Reb Beach has been one of the top guitar players in rock for almost 35 years. He has been the driving force behind Winger, Whitesnake, and Black Swan and is about to release his second solo album, and first instrumental, entitled A View From The Inside. Reb took some time to talk about the record, his bands and so much more!
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Conversation with Reb Beach –
On whether the pandemic had an effect on this release – The pandemic actually expedited things because I was on the road, I was gone. I was gonna have the best year I would have had since 1989. I was booked solid with Winger and Whitesnake. We were gonna tour with Sammy Hagar all through Europe and Japan and I flew home from Singapore when the thing hit. I got right to work on it It was Kip (Winger) I called Kip, “What do I do? Oh, my God”. You know, Kip talks like Morris the cat, just really laid back. And he just said, “What about that fusion stuff you were doing?” And I said, “Oh my God, that that’s right. It’s just sitting on my hard drive. Done. Why don’t I just release that? It’s the perfect time.” So that’s what happened. 1:00
On whether Jeff Beck was an influence on this record – Barely. I wasn’t I didn’t own a Jeff Beck record. I didn’t really know, I heard, like, the songs that everybody knows. But I like that sound of the older keyboards, the organ, the B3 and the clavs, and, the solos with Jan Hammer. I liked that sound of the production of those songs. In that way, yeah, it was definitely influenced, in that way, and sometimes my vibrato and stuff like that sounds a little bit like Jeff Beck for sure. There’s a little bit of Jeff Beck influence, especially on “Infinito”. There’s three notes in “Infinito” that sound like a Jeff Beck song. But yeah, I wasn’t really influenced by Jeff Beck, he’s not one of my influences. I wish he had been. I wish I knew how to pick the guitar strings without a guitar pick. And do some of the amazing stuff that he does so so good, But it’s mostly the production that I got from those old-style records, but kind of everything kind of sounded like that back then. I like that seventies sound, and so there’s some of that on the record for sure. 2:30
“Cutting Loose”
On the sound and goal of the record – I’m a songwriter first. I wouldn’t want to listen to an instrumental record if the songs weren’t any good. And that was sort of the challenge, was to make a record that was listenable, really, all the way through, and to not really have a dog and a bunch and do it, make it varied. I wanted dynamics. I didn’t want it all to be shredding, like shredding at the beginning and shredding at the end and shredding in the middle. Just all shredding. I wanted it to be different styles of music on there. kind of like a Dixie Dregs record or my favorite is Jean-Luc Ponty. That’s who I was really inspired by. “The Way Home” sounds like a Jean-Luc Ponty song to me. That’s sort of what I was going for is to make good hooks, quality hooks stuck in your head. Rather than just “look at me, I’m gonna play as fast as I can”. I tried to get some memorable songs in there. 4:25
“Black Magic”
On the origin of this record – “Little Robots” was written in 1986. It was, I think, the first fusion song. I ever wrote because I don’t really consider “Black Magic” a fusion song, it’s just more like a rock instrumental. And then I wrote “Black Magic” and “Cutting Loose” like right around then, like maybe 1987. So I had those songs 40 years ago. And then what happened was it was 1993 and Winger kind of went down in flames. And I was thinking, “Well, maybe I can be like a Joe Satriani guy”. I don’t have to deal with a singer or writing lyrics and that whole nightmare it would just be cool to go out there and be the guitar player, but it would be my band, and I could write all the songs really easily because it’s instrumental. it sounded like a cool thing to do. I always wanted to go on a tour with guitar players like the G3 or something like that, you know? So I started writing stuff and I made demos and I shop them around, and no one was interested because they wanted vocals on there. So I sold the fusion demos that I shopped around in 93 on my website and they sold like hotcakes. And I got so much emails and comments And people loved it and a lot, a lot of people said this is my favorite thing you’ve ever done. And so it motivated me to actually make an entire record but to take 15 years doing it. It became a hobby that I work on a little bit here and there because I’m always touring when I’m not touring, I’m writing, but I’m writing for something with a deadline, and that didn’t have a deadline. So it just always got put on the back burner. and it probably would have been put on the back burner again this year, had it not been for Covid. 6:15
“Infinito 1122”
On David Coverdale and Whitesnake – He’s just a joy, he texts us every day, (in his best David Coverdale voice) “Darling’s how are you today? Love and light to all”. He’s doing fine. He’s always tweeting and texting and texting dirty jokes. He sounds great, and he’s in great shape, but I see pictures of them, and he looks fabulous. He hasn’t said a word about us touring or anything. I’m sure you know he’s older, and he’s wary about going out the way things are right now. So I’m sure he’ll announce it as soon as he’s ready to do it, and I’ll probably hear it on Facebook, like, “Oh, we’re going out?” 11:35
“Aurora Borealis”
On the status of Winger – We’re working our asses off, actually. I’m flying there again on November 14th and going for 10 days. We’re doing 10-day runs of me sitting in the studio with him. We’ve got this really high bar, so it’s going really slowly, but we’ve got 10 songs, and we’re only using five of them because it’s like he wanted to be like Boston, where every single song is undeniably good. He doesn’t want any dogs in the bunch. And we’re gonna just do whatever is necessary to make just the best record ever. It’s about progressive riffs. So I came in with 15 new riffs and he said, “They’re great, but in every single one of them, I know what the next notes are gonna be and what the next chords are gonna be I don’t wanna be able to predict what the next chords are gonna be when I’ve heard three chords, it’s gotta be different. It’s gotta be fresh and it’s got to be progressive and cool sounding. And then it needs to be something that I can sing a hooky part over”. And that’s what’s cool about Winger. You know, even “Seventeen” is kind of a complicated riff, but, he heard it as a chorus right away. The first day we started writing together, he’s like, “That’s a chorus”, I’m like, “That’s a chorus? I thought it would be like an intro or something”. 12:40
On Black Swan – Everyone loves that record. It’s crazy. Those are all Winger, just Winger riffs that Kip said no to. I came into (Jeff) Pilson with 50 ideas. I brought 50 ideas to Pilson and he was like a kid in a candy store. It starts with me. These songs, this type of music, it starts with the guitar riff, and then you build it from there like a puzzle. But if you don’t got the riff, then you don’t really got much. So the pressure’s on me at the beginning of the writing session. But if you can come in prepared and you’ve got stuff that works, it’s we wrote the whole album in 10 days. 14:20
On trying to schedule touring when the pandemic lifts – I just got to cross my fingers and hope that it doesn’t clash. You know, the few times it’s clashed, it’s been a pain in the butt. But it’s been very few and far between, because Winger, up until this point has worked around Whitesnake’s schedule. So hopefully, we’ll be able to work something out. I know that Winger is, actively booking as soon as stuff opens up for sure, because, I mean, we’re ready to go. And it’s easier to book Winger, Whitesnake it’s a big tour and it’s a big deal. Winger, we just call it the club, “Frank, we’re gonna be there on Saturday”. 15:45
Follow Reb Beach –
