@DanSugarman

Dan Sugarman

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Who inspired you to start making music growing up.

llAnchorll’s Profile PhotoJoshua orama ramos
To be honest, I feel like I was inspired to start playing music by my uncles. My Mom's side of the family is highly musical and creative, and very unconventional haha I definitely think they had a major influence on me and played a major roll in what I do today

how long you been playing the guitar? PD: you are one of my favoite guitarist

ahh thank you so much, that's an awesome thing to hear - I'm honored! I've been playing guitar for about 10 or 11 years now... can't wait to for the years to add up and see where my guitar takes me haha

What would be your suggestion(s) for new bands?

- Get your shit together (have the gear, have the right members, have the songs, have the right attitude)
- Get out there and play as many shows as you can
- Create amazing music and be able to perform it flawlessly live
- Go to other shows and make connections with other bands and industry people, put yourself out there.
- Cover all your social media platforms and be on top of it, be reachable and interactive with your fans, because turning your fans into friends is one of the best way to establish a following.
- Present an image that is real, and marketable. Nothing is worse then trying to hard or not trying at all.
- Be original, and be humble.
- Allow people to tell you that you suck, and ask them why so that you can take the constructive criticism.
- Always under promise and over achieve. The extra little things go a long way in making yourself memorable.
- Add your own ideas to this list and keep it handy as you evolve as a musician and band

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Liked by: Acoustic Feedback

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What foods do you stay away from, I thought I read somewhere you were actually vegan, is that correct?

Currently I avoid dairy and gluten/wheat. I was vegan for a little over a year and due to improper balance of that diet I had to go back to a diet richer in protein. Just the fact that I'm seeing this question in the same time frame that I'm thinking about going back to a vegan lifestyle is too synchronistic to ignore. For me, there's no doubt about it that I felt better for the first 6 months of being a vegan. But the second half really took it's toll on me... If I do go back I'll definitely do it right this time around.

What is your opinion on modern recordings in the metal scene now days? Seems like everyone is sampling drums for each hit to sound like building explosions for an example.

Totally, I think it's a sad example of what technology can do to a civilization that's always looking for the next convenient thing. Just turn on your local channels late at night to see what I mean, they pedal cheap, poorly made, mass produced garbage to the feeble minded eldery who stay up late at night and get suckered into buying that shit. I think that the music production world has become much of the same thing. You have a bunch of people who want to sound like "X" band, and a bunch of people who have found their own janky, McGyver ways of getting there. Nothing will ever sound as good as a real snare, getting hit by a real hand, recorded by a really good mic, in a really good room. Oh, the good old days. It's good to see that so many people recognize this problem though, because with that awareness comes discussions like this. And with discussions like this we have new movements that are going in the opposite direction as the trend. One day in the future real organic metal recordings may be a stale trend, and this plastic robotic machine shit we get today will be the resurgence that metal needs haha who knows man. All I know is that I'm glad the trend is slowly moving towards real shit again. I'll be honest though, I for one use superior drummer for my pre-production writing, and for my newest instrumental album. The cost of finding a drummer, the studio time, engineer, and mixing of the tracks alone was just too much right now. In a perfect world though that wouldn't be the case. There are two sides to everything...

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What do you want to do?

I want to live life to the fullest and I want to play music and be involved in anything that has to do with music until my last days on earth. What do you want to do?
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Liked by: Victoria Vlue

How your well. Have all you guys been able to recover the shit stollen from you? Like have you at leadt gotten it all replaced? That really sucks that people have to take from others. Hope you got some better equipment to keep your stuff safe. Take care. See you in AZ again soon i hope.

What's going on? Sadly, we weren't able to recover anything from the robbery. We've all filed our police reports with the Oakland PD and have yet to hear anything back. Thanks for the love though, catch you in AZ soon for sure!
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What advice would you have for someone recording metal guitars at home? I'm pretty confident mixing most other things, but I am rarely happy with the way my guitar tones turn out. I'm working with a pod HD 500x and BKP juggernauts just so you know. Thanks in advance man!

I don't have much experience with the pod HD 500x, but I know BKP juggernauts are solid rigs. The problem may be your pod, I personally use peavey revalver and I like the tones that I can get out of it. I am also looking into another piece of software called positive grid which I'm hoping to switch over to for my DI recordings.
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What would I have to do to get your dead honest opinion on a song? My two friends released their first song and I want to hear the opinion of someone respectable

I wouldn't mind doing that at all man, just send it the track my way on facebook or shoot it over to sugartonestudios@gmail.com
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Dude, I talk to Lech frequently so next time I go to LA, can we chill? You're freakin cool haha I was looking through your answers and you just seem awesome! I'm from NorCal by the way.

