Exclusive Interview with Russ Hewitt
Here’s a guy with an extraordinary guitar skill that explores the whole magical world of Nuevo Flamenco. Russ Hewitt, former rock/metal guitarist that has put his fingerprint in a totally new concept, and make remarkable achievement with his debut album. “Bajo El Sol”. “Bajo El Sol”, means “Under The Sun”, is a very beautiful album in the spirit of current Nuevo Flamenco. It’s like taking a wonderful trip of a world journey inside all the beauties of music. And looks like the market loves it. Just in 4 months since it’s released, the first single (the title track) reached the top 25 on the Smooth Jazz Indie charts in USA. Russ’ debut album also has been incredible from the sales to the reviews. All these great achievements shows that Russ Hewitt is an artist that will have a bright future ahead in his career. Simply put, Russ Hewitt is one amazing talent to look for in the future.
We got the chance to interviewed Russ Hewitt exclusively and asked many, many things about his past, the making/concept of the album and more.
To begin with, I really have to say What an amazing album you have!
First of all, before we go deeper into your music and album, we are curious who Russ Hewitt in person, who you are in your daily life, could you share some stories of yours?
I’m lucky enough to be able to play music for a living now. I have steady gigs each week and several booking agents that keep me pretty busy. With the album coming out I’m embracing the independent artist roll of doing everything myself. I once had a teacher said, “music is everything but not the only thing “, so I try to have a balanced life outside of playing.
Reading your biography is such a pleasure, the Gasoline band is named as one of the band’s earliest Jazz/Rock jams, however What made you choose Nuevo Flamenco as your music style, exploring it for at least the last 10 years and then made your debut album with this style?
I’ve enjoyed nuevo flamenco since the early 90’s. when I started gigging several years later playing this style, it was a great outlet to improvise and write outside of the rock band I was in, but my focus was to try and get my various rock bands off the ground. In a perfect world I would have liked to release rock and nuevo flamenco ablums like Steve Stevens or Marc Rizzo, but after my last rock band broke up 3 years ago I decided to give my complete attention to nuevo flamenco. Bob Parr, who produced my last rock bands album, encouraged me to move forward with this project after seeing me live when he was down in Dallas doing overdubs for the band. Bob ended up producing,engineering, mixing, programming and playing bass on “Bajo el Sol “. ( btw- Gasoline was the heavy metal cover band i did with Vinnie Paul , of Pantera/Damageplan/Hellyeah, for a new years gig for 2005)
As we know that you are in between Rock and Nuevo Flamenco, two totally different shapes of music. How did you work yourself out between these two different genres?
I’ve always felt as a musician/player that you are a accumulation of everything that you learn. I started out as a rock/metal player then I discovered classical guitar, which i eventually got a performace degree from the University of North Texas, but i also love bluegrass guitar, country guitar, gypsy jazz, traditional flamenco, etc…so to go between any given style isn’t a big deal for me. I use many of the same techniques, shapes, and scales in rock and nuevo flamenco. To me the ending solo to ” Mr. Crowley “ by Ozzy (Osbourne) has the same type of chord progression as a lot of my flamenco tunes.
I wonder why this album is such an exquisite one, however you’ve said that this album took 3 years before it was released, why took it so long? Any challenges/obstacles when producing this albums?
I wrote the album in the summer of 2005. After gigging and rehearsing the band we recorded the entire album in a day sometime in November 2005. At the time my producer, Bob Parr, was living in Connecticut . He had flown down to Dallas to record us and then took it back with him. As he started to mix what we did, I flew up there a couple of times to do overdubs near the first of 2006. Early on in the mix process we realized there was some sonic problems. The guitar I used had no low end and a ton of mid range. I cut through the mix but didn’t sound ” full”. the drum heads were old made the bass guitar sound out of tune although it wasn’t. Every instrument across the board had some problem or another. Bob would do 2-4 different mixes of each song, so between trying to fix/hid the tuning and the multiple mixes each song took about a month. At the first of 2007 the album was done. I thought it was ‘good’, we both thought with the songs that I had, we could make something ’special’, and because this was my first album in this style it had to be ‘ special’. At that point we decided to completely start over, bring in the Bob’s friends (Walfredo Reyes Jr, Rafael Padilla), and by doing this it would allow Bob to act as more of a producer as well as a engineer. During the summer of 2007 Bob and his family moved a hour away from me in Texas to a town called Argyle. the re-recording started in November and finished in February of 2008. After mastering, publishing stuff and printing, I finally got the CD in my hands mid November of 2008. whew.
