For Ill Niño guitarist Ahrue Luster, his band’s latest record Enigma had to surpass everything he had done musically in the past. Luster already possessed an impressive resume between his days in Machine Head and his multiple Latin-influenced albums with Ill Niño, but he wanted to bring things up a notch after the birth of his daughter. Not content with his skills as a guitarist, Luster decided to go the back-to-basics route. That included practicing between 4 to 8 hours a day on everything from his usual electric to nylon acoustics. The result of that practice is evident on Enigma, with each of the 13 tracks driven by his intricate riffs and rhythmic overdubs.
After about a two-and-a-half year wait for Enigma, the album was released last month and Ill Niño has wasted no time in taking its newest music to the stage. When Luster talked with Ultimate-Guitar recently, it was evident that he was relieved to finally get the record out, which was apparently delayed because of various record label issues. Luster was now eager to continue on with a large-scale tour, which is not just hitting the usual big cities you might expect. So if you happen to live in a far-off location where concerts are an extreme rarity, it’s highly possible that Ill Niño will be making a stop in your town.
UG: Your new album Enigma was delayed a few times over the past year. Can you give us an idea of why things got pushed back?
Ahrue: It’s probably not a good idea to get into detail of a lot of the technical stuff, but it all had to do with our record company and nothing to do with us. We wanted to get it out as soon as we could. We were waiting at home, wanting to go on tour, and sitting at home doing nothing. Things that were supposed to happen didn’t happen and we couldn’t get it out until March 11. So I guess that is the official release date now. We’re very excited that it’s coming out, and we’ve already starting touring and looking forward to the whole touring cycle to get back with our fans.
Is it true that you had over 30 possible songs to choose from on the latest record?
We had a lot of ideas. I wouldn’t say they were complete songs. I would say there were 2 or 3 parts that were almost songs and could be worked into a song. We had tons and tons of ideas. In this band at least 4 of us that write music, so there is never a shortage of material.
When you’re working out guitar parts on your own, do you always have the Latin percussion element in the back of your mind?
Yeah. Because the basis of Ill Niño is Latin rhythm, a lot of times I use Latin rhythms or pre-recorded percussion and drum programs that have all kinds of different Latin rhythms. Not only Latin rhythms, but rhythms from all over the world. So a lot of times I’ll get familiar with a rhythm first and then I’ll start writing. As opposed to when I was in other bands like Machine Head, I would always start with the guitar and the drums would come after that. Most of the writing I do for Ill Niño starts with the rhythm and then I try to fit the guitar to the rhythm.
Enigma marks rhythm guitarist Diego Verduzco’s first full-length studio album with Ill Niño (he also appeared on 2006’s EP The Under Cover Sessions). How much did you collaborate in the early stages of songwriting?
He’s new to the band and he’s new to being a professional musician. I’ve been doing it for like 10 years, and Dave’s been doing it for 20 years. The rest of the guys in Ill Niño have been doing it for like 8 years. When he came in it was kind of new experience for him. When you’re not a professional musician coming into record a real record, it’s a huge leap from doing whatever you were doing before that. His main focus was getting to that level of tightness and rehearsing and things like that, and he did an excellent job. Most of the writing was done between Chris, me, Laz, and Dave.
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| "It's a huge step above what I did on the last record because I've been practicing so much." |
Is that you playing the acoustic intro on “Me Gusta La Soledad”?
Actually on this record I played most of the guitar, but there was guitar played by me, Diego, Chris, and Laz. Laz actually played some of the rhythm tracks on that song. I did a lot of the overdub. Any other guitar you hear on that was done by me, but Laz actually played the main rhythm on that. That song was his baby. He wanted me to play on it, but I told him that I wanted him to play on it!
Do you enjoy playing the acoustic?
Well, I go through phases. When I joined Ill Niño, I didn’t have a lot of experience playing classical guitar and flamenco-styled guitar. So I kind of immersed myself in it for several years. All I did was sit around and play the nylon string and play the steel string. Then after I felt like I got pretty comfortable with that, lately I’ve been really immersing myself back into the electric guitar and practicing my leads, scales, arpeggios, and all that stuff. And if you notice on this record, it’s a huge step above what I did on the last record because I’ve been practicing so much.
What techniques did you use to get to that next level of playing the guitar?
There are no shortcuts. You just have to put in the work. I would practice anywhere from like 4 to 8 hours a day. What really influenced me to want to step it up another level for this record was my daughter being born. She’s almost 2 years old right now, and since she was born I want to make sure it’s the best that I can do. So I knew that I wanted this record and my playing on it to be the best that it could possibly be. I spent 4 to 8 hours rehearsing, and I’m still doing so to this day.
There are quite a few different sounds and styles that are apparent on Enigma. How much did you experiment with new amps or pedals?
