Flatstick

The incredible Gary McKay (RIP)

“My ‘band’ Flatstick was a studio project with my close friend and fellow guitar teacher Gary McKay (RIP). We released one album (Flatstick’s Omnicore) in 2000 which stayed in mp3.com’s top 10 metal songs for about a year. Chris Adler from Lamb of God heard the songs from mp3.com and tried to get us signed. LA session drummer (currently touring with Alice Cooper) Glen Sobel and Haji’s Kitchen also like the Flatstick CD, which is a cross between FNM, Zappa, some electronica tidbits, and heavy doses of shred guitar. Whole album of course, on YouTube.”

———————————————————————————————————————————————

“Adios was a song I had posted on MP3.com years ago, and that’s how I started my dialogue with Chris Adler from Lamb of God. We’d chat on ICQ about metal, life, etc etc. This was back when the band was still called Burn the Priest. He told me the band was gonna blow up and that Flatstick should tour with them. My response? ‘Dude, we’re two guys in recording in Gary’s spare guest room.”  And we couldn’t find the players anyways, at least not in 2000. Years later Gary died of cancer, the second album (which was about 80% finished) burned in the Black Saturday fires. I have all the songs stored in my head. I may save that until I get my own home studio. We’ll see.”

————————————————————————————————————————————————

“Twilight I really like. the music, the words, all of it. It was the 2nd song written and I think Gary and I knew we were onto something when we wrote this one. Drums alone took 6 hours to program. Love it.”

————————————————————————————————————————————————

“Another favorite. Great way to end the album.”

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

My musical soulmate. Gary McKay. Lovely guy, one helluva guitar player. Deeply missed.