Let's start by telling us for how long have you been playing, and what do you play, rhythm, lead or both?
RYAN: Well, I've been playing guitar on and off since I was very young, probably five years old. My dad played guitar and bass and was in and out of bands when he was younger, and that being said, there was alway an instrument lying around the house that I was attempting to play. I started seriously playing and working on my chops when I was maybe 15 or 16. My twin brother (our drummer, Shane) was in a band and they were looking for a third guitarist. I had the gear, I just didn't play all that often, so I started playing for a few hours a day to get up to speed with them and I guess that's when I really started "playing" so to speak. I play rhythm %95 of the time. Some of the older material that we played before Tim was in the band, I played lead on and off. I'd like to think of it this way. Tim's got the left hand, and i've got the right hand. Put them together, and it sounds pretty good!
TIM: I've been playing for about 10 years now and I play most of the leads.
Did you take any lessons, for how long and tell us about the exercices you praticed the most to be as good as you are today?
RYAN: I never took any lessons. My dad would show me a few things here and there. I had a cousin who was pretty into the grunge/punk-rock scene and he'd showed me how to play a power chord when I was maybe 11 or 12? I was pretty hooked from then on. I'd listen to records and try to pick things up by ear or i'd check out old Stevie Ray Vaughn videos that my dad had, and try to mimic what they were doing. I've also had the privelege of playing with so many great guitar players, and being on tour with a few of them has taught me alot. To name a few, we got to tour with Chimaira a few months ago and both Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries are incredible players, and great to watch play live. They've got alot of tricks up their sleeves that i've been throwing into the mix as of late. As far as excercises and practicing goes, I don't really have a routine. I like to pick up and play as much as possible, whatever I feel like playing. Wether it's riffing out without an amp in the back of the trailer before a show, or strumming some chords on my acoustic when Im at home. Keeping yourself familiar with your instrument has always been vital to me. You never forget how to play, it's like riding a bicycle. But the more you do it, the better you are, and the more you learn.
TIM: I took lessons for about 7 years and taught for 2 years. I have to say that practicing my Modes were probably the most important part of it. Im bummed I didn't do those sooner. I probably would've progressed faster.
Which guitarists influenced you the most and why?
RYAN: There are countless guitar players that have influenced me throughout the years. If i was to list them all, this would just look like the most jumbled together mess of names you could imagine. When I first started playing, my dad and the people he played with really influenced me. Stuff that he was listening to at the time like Eric Clapton and SRV really got me started and wanting to play more. Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day made me REALLY want a strat, and I was so into the way he played. He made something so simple look so good and it really got me pumped to play. Dimebag Darrell OBVIOUSLY. If you play guitar in a heavy metal band right now, you've got to have him on your list of influences. I've been to his grave twice, he's one of my heroes as a person, and as a musician. Joe Satriani was always a great influence on me. He really knows how to play, and he can use his effects and tricks without hiding behind them. The inevitable ones are in there too, Guys like Kirk Hammet and Scott Ian. The list goes on and on. Long Island was and will always be a hotbed for great bands, and there were so many that I grew up with that I really hold close to my heart and ultimately, the guys in those bands were the ones that influenced me. They made me feel like I could get up there and do it too. None of them were better than the other, and none of them were the next EVH. Don't get me wrong, if you can get up there and shred, then you're alright in my book, but it was the guys (and girls, Rachel Rosen from Most Precious Blood!) that played with passion and heart that really made me want to play guitar.
TIM: Well, my number one influence will always be Dimebag Darrell, his whole way of going about things just puts a smile on my face. As far as sound goes, I'd have to say Anders Bjorler from At The Gates. His Songwriting skills are flawless.
How many guitars do you own, what models, pickups, etc and what do you like about them?
RYAN: Im a gearhead for sure, but not a gear hoarder. I actually DON'T like having lots of gear laying around. That's not something you hear often, but I feel like the more I have, the more I try to incorporate into my live rig and really, i'd rather it just be simple, and the same goes for guitars.I SWEAR by Washburn guitars. My main squeeze is my Silverburst WI66 Pro, which I got from my girlfriend as a gift actually!. Seymour Duncan 59' Reissue in the neck position and the Seymour Duncan Custom Custom pickup in the bridge position. I could go on for days about how much I love this guitar. All I need to tell you is that i've owned ESP's, Gibsons. Fenders, the works ... and NOTHING compares to this. Go try one for yourself and you'll see. My backup is a black WI45 with the same pickup configuration as the WI66 Pro. I like the idea of playing 1 guitar night after night. It becomes an extension of you. It gives the instrument character and it really becomes YOUR instrument. So if you want to hear about a crazy gear collection, Tim's the guitar guy, he's got about thirty of them. I also have a Washburn acoustic and a Yamaha acoustic that I really love, along with a few of my dad's old axes, including a nice Gibson Ripper Bass.
