Tommy & JY Guitar Interview

[SuiteMadameBlue]

Here ya go...........

http://www.guitaredge.com/index.php?opt ... &Itemid=66

Styx - Blue Collar Men

Written by Adam Lovinus



When prog gave way to arena rock as the preferred flavor on the American rock ‘n’ roll palette in the late ’70s, Styx quickly became the tastiest band in the world. A mix of grandiose artrock flourishes—courtesy of Dennis DeYoung, a former elementary school teacher with an ear for classical music and Moog synthesizers—and classic rock sensibilities in the form of guitarists James “JY” Young and Tommy Shaw, Styx blazed through the ’70s and ’80s, leaving a trail of multiplatinum records and Top 10 singles in their wake.

Although the band would begin life as the Tradewinds in the mid ’60s—anchored by DeYoung on organ, John Curulewski on guitar, and featuring brothers Chuck Panozzo on bass and John Panozzo on drums—it was Young’s arrival in 1970, along with a name change to Styx, that heralded the band’s eventual rise to fame. A guitar-wielding tech school graduate with a degree in aerospace engineering, Young’s sound was indicative of his Chicago upbringing—rock fused with upper-Midwestern electric blues—and provided a raw counterpoint to DeYoung’s polished, synthetic organ sound.

Shaw, an Alabama native steeped in the bluesrock genre, joined the group six years later as Curulewski’s replacement, just as Styx began finding national recognition on the back of the hit ballad, “Lady.” Almost immediately, Shaw and DeYoung formed what would become a powerhouse songwriting duo. Shaw’s traditional rock approach on classic rock staples like “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man),” “Renegade,” “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights),” and “Too Much Time on My Hands” propelled the band to the top of the music charts, beginning with Styx’s 1977 release, The Grand Illusion. It was a partnership that would continue until after 1983’s Kilroy Was Here—the DeYoung-written concept record that spawned “Mr. Roboto”—and its associated tour.

Although the band went through its share of drama as the century drew to a close—including breakups, reunions, the death of John Panozzo, and the departure of Dennis DeYoung—Styx now find themselves riding a resurgent wave of popularity as Gen X’ers rediscover the band and introduce them to a new generation. Styx, now fronted by Shaw and Young, log upwards of 100 shows a year, and tour the country with arena rock contemporaries such as Boston, Def Leppard, REO Speedwagon, and .38 Special.

Despite the rigorous schedule, Shaw, now comfortably in his 50s, remains active by producing and recording music. He’s currently in the midst of a bluegrass project with acoustic gun-for-hire Brad Davis.

“Tommy is blessed with the energy of five men,” Young says when asked about Shaw’s schedule. Young himself says he treasures his downtime, and spends his days away from Styx keeping in shape and balanced.

Together, Young and Shaw have secured a legacy as purveyors of the classic arena rock sound: lots of compression, anthemic hooks, big riffs, tricked-out tremolo systems, and subtle feedback tricks. Styx is about creating a big sound without stepping on the toes of another guitarist, all while working around a busy keyboard part. It’s about maximizing the sonic possibilities of the pentatonic scale, and making highbrow music ripe for popular consumption— all while looking cool in the process.

The band’s latest endeavor is an ambitious fall tour on which they will be performing the blockbuster albums The Grand Illusion and 1978’s Pieces of Eight in their entirety, and releasing a seven-song EP, entitled Regeneration, Volume 1, which contains six re-recorded classics—“Come Sail Away,” “Crystal Ball,” “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man),” “Lorelei,” “The Grand Illusion,” and “Sing for the Day”—and a brand new track, “Difference in the World.” It represents an opportunity for fans to not only hear their favorite hits, but songs that have never been played live before.

“This is the most unique Styx concert ever,” Shaw says. “It’s a hybrid experience of enjoying the artistry of the vinyl album and the energy of our live performance.” As Shaw and Young geared up for the tour, they took some time to speak with Guitar Edge about their respective styles, the gear they couldn’t live without, and their legacies as guitarists.

Styx has done 12 consecutive years of touring, playing classic material that’s now more than 30 years old. How do you guys keep things fresh?

Tommy Shaw: Styx’ music is just complex enough that performing it live is a challenge. You can’t go onstage and play Styx music half-heartedly. As our older fans start tapering off, there’s a new legion coming in. I’d say from 30-60 percent of the people we play to are seeing us for the first time, so there’s always a little bit of proving yourself out there every night.

