This article series is about the tools of popular guitarists. What are their favorite guitars and how is it related to them? This time with Hei’An (Matic Blagonič & Matevž Počič ).
When you start guitar playing and do you remember your first guitar?
MATIC: I must have been about 7 years old when I started playing the guitar. I started as a classical guitarist at the Koper Music School, so my first ever guitar was a classical one – I don’t remember the exact model since I was very young, but if my memory serves me well, it must’ve been either a small and cheap Cordoba or Alhambra model. My first electric guitar followed shortly after, and it was another 100€ guitar, a Vision Stratocaster model, with a super small combo amp by a brand so unknown I forgot the name haha 😉 And then I built from there.
MATEVŽ: I started playing classical guitar at around 8 years old at a local music school and after almost quitting after only four years, my parents finally found mercy and bought me an. old red Cort stratocaster and a 10w unbranded amplifier which then sparked the passion for music that still carries on to this date.
What are your influences and which guitar players are your faves?
MATIC: In terms of influences and favourite guitar players, that’s a complex question, because all kinds of musicians, artists and even things influence my writing and playing style, and of course my taste has developed a lot over time. The first song that made me fall in love with music and made me think I might want to play the guitar was probably Money for Nothing by Dire Straits, which I heard in my father’s car as he had the song ripped on a CD haha.. Then I had a reeeeally short AC / DC phase (don’t judge, I was 7 haha), and shortly after that I discovered Iron Maiden. I immediately fell in love with their music (and they hold a very special place in my heart to this day), got familiar with their whole discography, started learning the lyrics (and attempted to sing) their songs, and it was around that time when I made the final decision that I wanted to go to music school and learn the guitar. So basically Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers were probably my first real guitar influences. Although at the age of 7, I couldn’t play many of their riffs yet, but I tried, which helped make me the musician I am today. Some time after that (still in elementary school), I started discovering more and more metal bands, at the time (that was like 5th / 6th grade) mostly folk metal and power metal bands like Eluveitie, Korpiklaani, Powerwolf, Sabaton, Amon Amarth, Tyr etc., so my guitar playing was influenced by those kinds of styles. Then I shifted to bands like Slipknot, Bullet for my Valentine, Pantera, Avenged Sevenfold etc., and I remember towards the end of elementary school, Synyster Gates, Jim Root, Dimebag Darrell etc. were some of my favourite guitarists who GREATLY influenced my guitar playing and general music taste. Later, I opened up to different genres of music as well, from diving deeper into classical (as I was studying classical guitar and had some classical singing classes as well at the Conservatory of Music in Ljubljana), to jazz, pop, rock, electronic music, a little bit of everything. I still listen to a huge variety of different artists. But in the past few years, the bands / artists / guitarists that inspire me the most are post-metal, post-rock, progressive metal and metalcore acts. So from bands like Alcest, Deafheaven, Together to the Stars etc., to bands like TesseracT, Leprous, I Built the Sky, Polyphia, Their Dogs Were Astronauts, Periphery etc., to bands like Architects, Bring Me The Horizon, Northlane, While She Sleeps etc. So my favourite guitarists that influence my writing and playing style the most at the moment would probably be Neige, Kerry McCoy, Acle Kahney, Rohan Stevenson, Misha Mansoor, Josh Middleton, Jon Deiley etc.
MATEVŽ: My music tastes have shifted quite a bit in the past few years. I started off with being a huge Metallica and James Hetfield fan, just like countless other metal guitarists, and I had a pretty extensive thrash era with bands such as Exodus, Lost Society and Lazarus AD being some of my favorites. Then I found out about Wintersun who opened up my taste to more extreme types of metal. There I found out about players such as Christian Muenzner, Alexi Laiho, Teemu Mantysaari, Rafael Trujillo, Sanjay Kumar, Adam DeMicco… just to name a few. Then in high school I started studying jazz where I discovered guitarists such as Jonathan Kreisberg, Adam Rogers, John Scofield and more fusion oriented players like Guthrie Govan, Greg Howe, Allan Holdsworth…
But some of my biggest influences in the last few years aren’t even guitarists. I really enjoy transcribing lines from other instruments due to a different approach of thinking. Saxophone players and keyboard/piano players really tend to open up new ways of playing and trying to adapt solos from other instruments to guitar is always a fun challenge.
So I try to stay open to all kinds of music and absorb and enjoy everything that the whole of music offers to us.
How many guitars do you own and what are your favorite models?
