FIREWIND Guitarist Talks About 'Allegiance' Album, Upcoming U.S. Tour

Metal Asylum recently conducted an interview with FIREWIND mainman and guitarist Gus G. A couple of excerpts follow:

Metal Asylum: "Allegiance" is the fourth FIREWIND record and the lineup is on its third singer. Is changing vocalists something you would like to do?

Gus: Well, we don't do it because we want different vocalists on every album that's for sure. I mean, it may seem like that but it's not. It's hard to find the right people really to both get along with well in a band as well as finding people who want to tour a lot. We want to be a touring band and our first singer Steven Fredrick didn't want to tour at all, then we had Chity Somapala who came in for the third record "Forged in Fire", but that was more of a personal problem and I think I may have rushed that decision. But in regards to Apollo I hope things work out and he sticks around. We already started writing some material together for the next album. I mean, even though he had a family problem and had to drop out of one tour he's still gonna join us for the rest of the 2007 tour schedule. I mean, we've always had great singers but I think Apollo is really the highlight so far.

Metal Asylum: I think with "Allegiance" it is FIREWIND's strongest collection of songs and definitely the most cohesive album. So what has attributed to that?

Gus: Well, thanks I appreciate that, and I think "Allegiance" is our best as well so far also. Well, I worked with everyone in the band on this record and everyone contributed to the writing. Bob, our keyboard player, and myself co-wrote at least most of the album, Mark Cross, our drummer, also came up with a song. I made sure everybody was involved this time and I think the chemistry was just right this time around. I think also I was more relaxed this time around since I only had to worry about FIREWIND's music. Not that it effected my playing before when I worked with DREAM EVIL, MYSTIC PROPHECY or NIGHTRAGE, but I just didn't have so many things on my mind. In that respect maybe some DREAM EVIL material maybe could fit on a FIREWIND album but other than that I always wrote songs which were specific to those bands.

Metal Asylum: Now are you officially done working with DREAM EVIL, MYSTIC PROPHECY and NIGHTRAGE?

Gus: Yeah, it's been like a year or so since I started dedicating my time to FIREWIND.

Metal Asylum: What about yourself as a guitar player. At this early stage in your career you have been already regarded as a new young guitar hero. So what are your thoughts on that?

Gus: Nooo, I don't think like that. I know a lot of kids look up to what I do and I am flattered by the recognition. That term is more for players like Paul Gilbert, Yngwie, you know the big masters. I don't know I have to see what happens down the line. I know it's cool because the new younger generations are always looking for great players and maybe through me talking about these guys like Ritchie Blackmore and having these kids read my interviews they can learn more about these legends.

Metal Asylum: What about newer guitar players, who do you like?

Gus: Man there a lot of them….I like Alexi from CHILDREN OF BODOM, Mike Amott from ARCH ENEMY is very good and he is enjoying a lot of success right now for his playing. I think Jeff Loomis from NEVERMORE is really a great player — aggressive, very melodic, great technique.

You can read the rest of the interview here.