Adrian Vandenberg on being “thrown into the Sodom and Gomorrah of Los Angeles” when he first joined Whitesnake in the ’80s
Former Whitesnake guitarist Adrian Vandenberg has described his first exposure to the Hollywood rock scene as being “thrown into the Sodom and Gomorrah of Los Angeles”.
In a recent chat with American Musical Supply, the Dutch musician looks back on his early days with Whitesnake – a gig he initially turned down multiple times – and the culture shock he experienced being in the heart of the LA rock machine in the ’80s.
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“It’s not necessarily when I joined Whitesnake, being in the band,” says Vandenberg [via Ultimate Guitar], “but [to] suddenly get thrown into this Hollywood thing coming, out of Holland, where everybody’s going [makes shredding sounds], you know? I wasn’t really aware of that, in Holland.”
The guitarist explains that he found himself out of sync with the prevailing ‘shredder’ culture of the time: “Because, up to this day, I still mainly listen to the musicians who inspire me, and that’s not really that many guitar players.”
“It’s violin players, saxophone players, and piano players; everybody who plays from the heart, and plays certain notes on certain spots, with a specific timing, that usually gets me,” he adds. “So, yeah, that guy suddenly [gets] thrown into the Sodom and Gomorrah of Los Angeles [laughs].”
Vandenberg, who shared guitar duties with Steve Vai in Whitesnake for a while, also reveals his fondness for bands with one guitar player, saying “That’s what I’ve always loved, because I like it when there’s air in between.”
“Like, you have a lot of bands that have at least two guitar players, and then a keyboard player, and to me, it becomes like a blanket that covers up the little air pockets,” he explains. “And I love those, because the bands that I always got a kick out of, even when I was about 14 or 15… When I heard the band Free for the first time, with Paul Rodgers, that band was full of air pockets.”
“So, whenever a snare drum, or a kick drum, or a chord, or something [hit], it came out of air, instead of kind of wrestling its way on top of a blanket of sound.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
