Andy Timmons is one of the most versatile guitarists in music. Beginning with 80’s rockers Danger Danger and continuing through his prolific solo career, Andy is a true musician’s musician, always growing and taking chances with his playing. He is about to release a new solo record called Electric Truth and took some time to talk about it.
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Conversation with Andy Timmons –
On putting Electric Truth together with Josh Smith – It couldn’t have been more organic from start to finish, because I literally had just gotten to know Josh through YouTube. He’s like a lot of people these days, we discover players through people sharing videos or whatever it might be, so I was just hearing this great guitar playing. I do work occasionally for a company called True Fire, which has instructional videos, and he had done some stuff for them, so I was just checking out all this stuff and, maybe it was through True Fire, I got his number, but I just called him one day out of the blue just to say, “Hey, I love what you’re doing, I love you’re playing your band always sounds great”. We kinda just struck up this friendship. Right about that time, he told me that he had just finished his recording studio behind his home where he lives in the LA area, he said, “Hey man, come out and record.”. Now, and you meet people over the years and you’re like, “Hey, let’s get together and let’s do a project”, and nine times out of ten, there’s just no time and he lives in LA, I’m in Texas. This probably was a mid to 2019, and I said, “Hey man, I’m gonna be out and at NAMM, the annual NAMM convention in Anaheim in January every year. Since he lives in LA, I’ll come out a couple of days early and we’ll record. I put together some songs and he wrote a couple of things, and we just kind of approached it like that. My thought on it and Josh was really cool about wanting to approach it like this too, is we decided I was just gonna be the artist. I’ll come out, we’ll write songs, but I really wanted him to produce. I didn’t wanna make another Andy Timmons Band record because I’ll do plenty of that and I love my band. But I always love getting into situations that will potentially draw different personalities or different sides of my playing because I have so many different influences, so when I hear somebody like Josh that plays the blues so well, but clearly has a jazz influence that it resonates with me as well, because I’ve played a lot of jazz and he’s got some country and he rocks. (I said), “So Josh, you produce, I’m just gonna come in, but I want you to pick the band too, you pick the band” because he’s got quite a circle of players that he works with, so I thought, “Well, you pick the guys you think might sound on best for what this is gonna be, whatever it is”. So I started writing some tunes, and since he always plays a Tele-style, I have a ’68 Tele, The first single “EWF” was written on that guitar, which is decidedly an Al McKay tribute, great Earth Wind and Fire guitarist. I was kind of imitating the “Shining Star” vibe though that’s two guitars. (plays some of “EWF”) But I never really knew what the “Shining Star” riff was, but I found this instructional video a couple of weeks ago on YouTube, thank you, YouTube once again. Like an old ’80s either Star Licks or Hot Licks, or one of those instructional videos, and Al shows you how you did the “Shining Star riff, but it’s two guitars and it’s a really simple lick (plays “Shining Star). I’m trying to imitate the vibe of that with that particular track. I haven’t done a whole lot of funky recordings on my records, but it just kind of felt like, “Okay, it’ll be cool for this record, this band that Josh is gonna put together”, and that’s also a fun track for me because it’s live, start to finish. We all played in the room together, and fortunately, I didn’t mess up too bad, my solos, there’s some funky notes that if it was my record I might have said, “Man, let’s go back, let’s see”. But that was the cool thing too, about working with another great guitar player like Josh. Because normally, it’s me and my band or my engineer that are producing your co-producing together, but it’s a different feeling when you’ve got a guitar player in the room that you really respect and you love the way they play. I think there’s an additional level of inspiration there that you wanna rise to, to bring out the best in yourself. A lot of days we can record tracks at our home studios, everybody’s got the technology, we can get a decent sound but it’s so much better when there are other humans involved. There’s a different level of performance, I think. So there’s a lot of moments on the record like that that I really love because it was live with the band. There were a few tracks I had to finish here at my studio because this all happened in January of 2020, so we had a handful of tracks to finish because we only had two and a half days to do the record. Got nearly there, but a handful of things, so I was gonna fly back in March. Nobody flew anywhere in March, as we know. So it took a while for me to kind of get together and finish the other tracks, but I really love the vibe of working with Josh and the great engineer Alan Hurtz, that he brought on board, and he’s worked a lot and got great sounds that I just love. To me, it sounds very organic and I like the funky bluesy vibe that the band brought, LeMar Carter on drums, Travis Carlton on bass, and Darren Johnson on keyboards and just all played so freaking beautifully. 1:21
