"Music does calm the savage beast, but also feeds him as well. I found that no matter what changing moods I have gone through in life; music has been the great equalizer. No matter if it is pain, happiness, sadness, anguish, exhilaration, love, music has played a key role in helping me cope and keep well adjusted."

Brian Tarquin: The Man, His Guitars, and The Brothers in Arms

Brian Tarquin & Heavy Friends release a brand new album entitled “Brothers In Arms” (2023), feat. Joe Satriani, Members of UFO, Guns N’ Roses, Dokken, Coheed & Cambria, Armored Saint & Others! From the producer of the acclaimed release “Guitars For Wounded Warriors” comes a brand new extraordinary album entitled “Brothers In Arms”! Multi-Emmy award winning guitarist/composer Brian Tarquin is the mastermind behind it, featuring such iconic guitarists as Joe Satriani, Vinnie Moore (UFO), Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal (Guns N’ Roses), Alex De Rosso (Dokken), Travis Stever (Coheed & Cambria), Jeff Duncan (Armored Saint), Johannes Weik (Son of a Bach), Gerald Gradwohl (Tangerine Dream), Chris Haskett (Henry Rollins Band). Brian Tarquin, a one-man army, composed, produced and performed all guitar melodies, solos, bass, rhythm guitars and used session drummer Reggie Pryor. The album features exclusive songs inspired by those military soldiers who have fought for their country. Partial proceeds from the sales go to the Fisher House Foundation, who supplies housing to veterans’ families while they are hospitalized.                                                   (Photo: Brian Tarquin)

For the past 30 years multi-Emmy award winning composer/guitarist Brian Tarquin’s music has been heard by tens of millions on a plethora of television and film scores such as: CSI, Ellen, Extra, TMZ, 60 Minutes, Sex and the City, SNL, Godzilla, Seinfeld, Cheers, Charmed, The Watcher (Keanu Reeves), Desert Heat (Van Damme), The Sender (R. Lee Ermey) to name a few. He has won 3 Emmys for “Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series” and has been nominated for an Emmy 6 times. In 2022 the Josie Music Awards nominated Tarquin for “Best Guitarist” & “Best Producer” of the year. In 2019 Tarquin received a Global Music Gold Award for his release Orlando In Heaven for “Best Album.” Three years in a row (2016-2019) Tarquin received “Best Album of the Year” nominations from the Independent Music Awards for his releases: “Guitars for Wounded Warriors,” “Orlando in Heaven,” and “Guitars for Veterans.” Tarquin has graced the top Billboard charts with such commercial releases as: “This is Acid Jazz, Vol. 2,” “Sweet Emotions,” and “Bossa Brava: Caliente” on Instinct Records, followed by several solo jazz albums which charted Top 10 at Smooth Jazz Radio R&R and Gavin charts with such hits as “One Arabian Knight”, “Freeway Jam”, “Darlin Darlin Baby” and Tangled Web. Tarquin has appeared on 50 releases, selling over 140,000 records in his career with over 34 million streams on Spotify, Pandora & Apple.

Interview by Michael Limnios               Special Thanks: Billy James (Glass Onyon)

How has the Rock and Jazz music influenced your views of the world and the journeys you’ve taken?

Growing up in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s there was a plethora of great guitarists to choose from and guitar music was king! I started out being really influenced by the British invasion guitarists as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page & Jeff Beck and then moved onto Jimi Hendrix. “Are You Experienced” was unreal and really spoke to me because I was immediately attracted to instrumental guitar music. I always loved Jimmy Page’s tone and solo in the middle of “Hearbreaker”, it was the “Eruption” of the day.

When Jeff Beck came out with his fusion solo albums Blow By Blow, Wired & There and Back I knew that was my path in life. But when I heard Jeff Beck Live with the Jan Hammer Group, that was one of the best moments. Jeff’s tone on that album is the best I have ever heard him. Live songs like “Freeway Jam”, “Blue Wind” and “Full Moon Boogie” are trail blazing performances by Jeff. In fact, I recently had the honor in working with the violinist on that album Steve Kindler for an upcoming release. Steve was originally in Mahavishnu Orchestra and is on “Visions of the Emerald Beyond”, later replacing Jean Luc Ponty in the band. And of course, another big influence was Eddie Van Halen exploding onto the scene with that first album.

All of these influences laid out the blueprint to my career and the road I would take in my journey with music. Artist like Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, Van Halen & Pat Metheny made me realize how to create a song and tell a story with instrumental music. It’s been a fantastic journey! The sounds I heard when I was a teenager and what I learned from those recordings are still in my head and being used in my music to this day.

How do you describe your sound and music philosophy? Where does your creative drive come from?

