Lyraka Interviews

                  An interview with Lyraka composer and lead guitarist, Andy DiGelsomina.

"Lyraka is Wagnerian Opera Metal, defined."

Who came up with the name Lyraka?

It's Jasmine's last name. The whole story, characters, website, and movie script are her creation, so the name is obvious.

Who are your top musical influences?

The two dicks: Richard Wagner (the composer) and Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist).

Name your 5 favorite albums.

Rainbow Rising

Michael Schenker Group "Assault Attack"

Deep Purple In Rock

Richard Wagner's Ring Des Nibelungen (conducted by Georg Solti)

Beethoven's opus 132 (as performed by the Borodin Quartet).

Tell us something about yourself.

My name is Andy DiGelsomina, I was born in Springfield, Ohio in the States. My family is of European descent: the paternal side immigrated to America from Naples, Italy. I have lived the great majority of my life in New England, mostly Maine but going on 10 years in Vermont. I love the snow and ice, so I guess I'm weird (laughing).

What were your earliest musical memories?

My paternal grandfather was big into the classics: Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. My father was way more into popular music and kept up with the latest Rock stuff, so a lot of my early childhood had alternating Beethoven, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, and Chicago. I became familiar with The Who (through their excellent "Quadrophenia") early on, but I'm pretty sure that was through my own interest, my dad wasn't a fan. But I would inherit the albums my dad didn't like, and the two most important of these were Deep Purple's "Burn" and "Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow". I heard "Man on the Silver Mountain" first, and that song completely fascinated me: the quasi-religious lyrics, Ronnie James Dio's vocal delivery, the Bach-y pre-chorus, everything. Once I heard the song "Burn", my interest in the whole Progressive Metal thing was deepened, resulting in  a lifetime journey. You know, it made me conscious early on of Art Music and its relation to Rock/Metal.

The negative side was, I was intimidated by the heightened musical qualities of those albums, so it was a long time before I picked up guitar.

How did you start playing guitar?

Although I've been a music lover since a really early age, I only started playing after I heard the first Black Sabbath album. I was seventeen, and about to earn my college degree in Creative Writing. Of course, I was already familiar with Black Sabbath before then: Never Say Die, Heaven and Hell, War Pigs, etc. But Iommi's playing on that first Black Sabbath album completely floored me. It had to do with the fact that a lot of his leads sounded improvised...like something I could play in a relatively short time. His lead on Warning struck the most compelling chord in me. It sounded so wild and free. He just let rip and didn't think too much about it. That had a massive impact on me. I learned that solo note for note, and pretty much the whole Ozzy and Dio era Black Sabbath repetoire. These days I can't remember half of it (laughing). I also spent a lot of time learning songs by Deep Purple, Rainbow, Ulrich Roth's Scorpions, UFO/MSG,  Manowar, Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne (Randy Rhoads and Jake E. Lee eras), Vivian Campbell-era Dio, Gary Moore, Ac/Dc, and Judas Priest.

Malmsteen?

Yngwie is an amazing player, but his style gets old after awhile. I liked Alcatrazz with Yngwie, and a few things from the early Rising Force records. For technique, I turn more toward Jason Becker and Joe Stump.

You will be releasing a 3D animation movie. How is that coming along for you?

The majority of the soundtrack has been written. Jasmine has finished the first draft of the script.

How many instruments can you play and how long have you been playing and writing?

I play the electric lead guitar and I compose/score music. I started playing in 1984,  but I put the guitar down for many years. I've played around 16 years overall.

What inspires you to do what you do?

Jasmine is my deepest and most consistent source of inspiration.

Do you write the music alone, or is it a collaborative effort?

The music is all mine.

What is the writing process like for you? Explain how you come up with ideas and music.

I'll either be listening to music, watching a movie, reading a book or spending time with Jasmine, and then I'll literally be struck with inspiration. And sometimes I will have what I call a "Michael Schenker Experience" whereas I'll be practicing and I'll come up with a really cool part.

What has been the hardest part of getting your music out there and heard?

You are probably asking that in regard to becoming more well known, like in the "rock star" sense. Well, I imagine that my refusal to participate in the "social networking" party online tends to cripple our visibility. The problem is that sites like myspace come across as very uninspiring and depressing to me: most of that site reeks of pathetic desperation. If you have music that is really killer and worthwhile, you don't have to beg people to listen to it.

So many musicians today think that getting a major label record deal is their Holy Grail, when in reality they will be robbed by that label, and pushed to write garbage that all sounds the same. Since Jasmine and I are independently releasing the music, there is no pressure to be anything less than wildly creative, which is the only musically relevant way to be. That doesn't mean there aren't some inspired releases on major labels, it's just that I feel there has been precious little creativity or originality in today's music. And I believe that's in part due to the constrictive nature of major label support. You do what they say, and keep your experiments to yourself.

