 |
| RICHARD |
| Hey, I'm Richard, I front this crazy band called Maulstrom. It wasn't always this way though. There was a time when I was naive and music had little prowess in my life. A time before I knew that there could be more to music then two chord pop or fat-ass bass beats. About seven years ago my brother ERIC passed away. He had been paralyzed in a car wreck and lived with us for five months before he died. He taught me so much in the little time I spent with him. He left me three cd's before he passed. They were Nirvana's "In Utero", Faith No More's "Angel Dust" and most importantly Metallica's "Metallica". I heard what these guys were doing with there intruments, the heavy riffs, the wailing solos, and I knew it was what I wanted to do. Two years later I had saved up to buy my first guitar. I'm heavily inspired by Jim Martin(fath no more) and Kirk Hammet(metallica) when it comes to my lead playing. Rythym is without a doubt inspired by James Hetfield (metallica) Toni Iomi(black sabbath), THose guys are the masters of riffage. Anyhow, my influences are across the board when it comes to my overall style. I'm a big classic rock fan, Manford MAnn, Molly Hatchett, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Joe Walsh, and a blues fan, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Robert Johnson, and a lover of classical music as well, Jim breamon is a guy all guitarists should listen to, you can hear so much emotion and power coming out of his nylon string. Anyhow, that's where I come from. I started a band with a great man and my best friend, Adam Mitchell(GOd rest his soul) called F,F, THuRSDAY and built quite a following around town. We could walk around and hear people singing our lyrics. It was Great, We played comedy based acoustic rock, a far cry from what Maulstrom does. Sadly, Adam and I were in a car accident which ended his life. F.F.THuRSDAY was officialy retired after that, there's no way to carry on without him. I was then in Collaboratica, the first band I had the unnerving pleasure to front. After that went to hell for undisclosed reasons I formed Maulstrom. THis band lets me get out all my aggression and joy at the same time. I feel like we work hard enough on our music that I can express myself and show off what I can do. WE get loud and we get fast and most importantly we test ourselves, everyday we push our limits. I'm learning all the time about what a versitle instrument the guitar is, the more I know about it, the easier it will be to get my emotions from my head to hand to fretboard, and ultimately to a broad audience. Okay, here's the section where I rant about modern music. Any of you guys Like NU_METAL? well, fuck that, go to another website. I hate the Idea of people putting so little effort into their music and making so much money off of it. THe guitar solo is a lost art. Half the guitar players out there cite Jimi Hendrix as an influence without hearing any of his music. To the rest of them it's just "Jimi Who?" Fuckers. Anyhow, those who truly care about the instrument are a dying breed. You could give most guitarists today a guitar with just the two bass strings(e,a) on it and they could play all their songs. The music they produce is loud, granted, but they lack so much substance that they're boring as shit. If I hear another little rich kid bitchin and moanin' about his bad upbringing or broken home, I'm going to strap a knife to my guitar and go rambo style upside the heads of some little no talent muthafuka's. Why does the guitar player(use the term loosely) of Papa Roach get a column in "GUITAR WORLD" magazine anyhow? Alright, here's a couple goals I have as a guitar player. I'm not trying to become the biggest metalgod player ever, I just wanna go as far as the instrument takes me. I'm not worried too much about fame, I just love to play live. Whether it's a little club or operahouse it doesn't matter, I go out there and play my best each time. I can't be bothered by what most people think. The minute I let people dictate my actions (because I'm worried about saving face or whatever) is when the music loses it's purity. I'm no better than those "pre-packaged in Orlando" popstar bitches if I'm not true to my own vision. I suppose if I can inspire one fifteen year old kid to pick up a guitar and get his voice heard then I've accomplished a huge goal. I wanna have a person or two come up to me after a show and ask me to jam, or "can you show me how to play that riff?" I love that, I want to inspire people. I want people to see what it means to immerse yourself into something and work your ass off at it. And if that doesn't work I could always sell out and do popsongs. Just kidding! Hold your hatemail! |
| RICHARD'S GUITARS: 72 Fender Strat Squire (Sangre) 62 Fender Stratocaster (Stratmaster) Two Black Texarkana Acoustics (One & Two) Arbor Acoustic (Susan) St. Moritz Acoustic (The Loaner) Black 5-string Ibanez Bass (It's named Bass) EFFECTS: Boss MT-2 Metal Zone Amps: Peavey Envoy 40-watt transtube 30-watt RMS Bass Amp 250-watt per channel TOSH P.A. |
 |
 |