Q & A with Wargo
Q: Where the hell is Wargo from?
A: Born in Glen Cove, NY, but really from Tucson, AZ, I moved to Flagstaff in 1999 to start my college career at NAU. I got my BA in Spanish in 2003, my MA in Teaching Spanish in 2003, and I’m currently earning my keep as a full-time Spanish lecturer at NAU. I just can’t leave.
Q: What started the ball rolling on your interest in music?
A: A friend of mine in 7th grade played me “Basket Case” by Green Day during recess one day. Blew my mind. Should have never sold that cassette.
Q: How long have you been playing guitar?
A: Since 1995 (freshman year of high school). The desire to play mostly came from discovering Led Zeppelin and idolizing Jimmy Page. I was listening to a lot of 70s rock back then. A few days into playing, I tried to figure out how to play “Smoke on the Water”. I was way off.
Q: Have you always been a singer?
A: Guitar came first. I didn’t really sing very much until I started college. I would doa lot of driving between Flagstaff and Tucson back in my undergraduate days. What better thing to do than throw on some CDs and sing along for 5 hours. That’s how I got into singing.
Q: Why do you have more than one singer on Taboo?
A: I got the idea to use a variety of singers on my album from being a Slash fan. He released his solo album Slash in 2010 and I was intrigued to see that he had a different singer on each song. I liked the idea and ran with it. I also feel that my vocal style wouldn’t have been the right one for certain tracks; “Twin Paradox” for example. Only Derek could sing that one.
Q: Have you been in any other bands?
A: Taboo is my first solo album, but you can hear more of my work from bands such as Fight the Quiet (Let Me In EP) and Tonsil Yeti (A Bomb and a Bull).
Q: What is your favorite thing about being a musician?
A: Music is my passion. What keeps me musically driven is hearing some riff or solo and feeling the need to be able to play it and use those techniques in my own songs. It feels good to know when I can play something that one of my idols can.
Q: What are some recommendations for songwriting?
A: Songwriting is something that improves over time if you make a point of listening actively to music. Many listeners are passive, that is, they may sing along or bounce to their favorite track, but they don’t pay attention to the details. This is not a bad thing! I Listen passively to music quite often.
But I like listening actively to music as well in order to learn about what happened in the creation of the song: layers in the background, cool structure ideas, arrangements, kick and snare patterns, what’s the bass doing, why’d they decide to leave out the guitars and bass in the 2nd verse and just have drums and vocals? Stuff like that. Even though I’m not a drummer, I actually listen very closely to kick and snare patterns. The right pattern can really make the song drive, and I find that simple is almost always better. My advice to improve at songwriting: listen actively to many songs by different artists and take notes of their specific songwriting techniques, and keep writing your own songs. In your songs, try and use some of those techniques that you learned from your faves.
Q: What are your favorite artists and albums?
A: I have a great many artists and albums that I think are amazing, but here are some of my faves. Perhaps you can hear these influences in Taboo:
Favorite bands:
The top 5…
- Rush
- Pink Floyd
- Led Zeppelin
- Yes
- Dream Theater
others…
- Guns N Roses
- Blur
- Stone Temple Pilots
- Collective Soul
- Pearl Jam
- Soundgarden
- Queensrÿche
- Genesis
- Megadeth
- Metallica
- Deep Purple
- King Crimson
- The Mars Volta
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Rage Against the Machine
- The Kinks
- Kaiser Chiefs
- Eve6
- 311
- Weezer
Favorite guitarists:
- John Petrucci (Dream Theater)
- Alex Lifeson (Rush)
- Steve Howe (Yes)
- Slash (GnR, Velvet Revolver)
- Eddie Van Halen
- David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)
- Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)
- Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple)
- Mike McCready (Pearl Jam)
- Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine)
- Marty Friedman (Megadeth)
