Quintessence Metal Webzine

Since 1986 I've been driven to keep finding new guitarists since my first listens to Friedman, Becker and Malmsteen since my good friend Ken Madei ever gotten me involved in instrumental and "shred" guitar. Since then I discovered the usual suspects of MacAlpine, Lynch, Vinnie Moore, Howe, Vai, "Satch", Masi, Pell, Schenker and hundreds of others and still keep hearing about this guy here but not his music! This day in age is kind of disappointing when everybody dedicates their time to the more trendier music bandwagon including the labels themselves anymore;just makes me even more happier and wanting to work harder getting people exposed in any little way I can even if I don't get 500 to a million hits a day; every little bit counts as they say! This next shredder has one hell of a debut solo CD out on Lion Music from Finland; the same label bringing us Kelly Simonz, Dave Martone, Alex Masi and many others as well as keyboard and drum gods. Here's a little chat with shredder and composer.......

Quintessence: Now, I'm going to assume you're in your 30's since you have done so much in the 90's with a couple bands, some self-teaching and a couple schooling stints; how has all of that helped you and what do you see nowadays that would of changed your ways, if any, back then?

Rusty: "Well I guess the most important thing is just the experience, seasoning ,and knowledge you gain . Playing in a band and being on stage is great. Revolution was a band I was in - in the early 90's . We use to pack the clubs and got paid great money to showcase original material. What would I have changed? Well, it's that old if I knew then what I know now kind of thing. Being young you tend to think all you got to do is be good and the rest will come to you. Not true, you have to get out there and work your butt off make connections etc.. you have to make the world aware of your existence not just the locals. I wish we would have had the internet back then."

Quintessence: Explain a little bit about your band in school, the teaching job you had up to when Revolution was formed. What happened that Revolution split?

Rusty: "Well I didn't really play in any bands until after I got out of high school because all anyone wanted to do was play cover tunes. I hated that. I feel that sitting around and spending all that time learning other peoples material was pointless and a waste of time. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of things you can learn from other people's song writing and guitar solo's and stuff like that. Sure that's great from and educational standpoint. But to learn a bunch of songs to play live yuk, I would rather flip burgers, well maybe not.

I got my first teaching job about two months into my senior year of high school. It was great! It was good money especially when everyone else was getting minimum wage. I was a huge Randy Rhoads fan so being a guitar teacher is something that I always wanted to do. I got my first teaching job at the place I got my first guitar. One of the guys there had been watching my playing for a few years and one day asked me if I wanted the job. I was like "hell yeah man!!".

As far as bands go I can count all of them on one hand. I have never been into band jumping. I put everything into what I'm doing, like it's going to be that last. The band I was in before Revolution was a band called Alter Ego. It was a very good band , and I was playing with very seasoned players. I was the young guy. We had financial backing, and connections in the industry. At one point the backers paid for us to go to L.A. They put us up in hotel for a week. I think it was on Sunset, and Labreya. Gave us spending money . We hung out with Bobby Rock a little. He set us up to go have clothes made by Anna Cartwright. I remember seeing pictures of everyone that you saw in the
magazines on the walls. She's the one that made those wild outfits the guys in Nitro wore on there first cd. Anyway we had clothes made too , you know all that cool 80's stuff. This was in 89 I think? I wasn't even 21 yet . Needless to say the band broke up. A year later I went on to Revolution. I ended up quitting that band over musical direction. We are all still good friends. As a matter of fact that's where I recorded the majority of my cd, at the other guitar players studio."

Quintessence: You mentioned of 1995 AIM of getting "runner up"...I'm curious who beat you out. How was Jason Becker involved in all of this?

Rusty: "Here's the scoop on the Jason Becker thing. I didn't win because they( they being AIM) felt like I didn't need it. This comes from a very reliable source and friend to Jason. The source said that Jason said he remembered picking me to win and they over-ruled him. That's pretty lame."

Quintessence: "Warmth In The Wilderness II", what song did you cover and how does this one compare to the first one in your opinion.

Rusty: "For the "Warmth In The Wilderness" cd I just donated the demo version of "Piece Of Mind" due to timing issues, I wasn't able to do a Becker tune. Jason is one of my biggest influences. The first track on my cd "Under The Influence" is me paying tribute to Jason, Yngwie, and Paul Gilbert. Those guys are the ones that really drove me in the early days."

Quintessence: What is "The Generation Ibanez© Project"?

Rusty: "That is a cd that Eric Sands and Glen Cianculli put together. It's guitar players from all across the globe paying tribute to Ibanez guitars. It was very cool how I got involved in that project. I had just gotten my first review online. It was at Guitar 9. Eric saw the review and listened to the clips. He emailed me and said I would be perfect for the cd if I was interested , and I definitely was."

Quintessence: When did you first start all of these instructional CD-Roms? Is it for beginners or is it aimed towards more experienced guitarists that have certain areas of trouble?

