Ben Woods: The Flametal Interview

By: Dr. Matt Warnock

Photo Credit: Michael J

The brainchild of guitarist Benjamin Woods, Bay area band Flametal melds elements from both the Flamenco and Metal genres, hence the name. By bringing together Flamenco rhythms and instruments with Metal intensity and aggression, Flametal is one of the most creative fusion groups to hit the scene in recent memory. With a live show that features Flamenco dancer and head-banging, the group is as entertaining to catch live as they are to listen to on record.

Besides being an inventive arranger, having the creativity to combine these two diverse genres or music, Woods is a highly proficient performer. Playing these songs with his fingers, while nailing the solos often note-for-note from the original recordings, is no easy task. Though this would push many finger-style players to the limits of their technique, Woods always seems relaxed and comfortable at any tempo and with any lick, no matter how difficult they may be.

While some people may scoff at the idea of combing Flamenco and Metal, calling it a gimmick or what have you, Flametal is not that kind of music. After listening to the record, regardless of what you may think of this unique fusion of musical styles, it’s apparent that Woods is playing from the heart. That he loves both metal and Flamenco, and is bringing these two genres together with the utmost sincerity and musicianship.

Guitar International recently sat down with Woods to discuss his musical background, love of metal and Flamenco music and where his latest record Heavy Mellow.

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Matt Warnock: Flametal is a combination of Spanish Flamenco music and Heavy Metal. What was the initial inspiration behind bringing together these two genres in your music?

Ben Wood: I used to live in Seattle and play speed metal in various bands, and I was living in a house with a bunch of friends and my electric guitar was stolen one day by one of our roommates that we didn’t know so well. Turns out he was a junkie, and he took all my speakers, my amp and my guitar, so all I had left was my classical guitar. I was a guitar geek and I loved to practice all day, so I just kept playing speed metal on my classical.

After a while I started to think, “Hey, this sounds like that Spanish shit.” [Laughs] And so I decided to check it out and began learning to play Flamenco guitar. I thought if anything I could learn a little bit of that music and it would help me have a more exotic style on the electric guitar. After I started learning Flamenco I never bought another electric guitar again. I just got deeper and deeper into it, and it’s been 15 years now that I’ve focused on learning that style of music.

Photo Credit: Michael J

Matt: Did you seek out a Flamenco guitarist to study with, or did you just end up studying the genre on your own?

Ben: I did learn a lot of it on my own, but I got to a point where I hit a wall because I really didn’t know what I was doing. I ended up taking lessons, one per month, with a Flamenco guitarist for about a year. That gave me a good foundation in Flamenco guitar, but what was really important was that his wife was a Flamenco dancer. If you want to really learn how to play Flamenco you have to learn how to accompany the dancer and the singers. So, for the next five years I played for her dance classes, three days a week.

It was far removed from the speed metal stuff I had been doing previously, but I got to spend three evenings a week surrounded by beautiful women, playing Flamenco guitar. Can’t go wrong with that. [Laughs] That was all in Seattle, and then I moved to the Bay area where I played for more classes and started doing gigs and concerts, which is when I really became a professional Flamenco guitarist.

Matt: Those two genres seem to be a world apart, especially with how they’re played with the right hand. But, did you find that you were able to transfer some of the left-hand technique that you learned playing speed metal over to the Flamenco music you were studying at the time?

Ben: I always thought that they were very similar, especially in the left-hand and scales, those kinds of things. When I was studying Flamenco, my goal then shifted from becoming more exotic on the electric guitar to bringing my metal background over to the classical guitar.

I often thought about how cool it would be to hear someone like Paco De Lucia shredding over a metal tune, and so I wanted to come as close to that as possible with my playing. Just try to do something totally different that brought together the two styles of music that I loved to play.

Matt: You mentioned working with Flamenco dancers, and I’ve seen some videos of you playing live with dancers and clappers as part of your ensemble. Is this a regular part of any Flametal show or do you only do that for special occasions?

Ben: It is, that’s a regular part of our big concerts, it doesn’t always work out for our smaller shows, but for any concert that we do we have dancers and clappers. The reason we do that is because everything that we play is Flamenco in a way that all Flamenco dancers know. They understand what the rhythm is, what we’re doing, they can all dance to it.

We’re following authentic song structures and Flamenco rhythms, at least to a point, then I take my liberties with the tonalities. Instead of staying in one key we go in different directions, instead of staying on one chord I’ll go somewhere else, where I really shouldn’t go. That’s what I love about metal, there are now rules. If it sounds good you do it.

