Sweden's own Mattias "IA" Eklundh is a true Axe Master whose self-taught unorthodox style of play has earned him a place high up in the ranks of the guitarist hierarchy.

Eklundh's unique brand of guitar mechanics is completely original, his only real influence was Frank Zappa. Like Zappa, Eklundh is an outstanding musician with a sense of humor and a knack for zany instrumental and ingenious sounds. His freakish mind enables him to hear music in the most common of sounds. Not only does Eklundh's guitar want to kill your momma, but your daddy too..

With a home-brewed, raw stripped down approach Eklundh has wowed millions world wide. His outlandish sounds [which he manipulates from anything from hose-clips to dildo's] earned him and his band [Freak Kitchen] a loyal fan base and even caught the attention of fellow Axe Master, Steve Vai who signed him to his label [Flavored Nations.]. Vai and Eklundh met through e-mail and soon after hooked-up to record "Freak Guitar."

"Freak Guitar" is exactly that. A masterpiece of guitar work that truly demonstrates Eklundh's knack for creativity and originality. When you listen to this album your guaranteed to scratch your head and ask yourself, "How'd he do that?" [For more on Mattias 'Ia' Eklundh log to: www.freakguitar.com and check out www.favorednations.com

First off, how does it feel to be hailed as an Axe Master?

MATTIAS: Well, it's always good to boost your ego for ten seconds and very flattering, of course, [hehe.] Still, making music and bending that string will always be the most important thing. You're semi-hip one year and gone the next one. I will always do the same thing anyway, because I am in love with music and interested to see what's hiding behind the six stringed corner.

You must have known that you were the 'MAN' once they made you your own signature Apple Horn guitar line. How big of an honor was that?

MATTIAS: I couldn't in my wildest imagination believe I would have such a fabulous instrument with my own name on it (and even get paid for it!), be on a label like Favored Nations and generally be able to buy a house and feed the dogs by playing the guitar with a dildo, ergh, ergh. Needless to say, it's a great, great honor.

I read that you are a huge Zappa fan.. What was it about Frank Zappa that inspired you so much?

MATTIAS: Everything. Really. I got every album, on LP, CD, various versions, videos, e t c, and I love it all. True inspiration. It's hard to describe Zappa's genius, he was just the best.

Throughout time, has there been anyone, in your opinion, who has come close to Zappa's genius?

MATTIAS: There are so many I respect and whose musical work I admire tremendously: John McLaughlin, Igor Stravinsky, Donald Fagen and Walter Brecker, Tom Petty, Bela Bartok, Don Henley, Olivier Messiaen, Django Reinhardt and many more. All unique in their own way.

What are some of the Zappa traits that you have carried out into your sound?

MATTIAS: Hard to say. Maybe tonality and rhythm. Eager trying to break new, personal, ground.

How did you hook up with Steve Vai?

MATTIAS: He contacted me via e-mail. At first I thought it was a real bad joke. Steve is a hero and influenced me a lot when I decided to begin practising guitar hard core in my mid-teens. So, naturally, I was completely blown away that he liked my zany music and Swedish licks and wanted me to be on Favored Nations.

Your album "Freak Guitar" is incredible.. How would you describe this album?

MATTIAS: Thank you. I think the best way to describe Freak Guitar is like a day at an (weird) amusement park, I'd like to think. I recorded it without any thought about commerical potential or even releasing some of the tracks. Nobody is more surprised than myself about its success. The fact that a lot of non-guitar playing people have bought it makes me even happier. It has a little for everyone if you have a liberal relation to music.

Listening to your music it is extremely apparent that you are creative, experimental and revolutionary; Where do your musical ideas stem from? How does that creative mind operate?

MATTIAS: Everytime it's different. When I do my solo thing, I always compose, record and mix one song at a time to make it stand proud of its own. When I record with my band Freak Kitchen, it's the other way around. Inspiration is everywhere. At the moment I have discovered truly weird new sounds in my house (where I have only lived for about a year and a half). My girlfriend's printer also made a very appealing noise I managed to get on hard disk before it broke down, dubbed it with guitar. It mutated into something very strange, yet catchy in a bizarre way. Interesting things are everywhere to grasp, just gotta see it coming.

