Bryan Reesman from Attention Deficit Delirium has posted part one and two of an interview he conducted with WINGER’s Kip Winger about his career with Winger and the move to classical music. Excerpts from the interview are below:

Bryan Reesman: There are a lot of people out there who don’t realize how good the musicians in Winger really are. It’s interesting, because unlike a lot of musicians who have been transitioning into doing classical pieces and film soundtracks, you generally had a background in classical ballet and classical music since you were a child. You were always there to begin with.

Kip Winger: “I was and I wasn’t. I was self-taught, man. When I started studying ballet at age 16 and heard the music, I thought, ‘Wow, I’ve got to write like this.’ I did a lot of stuff on my own. I virtually taught myself music back then, and I never had a chance to go to music school. I always went to the music school and found the best composition teacher and the best theory teacher and privately studied with them because I’ve been on the road since I was 20. I’ve always wanted to go back to school, to be honest with you — just blow it all off and go back to school and fill in all the gaps — but I haven’t had the chance to do that. I’m still looking for an online program actually. Now I can test out of the first of almost everything. Theoretically I do have a background starting from when I was 16, but it wasn’t traditional.”

Bryan Reesman: Isn’t it ironic that many people who didn’t formally study music go on to be quite successful with it?

Kip Winger “I always say to people, when they find out I do that [classical], is that there’s no reason to. The only kind of music that I hear anymore is big orchestra music, so I had no choice. John Lennon certainly didn’t know how to find middle C on the staff, and music is really not about reading and writing. The only reason I learned how to do it is because I heard that stuff and stopped hearing rock music a long time ago.”

Bryan Reesman: I imagine that this has been an interesting transition period for you because you’ve been known mainly for your work with Winger, and even though you have this ballet and classical background, there are probably people in the classical world who knew very little about what you have done there. You surely have surprised fans in both worlds. Have you met classical people who had no clue about that side of your life?

Kip Winger: “Most of them. Maybe there’s one or two [who [knew]. It was amazing in San Francisco, by the way, because I walk in and people think, ‘What’s this going to be like?’ I actually read a couple of reviews that said when they heard Kip Winger did the music, they thought it would be blues or rock, and they were really into it. They were very shocked by it actually because it’s very organic classical music. I was actually considering changing my name to Charles, which is my real name, thinking that would give me a little more credibility. Kip has been a nickname since I was a kid, but I called that off because what ended up happening was I got more press for the San Francisco Ballet than they’ve ever had for one of those ballets.”

Read the entire interview here.