George Lynch has been a household name in the guitar world, for many years. Coming onto the scene in the 80’s with the band, Dokken, he amazed the fans with his melodies and riffs. He continued his work with his own band, Lynch Mob, along with countless solo and guest artist projects. The volume of work he has created, collaborated, and performed is phenomenal. Add to that, a custom guitar company, with the guitars being works of art themselves, it’s easy to see that how creativity is so important to him.
With over 40 years playing guitar and songwriting as a professional musician, career firsts are minimal for someone as prolific as George Lynch. On August 20th, George added another highlight with the release of his first-ever full-length original instrumental album, Seamless. The album was released via Rat Pak Records and features nine brand new tracks and three bonus tracks from Lynch who is backed by drummer Jimmy D’Anda and bassist Eric Loiselle on the album. Seamless is produced by Lynch and is now available in various configurations here: www.ratpakrecords.com/GeorgeLynch. It only seems fitting that with the return to live music, we talk with one of the top guitar guys in the world.
The new album that came out, Seamless; it’s your first instrumental album?
George Lynch: Well, it’s the first instrumental record I’ve done that’s original material. I did play on an instrumental record, I would say probably 12 years ago, that was a collection of generic classical songs, that I just soloed over. But I didn’t write the songs. That’s different. I wrote all this stuff. This is my record. I did do a record, I recorded it in ‘92 I believe, that was called “Sacred Grooves”, that was partially instrumental. This, it’s the first purely instrumental record I’ve done.
The melodies that are on it are beautifully arranged. I really like how the underlying music does not smother the main parts. So how did you come about doing this type of album. I know a lot of bands I’ve talked to; they’re releasing their, what they’re calling “their COVID projects”. Is that how this came about?
I did this before COVID. I did it in two sections really. One was I wrote all the music, recorded it, then took a break for awhile. I came back to it and instrumentalized it. I played all the solos, the ear candy stuff that’s on there to make it interesting. Re-edited it, re-arranged it. You know, but that was all done, I believe, before COVID started.
Well that makes it a bit better. (chuckles)
Yeah, but I did plenty of recording during COVID as well.
IM- I was looking at the sheer amount of work that you’ve done over the years. It’s phenomenal. I mean, just looking at a discography of everything that you were lead and a guest artist, it is just phenomenal. What’s your driving force to be able to do that kind of work?
Boredom. Seriously though, I play guitar. That’s what I do. I love to write; I love to compose. My guitars, it’s like playing with toys. I’ve got this toy box here in my studio, with almost unlimited options, and they’re all just super fun to play with. Records allow me to do that. Creatively, having that outlet is very important to me. Sometimes I’m not really thinking you know, in terms of… I mean I need to think about it in terms of project, and a business, and a record deal, money, and budgets, and that’s part of it. Really, I’m thinking the motivation is just creativity. You know, I have these things I’d like to sort of realize, make real; Compositionally, solo, sounds, performances, that I’ve never achieved. I just keep chasing the dragon. I write stuff, I play stuff, and it’s maybe good…and cool. There’s always something better in my head that I keep wanting to try to manifest.
Yeah, exploring where the sound can go, kind of thing.
It’s this kind of ideal, like Plato’s cave, you know. It’s kind of this ideal thing, that’s sitting in my head. It’s always been there. It’s not one thing, it’s this amorphous thing that’s fluid and keeps changing of course, but there’s always this thing. Like, I just imagined this solo in my head. I heard that in my head, or this awesome song, this riff. Or even this beautiful, pop kind of melody or something, I don’t know. There’ll be something and I’ll never quite get it. I’ll forget it, or by the time I sit down to document it, it’ll drift away, become vague in my head and I can’t exactly remember what it was. I get frustrated with that. So that’s what I’m talking about. It’s like trying to finally nail it down and play that great solo or write that great song that I’ve never written, up to my ideal standards…that will probably never be achievable.
Everybody must have a goal.
Exactly. That’s the driving force
Do you find that your work building guitars, helps with that creative process?
Yeah, it’s another way to be creative. I was doing art pieces, messing with stuff, little sculpture things, mixed media. I’d buy these old antique shadow box frames, and canvases and started to glue shit together, painting it, putting different elements together. I just sorta had a style. Rustic, desert, partially native kind of thing. I kept doing the same thing over and over, it was coming from the same place. It’s not anything I did for a business, I just did it for myself, or gave them away. I was proud of them. I started applying that to guitar bodies. I looked at it, and was like, I could carve that up, put some barbed wire on it, put a fricken bat in the pickup, some other goofy things. Snakeskin hide, do some other rustic painting, rustic distressed painting. I started learning processes, trial and error, talking to people and stuff, and I applied that to my guitar building. It’s very cathartic, and a way to express yourself as well.
