(Photo by Evelina Andersson)

 

[Download the song, "None Secret Hat Tower" by Magnus Olsson]

 

IC: For the readers who may be unfamiliar with your work, how would you describe your music?

Magnus: That is a really hard question; I seriously have no idea what to call my music. I try not to think about styles and just do what naturally comes out. But if I have to, and being under gun threat, then I would call it rock with a fusion attitude. It is not jazzy enough to be fusion, it is not jazzy at all, and it is not rocky enough to be rock. Some songs are more or less shred guitar, I guess, I call those tunes for “circus guitar” when I do clinics. So I think “circus music” is a good name, things that aren’t meant too seriously. Can I get away with just calling it music?

IC: ‘Fraid not. We don’t listen to “music” around these parts… just ripping guitars in unison with no identifiable melodies, played to a cymbal-banging monkey backing track. [Laughs]

Magnus: No!!!! You are giving away all my ideas for my new album here. I truly believe that is the future of rock guitar. My spy’s are telling me that eliminating all “musical” things that get in the way of the guitar and incorporating animals in the rhythm section is where things are going these days. I heard that there was one guy who came a long way with this animal band thing, he was having an octopus as a keyboard player. He had just gotten a record contract and had all the drums tracked when the keyboard player died from an electrical shock after spilling water on his instrument.

On a little more serious side, I try to do fusion sort of music, but it never comes out that way, so I try to leave it up to the listener to judge for themselves, to get there own opinion on what to call it.

IC: I guess that I always though of most of it as “rock-fusion” – a name I first heard in regards to Brett Garsed (who I’m sure we’ll be discussing in this interview).

Magnus: Yeah, maybe. I see it more as the opposite of Garsed’s “rock-fusion”, which I interpreter as fusion music with a rock attitude. But I see mine as “fusion-rock”, rock music with a fusion attitude. Big difference. [Laughs]

IC: [Laughs] Well, I think by “rock-fusion” Brett meant rock music with a fusion attitude, because he has often says he’s not a fusion player, but a rock guitarist with some fusion sensibilities.

So what inspired you to play the guitar, and how old were you when you first started?

Magnus: I think my first interest in playing came from seeing my older brother rehearsing with his punk band in the basement of our parent’s house. He was playing bass. They made some albums and stuff and it was really inspiring being around it. But I didn’t start playing myself at the time; I was too much into other things, mainly being young and stupid. [Laughs]

I think I could have been around 17-18 when I finally bought my first guitar, a red Ibanez Blazer model. I was very heavily into fishing at the time, so I never got around to playing it until I started to share an apartment with a guy called Stefan Rosqvist. He was a very good guitar player then (still is) and that was the final inspiration that I needed to get me going. I learned from watching him play and trying to do the same thing myself.

IC: I just heard Stefan for the first time recently, on the Alchemists II. His track, “At Last”, was possibly my favorite song on the whole album.

So aside from Stefan and your brother’s punk bass stylings, who were your initial influences and how did that change over the years?

Magnus: Well, Stefan is without a doubt the player who has influenced me the most over the years. Not really in a way that I sound or play like him, but just being way ahead and always having answers for all my questions, basically just being amazingly inspiring. He is still a guy I really look up to, one of the main players in my book.

My second biggest influence is also a local guy, a keyboard player named Lalle Larsson. Just being around that guy is silly inspiring, he is just an ocean of music and you’re getting wet (being inspired and getting ideas) just by being around him. He must easily be the most talented musician I ever seen.

IC: [Laughs] It must be nice having the famous “Lalle” Larsson as a local! I love what I assume is his soloing on your song, “None Secret Hat Tower”.

 

("None Secret Hat Tower")

Magnus: Yeah, it is him playing on the “None Secret Hat Tower” tune, also on “Whatever It Might Be” and a bunch of other tunes. Having played with him is easily among the coolest things I’ve ever done.

He is a one in a million kind of guy. It is not just that he is an amazing player; he is an amazing person too. I have known him since he was, I think, 13 years old. He actually played keyboard with my bass playing brother.

The first music I did with him was having him as a singer on an 80’s sort of hardrock tune I did, the first thing I ever recorded way back when. He was an amazing singer too, the guy is music impersonated.

We recorded a bunch of his tunes on an old 4-track back in 92, just before he went to Vienna (Austria) and started to work with Todd Duane. I actually found all those tunes on a bunch of old cassettes a little while ago and his parts are still blowing me away. It is very technical playing. My parts are not that fun! [Laughs]

IC: Very cool (I’d still like to hear it). So who else were you into?

