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**Photos used by permission of Gus G**
| **Photos by revolver.se** |
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THE METAL PIT: Hi Gus thanks for answering some questions for THE METAL PIT. We know
you have been busy touring and meeting fans all over the globe ! I'm
sure its been very memorable!
GUS G: Thanx! Yes, I've been touring non stop since last year and it's been
fantastic!
Congrats are in order to you on winning "The Best Shredder" Award at UK
Metal Hammer's Golden Gods 2011! How does it feel to win that award?
Thank you. It's a big honor of course to receive such an award from a
legendary magazine and it feels great! To me it doesn't mean that I'm
better than someone else, but it means that I've been doing something
right all these years and the fans rewarded me for this by voting for me.
So, much respect and thanx to all the fans!
Also a big congrats on joining OZZY . What a tremendous opportunity and
honor. You are following in the footsteps of some legendary
guitar
players .How does it feel to work with THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS, the
legend Ozzy himself ?
Joining Ozzy's band changed my life completely for the better. I'm
grateful I have the chance to do what I love at the maximum level
possible. it's what I call a "once in 10 lifetimes opportunity"!!
As many proclaimed and legendary musicians have said ;"touring isnt easy
and its alot of hard work !" Have you learned anything by touring the
world with OZZY and his band ?
Working and touring with Ozzy has made me a much better player. It made me
want to reach another level as a musician and every show is a new
experience for me.
How long is the current tour with OZZY ? When is the next OZZY tour ?
The tour just finished and we did about 100 shows over a period of 14
months.
Regarding FIREWIND I know the tour starts in September and you have now
announced your US DATES . Can you tell us what
to expect from a live MELODIC POWER METAL FIREWIND SHOW ?
Well, it'd out first headline tour in the US and we'll make sure the
setlist has material from all our albums and we'll try and squeeze in a
couple of surprises, maybe songs we've never done live before.
Going back to the early years of Gus G. Were their any family members
influence you growing up into the world of music?
My father sings. Not rock n roll though, he sings in Greek weddings and
stuff like that haha! but he always played records at home and he was the
one who exposed me to Peter Frampton, The Eagles, Pink Floyd and Santana.
I loved the sound of guitar form a very young age.
Do you remember your very first LIVE gig onstage with an electric guitar? How old were you ?
Yes I do. I was 14 and I played at some school party with my first band.
We sucked haha!
What is the song writing process of FIREWIND ? Is it a combined effort
with the lyrics and music?
Usually I'll come up with the main song ideas and Bob will help me do the
demos and add his own stuff to it later. Then Apollo does the lyrics and
vocals. After we complete the demos, we rehearse all songs as a band in a
studio and make the neccessary changes before we start recording the
actual album.
Can you tell us a little more on the bands that are open up for on the
FIREWIND in the North American tour?
Sure. Opening act will be NIGHTRAGE, a band I really love. It's actually a
band I was in back from 2000-2005 and I'm very happy they'll be with us.
Their lead guitarist Marios is a phenomenal player and make sure you come
down early to check these guys out, they're the best melodic death metal
band out there! Then we got WHITE WIZZARD whom I don't know much about,
other than they are a NWOBHM type of band, which is cool. The special
guest is ARSIS who is a great technical death metal band and their
frontman is a killer player too. His name is James Malone and we went to
Berklee together back in 1997. We even had a band together back then. I
think this ia one of the most diverse packages you'll get, but all bands
got killer guitar players!! That's why we call it the "Frets of Fury"!
I know you recently released some instructional videos .Can you tell us
where we can find your instruction DVD's ?
from my official merch store www.indiemerchstore.com/gusgofficial
Your endorsed by some of the biggest names in the music industry. For
example names like ESP Guitars .You even have your own line with them. Any new endorsements on the horizon?
I'm blessed to have been working with some amazing companies who provide
the instruments and gear! I recently started playing LAG acoustic guitars.
They're from France and they're top notch instruments. I'm not much of an
acoustic player, but you'll be hearing these on my next recordings for
sure!
Regarding your set up onstage can you tell us a little more about that
setup (pedals etc )?
I don't use much stuff on stage. In fact, I only use 3 pedals. I have a
BBE Green Screamer Overdrive to boost my leads, a Morley Wah pedal and a
Providence chorus pedal. That's it.
Down the road would you ever consider doing a solo CD in the future ?
This is something I've been thinking more and more about. I wasn't
interested in a solo effort before, but I might be going down that road
sometime soon. Being in a band like Firewind is great, but of course
trying to combine 5 people's schedules, opinions and needs 24/7 for many
years in a row, can become tiring sometimes. I love the guys like family
of course, but I'd definitely fancy a solo project when the time is right.
As you are aware one of the biggest Progressive Power Metal Festivals in
the USA is ProgPower ( in Atlanta Georgia ) . can we expect FIREWIND to
be on the roster of bands to play Progpower Atlanta in the future ?
We actually played there back in 2007. It was a great festival I remember.
We'd love to play again in the future.
For people reading this that don’t know anything about your band
FIREWIND can you tell them why they should check out the band?
Cause not only we're good musicians but we got the songs to back it up
too! ;-)
Will fans be able to see you at NAMM 2012 ?
Yes, I'm definitely going there next year, as I missed it in 2011. I'll be
introducing some new products as well, so I'm excited about NAMM 2012!
Thanks for taking the time for this interview . Your at the top of your
game bt theres more to be had by you! I see good things for you in the
future . At only 30 year of age you are at the pinnacle ! Good luck to
you and the bands! Any closing thoughts for THE METAL PIT readers?
Thank You All for reading this and hope to see you on tour this Fall!!
Gus.
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