TIM: I own about 30 guitars right now. We recently picked up a Washburn deal and im more than excited. Both Nicks from Winds Of Plague turned me onto them. I play the WV series. I use Dimarzio pickups in all of my stage guitars. A EJ Custom for the Bridge and an Air Classic for the Neck.
Let's talk about the new album. When did you start writing the new songs, describe the process, how you split the guitar parts and when do you say ok thats enough riff now.
RYAN: First of all, there's NEVER enough riff! But I digress. When Tim Joined the band, it was around the time we had started to think about writing for a new records. We had some riffs here and there, but nothing cohesive. He was in a band before this that played a similar style of music, and he brought some of those riffs our way. "Newsflash", "The Write Off", and "Barbarian" were the first three songs that we wrote for the records. They were re-hashed from the songs that Tim had written for his old band. We toured for awhile after we wrote those songs and we played them live, without ever having really tracked them properly, and the kids at our shows were asking where they could find them, so we decided to spend some cash and get them recorded the right way and it wasn't until those three songs really started to come about in the studio that we sort of all looked at eachother and though "wow, we could probably write a really great record now". The pieces were always there, but when Tim joined, they really fit together. He has a knack for writing and riffing like no other. We started writing songs left and right. There wasn't much of a process to it Tim would rif, or Ed would come up with a rif, Shane would play a beat. If it worked, it worked, if it didn't, it was put in the bank, or thrown out the window. I was working alot at the time, so it was mainly the rest of the band writing the songs and Tim would tab them out for me and Id practice when I could. We wrote them over the course of just a few weeks, actually. The only track on the album that wasn't a solid piece was "Ride the Nighthawk". That was a little ode to southern rock that Tim came up with in the studio, We loved it so much, that we put it down to tape. Splitting the parts? I did mine first in about a day. I remember messing up the SIMPLEST riff about 100 times and throwing the guitar to Tim and telling him to finish it. Hahaha. So, i guess I recorded about 97% percent of my tracks, and Tim did the rest over the course of a few days.
TIM: We had recorded a 3 track demo in the summer of last year and didn't start cracking down on writing till December. Usually id bring 5 or 6 riffs to practice and we'd arrange them to fit the best. It was a very tedious process but it was definitely fun.
The album sounds real fucking heavy and precise. Who was behind the board and what did you have in mind for the final mix and your overall tone?
RYAN: Behind the board for "To The Wolves" was none other than "Handsome" Nick Bellmore. He's a FUCKING genious. Seriously. If his name isn't in the credits of the next Metallica record, i'd be surprised! Nick plays drums in a band called "PHANTOMS" from Connecticut, an incredible band may I add. He's also filled in for Toxic Holocaust on the drums, and im pretty sure he's the permanent drummer for KINGDOM OF SORROW. He really has a great ear for heavy music and I know I speak for the rest of my band when I say that we are more than decided that we're going to head back to him to track our next effort. I can't say enough great things about the work he did for us. As far as tone goes, we really wanted to shape our own sound and maybe do something different, but not stray too far from the path as to push people away. There's so much great heavy music coming out nowadays, but none of it sounds unique, and im not talking song writing quality, im talking about the actual tracking of the record. Every band is going to the same studio, with the same engineer, and the same producer, and it's all coming out the same! We just wanted something we could really get behind and be proud of. We didn't want to polish it up and make it sound like there were robots playing our tracks, and we didn't want to give it that dialed-in, mundane tone that everyone has got going for them. We wanted to keep the tone raw and harsh, but heavy and loud. Really, if we could have gone to Sweden and stolen the presets for the Slaughter of the Soul record we would have done it, but time and money did not allow, so we did the next best thing. Hopefully it came close. The infamous Zeuss did our mastering and did a fantastic job. He used the new Machine Head record as kind of a refference point and worked on it from there.
