Yngwie Malmsteen: The Complete 1984 Alcatrazz Interview

Yngwie Malmsteen: The Complete 1984 Alcatrazz Interview - Tape 1

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Talking Guitar: Jas Obrecht's Music Magazine

Жыл бұрын

Welcome to my Talking Guitar podcast featuring the first tape of one of Swedish guitar great Yngwie Malmsteen’s very first interviews in America. At the time of this conversation, Yngwie was 20 years old and just the night before had finished his first round of shows with Alcatrazz.
I’d first heard Malmsteen's playing on a demo cassette he’d made in Sweden, called “Rising Force.” Soon after that, Yngwie was profiled in Mike Varney’s “Spotlight” column in the February 1983 issue of Guitar Player magazine. Mike arranged for Yngwie to come to the United States to make a record with a band called Steeler. Yngwie stayed in the States and formed Alcatrazz with singer Graham Bonnet. There was a lot of buzz about Yngwie’s unique and brilliantly played neo-classical style, so in November 1983 photographer Jon Sievert and I attended his performance at a club in San Francisco. We met backstage after the show, and Yngwie agreed to do an interview as soon he took break from touring.
A few weeks later Alcatrazz had ten days off, and I accepted Yngwie’s invitation to call him at his apartment in L.A. As you’ll hear, he was bright, articulate, upfront, and very passionate about his music during our 85-minute interview. Here’s the first half of our conversation, which took place on January 3, 1984. Here's Tape 2: • Yngwie Malmsteen: The ...
Here's a link to view the cover art of Yngwie's "Rising Force" demo: jasobrecht.substack.com/p/yng...
Color photos of Yngwie onstage by Jas Obrecht.
I hope you enjoy this unique, never-before-released recording.
To help us continue producing podcasts, hit that donate button and send some support our way: paypal.me/TalkingGuitar. Thanks!
Thanks to engineer/producer Nik Hunt for enhancing the sound of the 39-year-old master tape. Be sure to check out the other historic interviews on the Talking Guitar KZfaq channel. For dozens more guitar-intensive podcasts, interview transcripts, and articles, visit Talking Guitar magazine at jasobrecht.substack.com/. #yngwiemalmsteen #risingforce #alcatrazz #jasobrecht #talkingguitar #nikhunt #guitarplayermagazine
This podcast is copyright 2023 by Jas Obrecht. All rights reserved.

Пікірлер: 113

@srwaite7 Жыл бұрын

“For 8 years I played 9 hours per day.” That’s how you do it. Thanks for sharing the good stuff, Jas! 👌🏻🎸🖖🏻

@peanutbutterisfu 8 ай бұрын

That’s why so many stop playing it takes a lot.

@stevenculver6416 Жыл бұрын

40 yrs later and he never wavered from his vision

@PhpGtr Жыл бұрын

I read this when it came out. He's a bit more humble on tape than it seemed in print. Glad to hear it.

@clovergrass9439 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for publishing this. Articulate, intelligent, humble, great interview with Yngvie.

@LicksoftheLegend Жыл бұрын

Man the idea that the Solos were improvised with no splicing is wild.

@JerryCherryBand 10 ай бұрын

A year later in 85 I got to hang out backstage with Yngwie and band. I was 15 and sat in front of him while he warmed up. Just amazing. Opening for AC/DC at the Hollywood Sportotorium..

@mickdestiny6542 Жыл бұрын

Amazing interview. It puts everything about Yngwie into perspective. He comes across as an incredibly intelligent person. Hats off to Yngwie..

