"I wouldn't say I'm religious," Chris Poland says to me during our phoner on September 26, "but I think it's all about trying to be the right person. And I think that most people are. And most people who aren't at that time have a good reason not to be so."

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Having worked with all kinds of characters on the contemporary music scene—from jazz fusion sophisticates in the late Seventies to reckless heavy metal honchos in mid-Eighties—Poland certainly knows what he's talking about. His knowledge of characters populating the music scene is probably just as wide-ranging as his understanding of contemporary genres: the complexity of his early band the New Yorkers, where he played in his early twenties, has been compared to far-out extrapolations of Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra, while the two albums he's recorded as a member of Megadeth—Killing is My Business and Peace Sells—have been hailed by many as the band's greatest records. But whoever Poland has been playing with, and whatever musical forms he has been using to convey his inner realities, his remarkable three decade long career has always been about finding the best possible expression for what he felt at the time.

 

With every genre having its own laws, Poland has managed to use a staggering variety of them—from fusion to heavy metal—and at the same time to remain true to them all as well as to himself.

By 1987 the pressures of rock stardom and high life got the better of Poland, and amid great internal turmoil within the band he was dismissed from Megadeth that year. Dave Mustaine would offer him to return to the band twice in the following years, but Poland would decline both times, despite performing guitar solos on the 2004 Megadeth album The System Has Failed. Since his departure from Megadeth, and treatment for addiction which was successfully completed, his involvement in metal has been minimal. Poland knows better than, perhaps, anyone, that artistic freedom and tribal ethics don't always go hand in hand, and that an artist often feels a greater degree of independence when unrestricted by stylistic limitations.

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Poland's capacity for dismantling the boundaries between genres and taking his music into the realm of pure unhindered exploration of human states finds perfect expression in his current project Ohm, which consists of himself, bassist Robertino Pagliari, who he played with previously in the New Yorkers, and drummer Kofi Baker, Ginger Baker's son. Their latest album, Circus of Sound is a bright, sharp, multi-layered record which in strict stylistic terms should be described as fusion, but which covers such an astounding variety of traditions--from advanced jazz rock married to lucid, clear melodies, to heart-on-the-sleeve blues, to even, at times, tracks that sound like heavy metal recast in jazz terms—that it transcends all styles and in the end presents nothing else but a grand melting pot of modern popular forms.

 

All this exuberance and diversity, which, surprisingly, still somehow loosely fits into the fusion paradigm, makes you wonder how Poland manages to unify such an abundance of traditions into one articulate, coherent whole. So I start with asking if there was an initial concept when he was beginning to work on this record.

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"It wasn't something we planned," he replies. "It kind of evolved into Circus of Sound, it all seemed to fall into place. We are being surrounded by a lot of good players, like Robertino Pagliari on bass, and we had Joel Taylor, Frank Briggs, and Kofi Baker on drums. And it doesn't hurt when you have guys like that bringing more ideas to you and vice versa, and before you know it, the songs sound pretty good. Songs change up until the last minute when we give them to tape. But even after that, like with ‘The Shortest Straw’, we have a live arrangement of that now that has nothing to do with the record at all. So the songs can grow more if they want, or we use them like they are on the record. But none of that is planned. It just happens."

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Asked how much of his playing is improvised on the new record, he says that a lot of it is. "A lot of playing is improvised for everybody, especially for Kofi. I don't think he plays the same way twice, so basically we had Kofi jam on seven songs, because he usually doesn't play anything the same way, which is cool."

With the new album sounding so effortlessly fluent and consistent, I wonder if the band, which now has five records under its belt, has found the optimal way of translating their ideas and sensations onto tape. This leads me to ask which of the records he’s ever made he found the most difficult to work on. "Oh, probably our first record," he says. "Because it was my first real attempt at trying to find a sound, trying to capture a band and put it to tape. At the time our drummer's name was David Eagle, and his drum set was all garbage cans, bottles, and it was really hard to record his drums. His drums basically dictated how the record would be mixed, and it was a hard record to make. But musically it was a great record, I just wish I knew what I knew now when I made that record."

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As far as his favourite tracks on the new record goes, Poland names quite a few. He says he likes "System of a Clown" which he admits is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a certain nu-metal band, but which was meant to be humorous, not a stab or a dig. "I like 'Photograph'," he continues, "I like ‘The Shortest Straw’. I really like a lot of stuff that Kofi's on because he has... I don't know how to describe it, but it especially shows on ‘You Don't Know’, a song we've been doing live for seven years now, and we never got a chance to do it in the studio, and I'm glad we finally did.

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"You Don't Know", a contemplative, heart-breakingly lyrical composition, like no other track on the record, shows how far Poland has now progressed from the thrash-and-burn ethos of his time in Megadeth, making it clear that walking away from the metal scene proved to be a well-judged decision in the long run.

 

Although it was metal that has given Poland universal recognition, and it was metal that was prepared to continue providing him with everything global fame had to offer, having walked away from it all, Poland in return received something far more valuable—not only an escape from an extreme lifestyle, but, most importantly—freedom of expression unrestricted by stylistic demands and expectations of the market. I ask him how Chris Poland the jazz musician differs from Chris Poland the heavy metal hero. Does the style one plays in change what goes on inside?

