If you are a guitarist or a fan of guitar players in general, this interview is going to be a real treat for you. California based guitarist Bill Lonero is a new name on the scene to many bringing a much welcomed style of music to the table. His band LoNero performs a style of music called “Guitarcore” but before you roll your eyes at yet another genre tag, give the guy a much deserved chance. I recently woke up Bill from his slumber and being the good sport he was took some time to talk to me about his love for AC/DC, his disdain for Carlos Santana and just what the hell “Guitarcore” actually is. Enjoy this interview with Bill Lonero!
Bill, thanks so much for taking the time out to do this interview. To many like myself, you might be a new name to us. Just how long has LoNero been around?
Well, I put out a solo album in 2004 and that was my first album. I had Stu Hamm on bass, Mike Mangini on drums and GiGi Gonaway (from Mariah Carey’s band) on drums as well. That album was my first foray into recording. I didn’t want to put out a typical instrumental album where you had basically had a rhythm band for me to just solo on top. Once I did that album I needed a band in order to play live so I got together a few friends and we formed the band. I actually didn’t want to name the band “Lonero.” I wanted to name it something else other than my last name but my drummer at the time just said, “Why don’t we just call the band Lonero?” I decided that if we were going to do this that I would just raise the “N” in the band name to separate the band name from my actual name because it’s not all about the lead guitar player. We lost the drummer and bassist and got new guys then started on the next album that would be a full band album. That’s how “Guitarcore” came about. Once we got Michael Rosin to produce it, we streamlined the concept of it and instead of the songs being six and seven minutes long, it really brought it down to like three and four minute songs. We just wanted to cut out the crap, cut out the bullshit and just make a rock album that even if you don’t like instrumental music you could hopefully get into.
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You mentioned that you like to refer to the style of music you play as “Guitarcore.” What exactly is that?
It’s just instrumental music for people who don’t like instrumentals [laughs]. The thing that I miss that I rarely hear in instrumental music is actual versus and choruses. These guitar players are so capable of telling a story but they don’t have the restraint in their playing. It’s like they come out of the gate immediately flying and just told the story 10 seconds into the song but they just keep on going. It’s like the drunk uncle at the Christmas party that won’t shut up [laughs]. With me, the whole instrumental thing started as an accident. It wasn’t my intention to be an instrumental guitar player at all. I used to rehearse with a drummer and we were going to form a band. We started writing songs and writing riffs. We would write all the rhythms and when we couldn’t find a singer, I would lay down a melody line so that when we got an actual singer he would know where the melody line should be and know where the chorus should be and then I would lay down the solo and he would know where all the parts would be. It turned out that we didn’t need a singer because we just did all that the singer would do anyway. That kind of developed into having instrumental songs with choruses, versus and bridges.
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I agree with you and that’s why I enjoyed the “JFL” album so much. It’s a quick and easy listen and it is just an un-pretentious good solid rock record.
Thanks so much. That’s exactly what I wanted it to be. I wanted a good solid rock record. I love AC/DC and every album of theirs is a good solid rock record. You don’t need a masters degree in music to listen to our music [laughs]. The average person can’t get into an artist like Steve Vai because there’s so much there. I love Vai and he’s probably the best at what he does but the average person can’t listen but that’s just his style. He really carries the torch for Frank Zappa and he does it better than anybody. When he does buckle down and write a good song like “For The Love of God” or “Tender Surrender” it’s absolutely beautiful. To have a ¼ of the ability that guy has on the guitar would be amazing. Who knows, maybe if I did I would do what he does on the guitar [laughs].
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In the past you have worked with everyone from Mike Mangini (Steve Vai, Dream Theater) to Stu Hamm (Joe Satriani.) How does a relatively new guy on the scene get connected with such great talent?
When I was starting the writing process for my first album and I was ready to go into the studio I needed a bass player. My buddy Frank who works for Apple told me that he knew Stu Hamm and he said, “Maybe we can get him on the album” and I was like, “Dude, yeah right” [laughs]. Stu Hamm asked me to send him the stuff so he could listen to it and he called me back and said he would do it. As for Mike Mangini, I had met him a couple of years prior when I was a clinic coordinator at a guitar store. I had him coming in to do a clinic and he said, “I’ll play on your CD” and at the time he was still in Steve Vai’s band. We went in and we did a couple of songs and only one made it to the album. I met GiGi Gonoway who was with Mariah Carey’s drummer for 15 years at an Eric Martin show. I told GiGI I was working on my album and he said, “I’ll play on it for free man!” and I said, “No you won’t” [laughs]. When it was time to go into the studio, he was there and he was fantastic. We’ve played shows with him as a fill in for our drummer and he’s a fantastic guy. One of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet.
