"I believe that all our purposes are interconnected," Alex Skolnick tells me on the phone a few hours before a Testament show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "Whatever the purpose of each of us is, they are all connected with one another."

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With Skolnick, this intuition for relationships between things is not a mere gift for insight, but an active creative approach that inspired this pioneer of thrash to spend his entire career seeking out new outlets for his eclectic interests – a journey that took him from rock stardom to explorations of genres as varied as funk, jazz, and musical theatre, and most recently brought him back again to his heavy metal roots.

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Sounding positively pleased to be touring the world with his old band, in support of their thriving new album The Formation of Damnation after 13 years away, he says he finds the metal scene a lot different these days. “I feel like there is a lot more diversity now,” he says. “You see more groups, more variety, more female fans, more things that don’t fit the stereotype. And I perfectly appreciate that because one of the things that has always bothered me was the stereotypes. I like diversity—whether it’s in the musical taste or social diversity. And I think there is a lot more of that now, and metal is taking on new characteristics. I think it’s a much better time to be playing metal right now.”

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Skolnick himself now plays a noticeable part in widening the boundaries of the genre, contributing to its recently acquired respectability in a completely new, cliché-defying way. This, of course, is the result of him turning to jazz after quitting Testament all those years back in 1992, and embarking on a long creative journey, which ten years later resulted in a complete reinvention of himself as a musician. Invaluable musical knowledge gained through years of formal and informal study of jazz, putting out jazz records, and playing jazz live, now allows him to escape the usual trappings of old rock formulas and gives a fresh lift to the Testament catalogue. Skolnick says that these days he finds himself approaching Testament's old material from a completely different angle when playing live.

 

“It’s funny,” he says, “because so many people come up to me and say, ‘We can totally recognize the solos from the record, thank you for keeping it this way’, and I tell them, ‘You know what, to me this is nothing like the record’.” He then breaks into a laugh and continues: “I do try to capture the melodic quality, but if you listen closely, I change a lot of things around. I add embellishments and variations I would never have done before. When I was younger, we would record the solo and I would learn it for the tour, and I would try to stick to it. Now from my experience of playing in different styles, which is mostly jazz, and which is so musically challenging, it feels much more effortless now. There is much more room for creativity within the solos without losing the recognizable quality of them.”

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Skolnick’s fascination with jazz goes back to the early days of his career, when as an 19 year-old rising metal star, he suddenly became enraptured by one of Miles Davis’s electric band performances caught on TV in 1988. His growing interest in opening to new sensations and new musical experiences, in the end, found a clear, self-assuredly cohesive expression on his first jazz record entitled Goodbye To Romance: Standards For a New Generation, released in 2002 by the band he formed some years after parting ways with Testament—the Alex Skolnick Trio. The roots of AST are to be found at the New School University in New York where Skolnick studied jazz and composition graduating with a BfA in 2001. Drafting in two of his fellow students to partake in his new project, Skolnick came up with a lucid and confidently eloquent, focused album which gave surprisingly thoughtful jazz interpretations to rock and heavy metal classics. Jazz critics were impressed by the caliber of Skolnick’s craft, his bona fide jazz sensibility, and his willingness to experiment structurally with the material at hand, as well as by the beauty of the melodies few on the jazz scene expected from rock.   

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While the first AST record consisted nearly exclusively of covers, the one that followed it, Transformation already featured six original tracks. Then their latest 2007 album, Last Day In Paradise, surprised fans and critics with material that was almost entirely original. It is an uplifting, vibrant record, a testimony to continuous growth of Skolnick’s vision, as well as his unflagging rigour of purpose that defines his expansive but at the same time nuanced approach to jazz. On tracks written by Skolnick, delicate, languorous melodies are enriched by poised details of texture and dynamics, while on covers of Testament’s “Practice What You Preach” and Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” latin and rock-inspired grooves swirl in and out of each other, giving a completely new, thoroughly unique interpretation to rock's classics. Matt Zebroski on the drums and Nathan Peck on the bass together with Alex’s virtuosic guitar create a dynamic, but at the same time, mindful atmosphere with the balance of energies so exquisite they send the listener straight into smooth jazz levitation.

