Interview to.....

Interview by Roberto Guarnieri

Tell me something about the origin of the band....

"I started the band Confusion in 1998 after my graduation from M.I in California. I had worked on several songs of my own and I was trying to find real good session players to record them, so I finished my first cd 'confusion' having a lot of guests from the Greek Jazz scene. Shortly after the release of the cd I was very lucky to find two incredible players, Takis Intas on drums and Panagiotis Haramis on bass, they had the same dreams, passion and determination and so the band was ready to play."

I've heard a lot of similar tunes with Allan Holdsworth style...

"Allan is my favorite player right now, I love his sound and his way of improvising over the chord changes and his composing is completely different that any other guitar players"

What is your opinion about the scene of fusion now?

"The fusion scene is getting better and better I believe but very slowly. It takes longer to promote fusion, its not pop, rock or even Jazz, so it needs its own time, there are a lot of fusion bands out there who are kicking arse but the fusion guys don't have nice tits to promote their stuff."

Is it difficult in Greece o promote this kind of music?

"I think it is the most difficult thing in the world, because here in Greece we have a strong tradition of the Greek Bouzouki and Tzatziki and pretty much nothing else"

Your jazz influence?

"My biggest jazz influences are John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Chick Corea, Pat Martino, Joe Pass and Michael Brecker. At M.I I transcribed a lot of solos of those guys. I also had a great teacher there Joe Diorio who is a great Jazz guitar player for me"

Do you believe in guitarists like Scott Henderson and Greg Howe?

"Both are great players but Scott Henderson is one of my best guitar players ever. I had Scott as a teacher back in M.I and he's incredible as a person and teacher. He mixes the blues - rock sound perfectly with the jazz language. Tribal tech is one of my favorite bands."

Do you have a good live experience?

" I have worked professionally since 1989 as a session musician doing many lives and tours for others all around the world, but with Confusion it is different we work very hard, every day at least 3 hours rehearsals and we have played in all the best Jazz clubs. We do a lot of rehearsals for our lives because we want to be tight. During the lives we have all the keyboard tracks on computer and Takis plays with the metronome, we want the live to sound as good as it does on cd but with more spontaneous moments."

One of the most beautiful songs is Escaped Soul...

" I wrote this song for my amazing girlfriend Kristieanne (she also writes the intro and the ending lyrics in the genesis album). She is a great person, very talented and has helped the band, and me so I dedicated this song to her to say thank you. In this song you can clearly hear the sample loops during the bass solo, I love to combine modern and tradional elements in my songs. I love this song too!!!"

"Where are you" and "Sick" are oriented through rock vision..

" I grew up playing songs of BB King, Jimi Hendrix, Gary Moore and Van Halen, so I have influences from these guys, I don't want to be traditional jazz guitar player, I want to combine the power of rock guitar with the improvising technique that the jazz players have. Those two songs have a lot of rock energy mixed with real nice harmonies and ideas."

Returning to Holdsworth, is it true that he has told very well about you on his web site?

" I'm not sure exactly what has been said but Tom Voli the owner of the record company of Holdsworth said he loves Confusion and called us the Greek phenomenon and he described the band as tight and very original."

What is your opinion about Joe Satriani and Frank Gambale?

" I like Satriani a lot he did great records with great sound and very incredible playing, I especially like "Home" and Slow down blues" and "Killer Bee bop". Gambale is one of the greatest fusion guitar players with the ability to play in very difficult chord changes. I loved the album "Coming to your senses" and especially up in the "Beachwood" and "The Italian job" he also wrote some great books about fusion improvising."

I've noticed that bands not distributed are better than others, why?

" The more difficult songs you play the more difficult it is to promote them, it's a simple as that. This is a long and difficult story with the record labels; they try to push you in a more popular way so it will reach a more marketable audience, so therefore more money for them. A sad story for a lot of talented musicians.

What is your opinion about heavy metal?

I use to listen to heavy metal bands like, Iron maiden, Waysted, Accept, AC DC, Scorpions, Whitesnake and more. For the Newest bands I like Dream Theater. From the age of 15 years old that was all I listened to, my mum wanted to kick me out of my house for years unless I changed my style in music and clothes! I don't listen too much now.

I think is very interesting your idea of blues in "occupational Hazard"

"As I said before blues is the first thing I ever played in guitar and this particular solo is played with slide guitar and my idea is to surprise the audience with my music and not to be a one-way musician."

Your use of wha wha is connected to the seventies era?

"I use wha wha and the original talk box a lot because I really like the way Hendrix used it and all the guys back in the seventies. The feel of the blues is a must for a guitar player."

A message to your Italian fans?

"I hope I will meet them and get to play for them soon at a live in Italy. I want to do my best for them and work harder to give the best I have. Italy has some good players and new artists that they should be very proud of for example the guitarist Roberto Priori with his album "Avoid Yawed Flight" and Francesco Fareri with his album "Suspension" very serious players to watch out for. I heard these guys at the guitar9.com and they have a lot to give! Then I want to thank you Roberto for introducing our music to Italy and helping musicians all around the world, especially musicians from small countries such as Greece."