@davidepannone6021 8 ай бұрын

He is. I mean think about it: dude comes from a place that was very "closed" mentally (60/70s sweden, but any other northern eu countries was like that, now things are different) to fucking 80s Los Angeles lol. Can you imagine a 20 year old that became the hottest star in the guitar world overnight not going nuts and getting somewhat of an ego? That would happen to 95% of people. I also think that coming from a very different place (remember, Sweden had a single tv channel that aired for 4 hours a day, no internet, and doing an international call would cost SHITTON of money so you really didn't know much about the outside world and other cultures) makes you think and being social in a very different manner (especially humor, yngwie's humor is very European, even to this day). Then in a blink of an eye everything gets reversed and you go from being some kid in Sweden that likes to play guitar to be considered a god. I mean, who wouldn't flip out lol. Let alone the fact that from there on fake fickle people start to surround you because of your sudden fame. I think a lot of people misjudge yngwie from interviews he did in the 80s when admittedly yes, he was coming off as egotistical and a bit of a douche, especially when asked about guitar players. I can kinda understand why. I mean it's like you go interviewing a chef, or a movie director and you ask them about other people. You'd think the dude is an asshole, and so you'll start being an asshole too. You're supposed to talk about your guest, not bringing up other people constantly. It's pretty clear from this and many other interviews that he's simply 100% passionated about what he does and he doesn't compromise his artistic integrity for absolutely nothing or no one. I am not trying to excuse yngwie for what has said in past interviews, I could care less shit as he doesn't even know I exist lol. I just think people often misjudge or take him completely out of context. There is a very recent Rick beato interview with yngwie and it's probably the best yngwie interview out there. It truly shows yngwie the man, and not the "rockstar". Go check it, it's really REALLY good.

@Barbarian646 2 ай бұрын

He is to an extent, buy he made a major mistake getting rid of JLT, since then his albums got worse and worse, as did his career

@mikemaj8467 11 ай бұрын

Amazing interview! I see Yngwie differently. He has a reputation for being arrogant or egotistical but he is in fact humble. I think this is because he is confident and knows what he wants. I find it amazing that Yngwie was able to develop his style and technique on his own before he was 20 years old. A non musician may not understand completely how amazing his technique is. To put it simply there was no one playing like this on guitar for almost another 20 years, and to this day even with the internet making learning the guitar so much easier there aren't too many guitarist in the world that have this degree of technique. I have heard less than a handful and none of them come close to Yngwie. He was able to figure out on his own technique that differed greatly from other guitarist in terms of mechanics which allowed him to play so fast. I love that Yngwie is a purist. An example being his use of single coil guitar pickups in a world dominated by double coil pickups in the hard rock world. Yngwie created "shred" guitar.

@edwardc1788 Жыл бұрын

This is amazing to hear! Thanks so much for posting this. Yngwie sounds like such a sweet guy back when he was young. It’s true about how jealous people can get, and I could just imagine what it was like for yngwie. I bet half the negative stories you hear about him are borne out of jealousy

@CTROCK 11 ай бұрын

No guitar player can beat Yngwie in this style of playing! King Yngwie!

@These_go_to_eleven_1959 9 ай бұрын

"This style" is YNGWIE! 😁 Seriously can anyone name anyone that was playing like what you hear him playing on Rising force or Marching out? Back then i was playing for about 4 years and i remember thinking this guy definitely invented another way to play that was nothing like Eddie Van Halen who everyone and i Mean EVERYONE was copying! Even the guy with the Rick james Band was copying eddie! Yngwie has his own style 100%! I don't hear the typical Eddie influence with him. Love the way he took Paganini Violin licks and baroque music and used them in a heavier context.

@BaronQ Жыл бұрын

He was a very bright and focused 20 year old. Pretty humble too. No wonder so many hate(d) him. Commonality with Edward in your recently released interviews, not in it for the money. They are always the ones that succeed. His now famous ego is pretty justified. Zero compromise to his vision. I'm not a massive Yngwie fan but I'll put out there that after Hendrix; then Edward; he really was the next 6 string electric game changer. 🤘

@walterevans2118 Жыл бұрын

Absolutely. Like Ed Yngwie was this pure focused musician who just loved to play and create and to take his instrument to a new level. He wasn’t into the ‘fame’ trip at all.. He loved to play too much for all that…I also remember that like with ED VH a lot of other players became very jealous of him and at such a young age in the spotlight that must have been a heavy burden for Yngwie to take looking back.

@walterevans2118 Жыл бұрын

You could tell here that Yngwie was a purist musician by what he said about the word ‘practice’..He felt that word implied some kind of arduous ‘sacrifice’ but to him it wasn’t…Just playing the guitar was something he ENJOYED.😊

@RichardFriendartist Жыл бұрын

yup. you are spot on with this!!

@vbassone Жыл бұрын

You forgot Allan Holdsworth, a TOTAL game changer…..

