The Public Record - Tommy Lee's Methods of Mayhem Contributors
Jason Tessen, Evan Berard, Juhani Flenerius, Greg Harvey, and Tom Shulz
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When Tommy Lee's band, Methods of Mayhem, announced they were allowing the public to collaborate with them on their new album, musicians around the globe responded. Files in a variety of formats were released, including RiffWorks recording software files. Out of tons of entries, RiffWorks users made contributions on almost half of the tracks on the album, an impressive ratio indeed! RiffWorks users Jason Tessen, Evan Berard, Juhani Flenerius, Greg Harvey, and Tom Schulz were kind enough to answer some questions about their contributions to the album and talk about how RiffWorks is their tool of choice for writing songs. Read the condensed interview summary below: |
SWW: How does it feel to be on the new Methods of Mayhem album?
Juhani: It feels just fantastic, like you just won the lottery. Imagine being part of worldwide release. The first question I asked myself was, how many do I know who have done that? Haha.
Jason: It's amazing that a home player like me has made it on to a major release. What a great opportunity to have the fans play on the record. It's a win win for everyone involved and everyone should run out and buy this great album.
Evan: It feels awesome! I almost freaked out when I found out that I was on the record. Being on a release with Tommy Lee makes me feel incredibly accomplished. I also get crazy bragging rights! Being on the record inspires me to keep on making more music and to try to make it to the top. It has opened so many doors for my future music career. I've learned so much in terms of songwriting, mixing, production, and performance. In some interviews, Tommy has talked about getting everyone who was on the record to hop on stage when they come through their town on tour. It's really exciting!
Greg: Man, having this CD in my hands and reading my name in the credits is just so amazing! It was a long process recording the CD and a long time to wait before it was released, so you kind of forget a little bit what you really did but then you see it in your hands and hear it and it kinda hits you and you go WOW I'm on Tommy's CD! The whole experience at http://www.thepublicrecord.com has been great! I encourage all musicians to go join and get your stuff out there, a lot of industry people are keeping their eyes on the site so it's great exposure and if you don't care about that it's just a great place to hang with cool musician creative types. Everyone's welcome and it's just a very cool place!
Tom: First off, if you don't mind, I'd want to say, thanks Mom in dedication to her. If you would have told me ten years ago that I was going to be credited in the liner notes of the next Methods of Mayhem album with TLee, I would have said "who?" and "yea... right" Tommy's a celeb and its an honor to have mention and be given credit where they felt credit was due given the sheer volume of submissions entered vs the ones used it was competitively tight even though the project was not slated as a competition. So even though I'm a landlocked indie in Minnesota, through technology my playing got a lil of the Jag, sun, salt and the rain in the pro circuit of Cali. I always wanted to visit there again but in spirit I did, and it was all free. All this cost me was a bunch of lost sheep as the wait was kind of a brutal 10 months with the label pushbacks. Plus, there's a line of pro studio guys down in LA who would love to be on Tommy's album. I think it would be safe to say some likely would not get mention in liner notes so I offer my gratuitous thanks to Tommy and Scott for that.
SWW: Did you use RiffWorks in your TPR (The Public Record) contribution?
Juhani: Yes I did, except for the 2 bonus tracks because RiffWorks was no longer available for those. RiffWorks is so awesome and easy to use, so I have to say that this is your fault! If I wouldn't have found RiffWorks 2 or 3 years ago, I would probably not be into computer recording.
Jason: I did, this allowed me to easily work on each section and try out different stuff. I don't have a lot of time for this kind of stuff, so RiffWorks is a good fit for me, it lets me get right to playing and writing without fussing around too much.
Evan: Yes! I used RiffWorks for all my guitar contributions. It was really convenient having all the Methods of Mayhem songs in RiffWorks format. I used the Sonoma 7 effects on my tracks, they're great effects.
Greg: I did submit a lot of parts with RiffWorks. I'm not sure if "Fight Song" was done on RiffWorks or ProTools but I used both programs throughout the process.
Tom: Yes, I used Riffworks exclusively in conjuction with Audacity for the submissions I made to TPR for the Method's stems.
SWW: What kind of music do you normally write?
Juhani: That is hard for me to answer. I would say rock music. I am constantly looking for new sounds.
Jason: Guitar driven modern rock to heavy metal is what I'm best at and seem to have the most success at writing.
Evan: I normally write pop-rock songs, but I also write hard rock and pop. In terms of songwriting, I try to find the perfect balance between the mainstream sound and the indie sound. In terms of production, I love to have my songs have a really larger than life sound.
Greg: Most stuff I come up with seems to be straight forward rock. I don't really consider myself a songwriter but I do put a song together now and then!
Tom: I'm predominantly a guitar player but I like playing bass & keys so it depends. Its an outlet for life type things which come from either just noodling experimentation or an offshoot from something that is inspiring an idea. I tend to write mostly instrumental rock type formats but I do dabble in blues, jazz and cross-fusion type things. In bands, I strive to write in a more song oriented direction with lyrics, themes, concepts or a mix of influences.
SWW: Who are your influences?
Juhani: There are so many over the years but lately I have to say all the guys who post songs on RiffWorld and collab on Rifflink. You can really listen to what others do and play. I've got to say that the talent out here is amazing.
Jason: My favorite bands are all over the map. Zeppelin, Floyd, Rush, Dream Theater, Tool. I like the really big arena bands with the huge sounds.
Evan: I have a lot of influences, though Jimi Hendrix is my biggest one. His music inspired me to start playing guitar. Iron Maiden is the band that I based my first song on and Tommy Lee/Methods of Mayhem influenced me to take my music to the next level. Scott Humphrey, the producer of the Methods of Mayhem album, is also incredibly influential in my music career.
Greg: I have a lot of those! I think Van Halen, Judas Priest, Skynyrd, Black Foot, Def Leopard, Motley Crue, Alice Cooper. Many more!
Tom: I really liked guys who were melodic, that said something. I dug tastefully used multilayered guitar harmonies and delay for self accompanyment. Les Paul (though Les's really high pitched runs were a bit annoying at times even though he kills it) Brian May. Eddie Van Halen of course too. Pat Thrall really did cool things with delay. He played jazz land ethnic flavored lines in rock that just fit cool. Lukather, uber taste and control. Schenker for his style of rhythmic note choices, energy, tone.
AC for the songwriting.
SWW: Where can our users hear more of your music?
Juhani: http://www.reverbnation.com/mysmolnetandtherifflinkjunkies#, http://www.riffworld.com/Members/mysmolnet
Jason: http://www.riffworld.com/Members/GuitarSlinger
Evan: My music can be heard on my website evanberard.com
Greg: Most of the songs I have written are on RiffWorld under http://www.riffworld.com/Members/gerger Most of my stuff is there because I mostly write on RiffWorks, it's the best software out there to date for a guitar player to compose music quickly with little hassle. I love putting my ideas together. Thanks to the Public Record and Tommy Lee for giving us fans a chance to jam on a commercial release CD and have so much fun just playing and making noise. You all rock! Thank you Daniel for letting us musicians tell our experiences!
Tom: Most the things I've done on Riffworks were done with Rifflink so I waded into contributing and participating on other people's posted collabs and made a good deal of friends from around the world. You can hear some of my samples at
http://www.myspace.com/charvelguy
Interview by Daniel Codella
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