By A. Lee
Graham
George
Lynch is in trouble — or at least trouble trails the guitarist's
latest tour.
Cruising
through Texas to the next Souls of We gig, Lynch keeps his eyes
peeled for police cruisers, trades jokes with his band mates and
conducts a Classic Rock Revisited interview — all while
driving the boys through Lone Star speed traps. It’s enough to
stress the most dexterous of multi-taskers, but Lynch shrugs it
off.
“It's how
things are today,” says Lynch, happy to handle his own affairs
after tasting the benefits and drawbacks of “handlers” who
scheduled interviews, booked tours and basically coddled rock
stars through the ‘80s. Things are different nowadays. With an
unstable economy and downsized record industry, many rock
artists not only release their own material, but also handle
their own business, a DIY ethos that seems cut from Henry
Rollins’ life story, not from a guy who played stadiums and
toured with Van Halen.
But Lynch
isn’t complaining. Many years have passed since Dokken played
arenas and ruled the airwaves, and chances of finding “In My
Dreams” on Clear Channel play lists are about as likely as
Aquanet spraying its way into Lynch’s darker locks. And that
suits the guitarist just fine.
“There's so
much going on right now. I really keep busy.”
As if
designing guitar prototypes for ESP and educating students in
his online guitar academy weren’t enough, Lynch has spent the
past few years releasing solo material, re-leasing vintage
recordings, splashing paint on canvas, exorcising his darker
musical demons with Souls of We and resurrecting Lynch Mob, his
first taste of musical freedom after parting ways with Dokken.
With Oni Logan back behind the microphone and Marco Mendoza and
Scott Coogan holding down the rhythm section, the band's as
muscular and mighty as ever.
“Oni is
sounding great,” says Lynch, happy to welcome his erstwhile
writing partner back in the fold. Smoke and Mirrors picks
up where Wicked Sensation left off, but digs deeper than
its Wicked predecessor — and much deeper than the
self-titled sophomore effort released after Wicked.
From “21st
Century Man” to “Mansions In The Sky,” Lynch's latest offering
promises the game sweaty groove as Wicked Sensation while
rekindling the guitarist’s passion for ‘70s rock and timeless
blues. The album comes months after another George Lynch
announced his arrival. Another Lynch? Well, if Souls of We is
any indication, Lynch “suffers” from multiple musical
personalities.
Hunger for
straight-ahead rock keeps Lynch Mob pumping, while Souls of We
explores darker territory. Both vehicles offer catchy melodies
that truly rock, but Souls of We owes more to Alice and Chains
and Soundgarden than Lynch Mob's more streamlined veneer.
But it's
the latter vehicle that has longtime Lynch disciples
particularly excited, and they can look forward to a Lynch Mob
tour. Some dates might even feature Dokken on the same bill. But
Lynch dodges specifics. And attempts to dodge traffic tickets
cut short the following interview, leaving questions about
future Lynch/Pilson material, a Dokken reunion and reasons for
Mick Brown's absence in the Lynch Mob lineup unanswered. But
read on as “Mr. Scary” drives the Lynch machine through Texas...
Lee: Hello,
George?
George:
Yeah.
Lee: It
sounds like you guys are driving through some pretty dicey
terrain.
George: I
wouldn’t call it dicey. Just the back ways and byways.
Lee: Are
you near El Paso?
George: We
are driving toward El Paso. We're quite a ways from there. We
just went through a little town called (pause) what was it
called? Called what? Furburger? Furburger or something. We're in
the middle of ... going toward Hill Country.
Lee: I am
totally digging Smoke and Mirrors. It's really strong.
George:
There you go.
Lee: Why
reform Lynch Mob after all these years?
George:
Well, I guess all the planets aligned. I don't have control over
anything, but you know things kind of lined up when the singer
decided that he was ready. I've always been ready, so, you know,
it all kind of happened in the right time at the right place. It
the larger world, the timing was right for us, so it made
sense.
Lee:
Hearing it, it sounds like a logical follow-up to Wicked
Sensation. It sounds like if it wasn't recorded in the same
session, it at least has continuity.
George:
It's the second record Oni and I did together, so it’s the
second record we would have done after Wicked. But we had
17 years to think about it.
Lee: Had
you guys kept in contact over the years?
George:
Yeah, of course. I mean, sporadically but with large gaps. We
did a tour back in the late ‘90s, I believe, early 2000s and I
think we did a couple of tours. I can’t remember. We released
Syzygy in the mid-‘90s. There’s been some time passed and new
did a few things here and there, but nothing serious.
