|  Mike
Spitzer was Yngwie's manager from 1999 to Jan 2002. Within this interview
you will find many answers to various questions that have been floating
around the web and here at the YJMGA forum. Mike let us know the situation
with WTEAW, Spitfire Records and Tour difficulties amongst other -
all of which have been answered honestly and openly.
YJMGA
would like to thank Mike for the time he took for the answers and
for the depth of answer.
Can
we start at the beginning. How did you first get to know Yngwie and
what led to you becoming his manager?
I was introduced to Yngwie by Anne Petty sometime around 1994-1995
right before "Magnum Opis" was released. We seemed to hit
it off pretty well and kept in contact as friends after that point.
We would occasionally get together for dinner, play pool, or other
things together. As for how this developed into working together.
Even though we were friends, we never discussed business matters.
But one evening at dinner Yngwie asked me to take a quick glance at
some papers that he thought looked funny. He wanted a second opinion.
After looking them over I agreed with him that something did not look
right. I suggested he hire an independent accountant to go through
everything in detail and properly review everything. The result of
the accountant's findings contributed to Yngwie's decision to dismiss
his old management company. After a revelation like this coming to
light, Yngwie was not in a very trusting mood towards any outside
management at that point.
Because of my
business experience and our past years of friendship, it just evolved
that I would fill the role of management until many of these problems
could be sorted out and rectified. I had other obligations at the
time to a company I had recently sold. I was required to stay on for
three (3) years to assist with the management transfer. This prevented
me from traveling with Yngwie or dedicating 100% of my time to him,
however until which time Yngwie found a full time manager he was comfortable
with, I felt I could at least do better for him than his past management
company had been doing in recent years. I split my time evenly between
my other company and Yngwie, so for those two years I was basically
working two management jobs.
How
big a mess was Yngwie's business affairs in after the departure of
Lewis Entertainment?
I don't know if "mess" is the right word. But there were
some problems. As has been already mentioned several times in the
press, on the internet and in interviews with Yngwie himself; it appeared
based on the accountants findings that the old management did not
seem to always be handling financial matters properly. That was of
course an issue to be researched by professional lawyers and accountants.
It is a very common occurrence in the entertainment industry. But
once that was in the hands of accountants and lawyers to deal with,
my focus with Yngwie was to try some new ideas to increase his presence.
It seemed to me that he had not been energetically marketed and promoted
in recent years outside of Japan.
What
was your first area you felt you needed to work on with Yngwie's career
to get it back where we all feel it deserves to be?
In today's music scene it is very hard to get attention for an artist.
There are so many products, bands, major labels, movies, cable TV,
etc. all competing for people's attention in the mainstream media.
The major labels pretty much own radio airplay so that is almost impossible
to get anymore. I thought we should try a "carpetbomb" approach
meaning endorsements, magazine ads, AOL chats, internet forums, independent
cable, etc... Basically the idea was to get Yngwie's music and image
seen and heard in as many places as possible at the same time so that
the synergistic effect of all these small media spots might add up
to create a new buzz and awareness for Yngwie and his music.
Was
getting a U.S. deal your main priority?
Yngwie has always been very strong in Japan and Asia, so no special
attention was given there. I basically envisioned a Three (3) Tier
Strategy....
1) Regain USA Market and Name Awareness
2) Improve presence in Europe with a better label and distribution
3) Diversify into "non-Heavy Metal" areas like PBS, Film
Scores, etc...
How
many labels did you have negotiations with and why did you go with
Spitfire?
We were speaking with four (4) labels in the USA who had an interest
in Yngwie. In the end SPITFIRE was the most energetic and of course
has Dio, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, Sebastian Bach and others on the
label so it seemed like a great match. They outlined the most extensive
marketing plan in their offer and wanted the back catalog also. SPITFIRE
was simply the best overall deal.
The
deal you put together with Spitfire was Yngwie's first domestic distribution
deal in several years. Unfortunately the relationship only lasted
for one album. What went wrong?
I really don't know what happened to the Spitfire deal this year.
When I was working with Yngwie, they had every intention of releasing
his next album. In fact, just a few weeks before departing as Yngwie's
manager; Spitfire had sent a message stating "Congratulations,
we are pleased to announce that Spitfire Records has chosen to exercise
it's option for your next album". Based on that, it seemed
they were ready to go forward with the US release of "Attack".
As stated above, I don't know what changed. Questions like these regarding
Yngwie's career after January 2002 would really have to be directed
towards his new management.
I do
however have a theory what happened to Yngwie and some other artists
who likewise saw their release plans change this past year. They may
have been casualties of the current US economy and internal changes
at Spitfire Records itself.