I have always been an extremely creative soul. My Creativeness just runs in my blood because my mother Pema Browne was a modern artist in New York City in 50’s & 60’s. She had a painting exhibition at the 1964 World’s Fair in the Greyhound Pavilion and her abstract painting Ambush In November is part of the permanent collection of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. My father, Perry Browne, was a big band radio disc jockey in the 40’s & 50’s and worked with the comedy team of Bob and Ray in Boston. So, he was always playing jazz records in the house like Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and even hipper guys like Jimmy Smith and Howard Roberts. In turn I was always exposed to some sort of instrumental jazz music at an early age.

My music philosophy is simple guitar, guitar & then more guitar. I use the guitar as a paint brush on a canvas to evoke emotions. For example, stylistically using a clean ES-335 tone through a Fender amp paints a very different picture from that of an overdriven Les Paul tone through a Marshall cabinet. Guitar has always been my main instrument because I could relate to all the wild sounds that could be made from the instrument. Jimi Hendrix was always one of my favorite guitarists because he was such a trail blazer. He was a universe ahead of everyone else. Not a lot of people know this, but Hendrix had jazz influences in his playing, like the Wes Montgomery octaves. But because of the overdriven tones, Jimi’s octaves sounded massive like in the song “Third Stone From The Sun”. In fact, that is where I learned how to play octaves by listening to Hendrix, years before going into jazz and even knowing about Wes Montgomery.

"One of the most important lessons is to know the music business and understand how musicians, composers, etc. are paid. Early in my career I worked at record companies in radio promotions, finance, business affairs and learned the business inside out. I was hungry for knowledge on how to make money from being a recording artist and composer." (Photo: Brian Tarquin)

How do you think that you have grown as an artist since you first started making music? What has remained the same about your music-making process?

I feel as an artist I have grown tremendously since those early days of creating music. When I was a teenager in the 70’s in bands we just made up songs and had no idea of signature keys or how to even develop a song. But the process with each other was so much fun. As we continued to practice, we began to learn the song making craft. Soon we were actually writing music with a beginning, middle and an end. Of course, as I got older, I began to write more intricate instrumental songs with more of a story. One the most profound composing lessons is when I entered into the Contemporary jazz market. This was a real challenge because I had always relied on an overdriven guitar tone as the lead melody, but jazz required me to use a clean tone. This was tough at first because there was no sustain to the guitar without the overdrive, so I had to compose the melodies very differently. Jazz was a predominantly horn music because they could sustain very much like vocals, but clean guitar was a tougher approach to be a lead instrument. All of a sudden, I went from rock music where guitar was the loudest instrument in the band to a music that treated guitar as a background instrument. However, I persevered and really learned a lot about composing and using the guitar as a lyrical instrument.

What has remained constant is I still compose the majority of the songs on the guitar. I usually get the song idea from playing various riffs on guitar and then working out a rough arrangement before adding other instruments. For example, the main riff of the new single from Brothers In Arms ,“Speed of Sound” featuring Joe Satriani, I wrote in my living room using a Fender Strat blasting through a Marshal cabinet. I did the same process over 30 years ago when I wrote my Jazz hit single “One Arabian Knight”, except I wrote it on a Gibson 335 through a Fender amp.

What moment changed your music life the most? What´s been the highlights in your life and career so far?

In the early mid 90’s I really liked the funky jazz grooves coming out of Britain during the 90’s, which they called Acid Jazz. Artists like The Brand New Heavies and Ronny Jordan who were using urban back beats with jazz changes really got my attention. So, I sent a studio demo of a few tracks to a couple labels, and I was signed by a New York record label that specialized in Acid Jazz called Instinct records. They even took one of the songs from the original demo I sent them called “Arrow of Truth” and placed it on the album The Best of Acid Jazz Vol 2, which hit the top 20 Billboard charts. Then for my first two albums with them, “Last Kiss Goodbye” and “Soft Touch” they sent me to London to record with a producer who specialized in this type of music. It was a wonderful experience which resulted in a number of top 10 radio hits in the Smooth Jazz format, like “One Arabian Knight”, Freeway Jam” (Jeff Beck remake), Crazy Horse, Darlin, Darlin Baby, and Tangled Web. This was a moment that changed my musical life you could say as well as a pure feeling of musical affirmation!

I have been very fortunate in my musical career in having a lot of highlights to look back upon. Of course, I am very proud of my 3 Emmys I received for music composing. But this new album Brothers In Arms is one of the highlights in my career. I worked with one of my heroes Joe Satriani which was so fantastic on many levels. As Joe wrote the book on rock instrumental music, as I was huge fan of “Surfing with the Alien”. I also recorded with guitarists I respected but hadn’t worked with before like Vinnie Moore (UFO), Jeff Duncan (Armored Saint), Johannes Weik (Son of a Bach) & Travis Stever (Coheed & Cambria). Not to mention recording with the Budapest String Orchestra for the song “Hounds of Hell” was an entirely new experience for me. There is also a sequel to this album coming out later this year called Brothers In Arms: DEUX that features even more iconic musicians. For this album I was honored by recording with the amazing violinist Jean Luc Ponty, Eric Johnson, Robben Ford & Carl Verheyen (Supertramp) to name a few.

