Some questions by Fréd Dornelas
01-Hey Greg! How are you doing? Thank you so much for this interview! I would like to start by knowing about your beginning with music. When did you start playing? When was the moment in your life that you decided to be a professional musician? Who were your heroes?
I started playing the guitar when I was about 10 and I didn't play very seriously, but I played chords and a couple of these bending notes a little bit. When I was about 15, I heard Van Halen's first album and that was when I became serious, but before that I would play along with the Led Zeppelin recordings and it was very easy for me to play that stuff without practicing much. When Van Halen came out, that was a brand new thing and I was very excited, so I became very serious about the guitar then.
02- In your opinion what's the difference between studying guitar nowadays and 20 years ago?
I think it's much easier to study guitar today because there's so much information all over the place. People have access to a lot of multimedia that they didn't have before, they have access to a lot of high quality lessons ,a lot of high quality information all over the internet that they didn't have even 10 years ago. So it's completely different all the world that they're for, anybody who is involved in the learning experience with guitar.
03-In 1988, you got signed with Shrapnel Records to release your first album called "Greg Howe"! Tell us, what was your life like before that and what did it become after that? Was it an awesome experience to play with Billy Sheehan on that album?
Yes, very much! I got out of High School in 1982 and immediately I was playing close, doing covers and playing around the east coast of United States and we had a very good reputation, but in our spare time we would write music, and my brother was the singer in our band and he and I would write together. We were trying to do what everybody was trying to do,we were trying to get a record contract, so we played the clubs circuit for five or six years really and we sent a lot of recordings, demo recordings to a lot of different record companies. I sent a recording to Shrapnel and that was really the only real positive response we got back, so I figured: if mike varney offered me a record contract… I should probably take it, because none of the other's offered me anything.
04-You have been working as a sideman of many artists like "Michael Jackson", "Justin Timberlake", "N'Sync" among others. What was this kind of work like? What's the difference between playing on your solo career and playing as a sideman?
That's entirely different and it's completely different situation. If I'm playing with…If I'm playing as a sideman or a back guitarist for a popular artist I really don't have any creative input at all, so it's completely different situation, I mean, I basically play what they ask me to play. Generally what they ask me to play is much easier to play than what I would do in my own personal, my own personal music, but the benefit is that you get paid a lot more, so you get paid a lot of money to do…to play music that is pretty easy… so that is really odd for me, it's an experience of music and an industry that's very strange because I'm used to working hard and not getting paid much, and if you're a sideman, you don't have to work hard and you get paid a lot. So it's a very, very different situation.
05-You have for sure one of the most beautiful guitar phrasing the world has ever seen. What do you think about it?
I am very grateful for people really think that. That's very flattering and I am very grateful to that. I don't even know how to respond! I don't really take responsibility for all of it, you know, I am very spiritual I believe that things happen. I meant to play music, music is just in me and so I just try to delivery that the best of my ability and if people like it, I feel very lucky to be able to make people feel happy about music.
06-You do have some good sponsors. The newest is a Brazilian company called Gianinni. Tell us about it.
I was introduced to them by a friend of mine Vernon Neilly and Vernon brought the guitar to my house and as soon as I played I just fell in love with it. It played like a dream and sounded amazing and I'd never heard that before and I kept asking him: "where you got it?" So when he told me, I said I would like to get one if it is possible I would like to have one of this. That's how that came about. The guitar just plays like…effortless. It's perfect.
07-When we interviewed Richie Kotzen for May edition; he told us that he loved playing on "Tilt" with you. Then let's listen to the other side of this project. What was this experience like from your point of view?
It was great, I mean, Richie is one of my favorite guitar players, so it was really fun to play with him. It would be different now because I live in California, but then I lived on other side of the country so we lived 3000 miles away from each other. And so the experience was interesting, because I would make songs and explain to him where I needed him to play on. and send it back to me. He would make songs and send them to me indicating where I should play and then I'd send it back to him. We never really did a rehearsal in the same room together, it was a really strange. Today it could be I think even much better, because we could actually get together rehearsing and being in the same in room together and recording together I think we could do a really good and a much better album today again.
08-Talking about Extraction, we would like to know what was the experience of playing with Victor Wooten and Dennis Chambers like?
