Attention Deficit Disorder:
A few hours with guitar powerhouse Jonathan Donais

by Matthew Hoffman
Staff Writer

Humility is defined as thinking lowly of one's self; claiming little for one's self; not being proud, arrogant, or assuming; thinking one's self ill-deserving or unworthy. After meeting and interviewing several of the world’s top guitarists this past year, this definition has very rarely come to mind concerning these gentlemen. Top guitar virtuosos, like other top individuals in their professions, are very self confident at times to the extreme of cocky or arrogant. They rarely ever want to compliment another guitarist on his skill and technique, or even act like other virtuosos even exist. In the case of Shadows Fall’s Jon Donais, he couldn’t have broken the mold any harder. This star musician sat and allowed me two hours of his time to discuss guitars, others guitarists and several other bands that are his direct competition. Humility is also false in several instances, but in Jon’s case couldn’t have been more genuine. As with the others, I wanted to see what had originally motivated this man to take up the guitar, what sort of player was he now, and how he considered himself among his contemporaries. The answers I received in this conversation were as stark and different from the others as is his ferocious playing on his leads and solos.

Jon Donais was interested in guitar as a young adolescent, but only lasted a few lessons as the type of music he wanted to play his music teacher didn’t want to teach. That part rings true with most of the other guitar heroes, but that’s pretty much where he derivates from the norm. Most others played endless hours to try and replicate the music of their day. For Malmsteen it was Richie Blackmore of Rainbow, for Eric Petersen it was Aerosmith records, but not Jon Donais. He would put on a tape of Megadeth and try and replicate the solos for about five minutes, get bored, and move on to something else. Surprisingly, he is not filled with learned music either, as when asked could he grab his axe and start playing “Stairway to Heaven,” he said “I couldn’t.” Jon also is not an audio learner either. When I asked him could he play it just from hearing it and again he said “no.”

Knowing these few things, I assumed he had to be like basketball legend Larry Bird and became great from pure hard work and practice, and again I was wrong. He did not spend countless hours perfecting his craft. Jon also loved rhythms growing up, more than the leads, which is probably the reason he and fellow axe man Matthew Bachand play so seamlessly. Many of Donais’ solos and lead pieces are very melodic and blend right into the songs. So, I left with more questions then reasonable answers: I had to assume his man is something of a natural, right? Well, sort of.

When asked about the music creation process, again Jon’s attention span came into prominence. He said, “Sometimes it takes me weeks and weeks to develop solos, creating tiny pieces at a time that I liked, then eventually fitting them together. It all has to be perfect. So it doesn’t come easy, but when you hear it, it is unlike anyone else in metal today.”

18 years ago I was left with these same thoughts of uniqueness with Megadeth’s Marty Friedman’s killer leads and powerhouse solos. But it is also ferocious and dominating without being showy or braggadocios. The only person playing such intense leads and spirited solos in an actual band so often on every record is Chris Broderick of Jag Panzer. And unlike Jon, Chris not only practices plenty but is classically trained and has a great ear and is a teacher as well.

The violent yet rhythmic Donais’ leads come at the beginning of the songs, the middle and the end. From the standing still leap into a killer layered solo on “Stepping Outside the Circle” from The Art of Balance album or his killer lead work on “Inspiration on Demand” from last years dominating Grammy Nominated The War Within, Jon is in a class by himself today with magazines and metal mags the world around confirming his greatness.

But Jon doesn’t see it that way. Jon doesn’t think he should have even appeared on my list of best guitarists of the past 25 years. He named a few guitarists that he would have put on the list instead of himself. He said “Dimebag” should have been on the list and cited Tesla’s Frank Hannon and Rocky George of Suicidal Tendencies as being the most underrated. He complimented friend Alexi Laiho (Children of Bodom) and spoke of Zakk Wylde as a big influence of his as well. When speaking of Satriani, Malmsteen and Vai, Jon said “there is no way I could play some of the material those other guys play.”

Jon may be right, but the point he misses that his fans do not, and that is that no one could create the solo and lead pieces that he does either. They are so unique and original, that while others may have better ears, technique and many may have outworked him, no one can beat the ferocity of a Jon Donais’ lead. That’s what makes music so amazing: a person with little training or hard work can create music that may someday touch hundreds of thousands of people. After all, Van Gogh never sold a single painting while he was alive and they are now posthumously worth millions.

Growing up, he loved what most kids loved up until about 1991 — Bay Area metal. Mostly he enjoyed Testament, Exodus, Megadeth and older Metallica. When speaking of his experiences in the early ‘90s, Jon said “It was hard to find a place to play or practice metal in those days, as everyone was into grunge.”

When asked of all the bands they have toured with who impressed him the most he quickly said Jeff Loomis of Nevermore. He said he feels “Jeff is undoubtedly the top guitarist going today.” As with everyone that has met Randall Blythe of Lamb of God, Jon said he loves him and that he is really as nuts as the videos and DVD’s show. Jon also said he drinks as much as described as well.

When bringing up how weird it is to see some of my childhood heroes grow up figuratively and literally, he said, “Yeah, whenever I get home from a tour, I work out like a madman to get rid of all that pizza and beer.” “The last thing I ever want to be is a forty-something fat rock musician.”

Along that line, I asked Jon if he’d had seen Motley Crue on tour in the past year. He said exactly what I had written earlier in the year in my controversial concert review. “Matt Bachand and I slipped off in Germany last year when we were on tour and went to a Crue concert. We were amazed. They were so bad, we couldn’t tell which song they were playing half the time. And Vince Neil’s voice was so bad he decided to let the crowd sing over and over to mask it. We were both huge Crue fans and terribly disappointed at what we saw.” I couldn’t have said it any better myself, Jonathan.

The best story I got was when I spoke of Eric Petersen’s 2005 Dragonlord album. Jon told me a story of Eric jumping on a tour bus when they were on the Subliminal Verses Tour with L.O.G and Slipknot and playing them the album before it was released. Jon said “I was dead drunk and taking a piss when I thought I heard Thin Lizzy. I was slightly confused, but when I came out of the toilet, Petersen was there and said, ‘Yeah it’s “Emerald,’ our remake of the Thin Lizzy song.”

Finally, to have a musician with a short attention span and an even smaller ego, is an apparent huge blessing. Why? Well, we know he won’t settle for anything but perfection and probably never get bored with his music as repetition to Donais comes in five minute intervals.

As I was walking out, I stopped to talk a little more metal and drink a beer with lead man Brian Fair and bass monster Paul Romanko. We discussed their amazing night at the Grammy’s and also my favorite hardcore band, the L.A based “Terror,” as Fair was wearing one of their shirts. Folks, I don’t have to tell you these guys are not only the top American Metal Band but the coolest group of motherfuckers anyone could imagine.

Thanks boys, I really appreciated it. And as I said before, I can’t imagine a better way to spend a Friday night.

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