Yngwie Malmsteen

Yngwie Malmsteen
Barcelona, Spain, 2008
Background information
Birth name	Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck
Also known as	Yngwie J. Malmsteen Lars Y. Loudamp
Born	June 30, 1963 (1963-06-30) (age 48) Stockholm, Sweden
Genres	Heavy metal, neo-classical metal, speed metal, hard rock, power metal
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals, sitar, cello
Years active	1978–present
Labels	Polydor, Polygram, Elektra, Rising Force Records, Universal Music
Associated acts	Steeler, Alcatrazz, Rising Force, Hear 'n Aid, G3
Website	Official website
Notable instruments
Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Stratocaster

Yngwie Johann Malmsteen (English pronunciation: /ˈɪŋveɪ ˈmɑːlmstiːn/ ing-vay mahlm-steen; born June 30, 1963) is a Swedish guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. Malmsteen became known for his neo-classical playing approach in heavy metal music which became a new musical style in the early 1980s.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Early life

Malmsteen was born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck in Stockholm, Sweden, as the third child of a musically-inclined family.^[6] At age seven, he saw a television news report on the death of Jimi Hendrix, an event which had a profound impact on his musical path. Malmsteen has later stated that Hendrix had no musical impact on him, but on September 18, 1970 he saw a TV special of Hendrix, where he smashed and burned his guitar, and Malmsteen thought: "this is really cool".^[7] To quote his official website, "The day Jimi Hendrix died, the guitar-playing Yngwie was born".^[8] At the age of 10 he took his mother's maiden name Malmsten as his surname, slightly changed it to Malmsteen, and Anglicised his third given name Yngve to "Yngwie". Yngwie also created his first band "Track On Earth" at the age of 10, consisting of himself and a friend from school on drums (Armin). Malmsteen was a teenager when he first encountered the music of the 19th century violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, whom he cites as his biggest classical music influence. Ritchie Blackmore and Uli Jon Roth are also cited as being significant influences, as is Brian May of Queen. He played featuring Denim And Leather song with Saxon during The Eagle Has Landed part II tour.

Recording career

1980s

In late 1982, Mike Varney of Shrapnel Records, who had heard a demo tape of Malmsteen's playing, brought Malmsteen to the U.S. He had brief engagements with Steeler, for their self-titled album of 1983, then Graham Bonnet's Alcatrazz, for their 1983 debut No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll, and the 1984 live album Live Sentence. Malmsteen released his first solo album Rising Force in 1984, which featured Barrie Barlow of Jethro Tull on drums. His album was really meant to be an instrumental side-project of Alcatrazz, but it contained vocals, and Malmsteen left Alcatrazz soon after the release of Rising Force.

Rising Force won the Guitar Player Magazine's award for Best Rock Album and was also nominated for a Grammy for 'Best Rock Instrumental', achieving #60 on the Billboard album chart. Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force (as his band was thereafter known) next released Marching Out (1985). Jeff Scott Soto filled vocal duties on these initial albums. His third album, Trilogy, featuring the vocals of Mark Boals, was released in 1986. In 1987, another singer, former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner joined his band. That year, Malmsteen was in a serious car accident, smashing his Jaguar E-Type into a tree and putting him in a coma for a week. Nerve damage to his right hand was reported. During his time in the hospital, Malmsteen's mother died from cancer. In the summer of 1988 he released his fourth album, Odyssey. Odyssey would be his biggest hit album, mainly because of its first single "Heaven Tonight". Shows in Russia during the Odyssey tour were recorded, and released in 1989 as his fifth album Trial By Fire: Live in Leningrad.

Malmsteen's "Neo-classical" style of metal became popular among some guitarists during the mid 1980s, with contemporaries such as Jason Becker, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Tony MacAlpine and Vinnie Moore becoming prominent. In late 1988, Malmsteen's signature Fender Stratocaster guitar was released, making him and Eric Clapton the first artists to be honored by Fender.

1990s

In the early 1990s, Malmsteen released the albums Eclipse (1990), The Yngwie Malmsteen Collection (1991), Fire and Ice (1992) and The Seventh Sign (1994). Despite his early success, and continuous success in Europe and Asia, by the early 1990s 1980s heavy metal styles such as neoclassical metal and lengthy, virtuoso shred guitar solos had become unfashionable in the US.