- Dean DeLeo (Stone Temple Pilots)
- Stevie Ray Vaughan
- Joe Satriani
- Chris DeGarmo (Queensrÿche)
- Graham Coxon (Blur)
Favorite drummers:
- Neil Peart (Rush)
- Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater)
- Bill Bruford (Yes)
- John Bonham (Led Zeppelin)
- Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
- Matt Cameron (Soundgarden; Pearl Jam)
- Nick Menza (Megadeth)
- Alex Van Halen
- Eric Kretz (Stone Temple Pilots)
- Dave Abbruzzese (Pearl Jam)
- Ian Paice (Deep Purple)
- Chad Sexton (311)
Favorite bassists:
- Geddy Lee (Rush)
- Chris Squire (Yes)
- John Myung (Dream Theater)
- Robert DeLeo (Stone Temple Pilots)
- John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin)
- Alex James (Blur)
- Tony Levin (King Crimson, Liquid Tension Experiment)
- Duff McKagan (Led Zeppelin, Velvet Revolver)
Favorite singers:
- Geddy Lee (Rush)
- Jon Anderson (Yes)
- Axl Rose (GnR)
- Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin)
- James LaBrie (Dream Theater)
- Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots)
- Damon Albarn (Blur)
- Dave Mustaine (Megadeth)
- Max Collins (Eve6)
- Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
- Sammy Hagar (Van Halen)
- David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)
- Nick Hexum (311)
Favorite albums:
- Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd, 1973)
- Power Windows (Rush, 1985)
- Close to the Edge (Yes, 1972)
- Awake (Dream Theater, 1994)
- Physical Graffiti (Led Zeppelin, 1975)
- Vs. (Pearl Jam, 1993)
- Parklife (Blur, 1994)
- Europa (Covenant, 1999)
- Superunknown (Soundgarden, 1994)
- Use Your Illusion I & II (Guns N Roses, 1991)
- Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop (Stone Temple Pilots, 1997)
- Empire (Queensrÿche, 1990)
- Youthanasia (Megadeth, 1994)
- Boston (Boston, 1976)
- One Hot Minute (Red Hot Chili Peppers, 1995)
- Dookie (Green Day, 1994)
- Skylarking (XTC, 1986)
- A Trick of the Tail (Genesis, 1976)
- Rocks (Aerosmith, 1976)
- Discipline (King Crimson, 1981)
- Chrome (Catherine Wheel, 1993)
- The 2nd Law (Muse, 2012)
- The Bedlam in Goliath (The Mars Volta, 2008)
- Balance (Van Halen, 1995)
Favorite songs (there are many others):
- Dancing Days (Led Zeppelin)
- Tom Sawyer (Rush)
- Voices (Dream Theater)
- Train of Consequences (Megadeth)
- Jet City Woman (Queensrÿche)
- Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd)
- Me Wise Magic (Van Halen)
- The Universal (Blur)
- Close to the Edge (Yes)
- Seagull (Bad Company)
- The Oaf (Big Wreck)
- Foreplay/Long Time (Boston)
- Dissident (Pearl Jam)
- My Mom (Eminem)
Most likely to be heard in Wargo’s car on road trips:
- The Division Bell (Pink Floyd, 1994)
- Counterparts (Rush, 1993)
- In Through the Out Door (Led Zeppelin, 1979)
- The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society (The Kinks, 1968)
- The Ladder (Yes, 1999)
- Horrorscope (Eve6, 2000)
- Blood Sugar Sex Magik (Red Hot Chili Peppers, 1991)
- Coverdale/Page (Jimmy Page & David Coverdale, 1993)
- The Future Is Medieval (Kaiser Chiefs, 2011)
Most likely to be heard in Wargo’s car on the way to work:
- Eminem
- Dr. Dre
- 50 Cent
(rap is a great way to start the day!)
Q: What the hell was Wargo listening to when he wrote this bio?
A: Sandinista! (The Clash, 1980)
Q: What gear does Wargo use/have?
A: …
Guitars:
- Carvin California Carved Top w/ Floyd Rose whammy
- 1980’s Epiphone SG
- 1976 Les Paul Black Beauty
- Fender Telecaster Deluxe (’72 Reissue)
- 1962 Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman
- Yamaha Classical Acoustic
- Seagull Acoustic
Amps:
- Peavey 5150 I
- Marshall TSL 300
Pedals:
- Digitech Whammy
- Dimebag Darrell Crybaby from Hell
- Ibanez Tube Screamer
- Boss GigaDelay
- Danelectro Free Speech Talk Box
- Boss Tremolo
- MXR 10-band EQ
- Boss Chorus Ensemble
(Setup is usually Wah, Whammy, Delay and Tube Screamer. Too many pedals and I’m looking at my feet…shoegazing!)
Q: Do you have any other interests?
A: I love hiking. I love movies that have great stories, great screenwriting, and great acting (The Empire Strikes Back is my fave of all time). I read a lot of books on theoretical physics. Try The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene; our cosmos is full of surprises.