Quotes from Synyster Gates

If you write a country song, and it's the best song you've ever written but throw it out because you're a metal band, you'd be an idiot.

I don't like using fourths and fifths. Instead, I'll come up with a harmony line made up of major and minor thirds above the melody, then I'll drop it down an octave so that the melody is on top and the harmony line is major and minor sixths below it.

Breaking Benjamin, they're such incredible songwriters.

The thing about me is that I'm very fortunate to have had the opportunities with Avenged Sevenfold in songwriting. I really think it's helped to bolster my guitar playing as well.

Breaking Benjamin, talk about songwriting, I mean, some of the greatest songwriters of the modern era. And, obviously, it's a little heavier.

There's nothing like having some healthy competition. We really strive to think outside the box by taking the standard approach the then twisting it a little, all the while trying something new.

For the first two weeks after he passed, we were done as a band. We were just done. And because of the fans and Jimmy's parents and relatives and stuff like that, they just demanded that we continue on and spread the legacy that is, you know, the crazy James 'The Rev' Sullivan.

Just based on the primary adage of the necessity breeding innovation, it was just like 'Well, what makes me the guitar player that I am?' and I feel like I listen to so much different music, and I'm a student of so many genres of music, and I feel like it's fun to apply those things and anything super applicable to any type of music.

When practicing, it's great to break a part down into its different elements, start slowly, and then try to build up the speed until you're playing as fast as you possibly can.

I'm a huge Weezer fan, and 'Pinkerton' is just a crazy, crazy neurotic album.

We wanted to do something really, really different, something next level, and use new technology and things.

Lyrically, 'Nightmare' is an absolute masterpiece to me.

There is no doubt in my mind that I was going to do what my father did, but it wasn't kind of a family-business thing.

I'm obsessed with great endings and crazy intros and stuff like that. I think we all are from what we've listened to and stuff, so I've always focused on great bridge melodies that just kind of naturally fit, or like a crazy ending at the end of 'Seize the Day,' something like that.

We're trying to leave no stone unturned, to push forward in every aspect of what it means to be a band. Because this really matters to us. Metal matters to us. And we know exactly how much it means to kids out there, too.

We've had some huge moments. But we've always been on a steady, gentle, upward slope, and I think that keeps us grounded. There's been no overnight success here, and we haven't dealt with a whole lot of hot and cold.

Rolling Stones came later for me. I was a Beatles guy. All of us were pretty much more along the lines of Beatles guys than we were Stones or Elvis.

I wouldn't be one-third of the player I am today if it wasn't for Avenged. They're an inspiring group of guys, and I'm constantly challenged to write things beyond my ability and then figure out how to play them.

Bullet for My Valentine, we're bros. We've been in the trenches with those guys.

I think it's beneficial to practice with a metronome or drum machine in order to strengthen your sense of time. It will help your concept of time and improve your feel.

We're more about other things over odd timings: orchestration, composition, horn/vocal arrangements - that's where we get super weird.

Our music is being played on MTV and the radio. That's something that still blows us away. And we did it our way.

Korn is great friends of ours, so to be on tour with friends is usually our number one. We've been very blessed to meet a lot of great bands, successful bands, that we can go tour with.

I learned sweep picking from a variety of sources. One was a Frank Gambale instructional video, but he executes his sweeps a little differently.