By Kelley Simms

Arizona-based BYRON NEMETH might not be a household name as of yet, but the former SACRED HEART and AMON-RA guitarist has been creating quite a buzz lately with his new single and accompanying video, 'A New Freedom' (see below). It features ex-YNGWIE MALMSTEEN vocalist Mark Boals and STEVE VAI BAND bassist Philip Bynoe and drummer Jeremy Colson. The song was produced at Vai's prestigious recording studio, The Mothership, by master knob-twirler Greg Wurth, who has been at the helm for all of Vai’s seminal albums.

“This new project involves a new song direction for me,” Nemeth said. “‘A New Freedom’ is definitely the direction I want to head in. Since the release, it’s been getting a lot of great reviews on the Internet and a lot of people have watched our video. That’s exactly the direction and the focus where I’m at right now in 2013.”

Until recently, Nemeth has only achieved minor success, but he’s consistently released solid records for almost two decades. The multi-instrumentalist sure knows his way around the studio and he was well-prepared before entering The Mothership. “This all came about when I was talking to my manager, Randy Spencer, and we were discussing the next thing that would be a good call for my career and we were tossing around ideas. So he arranged for me to record at Steve Vai’s studio with these musicians, and it was an absolutely brilliant call. Obviously, I had to come in with brand new material and that was the whole point of the thing, to do something new. So I started writing in the direction of how I envisioned the song being with these players involved.”

With this just being the first time the musicians got together to record the ‘A New Freedom’ song and video, there was a lot of camaraderie and it proved to be a great bonding experience. “The interesting thing is Philip, Jeremy and Mark knew each other from being in the L.A. scene for all these years, and I was like the new guy in town so to speak. There were no hiccups or quandaries about performances or issues of style or anything like that at all. This was an experience that is a gift and a blessing Kelley. Because a lot of times in the studio that doesn’t go down that way. I’d experienced (tough times) in previous bands before and I’m sure other musicians have gone through issues before for whatever reason, but this was just great with no problems at all.”

Speaking of Vai, his God-like presence must permeate through every crevice of his studio walls. “Steve’s studio has his presence honored everywhere. He was not there, but very importantly who was there was Greg Wurth. He’s Steve’s producer and he produced this song, ‘A New Freedom.’ You could just feel Steve’s energy in the studio along with the knowledge of what Greg brought to the picture.”

As far as Nemeth is concerned, there’s no confusion as to whether this is just a convenient music project or a real band. Of course, it all comes down to the other more-established band members’ schedules. “This is a real band,” as Nemeth wraps up our conversation. “In terms of when we get together is based on the schedule of the other players, of course. Philip and Jeremy are on tour with Steve Vai right now as we speak and Mark is in a number of bands, too. The thought here is to regroup sometime in January and record three or four more songs, maybe more. With the way the modern music business is today Kelley, I’m not against doing an album, I think that’s a great idea. But more importantly than just doing an album, what I’m really interested in is delivering music on a very level basis. Sometimes an album can take a cycle of 12 months, sometimes 15 to come out. But I want to deliver music, and I want to deliver video on a much more consistent basis.”

For more details visit Byronnemeth.com.