Exclusive Interview
By Adriana Rubio
Pictures:
Courtesy of Eric Stadler
Guitar Virtuoso Eric Stadler
is an Endorsing Artist of
Xvive Company
This is one of the
most awaited interviews of
the year, and I’m glad it is happening now! There’s a lot going on at Eric Stadler’s
musical camp.
Aside from the pleasure
of interviewing a gifted
and professional musician, it is important
to highlight his humbleness and great sense of humor.
Eric Stadler is a Guitar
Virtuoso
from St. Louis, MO
in the United States. He
grew up listening to classical music and was in fact force
fed it from when he was an embryo
inside his mother’s womb.
Eric’s mom was a pianist and opera singer and used to play the
piano or listen to classical
music during
the pregnancy.
“My mother would put
the old fashioned big headphones
to her
stomach with the music of
Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven playing through, so
I was feeling the
vibrations of that music when
I was a fetus in her womb.
She was a big lover of classical music, but she
also would occasionally play rock
music
like The Beatles and some
Jazz too. And well, after
all these vibrations I had my first symphony, no kidding, at the
age of two months
old… you know? (Laughs) I’m
kidding”!
At the age of four Eric
sensibly heard the “music passion call” while watching
a Symphony
Orchestra on TV with his mother and grandparents. He was fascinated with one of the instruments in particular,
a violin, which undoubtedly led him to where he is now.
“I remember that I was four years old and my
mother
and grandparents, were watching a concert on TV, a Symphony Orchestra. I was standing
in front of the TV and
my mom
said ‘Eric, you’re blocking the TV, honey you need to move out the
way’. And I was just
standing there
in my superhero underpants watching
in a dimwitted slackjawed gaze and
couldn’t move; actually I was in
the
other room playing with toys when I heard the violin. It was a powerful thing in my mind and I still remember that moment, my little pea-sized brain was just fascinated with the music and the sound of the violin. Unfortunately,
they thought I was too young”.
Eric’s mother could
play a lot of different classical music composers like
Beethoven,
one
of Eric’s favorites,
and
according to
what he recalls; she could play highly proficiently and performed very beautiful pieces which he greatly enjoyed during his childhood.
“I was a child and I would sit in the room
listening
to my mother shred on the piano.
I love the piano,
but for some reason
I did not want to play
piano, I didn't have the desire to play it”.
“To me now, it is the most beautiful instrument, the way
I hear it, you know? It is the prettiest instrument… with
the violin (Laughs). Piano and
violin are the most beautiful sounding instruments to me”.
“When I was 12 or 13 years old, I heard those guitar players like Andres' Segovia, Paco
DeLucia and Carlos Montoya and said I
want to play the guitar,
so I started begging for a guitar (Laughs). My step father had an acoustic
guitar
that was a piece of crap (Laughs) but he gave it to me. The strings were like an inch from the
neck and took the strength of 10 men to even
sound a single note! I was about 15 years
old when I started Classical guitar
lessons”.
“It was a beautiful
experience
for me because it was
my first musical learning, I was 15 and had this piece of
crap acoustic guitar, but I learned
focus,
notation, some
of music theory, posture and things like that. I did it for like two
years”.
By then this aspiring
musician was 17 and something he saw in a magazine changed his musical life completely or should I say it helped him to jump into
a more modernistic noise
as he still had the
sound of the violin throbbing violently in his scorched young cranium… (Lol).
“There was this Hit Parader magazine with a picture
of the Scorpions guitar players Rudolf Schenker and
Matthias Jabs. And I saw this picture of Matthias stoically gripping his signature white
and black striped Gibson Explorer like an eternal champion of Rock and it was
so strange...... because it felt like a magical and powerful
bolt of lightning struck me.....A powerful feeling of destiny overwhelmed
me....and right then I KNEW I would one day become a professional electric
guitarist”.
“So the next
Christmas my parents got it for me, and it was… probably
the most hideously beautiful piece of crap I have ever seen or played. It had
built in effects that sounded so bad, that my ears would gently bleed every
time my aching stumps caressed its sweet wooden flesh”.
“Its body consisted most likely of 4th grade balsa wood that would snap
at the slightest touch. Nonetheless...I was magically enamored of this mythical
beast of an electric nature. God, I remember trying to play old Slayer riffs on
it. I sounded like an infant banging on the cheap dimestore strings!!" (Laughs!)
And this was the beginning of a powerful connection with the electric guitar,
a loud wake-up call experience that gave him the keys to walk through the gates
of his own soul and explore the emotions and great dimensions of guitar playing
at the age of 18.
