Synyster Gates

I'm a huge Weezer fan, and 'Pinkerton' is just a crazy, crazy neurotic album.

— Synyster Gates

I used my Schecter for all my rhythms and most of my solos, certainly the fast solos.

— Synyster Gates

Everybody's lost somebody, and I think they all miss them incredibly.

— Synyster Gates

Bullet for My Valentine, we're bros. We've been in the trenches with those guys.

— Synyster Gates

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

— Synyster Gates

When people tell me I am better than I think I am I feel good about myself.

— Synyster Gates

I find that drummers are the coolest people in the world. I play a little bit of drums.

— Synyster Gates

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

— Synyster Gates

I don't really play a lot of slide in general, but it was fun getting into that style and exploring it.

— Synyster Gates

If you write a country song, and it's the best song you've ever written but throw it out because you're a metal…

— Synyster Gates

I am a product of an amalgamation of different teachers. If it was just one teacher, even just my father, I would…

— Synyster Gates

Some people will basically just shred all over everything, even a ballad. I'm glad I wasn't born with that genetic chip -…

— Synyster Gates

The thing about me is that I'm very fortunate to have had the opportunities with Avenged Sevenfold in songwriting. I really think…

— Synyster Gates

We're not gonna write a fusion song for Avenged Sevenfold, obviously, but I love having those elements and blending it in, and…

— Synyster Gates

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

— Synyster Gates

I think it's beneficial to practice with a metronome or drum machine in order to strengthen your sense of time. It will…

— Synyster Gates

There's nothing like having some healthy competition. We really strive to think outside the box by taking the standard approach the then…

— Synyster Gates

I think if you go to 'Strength of the World,' a song like that, the chorus isn't that great, but you go…

— Synyster Gates

When we try and blend the two together, the songwriting and the touring like we did before, it doesn't really work. We…

— Synyster Gates

We make sure we have total artistic control with our albums. We were working with Interscope Records, and they had a hard…

— Synyster Gates

We're very much perfectionists, so when we're putting on a huge show and want to play to the best of ability, we…

— Synyster Gates

Lyrically, 'Planets' is the precursor to 'Acid Rain'; it's about a meteoric, intergalactic war that results in an apocalypse and the human…

— Synyster Gates

I don't like using fourths and fifths. Instead, I'll come up with a harmony line made up of major and minor thirds…

— Synyster Gates

We kinda were a radio-rock band. We were still pretty technical, but I think the prog people hated us because we didn't…

— Synyster Gates

I am an intelligent drunk because an intelligent drunk carries his liquor with him

— Synyster Gates

We spent a lot of time in the studio. I mean, we've spent a lot of time on tour, too.

— Synyster Gates

We tried our best for so long to make the heaviest record we could make.

— Synyster Gates

I wanted alot of tattoos but I never thought I was gonna be this rediculous.

— Synyster Gates

We have a lot of fun. There are no holds barred when it comes to writing music for us.

— Synyster Gates

My little brother played drums, so we had a drum set over at my house.

— Synyster Gates

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

— Synyster Gates

Lyrically, 'Nightmare' is an absolute masterpiece to me.

— Synyster Gates

I don't like being locked in a cage on the creative scale. I need an outlet.

— Synyster Gates

Breaking Benjamin, they're such incredible songwriters.

— Synyster Gates

Music is pretty much in my blood and it's definitely in my environment.

— Synyster Gates

I'm not a big-effects sort of guy - I like to keep it simple.

— Synyster Gates

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

— Synyster Gates

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

Rolling Stones came later for me. I was a Beatles guy. All of us were pretty much more along the lines of…

— Synyster Gates

We listen to a lot of classical and a lot of jazz, and so you get some funky notes here and there.…

— Synyster Gates