Lewis Mapes (The Doggy)Oct 1990-J une 5, 2006
You are listening to "Marshall Law"
Scott Mapes
Influences (In
chronological order, not
necessarily amount of
impact).
Elvis
Kenny Rogers
Hank Williams
Hank Williams, Jr.
Jerry Reed
Alabama
Journey
Def Leppard
Eddie Van Halen
Jimi Hendrix
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Metallica
Queensrÿche
Yngwie Malmsteen
Rush
Megadeth
Joe Satriani
Dream Theater
chronological order, not
necessarily amount of
impact).
Elvis
Kenny Rogers
Hank Williams
Hank Williams, Jr.
Jerry Reed
Alabama
Journey
Def Leppard
Eddie Van Halen
Jimi Hendrix
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Metallica
Queensrÿche
Yngwie Malmsteen
Rush
Megadeth
Joe Satriani
Dream Theater
Nickname:MD
Favorite Color : Blue
Favorite Food: Hunan Chicken from Super Chopsticks, House
Special from Double Dragon, Supreme Pizza from Pizza Hut.
Favorite Drink: Mountain Dew
Favorite Color : Blue
Favorite Food: Hunan Chicken from Super Chopsticks, House
Special from Double Dragon, Supreme Pizza from Pizza Hut.
Favorite Drink: Mountain Dew
Just as there are two (or more) sides to every story, so it goes with musicians and
compositions.
I began playing guitar way back yonder in the 1900's. But, my musical journey starts
before that...about the early 70's if I remember correctly. (Hey, I was only 5!) But I
do remember around that time Helen Reddy’s “Delta Dawn” and Glen Campbell’s
“Rhinestone Cowboy” were all over the radio. I still remember the chorus to “Delta
Dawn” and about ½ of “Rhinestone Cowboy.”
In the second grade, I really got into Elvis. I still remember where I was when I heard
the news that he died. I was only in the 3rd grade, but I remember. In fourth grade, I
really began to hate music class. I absolutely could not STAND it!! (Huh?!!) Yeah, no
kidding. It just bored me out of my mind. I’m not sure if it was the teacher or
something else, but I’ve gotten over it!
In the fifth grade, I began to hate it even more when we were required to try out for
choir. All we had to do was sing “On Top of Old Smokey”. But I wouldn’t open my
mouth for anything! (Much like my trips to the dentist back then!) Little did I know
back then that once my voice changed that I would be blessed with a 3-1/2 octave
vocal range. (Nor did I know what an octave was back then!) Of course, I’m still
learning how to use it. “Reflections” was recorded about a year after “No Place to
Run”, and I think the difference in vocal performance is obvious. In fact, I think on
NPTR, I sound tired. I will let you in on this little secret though...most of my songs
are written to have an excuse to play guitar solos!
Anyway, sometime after 5th grade, I got back into music via Kenny Rogers and Hank
Williams. So, how did I get from that to Progressive Metal? Over the course of time.
Around the 6th grade, I was always staring at the guitars in the Sears catalog
(remember those?!). I’m not sure why I wanted one at the time, but I knew I wanted
one. My Grandma had a guitar at the time. I had no idea how to tune it, or how to
even properly fret a note. But that didn’t stop me. I can only imagine how horrendous
it really sounded!
During this time I began to write lyrics. God-awful, horrid, corny lyrics. I must have
written hundreds of pages before I wrote something halfway decent. I found them one
day and read through them, and promptly threw them out. As bad as they were, now I
wish I had kept them. (Note: I am actually physically capable of kicking myself in the
butt) As wretched as those compositions were, about 90% of them had at least one
good line. Lines that I could have stolen from myself and pieced into one of those
songs where the lyrics sound good, but nobody knows what the bloopety-bloop they’
re talking about. Ah well, ya live and learn.
Anyway, my desperate desire for a 6 string kept on until the 9th grade. By then, my
motivation for wanting a guitar had evolved to “to get girls”. (Betcha never heard
THAT one before.)
My parents told me that if I got all A’s and B’s, they would get me one for my
birthday.Well...report cards were a lot easier to forge back then! Oh sure, I COULD
have gotten the grades legitimately, but 13-year old boys aren’t always exactly role
models for discipline. (My A- in Spanish was totally legit, BTW!!) Another A and
another B were also real. But Math and I had issues at the time! (Yet, music is
considered mathematical. Go fig).
So, my parents fell for the forgery (which I can admit, now that the Statute of
Limitations has expired) and bought me a Japanese-made acoustic for my birthday that
year. I probably dinked around on that for about a year when a guy my dad worked
with said he would teach me (for free!) Of course, that was fine by me. And I finally
started making progress. I started out learning how to play the melodies of Hank
Williams songs, then moved on to chords. I figured most of his songs only have two or
three chords, how hard can it be? ... I soon found out.
