Vinnie Moore
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April 21, 2010
We had a mutual friend who knew UFO was looking for a guitarist. He thought I would stylistically fit in the band. The mutual friend called my manager and told this to my manager. I was asked to send a CD to Phil Mogg of some of my stuff. I put together about 11 of my songs from different records and sent it to Phil Mogg. I did not think much more about it. About 12 days later I got a call from my manager who said he heard from UFO's manager who said the band liked my CD and Phil Mogg wants you to join the band.
Unfortunately, I never saw UFO live.However, I had a few records, "Force It", "Lights Out", "Obsession". I used to listen to those records as a fan of the band.
It is a little surreal to be playing some of the songs I grew up learning to play. It is a cool experience.
We all do. We all kick around ideas. It is difficult with UFO because they have so many classic songs you have to do and some new songs. It is so easy to leave something out. Inevitably you have to leave some songs out because there are just too many.
How do you know about that!? That is awesome! I do not know I even publicly talked about that! That was our sound check song [written by J.D. DiServio bassist on "Meltdown" record]. We took out J.D. DiServio out for Mexican food in Texas because he had never eaten Mexican food. J.D. DiServio was close minded in the sense that he did not think he would like Mexican food. As it turned out, he loved it. When we went to sound check after our Mexican dinner during which he had a "Chimi Chimi Changa" we started improvising a song about "Chimi Chimi Changa". We did the song during sound check for a while.
We all start with individual musical ideas at home. I come up with some ideas. Paul Raymond comes up with some stuff. Andy Parker had one song on this record. We basically send our musical ideas to Paul. Paul goes through our ideas and chooses those ideas that inspire him, something he thinks he can sing because it stylistically suits his voice. We just feed him a lot of musical ideas. I may have sent him 12 or 14 ideas. Paul picks the ideas he likes the best.
I usually send demos that make up the song structure, all the guitar parts, scratch bass, and a drum machine. It is basically a song skeleton.
It was unreal. In a way it was overwhelming. It was everything I always wanted. It was unbelievable.
No. It was actually produced by Mike Varney.
I have no idea. I could never do that now. It was way too quick to record a record. What has always bugged me about that record is that a lot of the demos I did at home for the songs were better than the record because I had more time to spend on them. I know that a lot of people love that record, and I am very thankful I was able to do that record. But I always wish I had more time to mix. But you can't argue with something people like.
Yes. There is a studio in Cotati called Prarie Sun that Schrapnel Records used a lot for their records. So Schrapnel Records brought me out there to do the record.
I prefer to record in a studio in my house so I do not have to go anywhere. That is how I have recorded for the last three solo records and my guitar demos for all the UFO records. I really like to do it that way because I can spend as much time as I want experimenting with performances and sounds without worrying about the clock.
It was awesome. He was a real pro who came in totally prepared. We played through the songs as a three‑piece that includes Jordan Rudess (DREAM THEATER keyboardist), and he just knocked them out. I re‑did a lot of the rhythm guitars, but a lot of the bass and drums were kept from the live recording.
Yes. "Time Odyssey" is quite an intense record. I recorded "Time Odyssey" in a longer amount of time than "Mind's Eye". But in a way it was a more intense records. So, it was quite an accomplishment to record "Time Odyssey" that quickly.
I find that I critique and second‑guess myself. I get nothing out of listening to my own stuff. I am too close to it. It is hard for me to listen to my own stuff.
I really do not decide. I just play the guitar and go with the flow. It has to be a natural thing. I have to be inspired. Whatever I am inspired by that is what I do. By the time I did "Meltdown" I was burned out on classical rock, and I HAD to go into another direction or I would get bored. I get bored quite easily, and I have to explore new territory or I will not want to do it [previous type of music] anymore. It is kind of strange.
Right. If you sit around, think, and intentionally try to write a song, it is not as inspirational as if you are just playing guitar and an idea comes to you out of nowhere. That is more inspirational.