It was incredible! When you get to meet and play with guys who are that good, you really get to understand why they are that good. You know, you understand why people say that they are so great, because they really, really are. What is fun about is that, no matter what I ask for, no matter what I wanna try, no matter what I put in front of them, they can do it. They can do it really well. And they also have such unique styles I mean Denis Chambers is one of those drummers who I can spot him in the middle of 10 other drummers, I know when I hear Dennis: "Yes, his on the sound", and the same thing for Victor. Everybody has a very unique, powerful and signature personality and putting that together I thought it was just really, really fun. It was great for me to be able to know that no matter what I wanted to do, they would be able to do it. It was a great experience.
09-What have you been listening nowadays?
Nothing in particular. I listen to all kinds of music. Actually I listen to a lot of pop music, I watch MTV, I listen to anything from Gavin Degraw to Beyonce. I listen to a lot of pop music and I do that on propose ,because it's easy for me to write music that is complicated and more complex. So it's good for me to listen to music that is a little bit more mainstream, because it gives me the ability to implement certain hooky aspects, certain things about my music that even a no musician might like. So it's important to me to listen to mainstream music. Recently I have been listening to a lot of Beatles and "Earth Wind and Fire" so, but nothing in particular.
10-On your albums, you have already paid tributes to guitarists like Jeff Beck and Alan Holdsworth. Is there any new guitarist who has gotten your attention?
Oh! I am big fan of Brett Garsed, but he is not really new (he has been up there for a while). A good friend of mine is Trey Alexander...he has just won the Guitar Player magazine - Guitar Hero Competition. He is a great player, so that's the new guy that I have heard recently. There's a lot of good players out there.
11-Tell us about Howe Two, your band with your brother.
That was the band that played on the East Coast and we played for years, before I got signed with Shrapnel. So that was really that band. When I signed with Mike Varney, I signed for 4 albums and I told him that I wasn't going to sign with him unless at least 2 of the albums I was able to record with my brother in my band. So that's why we recorded those two albums, because I really want to remain loyal to them. I didn't want them to feel that I was going off without him.
12-Who was the most amazing musician that you have ever played with so far?
Lol...Oh! The most amazing musician that I've ever played? I don't know, there are so many of them. It would be difficult to say. I mean Dennis Chambers is just like a freak of nature. He is so good that it is hard to imagine how he can be or how he became that good I mean, he may be the most… Whenever I watch him, whenever I play with him, I am always just amazed; I am just fascinated at his ability. So I don't know if he is the most amazing ever, but he is the person who comes to mind so far. Maybe Dennis Chambers.
13-What are your plans and goals for the future? Even being already a well-known musician all over the world! Is there anything that has been missing on your career?
Yeah!!! I want to do something that is going to enable a lot of my fans and a lot of up-coming musicians the opportunity to get recognized. That's one of the things I wanna do is making it easier for people who are really good to get notoriety, the internet is really cool, but the problem with the internet is that you have to filter a lot of stuff that maybe be not high quality in order to find something that is, and I want to provide a website that really features high quality players both known and unknown, and gives them an opportunity to get some recognition and maybe get a career going. That's one of my goals and that's actually something that we've been on the process of doing for a while. I can't give too much information about it, because I don't want someone to steal my idea, but I can tell you that in a short period of time we are going to have a great website updated, very positive, and focused on a lot of new talent.
And the other thing is I have a new album coming out this year and I will be going into the studio in September, I am going to be doing another tour in Japan with Tetsuo Sakurai and Dennis Chambers, so that's what is happening in my immediately future.
14-Do you still work with guitar classes or guitar clinics? Tell us about your online lessons.
The online lessons are going to be part of this website and it is going to involve myself and some other people. So it's taking a different form. It's a little bit different than the originally was going to be. I have other people involved with me now. So the online lessons are still coming and they will be out this year. I promise they will be out this year. But it is a very big job we're doing. This website requires a lot of work we've been steadily doing it for the last 6 months, so I can assure you that the online lessons are coming pretty soon.
15-Greg, thank you so much once more for this interview! You have lots of fans here in Brazil at Guitar Clinic! Please leave a message for Guitar Clinic's Viewers.
Thank you so much all of Brazil and guitar players down there, you guys are a great inspiration for me! I can't thank you enough for enjoying my music and I mean to continue to try that. Make great music and I can't wait to come down there and visit.
More information on www.greghowe.com
Greg Howe allowed Guitar Clinic to use his photos.