One of the most fresh and exciting guitar players I’ve come across in awhile is Andy Wood. Andy plays in a hard rock band called “Down From Up” and has just released a  great guitar instrumental CD that runs the gamut from rock to bluegrass. Andy was gracious enough to take some time while out on the road to answer a few questions for me to post here on Guitar Monkee. Not only is Andy a top notch player he’s one of nicest and coolest cats on the scene today.

Todd: I guess first I’d like to say from one southern boy to another… “You pick one mean guitfiddle.”  What got you interested in playing guitar and at what age did you start learning to play?

Andy: Well thanks! Funny thing, I’m not a “guitar” player at all. I’m actually a mandolin player that plays guitar when I dont have a mandolin gig… lol!  I started playing music around 4 or 5 and started actually playing electric guitar about 9 years ago. So I’m really new to the scene. My grandfather got me started on bluegrass, things like tony rice, Bela Fleck, Bill Monroe all that good stuff.

Todd: From listening to your music in Down From Up and now your new solo CD “A Disconcerting Amalgam” it’s clear to everyone that you are an extremely well rounded player with styles ranging from rock, metal shred, jazz, blues, to country. That’s one thing I like about Guthrie Govan, he plays a lot of styles very well, as do you. I’m assuming this is because your musical tastes are just that varied. When you started playing were your tastes that varied or did you grow to like different styles over time?

Andy: First off, to be mentioned in the same paragraph as Jedi master Govan is something I don’t deserve and is a HUGE compliment! I think that guy is on another planet!  He is simply fantastic! As far as musical taste, I tend to just have two genres I divide music into: suck and does not suck! When I started playing I was only into bluegrass till my teens, then I got into some acoustic jazz, django, newgrass revival, Mark O’ Connor things like that. When I hit 18 or so I heard all of the “standard issue shred” that everybody already new except me apparently, it was the big guys, you know, your Steve Vai, Steve Morse (loved him because of all the country/grass influence) John Petrucci, Al DiMeola, Frank Gambale, Shawn Lane, Paul Gilbert etc.  Hell, I never heard Eruption till I was 18, how crazy is that??? Before that I was into all the session guys especially the titan of twang, Brent Mason!! Like anybody else you hear more stuff and you want to chase new fun sounds, thats why we all do it anyway.

Todd: Ok, I have to ask the obligatory who are your guitar and or musical heroes?

Andy: I think I listed a ton already but the three biggest would be my gran dad Paul Birchfield, my cousin Brian Arrowood, and my step dad Greg English. There is nothing like having so many good players in one family. When we all get together to play its the epitome of fun!

Todd: Did you take lessons or are you pretty much self taught or was it a mix of both?

Andy: No lessons, just always playing with the family. Later on, about 18 or so, I did a year or two as a jazz major at the University of Tennessee but pretty much just learn from using the rewind button.

Todd: Speaking of lessons and learning to play, I feel that young players who are just starting to learn today have such great resources with the net these days that I didn’t have back in ‘83 when I started. Not only on the net but sometimes in private lessons as well the info seems to be really focused on just a few aspects of playing music on the guitar like note scales, licks, and hand technique. Do you feel like I do that some of the other important aspects of playing music are kinda of ignored like, what “not” to play, use of space in rhythm, really learning to listen to all what’s going on in the song and playing just for that, when to take things out and when to bring it back, etc?

Andy: Its weird, I think we are in an age of the most technically proficient players in the history of guitar, and that’s great! I love to search the web to steal some licks from a guy that lives thousands of miles away. But at the same time I see what your saying and I agree to an extent, we should all be aware of what the main goal is and that is to make good music, not just play mind numbing licks over backing tracks. I also feel that some of the more traditional techniques are getting overlooked more and more. Its all too often you see a player who can sweep and tap all over the place but whose bends sound forced and has an unnatural vibrato. But hey we all have what we excel at and what we don’t and that leads us to work on those things to improve our playing.

Todd: Do you have any advice for players who feel they are stuck in a rut with their playing? What do you do to keep your playing fresh?

Andy: I usually just search for new music, here lately after hanging with Guthrie a bit, I have been working on my slide playing, and let me tell you what, you have never heard such bad out of tune screeching but I’m working on it!