In 1993, Malmsteen's future mother-in-law, opposed to his engagement to her daughter, had him falsely arrested for holding the woman hostage with a gun. The charges were quickly dropped.^[9] Malmsteen continued to record and release albums under the Japanese record label Pony Canyon, and maintained a devoted following from some fans in Europe and Japan, and to a lesser extent in the USA. In 2000, he once again acquired a contract with a US record label, Spitfire, and released his 1990s catalog into the US market for the first time, including what he regards as his masterpiece, Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra, recorded with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague.

In the mid 1990's Malmsteen went on to release the albums Magnum Opus (1995), Inspiration (1996) Facing the Animal (1997), Double LIVE! (1998) and Alchemy (1999). In 1996, Malmsteen joined forces with former band members Jeff Scott Soto and Marcel Jacob on the Human Clay album where he played lead guitar on the track Jealousy

2000s

Malmsteen in Barcelona

After the release of War to End All Wars in 2000, singer Mark Boals left the band. He was replaced by former Rainbow vocalist Doogie White, whose vocals were well received by fans. In 2003, Malmsteen joined Joe Satriani and Steve Vai as part of the G3 supergroup. Malmsteen made two guest appearances on keyboardist Derek Sherinian's albums Black Utopia (2003), and Blood of the Snake (2006) where Malmsteen is heard on the same tracks as Al Di Meola and Zakk Wylde. In 2004, Malmsteen made two cameo appearances on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.In 2005 Unleash the Fury was released through Spitfire Records. The name of the album stems from an incident that occurred aboard an airplane in 1988. After pulling a prank aboard the plane on a flight to Japan, one of Malmsteem’s drunken band members was splashed with cold water by a stewardess. Malmsteem immediately lost his composure and while it is unknown exactly what he said to the stewardess, rumors have surfaced that he yelled “You have unleashed the fucking fury.” Malmsteem says that the name of the album refers to both the energy of the album and the incident ^[10] The release of Unleash the Fury was followed by a DVD release of Concerto Suite For Electric Guitar And Orchestra In E Flat Minor, Op. 1 -- With The New Japan Philharmonic Live. The DVD chronicles Malsteem’s first time playing in front of a live audience with an orchestra, an experience that he describes as “fun but also extremely scary” ^[11] In 2007, Malmsteen was honored in the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II. Players can receive the "Yngwie Malmsteen" award by hitting 1000 or more notes in succession.^[12] February 2008 saw the replacement of singer Doogie White with former Iced Earth and Judas Priest and current Beyond Fear singer Tim "Ripper" Owens, with whom Malmsteen had once recorded a cover of Ozzy Osbourne's song "Mr. Crowley", for the 2000 Osbourne tribute album Bat Head Soup: A Tribute to Ozzy. The first Malmsteen album to feature Owens is titled Perpetual Flame and was released on October 14. On November 25, 2008, Malmsteen had three of his songs ("Caprici Di Diablo", "Damnation Game", and "Red Devil") released as downloadable content for the video games Rock Band and Rock Band 2. In 2008 Malmsteen was a special guest on the VH1 Classic show "That Metal Show". In the 10th of March 2009, Malmsteen's label Rising Force has launched his new release Angels of Love, an instrumental album which features acoustic arrangements of some of his best-known ballads.In August 2009, Time magazine named Malmsteen #9 on its list of the 10 best electric guitar players of all-time.^[13] Malmsteen recently released another album compilation entitled High Impact on December 8, 2009.

2010s

On November 23, 2010 Relentless was released, the second album to feature Tim "Ripper" Owens on vocals. The US version features a remake of "Arpeggios From Hell" as a bonus track. Yngwie appeared on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon along with Dana Carvey on February 3, 2011 to promote his album. On August 6, 2011 Yngwie again made another appearance in the United States, playing a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner before a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins at Sun Life Stadium. ^[14]

