Date Unknown — Interview by Andrea Soncini


Scott McGill has spent half of his life, i.e. fifteen years, trying to discover whatever was possible about his instrument. And, judging from the results, it hasn’t been wasted time.

The guitar, when played by the fingers of that big boy of 30 years, becomes something more than a sound device able to accompany, finish off or speak threateningly. It transforms itself in an apparatus with various functionalities, but most of all in a champion in the art of communication. Vibrations, strokes, greatly different images are only some of the things Scott McGill can pour on the listeners as a result of an alchemic process starting from his hands and reaching the person in front of him. The energy floating out of his fingertips is magnetized by the metallic strings and distilled: and the sound coming out from this procedure is something really special. Maybe not unique, but far superior than the average.

It’s no secret that Scott McGill is inspired by John McLaughlin, Allan Holdsworth, Jimi Hendrix and Pat Martino: you’ve just got to listen to the ocean of tunes in which he sails fearlessly to understand it. It is surely more difficult to retrace in his work the passion he has for Charlie Parker, John Coltrane or Bach, Beethoven, Debussy and Ravel. But this availability of his to confess himself can only help us to understand the man more than the musician. And the first must not be less considered than the second, if it is true that Chris Eike, his companion in the adventure Finneus Gauge, has declared that he has followed his musical teachings as well as his advice for life. But going back to his compositions, to the marvellous record released under the mark The Hand Farm, after narrating to us about idols and experiences - he graduated in Jazz Performance/Composition with special mention, teaches music at Rutger University, has been session-man and gives private lessons to a number of professional musicians - after hearing his confessions, as we said, his music results even clearer.

Fusion is a double-edged weapon, always in unstable balance between sterile academy and the best example of refinement applied to the wish of freely expressing oneself. And many are the vintage musicians who fall prey to the flatteries of a quasi-easy-listening of easy fruition and just as comfortable earning, who after being submerged 20,000 leagues under the sea now bathe themselves in tricles not even reaching their knees. McGill’s inspiration on the contrary is a well which reveals itself very deep and the water drawn from it, deposited there by many underground affluents called rock, jazz, contemporary, is not only good to quench the thirst but also for the sieve. To extract specks of gold and goodnees knows what other treasures glittering between the transparences of an already mature sound, classic to certain world-known great guitarists and at the same time never obsequious or slave to the totem of paraphrasing. For McGill’s real strength, as well as the real enormous gift of driving the instrument, is the will of expressing himself in a complete way and pursuiting completeness: remaining in balance on a ground where technique and instinct couldn’t rescue many from sinking; mastering the construction of pieces developed on harmony, ruled but not limited, and capable to resist the mermaids of mere narcissistic exhibition.

But the supporters of the effect number shouldn’t feel defrauded, for the gasconades of certain rock virtuosity passing through Greg Howe or Eric Johnson are not missing here. To enrich a work completed by the conceptual improvisation of the breaking jazz streams of the fifties/early sixties (and here are ‘Bird’ and Coltrane), and by elegant and polished proofs of fusion worthy of respect at least equal to that of Pat Metheny. Well then, here is the project Hand Farm, completed by Anthony DeSimone at the drums and Kevin Woolsten and Matt Cantwell alternating at the bass: capable to give the right rhythmics acting as the pacemaker or setting up the uniform base for the most centralizing electrical digressions of the leader.

Remembering the role as co-protagonist played by McGill in Finneus Gauge, another project which made its personal flag out of the fight against rock orthodoxy, it is useful to underline his adamantine coherence. And so the belief that Chris Eike is right comes almost spontaneous: Scott McGill, virtuoso on the instrument as well as in life.

“USA are the Heaven’s fusion and there are many specific labels publishig this kind of music, I believe loved more in your country than in Europe: how did you get in contact with Mellow Records and decided to release the cd through them?”.
Scott McGill: “Most U.S. “fusion” labels, although they were very impressed by the material, were interested in lighter "commercial smooth jazz" which is definitely not what I was doing at all. The music is influenced by jazz, but it is not jazz. I was way too "rock" for them. The progressive labels and audience were much keener to my music. I had heard of Mellow a while back, and decided to contact them. Mauro Moroni liked the music and we came to an agreement to release the album. They did a great job on it! I went with Mellow because they were very enthusiastic about the music and promoting it. I am also contributing an instrumental tune “Sconcerto” by Il Baricentro on the upcoming Mellow release “The Zarathustra Revenge-A tribute to Italian Progressive Rock from the 70's”. The guys from Finneus play on the tune with me”.

“In my opinion you seem to be playing in a more restricted way with Finneus Gauge... is it a matter of schemes?”.
SMG: “Since there are three part vocals and keyboards in Finneus Gauge and The Hand Farm is an instrumental trio format, I suppose I am tucked in a bit more in Finneus. But I play exactly the same conceptually in terms of chords and melodic parts. Also, all the solos on “More Once More” I improvised just as I did on "The Hand Farm” “.

