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Yngwie Malmsteen is a true rock n’ roll pioneer, visionary and musical genius. During his twenty-plus year career, the Swedish virtuoso guitarist has taken rock guitar to places it has never been before. Inspired not only by guitar legends Ritchie Blackmore and Jimi Hendrix, Malmsteen was also greatly intrigued by classical composers Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Mozart and Paganini. These combined influences lead Malmsteen to develop a unique blend of classical rock, which many refer to as neo-classical.
IMalmsteen’s journey into stardom began in 1982, when he was discovered by Guitar Player contributor and Shrapnel Music founder Mike Varney. Varney heard a tape that Malmsteen sent to the magazine and was so impressed that he quickly arranged for Malmsteen to fly to LA and play on a record from a new band fronted by vocalist Ron Keel called Steeler. This set the wheels in motion for what was to come. Soon after, Malmsteen was recruited by former Rainbow vocalist Gram Bonnett to play in his new band -Alcatrazz. The band released two albums with Malmsteen. Although the records failed to achieve commercial success, they did help bring Malmsteen well deserved national acclaim.
In 1984 Malmsteen released his first solo album entitled "Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force." This CD helped propelled Malmsteen to the top of the list of most influential guitarists. Every serious guitarist at the time owned a copy of this CD. The CD when all the way to #60 on the Billboard charts with no radio airplay. A legend was born.
Since then, Malmsteen has released fifteen studio records, the most brilliant being the 1998 “Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in E flat minor, Opus 1.” On this release Malmsteen performs along side the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and symphony conductor Yoel Levi. This CD is a must have for anyone who loves both rock guitar and classical music.
This year has turned out to be a busy and productive year for Malmsteen. Earlier this year (on July 26), Malmsteen released his new CD, the 18 song sonic masterpiece, “Unleash The Fury.” This CD is a hard rocking, diverse release that many feel is his best CD in years. In addition, on November 1, Malmsteen will be releasing “Yngwie Malmsteen's Concerto Suite For Electric Guitar And Orchestra” on DVD. This DVD was filmed in 2001 with the New Japan Philharmonic and conducted by Taizo Takemoto. It was previously only available as a European import.
We are honored to bring you an exclusive GlamMetal.com interview with one of the most talented musician/composer in rock history. In this interview, Malmsteen discusses his new CD, “Unleash the Fury,” his current band, working with the Prague and Japanese Philharmonic and many other topics.
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Your new CD, “Unleash the Fury” is one of the most diverse and unstructured releases of your career. There is a little of everything on this CD. Was this done intentionally or did it just turn out that way?
Great question. Let me try to answer that to the best of my ability. Since day one I was pretty particular about what I wanted. On my first solo CD, the label wanted me to do an all instrumental CD. At the time, I was with the group Alcatrazz and I was offered a solo contact in addition. My creativity is mine, I really don’t take anyone’s orders. When I did my second record, “Marching Out,” I definitely wanted to go more into the mainstream. I deliberately did that, and then that desire when away for awhile. But with this CD and the last one, “Attack” I threw all that shit to the wind. I said I wasn’t going to try to do anything one way or another. The reasons for this are simple, I started writing a different way. I started doing it all by myself. No keyboard player, drummer, just me in my room by myself. It was like a mad scientist laboratory or something. I always record riffs, lyrics and ideas that I have so when its time to record a record, I just listen to what I have and take it from there. Plus, I also throw fresh ideas on top of it. So there really wasn’t any direction. There would be songs like “Boogieman,” “Cherokee Warrior” and then “Magic and Mayhem” and “Locked and Loaded,” which are songs that are more like the ones that you expect to hear from me. But, I didn’t have a direction on this one and it was refreshing. The reason being is that I don’t think it’s a good thing to do. It stifles one’s self. And also there really isn’t a direction to go in, in today’s rock world. There use to be a formula where you would write a song and it would be played on the radio and on MTV. Today there is no such thing. It’s so funny because I was driving my car the other day and I heard this song on the radio from a band that would of years ago never been signed to a label and today it’s in rotation. It was a very erratic sounding song. It was really heavy with tempo changes. I think it was ‘System of the Down.’ That song is all over the place. And not too long ago, no one would even listen to a song like that. They would never put it on the radio. So there is obviously no direction. Rock n’ Roll in America has no formula, no direction and no sound. In the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s there was a sound. In 2005, there isn’t one. So these are the reasons why my CD is the way it is. I hope that you recorded all of that.
