Good morning everyone, I'm Ola Englund and welcome to a new FAQ video
if you saw my latest FAQ video, I did a little test, you know, I played some videogames
while answering your questions and yeah, the results were kind of clear to me
that from now on I will make all my videos, including amp demos, in VR
It just makes a lot of sense, because the answers that I gave were just so much better
It was kind of obvious that a lot of people loved that part, when I was doing the gameplay
But a lot of people also did not like when I was playing videogames
So, I decided to split up my gaming things and put them on a separate channel
I will link it somewhere over here, I've already uploaded a gameplay video
So, this is a strict gaming channel called 'Ola Englund Metal Gaming'
Huh?
Good name, huh? Made it up all by myself.
And if you don't like videogames, you don't have to subscribe to that channel
and you can just stick to this channel and you will not see any more videogames, huh?
That's a good deal, I think.
"Ola Gameglund, there you go. This one is free."
Yeah ...
... or maybe not.
I think 'Ola Englund Metal Gaming" is a lot better to be honest.
"Hi Ola, I was wondering how is the difference in quality between the 700 dollar Solar Guitars and the 1200 ones
"Is it just the Evertune or is there a difference in materials?"
I mean, the quality is no different from each other. The difference are the specs.
The '1' series have, you know, more expensive woods
You know, more expensive bridges obviously, like the Evertune. It has luminlays ...
But build-wise, they are the exact same and feel the same
So, it's not like they build the guitars differently if it's a less expensive one or a more expensive one
It's basically just the specs
And yeah, that's what I like, you know, about the guitars
You can pick up the most expensive one and you can pick up the least expensive one
and you will feel, you know, familiar on both
Yeah ...
Is that? What do you call that?
Is that something that kids do nowadays?
Floss?
I've seen that kids do that. I think it's dangerous
"Hi Ola, how do you care about the lyrics of the songs you listen to?
"are they as important as the musical aspect of the song to you?"
Yeah
I mean, I don't think that lyrics are that important, at least not for me
I know it is for a lot of people
but I definitely think that lyrics can enhance the whole experience of listening to a piece of music.
So yeah, I think it's still very important, you know, not bullshit lyrics at least
So yeah, I kind of ... when I write lyrics for Feared, for instance, I kind of have ...
I ... I ...
I try
Okay?
I actually try.
"Ola, It's 'Daddario', say it all in one word, not 'Deeaddario'
Well, f*** you Kevin Smith.
"Hi Ola, how is the sound of Solar Guitars, six strings in special, when playing chords not distorted? for ballads"
Okay.
Like, okay, I'm a guitar player and there's not a single f***ing guitar pick in my room.
What's up with that?
Oh, there's one here. In my box of picks there's still one guitar pick left, I'm lucky.
This a E1.6 ETC, it has the Solar Duncan pickups, like almost every other Solar Guitar.
So this is how they sound like clean, and it doesn't have a 5-way switch, it has a 3-way toggle
and you can split the humbuckers using this toggle, this push-pull tone.
So here we have the bridge pickup
Both
Neck
Then we have the split
There you have it, that's how it sounds.
"Hi Ola, what is the best way to put your music on Spotify?
"I've been asking this for weeks, please respond"
Oh, sad little crying face.
Well Mr Dank
The best way to put out music on Spotify is basically just to find one of these, you know, internet distributors
like, I'm using 'imusician' for instance, that I'm very happy with
There's also, you know, 'Distrokid' ... what else?
See the ... See the baby? I don't remember.
But at least, you know, just pick one, upload your music
and basically they put the music out to all these streaming services like Spotify and Apple music, etc.
So, there you go
"Hey Ola, as an owner of a guitar company, what do you look for in an artist
"when considering them for an endorsement? Asking for a friend ... the friend is me"
Alright, so what I look for, if you want to become a Solar artist
is that either you have, like, a great online following or, you know, a lot of views on YouTube
Or you're in a touring band that plays a lot of shows, you know, and expose yourself for a lot of people
I mean, both ways, having online presence or a touring presence, It's all about exposure towards people
I mean, how many people will you reach when you upload a video?
How many people will you reach when you are out on tour? Etc.
So, it has to be a collaboration between us two that we both can benefit from
So, if you want to send us an artist endorsement inquiry
I would recommend you go to the FAQ section of the Solar Guitars website
you go to the community, FAQ and read the instructions there
if you're interesting for us, then it's gonna be a good little cooperation maybe
I don't know
"What are your favorite NES games? Mine are Metroid and Contra."
Ooh, that's a tough one!
But I think that the ones that are really the most important games to me back in the day was ...
Ducktales and Super Mario 1, 2 and 3
I mean I finished those games over and over back in the day
Maybe that's a good idea for my gaming channel, to make like maybe a speedrun of Super Mario 3
Go subscribe to that channel right over here, or is it here? I don't know.
Just subscribe, okay? If you like gaming, subscribe
"Hey Ola, what do you call a deer with no eyes?
"I've no idear"
"Privet Ola, how to get rid of a feeling shy on sharing and releasing your music in particular
"and other social activity like YouTube in general?
"I mean that thoughts like 'what if people wouldn't like my music videos/ silly faces, etc.'
"Maybe I shouldn't do it and shit like that.
