01- Hello Edu, how are you? Thanks for this interview.
Let's start talking about your start with guitar. What was studying guitar almost 20 years ago like? Who were your biggest heroes? What's the biggest
difference?
Well, First of all thanks for the invitation. I have been playing the guitar for 25 years and it is nowadays totally different from when I started, because there wasa lack of information, there were few schools focused in rock or blues, to be honest
I have never heard of one, there was no internet which makes ahuge difference.I learned how to play by friends who played a little bit more than me or mainlylistening to old Lp songs. My biggest influences were Deep Purple, Led Zepellin,
Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter, Pink Floyd and Van Halen, then I discovered Jeff Beck, Steve Morse, Yngwie Malmsteen, Allan Holdsworth among others.I think the biggest difference about learning guitar nowadays if compared to that time is
the quantity of information all over the place and the easy access that sometimes people may get confused about it, without mentioning the press which guides the most of
the kids to an empty musical direction or originality.
02- What's up with Dr.sin!?
Dr.Sin has a 16 years career, 8 albums and 1 Dvd released, I think the band has had a musical philosophy pretty idealist since the beginning, in other words, we just play what we really like
regardless the consequences. The other efforts came and what we can notice is a natural growing from one album to other without losing the will of showing something new and interesting.
Actually, we have been working on the last album (Bravo) which in my opinion is actually one of the best we have done so far.
03- How did you used to organize your guitar playing time in the past and nowadays?
When you start everything is new and it's important to develop several concepts like scales, chords, arpeggios, picking which takes a lot of effort, several rhythimic and melodic exercises, everything!!! I used to spend a lot of time (really a lot of time) working hard on these aspects, not in an organized way, becauseI have never been organized in that way, so I used to look for what I was interested
in that moment. For me it was totally fun . Studying music has different phases and a new challenge to reach. Now I'm working on songwriting and improvisation which have been
my great passion.
04- Dr.Sin got a recording contract pretty soon, how it happened?
We recorded this Demo and we did a lot of copies in K7 tape and we travelled to the USA, New York. We stayed at the home of a great brazilian friend which had lived there for several years (Marino Nobre), he was a great responsible for a lot of our accomplishements
due to his incredible support. We stayed at his house for 6 months, sending demos to PUBs and recording labels and perfoming in some venues. Someday a person from Warner called saying that he had listened to it and loved, his name was John Hugues. We set up an interview and that when everything started.
05- How do you see your and the band's improvement during the years?
I think that all the people who were born to make music go through a
continuing evolution, because we wake up thinking about music and go to bend thinking at the same thing. Some are more ambitious, others more talented than others, but everyone is breathing music, so it's natural to evolve. Actually, time is the greatest master if you are devoted, the improvement comes naturally.
06- Talking about your solo career. How the idea of recording a cd come up? I have read some interviews where you mention a solo record from a long
time ago, did you use it on this new stuff?
That's true, my first solo record should come out before Dr.sin's first album, because it was already recorded and actually it was already Dr. Sin, I recorded with Andria and Ivan Busic (the same members of Dr.Sin). In that time we had the project of the band and a solo project of Supla which we recorded and wrote with him. A little later with Dr.Sin's demo done, we took the risk of going on a trip to the USA (New York) and that was where it all started. We got a record deal with Warner and we recorded the first CD. So the problems
with my solo record started to show up, because it wasn't already released and Warner didn't want us to release anything before Dr.Sin, so they bought the album's royalities from Devil Records.
After that I have never heard of my master and the information I have by Warner people is that it is simply gone. I didn't use anything from this material at my album, because the best
part of it was already used of it on Dr.Sin's albums.
07- What was the writing process like?
Maybe the biggest responsible of making me get this record done is my friend and producer, Thiago Bianchi, he started calling me and offering the studio to record the cd with good possibilites, in other words there was s no way out of this one. The songs had to come out
pretty quickly, because we had a deadline to start recording it. I used to write during the afternoon when I had some time off from the classes and we used to rehearsal at night. The musicians
inspired me a lot, because they are very talented (Marcell Cardoso - drums, Duda Lima - Bass and Fabrizio Di Sarnio - Keyboards). I also brought some songs from the early years, I "rewrote" and arranged like the song Fire in the Sky which I wrote when I wasn't even 18 years. In a general way, it is a pretty new
stuff.
08-Listening to your album I feel a lot of Jeff Beck , Steve Morse with some influences from Prog/Metal due to some keyboards and tones. How do you
face that?
The positive side of it is that you mentioned 2 of the best players on the solar system, but on the other hand sounding like a well known guitar player is not that positive. These guys have a huge influence on my music and I sometimes I am trapped by it. Sometimes
it is on purpose like in the song Dixie which is a tribute to Steve Morse's band and Dixie Dregs, sometimes it is unconscious. I consider as one of the most important things for a musician
and a composer interpretation and the originality, which I have always looked for and not alwaysI have got.
Talking about the progressive thing, I have always been a fan of bands such as Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant and etc...in other words I love that style.
09- In some particular moment were you concerned
about the genre of the album or you just let it naturally come out?
I just let it naturally come out. When I am composing a new song the best "test" is to listen to it on the day after and if it's really good I will like it on the first time, if not It's totally out of the selection.
10- What was the gear used for the recording process!?
This album was recorded 3 years ago and took me a lot of time to release it. In that time I used a preamp which I have used for several years, a Mesa Boogie Triaxis, Mesa Boogie's power, Marshal 1960 cabintes, Laney VH 100, some stuff I recorded using the Pod XT in line, Zoom pedals, phaser 90 MXR, flanger MXR,
Santo Angelo cables, Nig Strings (Edu ardanuy signature), guitars by Tagima at the most Edu ardanuy signature as well as the Cabrera's pickups.Nowadays I am using a new amplifier named Maverick which is produced by a braziliancompany,but in a good quality and in an international standard. In that time the amplifierwasn't ready so I couldn't use it. Electric Nightmare was produced by Thiago Bianchi and recorded at Fusão Studios except for four songs which were recorded by my brother Átila
Ardanuy on Bavine Studios.
11- Thanks a lot for the interview! Please leave a message to our viewers!
That's all folks! I hope you have enjoyed the interview, stay tuned to the news in 2009 and listen to my first solo albumnamed Electric Nightmare! A great hug to everyone!!! Edu Ardanuy.