1. What do you use for guitars and equipment? What are the qualities you like about them?
Well it’s a bit funny, but I lost all my equipment after quitting my band in 2009, because all of it was acquired as part of my contract with them and I had to return it. I had several electric guitars at my disposal, but my main axes were a DeArmond S-73 and a Dean Michael Schenker Standard.
I was usually playing entire gigs with the DeArmond and the Dean was more likely like a main backup in case a string breaks. What I liked about the Dean was that it was pretty reliable – it sounded decent and never went out of tune, which made it the perfect backup guitar. As for the DeArmond – up to this day, this is honestly the ugliest guitar I’ve ever played on, but my – it sounded amazing! The DeArmond brand was discontinued in the early 2000s, so it’s really hard to find this model nowadays.
My S-73, I believe, was one of the latest ones or so I was told. It was crafted in Korea and featured the popular USA-made DeArmond pickups, which really have a killer tone. In fact all the electronics were assembled in the US and the quality of the assembly was incredible. What I also liked about this guitar is that the wood was really solid – the body was much heavier than any other guitar I’ve ever picked up and had a great natural sustain.
As for amplifiers, I had to choose between 3 different amps depending on the venue size. On open air gigs, I was usually using an old Marshall JMP Super Bass 100 from the 70s, simply because it was LOUD. This amp has been through hell, but a guy fixed it for me and it sounded well. But I usually had to play in much smaller venues, so in such situations I was using either my Laney LX120RT or my Laney LX65R. These Laney amps had a surprisingly good sound, considering they were solid state amps.
They were armed with Celestion speakers, just like the cabinet of my Marshall. Sometimes I even liked their sound better than the Marshall as it had a bit too much presence for my taste and I’m not a really huge fan of the high frequencies. The Laneys had a more mid-range oriented sound and sounded very 80s, which is exactly what I liked about them.
As for effects,
I bought a Boss BCB-60 pedalboard and armed it with a Marshall Drive Master, which was my main overdrive pedal, a Boss OD-2, which I was using as a booster for leads, a Digitech X-Series DigiDelay, to spice up those leads a bit, and a DOD FX-65 Chorus that I used on clean parts
But apart from the stomp boxes and the pedalboard, none of that other stuff belonged to me and I had to return it all. So after I quit, I had no other equipment than the one I used as a starter – my very first electric guitar and an old 50W practice amp. I actually still use them today as practice gear, but I also use the guitar to record stuff. Believe it or not – it’s a Squier.
To be more precise: a 2002 Squier Showmaster – the Ghost Flames 20th Anniversary Model and it sounds way different compared to a regular Squier. It used to be twice the price too, so I guess it’s an idea better, but it took some damage throughout the years, so I had to do some repairs on the electronics and temporarily convert it to hard tail. I still feel like I have a special connection with that guitar, probably because it was my very first instrument. I realize it’s far from the professional class, but with the ages its sound improved dramatically, probably due to the wood drying up.
As for picks and strings, for the last 5+ years I’ve been using D’Addario EXL120 and Dunlop Tortex Sharp .73. The D’Addario’s have a distinctive brightness that I really love and the Dunlop picks are sharpened in a way that really helps you in precision picking.
2. How did you first start learning how to play? Were you self-taught or did you take lessons?
When I was a kid, we had 2 rusty acoustic guitars lying around at home along with a book entitled “Self Learn the Guitar”. I picked these up at around the age of 12 to see if I can learn anything. I didn’t learn much more than a few open chords and some basic strumming patterns. The only real positive effect is that my left hand got used to pressing the strings against the fretboard – you know how painful it is when you’re a beginner, but then the skin of your fingers gets thicker and you can do it endlessly. However, I was rarely practicing more than once or twice a week and for more than 1 or 2 hours, but at the age of 14 I attended my first rock concert and I thought being a musician and playing on a stage like this must be really cool. So I decided to take the guitar more seriously.
