Interview: Joe Stump

Joe Stump: With my newest record I recorded all of the guitars at home. I have a very modest recording setup but it works out fine as far as tracking stuff goes and I get killer guitar tones as well. The best thing about tracking at home is that when I was feeling inspired and into it I'd track and play for hours and if it wasn't happening and I wasn't feeling it I just come back the next day. So working like that I'm able to capture some killer stuff.

Joe Stump: Nah, I just try and come up with something that sounds bad-ass and cool. Playing all that intense technical shred stuff is much easier than coming up with the proper album title after so many solo records. If I was going to retaliate it'd be against some of those ignorant internet morons and wannabe players that like to talk shit about me. So on my new record I decided to step up my game a few more notches as to silence any nonbelievers.

Joe Stump: I'm very dedicated to my craft and always trying in improve in all aspects of my playing and composing. It seems like the older I get the faster, more controlled and intense my playing becomes. I'm quite fortunate in that I get to do quite a bit of live playing and touring and in my opinion there's nothing better for your playing. No, definitely no signs of letting up at this point, although I would like to do a bluesy/retro hard rock record sometime in the future. I've had those types of tunes on my various records but this would be a full record in that direction. A cool idea for down the road a bit.

Joe Stump: Good question I'd say "Man Your Battlestations", that one's an intense balls out high speed neo-classical shred bit with some sick over the top playing. "Pistoleros" would be another, that's one of my favorite tunes on the new record as it's a great combination of cool riffs, strong melodies mixed with killer playing and it also rocks. Blackmore's one of my all time heroes, he had that balls and attitude in his playing and I try to channel that with my stuff. Many technical players play well, nice and tidy and everything but they just don't rock, stuff sounds like a fancy guitar exercise. A few others would be "In The Master's House", which is a really nice melodic ballad and showcases the emotional side of my playing really well. Or "Shredlord's Sonata" as far as extreme classically influenced playing goes.

Joe Stump: I've always been a Strat and Marshall enthusiast and that certainly hasn't changed. For my new record I used several of my ESP custom shop Strats as well as 2008 Fender Yngwie Malmsteen model. My main amp was a 1971 Marshall 50 watt Mark 2 that used to belong to Yngwie Malmsteen. Great sounding head, plus it's got the Malmsteen mojo so that's cool as well, Effectwise, I drive the front end of my Marshalls with either an old grey DOD 250 overdrive, DOD YJM 308 overdrive or a BSM RPA major treble booster. Bernd Meiser at BSM is a big Blackmore fanatic (like myself) and he makes these great boutique pedals based off the various eras of Ritchie's tone, needless to say I have all of them but my favorite is the RPA major.

Joe Stump: I've been on the guitar faculty at Berklee coming up on 20 years now. I'm the metal/shred guitar expert there. I have a huge roster of private students and I also teach an advanced metal master class as well. It's a great gig as I only work three days a week and I can always rearrange my schedule when I've got live dates and touring.

Joe Stump: I have a bunch of instructional DVDs out, seven of them in total, I believe. They're released thru a U.K.-based company called the Shred Academy. "Shred Guitar 101" is my newest one and this one is more geared toward lower- to medium-level players trying to develop their technique. I cover a variety of topics on it (3 note per string scales and chop building patterns/solo ideas with them, open string stuff, scale pattern stuff).

I do give private lessons, mostly at Berklee, but I do have some private students outside of Berklee as well. I wouldn't want to be so busy giving lessons that I wouldn't be able to devote the proper amount of time to my own playing and composing. I'm also working on an instructional book for Berklee Press that'll be released next year sometime.

Joe Stump: I'm sure there will be a day when CDs are a thing of the past. I ask many of my students at Berklee and believe it or not many of them will still buy CDs while others just purchase music via download or use sources like Spotify to listen to stuff. I don't think it'll effect my approach in the immediate future but it is cool that in between records I could always release a track or two digitally.

Joe Stump: I still sell CDs at shows and many fans still buy them, not nearly as much as in the past but it still serves as a nice little chunk of extra money.

Joe Stump: No, they still market my stuff the old school way. Of course, the product is all digital and the EPK that goes with it. Also, while some stuff still shows up in print magazines, most reviews and interviews are all on line for everyone these days.

Joe Stump: Nobody told me, guess I'm a bit slow on the Myspace to Facebook transition. Just kidding of course - that's just an old link on my .com site. I'll have tell my web guy to step things up.

Joe Stump: That'd be a lot of fun however both Yngwie and myself might need some of those fingerless gloves as it gets pretty cold in New York in January. I might have an edge in that department as I'm from New York and currently live in Boston so I'm used to the colder weather, where Yngwie has lived in Miami for quite awhile now. But seriously, Yngwie's truely a guitar legend and it's no big secret that along with Blackmore he's one of my all time heroes and biggest influences. I'd be a great experience to hang and play with him. For me that'd be really exciting as to this day I still find his playing very inspiring. That said both of us are really on top of our game playing-wise these days so there'd be plenty of notes flying around.

Joe Stump: I'll be finishing and releasing my instructional book for Berklee Press and playing a bunch more live shows/clincs in support of "Revenge Of The Shredlord". I'm also playing in two power metal bands - HolyHell and Raven Lord - so perhaps some European touring with either of those. Also, my next record will be a Joe Stump's Reign Of Terror record, mostly vocal tunes with a few instrumentals mixed in. So I'll get to putting that together after I finish the book project. So I'm sure I'll be keeping busy next year.