Dave Odegaard is a guitarist/composer who has gained notoriety from his latest release, SECOND ATTENTION. Various songs from his cd can be heard in tv shows, dvd documentary and movies such as; ABC Family's #1 rated show WILDFIRE, Full Circle the Nate Adams documentary, Keen Footwear, This is the Sea 2, Red Bull Driver Search and various corporate videos.

On Second Attention, Dave imparts the ultimate mix of progressive rock, bleeding guitar ballads and a rocking alternative to toe-tapping, finger-snapping, head-banging jams that move the listener through an aural trip of impassioned imagery.

Currently, Dave divides his time by writing music for his next cd and music production libraries as well as performing with his own band and the band STILL, (Wade Biery), www.stillmusic.com

In addition to his solo release, Dave has released his old band's CD Arctic Fire. The cd is for sale at www.cdbaby.com/arcticfire .

Look out for the new solo CD in late 2006.

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The following interview was done with an Argentina web-zine called Nucleus on September 2004. http://www.nucleusprog.com.ar
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--------- “EXTREME LUCIDITY” ------ By Sergio Vilar

Interview with the guitarist Dave Odegaard, One of the big revelations of the year.


?? In the first place and for those that don't still know you, who Dave Odegaard is?

Hello everyone! Well first of all I'd like to thank you for this opportunity. For those of you who don't know me I am an instrumental guitarist/composer of many styles. I'm from the Los Angeles area in California and have been playing guitar for about 24 years now. I've worked with many local bands and worked as a session player throughout my career. In August 2004, I released my debut solo CD, “Second Attention”. I will be doing many shows in the US to support this album.

?? How would you describe your music?

Well the music on this album is an amalgamation of Rock, Metal, Techno, Blues, Industrial and Country. Throughout the album you will hear Techno and Industrial grooves which lay the foundation to most of the songs. The guitar playing in this album has a lot of focus on tone and spontaneity to the solos.

?? Which would you say that they are your more direct musical influences?

I have had many musicians influence me in a way that have developed me into who I am today. Just to name a few would be Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Albert Lee, Pat Metheny, Steve Vai, Michael Landau and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

?? “Second Attention” a very varied album is as for its structure, was something premeditated or did it arise spontaneously? How did you work the part of composition of the tracks?

The songs on the album were somewhat premeditated. I knew that I wanted to fuse Techno/Industrial elements together with Rock. I wanted to also go back to playing guitar aggressively with a reckless abandon attitude. I feel that in the instrumental guitar genre, some of the guitar playing today has become extremely technical precision oriented and along the way guitar players have lost the attitude or edge. Shredding has its place and can be perceived as aggressive if done right but I believe to play a single note in a unique and personal way is far more impact full. For me personally, I like to hear players that have a "Just Go For It" mentality and not worry about if they are playing with accurate precision with each note. With that in mind, compositions for the materials on this album started out by jamming to drum and bass grooves that I had laid down and hit record to capture my ideas. From there I would take bits and pieces that jumped out at me and then try to recreate everything in more structured song format. Towards the end of the recording of this album I wrote this one particular song, “Love & Compassion”, on a Dobro guitar which was totally nothing like the others. It has a Country feel to it but I absolutely loved it and wanted to find a place for it in the album. I figured I should try to write something that segued nicely into that song. With that decision, I came up with this spontaneous intimate solo piece on slide guitar called, “Remember”. That was one of those magical moments where the melody just came pouring out. It's a good thing that I had hit the record button before I started playing.

?? Could you give me a brief description of each song?

Sure can. The first track, “Anomaly”, is a heavy groove driven song with dirty synthesizers and techno drums mixed with John Cardoso's drumming driving the tune. The guitars have this tweaked out envelope filter tone and has a quite a bit of slide playing in that song.

The second track, “Extreme”, is a fun song that has a lot of guitar licks constructed in a question and answer manner. The guitar solo to that song was taken from the early demo version. I had recorded many different solos but kept on coming back to the demo solo so I decided to relearn the original demo solo and go with that one.

Track three, “Endless Journey”, has a spacious New Age kind of feel to it. It has very big and spacious synth pads that underline the song. The guitars are very melodic during the verse and then during the B-section it just kind of goes wacko with a ring modulator and a wah pedal. The solo was totally improvised and I believe what's on the album is the second take except for the fast tapping run that I do at the climatic part of the solo.

Track four, “Second Attention”, the title track has an interesting story to it. Back in August 2000 my friends John Cardoso, (drummer who played on this record and will be performing with me), Stefano Valdo, (bassist) and I got together to work on some stuff I was writing at the time. We had our gear setup in John's garage and also had everything miked up so we would be able to record the sessions. We would typically start the day off by jamming for a while and get warmed up before we would work on my tunes. This particular afternoon I just started playing the opening riff and John and Stefano jumped right in with their parts and next thing you know we were writing this song spontaneously. It was pretty amazing. When we were done we all looked at each other and knew we had just done something really magical. What you hear on the studio version is basically a polished up version of the jam session version. The arrangement, drums, bass and segments of the guitar are the same.

Track five is “Lucid”. The song kicks in with John's double kick drum solo with big guitar power chords sliding in and out. The bass has some slapping going on to lend a funky vibe. That song harmonically is very static but the guitars have a lot going on with melody and counter melody thus giving the song movement.