“Did you write something dedicated to that project, or have you bring them any material you wrote before, maybe for The Hand Farm...”.
SMG: “A big chunk of “Calling Card” was actually sketches of a Hand Farm tune that I thought would be great for Finneus. Otherwise, all the writing contributions I make for Finneus occur at rehearsal, except in special cases. Since I wrote all of the music on “The Hand Farm”, I worked on that myself away from the band and then showed it to the guys when I was done”.

“Tell me about the 800.000 people for the “Fourth of July on the Parkway”...”.
SMG: ”In the mid 1980's, I was playing lead guitar for RCA recording artist Robert Hazard, who had a huge hit tune called “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” that Cyndi Lauper sang. We shared the bill for a huge Philadelphia concert called “Fourth Of July On the Parkway” with Jimmy Page, Joan Jett, and The Beach Boys among others 800,000 people attended. I was only 19 at the time and I was scared! We played to a large audiences. The first gig I did with them had 20,000 in attendance. The music was terrible, but it was a great experience. We almost opened the Live Aid Festival as well”.

“Someone wrote The Hand Farm play Progressive music, but I think it is only a matter of an open minded approach you apply to your music, surely not a matter of style...”.
SMG: “Yes, I think you have described my music accurately! The music is progressive in the truest sense of the word in that it is forward thinking and not bound by stylistic constraints. I feel exactly the same about Finneus's music! Progress is something I am totally interested in. I practice guitar everyday, and if I am not playing, I am thinking about playing, or writing, or playing concepts, etc. I want my musicality to improve at all times. In that sense, I am totally comfortable with my music being described as “progressive” “.

“...and then Progressive is a word that wider audiences fear these times!”.
SMG: “It seems that ever since the arrival of groups like The Sex Pistols and New Wave music in the mid to late 1970's, major record company support for progressive music has dwindled to almost nothing, which is a shame. There is a place in the marketplace for all kinds of music, and I feel that if a wider audience were exposed to more adventurous high-quality music, a good percentage of them would like it. We have had experiences where people who were unaware of progressive music before listened to "more once more" and "The Hand Farm" and flipped out loving it! People just need to be exposed to a wider palette of music”.

“Do you play many dates as The Hand Farm?”.
SMG: “I used to until I joined Finneus Gauge. We have a very busy writing, rehearsing, and performing schedule which demands total commitment on the part of all it's members. From time to time, I still play trio and run through “Pools”, “Uncle Zippy” etc. I'm very proud of the material, and I have a lot of fun playing it!”.

“Do the titles of your songs have a meaning? What is “D.M.V.”? And I like "Ignoramus Rex" ...are there any messages in your tracks... without words?”.
SMG: ”Yes. All of the titles come from funny, or not so funny, life experiences or phrases people have said that have stuck with me. “D.M.V.” is an abbreviation for Division of Motor Vehicles. It is a government agency that collects fines for traffic violations. An old bass player friend of mine collected 280$ of traffic tickets and almost went to jail for it! He used the term “Death By D.M.V.” and that particular song it is named after starts out with a simple bass line he was noodeling with. So I wrote a tune around it. The tunes themselves have no specific messages in them. My music tends to be pretty dense, so the only thing I hope will happen is that the listener would hear or notice something different every time they listened to it”.

“Chris Ekie says you are an ispiration to him not only in music but in life, too: maybe, beside lessons of music it is time to give some lesson of philosophy...”.
SMG: “That's very nice of Chris to say, but I woudn't claim to have and profound answers to life's many problems. My life can be quite a mess! I just try to improve as a musician and pursue my goals with great discipline and determination”.

“You have a huge musical background: why did you arrive to your first record only at the age of 30?”.
SMG: “Good question! I wanted to make sure that I had acquired enough technical facility and musical maturity to execute the ideas I had. I don't think I'll ever get there but I'm trying! I had played as a sideman on various recordings, some were better than others, but I never felt that I was able to fully express myself under those circumstances. I wanted to play trio and have the guitar play the chords and melody and counterpoint all at once whether with distortion or not. And I wanted to play extended solos over many chord changes. So I came up with a type of music that had all that and refined it for years before I went public with it. I figured it would be better if I waited to make sure I could do the guitar some justice”.

“So, such a musicians like Greg Howe, Bill Bruford, Wayne Krantz have been praised the band...”.
SMG: “Greg Howe and I have a mutual friend who informed me that Greg wanted to hear my music. He heard it and we had a long talk on the phone about the music. He said he was busy figuring it out on the guitar. I sent Bill Bruford a tape a few years back. He sent me a letter saying he thought it was great music. He told me that although he was very busy with Earthworks and Crimson, I could send him more stuff anytime. Wayne Krantz and I met in New York City. We had a nice conversation about trio playing and told me to tell him when I was playing in New York next because he wanted to come check it out”.

“The Hand Farm and Finneus Gauge are very different project: is there something else you would like to play?”.
SMG: “Perhaps an album of classical pieces for solo electric guitar pick-style. Just a guitar and a clean amp. I have transcribed the music of Debussy, Ravel, Scriabin, Wagner, Liszt, Webern, Chopin, and Bartok, and I would like to record them sometime in the future. Maybe some Art Tatum and pieces by my teacher Dennis Sandole as well”.

Interview by Andrea Soncini