Southampton, 24.01.2008, Part 1

B-> How is your actual rig now working out in Europe? Have you added anything to your rig you now find necessary?
Mark -> The Bogner Shiva, for my lead tone. It´s great man, I love it. It´s the best lead tone I´ve had so far.

B-> What happened to the Orange? We heard that you found it made your tone too muddy so you took it out...
Mark -> Yeah, I took it out. The Orange, you can scoop the hell out of it and make it sound Metal, but the lead tone... I was trying to work it for lead tone at first, but it just wasn´t... I don´t know, it was a little too thin for my taste, I like something that is a little more organic, Warren Haynes kinda sounding Tone, so Bogner was it for me.

B-> Right, so lets go back to the beginning of you as a guitar player. What were the first songs you learnt to play on guitar?
Mark -> Some of the first real substantial songs I learnt were Bach “Bouree in E minor” which is... that combined with Call of Cthulu, however you pronounce it... that really developed my picking style, so ever since then I´ve been picking, you know, the way I learnt those songs, and ... actually “Bouree in E minor”, the melody that that song follows is the chorus melody of Wayward One. That song used to be called Bouree, and stayed like that until it became “Wayward One”.

B-> Apart from the known bonus tracks “The Damage Done”, “New Way To Live” and “We Don´t Care At All”, where there any more tracks done?
Mark-> Yeah, one called “Outright”
B-> Are you going to record it further on?
Mark-> We´re going to save it, because it´s a great song, but it just hadn´t reached it´s potential, you know. It was a lot of people´s favourite song on the record, like a few of my friends said “Oh, I can´t believe you´re leaving that song off of the record”. It´s just a different sound to the rest of the record, and it just didn´t, I don´t know, the chorus didn´t quite fit, so...

B-> What was the story to “New Way To Live”? It´s a shame it´s not on the record, because it´s one of the best tracks off of the new stuff.
Mark-> Yeah, we love that song, it´s just that there were so many long songs, you know, we had Wayward One, Blackbird, and songs that are really long, then add another one... we wanted to keep the album energetic. We weren´t going to leave Blackbird off of the record, you know, so it was kind of a toss between Wayward One and New Way To Live, and Wayward One was the one I was pulling for from day one, because I just liked the vibe of it, i´m into that Dio kind of thing, so it was that one. So that´s why it didn´t make the album, but yeah, we might start playing it or something, you know... it´s a fun one to play.

B-> What were the differences in production on both albums?
Mark-> A lot less gain. We just kept it simple, when you suck all the gain out it makes its much punchier and in so your face, you know. My lead tone on this record, was just... I played through my Bogner 101B, as soon as you pull it up it sounds great, so I said “let´s go for it”. The trick was to take the gain out so everything sounded more clear, punchy and tight.

B-> What strings are you using now? Same as before 11s and 10s?
Mark-> Depends on what songs. If it´s a song where I tune down I´ll go for a heavier gauge. I mainly use, when I´m messing around, the bottom 3 strings will be from a set of elevens and the thinner strings will be from a set of tens. Just so I can practice without killing my fingers.The thicker strings are from 11s and the top are from 10s so I can dig in real heavy into the thicker strings on rhythms and be able to bend without destroying my fingers on the tens.


B-> What would your dream guitar be?
Mark-> My dream guitar? These are my dream guitars man.
B-> So you´d never choose anything else?
Mark-> Fender Stratocaster Pre-CBS, Fender Telecaster Pre-CBS...
B-> Nothing from the last 20 years, nothing from today?
Mark-> Yeah, they still make good guitars. Fender, I´ve got a few of theirs that I love... I actually have a ´56 ... what do you call them when they beat them up for you?... Relic, ´56 Relic that I love, I asked them to set it up just like they would for Stevie Ray Vaughan, and they sent me one of those. Got a nice Telecaster that was a limited run from them... If I´m playing Blues at home I´m playing a Strat, you know... it´s the most authentic sounding guitar for Blues, so...

B-> Do you play that PRS Tremonti Dragon you have?
Mark-> I never play it, that´s to stay in the case.
B-> Has it got the Tremonti 12th fret inlay?
Mark-> Yeah, it has it. It´s the only one in existance, it has Prototype written on the back of the headstock. It´s one of my collector´s...

B-> I know you´re pretty much into Joe Bonamassa right now, but out of all your years as a guitarrist, what would your favourite tone be, from another guitarrist?
Mark-> I guess it would depend. I think some kind of the old Master of Puppets rhythm tone, and clean tone, I love their clean guitars tone. I think Joe Bonamassa has a great lead tone, bluesy lead tone. I´m less into the shreddy thin lead tones and more into the rootsy sound, like organic... I like Audley Freed´s tone... You know, I think a lot of it has to do with the player, I don´t like the thin shrill tone...

B-> What would your favourite Stunt guitar player be? Stunt as in Malmsteen, Van Halen and all those...
Mark-> Hmm, geez, probably Steve Vai, and John Petrucci... i´m actually digging into Petrucci right now...
-(Myles enters the room and throws the horns to the camera)-
I love all those super-shred guys, but the ones that do it right, you know. Satch is brilliant, Steve Vai I think is brilliant, John Petrucci I think is brilliant; I´ve never learnt an Yngwie song, and I wasn´t Yngwie, it was too tough to learn, you know... I think if I went back into it now, I´m just not into the neoclasical thing at all, I like the bluesier side of the shred stuff.

B-> Your turn now Myles, What would your favourite tone be, from another guitarrist? From any time...
Myles-> That´s a really good question. Hmm
B-> You can choose a few if you want...
Myles -> Yeah? Right. We met a few guys that had a really consistent great tone. The first that I can remember was Larry Carlton, like right back then everyone was into Larry Carlton´s tone...
Mark-> Yeah, dumble...
Myles-> Yeah, that dumble, and it was something really special about that.
For me as a Rock guitar player, the first guy with a great tone where I just went “That is it”, was John Sykes, on the big ´87 Whitesnake record and then when Blue murder it was something, and I think a lot of that was him in conjunction with Bob Rock... they stumbled upon something real special, tonally... and then, now, I love Warren Hayne´s tone, from Gov´t Mule, of which I´m wearing this shirt right now, he´s got an amazing... I love guys with a real vocal tone, very hmmm, almost like a “Saxophone”


B-> How did it come about on playing with Warren Haynes?
Myles-> You know what? It was terrifying at first, but he´s just such a genuinely nice guy, so graceful, he made me feel very at ease... and i´ll never forget, for as long as I live, you know... I asked him “i´d be really honored if I played guitar with you if I should sing, and he was like “Yeah yeah, go and take a ride”... so we´re onstage playing and on dear Mr. Fantasy?
B-> Yeah, it was between the Hunger Strike tracks
Myles-> Exactly, exactly. And, I played the solo, and I was just waiting for him to destroy me, just crush me, and he was just like, he knew, like “it´s ok kid, i´m not going to make you look bad”, which was really nice of him. Warren, thank you, you´re a true gentleman.