@walterevans2118 Жыл бұрын

@@vbassone Yes. Allan was a genius because he took the guitar which is an instrument sounded with percussive attack on the strings and turned it into sounding like an instrument you blow upon. Like a saxophone…As EVH said of Allan -‘The attack of his pick is INVISIBLE’. Yngwie LOVED Allans playing. Right back to this interview …Somewhere on KZfaq there is a video on Yngwie and his band doing a sound check playing Allan’s stuff of UK ‘S In the Dead of Night…Plus on a section of Kree Nakoorie on the No Parole from Rock and Roll album Yngwie was promoting in this interview you can hear him use the vibrato bar in ways that kind of sound like a tribute to Allan’s playing..Among doing his own thing.

@VirtousoForGod 9 ай бұрын

This is the best interview with Yngwie I’ve ever heard. This guy picked his brain better than anyone ever. This will help me improve as a guitarist 😊

@elec123 Жыл бұрын

These interviews are absolutely priceless. It's such an amazing treat. Thank you, sir.

@RichardFriendartist Жыл бұрын

oh my god. this is GOLD Jas. (all your work is) But to actually hear this interview is going to be absolutely insane. thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!

@walterevans2118 Жыл бұрын

Yip ….lol

@RichardFriendartist Жыл бұрын

@@walterevans2118 hahaha. I've been a super Yngwie nerd since around 85. This era is so interesting. I am about 23 minutes in now and man it is better than I even hoped. !!

@danvincent2600 Жыл бұрын

I know! 'oh I started speaking English about 18 months ago ' whaaaa!!!???

@chriskroll4166 Жыл бұрын

When yngwie first came to this country and started touring with Steeler they did a little record promotion add a record shop and my girlfriend went and she said there was only about 10 people there and she first met yngwie and talk to him for a couple of hours and she said he was a beautiful guy. Then every timing they would come back to town she would go to the show and he would get her VIP passes and he treated her like gold. Finally one day he came on tour and she brought me to the show and introduce me to him on his tour bus and he was a very nice guy. Contrary to all the stories I hear I didn't have a problem with him. But then I didn't get on his nerves 🤣

@walterevans2118 Жыл бұрын

Ah nice.

@joemars41 2 ай бұрын

Very cool experience 💥

@roswellminard9350 Жыл бұрын

I'll never forget the first time I heard him play. Spring 1984, I was about to head out the door to get on the school bus with MTV on. The video came on for "Island In The Sun" and that solo floored me. Spent all day at school wondering "what the hell was that?" And I thought the term "it is what it is" was of a relatively recent origin; here we hear the Maestro using it in 1984! (3:25). A linguistic as well as a musical groundbreaker LOL! Great interview and I agree with some of the other comments, he comes across here as much more humble and down to earth than the interviews in print lead me to believe. Great stuff! Thank you Jas.

@Jimmy.Williams 5 ай бұрын

Hahaha...I still remember watching "Island in the Sun" when I had maybe played guitar for a few months and thought..."WHO THE HELL IS THIS GUY PLAYING THE COOL SOLO???" (as he's ripping on the guitar walking down the prison hallway, lol). Years later would find out...oh it's THAT guy...what an insane talent, once in a generation type player.

@raven5679 Жыл бұрын

Thanks Jas! Something incredible to listen to at work this morning

@JPM777 Жыл бұрын

Jas, you were my favorite music journalist. Loved your columns . I also learned English reading Guitar Player and Guitar World. I started plying guitar after the movie Crossroads. But my main influence was Malmsteen. I couldn't believe someone could play like that. Thank you so much, mr. Obrecht for all the great articles, columns and great questions. 👍 Thanks for sharing.

@ScottyBrockway Жыл бұрын

What a great interview, thank you Jas this is amazing. PLEASE post a Randy Rhoads interview if it exists.

@mikaelstrom1114 Жыл бұрын

Great Interview. Malmsteen appeared more mature back then.

@elec123 Жыл бұрын

It was before fame and fortune took it's grips

@ActivateBeastMode1 Жыл бұрын

@@elec123 and before he got CTE from his car accident

@JoseFuentes-fn3dl Жыл бұрын

Cte?