Magnus: I had a long and intense Paul Gilbert period, but I never really got into trying to play like him (I have always been more of a legato/tapping guy). He was inspiring and I wanted to practice when I heard him.

IC: Were you a victim of Paul’s Intense Rock video?

Magnus: Sure, I was completely blown away by that video, and I think that everybody who was into guitar music at that time was freaked out by it. No one had seen anything like it before. It just put a metronome in front of everyone and raised that bar on what could be done. It was just intensely inspiring to see. Like I said before, I never tried to play like him, but he influenced me to push my limits and practice my ass off.

I was also into the whole Shrapnel thing, Greg Howe, Tony Macalpine and all those guys. I also had a period of Reb Beach, when the first Winger album came out; he was probably the one who got me started on tapping.

IC: I talked to Reb last year and he told me he’s finally working on an instrumental album. He was thinking about recording that opening song to his “Cutting Loose” instructional.

Magnus: Wow, that it cool news. I would love to hear an instrumental album from him. Then maybe the guitar will be mixed so you can actually hear it, his solos where always silly low on the Winger albums. It would be cool to hear what he is doing now.

IC: Anyone else you’ve really gotten into over the years?

Magnus: There really are hundreds of guys who should be mentioned here, Shawn Lane (one of the truly great), Todd Duane, Scott Henderson, Michael Lee Firkins, Yngwie, Steve Morse, Eric Johnson, it can go on forever.

Then Brett Garsed was my main guy for many years, I had the luxury of doing loads of playing/jamming/lessons with him over for about half a year or so and that really rubbed of on me.

He didn’t really show me anything, we mainly just played, but I got so much inspiration from it that it will last for the rest of my life. Both he and TJ were a massive inspiration for me, and they still are.

 

(Clinic in ÅLBORG, Denmnark - Photo by Hans Karstorp)

IC: So I guess now would be as good a time as any to ask about your experience at the Musicians Institute. How did you first hear about the school, when did you finally decide to go, and what was it like?

Magnus: I heard about the school when reading about players like Gilbert (again). Then a bunch of friends (including Stefan Rosqvist) went there and spoke highly about it. There are loads and loads of Swedish people going there, so you hear about it all the time here. A friend brought some videos with Brett Garsed home with him, and that was the first time I heard Brett, and it completely blew me away. I thought it would be super cool to go there too, but never really got the idea to actually do it. Back then I was working fulltime, 8 hours a day, as a guitar teacher. Then one day I just opened my eyes and thought, “Fuck this, I’m going to America!” My goal was then to get lessons from Brett, who had become my new idol. It took awhile to get things ready, but away I went!

When you come to GIT you get assigned to a private instructor - a guy who you can talk to if you have any problems. When I had my first lesson with mine (I hate to say it but I don’t remember his name) I didn’t have any problems, so we did some jamming over a backing track I had in a small sequencer. He was a great guy and a good player but we decided that I needed a new teacher. We also talked about why I was at MI and so on, and I told him I was there to find Brett Garsed (who was not teaching at the school at the time). Then came one of the luckiest moments of my life: it turns out that my private instructor shared an apartment with Brett (and TJ), so he just gave all his lessons with me to Brett. So within two weeks at the school had I gotten Brett Garsed as my private instructor, the reason I came there in the first place!

Brett is the most amazing player and a super fantastic guy, but not really a teacher sort of guy, so we just jammed on all the lessons. I had a little tape recorder and recorded all of it, and kept them as inspiration tapes for years (I still have those tapes here in a box somewhere). I immediately felt that his musical concept was very similar to my own, so I never really analyzed his playing (because then I would become a clone), so I just listened and got inspired. I learned so much from watching him play that I should be paying him a salary every time I play. But I hope I don’t sound too much like him.

… So the school had its ups and downs, some things were great, other less great. I was there at a bad time… I came when grunge music was huge and no one cared about playing well. It was good in that I had the teachers for myself, but it was bad in that the lessons never moved forward because no one practiced.

Anyway, back to cool players! The guy I have been listening to the most over the last few years is Allan Holdsworth; he is the most amazing guy ever, and an endless source of inspiration. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of him!

Jeff Beck is also a favorite player of mine; amazing intonation, note choice, ideas… he has it all.

