At age seven, Yngwie Malmsteen saw a television news report on the death of Jimi Hendrix. To quote his official website, "The day Jimi Hendrix died, the guitar-playing Malmsteen was born". At the age of 10 he took his mother's maiden name Malmsten as his surname, slightly changed it to Malmsteen, and Anglicized his given name Yngve to "Yngwie". 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.
Through his emulation of Paganini concerto pieces on guitar, Malmsteen developed a prodigious technical fluency. Malmsteen's guitar style included a wide, violin-like vibrato inspired by classical violinists, and use of such minor scales as the Harmonic minor, and minor modes such as Phrygian, and Aeolian. Malmsteen also cites Brian May of Queen, Steve Hackett of Genesis, Uli Jon Roth, Alex Lifeson of Rush, and Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple as influences.
After the release of ‘War to End All Wars’ in 2000, singer Mark Boals left the band. Malmsteen went on tour with former Ark vocalist Jorn Lande. Due to various tensions on tour, Jorn left before the recording of Malmsteen's next album, Attack!!. He was replaced by former Rainbow vocalist Doogie White. White's 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', and 'Blood of the Snake' 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- possibly alluded to his status as a guitarist.
Yngwie released 'Unleash the Fury' in 2005. He is married to April and has a son named Antonio after Antonio Vivaldi, and they live in Miami, Florida. A noted Ferrari enthusiast, he owned a black 1985 308 GTS for 18 years before selling it on eBay, and a red 1962 250 GTO. In the mid-2000s, he gave up smoking and drinking alcohol. In 2007, he 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. This month sees Yngwie Malmsteen issuing his latest studio triumph, ‘Perpetual Flame.’ The album will be the first-ever Yngwie album to be released via Rising Force Records (distributed via Koch), while the album also marks the debut on an Yngwie album by ex-Judas Priest/Iced Earth front man, Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens. Twelve tracks of pure six string metallic bliss (which stretches to almost 70 minutes total), the album was produced and engineered 
by Yngwie himself, and mixed by Roy Z (who has previously worked with Judas Priest and Bruce Dickinson, among others).
We caught up with Yngwie and talked to him about his new album and few other goodies. Here is what he graciously shared with us.
ALL ACCESS MAGAZINE: The Maestro, how are you?
YNGWIE J.MALMSTEEN: Fine
AAM: It’s been 3 years and now you are releasing ‘Perpetual Flame’ on your own Rising Force Records.
YJM: It’s a logical step in this day and age. I’ve had some seriously bad experiences with other labels throughout the years. Now my wife, my manager, is basically taking care of that now. The most important release right now of course is ‘Perpetual Flame’. In the future, as time goes on, we’ll release more, like back catalog, live stuff, whatever. The luxury is that we can take any sort of live setting or song and put it out whenever you want to. But October 14 and the release of ‘Perpetual Flame’ is what we are concentrating on now.
AAM: What was your writing process for this CD and how was it different from your past work?
YJM: Well, that’s a good question. I’ll tell you exactly what was different. Normally, when you make a record, I’ve always done it, I think most of us do it, is it goes through a cycle. You do an album, you do a tour. Then after the tour, you start writing songs, you demo and then you record the drums, you record bass guitar and vocals. You mix it then you go out on the road and put out the album. With this one, I started writing songs sporadically, whenever I felt like it. Then about a year and a half ago, I decided to go into the studio with a drummer. One of my studios, it’s a luxury owning them, I said, “Let’s go do this!” So I put the live drums to about 30 tracks and really really cool vibes, drums, backing tracks, whatever, and then, go on tour. Then I came back and I hear, oh, this sounds different. Then I do some guitar and some keyboards and some lyrics, whatever. Then I go on tour again. I go to places like Moscow, Istanbul and South America, whatever. And then I come back in stages, everything’s in stages. It was actually during this process, because I write everything, I arrange and write lyrics and everything that songs like, “Death Dealer”, “Live To Fight (Another Day)”, “Damnation Game”, “Four Horseman (Of The Apocolypse)”, all of these songs came to be. I knew that I needed another singer, that’s just it. And that’s how “Ripper” (Tim Owens) came into the situation. We met a couple of times, it was very sporadic, here and there. He came down, did a couple of songs and that was it. Then we went out to do some live gigs and then went back in and did it again. (he laughs). Nothing’s been started and finished you know and what’s the greatest thing is that the songs sound great. In fact yesterday or the day before, we actually got the first real CD and it’s a very cool feeling hearing the fruits of our labor.
AMM: Will the touring band be the same that’s on the record?
YJM: Well, no. Obviously the bass player is me, so I’ve got Bjorn Englen and Derek (Sherinian) couldn’t do it, so we got Michael Troy on keys. So it’s Patrick Johansson and me.
AMM: What one of your CD’s would you compare this to for people that haven’t listened to one of your CD’s lately?
YJM: I think, you know, it’s up to the listener of course to decide. I personally think it’s got a new feeling to it. It’s still Malmsteenisc. People say less is more and I think more is more. Everything is more. There’s more intense solos, more intense songs. Everything is more. You might go, “I’ve heard it before”, but no, this is like turbo-charged, you know?