Yes, I did. If I was trying to write all of that down my arm would have fallen off. (Laughs) One of the tracks that I really like is “Cherokee Warrior.” That’s a great song and your guitar playing is incredible. It’s one of the more bluesy tunes that you have ever written. What inspired you to write it?
That song was inspired musically and lyrically by Jimi Hendrix. The song is about Jimi Hendrix. I wrote it on the anniversary of his death, which was also the anniversary of the day that I picked up a guitar. I had a guitar since I was five years old, but I didn’t start playing until I was seven on the day that he died- September 18, 1970. There was footage of him burning his guitar on TV. The impact of seeing him burn his guitar made me want to play myself. It wasn’t his music, that came later on. The sound of the song is very bluesy like that. The funny thing about that song was that it was thrown together very quickly, within minutes and was recorded within minutes as well. I play the guitar, bass and sing on it. It’s a pretty simple track really. But you’re not the first person to tell me that they like that song. I had many others tell me the same. So thanks.
Do you think that you may write a little more in that style on your next CD?
Well, I’m becoming more comfortable with singing, so I might do more singing or I might not do more singing. I don’t know. I’ve written a lot of new stuff, because I have a home studio and just throw shit down whenever. I lot of the stuff that I’ve recorded recently is heavy, not really blues orientated. But who knows, it can change and really go in any direction. I’m not saying no, definitely not.
The next track “Guardian Angel” is pretty amazing too. I can’t remember the last time I was so moved by an instrumental track. It’s so emotional and dramatic.
Well, thank you. It’s very nice to hear that. It’s also one of my wife’s favorite songs as well.
 All of your CD’s have a few instrumental tracks on them. Many of your fans would love if you released an all instrumental CD. Have you ever thought about doing that?
No. I prefer to make records that have more versatility. People kind of over look this part of me. I’m very, very, very heavily into writing lyrics. I spend the most time out of everything on writing the lyrics. I don’t sing them, but I write all the melodies and all of the words. To me, that’s a really powerful way of expressing myself. I don’t want to limit myself to just doing instrumentals. To me, I think that I already did the ultimate instrumental with the Orchestra, which will be released in one month from now on DVD. But I really enjoy making records that like I said, have diversity.
Now you mentioned the orchestra, have you ever thought about going out on an orchestra tour? I think that would be the ultimate Yngwie Malmsteen experience for your fans. I would even put on a suit and tie to check that out.
Well, what I’m going to do is I’m going to go out on tour and I’m going to do the touring, the orchestra will be the city that I’m playing. It’s just a very time consuming task. It took me a year and a half to get the Japan Philharmonic organized and that was three years ago. So it takes along time. I’m telling everyone that is involved with me that it’s going to happen and it will. But it will be my classical pieces, not my rock material.
I heard that some of the musicians in the Prague Orchestra had difficultly playing your music because it was so complicated. It is much more challenging than playing music of Kiss or the Scorpions.
Some of my stuff was pretty tricky because of all of the flats. The first time that I recorded an orchestra CD was with the Prague Philharmonic. They are very good, don’t get me wrong, but they really struggled with a few tracks. The Japanese Symphony was very good, the best of the ones that I’ve played with. But, they all said that my music wasn’t easy stuff. Both orchestra’s really had to work on it. It’s interesting, because the first look you get when you walk into the rehearsal is “Oh no, not one of these leather pants wearing, long hair rockstars, what the fuck.” Then they listen to the music and look at the score and go “Yeah! This is the real shit.” So that was real rewarding for me to actually get acceptance. When the orchestras were doing it with Kiss, Scorpions or Metallica, they were doing it more for the money really. But, I think what those bands did was great too, don’t get me wrong. But, I wanted to do something that was strictly classical as opposed to coming in with a rock band. That’s the difference I think.