In Flamenco there’s a lot of improvisation, but the reason we can do that is because there is form and structure. There are unwritten rules that we follow that allow us to improvise in that style. That’s the great thing about Flamenco music. I can get on stage with a dancer from Japan or a clapper from France or whatever, and because we all know the same foundations of the style, we can get up and play a Flamenco show without any rehearsal. We all know the same musical language and that allows us to get up there and play the music without thinking about it.

Using that as sort of a template for the band, I bring in the stuff from metal that doesn’t make sense, all the harsh notes and dissonant chords, that’s what makes it a challenge to pull off, and at the same time makes it a lot of fun to do.

Matt: In the traditional Flamenco ensemble, players use acoustic guitars, but since you have a full drum kit with you on stage do you plug in through an onboard system, or do you run through a mic into a PA?

Ben: Man, I’ve been through so many guitars and setups trying to make this work. Right now I use Godin guitars. I’m endorsed by Godin, and then just made a new guitar that sounds just like an acoustic with a mic in front of it. It’s great. I can play a huge stadium and not have to worry about feedback. I’ve never really been able to use a mic and PA for my guitar, which never works. It’s old technology. Even with just a bass player there are sound issues, unless you get to sit 20 feet away from each other, there’s no way that’s going to work.

To be honest, I’m not interested in old technology, or getting that old sound. I’m not interested in sounding like I’m from Spain. I went through all that bullshit, but now I’m more concerned with sounding like myself, using the Flamenco genre as a way to express myself, and not worrying about how authentic I sound, or if I sound like I grew up in Spain. That’s not the point of my music or this ensemble.

Photo Credit: Michael J

Matt: There are a lot of classic metal tunes on the record Heavy Mellow. What was it about those particular songs that drew you to them and inspired you to include them on the new record?

Ben: Each and every tune on there definitely brings me back to a time in my youth. Every tune on that album is the best single off of those albums, at least for me. The songs also span a lot of different variations of the metal genre itself. There’s a KISS song on there. Are they even metal? I don’t know, but I always put them in the metal category. There is also a song by King Diamond, which is a band that most people in metal have never even heard of. So, these are some of my favorite songs, but they’re also ones that have great melodies, so that they would transfer over into the Flamenco genre.

I have to tell you, one of my favorite genres in Death Metal, and I would have loved to do some of those songs on the record, but there’s no melody in the singing, so how could I get that across in an instrumental version? It just wouldn’t work. So, I chose songs that have extremely great melodies, Queensryche, Yngwie Malmsteen, those songs are so great that after the first time you hear them you’ll never forget them.

When I’m not working with the band, I do a lot of solo gigs in restaurants and clubs, and I’ve started putting these songs in my sets. The grey-haired golfers eating dinner after a day on the course have no idea that they’re rocking out to Slayer or Malmsteen, and they think it’s the sweetest, most exotic music there is. They have no idea that they’re enjoying some of the heaviest metal songs of all time.

I even played some Iron Maiden at a wedding, which sounds crazy. But, in that context it worked great, and all the kids and grandparents were diggin’ it and stuff. I don’t know if that’s a bad thing for metal, but for me I think they’re just classic songs that I wanted to pay tribute to in a slightly different style.

Matt: Heavy Mellow has a more acoustic vibe than some of your other stuff, with most of it being just nylon-stringed guitar and percussion. Is this the direction you’re going with this project in the future, or can we expect more stuff from you featuring the larger ensemble as well?

Ben: It is a lot different, but that’s not where I’m going with the band, we haven’t taken a 180. This is really a solo record. I recorded all the instruments myself in my kitchen on a laptop. The reason I did that was to pay tribute to those songs, but to also do something that was entirely metal but without drums or plugged in guitar. It’s not a new direction, it’s just something I wanted to do myself to try and bring more attention to these songs and to what we’re doing as a band.

We’ve got a new record coming out soon that will feature some great guest artists on it, including Marc Rizzo from Soulfly and guys from Megadeth and Death, which will be all original material. It’ll probably feature more death-metal singing, which for me is therapy. It really helps me when I can go to a show and scream my heart out on stage. Even if people don’t like what I’m doing I like it, and that’s all that matters. As a professional musician there are times when I have to play other people’s music, but this is my band and I’m going to play the music that I love with Flametal.