Touring with Motörhead & Aerosmith and President of ESP Guitars: Matt Masciandaro [SUB ITA]

welcome everybody today we have a very special guest mr matt machandaro ceo and president of esp guitars usa nice to meet you matt what's up are you ready nice to meet you too i i know it's been a while putting this together so we finally made it yeah we are not that close anyway so and i nine hours also different for for the timetable yeah so matt i wish to start our interview by asking you what is your role in the company nowadays and how you started working at esp well i wasn't hired to be president let me put it that way i was on in the touring business i was uh the last thing i did before working for esp was tour manager for motorhead and i knew that i wasn't going to be doing it much longer i just uh didn't really want to go through middle age and still be you know working on the road and i knew the people at esp because they were in new york and that was my home and i had an open offer from them to for a job there so in early 87 i took them up on it and i did whatever needed to be done at the time there was only five or six of us in the whole company and whether it was sales or artist relations or you know anything that's how we operated back then you know less than half a dozen people doing everything and uh a year or two into it someone from the parent company came over from japan i remember they took me out to lunch and uh said to me matt you're in charge now and when you're young i don't know how this is going to translate but sometimes you don't know what you don't know and instead of being intimidated by it i just dived right in and i had a lot of support from from the from the owner and with some hits and misses along the way uh we made it to where we are so that's a very short version of a 35 year old story but that that answers your question as to how i started i just went in you know not knowing what i was going to be uh not knowing was going to be put in front of me but uh we may not okay yeah just to make a long story short you you did well you did it well now right so i took a long time to really turn the company around because we were struggling a lot in the early years but uh eventually you know a few things happen that and and i think you have another question regarding to what were some milestones the exact way that made a difference for us but anyway esp's history goes back many years as you said starting off in a small workshop inside a music store and during the 70s the brand was established primarily in japan still then from the mid 80s it moved to new york city and jumped right into the rock and heavy movement following and supporting the development of bands such as slayer and metallica has the way to develop a new instrument changed since those days and are guitarists nowadays looking for a more versatile instrument as opposed to a more specialized guitar bass developing an instrument one of the big differences between now and back then is it takes a lot longer now back then we were small enough that i was making a lot of the decisions myself as to what the product line would be and i was only working with one factory that was exclusive to esp owned by esp so we could basically turn on a dime when it came to getting new samples made a new new product in the system now there are more people involved in making those decisions which is a good thing and uh more factories that uh we use all over asia and one in in hollywood and each factory has its own strengths and weaknesses and uh you know skill levels and delivery times and so it's a little bit more complicated getting uh new models made so uh but that comes with the territory as as you as the company grows we can't remain with a small a small boutique guitar company like we started out otherwise we'd we probably wouldn't be having this conversation because yeah indeed esp would not be of interest to enough people yeah yeah that's exactly and as far as uh specialized or uh versatile instruments i would say people look for looking for both in many cases us maybe more specialized because people are used to getting especially from esp which was part of our attraction originally people getting instruments made their own way and from esp at least they know they can get maybe an instrument based on a classic design but with a custom graphic or custom inlays or locking tremolo or specialized electronics so that's why a lot of people come to us because they don't have to settle for something off the shelf as as they once may have had to so if you want to call that specialized i think that's probably most of what we do and versatile i think a lot of the versatility comes with comes from the player you know you can't really make an instrument that's great for every style of music by the way you build it if you can't play it then that's true you know it doesn't really matter so so so uh both first little and specialized but probably more specialized okay so talking about history during the last decade we saw a moment in which the guitar and music was almost disappearing but from the records and from the hands of young producers maybe it was seemed to be after more technological tools like digital controllers loopers and so forth however in the last couple of years it looks like the interest in ensemble music and especially driven music has also increased thanks to some young rock bands so the question is has it become a challenge for a manufacturer to follow the numerous new music trends and catch up with new technologies or is it stimulating in finding new solutions and last but not least how do you feel the guitar will still be a leading instrument in the next 50 years well the guitar industry uh has been on an upward trajectory almost since the beatles appeared on ed sullivan with you know with a few bumps in the road of course um if you think about disco that's one of the most obvious ones i'm glad i wasn't selling guitars in the 70s because there must have been some panic among the guitars you know in the guitar industry when the guitar almost dropped out of sight and uh but sure enough it came back and uh the the elect the electronic music that uh where the guitar had uh played a much smaller role that's been that's been popular lately did create some concern in the guitar making industry but uh i think that guitar uh driven music call it