James Young: This is a much different band than we had in our heyday. God rest and God bless our original drummer’s soul, John Panozzo, who was great, but our [current] drummer Todd Sucherman was voted the number one rock drummer in the world by Modern Drummer magazine. Todd is a monster. He grew up on Styx in Chicago, so playing with him is like having a new engine under the hood.

How has your approach to playing live evolved since the ’70s and ’80s?

Shaw: We’ve worked really hard over the years to control our excitement as far as pushing the tempos. We’ve become these insane people about time.

It’s the old adage that it’s harder to play slow.

Shaw: That’s right. When you can get there and play like that, it’s so powerful. When you play together as much as we have, you get a chance to work on those microscopic things, and that’s the greatest part. I’m sure things have mellowed quite a bit offstage as you’ve matured.

Young: It’s definitely mellower now. When men are in their 20s, there’s all that testosterone and piss and vinegar flowing through your veins. The road is something that takes a normal person and at times reduces them to a whimpering, blubbering mess. The road can be fatal for a lot of personality types. Fortunately we’re at a time when, whereas once people had issues… Tommy would probably cop to having a couple issues back in the day, and there was a time when a day didn’t go by where I didn’t have at least two or three green bottles of some alcoholic beverage.

Shaw: You’ve got to be healthy. I take the stairs whenever I can and eat right. Our bus has become a five-star restaurant so we’re not eating room service or catering all the time. No druggies or alcoholics. I’ve been sober for 21 years.

Still, you guys do 100-plus shows a year. Does it ever get old for you?

Shaw: That’s kind of where the recording industry is—touring is really where it’s at. For me it’s like serendipity because it’s what I’ve always liked doing. I like recording, but going out and being on the road and being in front of an audience is the reason I wanted to join Styx in the first place.

Young: I can see how some people could be bored doing what we do, but really it’s such a joyful thing to have your career be going out and playing music for people. We’ve managed to find joy in going out and performing the same set night after night, and some people might never be able to get there mentally or emotionally, but we as a collective are and we’re having a great time.

Besides Styx, what else do you have going on musically right now?

Shaw: I’m recording a bluegrass album. Five or six years ago, this guy named Brad Davis asked me to sing on one of his songs. I’ve always liked bluegrass, but never had given it a try. It was natural for me, because I’m from Montgomery, Alabama, and a lot of it reminded me of music I heard in my parents’ car when I was a kid. It turned out great, and Brad would come by every few months or so and we’d do another song. I had the Shaw Blades projects, so that was occupying a lot of my spare time up until this past year when Jack [Blades] was going to be busy producing the Vince Neil album.

What about you, J.Y.?
Young: Nothing. [Laughs.] Tommy is blessed with the energy of five men. He does most of the stuff on the official website too. He’s an amazing human being—he sort of remains out there in the right-brain world of being an artist and being creative, does a lot of photography and editing and visual imaging, messing around on Photoshop. I’m basically remaining a balanced and rested individual. And he’s two-and-a-half years younger than me.

What is the most important piece of equipment for getting the Styx sound?

Young: About 20 years ago, I discovered the Kramer Sustainer, right before they went out of business. I’m such a huge fan of Hendrix songs, and my style is really built on the whammy bar and controlling feedback. The sweat would go down into the Sustainer and corrode the chip, so I bought a bunch of old used ones, even if the necks were crummy. Now I use a Sustainiac, which in live performance is really a great thing when feedback is part of your style.

Shaw: I have a Les Paul Axcess that I’m really crazy about. We switched out the pickups to Seymour Duncans—’59s. It’s got a modified Floyd Rose tremolo on it with noiseless springs. It makes the guitar less microphonic. I use a lot of overdrive, and sometimes I would hear the guitar going boing-boing-boing, and you don’t want that.

Both you guys grew up playing guitar right around when Beatlemania hit the U.S. How were you first introduced to the instrument?

Young: At the age of 14, I had a Beatles songbook and an uncle with a classical guitar. When I opened up the case, there was a just a smell that was intoxicating to me. So my brother and I pooled our money and bought a Gibson hollowbody single-pickup guitar. This was in 1964. Slowly but surely, I learned Beatles stuff, and I definitely really enjoyed stuff that was pentatonic in nature. The Who, and Hendrix after that, and then Cream after that.

