Interview with Feature Musician
Guitarist Tony Smotherman
Middleburg, FL USA

tonysmotherman@aol.com
www.tonysmotherman.com

 

Guitarist Tony Smotherman has joined iD Magazine for a much anticipated interview.  Come meet Tony. 

iD Magazine (iD):  Tell me a little bit about your background.  Where are you from?
Tony Smotherman (TS):  Well, I am of Armenian descent, but I was born in Athens, Greece and moved shortly after to Jacksonville, Florida.

iD:  Why the guitar, why not the oboe or some other cool instrument?  Do you prefer acoustic or electric guitar?  How long have you played and how many other instruments have you played?
TS:  The guitar to me is the most expressive instrument on the planet.  There is so much that can be done with it, there are infinite possibilities.  I love both acoustic and electric, both of them have there own beauty.  I write lots of acoustic material as well as electric.  In the last few years more than ever, I have really wanted to explore as many different instruments as possible and apply those ideas to guitar.  When you play, for example, a sitar, the strings don't easily glide over the frets as with a guitar.  So you have to change your technique of bending notes, of holding notes, of doing pull-offs and hammer-ons.  When you go back to the guitar, it’s really cool hearing how you can mimic those other instruments.

iD: Was there something in particular that made you choose music as a career?
TS:  Since the first time I felt the warm feeling of actually playing something, I knew it was something I wanted to do.  It started there and grew.

iD:  How did you pursue music and about how old were you then?
TS:  I guess I was about 14 when I saw a picture of Andres Segovia in a guitar magazine and there was just something so cool about that picture (!!!) that I asked my mother if I could have classical guitar lessons.  She arranged them and found a teacher for me.

 
iD:  What musicians do you think have influenced you the most and how? 
TS:  Jimmi Hendrix was a big influence along with Ravi Shankar, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Shawn Lane.  They all had a big impact on my life.  J.S. Bach was probably my biggest influence.

iD:  How did you learn to play and what formal music training have you gained?
TS:  Lots of my learning after classical guitar was done on my own, sitting in my room exploring the instrument by myself.  Once I started gigging my playing really improved in a musical way.  I looked at music so different after that point!  I studied with a classical teacher and then with some random guys here and there that were really great players.  My biggest teacher ended up being me in the long run, from trail and error.

iD:  What was the best piece of advice you’ve ever received about music?  What is the best advice that you can give young and upcoming guitarists?
TS:  The best advice I’ve ever heard is to just use your ears and listen to what you're doing, so many great players are not formally trained, however, have a command over there instrument that is so inspiring.  My best advice is live, eat, and breathe music.  If it’s inside, all that will happen naturally.  Listen to lots of music from all over the world.  That will certainly open your mind!

iD:  When did you start playing with Brain Station?  What kind of music do you play and which is your favorite?  Please tell us all about your experiences with the band.
TS:  I began working with a drummer named Bruce Royal who's played with many national acts and had extensively toured the US and Japan.  Bruce is by far "THE" most incredible drummer that I've ever heard.  We just connect so well as friends and musically we are into the exact things.  I was working with Yngwie Malmsteens bassist for awhile, Barry Dunaway, and that was a real pleasure.  However, he was traveling so much that it was impossible to get in enough rehearsals over a period of time to get this record recorded and I had to get it done soon.  We were long overdue.  Bruce called a friend of his who played bass.  We rehearsed six times and recorded.  It was a hard working process.  I'm very critical and hard on myself, and I expect no less out of the guys I'm working with.

Our first cd "Embracing the Spirit" was written as a concept album, in that there was a whole story behind it.  The idea was for the listener to pop it into the cd player when they had time to sit and listen to it all the way through, and to not skip from track 1 to 6 and then 4 and so on.  It was made for listeners to sit in a relaxing atmosphere and listen to the cd front to back nonstop.  My idea was to bring the listener on an emotional roller coaster ride.  The album is quite relaxed sometimes, and sometimes kind of intense, but it was done in a way that by the end of the recording (I am told) there is a sense of serenity and calmness.  There are elements of everything from world music to classical music to blues.  I play a sitar on there also.  It's available at www.guitar9.com, www.cdbaby.com, www.towerrecords.com, www.chopsfromhell.com, and at my Web site (www.tonysmotherman.com).