harder rock or metal whatever you want to call it never disappears or never did this never hasn't disappeared it just may have taken a a smaller role in popular music from time to time but it's always been there and i think it will continue and i right now the guitar market is stronger than ever it's one of the most popular instruments for younger people who want to learn an instrument which is always good for the future of any industry um but we don't chase trends necessarily uh and if there isn't a trend towards electronic music then uh we don't necessarily try to build guitars that will follow that trend because it's if the guitar is not involved in the performing or creating of the music it's hard to you know sort of wedge it in there you know you have to make a guitar for people who want to play guitar uh and it's it's something that uh did create some concern in the past few years but i think if you talk to most guitar companies now they feel that we've made made it past it yeah maybe also just because i guess the number of instruments sold i mean and talk about guitars has increased a lot because of this pandemic situation also isn't it yes we as guitar makers we were very fortunate that we make the type of product that's a a play at home stay-at-home product as it's called which which uh a lot of people who were in lockdown mode at the beginning of the pandex well a lot of guitars just wanted guitarists wanted more guitars and they could order them online also and a lot of people wanted to learn how to play guitar so for a lot of guitar companies i'd say almost all of them we may have seen an upswing in business during the pandemic which we're very thankful for and we're very fortunate as opposed to many other sectors of our industry and other industries that suffered greatly yeah but uh yeah so it we we held pretty steady during the pandemic yes indeed as did many other guitar manufacturers yeah at least people had something very good to do i mean music at home locked down and just not watching television all day long music is another one right okay matt in the last 20 years we saw that the quality of the entry-level and intermediate guitars had improved a lot i mean buying a sub-brand guitar 20 years ago meant to be a problem-solving expert and in many cases still playing a not 100 percent reliable instrument and the gap between the european and u.s made and the far east production seemed to be extremely wide but today however even low budget instruments are quite reliable bought as hardware and craft how this shift has happened and what is the actual value of the us or japan production well over the years uh asian countries that were known for making very low-end instruments have become more sophisticated in their abilities to to manufacture you know china and indonesia for instance so for the price of that guitar you're getting a much better value than you may have at one point you know in previous years as you just described some of the factories in those countries have are run by owners in korea and japan that have because of the cost of manufacturing in korea for instance they decided to shut down their korea operation and open one in indonesia for instance and most of their uh business that they used to get at their korean factory has been shifted there so because they're run by uh companies that were had had a higher level of skill in making guitars their their skills have improved uh accordingly and uh once again you're getting a much better guitar for the few hundred dollars that you're paying for a chinese or indonesian-made guitar than you did a few years ago and the lines have blood uh at least people in in the industry uh have have seen and where a guitar is made is no longer as a taboo it doesn't define the quality of the guitar as much as it used to uh it's really what you get for the for the dollar not where it's made as much because you might have a factory in a certain country that's uh better at making guitars than what you thought was a more advanced country in guitar manufacturing and that's just the way it is some people look at the back of a headstock and see where it's made and automatically put it into a certain category as you know better or worse but it doesn't it's not that simple anymore yeah i agree but guitars for esp is not just production it's relationships and artists and lots of music in a very very big venues in this 40 years and what's the secret behind the many solid and long-standing relationships you have with your artists i mean and how do you keep an eye on young talents too well the secret uh well having a good working relationship with these artists is very important but when all is said and done it comes down to the instrument itself um you know guitars don't necessarily come to esp because they want to work with matt or tony or something they come here because of the instrument and this is my 35th year with the company and kirk hammett from metallica it's also his 35th year it's very easy to remember for me because we both started in 1987. yeah and i asked him basically the same question you just asked me and this this interview will be posted on our website shortly but i remember his uh answer to that question about you've arrived at 35 years with esp why why have you stuck around so long what what is it about the partnership that's that's lasted so long and he said the guitar still sounds incredible my original guitars sound as good as the day i got them and they're dependable until the end and i'm happy about it and i only see esp getting better and when you ask an artist who's been with us for you know big enough or long enough to have experience extensive experience playing esp on toured in the studio you generally get the same answer they can rely on the guitars they're built the way they want them to be built and they perform the way they expect them to they don't have to worry about that they've got plenty of other things to worry about and that's the thing that i think most artists will say the guitars are dependable and uh built the way they want them and do what they need them to do yeah and that's the key it's not such a big secret really it's what it's what is the way it should be um and as far as new artists a lot of artists have come to us especially in the earlier days when word got out that if you want if you have a vision or an idea for