to me was that it just opened up a lot.   I realised wow, the music is so diverse, and jazz is such a broad category, within it there are so many other influences:  there’s jazz that is influenced by early swing and New Orleans music, there’s jazz that is influenced by rock in the 70s and it’s called jazz rock fusion, and there’s jazz that is influenced by world music.  There are so many different qualities.  I just love it and I love the diversity of it.  At the same time, I did encounter some jazz fans and critics that had qualities that turned me off from metal initially.  Not metal in general but just the stubborn metal fans.  There are some stubborn metal fans and critics and there are some stubborn jazz people as well, and you’d actually be surprised how much they have in common.  (Laughs).  Even though they share stubbornness about very different things, very different styles.  That exists in all types of music.

 

AO:  I was talking to the guys from Apocalyptica recently and they told that people are very biased in the classical world too.  How they wouldn’t open up to any other genres.

 

AS:  Oh, I heard that. 

 

AO:  And they said it’s just like being a hockey fan were you are supposed to support one team, a bit of tribal thing really.

 

AS:  Exactly.  That element exists, but I think it’s in the minority now.   I’m finding more and more people opening up.  I’m meeting fans at shows that definitely look like metalheads but they’ve checked out the jazz CDs I’ve got.  Or heavy metal-looking guys that have not only checked out my stuff, but they have a whole collection of jazz and they know what they are talking about.  And they are on a watch stand, they watch people’s development. 

 

AO:  This is incredible.

 

AS:  Yeah, and having to play a role in that is really, really cool.

 

AO:  You studied jazz and composition at the New School University in New York which is renowned for its intellectual atmosphere.  Did that milieu influence you in any way, and if so, what was the most valuable educational experience you have had there?

 

AS:  It’s hard to say.  Because I had several valuable experiences.  One of them was just being in a university educational environment.  What was really interesting about it was that in a way it was exactly what I ran away from when I was younger.  And I kind of grew up in the shadow of UC Berkeley.  Both my parents are on the faculty here.  While I was at school, I was expected to go there.  That was the sort of attitude, you were totally expected to go there, why would you go anywhere else, you have one of the best universities in the country, and I was very put off by it.  Because what I saw was obnoxious frat boys.  I went to a couple of parties and there were frat guys who hated metalheads.  And that was my view of college.  And my parents, being academics, obviously were horrified that I was joining this metal band and has been put off college.  So metal was a big part of my escape plan.  So it was strange years later to find myself enrolling into a university.  I realised that universities in New York are very different.  It’s not about the college scene, it’s not about football, it’s not about frats, that’s the big difference.  (Laughs).  UC Berkeley is all about being in a football team, and obviously the graduate school in UC Berkeley is a whole other thing, which is very intellectual and it’s about enlightenment and education, but you don’t really get that if you are younger.  And I’m told that the first four years they just sinker swam.  But in New York they don’t have teams or anything like that.  So I just realised that there are universities which are actually about learning.  (Laughs).  It was great, and then to be studying music, and to be in a situation where music is important.  And some of the other classes that I took were really helpful too.  I took a philosophy class, a psychology class…  I just really enjoyed that, I enjoyed learning.  I still do.  Although it’s nothing like being in that situation.  And I would just add that musically I’ve had a lot of amazing teachers who were really appreciative that this guy from a metal band would actually come and appreciate their music, what they did.  And I was really humbled.  Nobody knew what to expect and it actually worked out really good.  And there was one teacher who made me feel like I was three feet tall.  (Laughs).  But he was one of the best teachers I had.  It was just his style.

 

AO:  Was it a music teacher?

 

AS:  It was a music teacher yeah, and it was just his style.  And I heard about music teachers who just ripped everyone apart and just chew you up and spit you out, and I never had one like that.  And it was interesting.  It was humiliating, but…  (Laughs).  He taught me some of the most valuable things I’ve ever heard about music.  Made me think about music in a whole new way.  And that’s how I’m playing now and how I am performing now, even with Testament. 

 

AO:  Talking again about music, when you give jazz interpretations to rock tunes, how much of the rock impetus are you prepared to surrender to jazz and how much do you feel has to be retained?  In other words, where do you draw the line?

 

AS:  I really try to forget about the rock part of it sonically, I try only to concentrate on the melody.  I know these songs so well.  I think that’s one of the reasons why people have responded so well to it.  I know these songs, these songs are like in the back of my head.  But it’s really more about capturing what I like about jazz.  To bring that to these songs, kind of combining it.  But then here could be certain moods for certain sections of songs which are inspired by the original.  And maybe the original has a bridge that becomes very energetic and will kind of increase the energy, but in a different way.  I think I am conscious of the original but not overly concerned with that. 

 

AO:  As well as writing in a variety of styles, you’ve also always been involved in performing other people’s music – from covers you did with Skol Patrol to the new Jeckyll and Hyde soundtrack album.  What attracts you to the idea of interpreting other people’s music?

