by Rafael Nery

Guys! This month We have an interview with Vernon Neilly, one of the most important/influent musicians in the world.Vernon is a very neat man and answered our questions with all his knowledge, check this out right now!

1-Hello Vernon, how are you doing?We're glad for having you here. So here comes the first question: "What was the reason for you to start playing and who were your heroes"?

Thank you for asking me to be in part of your magazine. I am honored. I have always loved guitar even when I saw them when I was 4 years old. I remember when I was very young, my mother took my brother and me to see a movie of the Beatles called "HELP". I wanted to play since that moment! My first major influences were Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana… from that point there have been lots of them, so let me break it into genres. The jazz players George Benson, Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Joe Pass, Pat Martino, also sax players Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, David Sanborn, and Grover Washington Jr. Jazz keyboard players like Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Jorge Dalto who played with George Benson. The rock players Eddie Van Halen, Jeff Beck, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Vinnie Moore, Randy Rhodes, Jason Becker. The blues guitar players Stevie Ray Vaughn, B.B. King, Albert King, Albert Collins, Johnny"Guitar" Watson, Johnny Winter, Johnny A, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin. Because I have played with so many hit R&B artists here in the US there is also that side and influence , players like Jimmy Nolan(James Brown Band), Prince, Al McKay(Earth Wind & Fire), Charlie Singleton(Cameo), Pepper Reed(Dynasty), Paul Jackson Jr. So as you see the influences are diverse, but they all have had an impact on my playing style!

2-When was the moment in your life that you decided to be a professional musician?

I am not originally from the US, I am from The Bahamas, I come from a very musical family! My mother plays piano and violin, and all of her brothers, and her sister play instruments too, and one of my uncles is a professional jazz musician. I have known I wanted to play music for a living since I was 9 years old.

3-Is it hard to play the guitar for a living in USA?

It depends on what you want to do in music here. If you want to play in a Top 40 band and make a living, there are many opportunities to do this here in the US, but to be a recording artist playing your own music is very difficult! The US is such a big country and market where there is much competition .From what I have seen from my travels in different parts of the world it is difficult in those countries also, just like Brazil! I have been very fortunate in my career to get some really good opportunities, and meet some great people in music, but I have worked very hard and prepared myself also. If you are not ready when an opportunity comes, then the opportunity is wasted!

4-Internet has made things easier for musicians to spread and publish their jobs, in your opinion: what are the bad points and the good ones?

Well I have been doing this thing on the internet from the very beginning, when there was only one music site back in the early 1990's in the whole world on the internet called IUMA, so I am very experienced in this subject. Although I think that the internet provides a world wide platform to expose your music, many artists still miss the point, and that is the chance you must use and promote yourself! It is even more difficult now because so many artists use the internet to try to get exposure for their music, so how can you make sure that you are heard or seen through millions of artists? You must find an effective way to reach massive amounts of people who like your style of music .That is the key!

5-Nowadays, mainly on Internet there's an idea about "the faster you can play, better you are".what do you think about this sort of idea? Don't you think the most important is about finding your way of playing?

I think that this idea is for the younger players who are coming up in the world and feel that this is the way they have to make a statement to be recognized as a good player. Once again you have to ask yourself and make a decision about what is it that you want out of your musical career. Do you want to be an extreme technical player who is respected by fellow musicians, or do you want to create music that not only musicians, but other people will enjoy and want to listen to? I will use 3 Brazilian who are very big outside of Brazil as an example here, these groups are Sepultura, Soulfly, and Angra. All three of these groups have very popular guitar players who have world wide exposure, but there popularity has come because they are attached to these groups. Andreas would not be as well known if he was not a part of Sepultura, Max would not be as well known if he was not a part of Sepultura, and now Soulfly, and the same goes for Kiko with Angra. These players have become well known because they are part of something bigger than themselves. It is the same situation here in the US, you have players like Vai, Satriani, Gilbert, Eddie Van Halen. Most guitar players know about Vai, Satriani, Van Halen, Gilbert, Petrucci because of their tremendous exposure in guitar trades around the world, but even with this exposure, who do you think will sell the most tickets at a concert? Van Halen of course because Eddie is a part of something bigger than himself!

Now the second part of your question, the players who offer something unique in their playing will always be the ones who will stand above the rest, like Van Halen, like Vai, like Satch, like Santana, like Hendrix, like Benson, Loureiro ! It is what all guitar players and musicians should be in search of .Their own voice on their instrument/instruments of choice. It is how people separate who is who!

6-you have already been on tour with amazing and famous musicians,What was this experience like?

It is an experience that I wish all musicians could experience because it is a great learning experience! You get the opportunity to learn from people who are more experienced than you are, so of course you are able to pick up these things and incorporate these things into your own style. Even Vai played with other artists before launching his own solo career! It can be of great benefit to one's growth as a performer and artists.

7-Tell us about your discography. what are your fauvorite songs and what equipments did you use on it?

I have recorded on many different projects, some of them are now out of print because they were done during the 80's and early 90's. I have 3 solo projects out "Kaleidescope", and my award winning "G-Fire" and "G-Fire II" CD's. I also did a special recording project for Seymour Duncan which is called "United By Tone" which includes players like Slash(Guns and Roses), Jennifer Batten(Michael Jackson, Jeff Beck), Alien Ant Farm, Blink 182, Papa Roach, and even Seymour Duncan himself.

