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December 7, 2001.
Q: Why did you become the silversmith from the guitarist? Cause which became the
Silversmith.
Armand: I was teaching guitar in London and I started working part time(2
days a week selling jewellery). One customer came in the shop and wanted
a skull ring made and no one in the workshop could do it. I said to the
customer come back in 3 weeks it will be ready. He was very happy with
the ring and after that the next order was done, and everyday I got better
and quicker. Same as guitar playing...
Q: Whom is the influenced musicians?
Armand: As a guitarist my influences are /Jeff Beck/Jimi Hendrix/Steve
Vai/Joe Satriani. But I also love paul Kossoff, Joe Walsh, Leslie West,
My favorite band of all time is FREE.also James Gang, Cactus, Grand Funk,
Mountain, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, UFO, etc...
My ambition as a guitarist would be to play for Paul Rodgers, Frank Zappa
(too lat for that one) or Ozzy Osbourne. In the past I auditionned for
Iron Maiden, UFO, Scorpions... I have played in London with a Van Halen
type group called PANAMA.
Q: You are very busy. But, Is CD manufactured in influence even now? Why
is it? Tone quality of 2nd album was also improving very much rather than
1st. Is all work/play performed by only you?
Armand: The 1st CD was done on a 8 track with a £150 drum machine. The 2nd CD was done with a 16 track machine and a £1500 drum machine. Yes I played all the guitar/bass and keyboards myself and wrote all the music as well as programming the drums, and mixing all the stuff. "Field of dreams" is one of my favorites, I wrote it as a movie soundtrack.maybe for ALIEN 5? My favorite song to play is the HENDRIX type track "A HOLE in the wall" (mistitled on some CD's as "Fish like swimming").
Q: Is it said that your studio is under construction? What studio does
it become?
Armand: The studio is finished. It has 25 Marshall heads, 16 Marshall speakers,
a double Ludwig kid a 32 channel desk and will go digital next year.
Q: You have many guitars, which is your main guitar?
Armand: I have about 80 guitars, they all my favorites. I play all the
instruments and also programed the drums using an MPC 3000. I used vintage
guitars and vintage Marshalls. All the sounds on the CD are actually guitars
not keyboards.Only "The memory of water" has a Kurzweil keyboard.
I wanted a lot of Crazy guitar sounds on RIDES AGAIN.
Q: I love the brand name. Very cool! Why is "CRAZY PIG"?
Armand: CRAZY PIG was the name I wanted for my band but the other 4 members
prefrred PANAMA. I decided I will use this name anyhow. Most jeweleries
are called, Smith and Samuels & sons, or Daniel & Daniel, Asprey
& Garrard. All very boring names, and also very pretentious. CRAZY
PIG is fun name to remember and it is also a native American name like
CRAZY HORSE.
Q: Although there are Many Works of Skull, Animal or Character System,
why is it? And when carving the skull, where does it carve carefully?
Armand: My father was an artist painter in France and I always loved drawing
comic books characters like skulls and monsters, demons etc... I wanted
to work in comic books, I also wanted to work for HIPNOSIS the company
that did album covers for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Yes I love detail
on a ring. To achieve a great design you MUST be able to draw very well
by hand not on a computter, secound you MUST be able to bring the design
in 3 dimention. For that you MOST be able to carve in 3 dimention. The
carvings are like NETSUKE, it is the same skill required. I have made hundreds
of pieces and rejected them if I though the detail or design was not right.
Other jewellers do not reject at all and that is the difference.
*NETSUKE: The slide stop attached in the end of strings, such as a pillbox, a tobacco
pouch, and width arrival. There are various forms and a material is Kazuno, ivory, metal,
pottery, etc. It is called the work of art which is in a palm.
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