a guitar that you don't see anywhere or you can't get anywhere because you you can only buy what's in the in the store esp will do it for you and as we started working with artists they the word spread among them that were the company to go to for that and uh and so did the uh the general public started to see what we were making for artists and understood that esp had a custom has a custom shop and there were a wide variety of options for you to choose from and it doesn't sound like such a big deal now because almost every company has a custom shop but back in the in the 80s it was uh more uncommon yeah really uncommon dread yeah yeah so it gave us a big advantage as far when it came to attracting players to the company yeah okay okay matt i'm curious um i mean you you've seen 35 years of esp production and innovations according to you what are for the three innovations aspects or crucial moments that made esp ltd the world renowned brand we all know today well i think i'm gonna have to give you more than three yeah so i know you're asking for three yeah give it a shot all right sounds good the uh i would say when the new york office was opened in the mid 80s let's call it 84 and esp made their first step towards becoming an international company not just a company known in japan was a huge beginning step to get us a global reputation and after that office was open in in 85 i think george lynch was one of the first signature artists that we signed and george was very visible back then with touring and and recording and certain videos and so on and he's one of the guys that put esp on the map as a company that could make custom guitars and not just vintage reproduction guitars and parts which is what we were known for at the time so and and then getting uh in the following years people like kirk and james hadfield and so many others in the in the following few years that are still with us today those were uh definitely crucial uh happenings that that uh helped make us a global company and uh in 87 when i started with the company we were making mostly we were a pods company and we made reproductions of vintage guitars that was our product line in 87 we started to develop our own identity when we introduced the first eclipses and horizons and mirages and you know newer shapes and newer designs that were nothing like what we'd done before so once again instead of being known as the companies that are that was making what we call the 400 series which were traditional reproductions uh we were making our own instruments and that was uh in the 87 catalog and that was a very big step for us and what else do i have on here um jumping to 96 we first introduced ltd which as you probably know is a more uh affordable version of the designs that we had made for the previous you know 20 years and not made by our exclusive espn factory when we branched out into different different countries for manufacturing and that was may have made the biggest difference in the the sales growth of the company more so than anything we ever did and um a few few years later in uh in 2015 we took on uh takamine as a distributor and of course it didn't uh didn't uh have as much an effect of an effect on our electric business uh but it's the first time we entered the acoustic guitar uh world with a very uh reputable and high quality brand a long story brand also yes that's become a large uh percentage of our sales because the the acoustic market is actually bigger than the electric market so we're very glad to get a foothold in there it's gone very well for us and um okay i'm gonna make this the last thing i promise this is uh we opened uh a factory in the usa in north hollywood near our headquarters to make a usa made line of esd guitars and uh right now the demand for that is uh outpacing our current uh output so delivery time has gotten a little bit uh longer than i i'd hoped it to be but having a high demand is not you know there are worse problems you can have now now i'm just trying to get the out the uh the capacity of the factory higher while maintaining the quality that we've established and become known for so i would say that's uh those are the main things you know that's like uh five minutes yeah that's a bunch of very breakdown of 35 years yeah big bullet points i mean um great big milestones indeed listen met your instruments always matched perfectly with the electronic and pickup choices and you always opted for world leading manufacturers like emg pickups but amongst the pickup supplier there's one small boutique manufacturer called bare knuckle which over the years has gained the interest and trust of many guitarists worldwide how did you start collaborating with them and why well as with uh many other things we first started seeing requests by artists for bare-knuckle pickups and when you see that start to happen it usually means that consumers will the demand by consumers will follow once you build the guitars for the artists and if they're highly prominent artists with with a large visibility if they're seen out there playing bare knuckles you may get more requests from customers for bare knuckles and uh once a couple of people a couple of artists asked for uh bare knuckle pickups in their in their custom guitars or their signature guitars we knew that there was uh something to it so we started to use them on you know not not as much as emg or duncan for instance but we started using them in our instruments and we contacted them and we worked out uh you know we have a working relationship with them i think they're in the uk and uh that's how it started an artist came to us with a request for bare knuckles and that's how we became aware of them so okay okay there you go and what are the requirements to start producing a new model and above all what necessarily must be in the dna of a new esp or ltd guitar to bring it out in the market well if you're talking about uh like a signature model uh an auto signature model quite often the the uh the idea or the request is brought to us by the artist so they an artist usually has a hand in designing his signature model some sometimes they'll design it from the ground up sometimes it'll be a joint effort between us and them but the only thing we require is that the design be you know a good design of course but also that they're willing to support it and they're passionate enough about