Sevenstring.org Interview: Eric Clemenzi

SS: You've been involved with a wide range of projects ranging from prog metal to classical instrumental. Give us some background on what you've done so far.

Eric Clemenzi: My main focus with my music right now is in three projects: Kangaralien, Storms Approach, and my solo album. Kangaralien is Steve Belleville and myself on acoustic guitar. Steve and I had played together in a Dream Theater cover band, then some original prog groups, and we needed something to fill the gap between band practices. We started writing music and last year released our debut album. Storms Approach is my current prog metal band, with Steve on bass, Chris Munroe on Drums, Anne Collins on vocals, and Scott Randall on guitar. We have been playing for a couple of years and released our 8 song EP this summer. I just finished wrapping up my solo album, which will be released on January 12th. It is all of my original material that I composed on my own, plus my now defunct band Quandary. Quandary is basically Storms without Scott and Anne, plus the addition of guitarist Brian Packer. We had a blast writing our 4 really long instrumentals and I didn’t want them to disappear, so we put the tracks on the album too.

SS: What's your musical background in general?

EC: I have been playing for around 20 years. I started at 8 with the basics, learning to read, basic chords, that kind of thing. It wasn't until I was around twelve that I found Eric Johnson and my life changed. That was a huge turning point for me. Through high school I worked on writing music, chops, and theory on electric and studied with classical guitarist Wayne Peabody.

SS: What first got you into sevens, and who were the first guitarists you heard or influenced you?

EC: Dream Theater's Awake album really got me into wanting a seven. When I found out Ibanez was releasing an affordable(compared to the Universe) seven, I knew I had to try it. My first big influence was Eric Johnson. Hearing his music changed my life. From there I started to get into Steve Morse, Satriani, Vai, and Macalpine.

SS: Give us a rundown on your gear, guitars and strings, including your custom eight string.

EC: For the acoustic duo I use the Ibanez seven string acoustic AJ 307. I usually string it with 11's and put a .59 on the bottom. My main guitar with Storms Approach is the Music Man Petrucci seven string. I use that guitar mainly for the piezos in the bridge. I string that with 10's. I use a Mesa DC-5 for live and in the studio I use the POD 2.0 on the rectifier setting. Chris Stambaugh built my 8. He is out of New Hampshire and I recommend checking out his work. The guitar has a walnut top, mahogany back, 5 piece neck, and a birdseye maple fretboard. The pickups are the Lundgren M8's and it has Sperzel Locking Tuners. The scale is around 23.75-26".

SS: As a whole how have you incorporated the eight into your playing, and what do you like the most about it?

EC: As of right now, the 8 hasn't been making as many appearances as I would like. I have been so focused on my two groups that it has taken a backseat to those for a while. The main things that I have going for the 8 right now is a Chopin piano etude that I have always loved and thought would be really cool to try on guitar. The 8 really helps to make some of the piano runs a little more playable on the guitar. I also love the possibilities the 8 offers in the tapping department.

SS: How does the eight compare to the seven, and the six?

EC: The eight still totally confuses me! That is a great reason to use it though. One of the big reasons I wanted to explore 8 strings is for the new creative possibilities. It is a lot more difficult to fall into the patterns when your fingers have no idea where they are going.

SS: Do you use any altered tunings?

EC: I don't really alternate tune a whole lot. The Kangaralien album has one song in drop D, and we have tribute to Django Reinhardt that is in drop A. Other than that, everything is standard.

SS: What do you use live as opposed to in the studio?

EC: In the studio I record with the POD 2.0. It makes my life a lot easier, is consistent, and I can record at any time of day or night. Live I use a Mesa DC-5. I use a couple of volume pedals to adjust volume between the piezo and magnetic pickups. I have a tuner and a Bad Horsie wah I use occasionally. I also use a Roland Guitar Synth live for extra textures.

SS: Kangaralien is a very eclectic mix of classical, folk and bluegrass elements, without really sounding like any of one in particular. How did the songwriting for the album come about?