Well you are just sitting around playing guitar and you kind of start playing something. It just pops out. You might hear a melody. It might be a certain rhythm. You get that initial inspiration, the spark, whatever it is. Related ideas then come and the song starts to build. You then have to organize it into a song.
That was a really cool experience. I think we did 10‑12 gigs with those guys. The most interesting thing is that we were doing a club tour when we found out we got the opening slot for RUSH. So, we had to head home and cancel the rest of my club tour. We were basically hanging out at my house. The first gig was at The Spectrum in Philadelphia [Pennsylvania], which was the place I always dreamed of playing as a kid. I had played there with Alice Cooper. It was the place I always wanted to play. We left my house and we drove to The Spectrum, which is where I would have driven to see any concert when I was a kid. Here I was playing there. I was pretty calm. But on the way to the venue I heard a radio ad that said, "RUSH! Tonight at The Spectrum with local guitar hero Vinnie Moore!" That is when I panicked a little bit because it set in."Holy shit. I am playing at The Spectrum tonight with RUSH. Wow!" So, I got a little nervous.
Yes. A big problem. I was with Sony/Epic. Suddenly, the label did not want to release the record and did not want to give it to me. The record was completely finished, mixed and mastered. The label sat on it for months and months. The label then said they did not want to release it. The label said if you find another record label, that label can buy it from us. Finally, 25 months later, the label agreed to sell the record to a new label. I finally got it to happen. The label [initially]did not want to give it to me. It was actually pretty dire. It was a very bad time period.
I just kept writing songs. I wrote a lot of songs during that time period. A lot of the songs have not yet been on a record. A lot of the songs are "ballady," soulful songs. One of the songs that did end up on a record is "Rain", which ended up on "The Maze" (solo record 1999). Another one that is not a ballad ended up on my new solo record. It is called "Jigsaw". It is also from that same time period where there was nothing going on. But I have at least 10 to 15 songs from that time period that I have not yet released.
Not really. I just think that is where my head was at that point. Actually, there was no reason for it. I think the ballady material I wrote that I previously talked about and that I have not yet released was more of a release for me of my frustrations.
I don't know. It depends on how much you rehearse. There is a certain amount of fire early on. There is a certain point later in a tour that you get tired and have to try a little harder to do the show because you are tired. It is a matter of finding the right spot in tour not too early or late in the tour, maybe the sixth or seventh show.
I got a chance to hear the advance track tapes and learn them before going into the studio. I then drove up to Bearsville Studios in New York, which is only a couple of hours from my house. I went up one day, recorded the stuff, went out to dinner with Alice, the band members, and the producer, and then drove home. It was an one‑day thing.
Alice's idea was to have a bunch of different guitar players to sit in, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Slash. At that point I was signed to Epic Records, which was the same label Alice was signed to. Someone at Epic suggested me.
It was that day. It was cool. I remember going into the studio where Alice was playing ping pong with Stef Burns (Alice Cooper's guitarist).
I would prefer the guitar not to be too thin and trebly. I prefer my guitar sound to be creamy, smooth, and have a lot of meat.
It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed doing it. Unfortunately, I had to leave because I was doing my own tour in support of "Meltdown" (solo record 1991) that was just coming out. So I did not go to Europe with Alice. But it was a blast playing with Alice.
Alice has a production guy who worked on his stage show. I was not very much in the loop about that. I just realized what was going on in rehearsals. The stage show was all planned in advance.
The drummer who was in the studio doing his own video the day before had to finish up on my day. He was only supposed to take 30-60 minutes, but he kept taking longer and longer until he took almost the whole day. So, I had almost no time for my video.
Yeah. I was really well rehearsed. I had practiced talking into a fake camera at home. So I knew exactly what I was going to do. So, "Hot Licks 1" is basically two takes. The first take is the first 55 minutes. Then I made a mistake and said, "I have to do that again." Then I finished the rest of it and that was it. I left the studio immediately and jumped on the last train home.
Yes. I could never to that nowadays. Now it seems just so difficult to do that.
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