Formed at the edge of the new millennium, Maserati is as sleek, sexy and sophisticated as the legendary Italian sports car it takes its name from. It is fitting, then, that the band has dragged the glory years of psychedelic arena rock kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, with the pomposity (and vocals) carefully removed. In its place are white hot flashes of light pulsing to an unstoppable rhythm that makes us want to punch air and drive really fast in a car with wings instead of doors.
FACTS:
1: Husband and Father.
2: Cook, Musician, Daydreamer.
3: Guitarist for Maserati.
QUESTIONS:
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
That’s a hard question but my earliest inspiration for music was my Grand mother. She grew up on a farm so she always woke up at 4 am, played solitaire and listened to classical and big band s from the 40s. She was a piano teacher as well so there were always kids over taking lessons and music always being played in the house, it’s some of my earliest memories and probably why i gravitated to music later.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
I got a super shitty first guitar called a Gremlin when I was 13 for my birthday. I tried to play it for a few weeks and couldn’t get anywhere so it went in the closet. Wasn’t until I was 15 when Nevermind came out that some friends of mine got together and started to jam. They were all WAY ahead of my skill level so I had to improve fast to be able to keep up, even just learning bar chords wasn’t easy for me so I think I played guitar everyday for the next 5 years probably haha.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
This one is always changing, it’s probably broken down by my top 5 favorite records every year but if I had to choose 5 now I would say:
-The Stooges “Raw Power”
-The Kinks “We are the Village Green Preservation Society”
-Aphrodite’s Child “666”
-Thelonius Monk “Pure Monk”
-Ash Ra Tempel “Inventions for Electric Guitar”
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
When I think of Berlin the first thing i think of is Krautrock. Tangerine Dream, Cluster, Manuel Göttsching etc making incredible music in the 70’s when no one in America was considering anything like this. I’ve always loved Berlin for its progressiveness for all things art, it makes it a truly special city for people like us.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
I live in Switzerland now with my wife and 4 month old son. We live just outside of Lausanne in a tiny village called Villars-le-Terroir. If I look off my balcony I can see nearly the whole village, next town and then the French Alps in the background. It’s so peaceful and I can’t imagine living in the city again, country living all the way.
8.If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?7. What was the last record/music you bought?
My record haul from a couple days ago was:
-Television “Adventure”
-Bob Dylan and The Band “Basement Tapes”
-The Gun Club “Las Vegas Story”
-AC/DC “High Voltage and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap(UK/Aust. Presses with the cartoon covers.)
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
It’s 2 people for sure, Brian Eno and Manuel Göttsching. Doing a collaborative record with one or both of them would be a dream come true. Brian’s ambient records are some of my favorites and getting to share guitar ideas with Manuel, who to me really saw the future and inspired me to see how far I could go with melodic as well as psychedelic guitars.
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
Hmm…That’s a super hard question but the best rock show I’ve ever seen was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band in Milan last year. They played nearly 4 hours and his voice sounded completely incredible the whole time. The Boss isn’t human, he’s an alien for another sphere haha.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Technology is pretty essential now because I live in another country. For a year of so we’ve been trading back and forth demo ideas on the computer and finally this weekend the guys arrive for 10 days so we can look thru all of that and hopefully build some new songs for the next record.
11. Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career/art?
I have a half brother and sister who are 5 and 6 years younger than me. My brother is a super sporty guy and my sister is a hippy haha. We’ve never been very close but they really have no idea what I do. It’s completely outside of their world but that’s ok, they do things that aren’t my thing either so I guess that’s what makes us all interesting, no?