My favorite songs on G-Fire are "Flight To Ecstacy" and "Moonlight In Paradise" people can hear these songs on my myspace.com page at www.myspace.com/vernonneillyband . On G-Fire I wrote a song called "Por Mi Amor" which is more melodic and jazzy, and there is a nice nylon string vocals song called "Unconditional Love" which was a big hit here in the US for me!

I used primarily for the electric guitar work on both projects, my signature Tagima VN1 model guitars, and for the nylon work, my custom made Giannini. I did use a jazz arch top also on one of the songs because I needed that real jazz sound for that particular song. As far as effects are concerned I am endorsed by Seymour Duncan, Digitech, Morely, Aphex, Xotic Effects, Levys, so I primarily use these things when I record, I also endorse Cakewalk which I use for my main recording software(Sonar 6 Producer Edition), and Sony Media Products also has a suite of products which I use for recording, mixing and mastering. I have other effects that I use like my Micro Synthesizer from Electro Harmonix, my old original Ibanez "Tube Screamer", Boss MT-2 Metal Zone, Boss CE-2 chorus, all of these have been modified by Keeley, take for example the "Tube Screamer" and Boss MT-2 are like on steroids now, much more fatness, and sustain to the tone! I also have a Roland GR-30 guitar synth that I use from time to time to record. I play keyboards also, but to me it is more natural sounding to record string parts with my guitar synth because I am using a string instrument to trigger it!

8-You have lots of sponsors and the most of them are brazilian companies.that's the reason you often come to play in Brazil.Tell us about it and how you got to know these companies?

I do have a few Brazilian sponsors, they are Tagima, Giannini, and Meteoro, I came to Brazil to perform before I even knew of these companies existed. The reason why I use their products is because I believe in them, if I did not believe in them I would not use them. I have business relationships with these companies that extend past just equipment, that is only a small aspect of our relationships. I am an international recording artist and businessman which means I have exposure in the world market not just Brazil or US, because of this I can give exposure to their company names, and their products outside of Brazil. One thing I would like to point out about working with companies is that it is a 2 way street, it's like a marriage, each partner has to work for the betterment of the other!

9-You also have a label in California called Boosweet Records (www.boosweet.com), when did you decide to create it and how is it working?There are lots of brazilian guitarists on it, So we can we be sure that you have a good relationship with brazilian musicians.Is that true?

I created this record label in 1999, but I had another label for 9 years before this one. The label is doing fine, I have been selling music on the internet since 1992 so I know how to do it very well! Yes I do represent the music of a few Brazilian guitar players and sell their products to the world from my label site, but also I have 2 Brazilian guitarist that are actually signed as artist to the label, they are Kiko Loureiro and Miguel Mega. We will release this month Kiko's "Universo Inverso" CD project here in the US, and he will become and even bigger guitar star in the world! Kiko is an exceptional talent and the USA is the last territory for him to really conquer and become popular, so now with our help of my label Boosweet Records he will do this! We have all of the marketing tools, and we know all of the people in the media to accomplish this!

10-Do you think that you have eventually found your own style of playing or this is an endless search?

Yes my style is very different, but it is that way by design, it has developed from taking elements of Rock, Metal, R&B, Blues, Latin, Classical, and melting them all into one thing! I am constantly experimenting, so this style will evolve and develop even more as time goes on as it should. This is the most gratifying thing about music to me, you can always learn, and you can always develop new things to your playing style!

11-Here in Brazil it's really hard to find a good audience and costumers for instrumental music, What is it like in USA?

Here in USA the market place for instrumental music is not as big as it used to be, but there are still a lot of people who love instrumental music here. You must remember that modern music forms like blues, jazz, rock, hard rock were created here in the USA, and the rest of the world learned from USA, so quite naturally there is a bigger market here for this type of music. The whole "Guitar God" thing is an American creation, and we have enough guitar maniacs and guitar geeks here to keep the whole thing alive! Nothing lasts forever but there now is starting to be a little more interest in the guitar instrumental world here in the USA. Everyone wants to come to the USA and release a project because they feel that this will bring them more success and attention, but I have a word of advice to the guitar players in Brazil. No matter how hard it may be, you must conquer try to conquer your own territory first! What I have seen in Brazil is that Brazilians do not support Brazilians in the guitar world, and this must change. There are some very talented, and gifted players in Brazil, there must be unity there before you can really hope to branch out and succeed on a big level! I hope to see this change in the future in the guitar world there.

12-You are a guy who is always publishing your work on web or websites like myspace, have you found great musicians on it?

I have people from my label and also other companies that work for my label that constantly are promoting me to the world as an artist/guitarist/producer! Myspace has been a great networking vehicle for me and my label, I have been able to meet so many people from around the world, this is a great tool!

13-Tell me about your work as a producer.

I have been fortunate to be able to work with some of the best people in the music industry at a very young age, so I took this opportunity seriously to learn everything that I could not only about production values, but about the business of the music world! It has been great working with people who are legends in the music business such as Norman Whitfield and Johnny"Guitar"Watson, Charles Brown, and others some are in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame!

14-Vernon thanks for the opportunity, and please leave a message for Guitar Clinic's visitors.

It's been great talking to the Brazilian musicians, if you want to contact me you can go to my myspace.com page at www.myspace.com/vernonneillyband, and I encourage you to set up a page for yourself there too! You can contact many people to listen to your music at this site all around the world. If any of you are interested in selling your music in the USA or Brazil just write to me and I will explain to you what to do. I also have a website business in Brazil called Music Gate Brasil(www.musicgatebrasil.com) I want to wish all of you a very successful 2007!

Official Website: www.vernonneilly.com

Vernon Neilly allowed Guitar Clinic to use his photos.