GUS G. Says 'Fearless' Sounds 'More Cohesive' Than Previous Solo Albums

On September 14, "Robb's MetalWorks" conducted an interview with Greek guitar virtuoso Gus G., who is well known in rock and metal circles for his work as Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist and as leader of his own band FIREWIND, prior to his September 14 solo date at The Rock Box in San Antonio, Texas. You can watch the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On his third and most recent solo album, "Fearless":

Gus: "I think the biggest difference compared to the other two records that I've done is that this time… the other two records were sort of collaborations with different artists, different drummers or bass players or primarily singers, where this time, we're trying this power-trio type of format of a band. We have Dennis Ward [PINK CREAM 69, UNISONIC] who plays bass and sings, and Will Hunt of EVANESCENCE played drums on it; he's an amazing drummer. Yeah, I think that really made a difference. It made the record sound more cohesive. Musically speaking, I don't think it's that much different than what I've done in the past. It's maybe a bit more focused, I would say. It's more focused songwriting, sort of picking up where the last record, 'Brand New Revolution', left off, which was a mix of modern metal with some retro moments and some hard rock moments here and there. There's a good blend of instrumentals versus vocal tracks, primarily vocal tracks. There's three instrumentals on there. Like I said, it's a little more showcasing of the guitar playing and yeah, but there's a lot of guitar all over the place, all over this record. But, to me, it's obviously a driving force for the song, but, it really is about writing catchy, memorable songs."

On how being in OZZY OSBOURNE affected his solo career:

Gus: "First of all, I was having a lot of ideas over the years that I thought maybe could end up on a possible future Ozzy record that obviously didn't happen. There was a lot of ideas laying around and I went, 'You know what? I want to use this stuff now and put it on my record.' As a matter of fact, there is one song that we wrote on the road with Ozzy six, seven years ago, obviously without his vocal lines or lyrics, but the music and the arrangement I had made, I wanted to use that one. It's a song called 'Don't Tread On Me'. Yeah, I don't know — I guess to me, it was just like getting a bit more focused and going into the studio and 'Okay, now I'm going to do this. I'm going to put together a new band and really do this. I want to make a record that is really going to define who I am as a solo artist.' Because with FIREWIND, we already have our style and sound that we've been following our path a number of years already."

On his immediate plans:

Gus: "Right after this U.S. tour, I'm going back to Europe. I'm doing a U.K. headline tour in October and continuing all over in mainland Europe until middle of December. Then it's Christmas break. In January, we're going to be doing an extensive tour in my country, in Greece. And then I'm coming back for the Monsters Of Rock cruise in February. I don't know what's coming up after that. We'll see. The next six months are planned out already."

On FIREWIND's future plans:

Gus: "I think we're probably going to go out and do a few festivals next summer over in Europe. It's a discussion we're having right now. Hopefully we'll have enough of those festivals to go out and play again. At some point, once the 'Fearless' tour, the solo tour, is over, we want to go back and start writing new music, new FIREWIND music."

"Fearless" was released in April via AFM Records. The follow-up to 2015's "Brand New Revolution" marked Gus's first release since exiting Osbourne's band in 2017.