When I'm writing, I take the attitude that I don't care whether the majority of people hear our music. When you create art that's meant to still be studied a hundred years from now, you have to envision a small contemporary demography. Keeping that in mind helps me to stay focused, and to follow my own lights. I am out to revolutionize guitar-driven heavy metal music composition, and I laugh at the jealous fools who think that's pretentious. It would be pretentious if I set out to write according to some other party's dubious agenda. I write with me and Jasmine's satisfaction in mind first.

See, I'm the type to take chances. For me, taking chances is the only way to write something enduring.

Who do you consider to be your peers, and what advice do you have for young players?

Hmm... I play lead guitar with an individual, idiosyncratic style, and I tend to see players with those qualities as my peers. Most players today are still stuck in the '80's "Look Ma, I can play real fast!" mindset. The circus-y, "Neo-Baroque" style is the most cliched style in guitar today. Those that play from the heart, with passion and fire, will always trump the speed obsessed clowns.

There are plenty of guitar players out there that either shun the cliches or have worked through them toward their own personal style, and they are the ones I consider my peers. I'm compelled to emphasize that there are many fantastic guitar players out there. My producer Andre Maquera is one. Quite a few greats aren't especially well known.

As far as compositional ability goes, I am without peer in my genre. That is, I am the trailblazer in guitar based heavy metal composition. The way that I apply advanced techniques like remote keys, multiple voices, motivic permutations that positively reinforce the lyric and musical themes, radical yet smoothly transitioned tempo changes, bitonality, and involved orchestration is unparalleled. I also have taken the element of dissonance far beyond the worn out "extreme metal" method of obnoxious cantankerousness.

In my work, the orchestra (including the rock instruments) becomes not "just" accompaniment. It often portrays alternating, intertwining situations and landmarks. The orchestra will also represent the inward workings of characters, and serve the story in the way the Ancient Greek choruses work in the classical tragedies. The literary and thematic ramifications of this are boundless and revolutionary in the genre of guitar-based heavy metal. In fact, it is a revolution for the entire Rock field. With our opera, Rock/Metal finally makes the full maturation from Popular Music into the profoundly Erudite.

Up until me, practically everyone in Metal has been too awed by past masters. The guitarists who call themselves "neo-Classicists" were quick to be made afraid (by self professed "music experts") of the Great Composers and their works. The works of the masters can be unbelievable, awe-inspiring. But today is today, and what we're doing is today. I will not totally defer and toss off my work as mere "entertainment", when from all perspectives it is some of the highest Art available.

The only person I see in my genre as being particularly advanced from a composition perpective is Uli Jon Roth. His work in the past sixteen years has often been really excellent. It's inspiring to hear how he progressed so much musically from his days with Scorpions. And for me, the music Uli did with Scorpions was the best they ever did. He probably set the only real precedent before me as a Metal guitarist who became a Composer of real quality. I've listened to/endured alot of Progressive Rock and Metal, and Uli has taken it the furthest before me.

There will be a wave of the future, started by Uli and Blackmore and brought to fruition by me: that of the Heavy Metal Guitarist-Composer.

To young players: teach yourself how to really listen to music, to all the different voices in a composition. There are typically many more layers in classic Art Music (Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Mahler) than in Metal/Rock. So really expose yourself to that stuff as well as the heavy stuff. There are some fascinating things going on in real Jazz music as well, daring contrapuntal stuff. You can learn a lot of invaluable things about polyrhythms from funk, reggae, and rap. Don't blindly write off any type of music.

While you're working on building your listening skills in music, strive also to prune your listening skills when it comes to the opinions of others. You are not obligated to listen to the opinions of anyone else. You are free to take whatever is positive in any situation and make into a self-affirming experience. The smallest people try to convince you that their reality is all there is, when that's all they're really talking about, their reality. They will try to infect you with their smallness because it's the only thing that makes them feel bigger.

I urge the guitarist-composer of today to work toward being the best, the trailblazer, the Landmark in his or her genre. Don't let yourself stay overawed, and don't let anyone make you afraid. You have to make yourself what's happening.

Tell us more about the artistic side of your opera.

Well, it's actually just as much Jasmine's opera as mine. I take from her story and screenplay and set it to music and poetry. Although folks will mostly hear the Wagner and Blackmore influences, the working relationship I have with Jasmine is more like the one that Richard Strauss had with his librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Only, Jasmine has a screenplay instead of a libretto; or, one could say that I make a libretto out of the screenplay.

As mentioned earlier, I have some literary background, and the lyrics I write are influenced by the works of Nietzsche, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Goethe, Jung, Dostoevsky, and the New Testament. There's a little Stephen King in there as well (laughing).

Like Richard Wagner, I utilise certain musical keys and literary devices to represent specific aspects of each character and situation in the opera. There are literary and musical motifs that intertwine throughout the opera, reinforcing the main themes of the work as a whole. The big picture from a literary/motivic perspective is the concept of belief, taken in its broadest definition.

