JB. All my albums since Fifth Angel have been solo albums, but I assume that you are asking about this one because it was my last instrumental? Well, to start with -of course- 'Flying Beyond The 9' is not an instrumental album, it's a vocal album. 'Flying Beyond The 9' is different from all my previous albums in a number of ways. But to contrast it first to 'Son of Man', that album used many layers of guitar in the roles of what would otherwise be other instruments perhaps. 'Flying Beyond The 9' is the first album I've done which uses extended symphonic orchestration, yet features only a single guitar -for the most part- as a performance. 'Son of Man' was not specifically an album of 'Songs' per-se, but more of a conceptual note-book, with the guitar as it's only pen, apart from bass and drums. 'Flying Beyond The 9' uses from 70 to up to 90 tracks -Avianti Suite, the only non-vocal track on the album- of strings, horns, woodwinds, typmani, and piano to support the tracks, and the tracks are decidedly mid-tempo, and very much from a song writing discipline. 'Son of Man' was a Guitarist's album, and 'Flying Beyond The 9' is a Composers album, and was composed and produced to reach fans of progressive, intelligent rock who might not necessarily purchase instrumental guitar albums. I think 'Flying Beyond The 9' is a very balanced album, and if someone's never heard of me, or is not familiar with my work, and they heard it, it would probably strike them as a band, as opposed to the vision of one man, because of the perspective I had on this music; It does feature some very technical guitar playing, but it's within the songs, not the songs themselves.

JB There is no conscious effort to take a different approach to music due to the various album titles here. I don't contrive to go in a different direction, nor do I contrive to remain the same. I just compose and play the music as I feel it. I have never been stuck in a rut musically, and my catalog reflects different elements of my musical nature from beginning to end. I would probably be more known if I had embraced a very limited and repetitive approach to music, as many have. But I am very easily bored, and chose personal musical growth over making the same album over and over again. Naturally, when one doesn't make the same predictable albums, year after year, not everyone will like all the works equally. But I am very satisfied with being more creative and less repetitive, and my albums have tended to be albums which remain sought after for a long time, even though many of them were not promoted or widely available.

JB In a word, yes. Although this music has a lot of complexity in the underlying arrangements, the vocal melodies I've written are very easy to sing along with, and that is my intention with an album that was written and produced to be of interest to a wider audience.

JB I met him through Steve Benito, who was at one time in Heir Apparent. It's kind of funny that Michael ended up playing Whacken with Heir Apparent because he actually didn't have anything to do with Heir Apparent until he was nearly finished with recording 'Flying Beyond The 9' with me. Just before we finished the album, he asked me if I'd mind if he took a couple of weeks off to go to Europe to play those shows, and I said I didn't mind. I had called Steve Benito because I wanted to ask him if he'd be interested in working on the album, but he was more interested in his acting -I guess he's involved with theatre these days-. He told me about Michael, Michael sent me some of the music he'd been involved in, and I was very impressed with his abilities and gave him the job. He'll be singing on my next album too.

JB Brian is an incredibly versitile and knowledgeable musician. He's also a very good guitar player, and in fact plays some lead guitar on the latest Cairo album. Michael has been an inside studio session musician for decades, having worked on television and radio advertising, film scores, and also as an engineer. He's also been a technical consultant to the Bay Area band Cairo, and is head of ADK Microphone Corporation. He's been a real asset to my music and we continue to work together.

JB Yes, they are doing a very good job. 'Flying Beyond The 9' is getting better availability and promotion than all my Shrapnel releases combined, times a hundred. They came to me about the Jason Becker Tribute -Warmth in The Wilderness-, asked me if I'd play on it, and I said "Of course". About 2 weeks later, I sent them 3 songs from 'Flying Beyond The 9' -which was nearly finished- and they offered me a deal.

JB It's very gratifying when someone who's very talented, goes out of their way to say you're great.

JB I was very unhappy with the sound of Crimes of Virtuosity as delivered to JVC. I was so unhappy with it, I decided to completely re-mix the album literally days after it was sent in to JVC. I contacted them and told them "I'm re-mixing the album, I'm doing it out of my own pocket, please give me 2 weeks and I'll send you a much better sounding album". They would not wait, and released the first version. So Mascot records in Europe got the remixed version of the album. In the summer of 2000, I decided to put the album onto MP3.com because it had never had American distribution. One of the projects I had been working on in 1996, concurrent with Crimes of Virtuosity, was "Symphony for Electric Guitar and Orchestra". This was actually two years before Yngwie's "Concerto". It had 3 movements, and was in fact a concerto. The difference was, he had half a million dollars to finish his, and I ran out of funding after finishing the first movement. I had had the first movement sitting around gathering dust for 4 years, so I decided to include it as a bonus track on the MP3 version of 'Crimes of Virtuosity' since I had to leave one of the other tracks off of the album because it was a cover song -Heaven on Their Minds- from Jesus Christ Superstar. So that is how and why the third version of 'Crimes of Virtuosity' came to be.

JB It's critical.

JB Yes. I am a child of the early 1970's in terms of my rock influences.

JB Being annoyed a good deal of the time by certain people who were never committed to music as a lifetime vision, and having to constantly change improper harmonies -such as parallel fifths- so that they worked. I put in an incredible effort to get that band off the ground, and the way it turned out, made me decide to never rely on anyone again to fulfill a vision.

JB Nope.

JB Greg Howe, John Norum, Tony McAlpine, these are some very talented people. I can't deny that Shrapnel has exploited some incredible musicians. A few haven't been all too good, but I'm not a critic, I'd rather play than slag off other guitar players in the public square. As for the label, I wouldn't give them another one of my albums if they were the last label on earth. Their contracts are onerous, they don't follow the State laws, they don't pay what little they do owe -under the bad terms-, and they didn't promote or distribute beyond their own immediate ability to make a profit -at the artist's expense- . I can say nothing except stay away from them if you want to be well promoted and paid for your work. That may be a brutal statement, but they earned this press, so screw them. Believe me, I think many would also say the same thing, if they were not under contract to them and afraid of being "blacklisted". I don't give a rats ass, and when I've thought about it, any label who'd avoid working with someone because they complained about unfair treatment is not a label I'd want anything to do with anyway. Labels generally prefer artists who don't have a clue, and I suppose that does include many small labels -and certainly the major labels-, but this is the truth as I see it. Any musician who truly needs to get their music out there, can -and should- use the internet and do it themselves if that is their only choice. I was ready to just put out my new album myself, until Lion Music came along at the last hour, and so far, this label has kept every promise they've made and has been a very positive experience for me, especially after years of mistrust. It's renewed my faith in humanity actually. A label doesn't have to scam everyone to be profitable, and intuitively, everyone knows this in their heart. To treat an artist well is much smarter than to oppress them and try to gain every advantage. Lets face it, if the label does live up to their promises, an artist has no reason to go elsewhere, and the 'contract' becomes an agreement to agree, instead of a point of conflict. I don't owe another album to Lion Music on paper, but because they haven't abused the relationship, I am going to be working with them on the next album as well, and I actually feel positive about it instead of "stuck". Pretty cool for a changeJ .

Interviewed by Federico Marongiu

James Byrd´s Atlantis Rising - CD (1990)

Octoglomerate - CD (1993)

Son of Man - CD (1995)

The Apocalypse Chime - CD (1996)

Crimes of Virtuosity - CD (1997)

Creimes of Virtuosity - special 2000 edition

Flying beyond the 9 - CD (2001)