Paul Gilbert along with guitar player Tony Spinner, bass player Craig Martini and drummer Jeff Bowders will be playing two extraordinary concerts in Romania. Professor Gilbert’s concerts offer special options: a guitar class, VIP seats, autographs, t-shirts, CDs and many other surprises. The concerts will be followed by parties in Oldies Pub in Sibiu and Fire Club in Bucharest.
Paul Gilbert’s 25-year career is made of 13 solo discs, 5 studio albums with Racer X and 6 albums with Mr. Big. Gilbert still teaches guitar lessons; he is a dean of honor at the Guitar Institute of Technology, he is promoting his latest solo album, Fuzz Universe, and is now recording a new album with Mr. Big.
Fuzz Universe contains tracks ranging from hard rock to funk, classical music and blues. “While I was writing the songs for 'Fuzz Universe', I was immersing myself in Bulgarian female choir music, baroque lute and violin pieces, Johnny Cash songs about trains, cows, mules, and mining coal, the Beegees, and Ronnie James Dio. I mix all this into my head, and out came endless new ideas for my guitar to chew on. After several months of being locked in my writing room, I gathered my touring band together and headed to the studio. Jeff Bowders played drums. Craig Martini played bass. Emi Gilbert (my wife) played keyboards. And I bent the guitar strings until I couldn't play anymore. “
Gilbert is not only a guitar artist, he is also a teacher, and his guitar lessons are of great success. Gilbert says: “Teaching guitar is a continuous source of inspiration. I think I get more from these lessons than my students do. He also advises hs students to listen to music: “My practice routine is mostly just learning songs. I try to learn songs like a starving man at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Every song I like, I just cram into my head. For example, Bach piano, violin, and cello pieces, are great for learning how to apply scales and arpeggios in a very musical way. 60’s and 70’s pop is great for learning chords and gaining an intuition for good melody writing. Blues is great for developing vibrato and developing a sense of “speaking” through your guitar. Blues is great for developing vibrato and developing a sense of “speaking” through your guitar.”
Gilbert admits that this album has been inspired by the G3 experience, when the audience came to listen some of the world’s greatest guitar players: “I was truly surprised by the audiences at G3. Every night we’d go onstage in a different city and there would be more guitar fans than I ever imagined possible. And they loved it when we played lots of solos. It really opened my eyes to the culture of guitar. I grew up listening to music where guitar always shared the spotlight with the vocalist, the song, and band. G3 showed me that that mixture doesn’t have to be exact.”
He discovered his passion for guitar when he was 5 years old, after his parents gave him a toy amp and guitar. By the age of 15 he already had his first band, Tau Zero, and the ambition to play with Ozzy Osbourne, his age being the only reason for which he was refused.
Paul Gilbert pleasantly remembers his first band and the moments that turned him into a musician: In high school I used to play the guitar all the time. I did my homework during lunch; afterward the bass player would come and pick me up in his big blue Buick. On our way to the rehearsals we would listen to Saxon, Van Halen, Rush, and AC/DC, and we would play track from UFO, Rush, Van Halen, Triumph, The Who and many more. I can’t remember them all, but back in those times I knew a lot of songs. After rehearsal I’d come back home, eat dinner with my parents and ran up to my room where I would play the guitar for hours. I would have liked to have a girlfriend during high school, but I didn’t have the slightest idea how to do that.”
In 1984 Paul takes a leap of faith and leaves home for Los Angeles to continue his musical studies at the Guitar Institute of Technology. After a year he becomes a teacher from just a student, and to this day he still teaches at the Institute.
His first album is launched with the Black Sheep band, but after a short while he forms his own group, Racer X together with a college friend. Their debut disc, Street Lethal, is of great success, and Racer X quickly becomes one of the highly appreciated bands in the concert aria of Los Angeles. Gilbert draws attention towards his style with tracks like Scit Scat Wah, Scarified, Frenzy and Y.R.O, and the young guitar player is compared with Yngwie Malmsteen due to his fast and technical style. Soon he becomes one of the world’s most appreciated guitarists, so in 1986 he signs a deal with Ibanez, contract valid to this day, when the guitar maker launched a Gilbert signature series: “It’s like a dream come true, having a guitar with my name on it. It’s incredible even now, after all this time.”