it that they'll be playing it uh on tour and and anywhere else that they have uh performances to uh to give the model credibility and association with them and if we can get that combination happening we we might introduce that as a signature model but as far as regular production models quite often new models are um just upgraded or modified um versions of of existing previously successful models with in different finishes or different electronics or you know and so on um bigger risk may be designing a new shape or something never before tested by us and uh you know you have to be careful about that because i found that guitarists even though they may have a reputation for doing uh you know playing really wild looking guitars i guess with custom graphics and they're relatively conservative they always go back to the single cutaway or double cut away model maybe with their input on changing it somewhat but if you try to put a never-before-seen shape out there you're really you know it's usually a tough sell yeah i need to be brave you know what i mean right so but we have in the probably the four top four people at our company uh oh probably over 100 years experience in uh selling guitars making and selling guitars so we have a pretty good feel for what what's going to work and what's not going to work and i'm not saying we're right every time but we have a pretty good track record yeah as you said before like many other brands also esp as its own custom shop and one of the first perhaps which allows customers not only to purchase master built guitars but to build tailored and extremely personalized instruments directly through your website but is there a sort of pre-selection or do all orders get manufacturers and maybe just a curiosity what's the most peculiar guitar or bass that you build an answer to the first part of your question all orders get manufactured um and the same hands build a guitar for an artist that build a guitar for a consumer who orders one through a music store so one isn't getting better quality than the other in the instrument that he ultimately gets but um we've built a few strange things over the years even though most custom orders are variations on models that we already make we we did something like a hollow lucite body filled with liquid uh blue liquid called the wave caster for kirk comet and i think the blue liquid was supposed to emulate a you know waves crashing or something like that and it leaked so it never really went anywhere and um it's probably sitting in a wet case somewhere on on somebody's shelf so that that was something i was glad to see fade away you know um we made a guitar for andrew wk that shaped like a slice of pizza and he did the graphics on it the all of the toppings and the sauce and everything and it sounds crazy but he did a great job on it and back guitar he plays on tour and is fully functional and uh not something i would want to put into production or anything but you know you asked about some strange guitars yeah yeah i mean peculiar yes strange yeah yeah but we've done quite a few things over the years and uh but we do uh we we rarely would turn down someone's order for a custom order unless it was something extremely offensive that uh you know we wouldn't want to put our logo on although yeah okay we've done some offensive things but we they're there we got we gotta have we gotta draw a line somewhere yeah indeed matt just the last question uh for you and is more personal but before landing on esp in the 1987 your experience made you work alongside many extraordinary bands such aerosmith mother ed and many others what do you remember of those days well um i remember them favorably it's uh it was a pretty wild ride because it was you know it was still the 80s and uh but i made a lot of good uh friends and contacts uh that i still maintain today and some in my working relationship with est some are like family still and but i learned a lot of things that apply to what we do at esp also uh seeing you know guitars in in a live and recording situation and seeing what's required of them by the artists playing them um i when i started working for aerosmith i was i was uh just getting started out and one of their crew from that was with them from their very early days he was actually the guy i was hired to replace and i had to hire him back because he knew where all the bodies were buried that's once again i don't know how that phrase will translate but um he told me a couple one time he said to me that when the band is on stage this was with aerosmith he said that failure is not an option and i thought he was being overly dramatic like you know this isn't apollo 13 or anything what's going on here and but then i i realized i soon realized that when the guitars who you're working for or in est's case building guitars for when he's on stage whether it's in front of 50 or 50 000 people you're the only thing between him and them and you can't fail in your responsibilities yeah and that's what he was trying to tell me and i completely understand and agree with him now and i try to think about that when we build a guitar for uh an artist to take on tour and for a consumer to play and that's uh that was an important lesson that i learned but it was a great experience but it wasn't going to be a lifelong thing for me and fortunately i had the opportunity after spending the decade doing it uh to go work at esp it's a very deep story of your life i mean just not only in esp but also before and i i want to thank you very much for your time because it as i said by the phone when we spoke at the beginning it's an honor to meet people like you that just not only made the results and the story we are living nowadays but also you are still a proof of or and i mean the teller the storyteller of those days and i guess uh bringing up and the story or of a specific path and a period of time experience it's always a gift for anyone looking at this kind of interviews and contents so thank you very much matt for your time and i really hope this 2020 view will be a new year of great success and uh music and so much fun for you and your team thanks a lot well thank you for having me i enjoyed it very much and i'd like to come back sometime or at least come and see you in person next time i'm over there

2022-04-01 21:53

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