During this past
year, Spitfire Records went thru a bit of a re-organization from its
parent company. During this time the President of Spitfire Records
Paul Bibeau left the company to pursue other interests and to form
his own new company. It is totally possible that during this re-organization
the parent company started re-viewing its artist roster and changing
policies on some of it's earlier decisions.
I have no way
of knowing this of course, but since I do know there were changes
at Spitfire during this past year and the USA economy has been slow,
it would seem a logical possibility.
Don't
forget music sales in the USA last year for the entire industry were
down 30%. Unfortunately for artists a large portion of this is due
to unauthorized MP3 downloads and other forms of illegal copying/theft.
Did
sales of WTEAW and the back catalogue meet predicted figures?
Spitfire had told me that they were pleased with Yngwie's overall
sales. Like I said earlier, they originally expressed their intent
to exercise their options for future albums. They would not have done
that if they were not pleased. As I theorized above, the sluggish
USA economy and corporate changes inside SPITFIRE itself may have
derailed plans for Yngwie and some other artists on their roster during
the year. SPITIRE knew that real fans would already own Yngwie's past
Pony Canyon albums via import. They hoped to gain a new younger audience
of listeners in the USA by re-releasing the back catalog on the coat
tails of "War To End All Wars".
Wth Yngwie's lower
profile in the USA for the past 8 years, it seemed probable that many
younger listeners would be discovering Yngwie for the first time.
You
must have read all the criticism that came from not only the media
but fans about the sound of WTEAW - do you feel it was justified?
I believe even Yngwie has commented in interviews that he is now unhappy
with the production on "War To End All Wars". He has also
sworn to never have that repeated as evidenced by the "Concerto"
and "Attack" albums which have very good sound. I agree
that the sound quality (on WTEAW)is not up to par with other Yngwie
abums.
Do
you think Yngwie heard that record as it truly sounded to others?
There is a strange thing about the "War To End All Wars"
album. When I came on as Yngwie's manager, the album was already recorded.
In fact, my only real contribution to this album is helping Yngwie
get the cover artwork from Frank Frazetta which he really loved; and
getting the US record deal. The
odd thing is that Yngwie gave me a copy of his personal "rough
mix" that he was listening to in his car before the album was
released. It sounds so much better than the version that was officially
released. Less low end mud and rumble, more high end clarity and the
vocals were more pronounced. As you know, Yngwie loves to work on
an album, get ready to tour and then move forward to the next album.
He never looks backwards and rarely listens to his own older albums. I
have sometimes wondered if Yngwie listened to the same "rough
mix" that he gave me a copy of and gave it the "thumbs up"
approval for the engineer he had at the time to go ahead and do the
final mix. However, after that point something went wrong with the
settings used during the rough mixes getting changed and the sound
quality suffered during the last stages. I don't know. All
I can say for sure is the "rough mix" copy sounds clearer
than what was released.
What
is your opinion now of WTEAW - sonically was it a mistake?
I would have to say that the sound quality of WTEAW's production hampers
the ability to enjoy the album to its fullest. Yngwie
and I offered to do a complete re-mix and re-master to the labels
so that once they moved to a second pressing, they could release and
advertise a REMIXED version, but they never really responded to this
offer while I was onboard.
In
support of WTEAW, Yngwie did a package tour with Dio, was this a label
desicion and do you think Yngwie would have better on a bigger package?
Spitfire made that recommendation since DIO was already being set
up to tour the USA to promote "Magica". An Yngwie and Dio
team up seemed a good idea. In
addition to the Dio tour we also set up what was the possibly the
biggest tour of Yngwies entire career covering USA, Europe, Japan,
Asia and Central America.
In fact Yngwie played many places for the first time ever on this
tour. In hindsight we may have been a bit too eager and tried to cover
too big of an area on this tour since Yngwie literally was away from
home for almost 8-9 months straight.
Do
you think that Yngwie needs to be supporting bigger acts to get more
exposure or is he happy with the size of touring his does under his
own name?
A little known secret in the industry today is "Pay To Play". In
the good old days you could offer to open for a larger act for free
and gain some new exposure that way. Those days are gone. Now you
have to "Pay to Play". This means that many young new bands
and their independent labels have to dig up cash to pay large headliner
acts so they can open for them. Opening for a large multi-Platinum
band may seem like a great idea to get exposure to a fresh audience,
but it could prove cost prohibitive to get that opening slot.
