LaGuitare.com : Could you tell me more about you ? Who you are, when you started guitar, your influences etc.

Chris Mike : Of course I can ! First of all, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. My name is Chris Mike, real name Chris Michalis and I'm a guitarist and solo artist from Greece. Besides my solo career, I'm the guitar player of a progressive metal band called Parthian Shot.(www.parthianshotband.gr). I'm also working as a session musician for the last 8 years. As long as I can remember I started playing the guitar at the age of 12. Because in my family there was a lot of music going on in the house, from the early years of my life I started listening to rock music and bands like the Beatles, Rolling Stones and later on the Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

When I started playing the guitar I remember being so frustrated at not being able to switch chords quickly and without any noise. I think the best lessons I ever took was by listening more and more closely to all of these records and songs trying to figured all that stuff out how are been played on the guitar. You build a specific and very important aspect of your playing when you are trying to play a song or a solo by ear.

You can either learn to play a solo from another instrument like trumpet or sax. You build your musical knowledge and ability to go deep into the music you're playing. It's not only notes in a paper. It's all about sound and feel.

You ear can't do wrong, but your hands can. At that point was the time for me to concentrate more on my technique in order to be able to play anything I hear in my head and freely express myself in any way I can. I still practice but not so much as those early years. I think a lot of people would be appalled to learn how little time you get alone with your instrument when you're a professional musician. There's always something else going on. I would name 6 guitar players and also musicians that influenced my playing throughout the years. Sort by date: Jimi Hendrix, Brian May, David Gilmour, Steve Vai, John Petrucci and of course, last but not least, Guthrie Govan.

LaGuitare.com : What are your hobbies and interests away from guitar ?

First of all I have to say that playing the guitar, performing live concerts and composing music is not a hobby anymore for me. Is a full time job now and I spent most of my time doing something related to music, the guitar and the promotion of my work. But all this process is giving me joy and fulfilment so I can't complain about that. I would say that these days the rest of my time that I'm not dealing with those things I'm going out with my friends, play tennis and watch tv series.

LaGuitare.com : "Not Just Lipstick on a Pig"… What does it mean ?

Ok, this is a question I'm getting asked a lot and I was pretty sure that was going to happen after the release. Hahahaha. This is a term used by many, generally in reference to someone who may be trying to make something look appealing when it quite clearly will not work.

So I took this term a little bit further, to a relation with my music. In that way the title of my album ''Not just lipstick on a pig'' means that everything in this album is really honest and I tried not to get stack on a specific music style or genre. I wanted people to see what I'm capable of doing. And this is the beauty of instrumental music. I think that is not a problem to have the will and ability to play different styles of music. Music is a language and the different styles are related to each other.

LaGuitare.com : I'd like you to tell me how it feels to be a Candyrat artists.

I am feeling very happy and blessed for what is happening right now in my life. Candyrat Records (www.candyrat.com) is a record label well-known for featuring many great musicians all over the world. Their Youtube channel has 270000 subscribers and over 250 million views.

The most important thing is that their mission is focused on releasing music of exceptional modern-day composition and they sign and develop extraordinary artists when they see talent and future potential from their side.

So I'm really thankful for that. They show trust and love to me in what I'm doing and what I will try to do in the future. Each day I'm learning and discovering lot of things that I didn't know in music business until now. Like emailing and talking with guitar magazines, guitar companies and promoters at the States and also in Europe.

LaGuitare.com : What was your feeling when your first album was finally available ?

There is this feeling of excitement and anticipation of what is going to happen. And of course a little bit of anxiety, but generally, the day when the album was going to be released came, I had that feeling like I worked really hard on something and I just can't wait to share it with the world. That's what it's all about: sharing it and having that experience with the listeners. I'm really lucky to have it now. After this, i think playing my album live and see how the fans react to my music in the live enviroment is the greatest feeling of all.

LaGuitare.com : Describe your album.

I think the overall vibe that the album has is a heavy rock instrumental music, blended with progressive fusion elements combined with catchy grooves. I didn't try to focus only on chops and technique. Yes, there many extreme technically demanding solos in there but just because something is very technical doesn't mean that it's not melodic. That's why, on the other hand, you can hear in the album really soulful and full of emotion songs like "The truth in me" and "You".

I wanted to make sure that I created something that was going to assure my future fans that I'm here to stay and that I will move forward in a positive way. So the album has songs that anyone can relate to. In some of the solos I wanted to capture the vibe of playing live and improvising.

To really capture the energy of my playing and to be as 'honest' and 'true' as I can. To 'expose' my personality and feelings that I had back then when I was recording a particular song. Basically a lot of focus in the album was put on the melodic structure and content in order to make songs that will reach as many people as they can, because I think at the end of the day that's the goal everything musician or band has.

LaGuitare.com :Do you explore many tunings ?

In this album I didn't. The whole album was written in standard tuning. But I have some ideas for my next album that are going to have a 7-string electric guitar and some solo guitar acoustic songs that will have different tunings.

LaGuitare.com : Your first album is dedicated to electric guitar. Why ?

I think that the electric guitar is a magnificent instrument to play. In relation to the acoustic and classical ones, which are also really great instruments and there are some exceptional guitarists out there using them, in the electric guitar there are so many possibilities to explore and so many techniques to incoporate at any moment you like. I grew up hearing and watching electric guitar players perform every day. This influenced my style and personality and what king of musician i wanted to be. But these days I play a lot of acoustic guitar also and I decided to further develop my technique on it. That's why I want to have some acoustic guitar based songs in my next album. Will see what happens!

LaGuitare.com : Could you describe the creative process of being an instrumental composer ?

As a composer I'm constantly working on new original material so there are always lots of new original songs being worked on for my solo work and for my band Parthian Shot. I think playing and composing instrumental music is really challenging. Creating music with lyrics and vocal melody lines is a bit easier. You can convey a specific emotion.

With a guitar, you have to do it without words and try to paint the whole picture sonically. The room for growth and expression on the guitar is really big and all guitar players should take advantage of it. Most of the ideas come from improvisation. Just play with the record button on. Sometimes it is a melody, sometimes a chord pattern or a rhythm pattern.

After that when the structure of the song is finally done I would learn the bits I liked from the improvised part and compose parts to go along with it to make one really meaningful piece of music.

LaGuitare.com : "You" is a beautiful song… But who is "You" ?

The song ''You'' is for my father! He is the one that gave me the first lesson on the guitar, bought me rock albums to listen to and generally got me into music and guitar playing. So I owe to him a lot. He is responsible for what I am now as a person and artist. So this song is for him. The song is now also available on Candyrat's YouTube channel. Enjoy the live video performance of it (See above). Feel free to share it if you like. Thanks again Charles and La Guitare for all. I appreciate it a lot. I am hoping all the best. Cheers...

Charles-Henri G.D. - december 4th 2013 - http://www.candyrat.com/