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"Oh, I think so," he replies. "I think when you play, especially the kind of metal that I have the background in, it's kind of angry music, but there is a lot of energy that I draw from that style of music that I use in my own music. But I think you're right, I think that jazz, or whatever instrumental music that we are playing, I don't know if I would call it jazz, but... I think it kind of opens you up a little bit, there is a lot of emotion in it, and I think that's one of the reasons why people like our records. On this record and on our previous record there is a lot of heart and emotion in the playing and it's almost... We are not hiding anything. "

His answers are brief when I ask him about his time in Megadeth, but he has this to say: "It was a rough time. Musically it was great, but, you know, emotionally and spiritually it was a bad time for me. But, luckily, that's over." I ask if this kind of internal turmoil was what attracted him to the idea of playing metal in the first place. "You know, maybe," he replies. "I've never thought about it that way, you might be right. Because we sure did play it good. It was very angry and we were angry at the time."

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I wonder what Poland's relationship with metal is these days and if he follows what is happening on the metal scene. "Not really," he says. "Not a lot. Chris Adler from Lamb of God contacted me a couple of times and I was honoured to be the soloist for him, and that's one thing where there is a band where I can see some of the Megadeth influence on a band, and I'm so impressed how far they have taken that idea and have embellished more on it, and gave it more energy. I was honoured to be a part of that. Sometimes I still step back into the metal scene and enjoy it."

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Poland's technique remaining as formidable on his latest record as it was in the days when he dazzled the metal audience with his lightning-fast chops on the first two Megadeth albums, I ask if retaining his instrumental skill still requires everyday practice. He tells me about his studio in downtown Los Angeles where he also runs a facility the studio belongs to. "For lunch every day I get to play guitar for an hour," he says. "And then maybe it's four o'clock and there's nothing else going on and I'll run into my studio for a couple of hours before I go home. So I always have a guitar or a studio at hand if I get an idea or something, and I'm really blessed to have that."

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Asked if there is still anything that challenges him as a musician, Poland says that he feels challenged every day. "Just playing my own music is challenging enough for me," he says. "But I'm actually trying to learn a little more about jazz harmony and I just would like to be able to play over changes like Pat Martino, guys like that. I wouldn't say I'm a fusion guy, I'm an instrumental guitarist. My influences you can hear all over the place, but there is something about traditional jazz, especially saxophone, that I'm drawn to. A lot of it I don't understand. And that's actually something I hope I can learn." He then tells me that he's self-taught, although he did have two or three lessons from a guitar teacher when he was ten. Having said that, he says that having a teacher is something he would recommend to anyone who's just starting out on the guitar. "If you know a good teacher, stick with it," he says. "And if you can, learn how to read music. But don't make it your main thing. I feel that if I could read music, I'd be probably ten times the player I am now. It's a pretty big shortcoming to have—to play music and not be able to read it. It's quite a blunder."

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I want to talk about Poland's take on the state of the music industry these days, and it turns out he has a lot to say on the subject. "If I was not in my office with my feet up on my desk right now," he says, "I'd be very afraid of the way the music business is run right now. The only way anyone can make any money right now is you have to tour and sell product on the road. Because everybody is so used to just downloading a new record, they don't even feel compassion if you have been paid for your record or not. And you know what, I'm at the point now where I got together with Pag (Robertino Pagliari) and said, 'Hey, man, let's play the kind of music we like and who cares what happens.' And that's what we do. If we make money, that's great, if we don't make money, that's great too because we're not doing it to make money. If I wanted to make money, I would join Megadeth. There is a lot of good coming out of what is going on on the internet where a lot of artists are being seen and heard, and there's a certain energy that's happening now, but on the other hand there's all this downloading that makes it almost impossible for you to make any money selling records."

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Given that the emphasis within the industry has shifted from selling records to touring, I ask Poland about Ohm's live shows, and he tells me about playing with Uli John Roth in San Diego a week before. "There were like 800-900 people there," he says. "So I'm saying to myself, 'Geez, I'm playing instrumental music for almost a thousand people, I don't think that's too bad!' Because unless you are Joe Satriani, no one's coming to see you play. So it's an obscure idea to think about doing it, but that's what we love to do, and I guess that's why we are doing it. And I think that's why people like our music because they know that our heart's in it. Because why else would you play it?"

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With the industry in havoc and so much uncertainty surrounding the future of earnest, non-commercial music, I ask Poland what he would ask if he was granted one true answer to any question in the universe. "I guess, it would be 'Why are we here?'", he says. "I think about it and it just boggles my mind. I just had a daughter and that in itself was such a miracle... I know that there is something, I just don't know where it is. There is something. There is a reason why we are here, I guess, but we won't find out until we can't tell anybody. I guess once you cross that bridge then we know what the deal is." I ask Poland if he considers himself a religious or a spiritual person. "I feel I'm a spiritual person," he replies. "I wouldn't say I'm religious. But I think it's all about trying to be the right person. And I think that most people are. And most people who aren't at that time have a good reason not to be so."

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First published in Crusher Magazine in November 2010.