VWMusic

Header image courtesy of Cat Parker Photography

By Andrew Daly
andrew@vinylwriter.com

Few guitar players intrinsically carry the inventive, and forward-thinking essence that six-string master George Lynch does.

Most remember Lynch through his Dokken days in the 1980s, but since then Lynch’s path has been a sprawling journey ever-fixed on expanding his musical horizons. Lynch’s zest for life, nature, and all things guitar has kept the six-stringer moving, and always growing, both musically, and personally.

An ever-resourceful troubadour, Lynch has steadfastly refused to stagnate, or hyper-fixate on any one project for very long. Be it Lynch Mob, KXM, Sweet & Lynch, The End Machine, or his newest project, The Electric Freedom, George Lynch seemingly always has a new trick, or two, up his proverbial musical sleeve.

As Lynch prepares for the next phase of his musical journey, he took the time with me to discuss The Electric Freedom’s newest singer, Ray West of Spread Eagle, heading into the studio for his next studio outing, his approach to songwriting across his various projects, his love for nature, guitar building, and a whole lot more.

Andrew:
You’ve just announced an upcoming run of shows with The Electric Freedom, and you’ve tabbed Ray West as the new singer. How did you come into contact with Ray?

George:
Well, I’ve known about Ray for a while because he was good friends with Oni [Logan], they kind of came up together. In the pre-Lynch Mob days in Florida, Oni and Ray had a lot of history, and they were kind of at the same level, but Oni hit a little harder than Ray did as far as making an impact and making a name for himself. But it’s really interesting because they’re kind of out of the same mold. So, with Ray, he is just a great fit for the band, you know? And so what happened was, Rob DeLuca has been in the band for a while as the bass player, so when we lost Andrew [Freeman] to Great White, Rob said, “Hey, you should check out Ray. And I hadn’t even thought of it, but Rob said, “Check him out, he might be a natural fit,” and so I did, and he really is. I mean, I probably couldn’t have designed a better fit in a laboratory.

Andrew:
You’re well known for working with a wide array of musicians. To that end, what do you feel that Ray will bring to the table?

George:
Well, you know, Lynch Mob has been a revolving door for sure. At this point, there have been more people that have been in this band than haven’t been in this band. [Laughs]. And so you know, it hasn’t always been the perfect guys that I would have liked to hand pick. It’s almost like, and I don’t want this to sound negative in any way, but it’s always been more of a matter of convenience at times, you know? It’s like this; when you get a different member of the band, be it a drummer, singer, bass player, or whatever – and this happens with a lot of people I’ve played with – it doesn’t always click. But I think what is a little different about Ray is that it’s like I’m putting myself back in time. You know, when we formed Lynch Mob initially back in ’89, the world was our oyster. We had worldwide tryouts and we really took our time because we wanted to just hit it hard right out of the box. Without all the hype and expectations, I think I have a little bit of a sense with Ray that he could have been that other guy instead of Oni, and that’s not to say there was anything wrong with Oni, it’s more a testament to Ray, that I think he could have easily been the guy back then.

Honestly, I can’t think of any weak spots with this guy. There are some guys who can’t cut it in the studio, or they can’t do it live because they’re not much of a frontman. You see some guys who don’t write lyrically, or they’re not a poet in that way. Some guys just don’t have the chops for melodies, they just don’t have a sense of that. Or they can write lyrics, but they’re not poets. There are all these different things, and stylistically, yeah, you might have a guy that’s just a monster machine, but he’s got no soul, and he lacks that thing that really fits with the legacy of the music. So, with all those things, for me, you have to put that all together, and again, I think with anybody else that has ever come through the door, toured, and done record, I’ve enjoyed every minute of that, and I appreciate everybody that I’ve played with. Through the years, it’s been a wonderful experience and adventure, but I think Ray is kind of like the cap on the end of the bookshelf.

I mean, of course, you never know, and I guess nothing’s forever, especially in this band. [Laughs]. We could be having this conversation again six months from now, and maybe the turnstile turned again, and we had to get a new guy. I am not anticipating that, but I’ve learned well enough that with this band, you just never know. But for the moment, I’m really appreciating the fact that we hooked up, and that we’re going to do this, and I’m very excited. I know Ray’s very excited too. He’s over the top and we are too, and I think that’s a little bit infectious. When you become a little bit older like me, it starts to become a little bit harder to get around. The result is it takes me a little bit more to get my motor going, so it’s kind of like, “Well, we’ve had thirty-five guys in this band. Okay, this is number thirty-six. Let’s see.” But, you know, I really am genuinely excited, and we’re always excited about having new guys and getting fresh blood. But this one is even more of an exceedingly animated thing for us because I think Ray is gonna bring some new life into our whole little world here. And we are planning on doing a record, we just signed up to do another album. It will be through Frontiers, and this will be my first official Electric Freedom record. I was actually thinking yesterday that maybe I should change it to Electric Eagle. [Laughs].