On the diverse styles on the record – I don’t necessarily like to approach any project or record like, “Oh, it’s gotta be this”, except for when I did the Sgt. Pepper record, you might pick up on a theme there, or the Resolution record where I decided, “Okay, no overdubs just one guitar”. Sometimes there’s kind of a steering motivation or guidepost, but even then, I don’t want there to be any limitations if there’s something that I’m feeling that I wanna play a record. I wasn’t attending it to be the all styles demo, the resume. It was so natural for me because I do love so many different kinds of music that why not just let it come out the way it comes out? Hopefully, there’s a cohesion by the nature of the sound of that particular group of guys playing together, Josh and Alan at the helm, sonically and arrangements, Josh’s great with arrangements and came up with some really cool parts along the way that I never would have thought of. I loved having that input. I knew because Josh was gonna be involved, it would have a different flavor to it, and personally, that’s why I like the record, just because I can hear a different side of me than I normally might steer than if it’s just me at the helm, so to speak. 7:14
On what it means to him as a musician to create music that changes the way people are feeling – You always hope that whether it’s up or even if it’s sad, there’s a couple of sad tunes on the record, that it just gives people a place to feel what they need to feel. If they need the uplift, certainly, there’s tracks on the record that can give that. If they need to kinda let some emotion out, here’s that on there too. I think that’s always my motivation, whether consciously or not, what I’m writing or playing, it’s like I wanna provide something for the listener. I want them to be able to feel something, not just, “Hey, here’s a song, and I want it to be a hit” or whatever that thing is, that’s long not been a concern of mine. It’s purely for the art of it and for the potential of expression. I just wanna keep growing as a writer and player and trying to connect all that into what’s just music. It’s not “Oh, that’s a guitar record”. Whatever it is, it’s music. Any week I’ll listen to such drastically different stuff and I love it all, so at some point that comes through my own prism of, “Here are the things that I love”. I always talk about (how) David Bowie talked about himself as he never considered himself this ground-breaking boundary-pushing, he was, he called himself a collector that he’s just taking these bits of things that he loves and is just gonna come out as him. The Beatles were the same way, they were soaking up all the American rock and roll and Motown, and it came out them. They were playing Chuck Berry and Shirelles, SmokeyRobinson, and they loved all that, but it came out very much their own unique thing from growing up in Liverpool and having that wit and that edge, and they were just the greatest rock band of the time. Whatever this record is, if it’s making you feel that, I feel successful on a very high level, and I’m greatly honored by that. 9:13
On if he writes differently for vocal songs than instrumentals – It’s really the same thing. Sometimes a melody will come with words and then, okay, well, that’s clearly gonna be a vocal tune. I’ve got so much vocal material that I haven’t gotten around and recording it. Those two tunes were kind of already in circulation when the idea of doing the record with Josh came up. I just thought these might fit. “Say What You Want” and “Take Me With You”, I’d already had the ideas for, thematic in their own way they do fit in with Electric Truth overall vibe for me. But I think that melodically, again, I want something that makes sense and that really goes somewhere. So with the lyrics, you’re usually communicating a pretty specific idea, it might be abstract or could mean different things to different people. I enjoy the instrumental side of things because you’re not tied in by the finite spoken or written language. I think that sometimes the instrumental music can dig a little deeper depending on how it’s presented and the depth of the player that’s presenting that melody. So I think that the overall goal was the same, I just want that melody to be able to stand on its own, whether it’s got a great lyric it to it or not, but I love a great lyric. The new Elvis Costello record is my favorite Elvis record. I’ve been a huge fan since the early records, My Aim is True forward. Being nown as an instrumental guitar player no one would ever be like, “Oh, you must be an Elvis Costello fan”, melodically he’s a brilliant guy too. I’ve actually thought about doing an Elvis tribute record, but instrumentally, there’s so many great tunes I could play. He’s so known for his wit and lyricism, and he is my favorite lyricist, but are melodies there that stand up with just the greats. It’s pretty damn incredible. 11:31
