The Very Concept Of YNGWIE MALMSTEEN!

The Very Concept Of YNGWIE MALMSTEEN!

FEATURES

Judy Wieder

Yngwie Malmsteen has the kind of physical beauty that puts a torch to talent. In other words, it doesn’t hurt the "young Viking chief" (“Yngwie”'s literal translation) that he drives the young girls wild long before his fingers slam into his guitar strings at a hundred miles an hour. But it’s exactly this kind of fawning that makes him suspicious.

“Next comes the part about my ‘big ego,’” he says with Stockholm still heavy on his tongue. “When I was younger, I really was a brat. Not now, and not when I was in Alcatrazz, the way everybody thinks. I just didn’t appreciate the aspects of being a ‘normal’ person. Anybody that wouldn’t agree with me caused me pain. I wouldn’t even try to discuss it. I’d just say ‘Fuck you!’ It’s hard to admit, but that was the whole attitude I had when I was a kid. I don’t think that’s relevant today. That was a long time ago, really.

"As far as my bad reputation today,” he continued uneasily, “I think it’s the environment that sees me that way. If I’m in a situation where people look at me as if I’m not a little brat, then I’m not. But I might be exactly the same person as I am in a situation where everybody thinks I’m a brat. In that situation—I’m a brat! Personally, I don’t think I change that much. Well, maybe I’ve matured in certain areas since I first started. But I haven’t been affected by this brat thing, which is what people like to write about me the most. I know the publicity with Alcatrazz didn’t help this situation much. And there were personality problems, I’m afraid. They had a mixture of intimidation and respect for me. See, they were much older than me and they thought that they were therefore much more experienced. That fact that I’d been playing much longer than most of them and was more musically accomplished didn’t seem to matter. They expected me to look up to them. I was to be like a little kid compared to them. After a while it just became a bad scene and I had to leave. They seemed to have put it out of proportion in a lot of different ways, but that was yesterday. I don’t care about it anymore, although at the time it was kinda bad for all of us.”

Trying to move himself away from the subject of past conflicts, Yngwie found himself remembering still more heartache. His dark eyes flashed with present tense anger this time:

“People shouldn’t believe what they read about me! Magazines say I have a big ego and that I’m a pain in the ass, and I don’t think it’s justified—because they don’t know me as a person, and they get their opinions from people who don’t like me in the first place. There’s actually a magazine that I’m suing (Kerrang!) because it’s really like an actual gossip magazine. You might as well buy the International Inquirer or something like that. Very recently this magazine wrote that I was caught in bed with my singer’s girlfriend and that he cracked my jaw and that I fired him. They wrote this as though it was true\ My singer, Mark Boals, and I were looking at this article and we were just shaking our heads and saying ‘Where the heck did that get this from?’ Who gives them the right to make this up? It never happened; never, ever did anything close to that happen. Nobody broke my jaw and he’s not fired from the band. He doesn’t even have a girlfriend! If they count on the people they write about not to sue—they can forget about it! I’m suing!”

Accepting a glass of water from his own girlfriend, Greta, Yngwie seemed to calm down. “We’ve been together a couple of years now,” he offered.

I took the opportunity to intrude further on his usually guarded private life with questions about the possibility of marriage and/or a family in the future. He sighed reluctantly.

“Well, I would want that but I wouldn’t want to do it unless I’d be able to spend enough time with my children. This kind of life is not exactly well-suited for that, you know, being on the road eight or nine months a year. It’s hard enough having a relationship with one person, but at least with that I can bring her on the road with me. With children it would be different.”

Currently finishing up still another solo album, Yngwie freely admitted that one of the big goals this time ’round was to come out with a “hit” song, one that would score well on the pop/rock charts and make him more of a household name. To Yngwie this didn’t necessarily mean selling out on any level.

“They still have to be good songs!” he emphasized. “It’s just that commercial success gives you the freedom to do other things that you want to do. Perhaps scoring films or doing even more far-out things with the guitar, for example. I’m always learning more on the guitar.”

Fully aware of the fact that rock fans tend to hero-worship guitar players more than, say, synthesizer players, Yngwie had his own theories as to why: “Well, maybe it’s the way the instrument looks in your hands when you play it. Maybe it goes back to the tradition of Jimi Hendrix or something. He’s sort of the model for that. But there are no super-synth players or keyboard heroes to set the standard.”

Are there any American rock guitarists that Yngwie admires? He couldn’t think of anyone. I threw out some names:

Eddie Van Halen?

‘‘Well, of course, you can’t deny what that guy did. He’s a great guitar player. He’s still great and he’s always been great. The most important thing is that he brought something forward that wasn’t there before. Maybe somebody had done it, but he made it famous. He made a statement. He’s like Hendrix in a way.”

Ted Nugent?

‘‘It’s really strange, but even though I’ve toured with the guy for quite some time, I never really heard him play. I never listened to his records.”

Joe Perry?

‘‘Him I never heard, not even once. I never listen to that kind of music so it’s hard for me to judge it.”

Mick Mars?

‘‘I’ve heard Motley Crue lots of times, but I never heard a guitar solo. Maybe he does a lot of guitar solos, but I never caught any of them on the radio. There are a couple of guitar players on the scene right now that I don’t think are bad at all, but I can’t think of their names.”

The guys in Ratt?

‘‘Oh yeah, not Robbin Crosby, but Warren DeMartini. I think some of his solos are really a lot better than most guitar players you hear. He’s got a good sound and everything.

Phil Collen (Def Leppard)?

"Well, I don’t want to say much here...”

Jake E. Lee?

‘‘He’s apparently very good, but the way they mix him on the records, I can’t really hear what he plays. I saw him play in Sweden once and he sounded then like he was playing like Randy Rhoads.”

Carlos Cavazo?

‘‘Yeah...well...”

Sammy Hagar?

‘‘Does he ever play leads?”

I dropped the subject and asked Yngwie where he best liked playing the guitar—onstage, in videos or in concert. He lit up. ‘‘Oh, onstage! I like it best onstage. I like to be in the studio, too, but then it’s more like construction. I’m working on something that’s changing all the time. Onstage I can take chances, try new things. That’s the way I always do it, very spontaneous. I try to do that in the studio too, but then it’s documented forever. With video, I think you have to be very careful. I want to have a hit song, so I’m perfectly happy to make videos. But it’s important to remember that the music should be the most powerful part, the driving force.”

“Does Sammy Hagar ever play leads?”

The 22-year-old guitar whiz was equally clear about what he disliked doing the most: ‘‘I hate all the travelling involved in this business. I don’t like hurrying up and waiting! That’s the story of my life. I hate airports, unpacking and packing. It drives me crazy. I don’t like it at all—but I understand the importance of doing it. It’s just that it adds to the overall pressure of time. There’s always some deadline I have to meet. For instance, I had a special deadline when I had to write all the songs for this latest album. That’s kinda hard really, because I want it to be really good, and you’ve got to let it flow and come forth naturally. You can’t just force yourself to write music. But, of course, I realize that these deadlines are important for me, too, because I don’t want to release albums too far apart. I just signed a new deal with Polygram and this new album is the first one with this deal. I hate the pressure, but I need the pressure. I guess that’s just the way it goes.”

So in his own way the boy who used to scare his fellow students in Sweden by riding a motorcycle through the classroom, is, well...mellowing?

‘‘Uhhh..{grin) yeah, I guess. Now that I’ve had some success, some validation, I don’t have to fight quite so hard. Mellowing? Yeah, OK, mellowing.”