Interview: TREASURE LAND (Jonas)
Hi dear Jonas, how are you doing? I send my best wishes to you in Sweden. Hope all is well and
i have got a few interview questions for you. So let us start here....
1. Please introduce your and your band Treasure Land to us.
Jonas: I’m Jonas Hörnqvist, one of the founding members of Swedish progmetal band Treasure Land. My brother and I put Treasure Land together in 1993.
We’ve released a couple of cds for the German label Noise/Modern Music, “Questions” and “Gateway”. We also articipated on two tribute cds “Power from the north-Sweden rocks the world” and also “A guitar odyssey-A tribute to Yngwie J Malmsteen. The band has gone through a lot of changes, members have been replaced, and the music has become more progressive and darker. It’s hard to keep a band together these days, but I love metal music so much that I’m willing to go through some shit to get where I want.
2. Jonas, Last year you released your guitar book called "Solo techniques for electric guitar". Please tell us something about when you first had the idea of writing such a book and please also tell us where you got your inspiration to write such kinda book.
Jonas: The main reason really was that I was tired of always recommending guitar books from the US, UK or any other country to my guitars students when they wanted to buy a book about guitar techniques. This is the first book ever in Swedish that really shows you how to become more techniqual and fluent in your playing. The book is not only filled with speed exercises, I show what the exercise will sound like in a band context. You’ll also learn theory, scales, chords and so forth and how to use it in a musical way. It’s so easy nowadays to download tablatures off the Internet, or watch guitar videos on youtube of someone teaching guitar technique, but to me that’s a pitfall. Unfortunately, a lot of the tablatures are transcribed wrong which leads to that it will be played wrongly. And a lot of these youtube teachers don’t have a clue what they are talking about regarding how to practice guitar, what tools to use. My book covers those areas and more.
As to where I got inspiration to write the exercises I would say music and students. I listen to jazz, fusion, reggae, classical, pop, rock, metal, thrash metal and so on and there’s a goldmine of techniques, chord progressions, sounds…to explore if you just dig in. And since I’ve been teaching over 20 years, I know what kind of exercises that will work for the students.
3. What’s the main topic of this book - What will people learn from it? Is it for beginners or advanced person? Do you already think about releasing another book in the near future?
Jonas: The main topic is how to become more techniqual. If you want to learn how to play like Yngwie Malmsteen, Alex Laiho, Al Di Meola, Kirk Hammet, Paul Gilbert, this book is for you even though the exercises are on a high level, any guitar player that have played a while can use it. The response I’ve gotten from people who have bought my book is almost unreal. It’s a top seller in Scandinavia which I’m quite pleased with.I’ve just completed my second guitar book; this book is written for blues rock guitar players. It will be released in 2010! I will also release a series of instructional DVDs for guitar players. The first one should be out next summer.
4. What’s your band doing at the moment? Have you got many concerts to play at the moment?
Jonas: We’re writing new songs. No shows booked at the moment.
5. I saw that you got an advertisement on your bands myspace site...voting Treasure Land to play Sweden Rock Festival 2009.... And....did it work out?
Jonas: I’m afraid not. I believe the main reason is that we entered the contest too late.
6. Jonas, also you are giving guitar lessons worldwide. How do you do that? I imagine that it isn’t an easy subject... please tell me your secret of managing this.
Jonas: Well, I’ve been giving guitar lessons over the internet since 2001 and it works great. The student tells me what he wants to learn, I then write him the lessons and after payment is done I send him the first lesson. The lesson contains a pdf file + mp3 files so the students can see all exercises in score/tablature/fingerings/picking technique and listens to the exercises with the mp3 files. I have students in USA, Italy, France, Germany, Norway and Sweden of course. There’s no secret to this, but you have to be passionate about it. If you’re not passionate about teaching and learning, don’t do it! I put in a lot of hours of hard work for every lesson I write because I want the student to learn how to play this beautiful instrument. My Swedish teaching site: http://www.gitarronline.se
7. You are working a lot so you also recorded together with ex-Anthrax shouter Neil Turbin and his Deathriders. So what exactly was your part playing for Neils band?
Jonas: Me and Neil have written most songs for their upcoming CD entitled “Back with a vengeance” together. Neil is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. We’re on the same level not only it comes to what the songs should sound like but life in general. We share a lot of the same taste in music which is really helpful if you’re working together! People will freak out when they hear this cd, killer songs, killer vocals, killer guitars…Listen here: http://www.myspace.com/deathriders
8. What are the next things you and our band are looking forward to do? I mean touring, new recordings, touring.... other stuff?
Jonas: World domination ;)
9. Do the members of Treasure Land have other musical projects in addition to Treasure Land?
Jonas: My brother and I have a little project going on; we’ll see what that leads to. I do some session work from time to time. I also do guitar clinics but other than that me and the other guys stick to Treasure Land.
10.Last but not least please leave a friendly message for all your friends and fans.
Jonas: First of all, thank you for this interview. It was a real pleasure! And I would also like to thank all of you who kept supporting us through the years, you rock!
There are a lot of things in store, a new Treasure Land cd, my first instrumental cd, more guitar books, dvds...
Check out http://www.myspace.com/treasureland http://www.myspace.com/jonashornqvist and also http://www.jonashornqvist.com
Jonas, thank you so much for taking the time answering these questions. You rock.
Talk soon, Susi
Jonas: Thank you Susi!
© 11/ 2009 by Rocket Queen *Promotion*