This record I did a lot differently because I’ve really started getting into computer recording myself. On this record, I’ve done something that I’ve never done on any other record, which is I did a lot of the guitar tracks at home. I would take the basic tracks home like the rhythm guitar. I need to know what the vocals are doing so that I don’t step on the vocals, so I’ll take home the basic rhythm tracks and vocals and then I would come up with all kinds of stuff. I would use the Line 6 Plug-In mainly and just experiment with different sounds until I got really cool-sounding textural stuff and really cool overdubs. Then I would just bring it into the studio and try it out on the main tracks.
Were the other members of the band open to that approach?
Yeah. I would bring it in and everybody would listen to it, and 90 percent of the time they liked it. It also freed up more time. When a normal band records, you have bass, drums, guitar, and vocals. It takes us longer in the studio because we have all that, and on top of that we have layers and layers of percussion. At the end of the day, a lot of the songs have over 100 tracks to them. There are at least 10 to 20 tracks of percussion on each one. If you put on headphones and listen to it, you’ll not only hear the percussion that’s up front, you’ll hear all sorts of layers in the background. I might do 5 different overdubs over a specific part that you don’t really hear. If you try to listen to them you don’t hear them, but if they’re missing then you think something is missing.
It sounds like there are some lengthy studio sessions.
Yeah, when it comes to making the record, it’s definitely a task! So I loved having someone like Jay Baumgardner to mix it. Even with someone that good, it takes a couple of days to get in the groove with it because it’s a lot of work to do!
Is that kind of rigorous studio schedule fairly typical for all of your albums?
I would say besides Revolution…I mean, even on Revolution there were a lot of layers. It probably got a lot more on Confession and then it’s been pretty much that level since then. It gets to a point where you start adding things and then you’re like, “Okay, now it sounds too crowded.” It’s always been a task.
How difficult is it to incorporate all of the different sounds you hear in the studio into the live show?
I would say that the live show is more about the energy. It’s a completely different animal than recording in the studio. A lot of bands have different philosophies. Some bands will say, “Well, we don’t want to do whatever in the studio that we can’t do live.” The way we look at it is, in the studio we don’t want to think of live as limiting us to what we do in the studio. We’ll do whatever we need to do in the studio to make the songs sound as good as we can, and then live we’ll start from scratch. “Okay, how are we going to do this live?” Basically, we take the most pronounced elements of the song and play them.
I spoke briefly with Carlos Santana at the NAMM Convention in January, and he mentioned that Ill Niño was a group that he would love to collaborate with in the future. Had you heard that Santana might be interested in working with you?
I heard about that, but I’ve never talked to him myself. I probably would just be at a loss for words! The fact that he said that is such an incredible compliment. For me, it’s beyond words. He’s such an incredible musician and has collaborated with some of the best musicians in the world. To even mention us in the same breath is the biggest compliment ever. I literally think it’s probably the biggest compliment that I’ve ever heard!
So have you pursued it?
Maybe on the next record. Of course, we would love it! If he were just to like say one word on the record, it would be something we’d cherish. I would assume that we would probably be more interested in working with him than he would be trying to hunt us down to work with us. It might be something that we’ll talk about on the next record. Maybe if we can see it happen or make it happen, it would be something very special.
Were there any songs that didn’t make it on to Enigma that you might save for a future album?
I have what’s called a “riff bank.” I’ve collected riffs over the past 10 years of playing in bands, and there are a few riffs that I recorded that didn’t get used on One Nation that actually got used on this record. So for myself and I’m sure it’s the same with everybody else, we’ll go back into our riff banks. A lot of times maybe you have an idea for something, but it doesn’t come across right because it just needs a little bit of tweaking. Maybe some of the riffs that didn’t get used on this record I might tweak a little bit and might end up getting used on the next one.
Now that Enigma is ready for release, what is your touring schedule looking like for the coming months?
We’re fortunate enough to be able to tour the whole world. A lot of bands can only really tour in the States, but we have a worldwide following. We’re usually in the States when our record drops, but this is going to be the first time we’re going to be in Europe when the record drops. It’s exciting for me!
I would have to say my least favorite place to tour is the States. Not that I don’t like it, but in every city you see a 7-11 and you just get the same old stuff. I guess I’m the only one in the band that really wakes up early, and I actually go see the sights when we’re in other countries. Everybody else sleeps until like 4 pm and then soundchecks. Then on days off, they just chill in their hotel rooms. I’m like, “You’re in a place that you’re probably never going to be in again, and you’re just going to sit in your hotel rooms?” Actually, I drag Diego around with me now! We’ll go to visit castles and catacombs.
Where is your favorite city to play?
I really like being in Australia because I’m an ocean person. I live in Colorado, so I don’t really get to see the ocean. Australia, there is a lot of natural beauty there, great beaches. There is just a lot of really cool natural beauty and there’s not a lot of people there. It’s about the same amount of land mass in the States, but about a quarter of the people. To get back to the original question, we’re going to be in Europe when the record drops, which is going to be exciting. Right after that I think we’re going to be doing some sort of States tour because this one was just like a warm-up – a “Hey-We’re-Back” tour.
Interview by Amy Kelly
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