On how he came to join Danger Danger – My career has been a very circuitous root. I grew up playing ’70s rock. I was a kid in the ’70s, so it was all KISS, Nugent, Foghat, Rush, whatever might have been, REO Speedwagon, James Gang, I loved all that rock guitar. But then as I gained education and I was learning to read music and studying Jazz, I studied classical for a couple of years in college and studied jazz for a couple of years in college. It would have been in my early 20s, almost mid-20s when the Danger Danger opportunity came around. I wasn’t really thinking about, “Oh, I gotta make it in a rock band”. I was pursuing these things, but the goal for me always had been, especially as I was gaining more knowledge in music, I just wanted to be the best musician I could be. I figured I would always work somehow, be it studio work or freelancing, whatever it might be. I didn’t have a specific goal, but I formed my own band, a power trio in Denton, Texas called The Andy Timmons Band, brilliant title. But we quickly became popular in the Dallas area. (Joe) Satriani, (Steve) Vai, Eric Johnson, and some great guitarists were actually quite popular at the time, almost mainstream in some way. So we were kind of the poor man’s version of that, in Dallas. We had recorded a demo of a few songs, my first original stuff, and it made it into the hands of Buddy Blaze, who was the artist relations guy for Kramer guitars in New Jersey. He knew the band, Danger Danger, was looking for a guitar player. So I was just kind of this, “Hey, I heard of this guy in Texas, here’s his cassette”. The next thing I know, I’m flying up in late ’88, flying up to New York for an audition, and got the gig. But at the same time, I had the opportunity and the offer to join Tower of Power. There was a guy that had gone to school with in Miami, Steve Grove, was playing tenor in Tower of Power, they needed a guitar player. I went down to sit in with them in Dallas when they came through, played “Squib Cakes” and “What Is Hip?” and Emilio (Castillo) was like, “Hey, come out to Oakland”, or wherever they were. But I had this choice, talk about a fork in there over two very different things, but for whatever reason, in the moment I chose Danger, Danger, and again, a very, very fun part of my life and very much an education. I was very much a sideman in a band that was in that style, and I loved every bit of it because it was kinda coming back full circle to the childhood fantasy. My first concert was seeing Kiss on the Destroyer tour when I was 13, so I wanna do that. At that moment, “that seems like a good job”, as John Lennon would say, and it worked out. I couldn’t have tried to make it happen, but the bulk of my career has been kind of, “I’m just gonna keep going. I’m gonna keep going, I’m gonna keep trying to learn”, and I could have planned a lot better along the way, but I feel so freaking fortunate that it just seems to get better and better. I continue to really honor myself and what’s in my heart, that became the ongoing learning. (It) was like, “Wow, that was a great experience. Was it what I really wanted to do though, or did I make that decision based on career, money?” All of the decisions seem to be not usually the right ones, the ones where I just go, “You know, but this is what I really wanna do”, tends to work out the best, and people, I think overall, recognize that and just the authenticity of what you’re doing. You’re not trying to be something you’re not. 13:52
On if he felt he had to prove himself going from rock to more jazz fusion – There was a bit of a stigma that I think I had to overcome and it was natural for me that when the band kind of fell apart at that time in ’93 or whatever it was, I think I did a bit of distancing. I did very much want to establish myself as a player and somebody respected in that circle, that was more important to me than any kind of commercial success. It was 1993, I believe was the year that I first did a gig with Simon (Phillips) and I was still in Danger Danger. This would have been January, this would have been NAMM of 93. Ibanez used to put on these big concert parties at the NAMM show and this particular one was called the Axe Attack, and it was all the Ibanez guitar players here, Satriani, Vai, Paul Gilbert, Reb Beach, Shawn Lane, Alex Skolnick, and they had myself, Simon Phillips and Gerald Veasley come as the backing band. But Simon’s deal with Hoshino (Gakki) was “I’ll back all these guys as long as I can play some of my material”. So not only did I back some of my