I really get inspired by guys how intonate well lately, people who play with a natural musicality.

New guys that I like (and maybe I shouldn’t call them new since they have been around for a long time now), are Ron Thal and Guthrie Govan, who are really pushing the limits on guitar.

IC: Funny you should say that, because every time I ask that question I get answers like Guthrie, Mattias Eklundh, and so on… Players who have been around for a pretty damn long time, but are just finally getting recognized on a larger scale. [Laughs] I mean, Mattias just won “Best New Talent” in Guitar Player, and he’s been on the scene since like 1990!

Magnus: Yeah, it’s true, they have been around for a long time. Like I said, “maybe I shouldn’t call them new!” [Laughs] It is silly with Mattias being best new talent, but then again, he has been an underground name until recently. But guitar players here in Sweden have known about him since day one. He is a cool player and a cool guy. Guthrie has also been around and known in the underground world for a very long time. Thinking about it, I can’t come up with names of any new guys. Maybe Dave Martone, but he’s been around too. Christophe Godin is pretty new? He is cool.

IC: Yeah, Christophe has kind of more recently emerged I think. I love his style!

So what led you to play instrumental music?

Magnus: I can’t sing to save my life. [Laughs]

Most of the players I was listening to when I started were doing instrumental music, so it just came naturally. And I've always been fascinated by instrumental music, since it leaves more for the imagination to run wild then vocal music does. You can paint your own pictures and interpret it anyway you like, since there are no words telling you what it is about. Instrumental music is less direct, in a positive way.

But to be honest, I write and play (especially play) a lot more vocal music than instrumental music. I prefer a nice mix of both; I don’t want to do just one or the other.

IC: Could you tell our readers a little bit about your previous releases?

Magnus: I have done two demo albums in my own name, “The Fat Guy Sings the Blues” and “Out Of My System”. I have also been on compilation albums. And I have done loads of solos on other peoples albums, like playing all the solos on The Duskfalls’ “Frailty” album, as a session player, for example. I also did two albums with children’s music many years ago. I have also done music for horse shows (stuff that got played during the Olympic Games in Sydney), dance shows and things like that.

IC: Wow, so if I’d just tapped into the children’s music scene I coulda discovered you years ago! [Laughs]

So what projects are you working on currently and when are we going to see a solo album from you?

Magnus: I’m working on and recording new material all the time, the plan is to make a new album (it has been in the cooking for years). There have been material enough for an album many times, I have loads and loads of stuff lying around, but when I get to song 8 or 9 do I get bored with song 1 and start all over again.  It feels like a process that will go on forever, but I am in no rush. [Laughs]

The little problem, I feel, is that I do so many other things with music that sort of steals my attention. When I come back and refocus on the songs I’ve already made, I lose interest in them and want to do new stuff instead.

I know I have to take a month or two away from everything else and just focus on that and get it done… but then comes reality and having to pay the bills.

Doing an album with my own music is something I do because it's fun, for my own sake, so I let it take all the time it needs. I have so much material that I could get it out tomorrow, but things are not really at the level I want them yet. I blame it on me still practicing too much. [Laughs]

I’m recording a guest solo on Stefan Rosqvist's new album sometime soon though. It's a really cool honor playing on your hero’s album.

 

("Whatever It Might Be")

IC: Could you tell us a little about your guitars? I think you’re an Ibanez endorsee…

Magnus: I have been playing Ibanez guitars for years and years now and mainly some type of RG style guitar. Ibanez is basically what I have played all my life, even if I own other brands too. I am a complete guitar maniac and I play loads of different guitars, but since the end of 2004 have my main guitars been my Ibanez MO (Magnus Olsson custom) models. They are mahogany/maple top guitars, maple necks and DiMarzio pickups. Almost all my live playing is done on those guitars, I especially love the purple one (MO2). I also have a RG3120VV and a RGA121 that I play a lot. I also play some Ibanez jazz type guitars a lot.

