Babis Tyropoulos belongs to the elite of Greek guitarists. Having travelled all over the world and collaborated with numerous renowned musicians, Tyropoulos is a virtuoso who knows how to express himself through his guitar. Ahead of his appearance at Guitar Experience vol. 4 on November 8th at Black Temple in Athens, Myth of Rock talks with Babis about guitar playing, creativity, improvisation and the importance of sincerity in music. Let there be guitar!
by Dimitris Zacharopoulos
Do you believe a guitarist needs great technical skills to create something that really moves people?
I don’t believe so. One can master all the techniques, but as you touch another human soul, be just another human soul. What we are as people is what moves people.
How important are your personal experiences, emotions and memories when you write or improvise music?
Most important. Our music can be nothing more and nothing less than what we are as people.
Blues, rock, funk, jazz, instrumental music, all meet in your musical worlds. How important is it for you to keep experimenting instead of staying inside one genre?
Music is alive and therefore does not fit into labels which serve mainly as marketing plots anyway. Trying to stay in one genre is like thinking about how you are going to name the baby while you are making love.
What makes a great guitar solo for you? Is it technique, tone, feeling, melody or something completely different?
A clear incentive to express ‘the imponderables’ with sincerity and abandon.
You have all played with many different musicians and in very different environments. What have other musicians taught you about playing the guitar that you could never have learned alone?
Everything really.
Gear is obviously an important part of the guitarist’s world. How much does the right guitar, amplifier or effects setup affect your creativity and your playing?
Truth be told, not much. It is usually our ego getting in the way, not the gear. Coltrane once said you can play a shoestring if you are sincere.
If the three of you had to create one song together, what would you like it to sound like? Would it be blues, rock, funk, something completely different—or all of these together? Hopefully we’ll get to create something together on the 8th of November. I have no idea how it will sound like but I can’t wait to hear it.
Why should Greek fans not miss the Guitar Experience vol. 4 event? Send a message to them!
If nothing else, gifts will be drawn!
