Dweezil Zappa World

Howdy everyone !

My name is Chris, I am French living in the south-east part of France, moving soon to Texas.

The story and constant 'quest' of my life is about materializing the deep passion into art, and this is a pleasure to have registered to this excellent website!

I play guitar for 20 years, and I will share with you what brought me to my personal path. I'm in a writing mood, here's my story :

I was a 15 years old shy kid,basically learning by myself,playing by ear with my favorite tapes like Black Sabbath,Van Halen,Ozzy..Until the day one man changed my whole vision of life through music. This man is called Guy Georges Gremy, who played with Little Bob Story, among other bands. He became my teacher, or should I say my 'music master'.. :

I am laughing when I think about it now, but lessons were what I was calling "Karate Kid for musicians"... Surprisingly,this was not about learning scales and all at the beginning, but he told me that we will work the mind and body before the instrument itself. Imagine a 15 years old kid listening to that,while all he has in mind is to pump-up a Marshall amp's volume and play Iron Man !

Lessons were truly hard, many things that I had a hard time to understand, wondering what was the link between those practices and musical inspiration,an instrument (and you guessed it...Iron Man :D ). All was about breathing exercises with a metronome, things like listening to the movement of the sea, colors, the solar plexus and the hands, the feelings of love, hate, the divine,the vile, different ways to say a single word and to record my voice while saying them, and so on... I was lost.

Until the day he let me take my guitar, and here started the hard part.Merciless would be the word.The goal was to constantly being in connection with my mind and daily moods (and of course all those practices said above), while making hard guitar exercises involving different things like : weight attached to my arm, blindfolded, and other things that you will certainly never believe, and always to be aware with your "inner tempo" while breathing.

Basically, there was only one big and main lesson behind all this kind of "musical torture for mind & body" (!), but the spark in my mind wasn't there still..

A day came that he proposed me to play for a convention with him. This was my first concert, I was d**n excited about that and accepted of course (finally !Iron Man! Woohoo..Deal?!)..But this was the worst experience ever. A problem happened while on stage, and I couldn't hear what I was playing, that was just like an unplugged electric guitar...

My part was coming soon, I was so in panic man, and he turned his back to the public and told me "you wanted to play with me, so you play ! you don't need your ears, feel the tempo and look at the neck!" ..Right..!

That day, you guessed it, I hated him. After the concert, I didn't see him for months, but something was telling me to go on those exercises. Until the day I understood everything, and this was like a revelation to me :

Actually, according to me, the hardest lesson in music you will ever learn, is to know yourself in depth, and study all those 'mechanisms' in order to express yourself with another tool than the voice (instrument), and your notes will be the reflect of your true being on the moment.

I didn't became someone else but this 'myself' that he felt and who was like asleep.

Really later, this teacher gave me an album saying "after all those teachings, you will understand and realize many things when you'll listen to it".He just knew what.. This cd was a Steve Vai Album, and this day belong to another chapter of my life as it has collaborated in changing it forever.

I was amazed, and understood the past lessons even more..Then, from Vai I dug deeper and I discovered Frank Zappa first, and then Dweezil. And this is when I have said ironically to myself "Chris, you're in trouble".

Meaning that when your brain is simply connected to such way to express music, you don't give a s**t anymore about so called rules that the music industry demands, whatever they understand it or not. You are not a clone making "kleenex music", disposable.

What I love with such artists and let's say it, mentors, is that they do also give another lesson to us :

like them or not, they are the perfect example of freedom in rock'n roll ( saying "freedom" and "rock'n roll" in a same sentence seems absurd indeed, but look at the music industry today,you see what I mean), and whatever you play/listen that kind or not, it really opens the mind to understand that everything can be done when your technique is at the service of your own brain.

This is how I became an independent guitarist and composer, making sessions with bands for concerts and studios, and producing my own music besides this. I know the problem it is to make different kind of music when people absolutely need to put a label on yourself. But that's how I am... I have played for old blues bands,metal ones from heavy-glam to black metal, free jazz, medieval music..er, I just love music and its different vibes and moods, be it inspired from the "light" or "darkness", life is just a big balance, you never react and "speak" the same.

I don't care about having calls like "hey Chris,we are a rock/blues/cyber-electro/acid-jazz/woofwoof/with a touch of BoogieThrash band...interested?" (haha) ...Just send me your music and explain me what you felt writing it, make me travel through your world, passionate that kid inside of me, and that is all I need to want to go for it.

Life is an amazing maze, we all express it differently..Let's party !