ION INDIE MAGAZINE March 2015, Volume 10 | Page 63

solo catalog, edited with multiple takes to give the image of him playing each instrument simultaneously.
When Tabor recently spoke to ION INDIE MAGAZINE, we decided to forego the usual guitar-heavy questioning, which has been
well-documented before in every guitar publication under the sun. Instead, we decided to dig a little deeper to get to know the
musician behind the instrument--the experiences that made him the musician he is today, and his thoughts behind his art.
Whether you know him from the big MTV videos like KING’S X’S 1990 “It’s Love”, his work with guys like keyboard ace DEREK
SHERINIAN and Sherinian’s ex-DREAM THEATER cohort, bassist JOHN MYUNG, or may never even have heard his name at all,
Tabor’s got a wealth of knowledge and experience to impart on the musically minded, and he does so here in wonderfully
cordial conversation. Tabor, as you’ll discover, always has several irons on the fire, and is an artist, while having experienced
success at the international level, very much embodies the independent musician’s outlook.
MU: As we're talking today, Ty, we just had the big NAMM convention finish up--I know you were out there this year. Are you a
frequent visitor to that event? What does that whole experience mean to you as a musician?
TT: I like to be. The past two or three years I haven't been able to go due to other conflicts. This year, luckily, I was able to go
again. It's really something I enjoy doing. I got to go out there to do some stuff with ORNAGE AMPLIFICATION--I got to do a
little signing, do some interviews, walked around and met a lot of people, saw a lot of old friends. It's a great time.
MU: I know a lot of people that make the trip out to California for the convention, and I always wondered what the experience
was like for a musician like yourself.
TT: Yeah. For me, it's--I'm trying to think of what I can compare
it to. It's basically the exact same thing as The Super Bowl for
a football player or football fan. Going to NAMM is the pinnacle
of seeing what the latest technology, improvements, and ideas
are from these companies. All of that gets unveiled at NAMM-they keep all of these things secret until NAMM to unveil their
line of products. It's like being in a candy store; you have no
idea what kind of wonders you're going to behold, but you
know it's going to be awesome. There will be a lot of really cool
innovations--there are almost too many, almost like overload.
It's very exciting, though, just to see how the industry is always
morphing and improving. That's the place you see it first-that's why I love being there.
MU: I have to ask you, I was checking some facts in your bio,
and I know you were born in Mississippi. I'm a big blues fan,
and I was curious if you had much of a blues exposure growing
up in there? You do have that bluesy element in your playing.
TT: Yeah, it was really an exposure to two different types of music that are blues-related; that's regular straight blues, and
bluegrass. Bluegrass is very bluesy--sometimes it's sped up, and when a lot of people think of bluegrass, they think of really
fast songs like "Beverly Hillbillies", or whatever. You know, finger picking, Earl Scruggs-type stuff--and a lot of bluegrass is
that type of classic stuff. But, a whole lot of bluegrass is total blues; I mean, really hard-times kind of music. I was exposed to
that a lot growing up--it was all around. I played bluegrass with my dad and my brother and some friends named the Paces.
Mr. Pace was my dad's best friend and his sons--we all did a lot of stuff together; we'd go hunting together, we played music
together, we'd get together on Friday nights and grab our guitars and banjos and mandolins, fiddles, harmonicas, everything
else. My dad would actually play a stand-up tub bass that he made from a broomstick and rope and a big washtub. He had
this perfect-sized instrument with books that he'd set underneath it to give it just the right tone. It's really funny, because
we'd go around doing shows with that thing and people loved it. But, that's where I was exposed to blues mostly, and, just