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Asked if certain music styles can influence a musician’s general disposition or frame of mind, Skolnick says that he believes they can. “Hopefully it also influences the listener’s disposition and frame of mind as well,” he adds. “One of the things about the improvised music is that you have to pay closer attention to it. It’s not in your face. There are other musical forms that are in your face. Metal—it just comes out and grabs you, you can’t miss it. Hip hop is the same way. And then there are other forms. Improvisation, jazz improvisation is one of those. You have to put a little more effort into it. It takes a little more concentration and focus from the listener. It’s not just gonna come out and scream at you. And just because of that process it definitely puts you in a different frame of mind whether you are a musician or a listener.”

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Rejection of empty riffing and extension of rock's melodies in a spacious, expanded way is how Skolnick approaches these covers, demonstrating that as a jazz musician he now recognises something deeper in rock, a not-so-obvious quality to this genre that might have escaped him when he was younger. I ask him how much of the rock impetus he is prepared to surrender to jazz when playing rock covers and how much he feels still has to be retained. In other words, where does he draw the line? “I really try to forget about the rock part of it sonically,” he replies. “I try only to concentrate on the melody. I know these songs so well. I think that’s one of the reasons why people have responded so well to it. I know these songs; these songs are in the back of my head. But it’s really more about capturing what I like about jazz. To bring that to these songs, to combine it. But then there could be certain moods for certain sections of songs which are inspired by the original. And maybe the original has a bridge that becomes very energetic and will kind of increase the energy, but in a different way. I think I am conscious of the original but not overly concerned with that.”

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Knowing that his alma mater, New School University in NYC, is renowned for its highly intellectual atmosphere, I wonder in what ways Skolnick was influenced by it, if at all. He tells me that with both of his parents being on the faculty of UC Berkeley, when growing up he was naturally expected to study there. “But I was very put off by it,” he tells me, “because what I saw there was obnoxious frat boys. I went to a couple of parties where frat guys hated metalheads. And that was my view of college. And my parents, being academics, obviously were horrified that I was joining a metal band. So metal was a big part of my escape plan. It was strange, years later, to find myself enrolling in a university. In a way it was exactly what I ran away from when I was younger.”

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Skolnick’s aversion to the pre-grad UC Berkeley ethos, its emphasis on the sports and the rule of frats went on to influence his choice of university all those years later. “I realised that universities in New York are very different,” he says. “It’s not about the college scene, it’s not about football, it’s not about frats, that’s the big difference. Of course, UC Berkeley is very intellectual and it’s about enlightenment and education, but you don’t really get that in the first four years. So in New York, realising that there are universities which are actually about learning was great. And then to be studying music, and to be in a situation where music is important, how cool is that?”

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He then talks about his music teachers at the New School, admitting that some were truly inspiring. “I’ve had a lot of amazing teachers,” he says, “who were really appreciative that this guy from a metal band would actually come and recognise the value of their music. And I was really humbled. Nobody knew what to expect, and it actually worked out really good. And there was one teacher who made me feel like I was three feet tall. It was just his style. I heard about music teachers who just ripped everyone apart and would just chew and spit you out, and I never had one like that. And it was interesting. He taught me some of the most valuable things I’ve ever heard about music. Made me think about music in a whole new way. And that’s how I’m playing now and how I am performing now, even with Testament.”

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I ask him if playing jazz had influenced the way he feels about the world in general or if he still remains more or less the same person as before. Skolnick replies that it probably did change him a bit. “It definitely changes your frame of mind,” he says. “It also puts you in touch with different types of listeners and different types of people socially. There is generally a different mentality to listening to jazz and because of that suddenly you have this connection, getting in touch with people that you may not have gotten in touch otherwise. As far as my view of the world, I guess part of it to me was that it just opened up a lot. I realised wow, the music is so diverse, and jazz is such a broad category, within it there are so many other influences. I just love it, and I love the diversity of it. At the same time, I did encounter some jazz fans and critics that had qualities that turned me off from metal initially. Not metal in general, but just the stubborn metal fans. There are some stubborn metal fans and critics and there some stubborn jazz people as well, and you’d actually be surprised how much they have in common. Even though they share stubbornness about very different things, very different styles. That exists in all types of music.”