Personal Life

He is married to April (Ebru Solmaz, born in Istanbul, Turkey)^[15][16] and has a son named Antonio after Antonio Vivaldi, and they live in Miami, Florida. A noted Ferrari enthusiast, Malmsteen owned a black 1985 308 GTS^[17] for 18 years before selling it on eBay, and a red 1962 250 GTO.^[18] In a 2005 issue of Guitar Player magazine, Yngwie discussed his often-ridiculed behavior, saying that “"I've probably made more mistakes than anybody. But I don't dwell on them. I don't expect people to understand me, because I'm pretty complex, and I think outside the box with everything I do. I've always taken the un-traveled path. Obviously, people have their opinions, but I can't get too wrapped up in that, because I know what I can do, and I know what kind of person I am. And I have no control over what anybody says about me. Back in Sweden, I'm 'Mr. Personality' in the tabloids. But, obviously, I can't take that seriously. I know in my heart that if I do the absolute best I can do, maybe ten years from now, people may turn around and say, 'He wasn't that bad.'" ^[19]

Musical equipment

Malmsteen has been a longtime user of Fender Stratocasters. His most famous Stratocaster is his 1972 blonde Strat, nicknamed "The Duck" because of its yellow finish and the Donald Duck stickers on the body. An alternative nickname for this guitar is "Play Loud" due to a sticker on the upper horn of the guitar. Fender made 100 replica copies of this guitar and marketed it as the "Play Loud Guitar". He also has a signature Stratocaster. It comes in a Vintage White finish with a maple neck, either a maple or rosewood fretboard with scalloped frets and, from 2010, Seymour Duncan STK-S10 YJM "Fury" Model pickups. There is also a signature YJM100 Marshall amplifier, based on the '1959' amplifier range.

Yngwie has stated that he prefers Stratocasters from the period of 1968-1972; he claims that the bigger headstock on these generates more sustain. Yngwie customizes his guitars by fitting a brass nut, removing the middle string tree and scalloping the fretboard. Yngwie previously disconnected the tone controls on his guitars but has said that he no longer does this.

Yngwie has previously used DiMarzio pickups - most notably the HS3 and the HS4 (Formerly known as the YJM). Yngwie would use an HS3 in the bridge and the HS4 in the middle and neck positions.

In his earlier recordings, Yngwie used an HS3 in the neck and bridge positions and a disconnected stock fender in the middle.

Band members

For a more comprehensive list, see List of Yngwie Malmsteen band members.

Current members

• Tim "Ripper" Owens—vocals (2008–present)
• Bjorn Englen—bass (2008–present)
• Patrick Johansson—drums, percussion (2001–present)
• Nick Marino—keyboards (2005–2006, 2010–present)

Discography

Steeler

Date of Release	Title	Label	Chart positions	US sales
1983	Steeler	Shrapnel

Alcatrazz

Date of Release	Title	Label	Chart positions	US sales
1983	No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll	Polydor	128
	Live Sentence		133
2010	Live '83	Deadline
	No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll Tour Live in Japan 1984.1.28 Audio Tracks

