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" 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. "

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" As you get a little older and start drinking a bit more coffee, you start talking about big-boy things a little more. "

Synyster Gates

You

Talking

" We listen to a lot of classical and a lot of jazz, and so you get some funky notes here and there. And we get a little experimental in some of the deeper tracks. "

" I hate to debunk the myth - kids don't wanna hear it - but as songwriters, you have to polish your craft a little bit and hone it as much as possible. "

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

Synyster Gates

Video

Variety

" We interact with the crowd, turn it into a party. "

" We're happier when we're with friends on tour. "

" Our singer, Matt, was reading Stephen Hawking and other physics-related books, and I was reading entrepreneurial books, and we all started discussing the new technologies that were taking over the world, from 3-D printing to space travel. These conversations starting leading us to think of how we could portray these things in a musical way. "

" We make sure we have total artistic control with our albums. We were working with Interscope Records, and they had a hard time with us having all the control. So when we signed with Warner Bros., we told them we would be working hands-on with our producer, and they were cool with it. "

Synyster Gates

Hard

Time

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

" I was living out of my truck for a short while. My dad wanted to emancipate me at 16 and send me to music college. "

Synyster Gates

Music

Living

" I don't feel like we have that Paul McCartney gene, and I think the cool thing about us is that we know it. "

Synyster Gates

Cool

Think

" We kinda were a radio-rock band. We were still pretty technical, but I think the prog people hated us because we didn't do a bunch of weird time signatures... which are cool at times, but I'm more interested in progressive harmony. "

" 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. "

Synyster Gates

Pretty

Lines

" My favorite punk rock song is 'Linoleum' by NOFX. That's pure harmony, the coolest chord changes. "

" I can't imagine doing anything cooler or better than what we did on 'The Stage' and felt like we're firing on all cylinders. "

" It's really fun to just get on a bike and just go and, I guess in a way, to be able to leave the tour and not be confined and all that kind of stuff. "

" We spend a lot of time with MIDI keyboards and various processors, and we just figure it out. And all those things you hear in our songs work as submelodies and countermelodies, and everything has to fit. "

" Maybe we'll do some fun stuff here and there, but I don't want to record any more songs. "

" When we do find someone we trust, like our tour manager, they become an official part of the band. We take our time to make sure whoever we trust has our best interest in mind. "

" We really wanted to circumvent that online learning curve, where it's virtually impossible to use words to explain music. "

" I think if you go to 'Strength of the World,' a song like that, the chorus isn't that great, but you go into the bridge and other things and the catchier parts and the better melodies we were really focused on. "

" If you want to do things right, you have to dig deep for that inspiration. "

" 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. "

" We listen to a lot of hip hop. They're the ones that are trailblazing. It used to be rock, but it's really turned to hip hop, and they're doing really unique and cool things, and we wanted to do that, too. "

" During our formative years, it was all about, 'What did Metallica do?' and 'How do we do that?' and then you try and find an identity of your own, but they're still... They were the pioneers and the trailblazers. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

Synyster Gates

Think

Guitar

" My fans, they know my dad as Guitar Guy or whatever, and he's kind of just this shredder that plays on my records sometimes. But they don't know his ear and how rich his harmonic scope is. "

" We don't ever spread ourselves too thin. And sometimes it's a little bit to the chagrin of our fans; they don't get albums... I mean, The Beatles were doing two albums a year at one point. "

" Usually when we go in to cut demos, one of us will lay down some mumbling sort of stuff for the vocal melodies because the lyrics don't come until later. "