The first rock song I learned to play (on that acoustic) was Def Leppard’s “Rock of
Ages”. At the time, I thought “this is complicated!” Of course, it’s a fairly easy,
straight-forward song, but it was the first time I ever tried to play something like it was
on the recording. I learned it, solo and all, in about 3 hours. I thought I was taking too
long, but my teacher told my father “I can’t believe how fast he learned that.”
That was probably a small stepping stone towards my current style, but the BIG
turning point came when my teacher handed me his electric guitar, turned up the gain
on his Marshall stack, and told me to hit a barre chord. It was an A at the 5th fret. I
wasn’t sure exactly the revelation I was having at that moment, I just know my eyes lit
up, the hair stood up on the back of my neck, and something inside me went “Oh
yeah!”.From then on, I had to listen to ANYTHING with that sound.
But, I quickly realized a Marshall stack alone does not a good song make. I remember
where I was the first time someone played me Eddie Van Halen’s “Eruption”.
Remember, at the time, there was not the plethora guitarist with amazing technical
ability like there is today. Eddie was THE Man!
So, upon my first listen of “Eruption”, I was dumbfounded. It sounded-to me-
humanly impossible. Or impossible for me to ever be able to do. I thought to myself,
“Wow, I’ll never be able to play anything like that.”
About the mid 90's, I bought a Stienberger bass. But it was about 10 years earlier,
when I saw Rush’s “The Big Money” video on MTV, that I realized bass doesn’t
have to be boring. (See, M T V stands for Music Television. They used to play music
videos. I’m not sure why they even bother calling it MTV anymore). But, also, upon
seeing this video, I thought “Wow, I’ll never be able to play anything like that.” Yes, I’
ve had to eat my words a few times, but in theses instances,I really don’t mind. They
were kind of yummy, actually. Hmmmm.....let me take a moment to say “I’ll never be
able to sing as well as Geoff Tate a-la the ‘Mindcrime’ era”.
Okay, back to the history...in the early 90's, my cousin David Bell and I started
jamming together. I had recorded a few 4-track demos with a drum machine prior to
that, but real drummers add so much to the song. (They come up with better drum
parts than I do!) I’m especially lucky that Dave has the skill level he has. Somehow
he's able to play to my twisted time signatures and make it sound normal.
I have become more sympathetic to what it takes to do that. If a riff is too weird, I’ll
try and straighten it out. Not necessarily put it in 4/4, but straighten it out. But if I
really, REALLY, like that thing I came up with in 11/16.4 time...
In 1994 we recorded a CD called “Crinkum-Crankum” under the moniker Conflict
Theory. (Crinkum-Crankum: Anything full of twist and turns).We found Conflict
Theory was already in use. We thought of a LOT of names-all of them already in use-
before I finally came up with Skovol Unit. The story of that is on the official Skovol
Unit website.
We released “Mapping the Labyrinth” as Skovol Unit in 2003. And are currently
working on the 2nd Skovol release, currently under the working title BAM.. Taking a
look at Labyrinth and sussing out all the mistakes we made with that one. One
mistake, we’ve realized, is too much variance in the types of songs and a sonic
inconsistency in the production. So, we’ve decided Skovol Unit should be an outlet for
the heavy material. And my lighter stuff will be my “solo” material. (Even though
Dave plays on a good chunk of it!)
compositions.
I began playing guitar way back yonder in the 1900's. But, my musical journey starts
before that...about the early 70's if I remember correctly. (Hey, I was only 5!) But I
do remember around that time Helen Reddy’s “Delta Dawn” and Glen Campbell’s
“Rhinestone Cowboy” were all over the radio. I still remember the chorus to “Delta
Dawn” and about ½ of “Rhinestone Cowboy.”
In the second grade, I really got into Elvis. I still remember where I was when I heard
the news that he died. I was only in the 3rd grade, but I remember. In fourth grade, I
really began to hate music class. I absolutely could not STAND it!! (Huh?!!) Yeah, no
kidding. It just bored me out of my mind. I’m not sure if it was the teacher or
something else, but I’ve gotten over it!
In the fifth grade, I began to hate it even more when we were required to try out for
choir. All we had to do was sing “On Top of Old Smokey”. But I wouldn’t open my
mouth for anything! (Much like my trips to the dentist back then!) Little did I know
back then that once my voice changed that I would be blessed with a 3-1/2 octave
vocal range. (Nor did I know what an octave was back then!) Of course, I’m still
learning how to use it. “Reflections” was recorded about a year after “No Place to
Run”, and I think the difference in vocal performance is obvious. In fact, I think on
NPTR, I sound tired. I will let you in on this little secret though...most of my songs
are written to have an excuse to play guitar solos!
Anyway, sometime after 5th grade, I got back into music via Kenny Rogers and Hank
Williams. So, how did I get from that to Progressive Metal? Over the course of time.
Around the 6th grade, I was always staring at the guitars in the Sears catalog
(remember those?!). I’m not sure why I wanted one at the time, but I knew I wanted
one. My Grandma had a guitar at the time. I had no idea how to tune it, or how to
even properly fret a note. But that didn’t stop me. I can only imagine how horrendous
it really sounded!