I have to mention an amazing copy of a JEM7D that I have, it is one of those guitars that are almost magically good. It was with me on a bunch of clinic tours and my sound just opened up and started to sing every time I plugged that guitar in, it was on the level so other people could hear it to. It is light as a feather and just sounds so good, sustain for years and overtones are just raining out of the guitar.  I never really wanted a JEM, I mean, it is Steve’s guitar and I will look very small if people think about Steve when they see me play. [Laughs] So I tried to resist it for almost two years (it was set aside at Ibanez in Sweden to use at clinics, so it was just sitting there). Then one day I woke up and just had, “I have to have that JEM” running through my head, and I could not get rid of that feeling. So I called Ibanez and said, “I must have the JEM!!!” Now it is mine and I use it at home, but I really wish I was man enough to use it live too. [Laughs] Maybe I should have someone fill up the monkey grip, so it looks more like a normal RG? It is the guitar I play on some of the videos that are floating around on YouTube. I don’t know why I’m telling this? But I have a special hate/love relationship with that JEM.

Anyway, I have been endorsed by Ibanez since 2001, doing clinics and stuff like that over here in Scandinavia. I also did a demo of all of their pedals, which was fun. Here it is!  It's all in Swedish, but it's still easy to navigate even if you don’t understand the language (just push the name on the pedal you want to hear). There are many examples for every pedal and a short song at the end of every one.

IC: What other gear do you use?

Magnus: All of my guitars are equipped with DiMarzio pickups and I have been endorsed by DiMarzio gear (pickups, straps, cables and parts) for a couple of years now. They truly are a super cool company with the best pickups out there. I play loads of different pickup models depending on what I’m doing and what guitar it is but my favorite pickup is the BREED, I have that in loads of guitars (it is the pickup I use for my “fuisonish” lead tone). I also really like the EJ Custom humbuckers (Eric Johnson model).

I play a couple of different amps but my main studio amp is a Peavey Prowler, a small and cheep tube combo that just sounds amazing for my lead tone (but is basically shit for everything else). My main live amp is an old Engl Sovereign 100 Vintage 210 combo that I really like. I have been looking around for a new amp to replace the Engl, since it's getting worn down, but I haven’t found anything I like enough yet (I live in Sweden, and the range of stuff to get here is really bad). I’m not endorsed by any of these companies though.

I don’t really use pedals much, an occasional wah pedal every now and then (only live). I don’t use any pedals at all in the studio, because I like guitar – amp - record. But I have a small little pedalboard that I use live with some distortion pedals (an Ibanez TS808, a Boss DS-1) a compressor (a Gollmer Composus), a Dunlop wah, a tuner and a control board for the amp. The only stuff I use on it is the tuner, the wah (twice a year or so) and the amp controller (I honestly don’t think I've ever used the other pedals. I need to figure out why I have them there... probably to look cool). Oh, and I have an Alesis midiverb 4 in the effectsloop for delay live.

I use D’Addario EXL110 (0.10) strings on most of my guitars, EXL115 (0.11) on some and ECG26 (flat wound 0.13) on my jazz guitars. My picks are Dunlop ULTEX 1.14 and a blue Dunlop 1.14 with a crocodile on it. I have 42 in shoes and think blue guitars sound the best. [Laughs]

Seriously, have you ever thought that Satriani seem to sound best when he plays white guitars live? I talked to him about it and he feels the same. Strange!

IC: Maybe that’s why I sound so bad… dark blue guitars just don’t suit me or something! [Laughs] Actually, I had the opportunity to hold one of Joe’s new white custom Ibanez JS’s with the Super Colossal graphic – I was definitely feeling the mojo.

Magnus: Yeah, you need to change that guitar of yours. I don’t know you but I can already tell that dark blue is not for you! [Laughs]

IC: [Laughs] Okay, so what kind of tone do you strive for?

Magnus: The sound I’m going for, for my lead tone, is a soft and liquid sound with loads of midrange and a really rolled of treble. I try to roll of the bas too, to make it less muddy on the low strings. I want it have a good attack but still a sort of growing decay, so that the tone gets bigger as it sustains. The sound has to have very little gain, to keep some dynamics and for it to stay clear, but it still should sustain enough to be smooth. That's the hardest part about getting a good sound I think... having sustain without gain. I like the sound of thin strings, but can’t really play with them, so a good compromise is 0.10.

I'm often told my playing sounds like a keyboard, which I take as a huge compliment.

IC: What instructional material did you use to help develop your technique when you were younger? Did you have any favorite instructional books or videos?

Magnus: I mainly got inspiration from just watching local guys like Stefan play, not really asking what they did, just looking. But I did watch loads of instructional videos for many years, but more as entertaining music videos than learning materials.