MATIC: I currently own two beautiful classical guitars, one made for me by Marko Grego, an amazing Slovenian luthier, and one that I bought in the Siccas Guitars store in Karlsruhe, Germany, that was made by a French luthier (whose name I can’t bring to mind – it’ll probably come to me as soon as I will already have sent you my answers haha), and that is an absolutely PHENOMENAL guitar. Beautiful tone, extremely comfortable to play. Then I also own a Crafter acoustic guitar, on which I write a lot of the vocal melodies for Hei’An (I just play the chords and think of ideas, unbothered by the whole arrangement of a song). And in terms of electric guitars, I still own that very first Vision Stratocaster I got when I was 7, and I also currently own a black Ibanez RG870QMZ and an Ibanez FTM33, the Meshuggah’s Fredrik Thordendal’s signature model, an 8-string. I use my FTM33 for all Hei’An stuff. So my favourite model that I actually own is the FTM33. I am, however, also thinking of buying a Strandberg 8-string in the near future, but I haven’t decided on the exact model yet. And my favourite guitar models in general (that I sadly don’t own yet haha) would probably be the Strandberg Boden Metal NX 8 Black Granite, Strandberg Boden Standard 8 Maple Flame Back, Aristides 080s, Fender Jim Adkins JA-90 Telecaster Thinline etc.
MATEVŽ: I currently own 3 guitars. Each one of them has something special about it so to choose a favourite one is pretty much impossible. I used to own a lot more but now I just have what I need. I really enjoy headless guitars, mostly due to their size and weight but my all time favourite model must be a Telecaster. They just feel right and sound so full and beautiful. Nothing beats a vintage tele for me.
What do you think makes the perfect guitar and amp?
MATIC: That can be an extremely complex question, but I think at the end of the day, it all comes down to what feels right. When I’m buying a new guitar or amp I like to listen to a bunch of demos of it, see / read a bunch of reviews, compare it with other models, try it on my own if possible, and while I’m interested in all the technical specifications while researching it (of course), I ultimately end up deciding purely based on my gut. When a piece of gear just sounds right and feels right for the moment in time you are currently in, in 99% of cases, it’s the right piece of gear for you to buy, if you can. You can still sell it afterwards, anyway, if you end up not feeling it anymore in a couple of years. I know, a philosophical answer haha, but I believe it to be the most true.
MATEVŽ: I think that it’s just a matter of spending time with the instrument. You get used to it and the instrument gets used to you. Wood breathes, it responds and then it just becomes an extension of yourself. It just starts to feel right when you pick up the instrument. You internalise the feel and sound of the guitar and learn to control it. So the perfect guitar just feels right, there’s no other way to explain it. And the amp just has to enhance the sound and power of the guitar.
How do you feel about the question of modeler or tube amp?
MATIC: I think both modeler amps and tube amps have their time and place, and like I talked about before, it all comes down to the individual’s gut – which speaks to you the most, a modeler or a tube amp? But yeah, personally, I must say I am currently leaning more on the modeler side. They are easier to transport, a million times more versatile and lately, they sound just as good as tube amps, in some instances and applications even better than some tube amps. But yeah, mostly because of the versatility and countless creative options they provide, I must choose modelers. We are even thinking of going with the Neural DSP QuadCortex for our live gigs.
MATEVŽ: No one can deny the progress in the quality of modelers. They are way more versatile, easy to use and transport than a 100w tube amplifier and they pack the same if not even bigger punch. I don’t notice any difference in sound using Neural DSP plugins, Axe FX or an ENGL head. Again, a tube amplifier might feel different or better to play through, because it is not programmed and it feels a bit more „alive“ than a modeler, but regarding the sound I don’t see a difference anymore, with the right settings and playing style.
Which guitars and amps were used on the new album or for recordings?
MATIC: On „imago“, our upcoming debut album, we actually used a bunch of different guitars during recording. I recorded pretty much all of my riffs on my Ibanez FTM33, some leads / ambient guitars on an Ibanez Steve Vai Jem, some cleans on a vintage Fender Stratocaster and some on a Fender Telecaster.. Matevž used some other guitars as well, but he’ll tell you more about those 🙂 We used 3 different amp heads – a Peavey 5150 and an Engl Powerball for distorted stuff and a Fender Bassman head for cleans, going through either a vintage Marshall or Mesa cab, depending on the song and part of the song. We also used some cool pedals, like the Strymon BigSky reverb, Horizon Devices Precision Drive and some other overdrive pedals. We tried to give each segment of each song its own colour that would fit that segment the most, so we experimented a lot with different combinations of the gear I mentioned, and with the settings on that gear. And I am extremely happy with the results.
MATEVŽ: I recorded most of my parts with my Kiesel Vader and through an ENGL Powerball into either a vintage Marshall or Mesa cab that Matej (our producer) had in the studio. Some of the leads I recorded on Matej’s Ibanez Steve Vai Jem or Gibson Les Paul Studio and the clean parts were done with a Fender Telecaster into a Fender Bassman Head, which was always slightly overdriven. And of course a beautiful Strymon BigSky reverb to top it off.
When you only can choose one guitar, which one will you take?
MATIC:Choosing just one guitar would be really hard, and my opinion on that has changed a lot through the years, and will no doubt change countless more times in the future, but at the moment, it would probably be a Strandberg 8-string, just can’t decide on the exact model yet.. When I do, I’ll probably buy it, so you’ll see then haha.
MATEVŽ: As mentioned above, nothing beats a vintage Fender Telecaster for me 🙂