I got my first electric guitar at the age of 15 and started practicing more and more. I was mostly trying to mimic my favorite bands and invent my own riffs, so it was mostly senseless jamming and not much technical exercises, but as I was attending rehearsals and auditions, I realized I was lacking skill. So far, I was being self taught, but at about 17 I met that guy, who had a band similar to In Flames and played great and he offered to give me some guitar lessons. So, he introduced me to “The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar” – a guitar method developed by Jamie Andreas that uses the laws of body mechanics to train your fingers to play the guitar. This was honestly pure science that was built upon the concept of muscle memory – a form of procedural memory that involves consolidating a specific motor task into memory through repetition. Combined with a strict schedule, this proved to be an extremely effective guitar learning approach and I made a huge progress in the next few months, when I eventually quit the lessons and continued practicing along this method on my own.
A little later, I met a guy, who also didn’t had a band at that time, so we decided to form one together and as we were both having some day jobs and earning money, we decided to invest and equip our own rehearsal room and for less than a month my attic became a place for rehearsals. I developed the habit to constantly learn new songs for the band. I was also copying the leads and riffs of my favorite guitar players and attempting to incorporate them into my own original compositions, but I never relied on tabs – I was learning everything by ear and I recommend this to everyone – it’s an excellent training for your ears, which eventually gives you huge freedom of playing!
We never really got too far with that band and disbanded about 2 years later, so I quickly started searching for a new band and I briefly played with a few local garage bands until I eventually auditioned for a hard rock band that used to be really popular in the late 80s and early 90s over here. They liked me, because they thought I had the potential to develop as a guitar player, although we knew I still had a lot to learn. So, I started out as a rhythm guitarist until I gradually replaced the original guitarist and took over all leads. During this period I wasn’t improving anymore with the exercises from “The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar”, but luckily I met that other guy, who was a fantastic progressive metal guitarist and he recommended me John Petrucci’s Rock Discipline. So I got the video and the lesson book and started exercising. It really helped me improve the coordination between my right hand and my left hand and to stretch my fingers. Along with that, I continued learning new songs and solos of my favorite guitarists, so I could incorporate their licks into my own playing.
After a year, I decided I want to apply for a music degree in the university and I got a guitar teacher to prepare me for the exams. I studied with him for about a year and he taught me some really cool country and blues licks, but our main focus was on reading prima vista and learning theory, so I can’t say we did a lot of technical exercises. As I later got admitted to the university, the guitar teachers there introduced me to the concepts of jazz guitar, but again we were mostly focusing on theory and prima vista and I wasn’t really satisfied as I felt my technique was suffering, so I quit and that happened around the same time I quit my last band.
So my playing is the result of 75% self-education and 25% taking lessons. I had 4 different guitar teachers that taught me for a total of about 3 years, but mostly theory. All the other time I was practicing on my own, learning songs, solos and in some occasions practicing exercises that I found online or in guitar books.
3. When you went from practicing guitar only 2 hours a day to 4, you said that you made huge progress, why do you think that happened? Just more time with the guitar or were there specific things you were working on?
I don’t think it’s only time that played a role. It’s just that at the same time I discovered “The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar” and the other materials I mentioned about, so I had a solid arsenal of exercises to dedicate time to, plus I was really motivated. I think it’s motivation combined with the right exercises and only then the amount of time I was dedicating to them that resulted in that huge improvement. But if you lack motivation and the right exercises I don’t think just dedicating more time will help you and I’m saying that because I have experienced it myself.
It was during my university years. At some point I got stuck in one place – I was practicing every single day, but there was an absolute lack of improvement – like as if I have reached my limit. I was constantly reading stuff on the Internet with people saying they practice 8 hours a day, 10 hours a day etc. and I told myself – “what the heck, I’ll give it a shot!” So for a brief period of time I was actually practicing for 6-8 hours a day and in days when I had rehearsals with the band that resulted in up to 10 hours of playing per day! And you know how I ended up? With a nerve injury of the index finger of my fretting hand and an inflammation of the tendons on the same hand. Not to mention that I made no progress at all… My point is – sometimes when you’re stuck you just need to have to have some time off – a week, a month – as much as you need, and forget about the guitar for a while, so when you pick it up again you can have a fresh start and the progress will come on its own. But I learned that the hard way and nowadays I can no longer play more than 3-4 hours a day or fret barre chords due to those injuries.
So, my advice is: exercise as much as you feel you can and only when you know what to exercise. If you’re out of ideas or if your hands feel tired – have a break and don’t worry about it – improvement comes gradually.