Whoa..what a process.. Now let’s talk about the album. The way you play the guitar are simply unbelievable. you’ve shown amazing precise fretwork, trilling the melody without losing your edge (if you dont mind, I am guessing that the “Rock” side of yours just makes this album interesting). How long did it take to masterize the style?
The early years was rock/metal with Ozzy Osbourne,Iron Maiden, Judas Priest. Then was the shred years with Yngwie Malmsteen, McAlpine, Vinnie Moore, etc..I spent many hours on scales and arpeggios. one of the most important things I learned is what not to do, which is to over play.
I am really fond of the happy moving tune of Lydia, It got me wonder what did you have in mind when you wrote the song. Could you share some stories when you wrote the song? And By the way, why did you choose “Lydia” as the title of the song?
The song was written using the D lydian scale ( d e f# g# a b c# ). The song idea was that I wanted a verse that was kind of open and airy sounding the when the chorus kicked in I wanted 4 on the floor for the drums. I wanted to use chords for the chorus because i hadn’t that on any of the other tunes. Thats how I wrote all of the songs on the album. I pick a key or scale, tempo, an overall picture of what I want the song to do and then sit down and work within those parameters. The lydia mode is not as quite happy as a major key, but still happy, so i could imagine crusing with the top down, feet in sand in the shade, etc.. the song title seemed obvious.
There are many great world sites appeared in your songs. Palma de Mallorca, The Pampas, Simatai, Byzantine, what do you want to share with us from all over the world from those songs?
I took my mom to China and on one of the days we hired a driver to take us to different parts of the Great Wall from different dynastys. Although all were inspiring, Simatai was the one that I was in awe. It was on the highest mountain ( I think it’s the highest part of the entire Great Wall period) that we visited and because it was so far out (China/Mongolia border) there was no repair to the wall itself so it still has the original appearance. I used the Chinese scale when writing Simatai. After seeing a special show on TV about Hagia Sophia (Hagia Sophia is one of the great buildings of the world. Also known as The Church of the Holy Wisdom, the Byzantine church and also fromer Ottoman Mosque in Istanbul. Now used as a museum.), I made it a point to go to Turkey and visit it. I’ve always love Byzantine architecture and the city did not disappoint. I used the Byzantine scale for the song and title. As for the Pampas and Palma de Mallorca, that’s on my to do list. Ha.
From the whole album itself, it opens my ears and eyes that the music speaks loud when describing how beautiful the world is and there are a lot of things to be discovered out there, is that what you want to share with us when you were releasing this album? is there anything else that you want to share with us from this album?
I believe it’s every artists goal to be able to connect with listener on some level. There are different challenges with instrumental music because there are no words to help draw the picture the artist wants to get across. You have to be able to utilize all the instruments to get across what your trying to say. Within my travels I really did learn music is the universal language. Often times i didn’t know what they were saying but we would be able to sit across each other and play for hours. To be able to communicate with a complete stranger reinforced the importance of needing to say something or create an image with music.
I noticed that you had Rafael Padilla, Bob Parr and Walfredo Reyes Jr involve in producing this album… Was it great collaborating with them? What each of them had done to make this brilliant album?
It was a incredible learning experience playing with the guys on my album. As often the case, simplicity is the key. The tendency is to want to over play and make it about yourself and they never did that. I seen these guys absolutely burn, but they always played what was best for the song not for themselves. The secret is to let the music breath, not feel the need to fill every possible space with something. That applies to everything – solos, melodies and rhythm.
Finally, What is your plan for the near future? Maybe Live concert/tour? Will a new album come soon? Have you had any idea already for your new album?
I’m open for anything for the future. I realize it takes awhile to get established and make a name for yourself. I can’t believe what has happened in only 4 months since the album released. The response has been incredible from the sales to the reviews. The first single of the album (title track) made the top 25 on the Smooth Jazz Indie charts in the states and I’m about to release a second single, so we’re looking at playing festivals and concerts for those stations. Hopefully we can make it out your way. Hint,hint: I’ve already started writing for the next cd and i think we might do a Christmas CD as well.
Thank you for the interview. Wish you all the best, Russ!
Visit Russ Hewitt’s official website at http://russhewittmusic.com and myspace at: http://www.myspace.com/russhewittmusic
pictures taken from Russ Hewitt’s website
Interviewed by: Riandy Kurniawan
Special thanks to Edria
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