The Lowdown: Carl Verheyen
 

Everyone has heard Carl Verheyen, whether they're aware of it or not. Through music and television soundtracks, a long list of studio session credits, as a member of Supertramp and leading his own group, Carl Verheyen makes regular appearances in our lives. Now with his 10th studio album, Trading 8's, Carl teams up with other musical masters to capture improvised conversations between guitars through inspired 8 bar exchanges. Dedicated to exploring the limits of instrumental possibilities, Carl Verheyen raises the standards for what it means to be 'just a guitarist.'

Altsounds: What's the most challenging project you've worked on?

Carl: I do a lot of movie and TV projects here in L.A.. In terms of sight reading, Michael Giacchino writes some complicated pieces. I've worked on Star Trek, LOST, Ratatouille, but there was a movie that came out last year, Speed Racer... the music on that movie was so hard for me to read. It was written in odd time signatures and jumped around all over the place. That was very challenging.

I've talked to a couple of virtuosos that also briefly attended music school. It seems they go in and learn a couple of classical songs and then go on to be the most creative musicians of our time. What did you get out of attending music school and do you think it's a necessary step for aspiring guitar masters?

I went to Berkley College of Music for 3 months in 1975. I believe you can learn everything on your own with various mentoring. Through instructors, lots of practice, going to gigs, transcribing songs, you can learn it all. What music school is good for is the mentoring and networking opportunities. There were 2 or 3 guys I went to school with that could really play. I've kept their numbers and we have sent each other work over the years. I think it's good for the early stages of your networking. To certain people, I would really recommend it. I teach in L.A. and a few places. I taught this one class that was called Advanced Electric Guitar in the Style of Carl Verheyen. [laughs] There was a guy in the class that asked, "Why do I need to play this? I just want to play like Slash." You can play like Slash by just listening to Slash. You don't need to go to school for that. Just listen to Guns N Roses and Velvet Revolver. It's not rocket surgery. [laughs]

Do you enjoy being a frontman?

Yeah, I do. I enjoy it because when I lead my own band, it is definitely my musical vision. So much I have done has been with other people. Supertramp and then the studio work- you're supporting someone else's musical vision. In the case of Supertramp, the vision is really deep. They draw on these influences that I wasn't really familiar with. I really respect their vision. Like "Breakfast in America" has this English dancehall sound. It's so great, but that's somebody else's musical vision. When I do my own music, it's my vision. I can make the music that I feel needs to be made, the way I think it should be done.

You've said before that if someone wants to master the guitar, they need to be an expert on the instrument as well as their musical history. If you were ever stranded on a desert island, do you think you'd be able to make your own guitar out of whatever happened to be lying about?

That would be tough- to make strings that sound right. It depends on what I crashed there with. I never travel without a guitar, so I would probably have at least the pieces with me.

Let's say you had absolutely nothing with you. You know a lot about guitars, I think you could put something together.

I'd start with a turtle shell and try to add a neck onto that somehow. There is this instrument called the turango. It's an 8-string South American instrument. I got a call one day asking me, "Can you play the turango?" I asked, "How many strings does it have? 8? Yes, I can play it." [laughs] I played it on a session for the movie Stand and Deliver. It's a giant turtle shell with a hole in one side. Obviously you take the turtle out of it first. Then they add a neck and some strings. I could try to make that.

Who do you admire?

I really admire some of these guys on my record. Steve Morris is one of my favorite players. Let's see... Paul McCartney. I love Joe Zawinul, he formed the band Weather Report, he played with Miles Davis... I love everything he ever did. Eric Clapton back in the Cream days. Hendrix. Jimmy Page. Jeff Beck. Mike Bloomfield was a big hero of a mine. Ry Cooder. Derek Trucks. Eric Johnson. David Gilmour. Stevie Ray Vaughan. Muddy Waters... the list goes on and on. I could be here all day naming people I look up to.

I read that you don't have your own recording studio. Why not?

My idea, so far anyway, has been to spend all my time playing the guitar and practicing the guitar. I want to be the best I can possibly be. When you get into recording, it's all about setting up the mics and mixing. I would rather spend my time playing and rely on the experts to record. My feeling has always been that if it's worthwhile, then do it right.

To me, recording is reading a lot of manuals and spending time working on those techniques. I do have some recording gear here so I can put ideas down. Maybe in the future I'll ramp it up to a studio and just hire an engineer to come over here. I did the album at Sunset Sound... the hallowed halls of recording. So many great albums have come out of there.

You're about to start the tour for the new album, Trading 8's...

I just got back yesterday from 2 and a half weeks in Italy, Spain and England doing a solo electric and acoustic tour. Now I'm home for 10 days, then we start out in Seattle and go down to San Diego. So, basically a tour of the West Coast. Europe was great. I played these neat little theaters in Italy. I played in Soho. I played this athletic club in the South of England, near Brighton on Saturday night. We had a lot of sold out shows. It's so nice being in England because they speak English. [laughs] They're just so delightfully polite. If you grew up with your parents stressing good manners, you get to England and it's like, "Oh, now I see why." Having good manners is good for traveling. [laughs]

Is there anything you haven't done yet that you're looking forward to?

My little band, the Carl Verheyen Band, we have scaled some wonderful heights in Europe. What I'm trying to do, with your help, AJ, is get to the same level in the States. They seem to really appreciate improvisers over there. They appreciate people who can paint a different watercolor every night. We have people who follow us around like we're the Dead. They'll come out to 4 or 5 shows and you see some of the same faces night after night. One of the things I really want to do is get to the same level over here.

Every day, somebody emails me from a far flung part of the US asking why we don't come out to South Dakota or Texas or wherever. To put together a tour that makes money or at least breaks even is easier said than done. Part of that is having a good agent. Self-promoting gigs where you don't bother with a club owner or a community theater agent is the best way to do it. Just find a place you can rent and then take care of it all yourself. Hire someone to promote it. That's the wave of the future. Do it yourself. On my next tour, I'm doing this in 3 places and I have street teams working it, bringing in as many people as they can. 200-300 seat venues are already selling out.

You should be playing high schools...

You know, we do a lot of workshops. We want ot make sure we're bringing along another generation. We don't want them to be "typers"- meaning we don't want them just living through the computer, piecing together solos instead of actually playing them.

I meant like you should show up at a bunch of high schools, pose as a student and win their talent shows. Just blow people away. [laughs]

[laughs] That's not a bad idea! You know, when I was in 7th grade, the school went up to 8th grade and they were having a talent show. I entered, but then I broke my right hand ring finger playing basketball. So, I had the doctor set this giant guitar pick into the cast on my hand. I played that Van Morrison song "Gloria" and I won!

[laughs] That's great! Well that's about all I had for you. Anything else you want to put out there?

The new CD is called Trading 8's. Joe Bonamassa, Robben Ford, Steve Morse, Rick Vito, Albert Lee and Scott Henderson all playing with a bunch of my friends. For guitar players, it's a really wonderful album to hear all those guys in one place.

Carl Verheyen - The Official Website