Andrew:
So Ray’s is going to do a record with you then?

George:
That’s the plan. I did get to start the initial process of sketching out some ideas, but all of the actual recording sessions are going to happen in August because of the tour schedule in July. But in August, we will have some time available to start that. I’d rather sit in a cool studio in August than be out on a freakin’ hot stage anyway. [Laughs].

Andrew:
Along with Ray West, you’ve got Jaron Gulino and Jimmy D’Anda tabbed for the live shows as well. Will it be the same group in the studio?

George:
No, not in the studio. Rob [DeLuca] is not going to be playing with us for these shows because he had other obligations. We brought Jaron in because he’s a friend of Rob’s, and he will be filling in. So, he’s just gonna slip right in for the upcoming shows, and then Rob will be coming back.

Andrew:
What sort of a setlist can the fans expect for these upcoming shows?

George:
Well, you know, aspirationally, I would love it for the Electric Freedom to really be kind of a bed for all my different projects, and the sort of this kaleidoscope of different eras, records, and bands. I’m hoping to slip some Lynch Mob in there, some Dokken, some End Machine, Sweet &Lynch, basically, whatever the hell I want. [Laughs]. I’d like it to include any project you can think of. I would love to have the freedom to do that. It requires a lot of work though, especially when you have rotating members, it makes it much more difficult, especially when you got guys that don’t live near each other. I live on the West Coast, Rob is in New York, and Ray is in Florida, so you couldn’t be further apart. So logistically, nuts and bolts-wise, it’s going to be a little more challenging to get to the point where we can really work up a deeper, more interesting set, but I’m not gonna sweat it. I mean, by default, right at the outset, we’re probably just going to do the safe stuff. We’ll do Lynch Mob, we’ll do Dokken, and we’ll do a couple of other things, just to keep it interesting. And we’ll e do our jamming, and that’s about it. But further down the road, as we work on a record and get a little bit tighter, we’re going to start adding some things to the mix. We had been doing that up until Andrew left for Great White. Who knows? Maybe we will do some Spread Eagle songs? I have to say, I’m not overly familiar with the band, but I’ve seen people saying we should on Twitter and Instagram. Maybe I’ll look into that too. So, I see this as a little bit of a reset. Could be worse, right?

Andrew:
You’ve got this small run of shows planned, but after that, do you have more gigs on tap, or will you be heading right into the studio?

George:
Well, I like to do a combination of things. Sometimes I go out with the Electric Freedom, and then sometimes, I just go out on my own and I do solo dates with Dokken, where I come out and do the four-song encore to end the night. With Dokken though, sometimes I go out with Electric Freedom opening up for them, and then I come in at the end of the night. And sometimes I just play on my own, and other times I’ll do a quick flyout show with Dokken, or whatever. So I’ve got a mix of that in July, and really, throughout the year. And then at the end of the month, I have this Paul Gilbert Great Escape Guitar Week here in L.A. Basically, it’s like a five-day campout, where you get these guitar players flying in from all over the world to the States. It’s a bunch of us; guitar players, teachers, celebrities, or whatever we are, and it’s a lot of fun. So that takes me to the end of July, and then in August, we’re going to all start working on pre-production for the Electric Freedom record, or whatever we decide we’re going to call the project at that point.

Andrew:
You’re something like a musical nomad, George. How do you balance your approach from project to project?

George:
Well, yeah, that’s the problem. I have to learn to differentiate between projects a little better. I have run into this problem where I’ve written something, and I’ll be sitting with someone from that particular project, and they have to kind of help me with that. For example, let’s say, Jeff Pilson, who I worked with on my End Machine project. So, Jeff has a great memory, and I don’t, and I’ll be writing something or playing a riff, and Jeff will go, “George, you already used that on the last record.” Or I’ll play it and then we’ll record it, and I’ll go, “Shit, that sounds really familiar,” and then I’ll realize I used it on a Sweet and Lynch record, or a Lynch Mob record. [Laughs]. So, I have to be really careful about that, especially now that I’ve done so many records in recent years. I don’t want to keep recycling my own riffs. I want to be careful not to do that and use them over and over again. Not that I can get in trouble, you know, because I really can’t sue myself for plagiarism, but it’s kind of cheesy to repeat yourself like that.