Lee: What
prompted Oni to leave Lynch Mob in the first place so many years
ago?
George: I
came into that band with a lot of expectations because I had the
wind at my back coming off the Dokken machine and the success in
that band. I set the bar really high and Oni was, he tended to
be a little inconsistent live, to say the least. Taking nothing
away from him, but I was very short-sighted in allowing the
decision to be made to part ways at that point because I lost my
writing partner and that’s everything.
Lee: Was
Robert Mason also a writing partner?
George:
Because we were sort of hurting from the live performance
aspect, we enlisted Robert to join the band and he was a friggin’
machine. He could sing like a robot with a clean range that
never quit. Never had a bad day or anything like that. What was
lacking, not to take anything from Robert, but with Oni, we
established a chemistry between Oni and myself. And our writing
on the first record, it was a very short-sighted decision and we
paid the price. The second record was very weak compared to the
first one. It was downhill after that.
Lee:
Smoke and Mirrors sounds so much like an extension of
Wicked Sensation that it begs the question about the second
album. I thought Robert was strong, but maybe the record was a
bit polished compared to Wicked. Would you agree?
George:
Absolutely. Of course. We didn’t have the angst in the band. We
didn’t have the lyrics to paint those beautiful, dark pictures.
I think we were kind of rolling a little bit with the success,
so we got a little soft and were going for the commercial thing
and was absolutely the wrong time to go in that direction. We
went right when we should have gone left. We should have made it
tougher and nastier on the second record, not more polished, not
more Dokkenesque. So we picked the wrong producer, we wrote the
wrong songs. Hindsight is 20/20.
Lee: You
say Robert was consistent live. Is Oni more consistent than he
was so many years ago?
George:
Yeah. He’s in a better place now. He moved to Switzerland, kind
of cleaned up his act, centered himself and he’s ready to come
back and go to work and give us 110 percent, which he has. He’s
very consistent now. It’s wonderful.
Lee: Did
you record live all in the same room, or did the guys swap sound
files?
George: It
went very quickly. We went into Sound City, which is a great ...
it was the first real studio I ever recorded in back in 1976. I
had a band back then and there was some time available to us
between midnight and 7 a.m. We wanted to do our demos, so they
gave us the studio all night.
Lee: Was
this in the Xciter days?
George:
Yeah, it was Xciter [Lynch’s pre-Dokken band]. We went back in
there and banged it out and went there and nothing had changed.
It was exactly the same. Nothing had changed: the board, the
floors, the tapestries. It’s dark and funky, but is a very
amazing sounding room. Metallica had just booked the whole place
for six months. The litany of records that’s been done there is
insane. As long as your arm. It’s one of those warm,
natural-sounding rooms. Nirvana did their big record there,
Nevermind. Whitesake, a whole bunch of bands. Fleetwood Mac. And
on and on.
Lee: Quite
a history.
George: We
did it all in four days. The basic tracks. Some of the more
jammy stuff was done kinda live, like I can’t remember which
song: “Let The Music Be Your Master” and what's the other one?
The one with the extended solo in there. The fourth track in...
Lee: “Time
Keepers?”
George:
“Time Keepers.” Right.
Lee: That
is my favorite track on the whole album, especially with the
extended guitar solo.
George.
That was all done there live, except for a few minor punch-ins.
Lee: Given
that it took four days to record, I expect everything was
written before you arrived at the studio, right?
George: Of
course. We still did the overdubs and vocals. That took longer.
But the bass, drums and rhythm guitars and some of the solos —
we knocked out the bulk of the record in Sound City and then we
moved to a different studio.
Lee: What
was your reaction on finally hearing the finished master of
Smoke and Mirrors. Did a big smile spread across your face,
like “Yeah, we hit it!”
George:
Well, you can always do better. On a few things on the record, I
wish I’d spent more time on. There are a couple of tracks that I
really wish had been on the record. I felt it was important to
be on the record and other people didn’t. And there’s also a
song we kinda had on the table that we couldn’t quite finish up
that I thought would have finished up the record nicely. We
dropped off one or two other songs that were really aggressive
and in your face but we just couldn't get together in time. We
were just working so fast and with limited funds and limited
time.
Lee: Might
those appear on the future release?
George: Or
on the next record. They ain’t going anywhere.
Lee: You’ve
probably heard this a million times, but I just want to get the
true story for myself. It is true that you lured Oni away from
Mark Ferrari's [former Keel guitarist] band by asking if he'd
rather drive a Ferrari than play in a band named Ferrari?