I
remember you posted on the YJMGA forum if anyone had contact details
for Rob Halford (ex Judas Priest) and Tony Martin (ex Black Sabbath),
was it an idea to have a collaboration with a more well known vocalist
than say a Boals or a Vescera?
When the idea of Yngwie starting fresh with a whole new band developed,
we were looking to speak with several singers. As you know Doogie
White ended up being the man for the job.
Do
you think Yngwie would be open to working with a big name singer (e.g.
Ronnie Dio) or is Yngwie unable to work with musicians that woud not
necessarily stick to Yngwie ideas and lyrics?
This was actually an idea being tossed around with Spitfire for awhile.
We were talking about a "super group" which would feature
many of the Spitfire artists working together on an album, but the
logistics made it impossible to get everybody on the same page. WTEAW
saw Yngwie have more exposure than he had in years - via printed media
and internet sites.
Did
you feel that the smaller websites were just as important to target
as the main industry magazines?
When you are not a major artist on a major label with the music styles
and flavor of the day in your favor, every bit of exposure adds up
and is beneficial to the common goal. I referred to a "carpet
bomb" approach earlier...Hit everything you can. If
Yngwie started simultaneously appearing in magazine ads, signature
model equipment, AOL chats, Websites, magazine interviews, endorsements,
etc. people would have to say "I have to check this out,
things are happening here". That was the idea. Certainly
the fan websites assist with this approach.
How
far down the chain did you have to start to build some hype over Yngwie
again? Was it from grass root levels and re-establishing older avenues
that have proved fruitful in the past?
I can't say I ever thought of it that way. It was more of a "what
needs the most attention first" mindset. In the USA, nothing
was happening so that was the first area to get a label and exposure.
In Europe, things were good but a stronger label could make it even
better so that was phase 2. etc. It was really all a matter of priorities.
What needed attention the most and first. There is always room to
improve.
Joe
Satriani has been quoted in several interviews over the last few years
of saying he has asked Yngwie to do a G3 tour, was Yngwie ever approached
whilst you were at the helm? If so why did it not happen?
I was never contacted by anybody regarding G3 while working with Yngwie.
The
Japanese and Asian territories seem to be Yngwie's strongholds, does
the commercial successes in these areas mean that success is not quite
so important elsewhere?
Every fan and every region is equally important. It just so happens
the Japanese show more enthusiasim and support for Yngwie and his
music. They seem more dedicated and loyal while the "flavor of
the day" seems to change rapidly in Europe and the US. Yngwie
has been a favorite with the Japanese for about 12-13 years now. In
the US and Europe some new bands don't even have careers that last
that long. You have to respect the dedication and loyalty of the Japanese
fan.
Does
Yngwie's popularity in those territories fund touring etc in Europe
and the US?
Each region is pretty much treated and handled independently in regards
to tour support and such since each label knows its territory best.
Did
you ever discuss with Yngwie how he should present himself in interviews
as non YJM fans often have a perception of him being arrogant?
I never discussed anything like this with Yngwie. In
fact in interviews which occurred around the time of WTEAW I seem
to recall Yngwie having a more relaxed viewpoint and acknowledging
that he was a little wild and arrogant when younger but that age and
fatherhood had changed his views on many things and he was different
guy today.
Does
Yngwie actually listen to anyone?
I can only answer for myself, but Yngwie would ask my opinion on many
things. We seemed to have a mutual respect for one another and I never
saw many of the behaviours that others attribute to him in the press.
Do
you know what really happened on the WTEAW tour with Jorn Lande etc?
If so what?
Since as I mentioned earlier, my other business obligations prevented
me from traveling on the road with Yngwie, I was not present to witness
the precise event for myself so I can't really comment with 100% accuracy
and fairness. It
is however interesting to note that since leaving Yngwie, Jorn has
also left ARK and I have been told that he recently left another band
he was working with recently. So there may be a pattern here.
What
led to you parting company with YJM?
People seem to love scandal and conspiracy in today's society, but
I fear the truth here is nowhere near as exciting. In a short period
of time we seemed to have lots of good things going for Yngwie...new
USA record contract, more exposure, Signature model pedal from DOD,
a signature amp in development, endorsements and magazine ads from
Celestion, JJ/Tesla, DOD. We also had negotiations going with SPV
to become the new label in Europe, talks with PBS and some independent
film companies for soundtracks, Pay-Per-View TV appearances, guest
appearances on other albums, Clinics, more Concerto shows, etc. etc.
etc. With all this starting to develop and Yngwie not wanting to lose
that momentum, he felt the time had arrived that he needed a FULL
TIME manager to keep pushing things along. I was getting overextended
trying to maintain both of my job positions, however I was under contractual
obligation to the company I had sold. I was required to to stay onboard
for 8 more months. There was no way I could become Yngwie's full time
manager at that time. I was not going to stand in Yngwie's way or risk
letting him lose that momentum, so we met one day for lunch and agreed
it was time for me to step aside and let him continue forward with
a manager who could dedicate 100% of their time to his career. It
is really as simple as that.