Just the guitars that I’ve seen, glancing at the homepage, they’re art to me. I’m an artist, and I used to do mixed media, so this is right up my alley.
Yeah. Art…well I’m not an art guy but I’m knowledgeable in it. I think it’s just like music; where if you have unique voice, a personal voice or personal style then, you’re not competing with anyone. It’s not good or bad, it’s just whether you like it. So, I think that’s the wonderful thing about it, it’s not a contest.
I just was just looking at them, they’re gorgeous. It seems like, in the process of creating them, you learn about how the guitar works, feeding into your creative process with music.
Yeah. I mean, maybe they serve each other, maybe they don’t. Maybe they come from the same place. I try not to think too deeply about it ’cause it probably doesn’t really matter. It’s just, it is so, I do.
I want to switch gears a little bit…in my research for this interview, and I will admit I sometimes live under a rock, I discovered the documentary, “Shadow Nation”. It really struck a chord with me. In the trailer, I saw a banner that said, “music is medicine”, which pretty much sums up how I feel about music. How do you see music as being medicine, especially regarding the documentary?
Well, it’s a universal collective thing. It’s just as necessary for our mental and even physical health, as any other basic thing in life. Water, love, social companionship and interaction, commerce, work, all the things that make human life, human life. Take the creative aspirations out of the equation and you end up with a lot of emptiness and futility. It’s hard to say how important it is to people. Scientifically I don’t know how you would do that. I just know from personal experience that, for me and I’m sure most if not everyone else, it matters in important ways. It would be like living without love. It can be healing. There were periods in my life that it was a very healing instrument. I’m a music creator, but I’m also a music appreciator. Im a fan, I love listening to it. It’s very healing. It makes life worth living. It’s kind of like, mysterious too, and that’s what I love about art. Music, guitar specifically, it’s mysterious. The process: where does it come from, where does the inspiration come from, what are the components of it. What about frequencies? The universal frequency of 432 Hertz, what’s the physics of it? The philosophical aspects of it? You can you go deep with this stuff, but at the end of the day it’s just an essential thing. Even if you don’t understand the components of it, it’s important in how it makes you feel about life. It’s mysterious and that’s important. It’s important that we don’t know everything about our existence. Because if you take the mystery out of life, as humans I think we’re designed to try and grasp the unknowable. But if there’s no unknowable left, what is there left to grasp?
That’s an awesome way of thinking about it.
Think about it in terms of the physical world too. I don’t want us to go to space and fuck it up, colonize the universe. and I I don’t want us to do that to our own Mother Earth, our planet. I’d like to know when I’m driving down some dirt road, or hiking, that there’s a place that’s unexplored, you know. Not many places left unexplored on the earth, untouched and mysterious. Music is like the wilderness of the mind. We must know that the unknowable is there. I think that’s a very reassuring thing to know.
We end with our Three for the road segment. Three random questions to help you get to know your favorite artists a bit better! If you could have a choice between driving a car, riding a bike, or riding a horse, which would you choose?
I’d ride the bike. Because I have ridden horses in Arizona, a lot. But I’m not at home on a horse like I am on a bike. I used to race mountain bikes, so bikes would be the way to go.
Would you consider yourself a morning person or a night owl?
Both. I get up early and stay up late.
No wonder you’re so productive! (Chuckles)
My wife gets up pretty early, so I get up too. Then those gears start turning at night.
Yeah, I hear you on that one! And for the last question, what was the last TV show you binged?
Oh, umm, I think it was “Ted Lasso”. The one about the coach that goes over to England to coach a soccer team.
Yeah!
I don’t know if it was the last one. I can’t remember. It was one of them. With the pandemic, serial Netflix binging, you lose track of what you watched! It’s so great, it’s really a kinda feel-good show. It’s what we all need right now.
Seamless was released on August 20, 2021. You can hear the first single, “Death by a Thousand Licks” right now, via most audio streaming sites. (I found it on my fruity named music app!) Like most of the songs on the album, the composition is fantastic. You will be amazed at the intricate detail that comes through, as all the major pieces of the songs come together in a beautiful blend. George Lynch has definitely tamed the musical wilderness in his mind.
By I’m Music Magazine Photographer/Writer Michele Hancock
Connect with George Lynch online:
George Lynch (@lynchrocks) / Twitter
(2) George Lynch Fan Page | Facebook