@Nghilifa 5 ай бұрын

"Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a brain disorder likely caused by repeated head injuries. It causes the death of nerve cells in the brain, known as degeneration. CTE gets worse over time. The only way to definitively diagnosis CTE is after death during an autopsy of the brain."@@JoseFuentes-fn3dl

@kreuzzer2845 8 ай бұрын

this is such a wonderful and honest interview with Yngwie! thanks for sharing! Greetings from Germany, KREUZZER!

@heyjarrod Жыл бұрын

Almost finished with part one, looking forward for part two. I keep reminding myself that he is only 21 years old here. Or maybe still 20, trying to temember the dates and his birthday. Man, just like listening to Jan’s interview with Eddie when he was still only 21 or 22. So much experience with everything, different types of playing, gear, this sounds like an interview that could’ve just been done this week. I don’t remember hearing many guitar players talking about melody and modes and scales, and just giving such great advice. I mean, 21 years old. And so advanced. Just like Eddie and Randy, and maybe a few other greats!!! 😝🤘🏻🎸

@EgoShredder 7 ай бұрын

All without the help of the internet too, which all the recent so called amazing musicians rely on. Yngwie is truly self taught in every sense, and a true genius.

@walterevans2118 Жыл бұрын

What an excellent interview from a young Yngwie. He sounded so down to earth, modest, but very knowledgeable about what he was doing & about his contemporaries. I always remember when I first discovered him playing in the 1st half of the 1980s. I would enthuse about EVH and Michael Schenker & then one day this bloke said to me - 'Have you heard about THIS young guy' ? ...The TWO bizarre things I remember about Yngwie was that at first idiots didn't believe he was even REAL and then everyone in England was pronouncing his Christian Name INCORRECTLY......At this workplace (The Dental Estimates Board which I would call 'The Mental Destitute's Board') these people couldn't believe Yngwie was REAL. This clown kept insisting after being played No Parole From Rock N Roll - 'Its a CHEAT , Its a TAPE SPEEDED UP......NOBODY can play that FAST that ACCURATE with that emotional INTENSITY' .....So this Daft as a Brush idiot told me I was being fooled by a technological cheat like 'autotune' is today...Much like they falsely claimed EVH's 2 hand Bach solos were a 'synthesizer' solo cheat back in 1978.....Yngwie was so good that people wouldn't even believe he was REAL..🤔🧐😳...lol .....Then later when people went to the Alcatrazz gigs & heard bootlegs the daft Dumbos finally realized that Yngwie was in fact TOTALLY REAL.....That was a dinner plate drop wake up call ....CLANGGGG !!!😲😲...The moment when hundreds of thousands of guitar players globally suddenly went - 'Oh SH*T...WE'RE IN BLOODY TROUBLE NOW' 😧😦😨🥴🥴🥴.....Then they couldn't pronounce his first name correctly.....'Hey Evans, what do you think of 'ONG -VI' ?? ......then another one would come in and go - 'Have you heard this lead break by 'ARG-WEE' ?? ......One Jack Hammer even called him 'YIG-NEY' 😕🤥🙄....I think even when I was listening to Yngwie (pronounced ING-VAY) back then in Alcatrazz it was obvious that all these band he was placed in were too limited a musical environment for what he knew he could express as both a player & composer. The Steeler band wanted to limit his neo classical melodies by forcing him into 'thud rock cliche'.....Alcatrazz, (though Graham Bonnet was a totally brilliant vocalist),, might have been an attempt to build a Rainbow sound reunion without Mr. Blackmore but that wasn't going to work either. That's when Yngwie went his own way & carved out his own empire & thank GOD he did because anything else would have wasted his potential. And he never looked back. And re-designed the sound of Rock Guitar to sound like Paganini's violin. 💥💥💥💥💣💣💣👍👍👍🙏🙏

@lesbianmustardbottle957 Жыл бұрын

You certainly are a passionate man.

@walterevans2118 Жыл бұрын

@@lesbianmustardbottle957 That's rich coming from someone with the profile title - 'Lesbian Mustard Bottle'....lolol

@lesbianmustardbottle957 Жыл бұрын

@@walterevans2118 You should see my seed. My mustard seed.

