Neal Schon – HuffPost 7.7.14

Mike Ragogna: Neal, what advice do you have for new artists?

Neal Schon: It’s a rough business out there. It’s very, very difficult to get notoriety as a new artist. What I tell my son who’s an amazing guitar player is just be seen as much as you can be seen, play wherever you can play and if you play well enough, I’d hit up every studio in the area and say you’re available for session work and just play with as many people as you can play with and be heard. With the demise of record companies and even clubs… Smaller clubs are the place for a new artist to play because you can’t play anything bigger than that with clubs for the most part. It’s really rough, man, everything is in the digital domain. Try to make decent recordings and use what you have. With the new equipment out there, you can actually make a great-sounding record in your bedroom off a computer…Pro Tools and a computer. I think it’s possible; the thing is just getting it out there. I think the best means of doing that is through all the media. Everything is media driven, It’s so different than it used to be. You don’t have record companies working it and A&R guys. It’s very difficult.

MR: Is there any technology out there that you’re liking these days?

NS: I love the Fractal unit that I’m using, the Axe-Fx. That unit is monstrous. I use it live, I use it in the studio, I have rows and rows of amplifiers, you can do studio effects on it, it’s a pretty amazing piece of gear that you can plug in and use in any instance. You can be live, I can literally just leave without a back line, take that box and a small case and a couple of guitars and head to Europe or wherever and plug directly into a PA and have all my sounds there. Traveling light is really a great way to go. It’s very road-trustworthy. I’ve used it on tour now for years and have never had a problem, which means everything.