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Rock Band Interview with Andy Timmons

Andy Timmons is a world class rock guitar player. Although his roots are in rock and roll, his facility in all styles led to a busy career on the road and in the studio. In this interview, Andy tells stories of starting a career in rock, record business pitfalls, and studio work.

Andy Timmons just may be the most versatile guitarist in the world! As guitarist for pop-metal band Danger Danger, he toured the world opening for Kiss and Alice Cooper, sold over a million records worldwide, and had two #1 videos on MTV, plus amassing a discography that includes 6 solo releases that range from blazing guitar instrumentals, to blues, and even a Beatles/Elvis Costello-inspired collection of pop tunes.

Access Rock: This new album really shows off every facet of your playing.

Andy: Yah - it's like an Andy Timmon's Demo! (Laughs) Before my stint with rock band Danger Danger, I had already started recording some of my own instrumental stuff. I had a trio here in Texas that was playing that style of music. Anytime I would get a chance to get back to Texas, we would be recording on and off. The longer that I went through the Danger Danger experience..which if you are familiar with that band at all, it was very much pop-metal, sort-of chasin' Bon Jovi's tail. It was a great experience though it became really frustrating being stuck in that genre and having that stigma attached to you. Especially being a player that grew up as a rock and roll player and then got into a lot of different styles, the last thing I really wanted to be known for was a hair-metal guitar player, you know! So by the time I finally split away from that and got the chance to put my own record out, it was kind of like, 'Yah - O.K. you know me from that band, but here are all of these other things that I'm into. So initially it was kind-of about that - establishing my versatility, hopefully, and showing off some of the other styles of music I was into.

Access Rock: You mean EarX-tacy was?

Andy: Exactly. I guess there are quite a few tunes on this new compilation that go back to that first record. So, considering where I have grown from there, it's probably even a wider span of variety, hopefully.

Access Rock: Yah, it definitely is!

Andy: Hopefully it's not too weird, you know (laughs)? That's the challenge when you release records.. especially when you're dealing with the same record label. They want everything to be in kind-of the same ball park. That's understandable to make it a bit more marketable.

Access Rock: Oh Yah! That's one of the questions that I was going to ask..What's the Favored Nations record label all about?

Andy: That's the cool thing about the label. Going back to that time where I had the experience with Danger Danger, I really had the opportunity to look at the record industry from the inside a little bit. When I grew up in this small town in Indiana, it [the record business] was always this mysterious thing..and it still kinda is in some ways. Certainly I got to see a lot of the good things, but a lot of the bad things like how far away it actually got from the music and the actual artist or musician. It's a huge business and that's the bottom line. I saw time and again so many decisions being made that affected peoples' lives..there wasn't any regard to the art and the music and the personal feelings involved with it. When the Danger Danger thing fell apart with law suits and all of these horrible things, I kinda just snuck out the back door to Texas and thought, 'I never want to be in that situation again!' I want to be able to create the music I want without the limitations of that whole end of it. My career since then has just been kind of this trickling effect of recording the music I want to record and initially releasing it on my own label. It's also led to licensing deals, dating back to that early time, around the world really..never really anything in the states. This deal with Favored Nations is the first label that really made sense to go with, and it makes sense for them to have an artist like me on their label. This all gets to the point of them understanding that variety isn't a bad thing..that there is a fan base out there that can appreciate a variety of things, not needing it to be the same groove for 12 songs..you know what I mean?

Access Rock: Oh Yah! I think there is an audience for that.

Andy: No doubt about it..and also on the business side of things, what's unusual about Favored Nations is they literal treat it as a partnership with the artist. It's literally a 50/50 partnership!

Access Rock: Wow! That's unheard of!

Andy: It's pretty unheard of..and hats off to Steve Vai for approaching it in that way having been through everything he's been through in his career and having seen all of the things that I have seen. He's handled so many things so brilliantly throughout his career, as far as directions that he has chosen. The greatest example to me was when he had been through the Zappa thing and then he was with David Lee Roth and had obviously garnered quite a bit of attention. He'd recorded a solo record but had decided to hold it back while he had the opportunity to tour with Whitesnake, who was like the biggest pop band at the time. So he had all of this exposure on MTV and then he released the record.. like, O.K., [that was] timing!!

Access Rock: Yah!