I want to stay in the habit of creating new stuff and not get lazy. So that’s what I have to stay on top of most. And then, stylistically, I think I’m really put on a course by the band. I think it’s something where subconsciously, I’ll just play a certain way, and depending on the band, I’ll go for a certain sound. Like with Doug Pinnick, that’s a very unique kind of mix. I think in the back of my mind, I was thinking somewhat progressive, but I also knew I had to have that bluesy type of thing, but still be interesting and challenging, you know? So I’m picking up on all of those things when I’m writing. And then with Lynch Mob, that’s something more like a blues-based, hard rock thing, with big giant hooks, but it’s with a little creative, exotic twist. And with Sweet & Lynch, you know, Michael Sweet dictates my writing philosophy there. Michael is very operatic, he’s a powerful rock singer, and with that, I kind of stay away from the more bluesy side. When we work together, I tend to play more a straight-ahead, meat potatoes style. Now, when I do an instrumental record, of course, I’m trying to build things that are interesting for myself, which is a whole different kind of mindset. So yeah, from project to project, I try to keep things separate in the way I approach them. But at the end of the day, I listen back, and all the sounds like me. It’s kind of hard to escape, unfortunately. [Laughs].

Andrew:
I did want to quickly touch on your instrumental record, Seamless. I felt that record was an outstanding change of pace. Can we hope for a follow-up?

George:
Oh, yeah. I already did it. It’s already in the can. It’s called Guitars at The End of The World. It’s coming out through Ratpack Records. It’s been finished and delivered for a while now – maybe a few months – so I don’t know when they’re planning on releasing it. I guess it’ll be later this year.

Andrew;
When you do an instrumental record, what is your source for inspiration as opposed to a Lynch Mob record?

George:
When I do those, I’ve got to really make a concerted effort to not write using my default style of writing, which is just, ABC, ABC, bridge, AC, double C, and out. I can’t think in terms of just beds for vocals, I have to divorce myself from that in a way, which I’m not always successful at. I’m just sort of wired into those networks, but as I said, I just finished this new instrumental record, and I think I was successful in avoiding that trap about 50% of the time. As for the other 50% of the time, it’s more the traditional regions where I took a sort of Joe Satriani approach. I tried to do a hard-talking, diverse sort of thing, where I’ve got a hook, but it’s still something memorable enough where it will catch people. And then, I have these more challenging things, where I am pushing myself to be more unorthodox rather than something I try to write most of the time.

Andrew:
It seems that as usual, you have a ton coming up to look forward to, George. Aside from what we’ve discussed here, what’s next for you in all lanes?

George:
I just want to plant blue corn on my property in New Mexico and watch it grow. [Laughs]. I laugh, but I’m not kidding. My wife and I, we’ve got a property out there, and we just try to spend time out there whenever we can. It’s been wonderful, and it’s really been a reservoir for me to where I can just breathe fresh air. It’s a place where I can be healthy, and do different types of work, which really is kind of satisfying. It’s something different, and it’s a place where I can do things in a different way. I feel that it’s important for everybody to do that. So, that’s what I dream about. I was just saying to my wife today, “I wish I could get as excited about playing guitar as I do about growing corn.” [Laughs]. But you know, we all want to do the thing that we don’t do, right?

I really like building stuff, and fixing stuff. I love doing guitar building, and all that stuff. It’s probably not something that I’m really necessarily great at, but I just find it fascinating. I love the process and trying to understand it. I like learning about it, and I think it’s healthy to keep having other advanced aspirations in life and to be an adventurer. The way I look at it is we’ve got to keep going. Each day is about waking up in the morning and learning something or creating something. Because then, when things get rough, you have that to fall back on. My philosophy has always been hopefulness because I grew up with that. I’ll never unlearn that, and eventually, you hit the inevitable speed bumps in life, or worse. So if you have that type of mindset, and you’re always growing, these are things that get you through. I think now more than ever, we’re all going through that kind of universal challenge, but these little challenges in the moment can be hard, but it’s important to understand that life is good, and that life is beautiful.

– Andrew Daly (@vwmusicrocks) is the Editor-in-Chief for www.vwmusicrocks.com and may be reached at andrew@vinylwriter.com