Track six is “Hallucinations”. This song is a laid back heavy metal kind of song. It's got big guitar riffs that are very rhythmic and a wild solo section with an envelope filter and wah combined to get a nasty, screaming tone. The outro of the song just builds with the main guitar riff repeating and on top of that there's feedback, whammy bar fluttering and E- Bow guitars swelling in notes to a climactic ending.

Track seven, “Remember”, is an intimate solo piece with a bluesy vibe to it. That was played with a slide and envelope filter. Basically, I wrote this song as I was recording it. I was playing around with the main melody and decided to hit record and just wing it. Everything about that song just came naturally, it all flowed nicely.

Track eight is “Love and Compassion”. That song came about from just noodling on my Dobro guitar. I had the arpeggiated riff worked out so I recorded that first then over dubbed a melody that I came up with as I was recording. The song is very country and is nothing like the others but I had to put it on the album. I think it gives the album a nice contrast and gives the listeners ear a break from loud, screaming guitars.

Track nine, “Ramblin' Cat” is a futuristic blues tune. It's got a Techno groove underlying the song with Dobro and electric slide guitars playing a reoccurring riff/melody. The solo was done on the Dobro guitar with the mic set up on the 2nd floor of my house to pick up a natural room reverb. Wade Biery, a friend of mine and singer/songwriter of STILL, plays bass on this song and really gave the song the extra push and groove that it needed.

And for the final track on the album is “Spectral Dimensions”. This song is very groove oriented with a double stop riff as the main theme of the song. The guitar solo is a trade off solo where one section I play with a screw driver in place of a pick to get a squealing effect on the notes. Overall the song has a Matrix kind of vibe to it.

?? Were you looking for some sound in particular when you began to write the material?

I always found Techno and Industrial music to have interesting grooves and a unique sonic quality so I decided that combining that with some big guitars would make for an interesting sounding album. As for the sounds of the guitars on this album, like many guitarists, I was searching for new tones by trying out many different pieces of gear but always came up short. I always envisioned big fat guitar tones like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix. I ended up changing my string gauge from 10s to 11s to achieve a fatter tone. It definitely helped but boy was that painful for a while until my fingers got used to bending such heavy gauge strings.

?? Does an artistic or aesthetic concept exist in particular that you want to express through the music?

I would say that the most important concept that I want to express through my music is the uniqueness of ones self and having an identifiable voice. I believe that comes from really being in touch with your inner self. My belief is that if you look deep down inside, focus and listen, you can find your inner voice. If you can understand the essence of your being, then expressing yourself with words, art or music becomes easier and truthful. Combining that belief with music is something that I always try to achieve.

?? What are you listening at the moment? Which are your favorite artists?

To be honest with you, I haven't been listening to much music lately. I go through these phases where I will listen to everything or like right now, I listen to nothing. When I am in those music listening mood I like to listen to artists like Pat Metheny, Journey, ToTo and Bruce Hornsby. Oh and of course, anything Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughn. Every now and then I'll listen to the old 80's Metal like Ratt, Dokken and Van Halen. Also, I like to find new music on the internet as well.

?? And of the new ones, is there some that you would recommend to listen?

The only one that comes to mind right now is a guitar player named Bill Lonero. He's an instrumental guitarist as well. I like his album because his emphasis is on writing good songs rather than an album full of shredding and blurring notes.

?? Which is your thought about the current music?

I feel that the current state of music here in America is very stale and pathetic. The music industry here seems like they're always releasing and promoting their latest crap of the month and trying to shove it down the publics' throat. It's like they are force feeding fast food music to anyone who can't think for themselves. There's good music out there but it just cannot get the promotion that the major labels can offer. If you don't fit the current trend then forget about trying to get signed by a major label or even get major commercial radio airplay. Also there's a lot of great music and bad music on the Internet. If people would take the time to weed through the bad I think they would come across some really great music.

?? Dave, what do you say of the power that it continues having the rock like cultural phenomenon?

Rock music from the very beginning has been a cultural phenomenon since the days of Elvis, Beatles, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, etc… In every decade there's someone or a band that comes out, raises the bar and changes the face of music. Guys like Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Stevie Ray Vaughn have all affected music in a way that it forever changed the way guitar players play and sound. But it seems like this past decade or so there hasn't been anyone or a band that was influential to the point where it affects the course of Rock music history. I think we are all waiting for that next history-changing artist or band.

What are you making at the moment?

Well currently, I am getting ready to go to New York to do some shows in support of the album. The rest of the guys in my band all live in New York and Boston so we rehearse at home by playing to backing tracks that I made for each member and when I get there a few days before the show we'll do the full band rehearsal. This is going to be interesting and fun performing these songs live to an audience.

?? Which are your plans in the immediate thing?

For the immediate future I will be doing more shows around the East Coast and Central US. I am working on trying to get the band over to Italy and Japan. I would also love to perform in Argentina or Chile as well. I think after I have exhausted this album out on the road then I will start recording my 2nd album.

?? Thank you, do you have some message for our readers?

Thank you very much for this interview and thanks to everyone who has shown support with my music. I hope this interview has shed some light onto understanding who I am. Also, keep your eyes and ears open for new talent out there and support the independent artists.

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