 

Paul Gilbert's first one is a favorite, just because he is so completely over the top in it. It was just so breathtakingly cool when it came out. I had never seen anything like it before. I also really liked Brett Garsed’s “Rock Fusion” and Greg Howe’s “Hot Licks”. I think I must have owned and watched most of the videos from around that time.

But I've always been an idiot, so I never did what any of them were trying to teach me. I watched them more for inspiration than actually trying to learn anything from them. I have never really been much for learning other people’s licks or analyzing their playing / style too much, I just listen and gets inspired instead.

I used to borrow music theory books from the library and just read them so many times... basically until I could make some sense out of them. It was probably a very slow way of doing things, but also very rewarding. It's really inspiring when you finally understand something like that, and that you figured it out on your own.

The only guitar books I actually studied were Ted Greene’s chord books.  They are amazingly inspiring (Ted Greene's “Chord Chemistry” and “Modern Chord Progressions”).

IC: Yeah, I’m really late to the Greene party. I just got those books and his re-released solo album last Christmas.

Magnus: Yeah, those books are cool if you’re into chords. The album is cool too, but maybe not my absolute favorite type of music/songs.

IC: So what about private lessons?

 

Magnus: I never had any teacher before I went to GIT in 96 (at least, I think it was 96). But I guess that I could call Stefan a bit of a teacher in some ways, and also Lalle Larsson.

 

(Magnus live in France - Photo by Joakim Wiberg)

IC: How much time do you spend practicing and playing nowadays, and how does that compare with your practice schedule when you were younger?

Magnus: I don’t really look at the hours but I think it would average 4-5 hours a day, meaning that I some days don’t play guitar at all (or very little), and some I play for very long. Counting writing, programming (keyboard playing) or other music related things, then it would be way more. Music and guitar is basically what I do most of my time.

But I've always tried to make sure that I do other things besides guitar.  There are so many other enjoyable things in life. I don’t believe in doing only one thing too much.  It’s not good for your brain, and I think your playing will suffer from it in the long run.

I think that if playing is all you do then you'll become a one-dimensional person that has noting to say, since you don't really experience anything outside of guitar. Meaning I think that the things you do and experience when you don’t play - the stuff you do in life - is what builds your personality, and that's what you take from when you’re playing or writing music.

 

The cliché “you must have had your heart broken to play the blues” is maybe not true, but I believe that the idea behind the words is true. Meaning that you have to experience something to be able to tell a good story that makes people want to listen, or to be able to say anything that reaches people on a different level than “Wow, what a cool and technical lick”.  Reaching people on an emotional level, not just impressing them with technique.

Hmm… I’m getting a bit deep here, sorry! [Laughs]

I used to spend loads and loads of time on technique, mechanical things. But then one day I sort of realized that I could play silly fast, but with very bad note choice and even worse vibrato (it was actually Stefan, again, pointing out that my vibrato sucked, and boy was he right).

These days I only spend time on mechanical things when I come across something I can’t do, and that is mainly what has changed since the woodshedding days (that I don’t care that much about technique anymore). I still spend all the time, but on other things.

I read an interview with Joe Satriani where he said that the stuff that used to take him 8 hours of practice to learn, now only takes a concentrated hour. Just from experience and having a better idea of what to do to reach his goals.

I still really love practicing and have never had any problem motivating myself to do it. I've never practiced because I felt that I had to in order to reach a certain level.  It has always been because I enjoyed doing it - a great way of spending my time. The level of my playing was never something I've cared too much about.

IC: Could you describe how you typically go about practicing? Do you use a metronome or a drum machine?

Magnus: I play a lot to a metronome or a drum machine… just jamming over it these days. It was more concentrated on technique building before, but there’s always been loads of clicking around me. [Laughs]

I tried to do practicing schedules before, but I always got really bored with it and did what I felt like at the moment anyway. But I have sometimes followed a schedule to reach certain goals; I believe that sometimes you do have to force yourself through things that don’t really feel very fun at the time.

I don’t believe much in practicing while doing other things, focus is the thing to get anywhere, so no TV or anything like that.

IC: Are you a guitar instructor as well as a musician? If so, do you have any particular philosophies or approaches to teaching?

Magnus: I used to do a lot of teaching, but haven’t done any in many years now. I never really enjoyed teaching, for many reasons, both that I never really felt that I had anything to show anyone and also that I found it to be very draining on my inspiration to do playing for myself. Teaching a C major scale for 8 hours a day doesn’t really make you want to practice much when you come home! It can be fun when you have good and interested students, but they are too rare to make it worth it.

