"Music is a language that stands on its own, and needs no explanation or addendum in any language other than itself. It forms phrases, sentences, subjects and countersubjects, arguments; it expresses entire ideas, all by itself. When combined with another language, whether a spoken one or in another form, the language attains qualities of beauty from it, as versative as the musical language itself."

Name: Ilia Asafiev
Contact information:

AOL Instant Messenger: SmarterIliace
E-mail: First name at domain name dot net.
Band function: Lead and rhythm guitar
Equipment:
Guitars by Jackson/Charvel, Ibanez, MusicMan, and Steinberger. Top three strings: 10, 13, 17; Bottom three strings 24, 32, 42. Dunlop Jazz III picks, Digitech GNX-series amp modelers/effects processors. I advocate tuning all instruments to C=256 (A=432) in accord with natural properties of human singing voice.
Ilia uses Digitech amp modelers and effects processors, and JBL amplification, exclusively.
Favorite Quote:
"If I can kill off some of those Blink-182 and Third-Eye-Suck-Hack mofos, then I'm doing the right thing. That ain't real music. You might as well have the Teletubbies and Barney down there playin' with them!"
- Zakk Wylde (Guitar One, October 2000)
Currently listening to: .


This pretty much sums up the essence of my existence:

Hobbies besides music: reading into mathematics, music, history, philosophy, astronomy, psychology, poetry, statecraft, and economics; Chess, algorithm analysis; I also write fiction from time to time; foreign languages: Russian, French, Latin.

Philosophy on Music:

Music has to express an idea. If it doesn't, or if the idea is vague; or if the author didn't have a solid enough understanding of the idea before putting it to music; then art is wasted. And while ideas can be judged on their content, that's for the passive audience to idly ponder. A musician should understand how an idea is formed and passed along, or else he's not a good musician.

Q&A: Click here
Over the years, I've been influenced by a lot of musicians. I'll list my main influences for guitar, sub-grouped as to the big effects they had on me. These are in no particular order.
Composition: Greg Howe, Jason Becker, Joe Satriani, George Lynch, Joe Pass, Marty Friedman, Randy Rhoads, Ritchie Blackmore, Alex Skolnik, John Petrucci, Michael Schenker, Dimebag Darrell, Wes Montgomery, Uli Jon Roth, Steve Howe, Slash

Technique: Tony Macalpine, Yngwie Malmsteen, Ron Thal, John Petrucci, Joe Pass, Chris Impelliteri, Mattias Eklundh, Jason Becker, Michael Schenker, Paul Gilbert, Greg Howe, Michael Romeo

Sound/effects: David Gilmour, Brian May, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, John Christ, Jimi Hendrix,
Some of my favorite composers from the classical genre are Bach, Bethoveen, Chopin, Tchaikovsky.