Todd: What was your first thought when you heard that you had won the nationals of Guitarmageddon?

Andy: “Who me!?”  I thought there was some mistake, after I realized I won I couldn’t believe it, all six other guys at the finals were KILLER!!  I’m very honored to have won.

Todd: When you are out on the road with Down From Up, do find that your tone stays pretty consistent or does it change from venue to venue? What have you found helps with this?

Andy: Tone always changes from venue to venue, its something every player deals with. I’m lucky though I have some really good gear that stays pretty consistent, usually only a treble tweak or delay level is all I need to mess with at sound check. Your best ally in fighting this is a great monitor guy, no doubt!

Todd: When I lived in Nashville, I was in an original hard rock band for a few years that my brother and a mutual friend put together. I’ll have to say Nashville is a very cool town with some smoking players but for original bands it’s a bit of a strange place to play. There are so many great players that have several projects going on at once that it seems a bit “cliquish” when it comes to people showing up to hear people play. What was it like for you guys starting a band in Knoxville TN?

Andy: It was like anywhere else, you have to pay those dues and market yourselves to where you can get the crowd interested enough to come to a show, then you have to blow them away at the show and leave a mark in their mind so that the next time you play they wanna be there.

Todd: I know you are really into the Diezel and Suhr gear. What about their gear fits you as a player?

Andy: It’s really about each players touch and feel, for me the Suhr modern is the perfect guitar no doubt. I have several mods and custom things that are unique to my guitars that John has worked with me on, mainly a push pull on the tone pot that puts the bridge humbucker in parallel. It’s killer for impersonating a tele! I also love how chunky and mean that guitar can get for riffs and still be able to get the smooth lead tone that I go for. Also I love the 16″ radius, truly fun to play on ‘cuz I can slam the action but still get under the strings for big bends and sweet vibrato. The Diezel Herbert rocks, no doubt. I have used it on two tours and it brings it every night. But be on the lookout for something special from Suhr, we have something cool in store that I have worked on with them.

Todd: What did you do to prepare to do your solo CD as in were those songs you have had for a while or did you write those fairly recently?

Andy: Actually zero preparation, all of the tunes were written and tracked within nine days, then went on to the mixing and mastering. I really had fun with the spontaneity and I had killer players on there that I wanted to feature.

Todd: Like I mentioned earlier about the range of styles your CD, was this something you really wanted to accomplish from the get go and did that make it hard to choose which songs to put on the CD?

Andy: Yeah, I wanted to make the music that I like, and sometimes its bluegrass, sometimes fusion, sometimes rock etc. This was a very selfish album, I did this for the fun of it. It wasn’t hard to choose the songs, they just kind of came together. I wanted it to sound like three acts of a play, the shred opener act, the acoustic middle act then into a two song outro ending on the most emotional tune on the record.

Todd: Your CD opens with a great great version of “Amazing Grace”. That’s one of my favorite gospel songs and my favorite arrangement is done by Randy Scruggs but I think, in my mind,  you are giving it a run for its money. Is there any special reason you open the CD with that song?

Andy: Yeah, my mother wanted it on the album, and she said “Don’t play any licks Andy, just play the melody, its pretty enough without you playing any guitar licks on it”  What can I say, moms might actually know best!

Todd: My friends and I still to this day love finding new bands to turn each other on to…what new or maybe unheard of artists/bands do you find inspiring these days?

Andy: Well in the modern rock realms Im a big 10 Years fan, I love Coheed and Cambria, Shinedown, and After Midnight Project is a killer new band from LA. Its hard to list all the stuff I listen too but that’s the modern rock I’m currently into.

Todd: What’s your thoughts on the current state of the music industry? It seems to be going through some pretty big changes with the internet and downloads etc. Do you feel this a generally helping artists or hurting them?

Andy: Man seems like the music industry is a mess!! I feel like the internet world is a double edge sword. For example without the net few of us would have ever heard of artist like Guthrie Govan or Andy Mckee but with their music being available at so many places for free, how are they supposed to make the money needed to keep releasing new stuff? All I can say is, kids please, please don’t steal music! Buy it from sites like iTunes.

Be sure to pick up Andy’s new CD “A Disconcerting Amalgam” on iTunes through the link below.