Inside The Shredder's Studio #7: André Foisy Of Locrian

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Locrian’s new album Return To Annihilation is one of the better records I’ve heard this year, and the praise keeps rolling in. We decided that it was a perfect time to invite frontman André Foisy to the shredder’s studio. He shared a list of eclectic infuences and might be the first shredder featured ever that didn’t include at least one Sabbath or Maiden riff.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Foisy will now walk us through his formative riffs. Sit up and pay attention. Get in touch with Locrian here.

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King Crimson: Frame By Frame

When I was about 12, my older brother sent me a tape of KC’s Discipline and Three Of A Perfect Pair and on it he wrote “no keyboards.” I really didn’t like these albums at first, but I kept listening to them and they are my favorite Crimson albums to this day. This track really demonstrates the precision of the Adrian Below and Robert Fripp’s playing. I figured out the guitar parts when I was in high school and jammed to the tape.

Genesis: Return of the Giant Hogweed

Steve Hackett is probably my favorite prog rock guitar player since he was so good (at least his stuff in Genesis) at knowing when to play, when not to play, and how to add texture to a song. This song has some great two-hand tapping. Most people who like to two-hand tap don’t know when to shut up and back off. Steve Hackett does. This is another band that I started listening to because of my brother (Thanks again Joel).

Led Zeppelin – Achilles Last Stand

This is my favorite Led Zeppelin song. It’s amazing that they pulled off playing this song live so enjoy the live version. I don’t trust anyone who my dog doesn’t like and anyone who doesn’t admit to liking Zeppelin.

The studio recording has tons of layers of guitars. This was an indirect inspiration for me to put down a bunch of different guitar parts at the end of “Obsolete Elegies.”

Bert Jansch – Black Waterside

I got to see Bert play a couple times before he died. Once in a tiny club, and once opening up for Neil Young. He was a great guitar player and my playing on “Two Moons” was influenced by his finger style playing.

One Eyed God Prophecy – Toddler

These guys were one of my other favorite bands growing up and this LP still holds up for me. They only did one LP and then broke up. It sounds a lot like Uranus, but there’s something that I like more about OEGP.

When Terence and I started playing together, we bonded since we grew up around similar hardcore/punk scenes and we both loved this band. It’s funny that this sort of has a black metal feeling to it, although I don’t think that the guys in this band were influenced by that stuff at the time.

OEGP influenced a lot of Locrian stuff, but specifically “Panorama of Mirrors” on our new album.

Brian Eno – Here Come The Warm Jets

Terence introduced me to this album and pointed out this amazing guitar solo to me, which is Robert Fripp. It’s just so weird, fuzzed out and interesting. I was trying to get this guitar sound for my (first) solo in “Obsolete Elegies” off our new album.

Iggy and the Stooges – Louie Louie from Metallic Ko

“Louie Louie” was the first song that I learned to play on guitar, and I love the version on the Metallic KO album since it’s so raw and nasty. James Williamson is an amazing guitar player and I was always inspired how the Stooges would play shows and play what they wanted, and not the songs on their most recent album, or the songs that their fans probably wanted to hear. You hear the band getting pelted with bottles during this show.

Fred McDowell – When I Lay My Burden Down

I picked up a Fred McDowell LP recently that Alan Lomax recorded. This is great country blues. This is the only live video that I know of this guy.

I was influenced by Fred McDowell for our track “Exiting The Halls Of Vapor And Light.”

Yes – Heart of the Sunrise

These dudes kill it on this one. I figured out how to play all of the early Yes songs and I still jam this intro part sometimes. One of my favorite guitar riffs ever.

Voivod – The Unknown Knows

Piggy was one of my favorite guitar players. I read about Voivod in an issue of Guitar World when I was 12 and I thought that it was cool that this band was from so close to where I lived. I was also really drawn to the fact that Piggy would get some of his riffs by figuring out Yes songs backwards.

Robert Fripp – “Frippertronics Demonstration ‘79”

I’m posting this “Frippertronics” demonstration since I can’t find a live video of Fripp & Eno. Obviously, Locrian is really influenced by those records. Terence often makes loops on his reel-to-reel players and we’ll build off of those loops and that’s because of the Fripp & Eno stuff.