friends and heroes on the guitar, but I also got to play as the featured guy playing Simon’s fusion stuff, here’s this guy from Danger Danger, nobody expected that but that was Ibanez’s thing. When I first started working with them in 1991, when I first got on board with them because Kramer guitars very strangely went out of business around that time. I was in a good position, I was in a band that’s on MTV and so most companies would wanna work with you. I met the artist relations guy, Chris Kelly at Ibanez, and I went to him after looking at every company I kinda wanted to be on that roster because of Joe and Steve. I was already making my instrumental music that I had started doing before Danger Danger, the Andy Timmons Band stayed together throughout that time, and by the time Danger Danger had fallen apart, I already recorded my first solo album called Ear X-Tacy, so I went to them though in 91, still full-on in Danger Danger and they said, “Well, we don’t really like your band, but we love your playing” because they had heard my instrumental stuff. They knew that it wasn’t just this hairband thing that weren’t normally known for being virtuoso musicians, it was just a great vibe. Except for a band like Winger that really were virtuoso musicians, they were an outlier in the pack, let’s just say. So it was just that. They believed in me, and I remember John Stix when the Screw It! record came out, this is horrible or great, I made sure he had the record, he had a magazine called “Guitar for the Practicing Musician”, which was a big magazine back in the day. I I sent him the record just because it was my first full recording on a major label with Danger Danger. I was very proud of it, but he clearly didn’t like the music, he says, “We should have a category of best guitar playing on the worst record”. I was like, “Oh man,, that hurts”. But I think he liked the playing. So again, it’s artistically, there’s some great material here, I’m not bagging on Danger Danger, there’s some really great songs, but there was a lot of the sexual innuendo or not even innuendo type songs, just sexual. At a certain point, again, I wanted to be Luke (Steve Lukather) and (Larry) Carlton. Those are my heroes, and Mike Stern and Robin Ford or Pat Metheny. But I’m a rocker, so it all kind of comes together as me at some point. It took some years, but again, the experience I got in that band and the touring that we did opening for KISS. 14 years after seeing my first concert there I am opening for this band, and I couldn’t have dreamed it a possibility, coming from a small town in the Midwest, it just wasn’t on my radar, but how fortunate, but I got that opportunity. 18:00
On if he has a “sweet spot” when it comes to style – Yeah, I think it is all of that. I think some of my more popular of my own songs tend to be the ballads, “Cry For You” or “Electric Gypsy” or “On Your Way Sweet Soul”, and there’s three on this new record I’m just as proud of, “When Words Fail” and “One Last Time” and “Grace” that I think are as good as anything I’ve ever played or written. So if there’s a sweet spot, that might be it. But at the end of the day, I still love each and every one of these things. The set of chops it takes to play in 15/16 with Simon Phillips, it takes just as much level of ability as it does to play the pedal steel on “Hopelessly Devoted To You” with Olivia Newton John. It deserves the same respect and deserves the same level of musicianship, and they’re equally challenging in their own ways. People, hear you’re working with Olivia, “That must be different”. It was 15 years of my favorite gigs, and she is a dear friend, but her level of ability vocally, her time and her pitch were impeccable and she was a great hang, she just loved cutting up, we were always joking. She knows every jazz standard, she knows every Beatle tune, and so we endlessly making music and having a good time, but she was a tireless worker too, so it was very inspiring. Through those years, even though we would just work a few weeks here and there scatteredover the year, so I was still doing Simon and still had my own band, and I would get these offers from some fairly well-known rock bands, but I thought, I spend time with that group of people, or Olivia in this band that I’ve got put together around here that are all people I love? She took great care of us, it was a bigger part of my income of those of those years, so it was kind of the perfect scenario where I could just very humbly and quietly keep producing my music, work with Simon, do that thing and have a home life. I’ve got a son now who’s 18. But when he was born in 2004, I started gearing all my decisions based on “Am I gonna be away from home too long?” I was saying no, a lot more just based on, I don’t wanna miss my son growing up and again, passing up on some pretty big gigs, but never regret, I was there having lunch with him at school every day, if I wasn’t on the road, doing my orOlivia, I had a good balance going on here. 22:10