Solo

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions
		SWE	US
1984	Rising Force Released: 1984 Label: Polydor Format:	14	60
1985	Marching Out Released: October 1985 Label: Polydor Format:	9	54
1986	Trilogy Released: 1986 Label: Polydor Format:	18	44
1988	Odyssey Released: March 1988 Label: Polydor Format:	7	40
1989	Trial by Fire: Live in Leningrad Released: October, 1989 Label: Polydor Format:	31	128
1990	Eclipse Released: 1990 Label: Polydor Format:	12	112
1991	The Yngwie Malmsteen Collection Released: November, 1991 Label: Polydor Format:	—	—
1992	Fire and Ice Released: 1992 Label: Elektra Format:	11	121
1994	The Seventh Sign Released: February 18, 1994 Label: Pony Canyon Format:	11	—
	Power and Glory (Japanese CD Single) Released: September 21, 1994 Label: Pony Canyon Format:	—	—
	I Can't Wait (EP) Released: October 21, 1994 Label: Pony Canyon Format:	—	—
1995	Magnum Opus Released: June 6, 1995 Label: Pony Canyon Format:	17	—
1996	Inspiration Released: November 5, 1996 Label: Pony Canyon Format:	35	—
1997	Facing the Animal Released: September 3, 1997 Label: Pony Canyon Format:	39	—
1998	Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in E flat minor, Opus 1 Released: February 4, 1998 Label: Pony Canyon Format:	—	—
	Double Live! Released: September 18, 1998 Label: Pony Canyon Format:	—	—
1999	Alchemy Released: September 17, 1999 Label: Pony Canyon Format:	—	—
2000	Anthology 1994–1999 Released: March 15, 2000 Label: Format:	—	—
	The Best Of: 1990-1999 Released: May 9, 2000 Label: Dream Catcher Format:	—	—
	War to End All Wars Released: November 22, 2000 Label: Pony Canyon Format:	—	—
2002	Concerto Suite LIVE With the New Japan Philharmonic Released: January 9, 2002 Label: Pony Canyon Format:	—	—
	Attack!! Released: September 4, 2002 Label: Pony Canyon Format:	37	—
	The Genesis Released: December 30, 2002 Label: Pony Canyon Format:	—	—
2004	Oujya Ressou – Instrumental Best Album Released: January 1, 2004 Label: Pony Canyon Format:	—	—
	G3: Rockin' in the Free World Released: March 10, 2004 Label: Epic Format:	—	—
2005	Unleash the Fury Released: February 23, 2005 Label: Universal Music Format:	—	—
	20th Century Masters — The Millennium Collection: The Best of Yngwie Malmsteen Released: May 24, 2005 Label: Polydor Format:	—	—
2008	Perpetual Flame Released: October 14, 2008 Label: Rising Force Records / Universal Music Japan Format:	52	—
2009	Angels of Love Released: March 10, 2009 Label: Rising Force Records Format:	—	—
	High Impact Released: December 8, 2009 Label: Rising Force Records Format:	—	—
2010	Relentless Released: November 23, 2010 Label: Rising Force Records / Universal Music Japan Format:	—	—

See also

• Guitar Moves
• Shredding
• Sweeping
• G3 Tour

References

1. ^ "100 Greatest Guitarist (All Genres)". February 13, 2008. http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/best_guitar-all.html. 
2. ^ Rampur, Stephen (June 17, 2010). "Best Guitarist of all Time". http://www.buzzle.com/articles/best-guitarists-of-all-time.html. 
3. ^ Time. August 14, 2009. http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1916544,00.html. 
4. ^ http://guitarplaylearn.com/?p=96
5. ^ January 23, 2004 GUITAR WORLD's 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists Of All Time
6. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20070930190937/http://yngwie.org/faq/
7. ^ Yngwie Malmsteen - Rockthology#2
8. ^ Biography
9. ^ "Yngwie at Guitarsite.com". http://www.guitarsite.com/Yngwie.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-26. 
10. ^ "International Index to Music Periodicals". http://gateway.proquest.com.ezproxy1.library.arizona.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:iimp:&rft_dat=xri:iimp:article:fulltext:iimp00431810. Retrieved October 2011. 
11. ^ "International Index to Music Periodicals". http://gateway.proquest.com.ezproxy1.library.arizona.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:iimp:&rft_dat=xri:iimp:article:fulltext:iimp00431810. Retrieved October 2011. 
12. ^ Xbox360Achievements.org - Guitar Hero II Achievement List
13. ^ Fretbase, Time Magazine Picks the 10 Best Electric Guitar Players
14. ^ "Yngwie Malmsteen at Sun Life Stadium". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEqhg-qozdk&feature=related. 
15. ^ The Yngwie Malmsteen Tribute Series Stratocaster: By The Fender Custom Shop
16. ^ Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra DVD End Credits
17. ^ "roadgearmag.com". http://www.roadgearmag.com/article.asp?section_id=12&article_id=116. Retrieved March 2001. 
18. ^ yngwie.org. Yngwie Answers Your Questions. March 16, 2002.
19. ^ "Guitar Player". http://gateway.proquest.com.ezproxy1.library.arizona.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:iimp:&rft_dat=xri:iimp:article:fulltext:iimp00860406. Retrieved October 2011. 

External links

Gaspar Muntwyler - Capricho Arabe/Preludio Obsesivo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ijX0Zvg_Mc

• Official website
• Audio interview with Yngwie // Metalpaths.com 2010
• Audio Interview with Yngwie on GuitarJamDaily.com
• HardRadio.com interview with Yngwie

Persondata
Name	Malmsteen, Yngwie
Alternative names	Lannerbäck, Lars Johan Yngve
Short description	Musician
Date of birth	1963-06-30
Place of birth	Stockholm, Sweden
Date of death
Place of death