TIM: Nick Bellmore was way too great to work with. I can't think of anyone more fit. We had a blast.
What amps and cabinets did you record with?
RYAN:We tracked the entire record with one Krank Revolution cab. Tim and I both use Krank Revolution fullstacks live. The cabs sound great. Im not a fan of their guitar heads but those rev. cabs are some of the best i've ever played through. My rhythm tracks were done with my Peavey 5150. It's one of the original blockletter models. It sounds incredible. I would not trade it for any amp in the world. Hands down, it delivers the best tone i've ever gotten, night after night. Infront of the amp, we had the magic green box, the Maxon OD-9 Overdrive. We didn't do much else to the tone. We mic'd the cabs with a Shure SM-57 and something else, which I can't recall right now. I've texted Nick Bellmore and if he gets back to me before Im done typing this, Ill fill you in! We also double tracked some of the rhythm parts using Line6 Pod. I don't recall what setting it was, but we really only used it where we had to fill out some things. Like the ring out over the pull-off section in "Living a Lie" for example. I used my Washburn WI66 Pro for all of my rhythm tracks, which I spoke about earlier. I'll let Tim tell you what we did for his tracks.
TIM: I used a Madison Divinity to offset the tones. Both Heads meshed real well. The Krank Rev cabs were great but I wish they had a little more balls to them and a little less bite.
Which guitars did you use in studio?
RYAN: Guitars, again. I used the Washburn WI66 Pro the entire time. Tim will fill you in about what he used.
TIM: I recorded most of my tracks with a mid-80's Ibanez Iceman. The bridge pickup is some sort of high output Dimarzio. It sounds amazing through any amp.
Tuning and strings?
RYAN: I use Ernie Ball Beefy strings. Incredible strings. I messed around with different brands for awhile, but when I found these, I was hooked. We tuned to B. B F# B E G# F#
TIM: I play Steel cables used to support bridges. Otherwise known as D'addario 11's
There's so many metal hardcore bands out there, riff wise, how do you think it's possible to stand out?
RYAN: Im not even really sure if it is possible to stand out. You can definitely try to stand out, but I don't think it's up to us to determine wether we do or not. There is so much good and bad in heavy music right now and it's all so diluted. The lines are being blurred every day by bands and it's getting harder and harder to really make something that sticks out. Kid's have told us 100 times that this one riff at the beginning of an old song sounded just like an All Shall Perish riff. Nobody in this band had ever listened to All Shall Perish. Kid were accusing us of stealing riffs from of a band we'd never even heard. And no discredit to them, they're incredible musicians, but people need to realize that that is going to happen. Hopefully our fans think we stand out! Not that fitting is isn't a good thing, but personally, I do feel like some of our riffs are pretty creative and out there, and along with that, we've got some of the norm thrown in for good measure. When writing our riffs, we really try to incorporate everything. The five of us listen to so much different music, that we really can pull from every corner of the musical globe. I think the most important part is to write what you like, Play what you like. Don't try to go out of your way to write something kids can "mosh" too, and just because you can play some sweep arpeggios, doesn't mean you've got to play those either. Do what feels right. That's what we do. We write riffs and songs that make us happy. Wether it's a speedy, alternate picked, Black Dahlia Murder style part, that goes into a Hatebreed breakdown riff. Or throwing in some hand-clapping, sing-along part in the middle of a heavy tune, it's all good! It's really nice to experiment and to do what comes naturally, and we take alot of pride in doing that.
TIM: Find your niche and stick with it. Keep the fingers flowing and don't play boring riffs. A lot of bands out now are very plain.
What are your favorite riffs on the album, and which one is the hardest to play?
RYAN: My favorite riff on the album is definitely the chorusy kind of riff in "Deathroll". I guess maybe it's because it was one of the only riffs I had a part in writing, but I just really, really love it. I love that whole song. We haven't played it live yet, but I can't wait to do so. The breakdown riff in "King of the Ring" is also I favorite of mine. It gets me so amped up. I think the hardest riff to play was one of the riffs in "Vanquish", atleast for me. I think that's the riff I gave up on and made Tim record for me! As of now though, none of them are too difficult. I was actually sitting down playing yesterday thinking about how tough it was to track some of those riffs and now I can play the whole record with ease. There's a riff in "Living a Lie" that's a bit of a bitch to play live, because you've got to get pretty low on the neck, and I've gotten used to playing my guitar slung pretty low, so I have to concentrate pretty hard for that one.