Do
you believe that the separation came at the wrong time? What did you
have in the pipeline - any future plans/ideas that you can tell us
about?
In addition to giving Yngwie all his files. I also typed up a letter
for him to give his new manager outlining everything that was in the
works so they could hit the ground running when they took over. This
included a new label negotiation with SPV in Europe, an appearance
on Ultimate Fighting on Pay Per View, a guest appearance on a Swedish
Folk Album, attending some guitar clinics in Florida, PBS TV broadcast
of CONCERTO Live, and some other things. Everything
transitioned over smoothly and I think they successfully landed most
of those things which were "in the pipeline".
Since
your departure news items, tour dates have been virtually none
existent
to websites like mine and Freek's YMO from the new management team.
Where our websites important to you and do you feel we had a viable
place in helping market Yngwie?
I must confess I have not really been following developments over
the past year very closely. I visit the fan sites once a month or
so to check on news, but really don't keep a close tab on things.
I think the websites serve an important function as long as they report
accurate information and not negative rumors.
Is
Yngwie aware of his many fan sites out on the web?
He is not the kind of guy who sits and web surfs all day, but he is
aware of the fan sites out there? Certainly.
Who
is Denise Love and how well do you feel she is managing Yngwie's career?
I met Denise when she took over the role as Tour Manager for Yngwie's
WTEAW Europe Tour. She was very nice and competent I thought. She
made my life easier. We
had major problems with tour managers on that tour. Many seemed to
let us down along the way. Normally an artist manager will work with
labels and agencies to set up a worldwide tour. This means you get
the venues and negotiate the prices. While the Artist Manager may
visit his artist on the road, he does not usually live on the road
with the band every night for 7-8 months straight. He spends most
of his time at the home office working on other aspects of the career.
Instead
you hire a Tour Manager. You sit down with this guy along with the
itinerary and budget and it is his job to arrange transport, hotels,
flights, advance shows, work papers and generally live/travel with
the band on the road to insure things go smoothly each day. As fans
will know, we had to replace tour managers on this lengthy tour because
we had problems like improper work papers and other things. When Denise
took over in Europe; the remainder of the tour went smoothly all the
way thru to Central America. No more 3:00 am emergency phone calls.
She did a great job making that tour work.
Rhino
Amps - what led to your involvement with the company?
Yngwie had long desired an amp he could simply plug into with no pedals
and get his sound. Also the 30+ year old Marshall's were starting to
fail more often on the road after long years of touring and heavy
travel. Yngwie and I both thought it would be a great idea if he could
keep his most precious vintage Marshall's safely at home in the studio
and use something else on the road where things get beat up pretty
badly. We
were working with Marshall on a signature model amp, but in the end
analysis, Marshall felt the market would be too limited for what was
turning out to be a very costly and specialized high-end amplifier
to meet Yngwie's specs.
By coincidence
this young and newer company in Texas was trying to put their name
on the map building boutique amplifiers at more affordable prices.
They were willing to meet all Yngwie's design specs to deliver the
amp he wanted.
What
role did Yngwie play in the development of the sig Rhino amp? From
the literature I have I get the impression it was more an amp that
was dedicated to duplicating Yngwie's tone rather than one that was
built for him to all his tonal requests?
As you know when we designed the YJM308 Overdrive Pedal with DOD,
we took apart Yngwie's favourite old gray DOD250 and wrote down the
specs for all the resistors, diodes, op-amps, etc. The
idea being to not just create a re-issue of a gray DOD250 but to replicate
one very specific DOD250, Yngwie's personal favourite. This was obviously
a success since Yngwie used this pedal for the entire "Attack"
album.
With
the YJM50-Blackstar Amp, the idea was to have an amplifier that cloned
Yngwie's favorite Overdrive, MKII head, noise suppressor etc. all
in one box so no cables or pedals were needed. We wrote down all the
specs of Yngwie's favorite Marshall (cap values, transformers, plate
voltage, tube bias, etc. Here again the idea was not to simply build
a clone of a 30 year old Marshall, but to build an amp that duplicated
Yngwie's current favorite amp accounting for it's age and other variants
in servicing over the years. In other words, the amp is meant to duplicate
Yngwie's favorite amp as it exists today, not the way it was built
30 years ago. Also instead of building a costly handwired amp (like
the 30 year old originals and modern boutique amps), the idea was
too use a circuit board design to keep the cost down and make the
amps consistent in a mass production environment. So you have the
choice, spend $4,000 for a pristine, all-original 1972 MKII amp, an
old 1978 DOD Overdrive, etc. or spend around $800 for a brand new
equivalent.
