Interview Exclusive with the Shredders from HESS

Interview by: Nick Martinelli

SZ: Give us some background and personal history about yourself?

     Tom Hess: I have lived in the Chicago suburban area my entire life. I am soon moving to Lake in the Hills, Illinois (another suburb of Chicago). I have been teaching guitar/music privately since 1990. I currently have 60+ students a week. Anyone can contact us through this address: PO Box 113  Cary, IL 60013 USA.Or by email: hess@mc.net.

SZ: When did you pick up guitar and how did you get interested in it?

     Tom Hess: When I was 10 or 11 years old, I listened to Def Leppard albums a lot, On Through the Night, High and Dry, and Pyromania. Hearing that really made me want to either play guitar or sing. I couldnšt sing well so guitar was my desire, it took awhile to convince my parents that I really wanted to play. I bought my first guitar on January 31, 1986.

Mike Walsh: I was in eighth grade and had heard Metallicašs And Justice For All, I was hooked. I thought it was the coolest sounding album (still do for Metallica). I used to play to that album and not even know what I was doing, I was just strumming the strings.

Mark Carozza: I started playing when I was around nine or ten. I was visiting some relatives, and one of my cousins who had recently started playing guitar played some Pink Floyd stuff for my brother and I. When we got back from the trip I asked my parents if I could take some guitar lessons.

SZ: What drove you to become the player you have become today?

Mike Walsh: When I started playing, all the music I listened to was too hard for any beginner to play. I liked Metallica's (And Justice For All) and Megadeth's (Rust In Peace). These are not cd's you give a 1st year player and say, learn these albums note for note.  I did not know that these were not practical songs and solo's to play as a beginner, so when you play 6 to 8 hours a day for 2 years trying to sound exactly like those albums and nail the solo's dead on, you get good really fast. After you learn how to play a whole song with the cd and the solos it becomes addictive and you need more and more to suppress the hunger. So, then I moved on to Steve Vai and Dream Theater, and that choked me up for a long time.

Mark Carozza: I just enjoy playing. I can't think of anything that really drove me. I think the fact that I was into metal really helped with my technique because it was more technically challenging than a lot of the more mainstream styles.

Tom Hess: I could write a book answering this one question, but I wonšt so here is the very short version. For me, most of the driving force to play well in the early days was related to how cool I thought the electric guitar sounded. When my musical skills progressed more seriously in high school, I was able to play things on guitar that affected me emotionally. There was a girl in high school that I really liked a lot, she often came to hear me play and I discovered that I could affect her emotionally with my improvising, this was probably the most important event that led to my desire to become a better musician. As far as my desire to become a high-caliber player, Yngwie inspired me to improve my technique. Later, other players like: Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, George Bellas, Dream Theater and Andy LaRoque inspired me further. I took lessons from George Bellas for 5 years (1993-1998) and we became good friends, he was always encouraging me and inspiring me to strive for perfection in my playing, improvising and composing. I owe a lot to him, the rest of many great teachers that Išve had and all those mentioned above.

SZ: Name some of the biggest influences on your playing? Who where the ones early on that kicked you butt?

Tom Hess: Early on it was, Def Leppard, Metallica (1984-1988) and Iron Maiden. I have had lots of influences since then, but the most substantial ones are: Yngwie Malmsteen, George Bellas, Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Andy LaRocque (from King Diamond), King Diamond, Dream Theater, Fabio Lione (from Rhapsody), Gustav Mahler, J.S. Bach, Johannes Brahms and Fryderyk Chopin (he has been my most important musical influence from 1995 - present).

Mike Walsh: Late 80's Metallica, Dream Theater and all other great guitar players.

Mark Carozza: Early on I was into Pink Floyd and classic rock, then I got into heavy stuff like Metallica and later Pantera. One of the biggest influences on my soloing style is John Petrucci, although I don't really think I sound like him.

SZ: Who are some of your favorite bands?

