YNGWIE MALMSTEEN: 'I'm A Very Determined Person And I Am Extremely Stubborn'

Maximum Metal recently conducted an interview with legendary guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen. A couple of exceprts from the chat follow below.

Maximum Metal: Time recently named you one of the "Top Ten Greatest Electric Guitar Players", an honor you share with the likes of Les Paul, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. Knowing that seeing a Hendrix video started it all for you, how does this honor make you feel?

Yngwie: It's an incredible honor, you know?! I got my star on the street in L.A., I have a bookcase here in my living room and it looks like I am Tiger Woods or something! I have gold and platinum albums all over the house, and that's great, you know, but every time I pick up the guitar, THAT is the moment. The other doesn't matter, what I do today... is it, because you are never any fucking better than you are right now. To me when I don't make music, I have other passions, I love my Ferraris and I play tennis, family... but once I get into music I don't do it halfassed. Halfassed is not in my vocabulary... it's all the fucking way or nothing. So all of the awards are wonderful, but at the end of the day, I was like this when I was younger, too, sitting in my own bedroom playing, I was going to kick MY own ass! People sometimes ask me how much do I practice...I've never practiced once in my life, ever. I performed whether anyone was there or not. I don't accept myself being a level up or maybe tomorrow I will reach another step... no, I either do it now or that's it. I'm a very determined person and I am extremely stubborn. I am relentless and if I set a goal I will not stop until it's done, doesn't matter what the goal is — music or 110 mph... then when I achieve it, it's time to move on to something else. It's just the way I do things. I've been doing this for forever. A lot of kids now are interns by me, I've been doing this since before they were born. So one would think after that long you would lose a little of that spark, yeah?! It hasn't happened.

Maximum Metal: You've mentioned that the name of [your new] CD ["Relentless"] is synonymous with how you feel about your music and craft. After all of the awards, the shredding arpeggios and commercial success where do you continue to draw your inspiration from?

Yngwie: It's very very varied. I can wake up in the middle of the night and have a finished piece of music. So, I just go to the studio and record it immediately. Sometimes in listening back to it I wonder, where did this come from? I have the luxury of having a studio where everything is state of the art and it's wonderful. It's like a painter having the whole palette. If you cant improvise, you can't compose... period. A lot of people think that classical composers were wearing penguin clothes like they are now... no, these people — Beethoven, Paganini, Mozart — they were all very free spirits. They would improvise on stage so I actually realized my dream by composing a symphony, by myself. So there's 16 bars here where I can play whatever I want. That's exactly what they did and some people miss that point — the classical people today are reciting other's composition not playing their own. In a lot of ways, that's how I approach how I do everything. For example, if I am playing a song for the millionth time on stage, I wouldn't play it the same way I did the night before. So there's a structure but it's done new every time and that goes hand in hand with how I compose. Composition is very... well, I am writing a book right now about it and it's taking some time because I don't have a lot of time to do it, I try to explain it there, but it's hard. The music happens and it is given to me... The lyrics are very methodical, I write them in a very methodical way, maybe more like other people compose. But the composition is very spontaneous, I sing along with the guitar, a lot of the melodies come to me that way. I'm very serious about what I do so when I am dust a 100 years from now this stuff will still be here. I want to make it the best always. To me, the music that comes at a moment with inspiration and magic; if I can capture that, then I am happy. Instead of being tied to a studio and paying 4 or 5 grand a day, so the pressure is "do it," now I do it whenever I want to, whenever it feels right. This is the first record ever that I did everything in one place. It's such an amazing freedom. If you don't catch it when it's there, it gets away, you know? Some of the moments on this record are definitely fucking moments. I'm very happy with that.

Maximum Metal: You've often been called the Paganini of heavy metal... Paganini had Charles Philippe Lafont, Mozart had Scalieri. Who was or has been either your mentor or competitor?

Yngwie: You know it's a funny thing, that's a good question..when I first came on the scene here in the States it was a whirlwind. I was in Steeler for like six weeks and I joined the band, did some gigs, recorded a record and then I left to work with Graham Bonnet. it happened so quick, that I didn't pay attention and since I am working on this book I've been looking back on my life then and it doesn't even seem like it was me because of my whole way of living now. I'm like a health freak now. I get up at 7 o'clock in the morning, play tennis, I don't touch alcohol, smoke cigarettes I'm like a total freak, and back then that was like the last thing on my list, I wonder what this is like — let's try this...so it's all different...when I first came on the scene there were all these articles about me and comparing me to Eddie Van Halen. I never realized what was going on with that so much, you have to remember I'm from Sweden and we have two TV channels, so all of a sudden this started happening...the whole competition thing, I never understood it, 'cause it's like an art form, right? It seems with guitar players it becomes that way. I never competed with anybody except for myself. I would never allow myself... I'm not a team player for nothing... it's my own shoulders....I'm pushing myself not to impress someone else, not to compete, I never understood my impact until much later. I do remember my first gig with STEELER...we played to 30 people...the next week we played the Troubadour..and I'm tuning my guitar and looking over and seeing all of these people lined up on the street and I asked someone who the fuck is playing tonight and the guy pointed to me and said "you are." What? One week it took and I was the talk of the town...they started saying I was the devil, that I said I was better than Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix and I never said any of those things, but this is the way it is. I didn't know what was going on; I was focusing on the music. I had no idea that a religion was being formed. No idea. I was on the road all the time, so I didn't think about the impact I had. When I was 8 or 9, Ritchie Blackmore was my God...then I got into the classical stuff more heavily.

Read the entire interrview from Maximum Metal.