YNGWIE MALMSTEEN Says His 'Creativity Exploded' Once He Started Recording With Pro Tools

In a new interview with producer and YouTuber Rick Beato, legendary Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen was asked how making records has changed for him from the 1980s to today. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I used to hate going to the studio. I used to hate it. Even if you weren't inspired, you had to play. And if you made a mistake, you couldn't fix it. And if you fixed it, the new version could be worse. So it's a horrible psychological thing. It's terrible. But in 1995, I decided to take my recording advance and instead [of going] to Criteria [studios in Miami] — I love Criteria; don't get me wrong — I took that money that would have cost to go in there, and I had John Arthur, Chris Tsangarides and those guys design the studio and decide exactly what gear we were going to [put in there]… And that made a huge difference because I could go in there whenever I felt like it; there was no time running. And it was always ready. It wasn't, like, 'Oh, you've gotta set up the gear and then record.' But the most biggest difference, I think, was when I realized that when I came up with something spontaneously, I can record it right there and it can go on the record. Whereas before you would write something, record it on a little cassette recorder or something, go to a rehearsal room, knock it out, then go in the studio, put the drums down and you put the bass down and the guitars. 'But wait. I want 16 more bars here. Too late.' That is so not conducive to being creative."

Yngwie continued: "Finally, 15 years ago or something, I changed to Pro Tools. And I don't use Pro Tools as anything but a recorder; it's just a recorder. But when I realized, when my engineer said, I said to him, 'Hey, that chorus, how about if we [take] the chorus there a cappella, and put that in front of the song?' 'Okay.' 'Wow, that's cool. Let's put an end too.' And then, 'I want a different verse here. Let's move it here.' When I realized you could do that, my creativity just exploded. And it's still a real studio — it still has the wood floor and this big console and everything real. It's not like, 'Oh, yeah, let's make an album with a mouse now,' like some people do. I'm not knocking it. I'm just saying I can't do it."

On August 18, Yngwie and Glenn Hughes kicked off a co-headlining tour of the U.S. Malmsteen performed his "greatest hits" while Hughes played a set of classic DEEP PURPLE songs celebrating the 50th anniversary of the "Burn" album.

Yngwie's latest album, "Parabellum", was released in July 2021 via Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group. Only four of the songs on the LP feature vocals. The album title is Latin, translating as "Prepare For War".

After working with some of the top hard singers of the past four decades, Yngwie now handles much of the lead vocals himself in his own band, backed by a lineup that includes keyboardist Nick Marino, bassist Emilio Martinez and drummer Brian Wilson.

Back in 2021, Yngwie joked to the Beaver County Times about the mountainous wall of Marshall amplifiers and loudspeakers that he uses during his live performances: "They're the biggest Marshall stacks on earth. If you're at the International Space Station you can see two manmade objects — The Great Wall of China and my Marshall stacks."