Interview: Eric Steckel
“People who came to my gigs want to get their ass kicked!”
Text: Martien Koolen
Eric Steckel, born 1990, is an American blues metal guitarist, singer, and composer. Steckel has released twelve albums, and he toured among others with: John Mayall, Johnny Winter, Gregg Allman, and Steve Vai. ‘Sandstorm’ is Steckel’s new album and before the show in Heerlen (my hometown) I had the chance to talk to Eric about that new album and much more, of course.
Eric Steckel and Martien Koolen
*Congratulations with your new album ‘Sandstorm’.*
Eric: “Thank you, I am glad that you like it.”
Are you quite happy/satisfied with the result?
Eric: “We made the album in six days, and I know that is pretty odd and that was including mixing, ha ha, it was a really fast process. What helps is that I play everything but the drums, so the way we approached it was, half of the album are piano-based songs that I played live in the studio with the drummer, and then we did the other half, which is more I would like to call the crunchy-type rock songs, where I am playing guitar, also live with the drummer, but I have my amps going through the monitors.
From there, the drummer’s job is done and then I do all the bass, organ, guitars and vocals, and the production as well. It was a busy week for me, ha ha…, to say the least…”
Are there significant differences between this new album and your previous one?
Eric: “Well, this one was recorded in the same studio as the previous album, and with the same sort of concept, where I have a great drummer and I do the rest, but I think the last full-length album was recorded in 2020, so its been a while and even tough it is the same equipment, the same studio, the same producer and mixer, but it just has a very different vibe because it has been six years; there were changes in everybody’s lives and other influences; so it is cool to hear the new album and I hear the differences, mainly in the drive of the songs.”
Can you tell something about the title of the album?
Eric: “So, the story behind it is interesting, as that was not the concept title we had in mind and there was not even a song called Sandstorm. That song, the title track, came about one day during the sessions, very early in the morning as Elia, the drummer, was in the studio just practising and I heard the groove he was doing and I thought I got to do something with that, so I just grabbed my guitar and started playing and we built it up, worked on it for a couple of hours and had the music part, tracked it and then I said to the engineer: guys, I need inspiration to write a lyric, what do you guys feel when you hear this music?
And there was a unanimous thing in the room of the desert, sand, something sandy, being alone in a big vast area; so, I said OK, let me step outside and work on the lyrics, and then we can finish the song. Later we recorded the vocals and Sandstorm became our favourite song of the album, so I said to my manager, let’s change the concept and make a cover for the album that shows like me walking up against a big sandstorm, and that was it.”
How important are lyrics for you as a guitarist?
Eric: “More important as I get older, when I was younger the most important thing was to establish myself as a guitarist, but as my manager said so many times, you have already established yourself as a great guitar player, so my goal is to focus on other elements of my career. The whole presentation is particularly important to me now.”
The song Blues For The Lonely features my favourite guitar solo of the new album, how did you produce that impressive solo?
Eric: “Thank you, man. That one was 100% improvised in the moment, ha ha…and we just do never more than three takes and I believe that solo was the first take on the record and I liked it from the beginning, the chords on that solo in the beginning are just typical slow blues ones, but then during the chorus of the song I play typical things that are not really very bluesy, so yeah, it rocks and I survived that one, ha ha…”
When did you actually buy or got your first guitar?
Eric Steckel: photo by Martien Koolen
Eric: “My parents and my uncle teamed up, and they bought me a Strat when I was nine or ten years old; that was a standard, black Fender Stratocaster, and I used that one for the first ten years of my career. By the time I was playing with John Mayall I had a second guitar.”
Did you have lessons?
Eric: “No, self-taught completely… I had a lot of great mentors, people that taught me the road, audiences, how to navigate the business, how to deal with things that just come up. Watching John (Mayall) was even better education than things he would tell me, watching him work was like a master’s degree.”
What is your favourite guitar now?
Eric: “Right now, it is actually the one I am going to play tonight, I have two there up on the stage, and it is a Sandstorm guitar and that guitar is a limited one with great colours.”
Who were your main influences, your guitar heroes?
Eric: “I would say that there were so many, but to narrow it down I would say: Gary Moore, Rory Gallagher, Eddie van Halen, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Also, rather unknown Dan Huff from the band Giant, and when you hear him play and you hear me playing than you know where I come from.”
And Jimi?
Eric: “Of course, he is everybody’s influence, for sure, he is like yeah, I mean, he would be at the top of the pyramid of the electric guitar!”
What would you consider to be the best guitar solo you ever played, so far?
Eric: “Oh, wow, great question, man, one of my favourites was on the new album in the song What I Wanna Believe, as it is so melodic and slow. Another one I really like is in the song When Ignorance Turns To Bliss, that was an impressive solo and one of my favourites for sure!”
Best guitar solo from someone else?
Eric: “Steve Ray Vaughan’s instrumental version of Little Wing, the whole song, yep, that is so good, that is it, perfect, done, full stop, ha ha…”
Mine would be Jimi’s solo in Machine Gun.
Eric: “Oh, yeah great and which recording?”
*The live one, ‘Band Of Gypsys’!*
How many hours a day do you play/practise guitar?
Eric: “It depends, in the beginning I was so hard core with that, and yeah, I pick up the guitar almost every day; not when I am on tour, tough…When I am home, I play guitar when I feel the need to do so, when I have inspiration; do not do it until you feel something, you know what I mean, right? I do not want to feel mechanical.”
What does success mean to you?
Eric: “It changes, it varies, you know. I have been rich and poor in one week, you know. You come back from a tour, and you get a bucket full of money and then you must pay everybody and the money is gone, ha ha…. Success for me is I am just here doing it, I can play live and I earn a living. I am out there, I have a huge fanbase and every time I make a record the records keep evolving, I have never made a record that sounds like another record, which is something I can say with pride.”
Ambitions left to fulfil.
Eric: “yeah, I would say, I would like to incorporate things in the live shows, my keyboard playing and I would like to show people what this life as a musician is really like, but more from a comedy perspective.”
Last question, if I were Eric Steckel and you would be the music reporter, what would be your final question?
Eric: “Ho, ho that is a great and awesome question…. well, maybe I would ask, what do want people to feel, what is your message with your music?”
What would be the answer?
Eric: “My answer would be: an answer that a great friend of me once said about my gig and he said: Eric, people that go to see you want to get their ass kicked, and I loved the way he put that, as on the record I play conservatively, but the live show I always loved as it has to be something special, different from the album as you improvise a lot. Just dig into your instrument and that the audience really feel the emotion.”
Thanks for your time.
Eric: “Thank you for your imaginative and really interesting questions.”
Website: https://www.ericsteckel.com/
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