About John Walker
Greetings from Jurassic Park!
- Born: June 8, 1964, in Rockledge, FL
- Favorite Dinosaur: Velociraptor, because they're smarter
than the opposition and also mean as hell.
- Started playing: Age 12.
- First Guitar and Amp: 1976 Gibson Marauder, Randall
combo
- Favorite Band: KISS
- Favorite Guitarist: Gary Moore
- Currently listening to: A lot of stuff recorded before
1990. I try to stay as far away from the radio as possible,
because everything they play pretty much sucks.
The story:
I started playing in 1976, after seeing KISS on the Paul Lynde Halloween
Special. I did time in the usual assortment of high school and cover bands
getting my shit together through high school and college, and ended up in
Dallas working for a large defense contractor in the latter part of the
80's.
I started writing my own stuff my last year in college. When I moved to
Dallas, I started a band to work on the music that I was writing and try to
capture the sound I was hearing. I've always been into really heavy riffs with
a melody - the benchmark that I used for my early songs was Sabbath's "Heaven
and Hell", which is just an outstanding record, and I wanted to have that same
impact. Well, the band I started didn't see it that way, and they fired me!
Bastards. So I replaced them with a Tascam Porta 05, a cheap Charvel Model 1
bass, and an Alesis HR-16 drum machine, and spent a year or so doing nothing
but writing and demoing tunes. The original thought was that I would be the
singer as well, but once I tried it I quickly learned two things:
- I can't write lyrics.
- I can't sing.
So I started looking around auditioning singers and eventually ended up
working with Paula Blade in what became the band Lochinvar. The usual rounds of
demos/showcases/etc. followed, but things didn't work out, I got burned out,
and I decided to take a break in the early 90's to focus on other things. I got
married, went back to school, got my MBA, and tried to put the guitar down. But
it wasn't to be. Some assholes in Europe had to get a hold of the old Lochinvar
demos, and convince us to put them out and put the band back together. And
then, I got laid off, which turned me from a mild-mannered lover of acoustic
music and blues back into hater of all that sucks and champion of loud amps
once again. And so here we are, full circle, with a whole new stack of original
stuff and a whole new stack of people saying "I don't get it."
Stuff I like:
The bands and players that I really like are primarily from Europe and
the UK: Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, John Sykes, Gary Moore, John
Norum. And I like some of the prog stuff, like Rush, and King's X. Most of the
American bands seem to lack something compared to their European counterparts -
they're too concerned with how cute they are and not concerned enough about
mowing down everything in front of them! The only American guitarist who had a
huge influence on me, besides Ace Frehley, is George Lynch. Unfortunately for
George, he was stuck in a band with a singer who was entirely too focused on
how cool he was, which diluted his extreme heaviness.
I like to hear a lot of melody, not only in the obvious places - leads
and vocals - but also in the not so obvious places - the rhythm guitars and
other supporting pieces. This part of songwriting and arranging often gets
neglected. There are a couple of rules I try to follow when I write a song
which have never failed me. If a tune is happening before it has vocals or any
kind of melody on it, it's a keeper. And, a good song will work with just an
acoustic guitar and vocals, and still kick ass.
Dinosaur thinking, revisited: Melody, Attitude, Emotion, and
Chops
Unlike David B., I'm not a real analytical player - I tend to rely more
on intuition and feel, and I rarely play the same thing twice. But,
interestingly enough, we end up in the exact same place. These four elements
sum up what separates a great song and great players from guys like CC DeVille.
The main objective of music is to communicate an idea or emotion to the people
listening, and if you ain't doing that, you might as well give up and flip
burgers. It's not all about having extreme chops - as Steve Vai proves over and
over again. To be great, you need to address all four areas. It's called
being a musician, vs. a technician. You don't necessarily need killer technique
to succeed in communicating an idea.
About theory, and lessons: I'd advise that you spend some time learning
basic theory, how to read music, and how to play what you hear, and there's no
better way than to find a good instructor and take some lessons. I did for the
first couple of years, and it made a huge difference later on when I
started writing and doing music seriously. It helps you relate to other
instruments, explain concepts and ideas, pick up other instruments if you need
to - in short, it's worth any amount of time you care to invest in it. Learning
music will not cause you to suck or hurt your ability to jam in any way.
Besides, if you don't know the rules, how can you break them?
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