How do you take a story or concept in your mind and express it through music?

MATTIAS: Usually I build things piece by piece very slow, often listening back to see if it works. A tune like Dr Pangloss Goes to Lisbon is put together and composed at the same time with the only "framing" being the tonic in G and a chapter from the Voltaire satire Candide.

There must be a ton of emotions running through those fingers.

MATTIAS: I try as much as possible to make the guitar "sing" a melody (when not wanking my brains out with IMPORTANT LICKS) to not alienate the listeners who are not musicians. That requires tone and I believe the best tone appears when you got something to say.

You also grew up a big Kiss fan; In fact wasn't it a bribe from you mother with the Kiss 'Destroyer' album that began your interest in music?

MATTIAS: It was. I am still a big Kiss fan, although a slightly jaded one for the moment after reading Simmons autobiography Kiss and Make-Up (well, I wasn't that naive before but always hoped for the true band spirit to come back and all that).

You even added an awesome cover of 'Detroit Rock City' to this album, out of all the Kiss classics why did you choose 'Detroit Rock City' as a tribute to the band that inspired you so much? MATTIAS: I thought it would make a perfect gypsy song when fooling around with it one day. I also thought the guitar harmony in the mid-section was the most beautiful thing I ever heard when I was kid, ergh. How did you know that the gypsy approach would work so well for that track?

MATTIAS: I could hear the amazing Django Reinhardt play it inside my head since the tonality of Detroit Rock City is pretty much the same as many gypsy jazz tunes although Paul Stanley probably would deny it.

Tell me about 'The Mud Man?'

MATTIAS: The song is a cheesy fusion of, well... I am not sure what to call it. Mr Mud himself is the uglyness of mankind manifested into a single creature.

The Mud Man is always growing; how big is the Mud Man right now?

MATTIAS: Of proportions unknown to man except one specific made of malign clay...

Explain the 'Evil Shower,' I read that it almost killed you or something..

MATTIAS: Yeah, I thought of joining a boy choir afterwards, hrm. I got a similar piece of sinister machinery when I lived in Copenhagen for three years. Never trust showers of any kind.

I love the oxymoron behind 'Revenge of the Bambi Loving Terrorist' what inspired that tune?

MATTIAS: The big boss of the meat industry in North America spoke about all kinds of activists and called them (with monumental distaste) "those Bambi-loving terrorists". I thought they needed a some kind of revenge on a sophisticated statement like that.

Some of your stuff was written for vocals, have you ever thought of the possibility of singing some of the lyrics yourself?

MATTIAS: Oh, I do, all the time, with Freak Kitchen. I am sitting in the studio right now mixing our fifth album, entitled Move, where I, beside play the guitar, sing lead vocals.

What do you do when your not playing guitar? Any hobbies?

MATTIAS: Watching movies, reading, taking the dogs for a serious walk in the woods, chopping wood.

What type of music is in your CD player right now? (Be honest)

MATTIAS: Donald Fagen's Kamariad, Bruce Hornsby's The Way it is, Mats and Morgan Live, Shakti's The Believer.

Are there any touring plans in the works?

MATTIAS: We try to combine my Freak Guitar stuff with the Freak Kitchen material and Freak Kitchen are constantly on the road. Hope to make it to the US in the near future.

What other tricks are up your sleeve?

MATTIAS: We have just released my 13-year old guitar monster friend's Johan Randén's debut album which I have written and produced. I am always working on new guitar music, it takes a lot of time avoiding stepping in the same tracks. After the Freak Kitchen album is released in October we will go back on the road and then start all over again.

© 1998-2002 Sinbad Productions / BallBusterHardMusic.com
No Material, Written, May Be Reproduced Without Permission From SinBad
Prods/Communciations and or the Recording Artist and Their
Representation