TIM: Id have to say all of them. They all sound awesome. The hardest riff on the album is by far the chug part in the beginning of 'To The Wolves'.
Describe your live rig, what rackmounts and pedals do you use?
RYAN: My rig is as follows. Two Krank Revolution Cabs. I run a Peavey 5150 Original Blockletter head. In front of that, I run the Maxon OD9 Overdrive, a Boss NS-2 Noise Supressor, and a Boss GE-7 Equalizer I have a Korg DTR-2 Tuner as well as a Boss Pedal tuner I use out front incase im in a situation where I can't see or easily get to my rack. I keep my Madison Divinity guitar head in the bottom of the 2 head rack compartment for back up only. I used to run both heads simultaneously, with an ABY switch, but the Madison is so noisy that i've switched to just the Peavey live. All Monster Cables as well. I don't want to give away my specs on the Maxon or the GE-7, but if you want them, get at me on MySpace and I'll hook you up!
TIM: We both use Maxon OD9's. I am guilty of using a DBX266xl. I love it and wouldn't use anything else.
Whats your warm up routine before a gig?
RYAN: I don't have much of a warmup. I pretty much just play through the set, and riff out for a little while. I like to stretch because I move around alot on stage. I always try to have a gatorade or some kind of cola for a little extra burst while im out there. Im kind of anal about how I set my shit up too. My guitar case goes on top of my rack case. My toolbox goes on top of my cabs, next to that goes my hat, and next to that goes my glasses. I've been wearing the same pair of shoes on stage for a year now, and I can't play in anything else. They look like they've been through every war ever fought. Tim usually yells "Fuck it, we'll do it live!" and then the set starts. That's about it. Im pretty OCD about the way I wrap my cables up too. But as far as warm-ups go, nothing really. Every nights a new story, so I just get up there and do my thing.
TIM: I lift 50 lbs weights with each finger.
Is there any specific technique you try to improve these days?
RYAN: There's no specific technique i've been trying to improve. Im really comfortable with my playing right now. I'd like to work on better improvisational skills, but, I don't solo live, so I don't have too much to worry about there. If I could work on any technique, it'd be the skill to get venue owners to have real stage power. There's nothing that bothers me more than hum from bad electricity!
TIM: I want to get my left hand dexterity up. That's about it. I need to be more precise.
Name some of the best guitarists in the scene today?
RYAN: Alright well, I didn't want to give a list of names when you asked me who my influences were. but this, i've got to do. My number one favorite guitar player right now is Carlos Garcia from Antagonist, a band out of Los Angeles. He's incredible. There new album is incredible, enough said. Brian Echbach from The Black Dahlia Murder. Mike Schleibaum of Darkest Hour. Eric Gales, who is an incredible blues guitar player. He's really blowing my mind alot lately. and he's a big influence on me. Im not a flashy, solo kind of guy, but Doug Sabolick of A Life Once Lost really impresses me. The shit he writes is phenomenal. Charlie Bellmore is the brother of Nick Bellmore, the engineer of our record, and he is an incredible guitar player that I am constantly in awe of. Brent Hinds and BIll Kelliher from Mastodon. David Shoaf from the Demonstration. I think Andy and Jordan from Every Time I Die write some of the best riffs in heavy music right now and I love everything that they do. Adam from He Is Legend. The list is endless, like I said earlier. There's also guys you wouldn't expect. Ben Harper, Jason Mraz, John Butler, etc. Anybody who has a passion for their instrument and their craft really influences me. If I feel like you're just going through the motions, you could be the greatest guitar player to ever live, and you'd never make a mark on me. There's got to be something to the player more than just talent. That's what I look up to.
TIM: I'm going to have to say both Nick P. And Nick E. from Winds of Plague as well as Ryan and Mike from For Today. All of those guys are both great to watch and phenomenal Players
The next piece of gear you'd like to get?
RYAN: If I could get any gear right now, it'd be the Randall RM-100 Guitar Head. Im not sure which mod's id pick out yet, but id love to get my hands on one. That, and a Radial ABY Box. Or a late 70's early 80's silverburst Les Paul. One that's already started to turn that gross green color. I'd love one of those!
TIM: Id like to get new Cabs. Hopefully some Randall MTS 4x12's. That'd be great.
MYSPACE: http://www.myspace.com/theworldweknew
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