This week’s Feature is Steve Langemo, a guitar wizard based in Dayton, Ohio. If you like Mike Stern, Scott Henderson and John Scofield, you definitely will enjoy Steve’s guitar playing. Even more inspiring is that Steve has been able to make music his life while still having an amazing family.  Married to his wife Bree with a lovely daughter, Zoe,  he has been involved with countless groups and musical settings over the years, including rock, jazz, blues, & funk groups, as well as solo guitar performances, theatre work, and recording sessions.

Check out his song, Junkie Club and read on to find out more about this gifted guitarist!

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For the readers who may be unfamiliar with your work, how would you describe your music? Who are your main influences?

I guess my stuff would be categorized as instrumental jazz/rock fusion. I try to be very conscious of writing tunes that cover the full range of that genre, that way a CD or a live performance has many ups and downs and different moods, textures, and tempos. On my new CD I’ve got some chaotic burning electric fusion things and some more subdued stuff that is basically a jazz quartet with hollow body guitar and acoustic bass and piano. As a jobbing musician I have a background playing a very wide variety of stuff and that comes out in what I’m trying to do with my original stuff. I like to have tunes that are about a certain thing, whether it be a certain mood, texture, tempo, or harmonic or melodic idea. That makes playing live very fun because you can get into a certain mode for a tune and then something completely different in the next one. I think that helps keep the listeners attention as well, especially if your trying to go over at a club or venue where they don’t always feature instrumental music.

A central component in my music is always intricate melodies, harmonies, or grooves that I find interesting and that I think other musicians will enjoy playing. Another important thing is creating tunes that are structured but yet have a ton of room for interpretation and improvisation by the other players. I’m really into that group sound where everyone is headed somewhere together and there is a bunch of great ideas from all the players. Even though my stuff is still essentially instrumental guitar music my last consideration is the soloing and chops. My first concern is creating some interesting music and getting the band to sound very exciting and alive. If that is happening then the solo sections and improvisations should be easy.

My influences are pretty varied. I’ve been into so many types of jazz and rock that I love so many players for all kinds of different reasons. If I had to rattle off a short list of the major ones that come to mind it would be Scofield, Stern, Metheny, Holdsworth, Robben Ford, Wayne Krantz, Pat Martino, Peter Bernstein, Scott Henderson, and Jimi Hendrix. Those are the guys that have remained consistent favorites for years. Some more recent finds are Kurt Rosenwinkle, Tim Miller, Adam Rogers, Anthony Wilson, and Oz Noy. Some non-guitar playing favorites are Michael Brecker, Brad Mehldau, Wayne Shorter, Chris Potter, Weather Report, and Steely Dan. I actually play in a great 10 piece Steely Dan tribute band in Cincinnati and getting inside that stuff has definitely influenced my fusion writing.

So how did you get started playing the guitar?

I started playing when I was twelve. I was a nerdy kid with no interest in sports who was really into rock music. I think I thought girls would dig it so that probably had something to do with it. My Mom was pretty into the fact that I wanted to play guitar so she went out and bought a Strat and a decent amp for me before I could play anything. She also found a great teacher. We lived in Grand Forks, North Dakota which is a town of about 60,000 people in the middle of nowhere. Luckily there was this guy there named Lynne Quamme who taught lessons full time and is an absolute genius. He’s still one of the best guitar players I’ve seen and probably the best teacher I’ve had to date. He tricked me, as a rock and roll kid, into learning how to read and play other styles like classical guitar and jazz. I owe my start to him.

From there I made a series of moves and along the way earned a performance degree from Minnesota State University in Moorhead and a master’s degree in jazz guitar from Bowling Green State where I studied with Chris Buzzelli, who is another under the radar genius.

What is one influential event that helped shape your playing style, or take it to the next level?

I don’t know if I can name one event in particular. It’s been more like a never ending series of little events. I’ve gained something from every teacher, every gig, and everything I listen to.

How do you approach your song-writing?

I have varied approaches to writing. Sometimes I hear something in my head and need to get it out. Since I’m pretty busy with teaching, gigging, and my family, I don’t always have time to wait for inspiration to hit. More often than not I sit down with the intention of composing and only have so much time I can devote to it. Because of this I’ve gotten pretty good at doing some exercises to stimulate creativity. Leni Stern has a great book on composing that has some exercises for getting things started. I had a great jazz composition teacher at Bowling Green named Russ Schmidt who gave me a lot of ideas. Other times I’ll read through a bunch of tunes or jazz theory texts and find a harmonic idea or progression that I’ll try and explore and make my own. Most of the time getting the initial idea is pretty easy but refining something to the point where I can chart it out and present it to the other players usually takes me some time.

What kind of gear are you using?

