General Bastard Interview

Hey guys.
So I got to interview General Bastard. Which if you don't know who he is, I'll provide a link to his bio. You'll also learn a bit about him here too.
Here's the link to his bio on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GeneralBastard/     If you click on about, his bio will pop.
Hope you guys enjoy this interview.


First off, thanks for taking the time to do this interview.

''Thank you for having me its my pleasure to do this"

You're welcome. I'm happy to do this. 
So looking at your influences, I've noticed that they range from like old school music to what looks like a little more current stuff. So I wanted to ask if your older influences like Frank Zappa and Alice Cooper were musicians that you grew up listening to?

"The Beatles,  Alice Cooper and Kiss is what got me started.  I didn't discover Zappa until maybe I was thirteen but once I got a good dose of him that pretty much became my model that I based myself on both as a musician and in the business sense as well."

That's cool. Alice Cooper and kiss got me into rock and metal. They're both great. 
What was it about your influences that made you want to be in a band? Was it the style of their playing? Or maybe their attitude? Or was there something else that pulled you into wanting to he a guitarist."

"Well when I was 8 or so I saw the Beatles movie  a Hard Day's Night and saw all those girls chasing them down the street and I said to myself "that's what I want to do"  and never looked back or considered doing anything else"

That's funny, and really cool. 
How have you used your influences to build your playing style? Is there like a piece of everything in the way you play?

"In many ways yes,  but I think if you look  at the overall body of my work see the bits and pieces but alot of the time I think might go unnoticed.  For instance the guitar solo in "Devil and the Deep Blue Sea"  I was thinking about it in terms of being a big band horn solo which unless I told you it just sounds like another guitar solo.  But if you listen to it and imagine horns instead of guitar you can picture what I am talking about.  Otherwise though it just sounds like another shredding guitar solo"

Now that you mentioned that, I might go back and listen to it. Just to imagine horns. 

I do want to talk about your style. I like it. It's very unique and very different from what I've seen. From the way you dress to how you play. Did anything influence how you dress, or did you come up with it?

"Originally my plan was to do a band that did only TV theme covers. I figured we'd dress up in ridiculous costumes that were reflections of the TV shows we grew up watching.  Anyways that band never happened but I semi had this character already designed so I just went with it.  It then became a doll act doing originals with dome TV themes mixed in for fun and ridiculousness factor."

That's honestly really cool. It's so different and I'm like in love with it. 

I've noticed you've got quite a fan base. What do you think fans love about you and your band? Do you think it's the unique style you guys have?

"I would like to think it's because of good songs but I think it partly the guitar playing and partly the humor. I think most music today lacks humor and that was one of the things that was great about early rock n roll.  Music should be fun for the listener and there's nothing like that ridiculous song you sing along to while driving down the road.  It makes you feel good"

Exactly. I totally agree with that. I feel that music has more anger than humor these days. 

So how would you describe your journey to get this far in your career?


"There nothing wrong with an angry song but you gave you have balance as well.  I try to turn the things that puss me off in the world into humor much like Zappa did.  But sometimes you need that anger to get your point across.  But I think if that's all you're about is anger your music is probably going to bore me quickly.


Let's see,  the journey has been long, hard,  strenuous but at the same time I've been blessed by being able to travel all over the world doing what I love and gave met so many great friends that I would never have met otherwise including many who are my musical idols and people I look up to and admire."

Yeah like I listen to music that is angry but there's no humor. It would be nice of some musicians were like you and added a little humor to mix with it. 

Last question. Is there anything you are working on and would like to talk about?

"Man I have so many projects in the works tight it's crazy.  There's several full lengths that are almost done that just need the odd guitar or vocal track to be finished . Not to mention some new ventures with some incredible all star musicians who've accomplished quite a bit on their own but I will let them remain nameless for now until the projects are closer to being finished. I am currently completing an EP right now that should be released in August."

Big thanks again to General Bastard for taking the time to do this interview. Go check out his music if you're interested. It's definitely something worth checking  out. You can follow General Bastard on Facebook linked in the intro, and on Twitter @GeneralBastard.
If you enjoyed this interview leave a comment or let me know on Twitter @MJWesney.
Thanks for reading.