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| The Commander-In-Chief |
Featured in Europe's leading guitar magazine, Total Guitar Magazine, in February 2012 where they said "Make way for the Norwegian Queen of Shred. It's a sad fact that when you think of shred guitarists, the majority of them will be men. Enter The Commander-In-Chief, a seven-string-wielding über shredding female who's ready to melt faces and shatter stereotypes. This Norwegian Metal maiden has her eyes set to command and conquer the masses."
Confirmed for the prestigious Bloodstock Metal Festival 2012, UK.
She released her official Debut EP "EVOLUTION", produced by legendary engineer/ producer Sterling Winfield (Pantera, Hatebreed, Hellyeah), on February 15th 2012.
for t-shirts and other goodies visit her online store: http://www.thecommanderinchief.net/Store.aspxOfficial debut EP from this award nominated female 7 string guitarist/singer/songwriter. Produced by Sterling Winfield (Pantera) . Praised for her innovative and catchy songwriting, heavy riffs, impressive solos and a voice that is truly one of a kind.
Evolution: by The Commander-In-Chief
We caught up with the seven string shredder to give her Shreddelicious ten of the best... and this is what The Commander-In-Chief had to say!
[Shreddelicious] 1 When did you start playing guitar?
[The Commander-In-Chief]
I started playing in 2005, I had lots of ideas for songs and wanted to be a songwriter.
[Shreddelicious] 2 What made you decide to take guitar seriously?
[The Commander-In-Chief]
I was tired of doing visual arts and spent a year thinking about whether or not I wanted to invest my time in learning an instrument.
When I got my first guitar it was the first time I even held a guitar in my hands. I had never even tried playing the instrument. I just made up my mind I wanted to be a guitarist. That was the attitude I had when I picked up the instrument. When I then moved away from Norway to Chicago, my attitude was like: well, I spent all these hours learning how to play I can't stop now, then all those hours would just have been a waste.
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| The Commander-In-Chief surveying the shred battle-lines |
[The Commander-In-Chief]
I always keep on talking about the Randy Rhoads tribute album, it has the perfect balance of great solos and great riffs.
When I started out playing I would listen to the radio and try to play songs by ear.
Learning how to play, by playing music by bands such as Misfits, the Ramones, Sex Pistols and Nirvana is a good place to start. You can easily start a band, write songs and start performing as long as you have the power chord down.
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| The Commander-In-Chief advances to take shred ground! |
[The Commander-In-Chief]
I deleted all my personal social media profiles in 2008, it's soo easy to pretend to be something you are not online. Anyone can upload a pic and pretend to be something else. I personally prefer to meet people face-to-face. But you have to use social media, no matter what you sell/promote in todays world. I have all the sites I need as The Commander-In-Chief.
You get free exposure, you have access to the whole world, so you don't have to travel from country to country to get your music out there. Everyone can find you online, it's a lot of work to do it right. But everything I got, comes from social media.
All the contacts my manager have all come from networking in social media. Thats where everything happens these days.
Thats just how the world is at this point.
[Shreddelicious] 5 If you had a chance to play with anyone who would you pick?
[The Commander-In-Chief]
I really like Jefferson Airplane and Fleetwood Mac. I'm also I big fan of Hank Marvin, Pink Floyd and Dire Straits... If I could pick someone to play with it would probably be Jimi Hendrix, Syd Barret, Janis Joplin and James Brown.
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| Solo in "Famous". May 24th 2012. photo Mike Davis |
[The Commander-In-Chief]
I hate it if the inn-ears stop working, I've also started out a set forgetting to turn on some of the gear. I also hate it when the mike stand is all fucked, and you end up fighting with it through the set, it as if you are into some strange waltz or something.
The worst experiences I've had, were those gigs I had before I got my own sound guy...having musicians in the band who boost their own instruments and are on some weird kind of ego trip is also annoying. This is a good reason to be given the boot if you want to be in my band.
"Dropout" by The Commander-In-Chief
[Shreddelicious] 7 How do record yo
[The Commander-In-Chief]
I'm not a fan of home videos, but that's what you have to do, if you don't have a big budget. I never used my YouTube until August 2011, that's when I put my first single out. All of a sudden my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/thecommanderinchief1 became one of the most important promo tools I had, and I was offered adds on my films as well. I thought that was awesome!!
My manager is always the paparazzi... she films a lot... most of it to document that I'm actually playing and that I actually CAN do what I do in the studio live. It's like evidence of my skills as a musician. I can add that my manager filmed every rehearsal and daily sessions I have with my drummer for years and we used to look back at some of it together to analyse, learn and see what to improve. She picked that up from how top athletes work and it is very useful... So yeah, there are a lot of hours of footage of me that will never be on-line... LOL
It was also my manager that told me we should have a video interview on my YouTube channel...I was like, what for?? I couldn't see why anyone would find that any interesting... but she was right... I got over 6000 views on that thing..
The Commander-In-Chief 1st official video interview
[Shreddelicious] 8 What do you think of illegal music downloading?
[The Commander-In-Chief]
It's a slap in the face to the songwriter. A lot of people hate record labels and hail the idea of an independent artist. Well if that's the attitude, you have to pay to keep the unsigned artist alive.
Music/art will never die, you can't kill creativity. But will the art of the future reach people???
It must be amazing to be a movie director, songwriter, costume designer or anything creative really and to have financial backing from a major corporation. I think people have such a hippie relationship to the entertainment industry that they don't want to accept that money dominates everything.
Quality costs!
[Shreddelicious] 9 Can you tell us a bit about your Guitars and Amps?
[The Commander-In-Chief]
I was never spoiled when it came to gear. That's why I'm so happy every time I get a new endorsement!!!
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| The Commander-In-Chief with green Falchion |
Amp wise I endorsed the Laney Ironheart some months ago. I think the amp is really killer, I've been using it live since April and will use it on Bloodstock. Apart from that I announced an Audix mic endorsement this week, which I am very happy about! I also endorse Presonus, Seymour Duncan guitar pickups, Ernie Ball strings and Jim Dunlop guitar picks. And I am about to announce which guitar straps I endorse.
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| Producer Sterling Winfield and myself with the January 2012 Metal Hammer issue - featuring ME! |
Commander-In-Chief and Sterling Winfield in studio
[Shreddelicious] 10 Can you tell us about your latest recording?
[The Commander-In-Chief]
The EP was produced by Sterling Winfield, who is legendary for his extensive work with Pantera and other great bands. We had the same mission when we went into the studio; to do a totally organic recording, which is almost unheard of in Metal. We achieved that and it is NO Autotune and NO Protools magic at all on that EP.
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How we sat and worked in studio; my manager Elisabeth Hagen, producer Sterling Winfield, 2nd engineer James Mottershead and me playing my Falchion 7 — with Elisabeth Hagen, Sterling Winfieldand James R Mottershead. |
Everything is the way it was played and sang, by me, the drummer and bassist, something we are all damn proud of! It was released in mid February digitally and it got some kick-ass reviews. My EP Evolution can be bought from iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon and most other on line stores. There are links on all my sites on line and the songs can be streamed on my FB page/music store. A lot of people have asked for physical copies and you can get that through the Pledge Music campaign I just kicked off!
The Commander-In-Chief kicks off her cooperation with MusicPledge!
I want to end by thanking you for all your support and for always posting my latest news on line! I really appreciate it
[Important Web Links]
http://www.facebook.com/thecommanderinchiefmusic
http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/thecommanderinchief
http://www.youtube.com/thecommanderinchief1
http://www.twitter.com/commandermusic
http://www.reverbnation.com/thecommanderinchief
http://www.thecommanderinchief.net
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