Shaw: A couple people in my neighborhood had guitars. This was right around 1960. One was a Silvertone single-cutaway electric guitar, black with a big tailpiece. The other was a big, single-cutaway acoustic. Both were kind of hard to play, but I loved the artistry. My older brother Danny had a friend who came over and had a tenor guitar—a four-string—and he left it over there. When everybody went to bed, I took it and snuck outside with it, and figured out how to play “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” a Johnny Cash song that was on the radio at the time. It came so easy. It was one of those life-altering moments.

How did you make the jump from strumming open chords to learning more challenging leads from those guitar icons?

Young: I tackled Eric Clapton’s “Crossroads” solo from Live at the Fillmore. Actually, I just met Clapton for the first time in my life, and I told him about this, and he says, “Well, you know, I get off the beat in that solo” and I go, where? [Laughs.] I learned it all by ear. My parents had turntables from back in the day made for spoken word stuff—they played half-speed, 16 2/3 RPM. So I played “Crossroads” at half speed on it, which made it the same key, but an octave down. I’d sing the notes to get the intervals, and from there it was going slow enough for me to figure out how he must have fingered it.

Tommy, what other kinds of music were you inspired by growing up in Alabama?

Shaw: I always liked gospel music as a child. Sundays growing up in Alabama there were always gospel shows on TV. Guys with their arms outstretched, singing these songs—a lot of times it would be about death and destruction, but in the end it all was gonna be alright, you know? Even the darkest songs had these positive choruses; that’s been sort of a template for my writing.

You’ve had such a legendary career in the rock world. Do you ever feel like it’s time to hang up the spurs?

Shaw: I see no end to it other than a physical collapse, which I don’t see either. There are a lot of directions a musical career can go, and dying in your boots is fine with me. I mean, not yet [laughs], but I can’t imagine not doing it.

How do you want Styx to be remembered?

Young: We are unique stylists that are classically influenced, blues influenced, and Beatles influenced. We collectively rose to create some great records and brought everything we had to every show we’ve ever put on.





Guitars
Bill Nash 12-String Telemaster, 1968 Fender Electric XII, Gibson Les Paul Axcess w/ Seymour Duncan ‘59s and a custom Floyd Rose tremolo system, 1968 Gibson SG, 1986 Gibson ES-33, 1967 Gretsch Country Gentleman, Hamer Talladega Pro, Taylor 614CE, Taylor single-cutaway 12-string

Amps
Marshall TSL100

Cabinets
Palmer PDI-03 speaker simulators

Effects Boss BF-2 Flanger, Boss CH-1 Super Chorus, Boss DD-7 Digital Delay, DigiTech Bad Monkey Overdrive, Dunlop DCR-2SR Rack Wah, Keeley Compressor, Keeley modified TS-9, Univox Univibe, Whirlwind/Tour Supply multi-selector

Strings
GHS various gauges

Picks
Legend Picks, thin Red Bear picks, various sizes



Guitars
Bill Nash custom Strat w/ customized Floyd Rose tremolo, Fernandes Sustainer system and a Seymour Duncan Antiquity at the middle pickup position

Amps
Pearce G2 preamp , Soldano SP-77 preamp, VHT Two/Fifty/Two power amp

Cabinets Palmer PDI-03 speaker simulators

Effects
DBX Stereo Gate, Eventide H3000, Lexicon PCM 41 Delay unit, Rocktron RSB-18 R, Bradshaw Switcher, Rocktron mixer, TC Electronic TC 2290 Dynamic Digital Delay, Yamaha SPX90 Reverb

Wireless
Shure UR4

Picks
Legend picks, thin

Strings
GHS .008-.038

[brywool]

The info on their gear was very cool info.

[Babyblue]

Thanks! for sharing this with us.

[Boomchild]

After reading this article I came away with the following. Tommy is delusional about these legions of new fans. I am sure that they have gained some new fans but legions come on. If that were the case then someone would be offering them a record deal for a new album. Second, JY's response to what new things he is doing or working on shows that you won't see any substantial new material from this band. He wants to coast out his career plating the same shit over and over. Which makes me wonder how long Gowan will continue to be content touring around playing the same old shit that he wasn't even involved with creating.

[brywool]

After reading this article I came away with the following. Tommy is delusional about these legions of new fans. I am sure that they have gained some new fans but legions come on. If that were the case then someone would be offering them a record deal for a new album. Second, JY's response to what new things he is doing or working on shows that you won't see any substantial new material from this band. He wants to coast out his career plating the same shit over and over. Which makes me wonder how long Gowan will continue to be content touring around playing the same old shit that he wasn't even involved with creating.