I think this is
a unique idea with amplifier design to artificially "age"
the circuit design. Fender did that with the Steve Ray Vaughn guitar
when they had a computer map out his worn down fretboard and then
cut the necks out to duplicate the wear pattern.
How
come Yngwie has not yet been seen playing his signature Rhino Amps,
tending to rely on his Marshall's in the studio and for current live
work?
I know when I was still with him, Yngwie liked the final prototype
because he called me up late one night after playing it in his studio.
He could not believe how close it sounded to his old Marshall rig.
He was very excited about the amp that night saying every company
in the world had sent him amps over the years but nothing captured
his sound like this RHINO BLACKSTAR YJM50 did.
The only complaint
he had was the noise gate was not exactly perfect to his ear. RHINO
was going to work on that further. Even as good as it is, I don't
think the RHINO will ever replace his beloved Marshalls in the studio.
After all the RHINO is meant to reproduce this signature tone, but
the old 30+ year old Marshalls are the real thing to Yngwie.. I believe
the RHINO will end up out on the road in the future and/or in those
venues where the Fender Roc-Pro used to be used. Fender has discontinued
the Roc-Pro line so the RHINO will probably be Yngwie's replacement
for that.
You
also organised a lot of endorsement ads e.g. JJ Tubes, Dod, Celestion
where these companies eager to have Yngwie on their roster?
They were very pleased.
Does
Yngwie get free gear from these kind of deals? Do they impose any
restrictions on what he can be seen to be using?
Endorsement deals by nature involve free equipment use in exchange
for the use of an artists name and image. As long as nobody gets nutty,
there is no reason for there to be limits on the equipment. Of course
I suppose if you did something crazy like ask Fender for 20,000 guitars
or something like that they would raise questions, but in reality
the artists and companies work well together.
Staying
on gear I know this is an area you have a lot of interest in. Which
album has your favourite YJM guitar tone and why?
I like the guitar sound and overall production sound on both "Inspiration"
and "Magnum Opus". Everything seems so balanced.
The
Concerto was a big success, do you know what happened to the proposed
PBS TV showing of the concert?
PBS is hard to break into, but they were interested. I don't know
what ended up happening after I left. I have to say "Concerto
Live" is the thing I am most proud of working with Yngwie. I
was with him from the beginning to the end of that project. The "Concerto"
of course is 99.99% Yngwie, but regarding the DVD package, I was able
to get some input there. The Japanese were originally only going to
release the concert in its original form with no special features. When
you see the song titles fade in and out at the beginning of each song,
or look at the bonus material on the DVD, those were my suggestions.
Originally Pony Canyon had no plans for Bonus Material or Song Names
on the DVD. I told them "DVD must have bonus material. It is
expected these days".
Also
Yngwie and I sat together and created the play order you see on the
DVD today. In the real performance, Yngwie played the entire CONCERTO
first and then all the rock numbers at the end. We felt for a video/DVD
this built up too slowly. Copying the idea of James Bond movies (energetic
face paced opening scene, slow down, plot development, build tension,
climax). We sat with two VHS recorders and experimented with different
song orders until we got the sequence you see today. I also invited
8 people to my house to preview our rough edit to see if they liked
how it flowed. It was a unanimous "thumbs up". What you
see on the DVD today is the result of all that effort.
Have
you heard Attack! and if so what is your opinion on it?
I think "Attack" has a very fresh sound. Obviously it is
still Yngwie but with all new band members and Tom Fletcher assisting
with the engineering it really shines. I was happy to see "Razor
Eater" and "Stronghold" make it to this album. When
I was still working with Yngwie and we were discussing the direction
for his next rock album, I commented that a few songs with a simpler
rhythm section would work nice. I always like the contrast of a simpler
song structure with the solos jumping out and taking you to a higher
energy level as opposed to a song that is 300 mile per hour from beginning
to end. I think the contrast is more effective than playing complex
lines from beginning to end. With
a new band and other things, I would think there are some good things
in the future for Yngwie.
I
would like to thank Mike once again for granting YJMGA this interview
and giving us such an informative read which is sure to answer many
of the questions and rumours that have been circulating over the last
year.
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