TESTAMENT's ALEX SKOLNICK: 'I Don't Wanna Sound Like Somebody That Listens To Too Much ALLAN HOLDSWORTH Playing Over A Metal Song'

In a new interview with And Now The Band, Alex Skolnick, a world-renowned lead guitarist and founding member of TESTAMENT, was asked how being fluent in a multitude of styles, from blues to funk to flamenco-inspired acoustic and jazz, has shaped his metal playing. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I don't think it's affected it sonically, but it certainly gives me a lot more tools to work with. It gives me more fluency. I think it gives me more musical shapes that I might not have tried otherwise. Instead of relying on the main vocabulary that is most often heard throughout the history of hard rock and heavy metal, there's a lot of licks and there's a lot of shapes that are pretty common. And it's not that I never use those, but I have this whole other well of information to draw from. And you hear that sometimes. I try not to overdo it. I don't wanna sound like somebody that listens to too much Allan Holdsworth playing over a metal song. I want it to sound metal, but also would like to tastefully be able to throw in some lines that maybe it comes from John Coltrane or Wes Montgomery. And also in terms of just the thought process. For me, it used to be mostly listening to myself and the drums, and I still do that, but I'm sort of more locked in to the drums. I think my playing overall is more locked in, because to play jazz improvisation well, it's about rhythm as much as it is about harmony. And getting the rhythm together really develops your listening skills and your mental skills too. You really have to be aware of what's coming next. You have to just have this heightened awareness, and I think that that helps. Even though I'm not dealing with chord and dynamic changes so much as I am in improvisational music, just that awareness, what's coming up and just being prepared, I think playing jazz guitar really strengthens you in that way."

One of the elite breed of guitar shredders from the 1980s, Skolnick was famously a student of Joe Satriani, along with Steve Vai and METALLICA's Kirk Hammett, and was even sought out by Ozzy Osbourne, playing a gig with the BLACK SABBATH legend in the U.K. in 1995.

Skolnick joined TESTAMENT in 1985 at the age of 16 and stayed with the band for eight years before leaving in 1993 and going on to study at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.

Skolnick's long-running Brooklyn, New York-based jazz-rock band ALEX SKOLNICK TRIO (AST) recently released its sixth album, "Prove You're Not A Robot", via Flatiron Recordings. Alongside Skolnick's inventive guitar work, bassist Nathan Peck and drummer Matt Zebroski bring rhythmic complexity and emotional depth, with odd-time signatures and genre twists that have become AST hallmarks.

Since forming in the early 2000s, AST has reimagined the jazz guitar trio, melding influences as far-reaching as Wes Montgomery, BLACK SABBATH, Prince, tango, calypso and Western swing. Known for their adventurous covers of rock and metal classics, they've earned praise from outlets like Billboard, Downbeat, Jazziz, The Village Voice and NPR, and have toured internationally, captivating audiences from Norway's Larvik Guitar Festival to Paris's The Olympia and New York's Radio City Music Hall.

In addition to playing with ALEX SKOLNICK TRIO and TESTAMENT, he has worked as a sideman with such artists as vocalist Ishtar of the French band ALABINA and Jewish folk singer Debbie Friedman. He has also guested on an album from RODRIGO Y GABRIELA.