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With Skolnick’s projects often bringing together diametrically opposed styles, but at the same time not eliminating anyone from enjoying the music, I wonder how he feels about hostilities towards other genres inherent in all music camps. He tells me he feels that the attitudes are gradually changing. “I am finding more and more people opening up,” he says. “I’m meeting fans at shows that definitely look like metalheads but they’ve checked out the jazz CDs I’ve got. Or heavy metal-looking guys that have not only checked out my stuff, but they have a whole collection of jazz, and they know what they are talking about. And they are on a watch stand, they watch people’s development. And having to play a role in that is really, really cool.”           

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Skolnick’s interest in interpreting other people’s music surfaced as early as the mid-'90s, a time when he played funk covers of cop movie themes with his then-project Skol Patrol. Later this interest in playing outside material developed further, not only on the covers he played with AST, but also his other projects, like his performance on the Jeckyll and Hyde soundtrack album written by Frank Wildhorne, released in 2006 on Koch Records. "I just have a knack for it, I guess," he says. "To me it comes very naturally. When I hear the music I like, I can hear different variations on it. I just imagine another song over it. Or I'll be playing a song and I just can imagine a completely different arrangement. And as far as Jeckyll and Hyde goes, and playing lesser known sessions, people just ask me to come up with stuff. To come up with a bunch of ideas for their music, and then we stumble upon the one that we like, and that's what we've got. I enjoy that." Being asked what qualities are essential in a musician to be able to play other people's material successfully, he says that the key is being diverse. "You have to be open to many different styles. And know how to play them. Because that way you just have a lot to bring to the table. Being open to different styles will enable you to do something different with somebody else's song. Instead of just sticking with the original style."

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It seems that being receptive to different manifestations of music and constantly pushing the musical envelope for Skolnick is a direct expression of life—real life lived to the full. And in his desire to explore the widest range of musical possibilities, these days he is totally unselfish and flexible. Playing with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, (a rock orchestra founded in 1996 which plays in a style incorporating progressive rock, symphonic metal, and classical influences) was the experience he says helped him develop qualities of a real team player. "I used to play with Testament and wait for my solo, and now I don't think about it," he says. "When I'm not playing a solo, guess what, I'm still playing. I'm supporting the vocals. or somebody else's solo. In a big situation like that, it's about the end result, about being a team player, and really putting your own ego aside. Because it's not always about you. I think that both playing in a jazz ensemble and playing in TSO has really strengthened that quality."

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Rock culture being vastly different from that of big orchestras, playing with TSO became an entirely new situation for Skolnick in other ways too. "I've never worked in a situation with these types of musicians," he says. "There was so much diversity—there are classical string players, there's obviously something like a rock band, there are singers that come from the Broadway world, from the R'n'B world, the rock world, and it all works together. And seeing how musical directors work, especially my musical director, a guy named Bob Kinkel, just to see how he runs the ensemble, taking care of the people and any issues that may come up, was amazing."

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Despite that fact, that these days Skolnick has the freedom of being whoever he chooses to be—one day a rock star playing to huge crowds of metal fans, the next performing to jazz connoisseurs in clubs, and after that, perhaps finding himself on a theatre stage. He says that while he enjoys the current situation, he remains open to new things to come within his range of interest. "I am open to all possibilities," he says. "It depends on what comes up. Right now I feel like I have my hands full, so I'm enjoying the balance I have."

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Still, whatever musical style he chooses to adopt, or whatever projects he becomes involved in, Skolnick’s playing continues to bear that distinct stamp of a real thing - a combination of thinking and feeling that defines all musicians of true conviction. Conviction, receptivity, and readiness to accept new challenges are things that make him an authentic musician who discards vanity and empty ambition in favour of growth and innovation. This also makes Alex Skolnick a thoroughly American artist—a pioneer, an explorer, and a risk-taker, who changes our understanding of conventions and stays a natural champion of all new creative possibilities with a future.

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While huge crowds are gathering to watch Testament play live these days, a growing number of people—regardless of their stylistic preferences—want to see Skolnick play less hyped but equally moving music, showing that for the modern listener an innovator can have as much appeal as a legend. And what explains this success of Alex Skolnick’s expansive stance is the fact that with him innovation stays rooted in the tradition, allowing all things, in the end, to remain connected.