Rusty Cooley - Interview at Guitar Mania |
BIOGRAPHY- I started playing guitar on my 15th birthday..Frustrated with guitar lessons I decided to study on my own..I remained almost exclusively self-taught until my junior year of High School when I was offered music theory courses in which to enroll..That summer I attended the National Guitar Summer Workshop in Connecticut...I obtained my first teaching job my senior year of High School ...Upon graduation I went on to further my studies at North Harris County Community College... My first significant band was "Revolution" with whom I recorded and performed original music...We were fortunate to open for such headliners as Badlands, Nitro, Every Mothers Nightmare, and Southgang..Upon my depature from "Revolution" I formed the band "Dominion" with bassist Brent Marches.. In 1995 I entered and won the "Guitar Master Series" in Houston...It was during this period that I began to work on my own original guitar instrumental's...These songs represent my desire to record a totally over-the-top guitar instrumental release featuring state-of-the-art chops and strong melodic content...I was also selected as a runner up in the "Jason Becker" AIM Scholarship search in '96..I also hosted 3 episodes of a local TV show entitled "World Class Guitar Technique's" which air's in Houston and the surrounding cities on KTLJ Channel 22...I am also a faculty member of the National Guitar Summer Workshop where I teach during the summer.....In March 98 I was invited to join Shrapnel recording artist "Hajis Kitchen", but had to decline due to relocation problems. My demos have been reviewed at Guitar 9, Guitar 2001, and hotguitar.com. I have also authored instructional columns for Guitar 9 and Guitar 2001. Two of my compositions were featured on the Generation Ibanez CD in 98. Scheduled for 99 release is a Ballbuster compilation as well as the Guitar 2001 compilation CD. Presently, I play in the group "OutWorld" which will perform and record instrumental music as well as vocal music...The group consists of Brent Marches- bass, Bobby Williamson on Keyboards. The Interview: 1)Tell us about your history and background? Well lets see I've been playing for about 17 years and teaching for about 14 . I have played in a couple of local metal bands which we were fortunate enough to open for a couple of big name bands such as Badlands and Nitro that was cool. In 95 I won best guitarist in Houston and that was also when I decided to start doing instrumental music. Iv'e written columns for and been fetured in Guitar Nine and Guitar 2001 Mag and webzine. I taught for the National Guitar Workshop for three years and have been featured on the Generation Ibanez, Guitar 2001, and Guitarapalooza compilation cd's .I'm currently endorsing Jackson guitars and Seymour Duncan pickups. I'm also planning on releasing my first instrumental cd this year it's going to be about a 13 or 14 track cd I'm teaching the band the last three tunes at the moment and hope to go into the studio this summer . 2) When did you first pick up the Guitar? I got my first guitar for my 15th birthday. 3) What motivated you to want to learn to play the guitar? Well me and some buddy's were jamming with tennis rackets and decided that maybe a real guitar would be cooler. Oh yea I think we were air guitaring to Ted Nugent. 4) Are you a schooled or self taught player? I concider myself to be self taught although I did take a couple of theory courses in school and attended the Guitar workshop for a one week session in 85. 5) Tell us about your involvement with the Jason Becker AIM Scholarship? The Jason Becker thing was a total fluke I had a very rough first round draft of Dominion and sent it in just for the hell of it and I ended up being a runner up I think the guy that won sent in a cd and video of himself playing guitar and violin and other stuff as well. 6) You were featured as the host of the Houston T.V. show "World Class Guitar Technique's" How did that opportunity come about and what was the experience like? Well it's a long story , A guy I was teaching with has a cd rom out with SDG Software called guitar Magic and he was also the host of World Class Guitar Techniques he over heard me playing and asked me If I would be interested in doing a cd rom also for SDG sdoftware so I put together what is now my Extreme Pentatonics book. We used his show to shoot the video footage for the cd rom . Needless to say my contract with SDG is still pending they payed me half the money up front and still hav'nt put it out .So if anybody is interested you can get the book from me. The show itself was a great experience I went from 10 to 15 students a week to over 50. 