I was teaching to make money for my bills, and that is not the right reason to teach, it is not what makes you a good teacher. Now I can make my money from playing only, so I don’t have to teach anymore.

What I mainly do instead of teaching is playing 150-180 live gigs a year (not including clinics) in all sorts of situations all over Europe, but mainly in Sweden and France (about 100 of them are in France). It is cover gigs, my own stuff and accompanying people in loads of different styles. I also do studio sessions every now and then, mostly solos on metal albums. And I write music to all sorts of weird things, you don’t want to know! [Laughs]

But I have some ideas about teaching, like to encourage individuality, for example. I also feel that I have some good ideas on how to quickly get result from your technical practice. It worked really well on the students I tried it on, but it is too much to go trough it all here.

IC: Have you previously released any instructional material, and do you have anything planned in that department?

Magnus: No, I have never released any instructional material except for the occasional lesson for some webpage’s here and there. I started to do a book with the working name “hybrid – legato – tapping”, and got about 20-25 pages done. But I doubt that I will finish it, mainly because I feel that I really don’t have anything to teach anyone, but also because I feel that Internet is drowning in stuff like that already.

IC: Okay, I know this is kind of a though question to answer, but what is your creative process like, and what inspires your songwriting?

Magnus: Yes, that is a though question… it varies so much. It can be that I get an idea just popping up in my head when I don’t even have a guitar in my hands (it happens a lot when I’m walking my dog), it can be that I stumble on something that I like when I sit and goof around, it can be that I hear something in another player that gives me an idea and so on. The ideas I like the best myself are the ones that come from a feeling - from something I see or experience, they mean the most to me.

But I feel that getting the ideas is easy, it is making something out of them, turning it into music, that is hard. Especially when working in a home studio environment, were you can’t have a good drummer coming in to do drums, a good bass player to do bass, and so on, and you have to do everything yourself. I really feel music suffers from not having input from other people, and I think that doing everything yourself with a bunch of machines really beats all life out it. When I finally make a new album will it be with real drums and real people.

IC: Do you listen to your own music for personal enjoyment very much?

Magnus: No, I never listen back on my own music; I don’t even keep the recordings (I have recorded loads of tunes that I don’t have anymore, which is a bit stupid). I get really nervous from hearing it and it makes me feel really uncomfortable and reach for the fast forward button. I have a bad habit of focusing on the bad things instead of the good, but I guess that is a good thing in many ways, it keeps me practicing.

IC: I don’t think I’ve found a single guitarist yet who listens to their own music for pleasure…. which is really unfortunate in a way – especially in your case, because everything I’ve heard from you is great! I guess the enjoyment comes from playing it, not listening! [Laughs]

How important a factor is improvisation in your music? Do you improvise the solos on your albums, or during your live performances?

Magnus: Some small parts or some long lines in solos are thought out, but 90% of it is improvisation.

Some ideas turn out good and sort of become part of the tune, and those parts come back in one shape or another live, but solos are never the same twice. It is basically just the main melodies in the tunes that are the same and then I improvise around it and try to build from it. It turns out great sometimes and less good other times, but that’s okay as long as you don’t fall through the ice.

Some songs are more composed than others. I have been thinking a lot about improvisation lately, sort of questioning why I do it. I mean, I normally say better things with more meaning if I think for a while before I speak, so it must be the same with music, right? I don’t really know were I stand with this! [Laughs] But I know I’d kill myself if I had to play the same solos over and over again.

IC: Do you have a favorite song of yours to play live?

Magnus: No, not really. It all depends on what mood I’m in. I like playing them all for one reason or another.

At clinics, were I can really see the audience while playing the tunes, is it clear that the more shred oriented stuff is what’s going down the best and I guess it is more fun to play the stuff that goes down well. But the shred oriented stuff is what I like the least, even if I like that too.

IC: Is there anyone you’d especially like to play or collaborate with someday?

Magnus: Yeah, there are loads and loads of guys I would love to collaborate with. Allan Holdsworth, for example, but I would be too intimidated to play and just sit there as a fool with a silly smile on my face. Brett Garsed and Ron Thal would be cool, too. But they are all too good for me to be able to add anything.

I would love to work more with great drummers and bass players. Being able to jam out ideas would be cool.

IC: Since this is an instrumental guitar website, what instrumental albums have you heard recently, and which are your all-time favorites?