For Racer X’s second album Paul Gilbert invites one of his students, Bruce Bouillet to join the band. Their dynamic style, filled with extremely fast guitar skills, becomes emblematic and changes the band’s sound. In 1988 they release Second Heat, Racer X’s second album, with their own tracks and covers after David Bowie and Judas Priest, a big influence in the band’s sound. Gilbert and Martin, the drum player, leave the band due to the lack of interest from the record labels and the beginning of the 90s is Racer X’s end.
Paul’s career continues in a new project, Mr. Big. Billy Sheehan formed the group, ex bass player of David Lee Roth. Along with Gilbert singer Eric Martin and drum player Pat Torpey join Billy, and in 1989 Mr. Big releases its debut album. The band wins over the American market in 1991 with their album Lean Into It. Their hit single To be with You tops in the Billboard Chart and stays first for several weeks in more than 15 countries. Besides their American success, Mr. Big enjoys a huge appreciation in Japan and start recording for the Asian market.
After the release of Live in Budokan, a disc recorded in Japan, Gilbert leaves the band due to misunderstandings between the members: “There were issues. I think part of the problem was, back then, we didn't know what buttons to push on one another. We were in it for our own glory and not the good of the band. Also, we were blown away by our success in really crazy ways - we were trying really hard to be rock stars. We acted like rock stars and not musicians. On top of that, we never gave ourselves a break. We kept touring, kept making records - we wanted to keep striking while the iron was hot. Consequently, it ruined our relationship as people. We became a machine.”
Paul goes on with his career ad in 1998 launches his first solo album, King of Clubs, and a year later he reunites Racer X members for a new disc, Technical Difficulties. From this moment on, Paul’s career is entangled with that of the bands he was part of. After his first solo album, he releases in 1999 Flying Dog, followed by Alligator Farm and in 2000 a new Racer X material, Superheroes. Tirelessly, Paul launches album after album: Raw Blues Power with Jimi Kidd, Burning Organ, a solo disc, and finally Getting Heavier with Racer X in 2002, the band’s last album.
In 2006 releases his first instrumental album, Get Out Of My Yard succeeded by Silence Followed by a Deafening Roar, considered one of Gilbert’s best discs. After his collaboration with Freddie Nelson in 2009 for United States, he enters the studio and records Fuzz Universe.
During this whole time Gilbert is part of several projects, the best-known one being G3, a series of concerts by Joe Satriani where some of the world’s best guitarists are invited. Paul joins Satriani on the stage in 2001,2002 and 2007. In one of these concerts he comes up on the stage dressed in a kilt and along with other band members starts dancing on Glasgow Kiss. Gilbert is also known for playing the guitar with the power drill.
Gilbert has a great sense of humor and is full of optimism, and keeps a lighthearted attitude by making jokes about the headphones that he wears on stage. Due to all the loud shows he has played over the years, he has suffered some hearing loss; however he doesn’t consider himself affected by it, but those around who need to speak louder around him.
When he is not releasing albums or kilt dancing, Gilbert plays in tribute bands for the groups that influenced him over the years: Yellow Matter Custard for the Beatles, Hammer of Gods for Led Zeppelin or Cygnus and the Sea Monsters for Rush, In 2006 he played in a The Who tribute band with Mike Portnoy of Dream Theatre and Billy, his former Mr. Big colleague, and at the of the shows they would smash their equipment:“We were playing the who and that’s what they used to do. I hadn’t thrashed a guitar until then; I found out there was even a technique for it and by the third show I was already getting good at it.”
Paul Gilbert plays two concerts in Romania, on the 3rd of December in Oldies Pub in Sibiu starting with 22:00 and in Bucharest at the Silver Church Club, starting with 20:00. Details about the VIP package and Paul Gilbert’s workshop are available on the artist’s website.
The after party in Bucharest starts after 22:00. No entrance fee. Music provided by Mr. DJ Silvius of Radio Lynx.
Tickets cost 70 lei till the end of November and 90 between the 1st and 4th of December, and are available in Germanos stores, Carturesti bookstores, and online at shop.artmania.ro, eventim.ro and myticket.ro. For the Sibiu concert tickets cost 50 lei and are available at Oldies Pub.
47 seated tickets are available for 130 lei for the Silver Church concert.
November 30, 2010