AAM: Our buddy Roy Z ( HALFORD , DICKINSON, BACH) helped you out with mixing, how did that come about?
YJM: Well, KK Downing from PRIEST, I know him well and he actually recommended Roy. And when he came in, there was this really cool vibe, cuz he came in never hearing this stuff. To me it was so close, like my children and it’s a great thing to have someone come in totally fresh, cuz it’s always better than to engineer and mix. I actually engineer myself actually.
AAM: Tell us about your new Signature guitar from Fender.
YJM: There’s actually two. The first one is updated and is absolutely stunning. I’m looking at one right now, it’s a perfect machine. Then you have ‘The Duck”, which is mind bending the way John Cruz and the other master builders, what they did was, they took my guitar, the one I actually brought from Sweden, it’s also on the cover of ‘Rising Force’. It’s been used for a couple of miles. They made it so exact, that the other day, I saw one in a guitar case in my studio and I said, “Oh, they sent me back the original!” and I’ve had that guitar for 30 years and I looked at it and I thought that was the one I had for 30 years. It’s sick. Only 100 have been made… by hand. I was in a custom shop a few weeks ago and there were like 60 of them lined up in a row and it felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. It was the weirdest thing.
AAM: Speaking of guitar players, I know that Richie Blackmore in your early career was an influence, who influences you today?
YJM: I really don’t have any influences today. My main influence for years was Classical Music; Bach, Vivaldi. My first initial impact on me was for my 8th birthday was DEEP PURPLE’s ‘Fireball’ from my older sister. I grew up in a country where there was no radio, no such thing as MTV or internet. None of that shit, there was nothing there. So when I heard that you know, it was like seeing a spaceship. I can’t describe it. To me that was a revelation. So for many years till I was like 12 or 13 that was it. The hard sound, the Marshall stacks, all that shit.
AAM: What made you combine the hard rock and the classical? I know Blackmore did it in some respect.
YJM: By the age of 10 I had every song on DEEP PURPLE’s live album ‘Made In Japan’ down. It was pretty freaky, since I was just 10 years old. I was playing guitar 12 hours a day. I was a freak. Just because I learned to play that stuff so early on, it felt like it was there. Then I heard Bach and Beethoven and all those inversions, arpeggios, harmonic minors, when I heard that, to me that was so much more intriguing, cuz there’s so much more to it. But that hard edge of rock/metal whatever you want to call it, that’s something I found out early on, that’s why I love it.
AAM: How did you hook up with Mike Varney?
YJM: What happened was, when I was a kid in Sweden, my Uncle was a professor at R & D at Philips and he was part of the team that developed CD technology and all that stuff. And he built a recording studio back in the 1950’s in a basement in a bomb shelter. When I was very young I had a reel to reel, nothing fancy, but I was able to record all the time. So I had the tapes that would float around Stockholm. One day I came home and saw Guitar Player Magazine and it said, “send your tape in and you get to be mentioned in a column or something. I figured, hey, what do I got to lose, nothing right? So I didn’t think at all that it would be played or that they would listen to it. I started writing a little letter, I remember cuz Mike would make fun of me, but I’d send it on a cassette, I would say, ‘Hey, I’m Yngwie Malmsteen, I’m 16 years old and this song is “Black Star” and then Black Star comes on, whatever. I played all the parts, drums and everything myself. Before I know it the phone is ringing off the hook and it was crazy. They said, “You’ve got to come over here.” And I’m like, “What do you mean over here?” They’d say, “You’ve got to come to L.A.” I’m like L.A..? What’s that? Look, I grew up in the North Pole man. It was a challenge for me. London was the place where you know things were going on, like MOTORHEAD and stuff. So I took one guitar and an extra pair of pants and I went, that’s it.
AAM: Did you finish writing you book yet? Your autobiography?
YJM: No I haven’t. I took a break. I started like 3 years ago. I got a lot of it done, but I’ve got to find some time for this. I don’t have time for nothing no more.
AAM: Your career is like a perpetual flame, it will never die out.
YJM: I hope not. (he laughs) I’m not gonna burn out, I shouldn’t complain, but I’m doing like 12 interviews a day. I think you’re number 9 or something today. It’s cool.
AAM: Where are you right now? Miami?
YJM: Yea, the rest of the guys took the tour bus. They’re on their way to Texas. I’m gonna fly.
AAM: On October 13, you are being inducted into Hollywood’s Rockwalk.
YJM: That’s crazy. Then the next day is the official release date of the album, the 14th.
‘Roadie Crew Magazine’ organized a poll in which 330 respected rock guitarists were asked to vote for their favorite guitarist of all-time. Yngwie checked in at a lofty number 3, only behind fellow legends Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen. Without question, 2008 is shaping up to be the year of Yngwie. We would like to thank Yngwie Malmsteen along with All Access Magazine for sharing his time with us.
For more info in YNGWIE MALMSTEEN Yngwie Malmsteen - Official Site www.yngwiemalmsteen.com