During this time I began to write lyrics. God-awful, horrid, corny lyrics. I must have
written hundreds of pages before I wrote something halfway decent. I found them one
day and read through them, and promptly threw them out. As bad as they were, now I
wish I had kept them. (Note: I am actually physically capable of kicking myself in the
butt) As wretched as those compositions were, about 90% of them had at least one
good line. Lines that I could have stolen from myself and pieced into one of those
songs where the lyrics sound good, but nobody knows what the bloopety-bloop they’
re talking about. Ah well, ya live and learn.
Anyway, my desperate desire for a 6 string kept on until the 9th grade. By then, my
motivation for wanting a guitar had evolved to “to get girls”. (Betcha never heard
THAT one before.)
My parents told me that if I got all A’s and B’s, they would get me one for my
birthday.Well...report cards were a lot easier to forge back then! Oh sure, I COULD
have gotten the grades legitimately, but 13-year old boys aren’t always exactly role
models for discipline. (My A- in Spanish was totally legit, BTW!!) Another A and
another B were also real. But Math and I had issues at the time! (Yet, music is
considered mathematical. Go fig).
So, my parents fell for the forgery (which I can admit, now that the Statute of
Limitations has expired) and bought me a Japanese-made acoustic for my birthday that
year. I probably dinked around on that for about a year when a guy my dad worked
with said he would teach me (for free!) Of course, that was fine by me. And I finally
started making progress. I started out learning how to play the melodies of Hank
Williams songs, then moved on to chords. I figured most of his songs only have two or
three chords, how hard can it be? ... I soon found out.
The first rock song I learned to play (on that acoustic) was Def Leppard’s “Rock of
Ages”. At the time, I thought “this is complicated!” Of course, it’s a fairly easy,
straight-forward song, but it was the first time I ever tried to play something like it was
on the recording. I learned it, solo and all, in about 3 hours. I thought I was taking too
long, but my teacher told my father “I can’t believe how fast he learned that.”
That was probably a small stepping stone towards my current style, but the BIG
turning point came when my teacher handed me his electric guitar, turned up the gain
on his Marshall stack, and told me to hit a barre chord. It was an A at the 5th fret. I
wasn’t sure exactly the revelation I was having at that moment, I just know my eyes lit
up, the hair stood up on the back of my neck, and something inside me went “Oh
yeah!”.From then on, I had to listen to ANYTHING with that sound.
But, I quickly realized a Marshall stack alone does not a good song make. I remember
where I was the first time someone played me Eddie Van Halen’s “Eruption”.
Remember, at the time, there was not the plethora guitarist with amazing technical
ability like there is today. Eddie was THE Man!
So, upon my first listen of “Eruption”, I was dumbfounded. It sounded-to me-
humanly impossible. Or impossible for me to ever be able to do. I thought to myself,
“Wow, I’ll never be able to play anything like that.”
About the mid 90's, I bought a Stienberger bass. But it was about 10 years earlier,
when I saw Rush’s “The Big Money” video on MTV, that I realized bass doesn’t
have to be boring. (See, M T V stands for Music Television. They used to play music
videos. I’m not sure why they even bother calling it MTV anymore). But, also, upon
seeing this video, I thought “Wow, I’ll never be able to play anything like that.” Yes, I’
ve had to eat my words a few times, but in theses instances,I really don’t mind. They
were kind of yummy, actually. Hmmmm.....let me take a moment to say “I’ll never be
able to sing as well as Geoff Tate a-la the ‘Mindcrime’ era”.
Okay, back to the history...in the early 90's, my cousin David Bell and I started
jamming together. I had recorded a few 4-track demos with a drum machine prior to
that, but real drummers add so much to the song. (They come up with better drum
parts than I do!) I’m especially lucky that Dave has the skill level he has. Somehow
he's able to play to my twisted time signatures and make it sound normal.
I have become more sympathetic to what it takes to do that. If a riff is too weird, I’ll
try and straighten it out. Not necessarily put it in 4/4, but straighten it out. But if I
really, REALLY, like that thing I came up with in 11/16.4 time...
In 1994 we recorded a CD called “Crinkum-Crankum” under the moniker Conflict
Theory. (Crinkum-Crankum: Anything full of twist and turns).We found Conflict
Theory was already in use. We thought of a LOT of names-all of them already in use-
before I finally came up with Skovol Unit. The story of that is on the official Skovol
Unit website.
We released “Mapping the Labyrinth” as Skovol Unit in 2003. And are currently
working on the 2nd Skovol release, currently under the working title BAM.. Taking a
look at Labyrinth and sussing out all the mistakes we made with that one. One
mistake, we’ve realized, is too much variance in the types of songs and a sonic
inconsistency in the production. So, we’ve decided Skovol Unit should be an outlet for
the heavy material. And my lighter stuff will be my “solo” material. (Even though
Dave plays on a good chunk of it!)