Though I have to say one of my favorite sessions was with the “Godfather of Fusion” himself Larry Coryell. He was such a great human being as well as guitarist and I learned a lot from my time with him in the studio. He was a true pioneer of instrumental guitar fusion music before Jeff Beck and Joe Satriani. Larry was the first to play jazz guitar through a Marshall cabinet and incorporate rock with jazz. His stories were fantastic which intrigued me while he was telling them. For instance, he told me when he first came to NYC in the 60’s he was going up a 6-floor hippie walkup in the village and he saw this book called You Are All Sanpaku, written by George Ohsawa. Sanpaku is a Japanese term meaning "three whites" referring to eyes in which either the white space above or below the iris is revealed. The theory being when the “sclera” (the white part of the eye) is visible beneath the iris, it represents physical imbalance in the body. Usually claimed to be present in people who have addictions to alcohol, drugs or people who over-consume sugar or grain. In short according to Ohsawa, Sanpaku is a sign from nature, that one's life is threatened by an early and tragic end. He claimed that the only cure would be by a macrobiotic diet emphasizing brown rice and soybeans. In fact, one of Larry’s last albums was called Barefoot Man: Sanpaku (2016), which he does a remake of a Charles Mingus song “Manteca”. Fantastic album and I urge everyone to listen to it!

Currently you’ve one release with your "Heavy Friends". How did this idea come about?
Actually, I have 3 ‘Heavy Friends’ releases, Guitars For Wounded Warriors, Guitars For Veterans & Brothers In Arms. The whole series was created to honor our service men and women and of course veterans. I have always had a special spot in my heart for military veterans. I feel they have always been forgotten in our world and taken for granted. I remember seeing homeless Vietnam veterans living in the subway and streets of New York City where I grew up in the 70’s. It was a disgraceful site because at that time no one seemed to care about veterans. So, I wanted to draw as much attention as I could to veteran’s needs and what better way than through music. I also wanted a very reliable benefit to donate to, so I did a lot of research and decided on the Fisher House Foundation.

My father was a World War II veteran serving in the South Pacific from 1943-1946 along with millions of other soldiers. He told many stories of his comradery with his fellow marines and how they all looked forward to the GI Bill. So, in college back in the 80’s I joined the ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) for a while, serving a short stint in the military and doing basic training at Fort Knox. Even though I didn’t stay in the service, I always had a deep respect for the men and woman who serve.

Do you have any interesting stories about the making of the new album "Brothers In Arms"?

I have an NPR radio show called Guitar Trax on WFIT 89.5FM in Florida. I have interviewed Joe Satriani a couple of times in the past for the show and we hit it off, so I asked him if he would be willing to guest on a track for “Brothers in Arms”. I wanted to compose something special for him and for the album to give the listener a real treat. So, as I was composing “Speed of Sound” I imagined a scene in the deserts of Iraq where the skies were blackened by a storm as American troops were lost in valley of death trying to get back to safety. I wanted to paint a feeling not only of great aggression but also a scene of desperation and dramatic emotions. Sure enough Joe really liked the track and within 2 weeks he sent me back the final solo you here in the song.

Luxor was a particularly fun song which I wrote on the bass guitar before the Pandemic. I enlisted my longtime friend Reggie Pryor to record drums. We set up my Ludwig John Bonham drum set in a live room in my house in Florida. The opening riff (which repeats during the middle breakdown) was originally a bass riff, but I thought Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal could do justice to it on the guitar, as you hear on the final version. I was going for that classic Iron Maiden vibe from Powerslave. I envisioned the ruins of the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes as the background for an epic battle. I wanted to evoke emotions of urgency and reciprocity of imposing forces, a theme of victory for American troops. I was very happy with Ron’s solo bits and performances, which completed my overall vision.

Another very interesting song was “Hounds of Hell” which I recruited a wonderful young guitarist from Germany named Johannes Weik from the band Son of a Bach. I discovered him a few years ago from the song “Bourrée”, which is fantastic combination of heavy metal guitar and classical music. The video is a gas! They are all dressed up in the Baroque fashion, wigs and all, it is simply brilliant! So, I sent him the song with a temp track of strings to solo on and Johannes didn’t disappoint, he performed a fantastic solo. I then hired the Budapest Orchestra to record the final string parts in Europe. This was an elaborate process by getting proper orchestra charts and making sure all of the instruments are orchestrated correctly. Once they were recorded in Budapest, I had to fly all of the instruments into the final session and mix. It took some doing but I am extremely pleased with the final outcome.

