Stefan only playing rhythm?

[Radagast]

Says in the last studio diary update that Stefan will be playing rhythm guitar only from now on.

Why's this? I'd always thought playing lead was one of the more interesting parts of making metal music? Having two lead players also adds a more variety to the sound does it not?

*Prepares to be blown away by a technical answer   *

[Stefan W]

Many guitarists prefer to play solos. Not me. Solos has allways been a neccesarry evil, somethng that has to be there.
Now as we have a guitarist that loves playing solos and really knows how to do it I think it´s better in all ways to leave that to him.

What I love with music is writing it and playing riffs.
So to sum it up I would rather call myself a composer than a guitarist.

[Radagast]

Cool, thanks for the reply. Sounds like you're quite similar to Wojtek Lisicki from Lost Horizon in regard to playing solos (probably with a much better attitude though, heh!).

[jakob_hasse]

Many guitarists prefer to play solos. Not me. Solos has allways been a neccesarry evil, somethng that has to be there.
Now as we have a guitarist that loves playing solos and really knows how to do it I think it´s better in all ways to leave that to him.

What I love with music is writing it and playing riffs.
So to sum it up I would rather call myself a composer than a guitarist.

What I don't understand is that I have at least six albums with you playing nothing but solos all the time... and not just the most necessary ones...
Many people think of those endless solos of Mithotyn and the early Falconer as your special touch...

Enlighten me, please!

[K. Beckman]

@ Jacob: It's a huge diffrence between playing solo and advanced melody. In solo there is much improvisation, but in a melody you know exactly what you play before you start.

[Stefan W]

Exactly, and melodies I still play.
For example: The opening thing in Mindtraveller and the melody that follows it later on in the song is melodies to me.
The thing that comes directly after the 2:nd chorus in Mindtraveller is a solo.

According to me Mithotyn only had about 5 solos.

So nothing will be taken from our sound, I still do many melodies BUT there will also be
fantastic solos.

[Radagast]

There seems to be a slightly different definition of solo for some people - I've never heard the term 'solo guitarist' used by non-Swedish bands. Lead and rhythm are the terms I'm more familiar with. Glad to hear Stefan will still be playing melodies.

[Prab]

The thing that comes directly after the 2:nd chorus in Mindtraveller is a solo.

And that's an amazing sounding one too

Stefan, as long as you're sticking with those unforgetable melodies it's cool, cause they're part of the soul of Falconer.
The new solos by Mr.Hedlund are something I'm very very curious about.

DAMN I'm really freakin out for the new album

[jakob_hasse]

Thanks for your replies.
I see now that there are different conpeptions of what a solo is.
As long as I get, what I want, then I don't care who's the whatever-guitarist...

Cool