@walterevans2118 Жыл бұрын

@@lesbianmustardbottle957 I'm only interested if you are (in the words of Roy Orbison) PRETTY WOMAN ....Sings - 'Pretty Woman , Don't walk on by..Pretty Woman don't make me cry.'

@VincePalamaraJFK Жыл бұрын

This is truly fantastic-thanks for posting!

@skolcityblues2132 7 ай бұрын

This is fantastic 4 YM fans .. Holy Grail of Yngwie interviews !!!! 🎸🐐

@magnusbnordh9624 Жыл бұрын

Great interview ! Thanks for putting it Up.

@derrylgabel Жыл бұрын

Hi Jas, thanks for posting! Great interview!

@leandromusashi 5 ай бұрын

Loved the interview! Thank you!

@walterevans2118 Жыл бұрын

YNGWIE Interview ....Early 1984 ??...BRILLIANT.

@Voodutube Жыл бұрын

Super genuine. He tells all. There is no mystery. Excellent stuff.

@ddking-mb4ir 5 ай бұрын

not really , not mention to the😁 dod 250

@PhillFest 11 ай бұрын

In that Mike Varney/Spotlight under influences: Uli Jon Roth, Al DiMeola, Allan Holdsworth and Ritchie Blackmore! Great to hear this interview!

@MusicTherapyLaz Жыл бұрын

So cool Jas... Johnny Beane sent me... I see him live with then back in the 80s... my senior year in High School... it was a killer show! 🤘😎🎸🔥

@angelblancorocks 10 ай бұрын

Here is a funny one: Myself being used to the German pronunciation of J.S. and Johann's last names, at ca. 42min when you mentioned Randy being into Bach and Pachelbel I misheard the words and instead heard: "Taco Bell"; so I genuinely had the same impression of Yngwie as "WHO's THAT!?" so I had to rewind a bit to check about it ( even the YT's CC got it like that too !) hehehehehe gosh I had a laugh. Anyhow, THANK YOU very much sir for sharing these jewels. All the best ! AB ps.- I am subscribing.

@vanguard4065 8 ай бұрын

i love Yngwie. i have been listening to him nearly everyday of my lif since i first heard him in 1991 when i was 14 yrs old. I enjoy his playing that much.

@danvincent2600 Жыл бұрын

I learned a lot from sir yngwie by playing transcriptions. I am a viking etc. ... Great for development but I never got to his phenomenal speed

@melancholyhussar Жыл бұрын

This is so great! I've been waiting/hoping for this one. I discovered Yngwie in August 1983 when I bought the Steeler album. On New Year's Eve, I was at a party and the radio station from Providence RI was counting down the best metal albums of the year. I heard the DJ say something about "guitar player from Steeler" which got my attention. I don't remember what track they played, but I bought the album two days later. That would have been January 2, the day before this was recorded. I got the Guitar Player issue with the interview about a month later. Talking Heads on the cover. I still have it! It was interesting that you mentioned Ulrich Roth twice. That wasn't in the print issue, which surprised me at the time because his influence on Yngwie was so obvious. Thank you for sharing these recordings. Such a wonderful part of Guitar history!

@mrshredder0076 Жыл бұрын

very cool !!!!

@jamescaldwell982 22 күн бұрын

🤘 awesome 🤘

@bonzey1171 Жыл бұрын

So cool he learned English to read your work. The circle is complete

@DaveWestGuitar 10 ай бұрын

He sounds so nice. Kind of weird that he was labeled an egomaniac from the day he landed here.

@geezberry8889 Жыл бұрын

yngwie was playing out of his mind back then.

@bradford_shaun_murray Жыл бұрын

16:14 Schenker is tasty

@geezberry8889 Жыл бұрын

@@bradford_shaun_murray lol

@Chester_Cheese 9 ай бұрын

There are certain things that I will always find a bit mysterious about Yngwie's early history, and there is absolutely nothing more mysterious than his absolute command of not only the English language, but of the "American" dialect, vernacular and idioms. I do understand that English is taught as a second language in Sweden...but C"MON...how the heck was Yngwie speaking so "American" after only arriving in the USA a few months earlier, at the age of 19. He must have been learning and speaking English even when attending Sweden's equivalent of elementary and middle schools, and quite probably being taught by American-born teachers. Heck, it is difficult to even discern his native Swedish "accent", in these interviews.