Hit me up man! If i'm available I'd love to link up dude
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as the process of writing songs with the as blood runs black work? first ride instrumental and then put the letter on top, or do everything at the same time?

hugueera’s Profile Photohugo
In ABRB, as well as everything that I write starts with an instrumental idea that begins to unfold into a song. Only more recently have I started to write songs with a vocal melody in mind before I start the music. Usually for me the root of where the music comes from dictates the direction that the song goes in
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My head is so dry I know I have a lot of good shit inside there but I just can't start to write a song... Any advice?

I would definitely advise to get out of your own head and don't begin by thinking is starts there. Creativity is a mood, an emotion almost. You need to get in the right "head-space" to be able to channel whatever it is you're feeling to travel through you and into your guitar. It's your job to translate what's already there, so don't think about it so much. Set yourself up for success by being open to allowing the right brain to take over and having the ability to document ideas so that you can later come back and use the left brain to comb over everything and piece it all together. In reality dude, there is no way to talk about song writing in a few paragraphs, or for you to even explain your true issue in a sentence. I've been doing creativity courses with a few of my students and have been having some varied degrees of success and it seems to be sparking quite a bit of creative flow. If you're interested in something like that hit me up at dansugarmanlessons@gmail.com or you can hit me up on my facebook page.
Hope what I said sorta kinda helps... my words are really just sign posts pointing at a general idea - an idea that we could go much much deeper into. Talk soon dude!

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Who did you end up going with the production and/or mixing and mastering of Ground Zero? Cheers for taking the time to answer your fans questions on here btw refreshing to see someone from a band clearly so down to earth :)

We decided to go with our longtime friend and engineer of the last 2 records Zack Ohren. At this point he's done all 3 of our albums and we couldn't be happier with the way they've all turned out. Ground Zero sounds massive compared to the other records, so Zack has definitely been upping his game since the beginning. Dude is a master of his craft haha love that guy
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hey dan i have a problem when i play guitar, i always have to snap my wrists (always the left one) then my hands get tired. and my index finger on my right hand i think its crooked...so my hands start getting tired. what should i do or what am i doing wrong ??

Hmm... so you're saying that you have to snap/crack your wrist (specifically the fretting hand wrist) in order to begin playing? And then once you begin to play your hands get drained to quickly of their energy and you think its because your picking hand's index finger is crooked? Interesting my dude... I definitely can sense that something is off here and I know there is a solution to it, but I need more information and/or I need to see this in person or through skype. I give guitar lessons online if you didn't know, and this is something we could definitely tackle together. You can contact me at dansugarmanlessons@gmail.com if you're interested in discussing details, or you can go ahead and hit me up through my facebook and we can talk there. Let's get at it sooner then later - I don't want you to hurt yourself dude!

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What do you use for recording?

I've got a 27" iMac 3.4 GHz intel core i7 running Logic Pro 9, an apogee duet as my interface, 2 Rokit 6 speakers, and a shure SM7B running through a cloudlifter for my vocals and acoustic guitar tracking. Superior drummer for the win when it comes to getting my drums dialed in, and I use mostly wave plugins. As for what guitars I usually track with, lately I've been tracking a lot with my MusicMan JP Majesty, as well as my Gibson SG Standard, and sometimes my Jackson SL1 for leads or a background guitar part just for different color. I have a few really nice sounding ESP guitars as well, but they can't seem to get the same sort of alive-ness and punch that the JP is getting. When it comes to tracking acoustic I always use my Breedlove Performance Focus Series for steel string pieces and my Takamine EG522C for nylon pieces. I used to have a pretty sweet bass that I was borrowing from a friend but it is no longer in my possession, so I am currently looking for a bass to fill that spot in my studio.

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What do you use for recording
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Hector... that nigga scares the fuck outta me with that murderer face, he must be an angry guy

hahahaha lech is a good dude - there's lots going on underneath the mad dog face
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Do you like Colombia?

I absolutely love Colombia man - it's definitely one of my favorite places I've ever been to with or without music haha love it there
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Liked by: Dylan Osorio

Would you ever be a beer drinking power bottom?

Considering I don't drink and I have no fucking clue what you're asking me, the answer would have to a resounding whaaaaa?
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What your favourite band is? ;)

At this very moment I've been listening to a lot of Alt J. Not a metal band in the slightest sense, but the vibe they create is undeniable.
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