I’m sort of a funny guitar player when it comes to gear. I really just keep around what I’m going to use on a regular basis. I own five guitars but really only play two. I’ve got a Fender American Standard hardtail Strat and a Gibson Howard Roberts and that is about all I play. I’ve had both of these for about ten years. I’ve bought a bunch of guitars since then but I always come back to these.

As far as amps I only own two. For the jazz stuff I’ve got an Acoustic Image head, which is a tiny little solid state thing that puts out 200 watts or something like that. I run that into one or two raezor’s edge 1×12 cabinets and run a bit of delay with a Boss DD5. For all the rock and pop gigs I use a MESA Nomad 55 head into their wide body, open back 1×12 cab. This is a pretty good gigging amp because it is very versatile. I play in a wide variety of groups and this amp approximates a bunch of different sounds well. I’m not sure I love any one particular thing it does but it gets very close to a lot of different things. As far as pedals I have a board with a Boss chorus and delay, a Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive, a Boss Super Overdrive, and sometimes a Reverend Drivetrain. That’s the setup that I find I can take to any kind of gig and quickly dial in anything I want.

When I did my new CD that is basically the gear I used. Most of the rock guitar stuff was done with my Strat into a Morley splitter and then into the MESA and a Line 6 POD on a Fender Twin setting. I could then balance the signals in the mixing stage and wind up with something cool.

I should probably have more gear for somebody that gigs and records a lot but I really like just having one rig and knowing how to use it well. Also, any extra gear I would want would probably cost a bunch of money. I play and teach for a living but have a house and a family so it’s hard for me to justify having a bunch of expensive amps around.

Describe a normal day for you. How much time do you spend practicing and playing, talking to fans, networking, etc. ?

Things are pretty crazy at the moment. I teach about fifty students a week so I usually do that in the afternoons and evenings. I have gigs and rehearsals during many of the evenings. My wife is an attorney who works during the day so I usually spend that time with our two year old daughter. This doesn’t leave much personal time for practicing and composing. I’ve had to become the master of finding time and being organized so that when I sit down to practice I make progress every single time. Despite this schedule of daddy daycare, teaching, and gigging I still get at least three hours a day. It’s a good thing I practiced like crazy when I was younger. My days will open up again when our daughter goes to school so I should be able to practice more then.

When I sit down to practice I usually work on jazz standards and expanding my bebop and jazz vocabulary. I don’t practice much rock guitar stuff guitar stuff anymore as I did that for years. As far as fusion playing, I’m a big believer in learning the jazz and bebop language, getting to the point where you can do some straight ahead gigs with good musicians, and then bringing that experience and knowledge back to a rock or funk context.

As far as talking to fans, I’m not sure I have any as of yet. I’ve just finished this CD and have had some luck marketing it. I’m working on lining up some gigs to play my material. I’d love any feedback from other artists on avenues they’ve found to market their music and groups.

Do you have any advice for aspiring young guitarists who want to pursue a career in music or just better themselves as players?

As far as advice for someone pursuing a career as a player I think there are certain things a person could focus on. Remember that a lot of people who are going to hire you to back them up, play in their groups, or play on their recordings aren’t guitar players. I think this is important to remember because a lot of the guitar magazines and sites I see focus endlessly on gear and playing articles on things like alternate picking versus sweep picking. If a singer, piano player, or horn player is going to choose a guitarist to hire they probably won’t make the choice based on what kind of tubes are in their amp or what direction their hand moves when they pick. They’ll hire the player that can learn material quickly, have a good enough ear to pick things up on the spot, be able to convincingly improvise in different styles, and probably be able to read charts. Because of this I would tell people to focus things like knowing every note on the instrument cold, know your theory cold and be able to do things like transpose tunes on the spot, learn something about different styles of playing, work on your ear so that you can hear things like chord root movements and chord qualities on and react to them on the spot, and work on reading standard notation and chord charts. A lot of times I’ve seen guys who are strong on these skills gig much more than guys who may have flashier lead chops or more hip gear. Not that many people are lucky enough to be successful doing just their one specialty so if you have a diverse set of skills you can gig a lot with different musicians and have a very cool and enjoyable musical life even if your not famous.

What are you most proud of musically?

I’m probably most proud of the fact that I’ve been able to keep doing music no matter what. I’ve been able to make enough money to support myself while having a ton of fun playing a variety of gigs with good players and getting to do some very creative projects. I’m very proud of my new disc which I hope is just the beginning of a creative output of compositions and recordings for me.

Any other thoughts or words of inspiration?

Music is very cool and worth whatever effort it takes to do it for a living.

Stop by Steve’s Myspace and show him some love!  You can even get his latest CD there too!

 www.myspace.com/langemo 

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