Steve Lynch thinks Autograph did not breakthrough to “A rock band range” due to RCA Records

Steve Lynch thinks Autograph did not breakthrough to “A rock band range” due to RCA Records

Autograph guitarist Steve Lynch was interviewed by Hall Laurel for the book Soundtrack of Our Youth: History of Hair Metal Music, which was recently released and is available in Kindle and paperback formats.

Lynch was asked why he thinks Autograph never broke through to the true A-level rock band range to which he replied:

“This is very simple to answer: RCA Records. During the release of our first record Sign In Please, we found that we had to tell them a lot about how it should be marketed. They didn’t even want “Turn Up the Radio” to be on the album, it made it on after much debating between the band and them.

Then when the second album was released the president of RCA unfortunately died and they brought in a newer guy to run the show. He hired young people fresh out of college to help promote the artists on RCA…big mistake!! It wasn’t only us that took a hit from this, it was also Mister Mister, The Pointer Sisters, Kenny Rogers and the Eurythmics. No one was very happy to say the least.”

In terms of advice that Lynch would gibe to young musicians wanting to be professional guitar players, the Autograph guitarist advised: “I would say to the young aspiring players out there to learn theory! This is extremely important! The other advice I would give would be to stop trying to sound like someone else. There are millions of players throughout the world that can sweep and speed pick incredibly fast…but where is the emotion? Listen to a variety of players you like from a vast array of musical styles…then take from them what you like and create your own style from this. At one point you want to stop listening to other guitarists all together and concentrate on your own sound. This is what I did in 1978 while attending GIT. The last person I was influenced by was Alan Holdsworth from the album Enigmatic Ocean by Jean Luc Ponte and the album U.K. Both of which were classic albums!”

You can read the rest of the interview with Lynch at the Hair Metal Music‘s Facebook page or the book Soundtrack of Our Youth: History of Hair Metal Music.