4. How did you get into programming? Was it always a backup plan to a career as a guitarist?
It all started as a hobby. I was 3 years old, when we got our first computer and our household have always had a computer ever since, so I was spending a lot of my free time with computers. Of course, like any other kid, I was mostly playing games, but I also had an interest in learning how computer stuff works, so I gradually learned writing really simple apps in QuickBASIC and Turbo Pascal. Then we got our first Internet connection (dialup) and I learned making simple HTML webpages and writing mIRC scripts (IRC was huge at that time), but then I discovered guitar, forgot about my programming passion and never got too far with it.
I spent all my high-school years playing the guitar and I never really thought about the financial side of music, because I didn’t really care about money at that time. At least not too much. My family was far from wealthy, but we always had food to eat, clothes to wear and a small amount of pocket money that was enough for me to go out with friends from time to time. I was also working summer jobs to earn extra, but as I was growing up I started feeling the financial side more and more, as I had to finance more and more things from my own pocket. The last band I was playing with had a lot of gigs – about 80 for the 3 years I was with them, not to mention a 3-month hotel residency, where we had a performance every night (90 gigs!), but still – it wasn’t enough to make a living out of it. As I left them, I was on my own with no education, no money and no job and I started thinking on the possibilities in front of me. I realized that working low-qualified jobs won’t get me any further.
As I was browsing through the job openings on the Internet, I realized how many companies are looking for web developers, which reminded me about my programming passion. For the next 6 months I locked myself up at home with a bunch of books about web development and the moment I finished them I got my first job as a web developer. Ever since I’ve been working and evolving as a programmer and I’ve been recently doing game development as well. I like the profession and I’m happy with the income, plus if you’re willing to work, you always have growth opportunities. Of course I do miss music a lot, but there are so many talented musicians out there that we have to face it – the market is too small for all of us and if we don’t want musical diversity to disappear, we just need to keep it going as a hobby.
It’s sad though what the music business is nowadays. Companies invest millions to produce and promote artists and tracks that usually don’t have any musical qualities. The music industry has become just another money-making trench and noone really cares about the music itself. It’s just really, really sad…
5. For the song, Ásdís Rán – Feel My Body, what did you use for guitar effects and recording equipment?
Some time ago a friend of mine, who’s a sound engineer, told me that they are more and more using VST effects for recording guitars in their studio. A little while after that I visited few other studios, where the same approach was utilized by the engineers, so I decided to give that a shot in my home studio as well. I’m using this approach for a little over a year now and I’m really satisfied with the results. You know when you’re in a home environment there are always issues with the room acoustics, which affect the quality of your tracks. With VST room acoustics play no role on your recordings – you get stunning sound quality, plus you have the freedom to choose between hundreds of different amps and effects. In the studio you’re usually limited to a couple of amps and a dozen effects, so using VST gives you a huge freedom.
For “Feel My Body”, I just plugged my old and rusty Squier directly into an M-Audio Fast Track recording interface, which goes into the computer via USB. Using Steinberg Nuendo as a VST host, I processed the guitars through IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube 2. For this particular recording I used a preset called “Passion & Warfare” (Complete Rigs -> Lead Hi-Gain -> Passion & Warfare). Of course I didn’t use it as-is and tweaked it a bit, but it was more than a good start.
6. Your current focus is mixing electronic music with rock guitar to create your own niche as a guitarist, what are you working on next? Are your playing as a hobby or working on a cd?
Right now it’s just a hobby, although I would really love to record a CD. The thing is – producing electronic music isn’t as easy as it seems – there are so many things you need to know in order to produce a high quality track. You have to pay attention to detail, you need to know how to synthesize sounds, you need to be an expert with effects and DJs already know how to do these, while I need to learn from scratch and that would probably take me years and I just want to be able to focus on the guitar playing and have someone else focus on spicing up the electronic parts. In other words – I need a DJ to collaborate with. I’ve actually worked with various DJs over here, but our collaborations were always a side project to them and we got no further than lying down a bunch of demos that are sitting here on my HDD. But the only full track I’ve released in that genre – “Inside” – was produced all by myself and I’m sure you the flaws in production can easily be heard – it’s just, I’m not a DJ and I still have a lot to learn about electronic music production. So to all your readers – I’m open for collaborations! :)
For more about Marin, check out his YouTube Channel
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