MK: A long time! I started fiddling with guitar when I was about 8 yrs. old, cause my brother played guitar and there was always a guitar around the house. I got my first guitar when I was 10. So, I’ve been playing over 20 yrs.

MK: All my rhythm playing is part Tony Iommi. My lead playing was influenced by a lot of early metal and hard rock players, Nugent, Blackmore, Schenker... even some blues rock players like, Frank Marino & Johnny Winter.

MK: It’s mostly Metal but its more like "sonic metal artwork". I’ll use whatever is available to create a composition that will stir up visual imagery.

MK: I usually record with guitarist Steve Booke, at his project studio - Porcelain God Studio here in NY. Believe it or not, I don’t even own a 4-track recorder. I put the music together in my head and usually don’t even know what the whole song is going to sound like until it’s complete. Some parts come out just the way I had envisioned them, like the mid-section of Neo-Demonica with the animal noises and stuff. Other parts don’t come out as I had planned but I work with them anyway.

MK: It’s a concept instrumental album, which is probably rare in the world of guitar rock. It’s like Dante’s Inferno in a music medium - a trip through hell, each song or composition representing a different corridor or level.
 
PA ~ How is the CD being received?

MK: It seems that people either love it or just completely ignore it. Some people just don’t seem to get it - get what I was trying to do. I played around with the composition structures so its not what people are used to hearing. Most of the pieces are not, verse-chorus-verse-chorus style. Most of the time I went for projecting an atmosphere first, and the shredding & flashy guitar playing came secondary.

MK: The one I most enjoyed recording was “Pandemonium in The Mausoleum”. I had guest guitar solo spots from Jack Starr, Rob Balducci, Carl Roa (Magic Elf), and Steve Booke in that song. I also had keyboardist Don Lowerre come in - we did some trade off leads at the end of the piece that are just killer. It was a lot of fun recording so it is definitely one of my faves. Also, the title track, “Mechanica Diablo” and “Neo-Demonica”.

No. Perhaps after my next CD.

MK:  I have a CD release called "Island of Lost Souls", with my Metal Band, SKULGRINDER. We have a great traditional metal style vocalist, Brian Andersen, and I’m definitely excited about this CD. Skulgrinder is a full band project with Kato Perragine on drums & Curt Robinson on bass.

MK: >From 1996 - 2001 I published and ran a underground guitar magazine, “Guitar-2001 magazine”. We did interviews with dozens of guitarists including:John Petrucci, Zakk Wylde, Steve Morse, George Lynch, Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Michael Schenker...,and a lot more underground and indie label guitarists (back issues and a compilation CD still available). When I was done with the magazine, I realized I had all these great links and contacts. I had also built up traffic from other site links and sort of had a brand name. So I decided to leave the site up as a resource center for indie contacts. In a way, it’s my way of giving something back to all the people that followed and supported the magazine when it was active.

MK: Oh, yeah. I have plenty. One time we get to this gig and I have all this promo material to bring in (CDs, radio request cards, T-Shirts, Mailing list sheets, etc.). We get into the club and I check like 3 times to make sure we have everything. We set up this table with all this stuff and I couldn’t believe it, everything was going so smooth. The club manager comes over to us and says we’re going on in 20 minutes. All the band members say, “Great...” but, not me. I did forget something. My guitar was sitting in our practice studio some 40 miles away from the gig! I didn’t want to tell the other band members so I make up some excuse; I tell them I’m going down the block to the deli for some smokes. Well, my bass player knew something wasn’t right so he follows me out of the club and catches me getting into my car. He starts grilling me saying, “Where the hell are you going..., What’s going on, blah, blah, blah.” Finally I confide in him and tell him I have to go back to the studio to get my guitar. I tell him, “Stall for time.” So, I think he’s going to be all pissed off and start yelling and making a commotion but, it seems as if a light bulb just goes on in his head (you know that look?). He says to me, “While your there, can you get my bass?”
 
PA ~ Give us your thoughts on the indie music scene good and not so good.
MK: Well, it is what it is. It’s a lot of hard work for an indie artist. Most big mags and radio are a closed market. They’re told who to write about and who to play - and that’s, that. Right now, I’m a little concerned that there are so few independent print magazines & zines left. There used to be tons of them, now there’s just a handful. While there are plenty of web-sites to get reviews from, they don’t seem to have the same impact. Perhaps it’s because there are so many places to visit on the internet - millions of sites to visit. Also, I think as an indie artist we need a bigger network of underground radio shows - more shows like “One Never Knows”, all across the US. There’s a big wide world of music out there. Unfortunately, only a small sliver of it is ever heard by the masses.