Magnus: I think my all-time favorite instrumental album is Shawn Lane’s “Powers of Ten”.

IC: The studio version or the live album? I can’t really pick a favorite between the two, but I’d have to agree that the Powers of Ten songs are my favorite music in general.

Magnus: I like the demos of the album best. There was a fire in his playing that I’ve never heard anywhere else. The solos on the album are almost identical, so I guess he lost a bit of the fire when he recorded them again. I only have those demos on old tapes with bad quality, so I listen to the album anyway. There are two versions of the studio album, the first one with Shawn playing drums on the keyboard and one with some of the songs having real drums (and the mix has been changed a bit). I like them both, and I actually found both versions in LA for 45 cent’s each. But I like the studio version better than the live version.

“The TriTone Fascination” is great too, but the compositions are not at the same level as Powers of Ten, in my opinion.

I met Shawn a couple of times, he was an amazing man.

My other favorite stuff is… Allan Holdsworth’s “Wardenclyffe Tower” and “Hard Hat Area”, they are also big albums in my life. Steve Morse’s “High Tension wires” is fantastic. Jeff Beck’s “Guitar Shop”. Brett Garsed and TJ’s “Exempt”.

The latest instrumental albums I’ve bought and really liked are Guthrie Govan’s “Erotic Cakes” - he is a mega monster. And also a Swedish guy named Thomas Larsson, and his new album “Harmonic Passion”, he is an amazing player.

IC: Do you have any advice for aspiring young guitarists who want to pursue a career in music or just better themselves as players?

Magnus: It’s tough to give any advice, since everything seems to be so different for everyone you talk too.

Sticking to your ideas of what’s wrong and right, continuing to work on making them better, and not trying to follow anyone else too much is always good. But at the same time, having open ears (and mind) to new things and new ideas. I believe more in spending your time practicing and playing than in promoting yourself on YouTube and MySpace.

My main advice is, never use tab to learn things, use your ears. You will hate yourself in the end for using tab, because you will be lacking in the most important area there is: your ears.

 

(Clinic in Motala, Sweden - Photo by Adam Lindström)

IC: For someone at your level of musicianship, what are your technical and musical aspirations?

Magnus: I don’t really have any technical aspirations for getting more technical anymore; even if there are loads of things I can’t play, I never feel a need for more speed or more technical ideas. Don’t get me wrong, it would be great to have, and I love technical playing, but I rather spend my time with other things, like writing better songs and getting better at realizing the ideas I have. Basically trying to get better at expressing myself, shorten the time from head to fingers. I have completely lost interest in things that are technique only. The technique has to be hidden in music. Ron Thal put that into words perfectly in an interview on DiMarzio’s webpage (their new online magazine).

“That guitar players have to keep in mind that music comes from your spirit, your mind, your heart. It doesn’t come from your hands…”

IC: Are there any guitarists who you still look up to?

Magnus: Yes, there are loads of players I look up to, basically all the ones that have inspired me through the years, and I hope I never grow out of admiring good people. Anyone who can tell me something with a guitar is good enough to look up to in my book. I still love and look up to people who can inspire me to play, or make me want to play. It can be a super star player or a local band with young kids, it can be great playing on world level or just something played with cool attitude or energy at a local rock fest. All of it is equally inspiring. But I think Allan is the only one who still makes me speechless when I see / meet him.

But I’m still at the level where I have all the walls in my studio covered in guitar posters.

IC: Which newer guitarists have caught your attention?

Magnus: Dave Martone is great. A Swedish guy called Johan Randen is amazing.

IC: I’d have to agree with you twice there! Martone is one of my favorites, and Johan’s albums are fantastic. He was quite a young discovery!

So who else?

Magnus: I hear and see great people on the net almost every week, on YouTube or MySpace, amazing players, but I can’t really remember their names. I wish I had more time to look for new inspiring players, but it is really hard finding time for it. Most of the new stuff I hear is played for me by friends who bring records or send me links.

IC: Do you listen to any non-guitar oriented music? If so, which artists, bands or genres do you like?

Magnus: Yes, I listen to a lot of non-guitar oriented music these days. Sting have been a favorite for a long time, Kings X are great stuff. A lot of the music I hear is records being played by my girlfriend, I know she listens to a lot of Freak Kitchen and a lot of female vocalists like Sarah McLachlan, Luise Hoffsten (who has an amazing guitar player, by the way), Eva Cassidy and so on. My girlfriend is a professional singer; witch is something that is good to have in the house. [Laughs] Take a look at her webpage here.