@bradford_shaun_murray Жыл бұрын

Yngwie!

@MisterPoppy-sc1sj 9 ай бұрын

Genius

@ccdeweese 7 ай бұрын

I read 86 percent of people speak English in Sweden. English is taught universally in Sweden.

@AlexAnder-or3kq 2 ай бұрын

He never mentions Talee Savage who came to America with him and lived with him during the Steeler period. I chat with her a few times

@dorianponcela9680 11 ай бұрын

Malmsteen talking about Gary Moore... very interesting, and shows that Gary was as important as Eddie playing guitar at that time. In fact, the difference was that Eddie was in the US and Gary was in Europe...

@rahbirt 8 ай бұрын

His English was way better back then!

@johnkatsaros7340 5 ай бұрын

Before the car crash.

@JerryCherryBand 10 ай бұрын

He learned English from reading Guitar Player Mag. Fitting 🎸

@transparent6748 11 ай бұрын

Correction,,Eddie Van Halen is a European guitarist like you Yngwie lol,,living in the states 😅

@Sunedosa 10 ай бұрын

EVH moved to the US when he was 7, went to US schools and grew up there . I'd say he was more american than dutch tbh, when the first EVH album was released he was 23 . YJM came to the US as a 19/20 year old, not really the same thing.

@transparent6748 10 ай бұрын

@@Sunedosa it’s absolutely the same,,not born in America.period

@Sunedosa 10 ай бұрын

@@transparent6748 Not as you worded it the first time, sure EVH was born in europe but he grew up as an american, not many refer to him as a "european" guitarist. He didn't play guitar at 7 while YJM had played for 13 years when he arrived to the US. I don't think thats the same, fine if you do though.

@transparent6748 10 ай бұрын

@@Sunedosa you won’t give up do you,,I’m sure his father who actually went to the states with his family and chased a music career influenced Eddie more than anyone,,Eddie learned piano first and his biggest hero was Eric Clapton who’s probably also American according to you,,if Eddie had been brought up in the states and schooled traditional wise in music the outcome would have sounded much different trust me,,,and yes a very famous youtuber for guitar technique Troy Grady calls him the dutch inventor

@Sunedosa 10 ай бұрын

@@transparent6748 Does the wikipage say "European musician " then ? Even if you're technically correct he was not generally PERCEIVED as dutch/european. Argue against that as much as you want, more people consider him american than not : Edward Lodewijk Van Halen (/væn ˈheɪlən/ van HAY-lən, Dutch: [ˈɛtʋɑrt ˈloːdəʋɛik fɑn ˈɦaːlə(n)]; January 26, 1955 - October 6, 2020) was an American musician. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he founded with his brother Alex in 1972. Van Halen is widely regarded as one of the greatest guitar players in rock history,[1] and was well-known for popularizing the tapping guitar technique, allowing rapid arpeggios to be played with two hands on the fretboard.

@JoeyArmstrong2800 9 ай бұрын

Come on. John Norum?

@peanutbutterisfu 8 ай бұрын

He literally said Eddie didn’t play melody he’s a flashy player lmao!

@billyshane3804 Жыл бұрын

NO PAROLE FROM ROCK'N'ROLL

@georgemandom69 Жыл бұрын

Lol asking for his full birthday. Nobody gives out that information anymore because of ID theft.

@m0rvidusm0rvidus18 Жыл бұрын

Interesting hearing about Sweden back when it was civilized and sophisticated and low crime, apparently somewhat nationalistic too. Didn't take long to destroy themselves, like every other 'enlightened' European stock.

@EgoShredder 7 ай бұрын

All laid out in the Protocols of Zion (1905). Planned and executed, all of it came true. 3hr audiobook reading uploads elsewhere on the other YT alternatives.

@Nghilifa 5 ай бұрын

Germany was low crime and nationalistic way back when, look how that turned out. Nothing good comes out of nationalism.

@EgoShredder 5 ай бұрын

@@Nghilifa The whole of Europe could have shared in their success, at escaping the usury debt slave global system, but instead Europe was compromised by the enemy and turned against the one showing the way. Traitors like Churchill were used to achieve this.