Instrumental music is very difficult to get across to the general public because there are no words or lyrics that they can relate to in the track. I always like to make the music thematic, describing some sort of story to the listener. This helps a lot to keep their attention and interest in the song. I learned this craft during my Contemporary jazz solo artist days, seeing how people reacted to my music, both radio music directors and listeners.

"Growing up in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s there was a plethora of great guitarists to choose from and guitar music was king! I started out being really influenced by the British invasion guitarists as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page & Jeff Beck and then moved onto Jimi Hendrix." (Photo: Brian Tarquin)

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

One of the most important lessons is to know the music business and understand how musicians, composers, etc. are paid. Early in my career I worked at record companies in radio promotions, finance, business affairs and learned the business inside out. I was hungry for knowledge on how to make money from being a recording artist and composer. So, I understand cross-collateralized royalties, recoupment and reserves being held. I always thought if you are going to be an artist in this industry you should be required to work in it for at least a year before you sign any kind of deal. That way you are well informed to any decision you make regarding signed agreements. I even wrote a couple of books on the topic, “Insider’s Guide To Music Licensing” (Allworth Press) and “Survival Guide For Music Composers” (Hal Leonard). The whole reason I wrote them is I found most music business books were written by lawyers and are written very pretentiously. So, I wanted to write one in plain simple English terms for the average musician.

I found the best attributes you can have is persistence and motivation. Also prepare for a lot of rejection, it’s just the name of the game. To be in this industry you have to be very thick skinned and not be discouraged from criticism. At the end of the day, contrary to popular believes, success is not equated to be the best or the fastest gun, it’s about being there at the time they need your talent. That’s why I say “Tenacity” is your best weapon!

What's the balance in music between technique skills and soul/emotions? How do you want the music to affect people?

Yes, balance is important. Guitarists must know when to play and when not to play. It’s a tricky thing because the guitar is a very bravado and macho instrument, especially in rock. So, the first thing someone wants to do is show off their skills, I have trouble myself sometimes keeping the reigns on, but of course the music dictates you’re playing.

The guitar is a very diversified instrument as it can be very subtle, and tender heard in classical players like Segovia or extremely aggressive in a band like Megadeth. But guitar also can hit everything in between those two styles. The important quality is the guitar must speak and say something, especially in instrumental music through tones and emotions you can wield from it. You can never predict how the listener will be affected, but you hope they like it as much as you do. I never compose music for a predetermined emotion the listener may experience. I just hope it moves them somehow, happy, sad or angry.

I believe in the big picture it is discipline that music has instilled upon my life. It required great discipline not just mastering the instrument, but to continue the faith of what God has instilled upon me. I realized later as an adult the real struggle is making something from that talent. For example, once you master your gift of music the challenge will be making that gift a realization for yourself. In other words, making your accomplishment in the outside world, which takes a lot more work and courage than just mastering the art of the guitar itself.

John Coltrane said "My music is the spiritual expression of what I am...". How do you understand the spirit, music, and the meaning of life?          (Photo: Brian Tarquin)

Ah the “Meaning of Life” that’s a pretty heavy question, but wait…wasn’t that a movie by Monty Python? No really music is a very spiritual expression for me. I consider myself to have been very fortunate in life to have found music at an early age. Music does calm the savage beast, but also feeds him as well. I found that no matter what changing moods I have gone through in life; music has been the great equalizer. No matter if it is pain, happiness, sadness, anguish, exhilaration, love, music has played a key role in helping me cope and keep well adjusted. So, if I feel angry maybe I’ll pick up a Gibson Explorer and write an aggressive track or if sad maybe pick up a Gibson ES 335 and compose a bluesy song. So, you see what comes out musical is directly related to your inner emotions – from the brain to the fingers.

I also consider another important aspect with my music is the way I record. I use a lot of classic analog gear such as, a modified Trident 24 recording console, the Neve Compressor 33609, Rupert Neve Designs Portico II Master Buss Processor, Neve 1074, Chandler ltd Germanium Compressor, and a host of other gear including an array of microphones. I also use real tube guitar amplifiers such as a 1969 Fender Super Reverb, Marshall Plexi, 1984 Marshall JCM800, 1979 Mesa Boogie Mark IIb, Rivera Quiana Studio and many others. I have an array of guitars that I use to color each particular song as, an Ovation 12 string acoustic, Guild 6 string acoustic, Fender Jeff Beck Signature Strat and a Gibson Les Paul Custom to name a few. I look at all of these tools as using the whole crayon box of 120 colors. Each guitar, amp, preamp, mic, etc. is a certain crayon color to help enhance a song’s picture. I love working in the analog domain because it sounds just like the albums, I grew up with in the 60’s and 70’s, nothing sounds like drums, guitar and bass on analog tape!

Brian Tarquin - Home