Andy: Certainly, I admire him as a musician..he's incredible in what his abilities are! But also, he's a really street smart guy! So, it's been great working with him and being able to learn a bit because the business, for me, has always been the weakest part of being in the music business for me.

Access Rock: It's the biggest oxymoron..the music-business!

Andy: Exactly! It's so far away from what this started off to be which was the pure love of doing what we do. So to have to handle all these situations with money and all this..it's so uncomfortable for me! I know it's the same with a lot of musicians..I'm certainly not the exception.

Access Rock: Yah. So the labels you were on before were European labels?

Andy: Actually, the first two EarX-tacy CD's came out on a division of Sony in Japan. There were a couple of different labels for a couple of different records over in Europe. There were never any in the states [until now]. I just pressed my own copies and had them distributed as best as I could throughout the southwest. Since the internet kicked in, that's been a nice way of getting music around the world, really. That was one of the nice things about the Danger Danger experience. A lot of people at least, did know me through that band. And it was a popular band especially in Asia and Europe. It did pretty well in the states as well. There were still fans of that band that would search out what I was up to. That didn't hurt! With a combination of all the things, I just keep rowin' and I'm able to keep busy between that and some of these other side gigs that I do.

Access Rock: Absolutely! You have to..unless you're lucky enough to get the "big gig"!

Andy: I'd love to make a record that really gets out there on a big level! But I just feel so fortunate to (A) be working at all, you know what I mean (laughs)? So just to be giggin' and that there are a few people out there who want to check out the record. Man! That's an honor!

Access Rock: Yah, how have the sales been so far?

Andy: Probably in the tens now, meaning somewhere under 100, no (laughs). I think it would be good to guess about 5000 at this point. They are not huge numbers but it's a nice start.

Access Rock: Definitely! Well, it just came out in May, right?

Andy: Yah. And that's the thing, I'm not in a position to pick up and tour on my own. We're hoping with the next release, which we're trying to get out by spring '03, to get out for a US tour. I haven't ever done a tour in the states, only over in Europe and Asia. So it would be great to get out on tour because that seems to be one of the only ways you really get a buzz goin' and get the interest happenin'. What's great about this record on Steve's label is they put some ads in the guitar magazines, which you know, it's very hard to get covered unless you've got a band which is selling some good numbers! Even though I've had some friends at these different magazines and they're like, "yah, you know..get the deal thing happenin' and even still I didn't get a whole lot of coverage. Since the Danger Danger days, I was sending my solo records to all of the different magazines, but again it's like catch-22. They can't give you much coverage until you're on a bigger label and selling a lot of records. This new album is actually my seventh record.

Access Rock: As far as the Danger Danger gig, was it the typical Rock and Roll lifestyle?

Andy: A little bit, yah, which was a bit of culture shock for me. The whole time I was growing up playing guitar and through school, it was always about being a great musician. Gene Simmons will argue this with me, but it was never about getting the chicks or whatever, you know what I mean? It was getting your playing together, then really studying hard (a lot of different stuff), then getting into a rock band where none of that mattered (laughs)! The whole band was after the young girls and all that, and was it fun to experience that..no doubt about it. Luckily through that whole time I had a girlfriend so I was fairly well behaved. It kind of saved me from being dead or something at this point.

Access Rock: You've done a wide variety of gigs in the last 15 years. When were you the happiest?

Andy: Good question, wow. There have been a lot of different times when I've been very happy. Some of the more challenging gigs musically were when I played with Simon Phillips on several tours and a couple of records. That was something that was very gratifying for me. Some people only knew me from Danger Danger. Then if they had a chance to hear me or the thing that Simon and I did, they would say "Wow, that's quite a leap". Musicality and musicianship and all of that.

Access Rock: So that was one record that you did, or did you do shows?

Andy: We did a live record and a studio record. I want to say three different European tours and one Japanese tour. It was cool..it was a bunch of heavy players and it kicked my butt completely (laughs)! The studio record we did with Anthony Jackson playin' bass, you know, I felt like the weakest link! It was a great position to be in, because that's kinda what I felt during the years at University of Miami. After coming from being a rock player in my little town in Indiana and kinda having some things together. The band I was in was kind of the top band around, so you get a little confidence from that. Then you show up at a place like U of M where there is a handful of the best players in the country (laughs)..that was the most awesome thing to experience and to learn from. I still look at those two years that I was there as by far the biggest growth that I ever experienced. Partly because of that and partly from having a top 40 band to gig with. It's all about application. You can sit in the shed all day but it's not going to mean a lot unless you're out at least applying it somehow musically.