EC: Steve Belleville and I just sit down in my basement and throw around ideas. Sometimes he has a riff or I have a riff and we build off of it. "First Impression" off of our album started as a joke. He capoed at the 5th fret and just for the heck of it I capoed at the first. We made some horrible noises, laughed a lot, and eventually the song came out.

SS: Can you give us some detail as to the recording process?

EC: For Kangaralien we used one mic (an Audio Technica 4050 - we tracked separately). We ran it from my mackie board into a Delta 1010 soundcard and into Cubase. All effects were added after. For Storms Approach and my solo album, we used the PODs for all guitars and a Bass POD for the bass tracks. We used triggers on all the acoustic drums and used the original Drumkit from Hell samples. We used a couple of Octava mics for overheads. The vocal mic for Storms Approach was the 4050 again.

SS: How does recording an all-acoustic album differ (in general) than with a full band? Do you approach the recording/mastering process differently?


EC: Recording the acoustic album was all about keeping things quiet. We had a cricket problem during the recording! They are on there occasionally if you listen REALLY close. The mixing was so much easier since we only used two tracks for every song. We used some of those Vic Firth Headphones to keep the click track from bleeding as well. For Storms, everything started with scratch tracks, then we got a solid drum performance, and built the tracks from there. My solo album was built off of music I wrote myself with sequenced drums, and then I had Chris from Storms redo the drums after most of the guitars were done. Mixing was much more of a nightmare for the electric stuff than the acoustic. We had two tracks to worry about with Kangaralien, and sometimes 30 or 40 with Storms and my solo album.

I had Tom Eaton at Thomas Eaton Recording in Newburyport master all 3 albums. I felt it was important to have a very experienced engineer put the finishing touches on the album. He did a great job making the albums fatter and more even throughout.

SS: How about the songwriting process?

EC: The songwriting in Kangaralien is really collaborative. If you asked me to play Steve's parts, I couldn't do it. We write all our own stuff. For Storms, Steve is the main writer. He comes in with full tunes, and then we arrange them together. We all bring in our ideas in the parts we come up with for each tune.

SS: Is it easier for you to compose instrumentals or write songs? With an instrumental, how do you know when you are finished?

EC: I prefer instrumentals. I don't like writing lyrics. I have no interest in coming up with words. Even songs I bring to Storms, I always ask if anyone has any lyrics they want to lend me. Regarding instrumentals, for me it is all trial and error. Sometimes I have parts hanging around that didn't make it into a tune and realize there might be a good fit in another song. I usually try to feel it out and just see what happens.

SS: Walk us through your compositional process; where do you get the idea for a song, and how does it proceed from there.

EC: A lot of ideas for me come from working on new scales or concepts. I was taking lessons with my friend and teacher extraordinaire Nate Comp a few years ago, and each time we would get together he would throw a weird scale concept at me. At the end of our lessons he would always say,"see what you can write with it." That's where songs like Landvetter came from. I was working on Mattias Eklundh-style tapping and whammy harmonics and I had just started working on the Lydian Dominant scale, so I tried to write a song based on the two ideas. I also try to think of different combinations of bands and come up with what I think they might sound like it they got together. I have one tune that I said,"what if Dream Theater and Meshuggah got together?". That kind of thing.

SS: You teach over 70 students a week, what range of skill levels areyou working with, and how would you describe as a whole being able to teach music for a living?

EC: Teaching is one of my favorite things to do. I like playing live and doing recordings, but I like also like being able to get instant feedback from a student. I like being able to help them get over different hurdles they may encounter with their playing. One of the most important things to me is being a motivator. More than scales or techniques or songs, it is about feeling good about learning and playing the guitar, and when you feel good about it, you want to practice and improve. I work with all ages and levels, but that is the common thing that ties them all together- enjoying the instrument. Playing can be a struggle sometimes, but breaking down walls and moving to the next level is a great way to build self-confidence, not only in guitar playing, but in our every-day life.

