I started playing the
Acoustic Guitar first. But soon I started noticing that other
sound, the sound of the Electric Guitar. It was on the radio, some
cheesy songs, they would have some beautiful solo. Or
the band "Smokey". I loved those guitar solos!
But the main stimulus was my
cousin Vlatko. He had just returned from New Zealand with his
parents where he used to work in Sony Record Production I believe.
It was in the early 80's. Vlatko brought numerous records with him.
Most of whom were soon at my record player. This was my introduction
to the world of Rock music: Led Zeppelin, Mountain, Deep Purple,
Cream, Peter Gabriel, Focus and many more.
This was the introduction into
the magic of the electric Guitar as well. I would play these records
listening carefully to the compositions, especially the guitar
passages. I wanted to be able to do the same! I wanted to buy an
Electric Guitar.
But since I was still in High
School, I didn't have any income. My father wasn't much keen to buy
me one. He was a trader, shop-owner: couldn't understand why people
need to have two instruments of the same sort.
So I decided to deliver
newspapers. I did it for three months, the whole school summer
vacation. Every morning I would wake up at 3am (or just didn't go
to bed at all), ride the bicycle and deliver those newspapers and
magazines. Finally, September (1979?) I bought this beautiful Jolana (Yolana), Czech made.
I still keep it.
I started discovering and
playing the Blues. People soon nicknamed me "Viktor Slowhand"
because I was imitating a lot of the style of Eric Clapton. Many
years later, in the Netherlands, I will receive another nickname:
Viktor Moore, by the similarity of Gary Moore's style.
~~~
I define myself as a guitarist.
But if I go in detail, I would I am an Electric Guitar player. I
just feel all the notes there, the soul of it - clean or distorted.
And if I go even further, I am a Blues Guitarist. This is the
primary fabric of my soul.
Funny, I am a music teacher,
but I never had a lesson myself. Simply, in the '70-80 in Skopje
there were no Rock Guitar teachers. So I was teaching myself from
tapes. I would be learning note by note from cassettes.
But I had difficulties hearing
the fast solo's. One day, I asked my friend Steve who was good in
electronics, would he be able to put a pitch wheel on my cassette
deck. He did it. Years later people started producing these kind of
casseste players massively. But when he brought back my cassete
player with that huge knob on the right, it was a joy. Now I could
learn these fast-solo's.
Now, as the speed would go
down, so the pitch would as well. Thus, I started tuning my guitar
for a few notes lower, in order to be able to learn a slowed-down
solo in the proper speed. Once I was ready, I would bring the tuning
and speed to its default.
~~~
Recording own ideas at that
time was not an easy task. There were two ways of doing it: play the
rhythm guitar on one cassete-deck, let that play and record the solo
on another cassete deck. Or ask a friend to play the rhythm guitar
and play the solo and eventually sing over, while recording on a
cassete deck. No multi-track recorders at that time, at least in my
surrounding.
When the Tremolo got popular, I
bought a Fender Square with Floyd Rose which I still use today. The
Tremolo allowed me to express all this Eastern Sadness which I carry
in me. Besides the Blues, of course:).
~~~
I remember when we had our
first "serious" concert. The band was called "Deposit", we had a
blonde female singer, we were trying to hit big time, basically.
That time I still played my old-fashioned Jolana of which I was a
bit ashamed. A friend of mine borrowed me a beautiful modern
electric guitar for that concert. Forgot what it was - it was
expensive and nice. I never played that guitar before the actual
concert so my fingers were frozen on it. I just couldn't deliver the
nuances I was able to deliver on my old Jolana. It was a huge
lesson.
~~~
I also remember a moment of
magic while I was living in the Netherlands. We used to play in a
Greek Restaurant. That evening I came home - I was a bit depressed.
It was '91-92, the war in Yugoslavia was going on, I never saw
myself as a restaurant player, we had a family living with us, I
couldn't get on well in the Netherlands... As soon as I came home, I
had my electric guitar in my hands, Before I even noticed, there was
a tune under my fingers, an instrumental tune. It was expressing all
the sadness I had in me - so beautifully and precisely. It was like
crying over one's fait. I called it Sadness for South (????
?? ???), the same title as a known
Macedonian poem from Konstanin Miladinov.
Electric Guitar