Access Rock: Do you think the age of the guitar hero is dead?

Andy: A different type of guitar hero. Luckily the guitar is still a prominent feature in modern rock and pop stuff and I've been thankful for that. But certainly there has been a lot less focus on virtuosity..I guess it is really. It does still seem like even with the heavy rock bands, even though they are not as proficient as some of the earlier guitar heroes, at least there seem to be a lot of fans buying the guitar magazines because Papa Roach or Korn is on the cover, you know. It's one of those tough questions to answer, like, if the guitar hero is gone or if he's just on vacation (laughs). I'm such a fan of great players that I hope there is always interest in that kind of playing. It does seem like there is judging from traveling around, and the people that contact me through the web site. I went to see a show last week..it was [Joe] Satriani, Dream Theatre, and Kings X, so you know, there are a few nice guitar players there! The place wasn't sold out but there had to be maybe 4000 people there. Not bad for three acts who don't have anything remotely resembling something on the radio right now!

Access Rock: Yah, no kidding!

Andy: They are not getting much help from the different media around the states. But, people find out they have a new record out, their fans, even if all they know is the music from the late eighties! There is definitely still the interest out there. It's similar to what I saw happen at the end of the Danger Danger years where the first record the band released sold 500,000 which was pretty respectable. There were 2 videos that got quite a bit of play and some radio airplay. The second record came out and sold about 150,000, but we kept running into fans across the country that had no idea that there was a new record out. Part of the problem was MTV just decided that they had it with that style of music and that they were going to make rap and Seattle the big thing. Even though there was definitely a fan base out there, not just for that band, but for that genre, there were some very powerful people that made a conscious decision to go,'O.K., we're shifting gears here'. I think what happened in the music industry, at least musically at that time, was extremely positive! It [the music] was getting so polished and so produced that it got so far away from a band really playing together. It was called the 'Mutt Lang Effect' [editors note: Mutt Lang was a big producer in the Eighties for bands like Def Leppard and Bryan Adams]. There were fantastic records being made and Mutt is a brilliant cat, I'm not knockin' what he did, but the trickle effect was everybody starts copying that! You get a band like Nirvana that comes along, a killer garage band making music together as a unit, and people realize that wow..o.k., this is a real energy. It's not this polished, life-sucked-out-of, thing.

Access Rock: It had to happen and they were the best band to do it.

Andy: Absolutely! Here's a band that is writing really great pop tunes and playing the shit out of 'em! Yah, they weren't, by themselves, the greatest musicians ever, but it sounded great together as a band. To me, that's the whole purpose, I thought. A band playing together, not punching in every other note! I've been in that situation and guilty of that myself, but it's a whole different feel when it's live and together.

Access Rock: Yah, I think it's definitely going to come around again where you have the bands with the Jimmy Page's, it's got to.

Andy: Guitar Soloey things are happening slowly but surely. It does seem inevitable to where that type of thing will come around, even if it's just kids getting interested again in Hendrix and Zeppelin and those types of things. I'm surprised I haven't seen a bit more of it, although I guess I did see Lenny Kravitz. That was interesting because it was complete Seventies..from the dress to the style of guitar, it's all Jimmy Page!

Access Rock: He's not him, unfortunately, but he's great, don't get me wrong.

Andy: He's got that guitar player that looks like Blues Saracino that totally plays in that Jimmy Page kind of style. It's just funny because there is definitely that really raw, old Marshall kind of sound.

Access Rock: I think it should change to modern times, you can't just keep recycling what happened thirty years ago.

Andy: That's kind of what's goin' on there. He tried on one record to get kind of loopy, and he went to digital for the first time, but he went back..he's an analog boy.

Access Rock: Tell me how you broke into the Dallas studio scene and what was it like?