7) In March of 1998 you were invited to join Shrapnel recording Artists Haji's Kitchen. It sounds like that would have been a good fit for your musical abilities. Due to relocation problems you had to turn that opportunity down - is there a chance Mike Varney of Shrapnel might sign you as a solo instrumentalist? I don't think those guys are interested in my stuff It's not Neo-Classical enough at least thats the vibe I'm getting. They actually told me they thought the stuff was really ripping but they were not signing instrumental stuff , I've lost count of the # of instrumental cd's they have released since they told me that maybe they were just trying to be nice. 8) Who are your main influences? Well in the begining it was Rhoads, Malmsteen, Gilbert, Becker ,Vai, Moore, Macalpine, and just about anybody who recorded for Shrapnel Iv'e always been into Paganini and now I really like Shawn lane and Holdworth also Chopin and Liszt I could actually go on forever but I'll stop here. 9) The term Creative Guitar definitely describes your playing. What style if any would you classify your self in? Well how about we call it Shredmetalprog with a dash of Neo-Classical thrown in. 10) What type of music do you enjoy listening to? Classical , Jazz , Fusion, Funk, blues, Shred , Metal , prog and some 70's disco. 11) Your Demo showcases some of the most intricate playing I have heard in a long time. It also highlights your strong compositional and melodic sensibilities. Give us a run down on some of the songs like Hillbilly Militia, War of the Angels and the Butcher? When I was growing up I use to love Listing to how Vai or Malmsteen would write these killer rhythm parts and all of the sudden throw in some insane fill that was what I was trying to do with Hillbilly Militia it's more of a rhythm instrumental than a lead. When I write I always start with what I consider to be a good song to me you have to have good chord progressions most of my songs if you took the leads and melodys off would be good vocal tunes. War Of the Angels is me taking a stab at Neo Prog Lots of changes, tempos , dynamics, and so on. The Butcher is Just go for the kill none stop insanity from begining to end I wanted to do some of the sickest stuff ever heard. 12) What equipment are you currently using? I'm useing an old Fender M-80 pre amp , a Rocktron intellifex, a DBX stereo gate , I use a Rocktron Velocity 300 power amp for left and a Velocity 250 right into 4 Marshall cabs on the floor I use an ADA midi pedal, a Rocktron Austin Gold overdrive ,a Vox wah, a wammy pedal and a phase 90 I have two Ibanez Universe's and a RG 7 and I'm wating for my knew custom 7 from Jackson for home recording I have a boss DR5 a Line 6 POD and a Tascam 8 track. 13) Tell us about your latest Band project Outworld? Outworld is going to be a metal /prog band with vocals but right know were are finishing the material for my solo cd . Outworld also performs the instrumental stuff locally. 14) You have developed an over the top killer technique. Tell us about your technique and how you developed it? Motivation and drive you know good old fire in the belly , It's my first love this is what I do. From the first time I picked up a guitar I knew that this was what I wanted to do there is no back up plan. When it's all said and done I want to leave something behind for other generations to learn from I want to leave my mark add something knew. And just like I tell all of my students the three magic words PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE A more direct answer to you question is this usually guitar players are known for one or two things that they do well like picking or legato so what I'm trying to do is master all of the techniques so that as a soloist I have many things to draw from. 15) What do you think about the new crop of talented shredders like George Bellas, Troy Stetina, Borislav Mitic and Tom Kopyto? I really like George Bellas I think he is great ,he really knows how to compose. I also really Like Tom he has done alot in the short time he has been playing. Borislav has some cool Neo -Classical stuff. I've never heard Troy. 16) What are your thoughts on the state of instrumental guitar music these days? Well it's not very popular. It dosn't look good guys I'm not sure I think the guys who do it really love it. As a teacher I always turn my students on to none commercial stuff because that's were the real musicians are! 17) What are your interests outside of music and guitar playing? My beautiful wife Susan and my kids Sebastian, Jazzmine and David my stepson. I also like working out when I have time and riding my mountain bike and getting some sun, good food , science fiction and science fact. 18) Is there anything else's you would like to share with our readers that we have not asked or may have overlooked? I think thats pretty much it although I would like to tell all the up and comeing guitar players to hang in there it's alot of work but it's very rewarding like I tell all of my young students if it was easy everybody would do it but then it wouldn't be cool. |
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