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What a great story man. It just makes you realize that sometimes it just doesn’t hurt to ask when it comes to wanting to work with certain people no matter what caliber of musician they are.
[laughs]Absolutely. It doesn’t hurt to ask. All those guys are just the nicest guys.
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Speaking of Mike Mangini, I’m so glad he got that Dream Theater gig.
Man, I couldn’t be more happy for that guy. When I first heard that Mike Portnoy (former Dream Theater drummer) had left the band, the first person I thought they should get was Mike Mangini. There was no doubt in my mind that he would be the drummer for that band. I don’t care how many people they auditioned I just knew that he would be the guy. It couldn’t have happened to a better person than him.
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Are there any special guests on “JFL” or is this solely a LoNero thing?
No none at all. The only guest on this one was a producer [laughs]. We’ve never worked with a producer before. A mutual friend of ours told him about LoNero and he listened to the last album and said that he’d love to work with us. This was perfect because we had just started writing for “JFL”. We ended up renting a warehouse so now we have our own recording/rehearsal studio which is perfect. We went in and recorded the album with him and it was a fantastic experience.
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Your producer Michael Rosin really captured you guys and the album really has a live feel to it.
Thanks man. I really love the live feel to albums and that’s why I love AC/DC so much. Almost every album has that live feel to it because usually they record it live. For me, when I’m recording I don’t want to do too many takes. If I can’t get it within the first few takes I have to move on to something else. Even the solos on the album are mostly all first take solos. I don’t want to spend all this time recording.
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So I’m a huge AC/DC fan and this is like the fourth time you’ve brought them up so I have to ask you. Why do you think AC/DC is a band that pretty much gets shunned by all the “guitar god” types?
It’s because Angus Young doesn’t abide by the guitar shredder rules which is learn ever arpeggio in the book, play as cleanly as possible and have a rack full of effects. He doesn’t do any of that stuff. He’s an extension of Chuck Berry. Angus isn’t the most proficient guitar player on the planet. He makes mistakes but he doesn’t care and that’s what’s beautiful about him. When he gets on stage you’re getting who he really is. He’s not going up there with any pretentiousness or bullshit. He’s got the true rock n’ roll attitude which is, “This is who I am and if you don’t like it, fuck off.” Angus Young didn’t go to Berkley or MIT. As a guitarist when you first start off you learn AC/DC and then you move past it and go to Eddie Van Halen and than past that to like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai or Yngwie Malmsteen. It doesn’t matter how good you are or how many notes you play. It’s a matter of the expression of what you put into your music and what you don’t play. I don’t care how low you tune your guitar but you’ll never be as heavy as “Back In Black” [laughs]. Angus Young lives and breathes rock n’ roll. You shouldn’t look in a book to find out how to be a rock n’ roll musician. I just love that guy.
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It seems artists like Alice Cooper, Ozzy, etc always end up working with some amazing guitar god. Is there a specific artist that you would love to collaborate with in the future?
Have you ever heard of Stealheart?
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Yeah, I have.
I was in Steelheart with Miljenko Matijevic for about a year and in my opinion he’s one of the top 2 or 3 greatest vocalists ever. The guy’s vocal range is just fantastic. I had seen the movie “Rockstar” with my friend Neil Zlowzer (famed rock photographer) who was in the movie. I was listening to the music and I remember telling my girlfriend that if I ever had a vocalist that this was the guy I wanted. About a two years later I was as Neil’s house and this guy comes over and we start talking and he says, “My name is Miljenko Matijevic” and told me that he was in a band called Steelheart. I vaguely remembered the name and then told me he was the voice of Mark Walberg in “Rockstar.” I was like, “Are you fucking kidding me?” [laughs] We ended up staying up until 2 am just talking about everything. He hired me to do his website and then asked me if I’d be interested in joining Stealheart. The songs are just fucking great. Songs like “LOL”, “Twisted Future” and “Samurai” are just fucking great songs. I ended up rehearsing with them and we did the Rocklahoma festival which was the only show I did with them because I really needed to focus on LoNero. Everybody in Stealheart was just fantastic but I just needed to focus on my own material but yeah, if I could collaborate or work with an artist, it would definitely be Miljenko again.