Andy: I ended up, after leaving the University of Miami..about August of '85, hooking up with a couple of players that had gone to North Texas University, which is just North of Denton. That was Steve Bailey (bass), and Ray Brinker (drummer). So we kind of had this heavy metal power trio for a bit, actually got a singer and made a record. It didn't really go anywhere so I just started playing with a variety of different bands. Living in Denton, there were a lot of great players around because of the North Texas State Jazz Program. Just like UofM, the best thing about it wasn't necessarily the faculty, it was the players. Certainly I got a lot from the teaching, but it was really mainly the interaction with the other players. That was the great thing about being in Denton. There were always jam sessions goin' on. There was this street called Fry Street, which was a place where all of the heavy's used to hang out. There was a head shop called the Zebra Club and we used to set up in front of it and just jam outside (laughs)..long crazy jams so the police would finally come shut us down, but it was always that kind of situation. What led to me getting started in the studios was one of the guys that would come play with us was this electric violinist, Robert Wexler. He was also a killer recording engineer so he and I hit it off really well. Actually, he was why I ended up meeting the two guys in my current rhythm section, Mitch Marine and Mike Danne. Rob was always having jam sessions at his house. He said to me, "Yah, I'm doin' jingle sessions with this producer", and the first session that I did was for Chucky Cheese, a pizza chain. This producer, who was based in Dallas, used to do all of the music that these [animated] bears would play! Corny, little cover versions of the popular songs of the day. My first sessions were literally that. This eventually led to other jingles, some national stuff. I knew the engineer really well so I was comfortable. I quickly established a rapport with this producer, that realized that he didn't have to write a whole lot, he could just point me in the right direction. That's really where everything kind of paid off as far as all of the different styles of music that I grew up listening to and playing. I was lucky enough to have three older brothers, I was the youngest of four guys. I was born in '63, so my whole record collection was what they were buying in the sixties. So, it kind of put me in a situation where I tended to be more knowledgeable about older pop music then people my age! So to have that depth of knowledge of the older stuff that I continue to draw on to this day, I quickly got a reputation with a few guys in town that I could come in and knock out whatever they needed. This is about '86 or '87, so after a couple of years of doin' that is when I got called to do the Danger Danger gig. Towards the end of that, I started to get a couple of sessions in New York, started beating the pavement a little bit. This was right when Danger Danger was falling apart and I had to make the decision did I want to stay in New York where I kind of have my foot in the door or should I come back to Texas where I would be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. My band was in Texas and it was cheaper to record my music. That kind of made the decision for me. It's still that way to this day..when I'm in town I still do quite a bit of work. There is still about four producers who tend to want to use me on some stuff. Dallas doesn't get as much national [radio/t.v jingles] stuff as it did in the seventies and eighties. Now, it's pretty much New York, LA, Nashville, and Chicago. I end up doing a lot of people's record projects..I definitely doing more producing. I've got a studio at my house here and I'm doing a lot of writing and producing for other artists. It's that thing like..'this is what I've chosen to make my living..here's what it's going to take to do it..to keep playin', you know'. I feel pretty fortunate.

Access Rock: From the time you first started playing the guitar, what do you think helped you to improve your playing the most? Was it listening, transcribing?

Andy: No doubt..and this is what I tell players who ever ask one piece of advice, it's always, 'learn as much as you can by ear!'. I started off learning by ear before I took any lessons, from about the age of five to sixteen. At sixteen I took my first lessons. So there were already so many things established in my ears as opposed to had I started just..reading, you know. I think there is a different connection made by absorbing something through listening then there is from the written page! I obviously think that it's very valuable to read, and I'm glad that I took the time to learn that..and obviously to be able to read tablature and all that. I always suggest to people..get the transcriptions, get the books, videos..there is everything available to you. But, man you gotta make the effort at first to get as much as you can by ear. That way it's not like, 'it's lick #37', you are actually hearing a melody and that's the difference between players that really sound great as opposed to people that sound like a connection of a bunch of exercises and licks! Early on, I was just thankful that I learned by ear as much as I could, and then like I said..being around a bunch of inspiring players and people. I always think back on that thinking, "man, I wish I was in that situation now"!

Access Rock: Like when you were with Simon Phillips, you were with world-class players, and that just brings you up to their level.

Andy: It kicks your butt,absolutely! I remember we were standing on the dorm floor at UofM and we were all talkin' about [Larry] Carlton, [Tommy] Tedesco..those were all of our studio heroes. Someone mentioned hearing Larry Carlton in an interview talk about advice for young players and he said, "Take advantage of the time that you have growing up..livin' at home, responsibilities are less. That's when you can really put your time in, and really grow a lot". I just remember thinkin', 'Gosh, all you ever really have to do is play!'. Then you get older and you figure it out, you go, 'Oh, I know what Larry was talkin' about, bills and stuff, you know (laughs)'.