Synyster Gates was recently interviewed by Ultimate-Guitar.com. They talk about recent A7X CD (and DVD) releases, playing live, and Syn G’s guitar talent.
Check it out:


UG: I watched the live DVD and what really struck me, and I knew this before of course, is that how accomplished the band really are as players. It’s one thing to hear somebody on record and you wonder, “Well, certainly he’s playing those parts but maybe he’s cutting and slicing and pro tooling.” But I was really amazed at how good the band really is and how different you and Zacky are as players. I mean, you guys are really sort of 180 degrees and you really get that sense of personalities and approaches. On record it just doesn’t come across as much but obviously you are the lead guitar player and Zack does all those harmony things with you and is more the rhythm guy.

I’m gonna take one of Zack’s quotes from our interview and I just wanna see how you might react to him. My question to him was, “Are there specific types of parts that you’re more adept at putting down, rhythms or riffs. You’re credited as guitar and Synyster is credited as lead guitar. Is that the way it tends to break down?”

His answer, “Totally. When it comes to duals or anything like that we’ll definitely miss it up. All the more technical stuff is usually left up to him, I do a lot more of the galloping, muting stuff, that’s more my specialty because that’s more of where I came from with all the punk rock stuff.” That’s still accurate I’m guessing?

Synyster Gates: Yeah, absolutely.

Could you comment a little bit on that? You know, how you guys approach the parts and has it become even more defined?

I think it’s become a little bit more mixed up.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah, you know, as people progress and stuff like that, he’ll still carry himself as a rhythm guitar player but he actually plays fucking very very well at this point of his life and he’s worked his ass off, so he could be a guitar player by anybody’s standards. So even though some of those things are rhythm oriented, some of the leads are a little more solo-esque or whatever and so, yeah, I dunno, there’s definitely advances in both parties playing.

Being a California guy I’ve been to Long Beach a bunch of times and actually my brother lives down in Orange County. It must be an unbelievable feeling to be able come back to Long Beach, basically your neighborhood, and play a show like that. It has to be overwhelming, right? It just must be an incredible thing?

Yeah, it’s amazing. You definitely kind of realize where you came from when it happens and then you see your friends out in the crowd. I mean, even people you went to school with that you haven’t seen in, like, 10 years, it’s quite an amazing thing. It’s kind of a way to judge your progress; very, very excited.

Do you feel like God up there, Synyster? You know, onstage, like there’s nothing wrong with the world at that point?

Yeah, there’s definitely nothing wrong with the world at that point. I just go up there to have fun with my friends. I don’t take it as seriously anymore as I used to and I think it comes across a lot better. We have better shows. Just go up there and bust out a few beers, you know, Zack’s got a bar on the other side of the stage, take a couple of shots and treat it as a party. It’s something everybody looks forward to as opposed to something that you’d ever be nervous about or worried about performing it to the tee and performing it at 110%. You just wanna go out there and have more fun each night and the audience reacts way better, you have way more interaction. It’s just a quite the cool process at this point for this band.

That’s cool. You bring up a great point. I mean, obviously the band is enjoying themselves, you guys don’t take yourselves seriously

Synyster Gates recently won the Sexiest Male Award in the Kerrang’s 2008 Readers Poll Avenged Sevenfold also won awards for "Best Band” and “Best Live Band." Here's what Syn had to say on winning:

“Much thanks to all the bad ass Avenged Sevenfold fans that voted us for two of the coolest categories in this year’s Kerrang! Readers’ Poll - Best Band and Best Live Band of 2008! We had such a great time watching our self-titled album come to fruition and witnessing the overwhelming response from al of you with such continued devotion to a constantly evolving band, as well as allowing us to come back time and time again to rock the fuck out of the UK! It’s been truly amazing and more importantly ITS JUST THE BEGINNING! See ya in ‘09. Oh yeah, and that Sexiest Male in rock category? Thanks so much, but we all know who really deserves that ward - the fastest bassist this side of the Arco - The Rhinestone Cowboy Johnny Christ.”

- Also check out this interview of Syn by Popular Underground Magazine:
http://popularunderground.com/Avenge...

Heres a few quotes from the man himself...Syn Gates!! (some, I'm sure he said while slightly 'intoxicated' )

Enjoy:

"Just So You Know, You Don't Play Guitar With Your Neck Bro! You Play It With Your Bum Bum!"

"I play Synyster Gates and I am Guitar"

"I’ll sit on the table…by table I mean chair…"

"Boom, I got yo boyfriend. I got yo man!"

"You’ve just been punk’d…AAAAH crazy"

"The Most Important and Key Element Of The Song Is The Guitar, Everybody Knows That, EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT"

"This is the fucking fun part, it’s so fun. This madman, genius, fucking classified fucking crazy idea. Yeah, fuck! Whoa! Is that the warm water? Oh wow, wow, wow."

(about M. Shadows)- "He’s a buff guys. He’s a fearless leader and the best front man ever. Great singer - as creative as they come. Huge horse cock. God, I love that horse cock. He’s made grown men cry!"

"By the way…red and grey…not the new black…not the new black…pink is like I told him!"

"Pink is the new black…pink is the new black…pink is the new black…when we all kniow black is the new black…silly french!"

(about johnny) "He’s a cocky mother fucker. You live with him for a week, he pees on your dad, you pick on him! My dad was with us for a week and he was dreaming, he thought it was raining outside, then he realized someone was peeing on the bunk. So he opens his bunk and gets nailed right in the face. Johnny finished the rest in my dad’s shoe. It killed my dad’s spirit and will to live."

(his favorite colour) "Always been purple. Like I remember being in the first grade, looking up at the colour charts and saying, ‘man, purple is the best colour, man, it’s the best colour, it just is the best colour’. I have a lot of purple shirts and stuff, I’m always wearing purple."