Rusty: "I think my first rom came out in January of 2001. The roms are very advanced. I think players of any level can benefit from them. If something is to hard you use it as an exercise until it's usable. The roms are geared toward the cutting edge, learning, and doing new things."

Quintesence: I keep seeing alot of artists being involved with "Chops From Hell" what is this whole thing or idea?

Rusty: " "Chops From Hell" is the "Instructional Mecca". If you want to get "Chops from Hell", there is no better source. The idea is to provide the best instructional material available, and I believe that we are doing so. Have you seen the artists that have cd roms at CFH? They are some of the best players period!!"

Quintessence: You have a brand new solo CD coming out this month for Lion Music out of Finland and I must say, Martone and yourself really should be giving them an even bigger boost. Other artists like Edward Box, Katsionis and Simonz also keep the Europeans quite thrilled; the U.S. needs more labels like Lion even though Magna Carta, Inside Out, Shrapnel and Leviathan keep some of us happy over here.

Rusty: "Thanks, and it's out now. I am very happy to be apart of the Lion Music label. They have some of the best players out there some of the early guys MacAlpine, Kotzen, and Masi I'm excited to be associated with them."

Quintessence: The album has some amazing techniques with alot of tempo changes and music styles you take on in a sort of Neo-Classical way but in a different sense that no one can just assume you're another Malmsteen, Bellas or Stump. What steps did you take in your songwriting besides all the technical terminology of legato, arpeggios, sweeps, taps, etc.?

Rusty: "Thanks for really listening to the music. Sooo many people just give it a once over and go he's playing fast so he's just another Yngwie. I don't consider myself to be a Neo-Classical player.

My music is a little more Metal with elements of Neo-Classical , and Prog. When ever I'm writing I always start with the chord progressions, and get the arrangement down first. Then I start on the melodies, motives, and last the solo's. I approach it completely from a vocal stand point. If you took all of the leads and melodies off of the cd, a singer could come in and write vocals to it. There are only two songs on the cd that rhythms where written around lead parts, and that was "Under The Influence", and "Piece Of Mind" and still that was only in certain parts not the whole song. My goal with this cd was to write one of the most intense guitar cds ever."

Quintessence: You have a side band with vocals called Outworld. Who's all in the band and is there any releases out? Is this a full-time touring band or studio-only?

Rusty: "Outworld is my vocal band. We have a small geographical problem I'm in Atlanta and there are in Houston. But that's not going to stop us. I'm focusing all of my writing on this band . We are working on material for a full length cd, it's just going to take a little longer.

The band consists of Kelly Carpenter on vocals, Bobby Williamson on Keys, Shane Dubose on bass, and Steve on drums. Bobby and Kelly are both on my solo cd. Shane and Steve are both new members to the band. I haven't even got to play with them yet. Outworld just recorded a song back in October called "City Of The Dead" I recorded scratch rhythm tracks and sent them to Houston, the guys recorded there parts I flew in at a later date and recorded my parts. The funny things is I'm playing with the new drummer on cd but we have never been in the same room together, it's just kind of weird if you know what I mean."

Quintesence: What's in store for 2003 and will be there be any domestic release here in the U.S. of your materials?

Rusty: "The cd is available in the US now.You can get it through
www.guitar9.com and www.nehrecords.com and it will soon be available through Cargo Music, Nightmare Records, Amazon.com, CD Now and
maybe even locally at record stores depending on how hip they are to prog and metal.

I'm also planning on putting out more instructional cd roms , a couple of DVD's of some of my past guitar clinics. I'm hopping to do some gigging to support the cd as well as more clinics. I think I'm scheduled to play Jemfest again in Florida this year too! I really want to get the ball rolling with Outworld as well, we just have to find our groove since we are so far apart."

Quintessence: Favorite album of 2002?

Rusty: "Wow that's a hard one!! here's a couple of things that I'm really into. Symphony X, Paganini's 24 caprices, and Arch Enemy, I love the heavy stuff!"

Quintessence: If you had a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity to record a CD with 4 other band members (living or dead) who would it be and why?

Rusty: "Wow man that's a tough one too!! Lets see off of the top of my head Scott Travis on drums (Racer X) Billy Sheehan on Bass, I hope I don't have to explain that one. Bruce Dickinson vocals that one either , and Franz Lizst on keys. Who's Franz Liszt? the legendary Romantic Era pianist."

Quintessence: websites,contact, last comments...

Rusty: "Thanks for the invite, I hope you have enjoyed the interview I know I have. The website is www.rustycooley.com If you would like to drop me a line and say hi here's the email rusty@rustycooley.com Thanks and see ya!!"

Interview and layout: Wayne Klinger, ©2003 Quintessence Metal Webzine/Wretched Productions. Photos used by permission and ©2003 Rusty Cooley and Lion Music