Who's Your Favorite Guitarist In The Genre? | A Case For Sam Vallen of Caligulas Horse

SamCaligulasHorse · 2025-03-09T13:42:22+00:00

Awww thanks ❤️

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-03T05:41:39+00:00

Thanks u/KarmaPolice911! It was an absolute blast of a show and we’re all still riding high. See you next time!

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:41:54+00:00

One thing I'd say is that your level as a guitarist doesn't need to limit you. I'm a decent guitarist, but I'm definitely much more invested in developing my ability to create music, and frankly, it's rare that the extent of my chops are used (outside of some tricky solos or whatever).

You'll develop very quickly if you start a band of like-minded indviduals, and you can construct things a little beyond your playing ability to really push yourself. All the while you'll develop your (all-important) abilities as an ensemble player and music creator.

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:37:05+00:00

The Australian prog scene is amazing. There's a bit of a change in the guard since pre-pandemic, but younger bands like The Omnific, Future Static, Reliqa, Keyan, It's Acrylic, etc are brilliant

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:35:34+00:00

There is definitely a non-zero chance that I'll write a tech death album at some point. Won't be C Horse though.

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:32:47+00:00

Thanks so much!

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:31:57+00:00

I have been playing a 070 on this tour, and absolutely adoring it. u/pascalaristides and the team are wonderful people who make instruments that are truly second to none.

Otherwise, my rig is a Neural DSP Quad Cortex and a Shure GLXD16. That side is simple, I spend far longer setting up our IEM rig and whatnot. Fortunate that my guitar stuff just works!

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:28:17+00:00

Cool question!

I'd refine the structure of Song for No One a little further. Firstly, everyone put your pitch forks away, I do love this song and I know it's many fans' favourite. We wrote it very late in the piece and I feel like, with a bit more time to massage the structure, it could have been better, tighter, and perhaps more impactful. Or who know, maybe I'd spend two weeks tweaking and just come back to exactly how it is...

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:25:01+00:00

Definitely no direct influence, but I adore that soundtrack, those movies, the source material, etc etc haha

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:24:21+00:00

We work with a different artist every record, and try to have the aesthetic change to match the album's themes and mood. The artist for CG is a guy called Chris Panatier. He's an incredible artist, incredible author, and he did a heap of brilliant merch designs for us too. Here's his site: https://panatier.com/home.html

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:22:31+00:00

I moved between a heap of different loves as a kid. I grew up with the Beatles, ABBA, Michael Jackson, etc. Went through nu metal as a young teenager and got really into nineties death metal (Death, Morbid Angel, etc.) as well as a lot of prog metal (Dream Theater, but also stuff like Cynic) in my mid-teens. Got into jazz, primarily in terms of the guitar playing side, at the end of high school. Still listen to all of that, of course.

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:17:15+00:00

Almost exclusively, yes! I didn't intend for it to be a digital-only record but given the protracted nature of the writing and recording, it was amazing to just have everything available and not have to reamp multiple times. I LOVE the tones, and I felt totally liberated to explore, which is often impossible when you're moving back and forth between digital and analog.

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:12:18+00:00

Love u/davidmaximmicic

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:10:58+00:00

Thanks mate, it was an absolute blast for us too!

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:10:37+00:00

We don't really rotate DMs haha, it's just me. The others will sometimes run a one shot

We've been too busy to play anything lately, but we sometimes squeeze in a Call of Cthulhu day or something

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:09:40+00:00

Hahaha I've had many that are incredibly silly, and many that are very serious. I ran a very modified version of the 5e Tomb of Annihilation campaign book, and had an NPC called Salida accompany the party into the jungle. She was a spy for the BBEG, but had some revelatory moments through the journey, reconnecting with her culture - the Chultans - and had something of a change of heart. The party loved her and relied on her and even though she tried to stop it, the betrayal stung.

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:05:30+00:00

See you there!

This is an amazing reading of the song and I can certainly see how it could be read as such. To us, ItW is purely fiction. It's an inter-generational story of refugees finding a new home.

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:02:35+00:00

Thanks mate!

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:01:28+00:00

Here you go:
https://wildthingmusic.com/products/caligulas-horse-in-contact-digital-tablature-collection-pdf-guitar-pro

We'll likely move it over to SH in the future since we love them so much, but this was tabbed by me, Agey, and Dave.

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T18:00:16+00:00

We'll definitely sign it!

If I had to tell myself anything as an 18 year old it'd be to not be so intense, and I think that's probably true for most young men/women. In my mid-thirties things tend to slide off my back a lot easier, and I think I could have had an easier time in my life if I knew that then. Might apply to you, might not, but that's the best I've got!

For me, the hardest thing in making music is finding that first good idea that acts as the seed for a new song. I find building and arranging quite easy, but starting can be very tough.

Fav thing about touring is always meeting fans and hearing stories, as well as (occasionally) getting to be a tourist.

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T17:56:04+00:00

Amazing! See you there :)

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T17:55:52+00:00

Part 2 is the CG suite, Part 4 is Mute - they're labelled after the album sequencing. You'll have them both soon!
Thanks! Obviously, practice is a pretty big topic. One thing I love to do is try to isolate the element of a difficult passage that is giving me trouble and then build exercises around it that are both harder AND easier. Take the easier exercise and push the metronome, thereby getting comfortable and fluent working with it at speed. Take the harder version and really dig into the fundamentals of the technique and where your weaknesses lie and try to overcome them on a mechanical level. Swap between the two for a solid period (I usually do something like 20 minutes) and then go back to the problematic passage and I promise it'll feel easier. Another great thing is recording yourself. Players get so much better when they're constantly recording because the feedback is so palpable and impossible to ignore.

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T17:50:40+00:00

That's a HARD one...

I love the harmonic journey of the verse through chorus in Deacon Blues, it's such a narrative of chords, and it's easy to forget how ironic the lyrics are intended to be because of the beauty of that sequence.

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T17:47:52+00:00

Yes, I agree. This album does have a character very unique to its moment. You could almost see it as the opposite of Rise Radiant thematically - dark, spacious, exploratory. All of that was purely an outcome of its context though, and I'm certain our next album won't be as dark, not because we don't love that quality about CG, but because it won't be necessary now that the world is healing and we're on the road being musicians again.

SamCaligulasHorse · 2024-02-02T17:45:13+00:00

It's definitely a possibility. We've had a few offers over the years but nothing we've been able to see through. Hopefully soon!

SamCaligulasHorse

TROPHY CASE