Yossi Sassi [Interview]
If rock-oriented instrumental guitar is your thing, Yossi Sassi is a name you need to know. In this interview, TMMP talks with the man himself about his upcoming EU tour, the bouzoukitara (Sassi’s unique signature instrument), creativity, spirituality, and more…
You’re set to tour Europe this December. How’re you feeling about it?
We can’t wait to share the Desert Butterflies show with our European followers! The set list is promised to be diverse and rich, spanning both solo albums, as well as some past materials and surprise songs, past and future.
What’s your earliest musical memory?
Age 1.5 or so. I recall my father singing in his underwear in the living room!
Seriously, I was surrounded by music all my life. My grandfather was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, and played the oud, and was teaching music to his 10 children. I absorbed it from childhood.
I first played the flute around age seven, then sang in school choir. Then came the guitar, and it was right on the spot. The right instrument. It changed my life ever since.
You have a signature instrument – the bouzoukitara. How did that instrument come to be?
For years I’ve been playing over 17 different instruments, yet composing mainly on bouzouki, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar.
In 2011 I composed a couple of songs for ‘Melting Clocks’ that demanded me to move between those instruments when playing live. I decided to plan an instrument, seeking an efficient way to switch between the acoustic Greek bouzouki to the electric guitar.
The “bouzoukitara” is a unique instrument that combines a traditional acoustic bouzouki with an electric solid-body guitar, and acoustic guitar. Together with luthier Benjamin Millar, I was able to Read more…
In an endless ocean of heavy-shredding soundalikes, instrumental rock guitarist Yossi Sassi stands out a mile. Fusing impressive compositional skills with masterful technique and no small amount of hard-earned feel, Sassi quickly dives into subtle time signature changes on the mellifluous Marty Friedman collaboration Orient Sun before