SS: Do you find that being a fulltime instructor has sharpened your chops as well?

EC: Being able to teach has sharpened my chops in different areas. There is a very limited amount of time during a lesson, and it is important for me to be efficient in how I do things. It has definitely sharpened my chops in being able to create backing tracks for students on the fly, improved my ear, and helped my transcribing skills. I still have to practice outside of lessons to keep up with the technical stuff though. I don't play a ton during lessons. It is always about the student, and a lot of the time that involves listening to them do their thing and then critiquing it.

SS: What do you like the most about it?

EC: Helping other people reach their goals. There is nothing like seeing a student complete their first AC/DC song or hear their original composition on CD.


SS: What's your basic practice regimen, and just how much do you practice a week?

EC: Unfortunately, I don't have a steady practice regimen right now. I just finished recording and mixing my solo album, so that took up most of the time when I would be practicing. I definitely practiced for certain sections of the album though. I am actually re-learning most of the songs on the album right now so I can play them correctly at the CD release show.

SS: What advice do you have for guitarists working hard to get their chops up?

EC: Be patient, work accurately, and listen to your body. I had some hand problems from around the age of 18 to about 21, when I would not take breaks and not listen to my hands saying,"please stop!" I am lucky that my hand problems have subsided, but just be really careful! Don't hurt yourself!

SS: How important is theory to you in songwriting vs improv?

EC: Theory is important and not important in both areas. I think it always depends on the situation. Sometimes shear spontaneity will give you a great riff for a song, yet sometimes the next riff just doesn't want to happen. That is when I start using theory to help me out of a dead end. What scales can I superimpose over the chords? What scales does the riff imply? What scale can my melody imply? I ask myself this in both the songwriting process and the soloing process(especially when recording a solo). When I am playing live I try to mix up my solo and not do what I recorded when I was in the studio. Usually I preset a few scalar ideas in my head(key, mode) and then maybe some alternates that go outside a little. One thing that is a constant when I improv though is note awareness. I want to know at any given moment what note I am on on the fretboard.

SS: If you could teach other seven string players one thing, what would it be?

Always be true to yourself. Explore who you are on the instrument regardless of what people think. There are a lot of stereotypes that come with playing a seven, but just do your thing and make music you love.

SS: How important is ear training to you?

EC: Ear training is huge. One of the biggest things for me outside of being able to recognize chord progressions, riffs, and solos by ear is also being able to adapt scales and modes that aren't part of our everyday music vocabulary. When I first heard the Lydian Dominant scale, I didn't get it at all, but the more I used it and applied it, the more I liked the sound. I know that might be different than the typical interval ear training we think of, but I think training the ear to hear the possibilities of using different modes and flavors in our playing applies.

SS: Mattias IA Eklundh is a friend of yours - how'd that come about?

EC: I saw that Mattias was coming over for the NAMM show in January 2005. My friend and collegue Dave Newsam teaches over at Berklee, so I asked him if he could help me out in getting a visiting artist clinic for him. Once I confirmed that it was doable, I dropped him a line and he told me he would love to do a clinic. I have been a fan of Freak Kitchen since Spanking Hour, so it was a thrill to have him come over, hang out, talk music, and do some jamming.

SS: What's in your CD player currently, and what newer artists are you listening to? Any bands that would suprise people to know you're into?

EC: Freak Kitchen's Organic has been in my CD player since its release. I really love Scar Symmetry. I love Rush in Rio. Some Meshuggah as well. Bela Fleck and Chris Thile rule too! My current favorite album right now is Coheed and Cambria's Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV. I have had a lot of students wanting to learn their stuff, then Steve Belleville gave the album a great review, so I eventually picked up the album. I love that it is prog, has some catchy stuff, and there is tons of guitar. The vocal stuff is killer too.

SS: Anything you'd like to say in closing?

EC: Thanks so much for having me do this interview! I think you have a great forum here, and it is great to read so much about the extended range family!