Eric played with some local bands in St. Louis. Live performances were
of tremendous encouragement for him to continue learning and practicing as he
had decided to become a lead guitarist. He would listen to Metallica and some
of Megadeth until another loud wake-up call knocked on Eric’s music world.
“I was not a prodigy, you know? You listen to Yngwie Malmsteen, Marty
Freedman, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and you say WOW! They were younger than me
when they started, so it really took me a lot longer to be a lead guitar
player”.
“Someone introduced me to Al Di Meola; I heard his music which I really
like and some others. I continued with my daily practice until I heard
Malmsteen and Steve Vai, they BLEW my mind. It really took my mind to a
complete different direction, immersing my soul into full practicing and
playing guitar for like five years”.
As you can imagine, Eric Stadler
became a noticeable act in St. Louis as a result. However, he did not stop
practicing and went onto explore the “teaching” side of music as another way to
deepening his guitar playing skills and learning more from a different
perspective. Teaching guitar to other people helped him to learn and focus
more. Eric teaches all guitar playing styles and piano since 13 years ago.
Looking back, it is amazing to see all the things Eric went through and
how hard he has challenged himself over the years to become a recognized guitar
virtuoso by many world class guitar players and international audiences. He
would choose the hardest way to stardom as an amateur musician.
“I didn’t start writing music, my own pieces, until about eight years
ago and it was a wonderful experience. I had a MySpace site and I uploaded my
first musical compositions… they kinda suck, you know? (Laughs)I don’t know how I could put that out (Laughs!) But
it became one of the biggest amateur guitar sites in the underground guitar
playing world and started to receive feedback from famous guitar players”.
After the MySpace experience, Eric’s music world started to move at full
speed as he is being recognized by many for his talent, outstanding guitar
playing style and distinctive technique. So he decided to record an
instrumental CD Album.
“I have almost certainly around 200 pieces of musical compositions; all
of them are instrumental since my inspiration has always been from instrumental
masters like Malmsteen and Steve Vai. So I said ‘it’s time to put the damn
thing together’ (Laughs), and started to work on the Stormbringer album about
two years ago. I was having a hard time with my life mentally and emotionally
so I went through it and made it, finally”.
“Stormbringer” is a 13 track CD album filled with tremendous instrumental
compositions. This master piece also features lead work by world respected
guitarist Gary Hoey on track 7 titled "Catastrophic Prophecy".
“My best friend guitar legend Gary Hoey also helped me to complete the
album. It was strange because when I was 15 or 16 years old I used to play air
guitars listening to Gary’s music, and I remember saying ‘Oh, I wish I could
play like this’. Years later we became friends”.
“I contacted Gary through a social network, sent him ‘The Forging’
video, and he sent a message back saying he was very impressed with the video
and guitar playing. He gave me his phone number and asked me to call him on
Saturday. Gary was in a studio recording with Lita Ford on that weekend. And I
said ‘Oh My… Holy Shit… Gary Hoey!... you know? (Laughs!).
“I called Gary, (he is one of the nicest guy I’ve ever met), and he
answers the phone ‘Hello, Hello’…I could hear loud music around so he didn’t
hear me and he hang up. Oh no, he didn’t hear me! I was depressed. But about 30
minutes later he called me back”.
“Gary Hoey really inspired me to complete my CD, he’s been in the music
industry for 30 years and has released 20 albums. And there he was encouraging
me to complete the album: ‘Eric, you have to get the damn thing done. I can
help you’. And I said ‘how would you help me’? ‘Well, do you want me to play
something on it’? Are you kidding me?” (Laughs!)
Guitar legend Gary Hoey truly
believes Eric Stadler is the new
guitar hero of the next generation. As previously said Gary Hoey played and recorded lead work on “Catastrophic Prophesy” for
Eric’s “Stormbringer” CD. See it with your own eyes on the video
below!
Eric Stadler is an endorsing artist of XVive Company and will be
performing at the Namm Show in California with all the
biggest guitar players in the upcoming winter. In the meantime, Eric is working
on his second CD and some other exciting projects. Eric’s music world looks as
brilliant as his intense guitar playing and virtuosity. The secret is
persistence and hard work.
“As I have said to countless other beginning and aspiring
musicians.....Give it up, cut your long hair and become a manure-shoveler!!
Nothing beats the seductive fragrance of sweet horse manure pervading your open
nostrils!! (Laughs!) No, seriously!! Stick with the music and pay your dues at
it and you can achieve incredible things. The main thing is to have and harness
the passion and power that music gives you and to play, write and perform it
with that same feeling and intensity. Always follow your dreams with belief,
hard work and persistence, and you will achieve them”.
More to come soon, so stay tuned! Meanwhile please read the “Stormbringer” CD Album review on this
blog and feel free to visit Eric Stadler
official website for more updates at:
