George Lynch, guitar virtuoso legend best known for his work with Dokken and Lynch Mob, recently discussed his creative process and the delicate “balancing act” of making new albums. In a recent interview over at “Real Music With Gary Stuckey,” Lynch discussed the upcoming album “Babylon” with Lynch Mob and was asked to elaborate on how he creates music that “puts a smile on his face” and how he goes about making the best possible record. He replied (transcribed by Killer Guitar Rigs):
“Well, that’s always a balancing act — making the album the best it can be can be a never-ending project, and you don’t want to get stuck in that, either. And in a way, I look at albums like you’re capturing a moment in time, and for that reason, you don’t really want to extend the process, but there’s nothing wrong with that either if you have the funds and the time.”
The trap of dragging an album isn’t that uncommon. And it’s one of those things that can make or break a band, especially in their beginning stages. As Lynch recalls, that’s one of the things that he faced when making Lynch Mob’s 1990 debut album:
“‘Wicked Sensation’ took a year and a half to make and cost us a huge amount of money and a very involved, long, lengthy, expensive process, and it shows. We’ve done lots of other records where we have done the opposite, which are still good records, so I like doing them both ways.”
Nonetheless, these days, Lynch admits that he simply wouldn’t have any patience for a dragged-out process:
“But I don’t really have the patience for a year-long album process anymore, and I’ve learned to work pretty efficiently. So my goal every time I work on a record is to write and record the basics for a song a day — I have to write the song, and then I have to program drums, I’ll do scratch bass, and I do real keeper guitars, meaning I usually do the solos as well [as] all the rhythms and all the extra little guitars, everything, whatever it requires.”
At the moment, one of the main things is to be efficient about it:
“And I’ll have that done by the end of the day, I’ll have the song pretty much arranged in the can and ready to go to the drummer, the bass player, and singer. That’s pretty efficient.”
“Sometimes I can do a little more than that, but I try to make that my goal is to write and record a song a day. And that’s for economic reasons, too, because I need to hopefully have something leftover for the actual musicians and songwriters in the band [laughs] after the process. Yeah, man, I love writing, I love recording.”
Up next, George was also asked to explain how he comes up with new song parts without copying his older works. However, he admits that, sometimes, he’ll (kind of) do this on purpose:
“Well, sometimes I’ll intentionally do… Not copy, but I’ll do something in the style of something I’ve done in the past, just keep… That’s my style, and everybody does that.”
“And sometimes I have to intentionally do that, actually, because I’ll, a lot of times, just want to go off and do something strange or completely different because it’s fun for me. But then sometimes I gotta pull myself back and go, ‘You still got to be true to the brand and your legacy…'”
Once again, George adds that it’s all about balancing things, even with his incredibly virtuosic guitar solos:
“So there’s a balance there, but I try to achieve that balance — it’s all I do, I try to make it, ‘Well, it’s still me, it’s still familiar.’ I’ve got my sound, got my phrasing, got my chops, whatever, but also I’m taking chances and working outside the box a little bit.”
In addition to that, George also explained that, when coming up with lead parts, it’s all about making people want to listen to them. And that can be a real challenge:
“And I like to have people look forward to the solos, and kind of, ‘What is he going to do this time? Surprise me.'”
“That’s challenging for me, but super, super fun. It keeps me on my toes, keeps the listener on their toes, and makes listening to the song hopefully more gratifying when they go, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be cool to see what George does here.’ Yeah, sometimes maybe I don’t hit it all the time.”
“It’s not always a home run, but they’re always different. It’s not like I’m out there trying to prove that I can do whatever, I’m just trying to make a solo that fits with the song. I mean, that’s kind of the overarching point — when you’re working it’s like, ‘Okay, I’m not going to do something abstract, I’m going to do something that serves the song.'”
“It’s like a little song within a song, hopefully — it’s kind of the idea. So I like the solos to be able to be appreciated even out of context, just something on their own even outside the song itself, just like, ‘Wow, this is cool!.'”
Photo: Toglenn (George Lynch 2009)
