2001 Interview by Lullä Milanese

(This interview appeared in Portuguese at Lullä's now defunct web site.)

Hello folks! I'm going to interview someone I met not a long time ago, a guitar player from San Diego, California... her name: Sarah Spisak. "I walked the Sunset Strip" as she says and she's going to tell us about the 80's, rock n' roll and other subjects.

Q.: Hi Sarah! Please, tell us more about you.

A: Starting with the vital statistics, I'm 35 years old, female, married, and living in San Diego, California, USA. I was interested in guitar as early as age 6, and although no one in my family played guitar and I knew almost nobody else with my interest, I taught myself to play. Doug Marks' Metal Method course was very helpful to me when it came out in 1982. In college I got my Bachelor of Arts degree in music, and now I teach and transcribe professionally.

Q.: I heard your stuff and I thought it was really great. Which bands influenced you? Do you play the guitar for a band?

A: Thank you very much! My earliest influence was probably the Bach organ music that I heard in church as a child. My parents listened to classical and big band swing music and I also heard what my older brother and sister played on the radio and record player. This was 70's top-forty AM radio (from my sister) and Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin albums (from my brother). When I was in high school, early 80's pop metal was just arriving to mainstream teen culture. That is to say, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, AC DC and others had been making albums for a while, but it was Ratt and Quiet Riot and the Scorpions who made it to MTV and the major radio stations. My early guitar influences were Jimmy Page and David Gilmour, but when I really buckled down to study the instrument it was Michael Schenker, Yngwie Malmsteen, John Norum, Wolf Hoffman, Vito Bratta and George Lynch (to name a few) who inspired me. I am not playing in a band now as I prefer teaching, transcribing and recording- and a peaceful personal life with my husband and cats.

Q.: What are your plans, speaking of music? Is there something you want to do that you haven't done in music?

A: Definitely. I want to transcribe all of the guitar parts from my favorite albums. That will keep me busy for a very long time! I am also working on a new CD.

Q.: Which CDs are in your CD player right now?

A: Well, that is hard to answer because I use a 200-disc machine! But in the last few days I have been listening to pre-"Cowboys from Hell" Pantera, Armored Saint, Cirith Ungol and Betrayer.

Q.: About the 80's, today we have a new wave of the so-called "new metal" bands and in the other hand, we have a new wave of pop-R&B based bands. In the 80's there were also distinct waves- pop music like Madonna, Duran Duran and INXS, the hair/glam metal bands like Poison and Bon Jovi and also the thrash metal bands like Slayer, Metallica. How did people with different musical tastes used to act about each other? I mean, was there any kind of rivalry?

A: When I was in high school, where that kind of rivalry would be most obvious, I was in a group of people who liked the Grateful Dead. I enjoyed that music, as well as the pop and metal. Personally, I was not aware of any rivalry! I think that was more of a subject in movies than in reality. However, this is only my own observation.

Q.: What do you think about the nowadays bands, like Korn, Limp Biskit and Slipknot?

A: I have heard these bands but I don't own any of their albums. However, I won't say anything negative about them because I remember how I got excited about Motley Crue and Quiet Riot at a certain time in my life, and I'm pretty sure that is the same thing that fans of the newer bands are experiencing.

Q.: This is a question everybody is waiting for: do you think we'll have an 80's revival? Do you think bands like Poison, Cinderella will rise up from closed gigs in the USA to the world again? And big hard rock bands like Bon Jovi will come back to the "leather pants" era?

A: That revival is happening right now. A lot of the 80's bands have returned and are touring and even releasing some new material, or old material that was not yet released, as in the case of "Nod to the Old School" by Armored Saint. Even VH-1 is giving airtime to the 80's music, but it is all in a retrospective vein. Several classic metal albums are being reissued, which is wonderful to see. Certainly the music will gain some new fans, but I really think that each generation wants its own "new thing". It seems easier to "discover" the music which came before your time, and enjoy the elements which preceded the music that you love most, than to embrace new music which replaces your favorite music in public popularity. For example, a fan of Guns 'N Roses might enjoy the old Aerosmith albums which inspired the band, but not be able to tolerate the rap influences in "Nu-Metal". This has been going on for centuries. Each generation seems to want to take one step forward, but no more! By the way, my leather pants are still in my closet with my leather jackets...

Q.: Well, is there something you'd like to tell us? Promote any musical project?

A: If this is where I get my plug, I want to tell people about my instructional CD-ROM, "Metal Riffology- The Art of the Metal Riff"! It teaches 97 killer riffs and anybody who likes old-school metal will just love it. There is also a lot of top-quality free content on my site, so be sure to check it out!

Q.: Sarah, thank you very much! And just to finish, as you know, there's a lot of people into hard rock here, leave a message to all the visitors of our website.

A: I know money is tight for everybody, and MP3s are free, but please try to buy a CD at least once in a while so the music business does not collapse entirely! Oh- and learn to play guitar (or bass or drums). Then you can make the sounds YOU want to hear! Thank you Lullä, and all who read this.

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