— How did you come to fusion?
— It all happened naturally. When I was just learning to play the guitar, rock was my obsession. Later, at conservatory, my teacher pushed me towards jazz music, which opened up a whole new world for me. It took me a while to fully get into it, but eventually I combined what I've learned from both worlds instead of forcing myself to learn fusion by itself, which is what many young players today tend to do. By the way, a conservatory in Germany is like a music school that is open for anybody who wants to attend. During that time I began to discover musicians such as Mike Stern, Michael Brecker and many others.
I spent six years at conservatory, after which I enrolled in music college. I was 15-16 when I realized that music was my only real talent and I wanted to play music for a living. So I decided to get a good education, which also reassured my parents that I was doing things the proper way.
— How did your parents react to your choice?
— In general, they have always helped me in my endeavors. For example, I grew up in a small village, far away from the city where the conservatory was located, so my father took me there every week. When my parents understood that I wanted to go to college they were completely supportive. My father is a music lover, so it's like I get to realize his secret dream of being a musician for him.
— What are your goals today?
— Currently I am working on some instructional material on improvisation and technique. I'm putting a lot of thought into this because I want it to be genuinely useful for young musicians.
I am also involved in several musical projects. One of them is my duo project with Tom Quayle, who is a fantastic guitar player from the UK. We have almost finished a joint album in which a few fantastic musicians from Russia have participated: Valery Stepanov, Ignat Kravtsov and of course my partner in crime Anton Davidyants.
In general, I simply want to make good music while I feel inspired to do so. I want to make a living with my own music, as opposed to playing cover gigs and of course I'd love spend more time with cool musicians on stage and in the studio.
— Would you like to change anything in your career?
— No, I don't think so. I'm happy with everything. I only wish I had started learning to play the piano earlier, because I often use it for composing, but frankly, I'm a rather mediocre pianist.
— What is the state of fusion in Germany?
— Honestly, it's not great. I live in Leipzig, which is not far from Berlin. I studied in Dresden, and each of these cities has an incredibly vibrant jazz scene, but a lot of it tends to be either pop jazz or avant-garde these days, while there's not so much demand for fusion here. This is also one reason why I collaborate so much with foreign musicians.
— Where do you think the fusion scene is strongest?
— Difficult to say. All countries I've been to have incredible musicians. Europe, the US, Russia — everywhere. As far as guitarists are concerned, a whole lot of exceptional new players seem to come from the UK these days.
— Could you talk about your tours of Russia? What are your impressions of the country, the musicians and the public?
— Over the past three years, I have played approximately 20 concerts in Russia. It was fantastic! The audience has been very responsive. Often times, we don't get this kind of reception in Europe. The market there is a little over-saturated, but in Russia people traveled hundreds of kilometers to go see our concerts.
I've also gotten to know plenty of amazing musicians there. For example, there's Anton Davidyants, one of the best bass guitarists in the world; Valery Stepanov, Feodor Dosumov, Alex Baev, Arkady Kornev and many others.
— Where, in your opinion, is the best fusion school?
— These days it almost doesn't matter where you live, as there's plenty of resources out there. However, if you're serious about getting into jazz/fusion I strongly urge you to find a good, experienced teacher. There's only so much you can learn from a book. Some things need to be experienced first hand. It is also absolutely necessary to be in a musically fruitful environment and surround yourself with other musicians. Real musicianship is not to be acquired in front of a computer screen.
— What kind of music do you listen to in your leisure time?
— I basically still listen to the same music that I listened to 10 years ago. When you spend so much of your time working on music professionally every day, the last thing feel like doing is to seek out for new music to discover.
So I'm still listening to my old favourites such as Deep Purple, Dream Theater, Pat Metheney, Chick Corea, Michael Brecker, Queen, Pink Floyd, Chopin, etc.
— Who can change his style more easily, a heavy metal player or a jazzman?
— Both will have to change their respective styles as far as sound, vocabulary, timing, etc. are concerned. Jazz is usually more harmonically sophisticated, so a metal player would have to spend some time catching up on his harmony knowledge. Also jazz is largely improvised, both comping and soloing, which is vastly different from metal, where most of the music is completely written out, similar to classical music.
A jazz player may have to rework his chops a little. A heavily distorted guitar requires a completely different touch. Otherwise you'll get a weak tone and plenty of excess noise.
Of course, everything largely depends on the person: talented and disciplined people will have no trouble making those transitions.
— What musician, past or present, would you like to play with?
— I would like to with either Pat Metheny or Steve Morse. I saw Steve at NAMM recently and I got to sit right next to his amplifiers and hear the tone coming from the cabinet speakers directly. That was an almost religious experience. Listening to a recording doesn't compare to this at all. I was so close to him that I could hear his fingers touch the strings and experience how this sound was being created.