iD:  What projects are you currently working on?  We know that you have a couple of cds for purchase...please tell us about those.  Can viewers listen to your mp3s?
TS:  I’m preparing to do an acoustic cd of all original ambient music.  All the music is in an alternate tuning, a tuning not standard to what most players use.  The strings are tuned in order DADGAD and DADF#AD rather than the standard EADGBE.  This alternate tuning allows me tonalities otherwise impossible in standard tuning.  I have two cds now available “Embracing the Spirit” and “Lost in Time,” with both being available at www.tonysmotherman.com.  Sound clips can be heard there as well as the other mentioned places on the Net.

iD:  Have you played with any other bands and have you received any awards or other big honors?  
TS:  Well, I’ve been fortunate enough to have played with lots of well known musicians.  I was mentioned in a Japanese Guitar Magazine stating that I was one of the Top 10 Indie virtuosos you must know.  I consider this to be a major honor.

iD:  Where do you see yourself in 10 years…in 20?  
TS:  Still sharing music, making people happy through music, and trying to make the world a better place through music.  If I can do these three things, I will feel that I’m contributing to the overall picture and this is what I’m here for!

iD:  Where have you had airplay and what’s your largest market?  
TS:  I’ve had airplay in Australia, France, Finland, and Italy.  The largest market for my products, such as cds and instructional material, hands down has been in Japan.  They love anything different.  That’s why I think my cds have been successful there as an Indie release.

iD:  What is music to you?  
TS:  Music is life.  It’s to me the air we breathe, the sky we look at.  It has no boundaries and we as humans could not live without it, no matter what anyone says.  It’s absolutely impossible to live well without music!  Life would be totally miserable.

iD:  You are a great story with continuing possibilities.  When did you begin pursuing electric guitar?  
TS:  I began after about 3 years of classical guitar.

iD:  Tony, on your Web site, we noticed that you have some endorsements. 
TS:  Yes…Line6, Dr Strings, EMG Pickups, and Peavey

iD:  You now have a guitar instructional video.  How did this come about?  
TS:  There is a company on the Internet called "Chops From Hell" (www.chopsfromhell.com) that has a list of about 12 technically brilliant players who have CD-Rom, DVD, and VHS videos you can order.  Chris at Chops From Hell asked me if I would be interested in joining.  I thought it would be a good move since I've been asked so many times by guitar fans if I would ever do one.  Here was a way to have it available not only in the US, but in Asia and Europe also!  I cover lots of different subjects on there, from the scales I use to my favorite licks and chop building techniques. 

iD:  We have noticed in your music a Middle Eastern influence.   Please tell us about this.  
TS:  Well, I have always loved Eastern music and I'm a big fan of Ravi Shankar.  I guess it was about two years after I started playing electric guitar when an Eastern influence started showing up in my playing.  I listened to lots of Ravi Shankar and Indian sarodist Ali Akbhar Khan at night while sleeping, so a lot of it was subliminal, I think.  Now its all over the place in my playing.  I have a guest on my next cd from India, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, who plays an instrument he created called a mohan veena.  This is an acoustic guitar fit with drone strings and sympathetic strings just like a sitar that he plays on his lap with a slide.  He does everything from traditional Indian music to blues to avante garde stuff.

Bhatt did an album with Ry Cooder called "A Meeting by the River" and he's quite famous in the Far East and even now in the US he seems to be inspiring a lot of slide players.  For electric guitar these days, Shawn Lane (who recently passed away) Mattias IA Ecklund, Ron Thal, and a good friend of mine Rusty Cooley are doing some amazing things on the instrument.

iD:  Jacksonville, FL USA has a history of producing fine guitar players and bands.  Have you been well received by the older generations?  
TS: Yes, I haven’t really had any problems.  Most of the veteran players really dig what I’m doing.  If they get it, they get it…if they don’t, they don’t.

iD:  Lots of musicians have big egos.  Sometimes the crowd response is amazing.  People maybe have approached you and said to you things like “You are the best guitarist in the world.”  How do you react to those things?  
TS:  Well, it's so endearing to hear those kinds of things and although I'm always conscious of it, it's very important to realize why we're here -- and that's to share music.  If you forget that, or think you've learned all there is to learn, then you’re done.  You might as well not even play.  You won't grow with that kind of mentality…spiritually or musically.

iD:  What is the future of Tony Smotherman?  
TS:  I’m not sure if anyone actually knows where their future lies, but I do believe that If we keep our minds into positive thoughts, reach for our dreams, and be kind to others, great things will happen no matter what you do in life.

iD:  Tony, thanks so much for this peek into your life and music.  You certainly seem to eat, sleep, live, and breathe music!  Good luck to you in the future, and chances are that we’ll see you at some local sushi restaurant sometime.  
TS: Thanks Mark, all my pleasure.  Thanks for making me a part of iD Magazine.

www.tonysmotherman.com