 

AS:  It’s a good question.  I don’t know.  I guess I just kind of have a knack for it.  It comes very naturally.  When I hear music I like, I can hear different variations on it.  I just imagine another song over it.  Or I’ll be playing a song and I just can imagine a completely different arrangement.  And as far as Jeckyll and Hyde and playing lesser known sessions, people just ask me to come up with stuff.  To come up with a bunch of ideas for their music, and then we stumble upon the one that they like, and that’s what we got.  I enjoy that.

 

AO:  What qualities in your opinion are essential in a musician to be able to interpret the outside material successfully?

 

AS:  You have to be diverse.  I think you have to be open to many, many different styles.  And know how to play them.  Because that way you just have a lot to bring to the table.  If I only play blues, for example, not matter how I approach a blues song, it’s gonna sound like blues.  But if I’m open to other styles, if I listen to hip hop, for example…  I’m not an expert on that, I do listen to some hip hop…

 

AO:  Do you?

 

AS:  Oh yeah!

 

AO:  Because you mentioned hip hop a couple of times in this conversation and I was wondering…

 

AS:  For the last couple of days I’ve been listening to it, so it’s kind of on my brain.  I saw this movie, Hustle and Flow, which I found really influential and inspiring.  I thought it was a great movie and a great metaphor, it’s about the musical process.  So that’s kind of on my brain.  But I would say just being open to different styles enables you to do something different with somebody else’s song.  Instead of just sticking with the original style.

 

AO:  Rock ethos is very different from that of orchestras, such as Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  I always thought that rock is not so receptive to the material being brought in from the outside, and to the idea of having a fluent line-up, plus the audience is very different.  In what ways has playing in TSO changed your view on playing in a musical ensemble and maybe musicianship in general?

 

AS:  That was a really different situation for me to be in because everybody’s very professionally-minded.  And I’ve never worked in a situation with these types of musicians.  There’s so much diversity – there are classical string players, there’s obviously something like a rock band, there are singers that come from the Broadway world, from the R’n’B world, the rock world, and it all works together, it has directors, musical directors.  And seeing how musical directors work, especially my musical director, this guy named Bob Kinkel, just to see how he runs the ensemble, taking care of the people and any issues that may come up was amazing.  And people have issues. 

 

AO:  Tell me about it!

 

AS:  Absolutely.  You know, it’s really about, especially in a big situation like that, it’s about the end result, about being a team player, and really putting your own ego aside.  Because it’s not always about you.  And the whole art of being a team player and supporting other players, other musicians.  I think both playing in a jazz ensemble and playing in TSO has really strengthened that quality.  I used to play with Testament and wait for my solo and now I don’t think about it.  When I’m not playing the solo, guess what, I’m still playing.  And I’m supporting the vocals.  Or somebody else’s solo.  I think TSO really helped to instil that quality, being a team player, seeing how it works and working with really different types of musicians and singers.

 

AO:  How do you maintain your technique?  Does it still require everyday practice?

 

AS:  Unfortunately, yes. 

 

AO:  Hahaha!  Is there anything that still challenges you as a musician?

 

AS:  Oh, a lot!   And I think there will always be.  I’m still constantly working on mostly jazz stuff, but I still study once in a while.  I don’t spend that much time doing it because I’m working a lot.  I’m out there playing music so much of the time.  That for me lessens the need to spend hours alone in a room.  At the same time, I need to prepare for whatever projects I’m working on.  And apart from that, preparation is just getting warmed up and getting fluent.  And the best way for me to do that is to study new things.

 

AO:  I have one last question and it’s a bit goofy, I hope you don’t mind.  If you could get an answer to any question in the universe, what would you ask?

 

AS:  That’s a tough question!  Unfortunately, I don’t have a unique answer.  My question would be “Why?”  What’s the purpose?  What’s going on?  Why is this happening?  Why do we exist?

 

AO:  What do you think the purpose is? 

 

AS:  I think everybody has a purpose.  Some people don’t find it.  It takes effort to find it.  But those who do find it, are very lucky.  And somehow all our purposes are connected.  I believe that.  Whatever the purpose of each of us is, they are all connected with  one another.  But I’m not sure how or why.  All that does is create more questions.

 

AO:  That’s a brilliant answer.  It will be interesting for the Russian readers to find this interview in our next issue.

 

AS:  A lot of them think I’m Russian.  (Laughs).

 

AO:  Well, you are Jewish with Eastern European roots, aren’t you?

 

AS:  Exactly.  Eastern European Jewish, so my last name is actually a Russian word. 

 

AO:  Which means a “pupil” or a “student”.

 

AS:  Yeah, I know that.  I’ve met Russian fans that said I was their role model because I made my way out of Russia and found success in the United States.

 

AO:  Oh, that’s endearing, isn’t it?

 

AS:  It is.

 

AO:  But you played in Russia as well recently, didn’t you, at Tochka club in Moscow?

 

AS:  Yes.  That was great.

 

AO:  Oh, was it?  Did you enjoy it?

 

AS:  I had a great time!

 

AO:  Well, I won’t take up any more of your time, thank you for the interview, and good luck with the rest of the tour.

 

AS:  No problem. 

 

AO:  Break a leg!

 

AS:  Thanks so much!

​

First published in Crusher magazine in August 2008.