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That is not one I would’ve expected you to hear. I’ve only ever heard “Angel Eyes” and thought they were pretty sappy [laughs].
[laughs] So true. The later material is so heavy. Miljenko recorded it all himself in his own studio in Virginia. He wrote all the music and lyrics himself. I think the guy is a musical genius and I think it’s a shame that he’s only known for “Angel Eyes.” Hell, he just did six months singing with the remaining members of The Doors. He’s just a fantastic singer and he just put out a version of “Hallelujah” that just gives me chills every time I listen to it.
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Man, I’m sold. I’ve got to track this stuff down and give it a listen.
Yeah, definitely check it out. The newest Steelheart album is just fantastic! You’ll really like it.
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As you know, us guitar players love to talk smack about each other but it’s jut part of the game! Who do you feel is the most overrated guitar player?
Jimi Hendrix
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Wow man, you didn’t even pause to think!
[laughs] Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana are two of the most overrated guitar players I’ve ever heard. I know I’ll probably get a lot of shit for the Jimi Hendrix one but I don’t care. When Jimi Hendrix was out it was before my time but he was in a drug induced foray into music and people don’t give Eddie Kramer (producer) enough credit for what he did for Jimi Hendrix in the studio. He made Hendrix sound like he sounded. I think Hendrix has reached mythological proportions that he can do no wrong. I would take Scotty Moore over Hendrix any day. Scotty Moore started rock n’ roll with Elvis Presley. What he was doing was ground breaking while what Hendrix was doing was ear shattering. He was so loud, bashing the guitar and setting it on fire. He was so much more visual. Hell, at the same time Jimmy Page was out there. Jeff Beck was doing his stuff. To me, Jimmy Page was just an amazing songwriter. Hendrix, I just don’t get and don’t get me started on Santana. I just can’t put to words my disdain for Carlos Santana. The only concert I’ve ever walked out on was a Santana concert. It was Jeff Beck opening for Santana at Shorline Amphitheater which I thought was just sacrilege. Jeff Beck came out with just his strat, a few pedals and a few combo amps and got standing ovations after every song. Santana comes out with huge walls of Marshalls, two giant racks of effects and just starts preaching right off the bat and people just started leaving. He did some good stuff back in the day but now he’s just a caricature of himself.
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Who do you think is the most underrated guitarist?
There are so many but I’ll tell you, when I first heard Jimmy Herring from Aquarium Rescue Unit I was ready to burn my guitar. This guy is just beyond anything I have ever heard. I can’t believe that a player of his level and his ability isn’t more widespread. When I first heard him I was like, “What in the hell is this?” He’s phenomenal. My bass player turned me on to him and words just don’t describe this guy’s playing. He’s so lyrical yet he’s so technical which is very rare to have both. I’m a fan of technical playing but he doesn’t jam it down your throat with a million notes. He’s got such a unique phrasing to his playing but I can also go the other way too where I like players like Jeff Beck who can be sloppy and just play from the hip and go for it and I love that. I can also love players like Mike Ness from Social Distortion who may not be the best guitarist in the world but when he plays a solo I love listening to it. It’s short, sweet and straight to the point.
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Speaking of Social Distortion, there are two songs on “JFL” that seem to be somewhat of a tribute to your punk roots.
Yeah. We have two songs that are tributes. One of them is called “Fat Tat” which is a tribute to The Ramones and the other is “Good Luck” which is a tribute to Social Distortion. Both of those songs were written in the same amount of time it takes to play them which to me is punk rock. You don’t write a punk song over three days and ponder over which chord progression goes where. Punk rock is just bashing it out and when I wrote those songs that’s exactly what I wanted. I like to refer to those songs as “punkstrumental” and I’m even toying with the idea of doing a whole album of instrumental punk songs. It would probably be like 20 minutes long with 15 songs on it [laughs].