George: I
said would you rather be in a band called Ferrari or drive one?
(laughs) But he joined the band and ended up driving a used
Corvair, which he ended up dumping in the desert, by the way.
Lee: Any
Ferraris in the Lynch driveway these days?
George:
Fuck no, I wouldn’t drive that shit if I had the money. Waste of
money.
Lee: You
seem to be handling your own affairs these days, really taking a
hands-on approach. Literally driving your own course, for
example, instead of the big tour buses of the ‘80s, for example.
Do you prefer that DIY approach?
George:
It’s all a matter of necessity. I mean, if you're out on a
bigger situation, you need to have everything sort of
logistically planned out on a day sheet and with a crew. At this
level, it’s much easier to actually deal with people directly.
We don’t have the resources to do it the other way anyway.
Lee: Yeah,
you've got so many balls in the air...
George:
Excuse me?
Lee: Well,
I mean...
George:
You've heard the rumors then?
Lee:
They’re only rumors?
George:
Yeah, the three testicles? Yeah, three.
Lee: I
thought it was five.
George:
Three is normal, right? (laughs) The other day in gym class, I
realized three wasn’t normal.
Lee:
Speaking of your physique, have you scaled back on the
weightlifting these days?
George:
Yes, I have.
Lee: You’re
still built, but not as ripped as you were a few years ago.
George:
Yeah, that was a little ridiculous. I don't know what I was
thinking.
Lee: Did it
ever affect your fluidity as a guitarist?
George:
Yeah, it did. It made it worse. Cramps. It wasn't a good thing.
Lee: So
what's happening at the dojo. How many students are you up to
now?
George:
About 400.
Lee: Is
that more than you expected, or less?
George: You
never know. We hoped we'd get to 1,000. You can wish for
anything, I guess.
Lee: I
remember the NEH instructional videos and Metal Method in the
‘80s. How has guitar instruction changed since then?
George:
Obviously, the tablature has improved dramatically and you have
a sonic fretboard you can follow along. Follow the bouncing
ball. It’s incredible, you know? All the shit at the bottom of
the screen in real time. We never had that before. Things used
to be incorrect. I remember I would need to re-learn a song or
something and I’d go to a tablature book and it would be
completely wrong.
Lee: Do you
think that improved technology has made better guitar players?
George:
Obviously. I mean look out there. These guys are starting at a
whole other level. In my day, it was just learn a bunch of
pentatonic blues licks and go from there. These days, it's
starting with Paganini fugues.
Lee: In
your heyday — around the time of Sacred Groove and
Back For The Attack — you were still striving to up your
game. I even remember you taking private classical lessons at
Arizona State University.
George: No,
actually from a teacher at ASU, but not at ASU. I took lessons
for a while, but I found it was kind of embarrassing because I’d
be in classes and everybody would be trying not to notice the
elephant-in-the-room kind of thing. I’m very stupid with theory
and people were always looking over at me and I wouldn't be
getting shit that was, like, super simple. People would want my
autograph so I couldn’t really learn anything. But then I took
private lessons from this guys I looked up in the Yellow Pages.
He was a ASU teacher and taught me a lot.
Lee: I used
to read interviews where you said you thought you were more
self-taught rather than some who knew a lot of theory. But it
sounded like you knew a lot of theory. There was a lot of
sweeping going on.
George:
When I tell people I’m good at sweeping, I mean the floor.
Lee: Yeah,
sweeping up the dojo.
George: I’m
the owner and the janitor.
(distracted
by traffic)
George:
We’re going to be getting off here, so if we're almost done...
Lee: Sure.
Before you have to go, I heard rumors about the original Dokken
lineup reuniting and touring. Any truth to that?
George:
That has always been something we’ve been working towards.
There’s always obstacles. It's always on the table.
Lee: Have
there been any actual meetings about it?
George:
Yes. It’s been on the table, off the table forever.
Lee: Also,
I'd heard about Lynch Mob actually doing a tour with the
original Dokken lineup. Is that true?
George: It
looks like it might happen. No, hey, we shouldn’t even be
talking about that because none of that’s for real yet. Until
it’s for real...
Lee: I hear
ya.
George:
Look, I got a cop looking at me. I’m not supposed to be talking
on my phone. I’m looking at all these immigration cops and I
don't want to get a ticket.
Lee: I
understand. Thanks for the time, George. I think I can speak for
your fans in saying we can’t wait to see Lynch Mob again.
George:
Cool.
www.georgelynch.com
www.soulsofwe.com
www.frontiers.it
