With Meshuggah, I never have more than 2-3 beers/drinks before a show because of the focus I need to have to not mess up the songs too much. With Scar Symmetry and Nocturnal Rites I can drink a little bit more on occasion. Alcohol can be a nice crutch to get in the right mood for a show but I really dig playing sober too. As a contrast, I don't usually party very hard post-show, maybe a beer or two with the band right after the show to relax and "come down". Mostly IPA
Oh yeah, I employ different strategies to make my lead tone sound wide and big, including stereo delay, reverb, and stereo modulation such as phaser and chorus. I like to place the stereo phaser in front of the amp (you need a stereo ampsim or two real amps) so it's like the classic EVH phaser-before-distortion sound but in stereo :) I sometimes use a stereo chorus but after the amp/cab.
I roll off a lot of high and low frequencies from the delay, which enables me to use generous amounts of delay, giving the tone width and body without drowning things
I was never really interested in playing 8 string guitars in the past - I didn't feel like I needed the extra range and I had never tried one that wasn't a bitch to play. Lately though, I wrote a couple of 8 string songs for Scar Symmetry and I got the Meshuggah gig, so I had Strandberg make me an 8 string version of my sig model, where we went to great lengths to come up with a much-improved new neck profile which solved the playability concerns I had from other 8 strings. I don't see myself adding even more strings to my instrument though - I would need to grow bigger hands then
I don't know - Jonas played that solo on the album :)
I rarely if ever feel the need to use a whammy bar, it's not so much part of my style. Also, I switch between standard and drop-A tunings and having a fixed bridge makes life easier in that regard :)
Plini is amazing, his latest album is sick! There's no plans to bring in guest musicians on a Scar Symmetry album but I'd love to collab with him on something else if the opportunity would arise.
No I don't think my brief university experiences have affected my music in any particular way, it's not like I use linear algebra, calculus or wave optics as creative music tools
I saw the first one, it was kinda scary!
Donald Trump
Dude I'm listening to Phase II every day here :) It's not finished though, still a lot of work, but everything's written and I'm like 75% done with the tracking. It's gonna be a massive motherfucker of an album, like at least an hour long. Right now I'm recording backing vocals for a fast, thrashy track called 'A Voyage with Tailed Meteors'. I don't think I've ever been this excited about a Scar Symmetry album, I think it will be worth the wait and then some :)
