KomodoRock.com recently caught up with NEVERMORE guitarist Jeff Lomis to discuss his new solo album, Zero Order Phase. The following is an excerpt from the interview.

Q: There is a bit of jazz style playing on this album. Are you a closet jazz fan, then?

Loomis: "Yeah, a little bit. I'm very open to many different kinds of music, from classical, jazz and fusion and stuff like that. I really wanted to make a record that had different kinds of musical textures to it; I didn't want it to sound just one way from beginning to end. This record definitely has a lot of hills and valleys to it, as far as the momentum goes, and I think it's a very diverse record to be honest with you. Out of the different musical textures going on, jazz just happens to be one of the small little things that fits in there on ‘Cashmere Shiv'."

Q: Why did you decide not to have any vocalists?

Loomis: "I guess maybe it's because I've been doing that for so long with Nevermore and stuff, and I guess Century Media was kind of pushing me towards having a couple of guest vocalists on the record. I really wanted to make an all instrumental record, just me and my guitar and drums, and it was a personal decision really. It didn't have anything to do with me hating vocalists or anything."

Q: Neil Kernon (QUEEN, KANSAS, JUDAS PRIEST) produced the first four Nevermore albums before you changed to Andy (Sneap). Why did you decide to bring Neil back to produce this project?

Loomis: "Neil and I have this great amazing working relationship with guitar playing. Not that Andy and I don't, it's just that I think that Neil works really well trying to pull things out of me that I normally wouldn't do in the studio. When we were together recording the first four Nevermore records, we were talking about if I ever did a solo record he would produce it, so this goes way back to years and years ago. I guess it was almost a promise to him that he would be the one that did the record (laughs)."

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