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Hailing from Thesaloniki Greece, Gus G. has a rich history as a virtuoso guitarist. He is one of the very, very few guitarist to be part of Ozzy Osbourne’s band. If that doesn’t say enough, Gus has a line of signature guitars and has made a name for himself releasing solo albums, as well as ones with his band, Firewind. His amazingly quick rise to success in the music business is evident from only spending three weeks at Berklee College before jettisoning straight to the Metal scene. This can be read about on many websites, most notably, his own. The Wikipedia Page for him also reveals some of his story.
Gus came to be part of Mike’s solo album by what may seem like ‘chance,’ but seems more like the realization of one many “invisible signs."
Initially, Mike wrote every note on every instrument on this album using virtual instruments. This included all the initial solos for every song just like he did with his attempted mostly all female band Chix ’n Stix as when he wrote demo music for Extreme for an album that never came to be. Mike used a set of drum pads, midi sound module and one of Nuno Bettencourt’s amplifier rigs to make virtual guitar solos.
He played his Invisible Signs demos for a few guitarists before running into Gus. Nobody wanted to match them. Mike understood this and was leaning towards perhaps coauthoring some rather than writing them all, but he wanted the drums to play the solos in some way.
On one particluar day when Dream Theater was traveling through Istanbul Airport. When he got into a lounge to get some food, there was only one open seat in the area - right next to Gus G.! Gus was kind enough to invite Mike to sit.
Gus asked him what he was up to and Mike responded by telling him about his solo endeavors and that he did not have a guitarist for it. Gus heard the first song, took his headphones out and told Mike he wanted to be a part of the album and could the crazy solos a try. Into the process, both Gus and Mike realized that some songs would be better served with guitarist driven solos, so Gus offered his own on the tracks he is listed as creating them on.
Mike offers these words about Gus: “I cannot wrap my head around the fact that this guy actually could (and was nice enough to) play some of the solos I wrote. They really were not made for guitar. I know that. In no way can I create solos for an instrument I do not play, but I had such a gas of a time creating them that all I cared about was that Gus would see what he could do with some of them.
Additionally, I’ve always gotten the feeling that guitarists would rather be stung by hornets than play keyboard dirivng music note for note. I really just wanted someone to have a good sense of humor about it and just try them. Nuno was really kind to me when he heard my first attempt at doing this way back in 1995 and said he was going to learn them, so that gave me the confidence to just do it. Of course Exteme disbanded before that could come to fruitition, but the seed was planted. Gus made me feel very happy saying he’d try them. I felt so relieved that he would put his entertain my craziness. Also, it is mind blowing to me that the vibe of the solos that he created matched the essence of the lyrics that he never heard while recording his tracks. He only knew the names of the tracks."