This opera blows away other Metal "operas". Not just because the music ROCKS, but because the listener, through a willfully focused listening and reading experience, can take away something valuable from it. You can learn something about yourself and others, which to me is the common denominator in any great work of art. Obviously, this type of higher Art will be rejected by most. That doesn't change what it is.

Jasmine and I regularly discuss the literary and musical sides to the opera, which helps the artistic side of it develop more naturally (or, as Wagner would have put it, "organically"). We are not afraid to let the themes of the story and music grow and develop as we grow together.

How do you think the internet has changed the music industry?

It tends to clog things up. Fashion often takes precedence over any kind of substance. But this isn't anything new.

Hey, it can get really tiresome hearing "artistes" complain, so let me concentrate instead on giving productive advice.

When you create an account on a site in order to get your music heard, don't assume that your music will be found, or that you're entitled to an audience. Make music because you really love it, and fans will come to you. Don't spend hours on end on these often futile social sites.

Some encouraging words: If you're putting in the time to actually study music composition (whether by ear, book or both), while staying conscious of emotional content in your playing and writing, then you're ahead of the pack. Don't fall into the trap that so many get stuck in these days: endlessly aping old heros. Instead, take what your heros did and expand upon it, utilising your own playing techniques and style to progress past them. Eventually you'll break free from your influences, and sound new and exciting.

Do you listen to any recent projects?

I recently bought "Framing Armageddon" by Iced Earth. It's the only album I like by them, and I think it's great. Jon Schaffer did some excellent writing for voice on that album, and I think the vocals of Ripper Owens reached a peak. I also got the latest Rhapsody, "Frozen Tears of Angels". Not their best, but a couple of tunes on there are really excellent. I also liked that Symphony X album,"Paradise Lost". Lots of fun. I guess those three can't be called particularly recent projects. I usually get very bored by most recent bands; too many are copying...they need to mature before I give them more serious attention. It was that way for me with Iced Earth and Rhapsody as well.

There is a really good band out of Santiago, Chile called Vastator. They are a bit of a cross genre band, with black, death and thrash mixed with Classic Metal. It works quite well. Really good playing, and the singer, Señor Diaz, handles the different styles excellently. They did a killer video with our singer, Veronica Freeman, called "The Gods Give No Reply".

As for guitar players, I recently heard a relatively un-recent player named Thaddeus Hogarth who is quite good. More blues rock and funk, but excellent. There's another guy...Phillip Sayce. Really good. Great tone. I'm also big into Ralph Santolla's work with Deicide; I think he brought a very cool, fresh element to that satanic death metal genre.

There are also some really excellent players and songwriters on the Dinosaur Rock Guitar Forum.

Where do you see yourself musically in 5 years? What is your goal?

I will continue writing and composing new music for Lyraka because it's an epic. I'll be looking to work with more elaborate orchestral ensembles and choirs as well.

Jasmine and I will not let anyone or anything stand in the way of our vision, because we are assured that what we are doing is great.

We're going to rock the world.

Give us an update on any new things happening with your music or recording.

We have completed several songs with Graham Bonnet on vocals.  His performances are absolutely amazing, like classic Rainbow and Michael Schenker Group. Graham is one of the only "old school Metal" vocalists that has all the unique tone and power that he had early in his career. Both Graham and Ronnie Dio are my all time favorite Rock/Metal singers, ever, so you can imagine how satisying it has been to work with Graham, not to mention how heartbreaking it was to hear of Ronnie's death.

We are also working with Tommy Heart of Uli Jon Roth/Sky of Avalon and Fair Warning fame. He is more operatic than Graham, so there's a fascinating set of differences between the two.

We also recently added Veronica Freeman of Benedictum fame. Veronica's vocal talents lie both in her incredible power and range, as well as her deep understanding of light and shade when applied to heavy metal performance.

All three are absolutely fabulous singers, three of the best in the world in my composer's opinion.

How do you describe your music to people?

Wagnerian Opera Metal, defined.

Proudest moment to date?

Writing this music for my only love in the world.

What does music mean to you?

Music is the most effective way of expressing what's inside.

What is your all time favorite movie?

Rocky. That movie encapsulates what I went through in my life. Because I had a traumatic childhood, I spent most of my adulthood homeless, drinking, stealing, and beating up people. I was highly self-destructive with nothing and no one. I gave up for years two things that I loved very much: guitar and Metal, just because I was made to feel I didn't deserve anything that made me happy. Years went by, then I found my way back to guitar and ended up living my dream: recording with the singer from my favorite band (Graham Bonnet from Rainbow) and getting the woman of my dreams (Jasmine).

Just like Rocky, I didn't need to win a "title" to be a winner. Because I already won the girl.

Lyraka.com & Lyraka screenplay © Jasmine Lyraka 2010 / Music © Andy DiGelsomina 2010 All Rights Reserved. The concept art featured on Lyraka.com are in no way indicative of the final product. All outside images were used with permission and link back to the copyright holder's site.