Guitarist MICHAEL ANGELO BATIO is featured in a new interview with Guitar International discussing his latest release, Intermezzo. An excerpt is available below.

Batio: "I had several goals for Intermezzo. I wanted it to have all new original songs. I wanted to have my signature MAB sound, but not rehash or repeat riffs and solo passages from the past. The solos and guitar parts still sound like me, but I used new riffs and new ways of putting solos together that I haven’t used before.

I am known for string skipping, alternate picking passages, and sweep arpeggios. There are only a couple sections on the entire album that I used either of those techniques. I also used my Dean Guitars MAB 7, 7-string signature guitar for the first time. The results are awesome! The new 7-string guitar added a heaviness that isn’t on any of my other records. I also wanted Intermezzo to have the best sound and production of any of my albums.

I recorded more than 200 different song parts and ideas on my iPhone while I was on tour. Then I listened to all of them, took the ones I liked and started writing the music for Intermezzo from those ideas. I just kept refining the music of each song until I liked every part.

I am very proud of this record and believe in every note that is on there. Finally, I wanted to have a lot of great guest soloists on Intermezzo and I am extremely happy with the way they performed. Everyone did an amazing job!"

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Intermezzo was released on November 14th and features the following guests: GEORGE LYNCH (LYNCH MOB, ex-DOKKEN), Guthrie Govan (THE ARISTOCRATS), JEFF LOOMIS (ex-NEVERMORE), Michael Romeo and Mike Lepond (SYMPHONY X), Rusty Cooley, Dave Reffett, Craig Goldy (DIO, DIO DISCIPLES), Elliot Dean Rubinson (MICHAEL SCHENKER, ULI JON ROTH), Chris Poland (ex-MEGADETH), Andrea Martongelli (ARTHEMIS), Florent Atem, Alex Stornello, JOE STUMP (HOLY HELL, RAVEN LORD), Annie Grunwald (FORMLESS), Bill Peck, Maxxxwell Carlisle (HELLION), and Joe Rose.