Mike Walsh: I will just go with more recent artists, Dream Theater, Tool, and Nuno Bettencourtšs solo works. Unfortunately for me, these types of questions are hard considering that I really do not buy cds anymore and only hear new artists from students and the radio.

Tom Hess: Yngwie Malmsteen, George Bellas, Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, King Diamond, Dream Theater, Rhapsody, Symphony X, old Iron Maiden, early 1990's Megadeth.

Mark Carozza: Like I said, my early favorites were Pink Floyd, Metallica, and Pantera. Some more recent favorites are Dream Theater, Primus, and Nine Inch Nails.

SZ: How did you form Hess and how long has the band been together?

Tom Hess: Tom Hess: Scott and I originally formed the band in 1995 under the name, Gothic Empire. The original line-up was this:
Scott Hess ~ Percussion
Tom Hess ~ Guitar
Joe LaBanco ~ Guitar
Chuck Hamilton ~ Bass

In 1996, Chuck left the band to tour North America with Ted Nugent and Bad Company in the T.D.Clark band. Joe also left the band at the same time to form his own project called Fretfire (which Chuck later joined). In 1996, I was a music student at William Rainey Harper college and it was there that I met Mike Walsh, we were in the same music theory, aural skills, piano and music literature classes as well as the classical guitar ensemble. Mike was really into learning as much as possible and one day we got together at Mikešs house to jam for the first time. The first time that I heard him play electric guitar I knew that I wanted him to be the bandšs new guitarist. There was no need to audition anyone else. At the same time, I had asked one of my long time guitar students, Dan Massa to play bass in the band. In the fall of 1996, my brother left the band because he was transferring to the University of Illinois (which was 3 hours away from the rest of the band). It took 8 months and 40+ phone interviews and auditions to finally find the right guy to be the new drummer, that guy was Chris Dowgun. Chris instantly impressed us with his highly intricate style. In September of 1997, Dan left the band as me moved to Florida. Chris recorded the percussion on Opus 1 and then in January of 2000, he left the band to pursue his rock-musical-comedy projects. Scott had just graduated from the University and rejoined the band right away. I should also note that band name was changed to Hess in 1998. Hess did not have a bass player from September 1998 until May of 2001. All of our live shows were played with the bass and keyboard parts prerecorded on DAT tape. For the recording of Opus 1, I played the bass lines and the keyboard parts were played or sometimes sequenced by me. May of 2001 we added a bass player to our line up. We got Mark Carozza, a Berklee school of music graduate and a former student and friend of mine going back to 1993. We are very excited about having Mark in the band!

SZ: How would you describe the differences between Mikešs lead playing and Tomšs lead playing?

Mike Walsh: The main difference between Tom and I is that I play with more hammer ons and pull offs, I try to go for a more slurred legato saxophone technique, where Tom picks most of his notes and I pick about half, if not less at times. I really like sliding in and out of notes and doing slurred bends with out of scale notes. It gives my sound a little more exotic taste and really makes the fingerings tricky at times.

Tom Hess: Mikešs style is so original that it is sometimes hard to describe. His playing is very exotic and you never know what he will improvise next. There are traces of other players in his playing but he really is one-of-a-kind. Mikešs legato technique is part of what makes up his style, but I think its his unusual melodic phrasing that sounds so original. People often hear him and ask, what the hell did he just do and how did he do it?!  I have been told that my playing sounds like a cross between various different players with a dramatic feel.

SZ: I have a copy of your disc "Opus 1," can you describe what listeners will get, if this where a sales pitch?

 Tom Hess: Opus 1 is a combination of three styles: Progressive Rock, Neo-Classical metal and and highly dramatic art music. The fusion of these styles in one CD is very unusual and is a new genre of high-caliber music.

SZ: What can a listener expect, when listening to your new Opus 1 CD and describe the styles you use?

Tom Hess: My reply to the previous question applies to this one as well. This is not your typical instrumental guitar CD, the combination of the different stylistic elements makes the Hess sound unique.