Rising Force Interview
Yngwie Malmsteen
Helsinki, May 7, 1994
WHICH CLASSICAL MUSIC COMPOSERS HAVE INFLUENCED YOUR MUSIC MOST?
- Bach, Vivaldi, Paganini, Tshaikovski, Albinoni, Corelli, C.P.E.
Bach. Mostly Baroque, but definitely Paganini works.
WHY PAGANINI?
- Because of the intensity of his arpeggios and the way he plays and
everything like that.
WHAT KIND OF BACKGROUND DO YOU HAVE? DID YOU HEAR CLASSICAL MUSIC WHEN
YOU WERE YOUNG?
- Well, actually I started up being total rock'n'roller. There was
nothing but rock. I liked to listen to Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple.. It's
way back 1970 and basically classical music was started seeping in around
1974. I was 10 years old..no I was more than that. I was 12.
HAVE YOU PRACTISED A LOT CLASSICAL GUITAR?
- No. My guitar playing has nothing to do with classical guitar. It's
classical violin that is my influence with vibrato, wider arpeggios.
Classical guitar is more like piano.
YOU HAVE BORROWED SOME THEMES FROM DIFFERENT COMPOSERS.
- I have, but my mainthing is not to play classical music. My mainthing
is to be influenced by classical music. The way of thinking,
counterpoint, all the harmonic minors, diminished, pedal notes..Those are
my biggest influences. My mainthing is to interprite a little bit the way
of thinking and to apply there my way of thinking and my way of composing.
BUT WHEN YOU BORROW SOMETHING WHICH ARE THE CRITERIONS THAT YOU TAKE JUST
THAT THEME?
- Meaning I play exact piece? Even when I do play the exact piece it's
not exect piece. Like Prisoner of Your Love, Air by Bach I play
differently. I did play the Badinerie piece exactly the same.But
Paganini's 4th Violin Concerto (sings..) it's not exact like he did. Or
the 5th symphony of Beethoven.. My mainthing is to basically absorb their
way of thinking and their way of composing. To do exact what they did.
We're living in the 20th century..
WHAT KIND OF COMPOSING PROCESS DO YOU HAVE?
- Very spontaneous. It could be coming from anywhere anytime. In fact
when I went down this morning I was playing guitar and composing already
then. Being relentless I'm composing all the time, in my head, in my
guitar, singing. I do a lot singing. It's very complex. The scenario os
not as easy. It's not so easily analysed as most people like to think. In
Japan for instance they try to pick up thing a part what I do. The
classical musician today plays what's on the paper, but the classical
composer might very well improvise that piece.
When people listen to my guitar solos they learn them exactly . They
don't play in the way I play. They play what I played THAT DAY. Because
next day I'm not playing like that.
Some very free form in my playing therefore differ a lot from what would
be called classical musician. I improvise everything.
SO YOU DON'T THINK THAT YOU TAKE THAT ELEMENT FROM BAROQUE OR SOMETHING
LIKE THAT?
- I listen so much to Baroque music that for example if we listen to the
song Seventh Sign (sings :).. the counterpoint thinking, that's a
composition. I don't change that. Or like: (sings again :) that's very
Paganini. The bridge is very Bach. Then "the Seventh Sign..." -That's ROCK!
So I don't think now I have to play this way and now I have to play this
way. I put them together very spontaneously and very free form. Opening
the Seventh Sign is very Bach.
*** *** ***
(Interviewer and Yngwie are speculating about 7th Sign and it's a
favourite song of both... :)
*** *** ***
.. Also the lyrical content I like. That's one of my favourite songs. But
also.. I love every part of the album.
HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR MUSIC HAS CHANGED DURING YOUR SOLO CAREER?
- My songwriting is much more complete. The thing is that when I look
back what I was doing. I can look back and then say myself: WOW! I could
have done a lot better now. When I look back I know that was the best I
could do. So I feel like everytime I made a record, everytime I have been
on stage I have always been trying to do my very very best. And I
wouldn't accept anything but my best. But of course my bests hopefully
gets better.
HOW MUCH HAVE THE OTHER PLAYERS OF YOUR GROUPS INFLUENCED YOUR MUSIC?
- Very little. Jens Johannson was pretty interesting guy because he was
very very classically trained. I think I learned a lot from him. He was
also a jazz player.I learned a lot of jazz influences.
Somebody asked me to talk about my lyrics to you, too..
YES..
- For instance there is a song called the Fury. Nobody really knows
what is it about. Do you?
NO..
- The song's about teh fury that possesses me to play and compose all the
time. It's not a horror story. I made it very symbolic. Its certain
meaning in the song for instance "At first in came to me in visions. And
that was filling me with pain. And then my fear became desire, to let the
demon burn my soul."
This is not f***ing joyride. This is painful sometimes, to make a big
creator. It's not always fun. You don't always like HAHAHAHHAHAHAH let's
do this! It's very passional thing what I'm doing. That's where I don't
really belong to rock'n'roll. The only thing of rock'n'roll that I have
is the fact that I'm crazy on stage and do things on stage. But the
passional think about my creations that is what really drives me. There's
no money there's no fame there's nothing like that that drices me. Lot's
of people fo this because they wanna be famous, they want to get girls and
they wanna get rich. Ok, I'm famous and I'm rich but that's not the
reason I'm doing this.
OK, WHO'S GONNA PLAY BASS TONIGHT?
- Barry Sparks. He's very very cool and nice guy and plays well.
YOU PLAYED YOURSELF ON THE 7TH SIGN..
- Yes. The reason I did was that I recorded all the songs with my
16-track homestudio first. I've changed the bass. I used to play the
Fender bass but now I play Rickenbacker bass. I really like the sound
that much. I really think that the bass playing is much more important
than we understand. Bass playing is very important because the choise of
notes and the value of the bass is much overlooked. In compositional
outset of course the bass is very important. Like classical composer writes
intro good part on the bass, not like dadadadadadada..So that's why I
wanted to play bass on this track. I did a few lines on Trilogy anad
Rising Force also. It's very hard to find a good bass player.
OK, THAT'S THAT. I THANK YOU.
***************************
My research is ready and its subject is:
STYLISTIC QUOTATIONS IN THE MUSIC OF YNGWIE MALMSTEEN
The abstract and concrete patterns of the melodic diminutions which
are based on the Baroque music