"I like my music and I'm pretty sure that someone will like it too
"but this unconscious thoughts grabs me down sometimes"
You know what? I've already answered this guy directly on vk.com
Go follow my account on vk.com, if you're into vk.com.
Wow, I'm plugging so much things in my video right now, it's insane.
Maybe I should pay myself for advertisements
Doesn't make sense.
My thoughts about if you should release music or not is that ...
Just simply release the music, okay?
Don't get thoughts that what people think about your music come in the way of you and your art
In the sense, just upload the music
There's always gonna be people that are not liking what you're doing
or does not agree with your direction or whatever
I mean, or there's even gonna be a lot of people just plainly saying that you suck or whatever.
Who cares?
I mean, just throw yourself out there, allow yourself to make mistakes, you know?
That's how we learn, you know?
When we make mistakes, when we fail, we pick ourselves up and continue on stronger than ever.
Sounds a little cheesy, but it's true.
It is true.
And yeah, and again, if someone, you know, comes to really bring you down
and, you know, talk shit about you, stuff like that
Just remember that there's probably something else wrong in their lives
Or maybe they're jealous or whatever, I mean, it means you're doing something right, you know?
And that's one thing about getting older that I really enjoy, like is that you just stop caring.
You just care a lot less about things and what people think about you or what you're doing.
It's like, come on, there's more things in life to care about
than what some guy on the other side of the world says about your music or your riffs or whatever, you know?
So dude, good luck. Get yourself out there already.
"Hey Ola, do you have groupies in a band?"
No, I mean, you have groupies when you're attractive, okay?
"Hi Ola, there is a lot of talk about the declining popularity of guitar-based music.
"Do you think this is true?"
No, I do not see it. What I see is like a decline of all music in a way
I mean, the only thing that is changing is the way that people consume music
and the artist obviously doesn't see, you know, the same type of first hand income
because people don't buy albums, so artists see a decline in sales
People aren't listening to music in the same way as they did before
I mean, I'm not.
I'm from the generation that bought albums, you know? Went out every Saturday to buy albums
The newer generation, they don't know that, they've never done that.
The new generation are more used to stream music through videos or, you know, on their phones
I mean, we had to use our Walkmans or our CD-players, you know?
It's so much more accessible now, music
And yeah, so no, I don't really see a decline in any certain genre
It's the whole business model, you know, that is changing and It's been doing that for a good while
So, there you go.
"Hola Ola, is it normal for guitar company owners to go to the factory and check every guitar for themselves?
"What do you do once the batches get too big for one person to check? Will you hire someone to come along?"
I don't know if it's normal, but personally I just want to do it as many times as I can
because I mean ... A: I think it's important for me, because it is indeed my brand and B: ...
It's kind of like a security measure basically. You know, a filter between me and the factory
and the end consumer, which is you guys
so it's very important for me to go and check and, you know, make sure everything's all right
and it's in my best interest I would say
And C is because it's just bloody fun to be honest
You know, I love going there, it's awesome
You know, standing there with a guitar in my hands. Like, you stand there, you have 500 guitars behind you.
I still haven't really grasped that it's my brand.
I'm just standing there checking a guitar, so it's really weird. It's very ...
it's a very proud feeling that I have to be able to say that I'm there, checking the guitars
"The Dual Rectifier works great for leads?"
Yes, they work really good for leads
It's ... you know, John Petrucci uses the Rectifier for leads all the time
And ... yeah, what can you say? Dual Rectifiers man, they're awesome!
They're awesome
"Hi Ola, do you play the bass guitar?
"And do you think it's important for guitarists to know how to play the bass guitar too?"
I think it's important to know the difference
between how you're playing on an electric bass and on an electric guitar
So yeah, I mean, it's up to you.
If you want to do home recording by yourself, I think it's a good idea to know how to play bass guitar.
I have no idea how to play bass guitar, I just play electric guitar on the bass
But ... It works
Sometimes.
"Can you play some favorite Yngwie J Malmsteen riffs?"
No, I cannot
because they're too hard
"Ghost, yey or ney?"
Yay, definitely, on Ghost.
It's a ...
Whoops.
I'm not really an active listener of the band Ghost, but all the songs that I've heard, I've enjoyed
It's definitely a big ...
"Jay"
And I have a cool little story for you.
When I was playing in the band Sorcerer back in 2010, Ghost played before us on a festival
Huh? That's cool, huh?
They opened up for us ...
Ghost ...
and, you know, like two months before they totally exploded into what they are today
So yeah, I like the concept
I mean, I think the singer seems like a very smart businessman and I really respect that.
Ohhh, that was the last question guys
Oh my god, we're done for the day!
Okay. I hope that you enjoyed these traditional FAQ videos.
I'll try and keep them more traditional like this and just, you know ...
Answer questions properly instead of just, you know, winging like I did in my last video
Okay, if you have any more questions guys, go ask them in the latest FAQ video
Make sure this is the latest one before you comment, okay?
And yeah, don't forget to subscribe to my gaming channel
and check out my super funny video where I play a horror game called 'Paranormal Activity'
It's not really that funny, but check it out anyway, it's up here.
Yeah, thank you so much for watching, guys. See you next time, alright? Like this.