The Gowan point is well taken for sure. He's GOT to be getting bored. However, JY never WAS 'the creative force' behind the band, so really, not sure what is expected there.

[Boomchild]

After reading this article I came away with the following. Tommy is delusional about these legions of new fans. I am sure that they have gained some new fans but legions come on. If that were the case then someone would be offering them a record deal for a new album. Second, JY's response to what new things he is doing or working on shows that you won't see any substantial new material from this band. He wants to coast out his career plating the same shit over and over. Which makes me wonder how long Gowan will continue to be content touring around playing the same old shit that he wasn't even involved with creating.

The Gowan point is well taken for sure. He's GOT to be getting bored. However, JY never WAS 'the creative force' behind the band, so really, not sure what is expected there.

That's my point. With him being in the drivers seat you can't expect to have the band geared up to want to put out new material. Even if you take out the point that he was not the "creative force". It seems in his mind that just playing the same stuff night after night is just fine with him. It seems he doesn't care if the fan base would like to see them record an album of all new material. That's his "Thank You" to the fans that have supported the band for such a long time. Tommy may have a different viewpoint but who knows since he has never commented on the subject.

[Ash]

I want to be the first to say this.

Tommy Shaw sober for 21 years. Good job man. That is really admirable. Seriously cool. Likely part of the reason he still sounds so good.

[Ash]

Young: I can see how some people could be bored doing what we do, but really it’s such a joyful thing to have your career be going out and playing music for people. We’ve managed to find joy in going out and performing the same set night after night, and some people might never be able to get there mentally or emotionally, but we as a collective are and we’re having a great time.

I thought that was part of their problem with Dennis? I remember hearing how they got tired playing the same songs? Am I making that up?

[brywool]

I want to be the first to say this.

Tommy Shaw sober for 21 years. Good job man. That is really admirable. Seriously cool. Likely part of the reason he still sounds so good.

Watch clips of a younger Tommy (Paradise Theatre tour for example since there are a few on Youtube). His voice is MUCH better now. Lots of range, clear, and just better all around. Whatever he's doing, it's working.

[pinkfloyd1973]

I want to be the first to say this.

Tommy Shaw sober for 21 years. Good job man. That is really admirable. Seriously cool. Likely part of the reason he still sounds so good.

Definitely!

[Boomchild]

Young: I can see how some people could be bored doing what we do, but really it’s such a joyful thing to have your career be going out and playing music for people. We’ve managed to find joy in going out and performing the same set night after night, and some people might never be able to get there mentally or emotionally, but we as a collective are and we’re having a great time.

I thought that was part of their problem with Dennis? I remember hearing how they got tired playing the same songs? Am I making that up?

Your forgetting that JY will say and do anything that keeps Styx doing something. Other then Styx he is pretty much out of a job when comes to writing and performing music.

[froy]

Ash"

Tommy Shaw sober for 21 years. Good job man. That is really admirable.

That's great but what about 1983 to 1989 when he was whacked out.

Killed STYX with his drug addiction.

Thanks Tommy

[gr8dane]

If I had to work with Dennis and play Babe every night and work on drivel like kilroy,
I would be whacked out too.I would consider myself lucky that I hadn't thrown myself over a bridge.
Thanx Dennis.

[froy]

If I had to work with Dennis and play Babe every night and work on drivel like kilroy,
I would be whacked out too.I would consider myself lucky that I hadn't thrown myself over a bridge.
Thanx Dennis.

Sure a number 1 hit and a song that made millions from VW .
What's Shaw done to compare to that?

[Boomchild]

If I had to work with Dennis and play Babe every night and work on drivel like kilroy,
I would be whacked out too.I would consider myself lucky that I hadn't thrown myself over a bridge.
Thanx Dennis.

Sure a number 1 hit and a song that made millions from VW .
What's Shaw done to compare to that?

He did his solo tour for 7DZ at Borders Books around the country. Now thats impressive isn't it? He should have hit the bowling alleys as well since he liked playing in them so much.

[Boomchild]

If I had to work with Dennis and play Babe every night and work on drivel like kilroy,
I would be whacked out too.I would consider myself lucky that I hadn't thrown myself over a bridge.
Thanx Dennis.

That would be until you found out how much money you were going to make with those contributions Dennis made to the band. If they didn't stick with things the way they were for the the type of music projects they were doing then what was it? It's simple, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, they may have not been 100% happy but they weren't stupid either. I am sure the profits they got helped ease their pain. BOO HOO