(There are also five of my songs, which she sings on there). She is not really a rock singer (she is a classical singer) so the heavy rock stuff there was done for fun only. But there are some songs there that I like.

IC: Very cool! I’ll check them out. My brother is a classical singer, too… but he doesn’t listen to my Freak Kitchen records. [Laughs]

Magnus: Cool, use your brother in your music. I love classical singing.

Yeah, it is cool that she is so into Freak Kitchen, very odd among her friends. [Laughs] The coolest thing is that it doesn’t come from me; I’m not into Freak Kitchen at all. Mattias couldn’t believe me when I told him that she was so into his vocals. She’s into Freak Kitchen for the tunes and the vocals, but she doesn’t care about his guitar playing at all!

IC: (IA plays the guitar?!) [Laughs]

Alright, now for a hypothetical question… If you could visit any musician or group in history, who would it be?

Magnus: Sharing a bottle of wine with Mozart and talk about music would be cool.
Sitting in the studio when Shawn Lane recorded the first demos for Powers Of Ten would be very cool too.

IC: I’ve actually spoken with a friend / business partner of Shawn’s who did just that while Shawn was recording PoT in his home studio.

Magnus: Wow… I would love to have been there too. Or even better, inside Shawn’s head.

IC: So do you play any other instruments besides guitar?

Magnus: It depends at what you call play? But I can fake my way through things on bass and keyboard and I can sing backup vocals okay. Being able to sing backup vocals is a good advice for players who want to make a living in music, by the way. Being able to sing is almost a must, these days. And working on your vocals really helps your ears too.

IC: What are some of your hobbies outside of guitar and music in general?

Magnus: Like I said before, I try to do loads of things outside of music. My main hobby beside music is photography witch is something I spend loads of time (and money) with.

IC: I’ve seen your photography page – it’s extremely inspiring! (I do some amateur nature / wildlife photography, but nothing brilliant like yours.)

Magnus: Wow, cool!!! Thanks!!! I really like photography, the idea of capturing time like that, moments. I have been doing loads of concert photography lately (I got some cool from a Gilbert concert a couple of weeks ago), but my favorite thing is action sports and nature. Send me some of your shots, I’d love to see them.

Here is my photo page. It is a bit badly updated (I will try to fix that soon).

I do loads of sport fishing; I even used to be a professional guide for a while. Sitting in a boat with a little rod and dream away, a great way to clear my head. I basically love all outdoor activities like mountain biking, hiking, climbing and stuff like that.

I used to do a lot of extreme skiing, dropping cliffs and do stupid things. But I had some bad falls and now I stick to normal offpist skiing and take photos of people doing the crazy stuff instead. Again, I just love being outside in the nature.

I used to do loads of traveling, but now I get so much with my job, so I like to stay at home when I have the time instead. Seeing new places is something I really enjoy. I especially really like France, the people, the food, the mountains, everything.

IC: I’d read about your skiing hobby before – kinda funny because I think the extreme skiing is also referred to as “shredding”, right?

Magnus: What you say is true, skiing is shredding too, shredding the mountain. Are you into skiing? Since you knew that? Most people don’t. It is the ultimate freedom feeling to fly down a big powder field, I love it.

IC: I live in Texas, where it hasn’t snowed since the palaeozoic era, so I’ve never been skiing. But I used to have some interest in extreme sports, and I think I first heard the term “shredding” in regards to skiing when I was watching Warren Miller’s “Storm” documentary last year (which had virtuoso guitarist Conrad Simon on the soundtrack).

Okay, last question… What’s the one thing you want people to know about you?

Magnus: I really like guitars… [Laughs]

IC: [Laughs] Awesome, thanks again, Magnus!

Magnus: Thanks! I really enjoyed talking to you, Dave. It is great talking music and guitar with a fellow player who knows guitar and can ask interesting questions. Let’s do this again when I get my finger out of my ass and finish up my album. I promise to keep you posted on how things go over here. I will bring a video camera on my next clinic (but I don’t think it will be until the end of summer) and record some new videos; I’ll do a bunch of new songs there that I really like, and send you a link when it’s done.

IC: Awesome, I’m looking forward to it! Talk to you then!

Magnus: As we say here in Sweden, “Hej då.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

www.magnusolsson.com

 

www.myspace.com/magnusolsson