Yeah, you take it to a whole different level. There’s no comparing it at all. Now with you being such a perfectionist and virtuosos musician, do you have difficultly finding musicians talented enough to play in your band?
No, I’m very lucky that way. Fuck, I always have the best musicians. It’s amazing, because when ever there is a problem that doesn’t get resolved and someone has to go, there is always someone else. I’m very fortunate in that way. I never look for a musician, they always come looking for me. It’s funny how that works out. The group that I have right now consists of Dougie White-vocals, Patrick Johanson-drums and Joakim Svalberg-keyboards. I think it’s going to last for some time. We really click well.
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Who is playing bass for you?
I have different ones. Live I use Rick Savino.
Rudy Sarzo isn’t in the band anymore?
Yeah, sometimes.
I was shocked when he joined your band, I didn’t realize that he had the talent to play your music.
Rudy is really good. He’s a real sweetheart. I really like him a lot, he’s really good.
Do you have any immediate plans to tour in the US?
Yeah, we plan on announcing it in October.
Is it going to be a club tour?
I think that it’s going to be a theater thing. But, I’m really not sure yet. I know that they are shooting for some better venues than what we played in the past. But, I‘ve only seen some of the tentative dates. We are also doing some shows with other bands as well. But we are going out so where ever you are or whatever city you’re in, just check out www.yngwie.org for dates. So come out and rock n’ roll all night with us. We just got back from two months of Europe, so now we are going to do America. There is no stopping the train now.
I can’t wait to see you perform live again, it should be awesome. Now through out your career you have been approached by many bands and musicians to join their band or projects. David Lee Roth for one asked you join his solo band back in 85. Who are some of the other artist or bands that tried to recruit you?
Well, it was always such a vague thing. I remember once, when I was living in Sweden and I got a phone call from Kiss. It was so funny because it was like “Yeah we hear that you are really, really hot” and I’m like “I don’t know, ...it’s quite cold here.” (Laughs) Stuff like that, I didn’t fucking get it at all. Then they asked if I was at least 6ft tall and I’m like “I don’t know, I’m 1 meter and 83 cm.” I had no fucking idea what they meant at the time. There was a real communication problem there. And then some fucking guys like Billy Sheehan and then Marty Friedman called to do something. UFO and Ronnie James Dio called as well. But, I think that I did the right thing by going with the Alcatrazz thing because I got to write the songs in that band. It didn’t work out in the end, but artistically for me it was better.
Yeah, it was a solid band and a good stepping stone for you.
If I would have went with Way/Mogg and do the UFO thing, I would have played all the Schenker stuff. But I did play some Schenker songs with Alcatrazz anyways because of Gram Bonnet. It’s all great stuff, but I rather start off with a new thing and at the end of the day it turned out to be the right move. In 85, we were touring with Billy Sheehan and Talas and David Lee Roth came down and offered Billy the gig and then he offered me the guitarist position. I properly should have taken it, but I didn’t. It was funny because me and Steve Vai are like brothers and we joke around all the time and when we were doing the G3 gig we were talking and I was telling someone that David Lee Roth asked me to play guitar for him back in 85, and Steve overheard it and said “He Never Told Me That!!! Fuck, why I’m I always the second choice.” (Laughs) It was a joke of course because he’s fucking great. But I love him.
Would you consider doing another G3 tour with him?
Anytime they want, just call me I’m there.
Ok let’s hope that happens. What is a typical day like in the life of Yngwie Malmsteen?
Well, I think that a lot of people would be surprised. I really don’t live much of a rock n’ roll lifestyle. I like to play tennis everyday. And do normal things like drive my son to school, in a Ferrari. (Laughs)
(Laughs) That sure beats a big yellow school bus. Any last thoughts for the readers of GlamMetal.com?
Yeah, buy the CD and I’ll see you out on tour.
for more on Yngwie check out www.yngwie.org
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