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It would be like when I saw The Ramones play for an hour and 10 minutes and they did 38 songs.
[laughs]. The great thing about The Ramones is that when they were on stage they didn’t talk. It was just literally one song into the next and when we play live, that’s what we do. For me, I’ve got to keep that going. When I go to a concert and hear a guy like Santana going into 15 minute spiels about a song. I don’t want to hear all that. If I’m going to a rock concert, I want to hear some music and The Ramones did it just like that.
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Speaking of playing live, will LoNero be touring at all for “JFL”?
That is definitely at the top of our list but the biggest thing is getting a tour. We’re going to be doing 13 shows with Pat Travers starting in August but that’s spanned over 3 months. I just want to go out on the road for two years [laughs]. I just want to play as many places as possible. It’s just a matter of money and logistics because it’s not cheap. We’re hoping to get on a tour though but we’ll see.
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It just seems that bands are having a harder time them ever getting people to come out to local shows much less go on a full tour. Why do you think that is?
People need incentive to go out and hear music these days and that’s just sad. The incentive used to be just the music but now the proliferation of bands on MySpace and Facebook and YouTube, people are just so inundated with music and 99% of it is garbage. Where’s the incentive for them to go see a band? People like you will spread the music and get it out there and that in itself is huge. Without people like you spreading the music, how are people going to hear about unknown bands?
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Thanks so much for saying that Bill. I know we’ve touched on some serious stuff but let’s loosen up and have some fun here!
[laughs] Alright! I’ve really enjoyed this a lot [laughs].
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So besides guitar based rock and metal, what other styles of music do you dig?
Man, I like some folk stuff. Have you ever heard of Todd Snyder?
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Oh yeah, I’m a huge Todd Snyder fan. I grew up a metal head but my parents were huge folk music fans. I spent my life running from that music only to really embrace it later in life.
Same here dude. I’ve loved that guy ever since his first album. When I was a kid growing up I listened to Exodus, Death Angel, early Metallica, Slayer, Carcass, Venom, all that stuff. My mom used to listen to country all the time and I thought it was just garbage but now I listen to Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Jr, Johnny Cash. I love all the outlaw stuff. I can’t listen to this new crap but I love the old outlaw guys. The guys that really had a message to say.
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If you could play guitar for any band, what band and what era of that band would it be and why?
It would either be AC/DC or Social Distortion. Man, I’d love to be the rhythm guitar player in Social Distortion [laughs].
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Ok man, here’s the deal. I’m going to list 5 guitarists and I want you to tell the first word you think of when you hear them:
Zakk Wylde – Monster
Randy Rhoads – Classy
Johnny Ramone – Rock
Yngwie Malmsteen – Uhhhh. Is that a word? [laughs]
Angus Young – God
Vinnie Vincent – Dogs [laughs]. He’s the Michael Vick of music [laughs].
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If you could form a band with any musicians alive or dead, who would be in it with you?
On vocals Miljenko Matijevic, on rhythm guitar myself and on lead, Angus Young. On bass I would probably say David Ellefson and on drums Mike Mangini. I wonder what kind of music that would sound like [laughs]. I don’t know if it would progressive AC/DC or AC/DC doing Dream Theater [laughs]. I would just sit back and play rhythm the whole time and just take it all in.
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What is the most starstruck you have ever been?
I was a counselor for the Rock N’ Roll Fantasy Camp in Hollywood and Cliff Wiilliams (AC/DC bassist) was one of the guest artists. We were at SIR Rehearsal studios and when I was leaving at the end of the night I literally turned the corner and ran into him. My mouth just hung out and I was standing in front of one of my idols. It wasn’t Angus Young but it was the closest I was going to fucking get [laughs]. The next night we jammed in the rehearsal room for about an hour and then we got on stage together and did AC/DC’s “TNT” which was incredible. The background vocals for that song is just one word: “OI”. I got up to the mic and I was so nervous I couldn’t get it out [laughs]. I’ll never forget that night.
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Bill, this was such a fun interview man. I really enjoyed talking to you today.
I really enjoyed this. I really appreciate it Don. Thanks so much and take care!
For more on LoNero check them at http://www.lonero.net and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/LoNeroMusic.
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