He rocks a badass leather coat and channels his inner Pete Townshend when he performs on stage. This week’s profile is on Madame Psychosis’ Kermit-loving, dynamic guitar hero Rene Ip.

What are your biggest musical influences?

Oh, great question. The original lineup of Guns and Roses, Pearl Jam, Neil Young and then probably my original guitar teachers.

What is your favourite music video?

If I really had to pick one maybe “November Rain” by Guns and Roses because it really stands out.

Though one of the first music videos that I remember seeing and being enamoured with was the Beastie Boys’ “Body Moving”, like in ’96, ’97. Shout out to the MuchMusic countdown.

What is your favourite album or song of all time?

Favourite album is Appetite for Destruction by Guns and Roses. Favourite song, at least off of that album, would be “Rocket Queen”. I’m going to go with that.

 

What is your musical guilty pleasure?

Some of that mid to late 80s stuff that Heart did, but they didn’t actually write, like “These Dreams” or “Alone”. Classic. I still rock out to that. And Phil Collins.

Like Genesis Phil Collins?

Like commercial, pop, bubble-gum Phil Collins and not the cool Genesis stuff that was fronted by Peter Gabriel.

What are you listening to right now?

I have an iPod that I have barely updated in the past five years, and that’s mostly a mix of metal and folk stuff, i.e. stuff to workout to and stuff to listen to if I’m falling asleep. If you were to look at what I last listened to on my Google Music account, Jeff Buckley’s Grace and Old 97’s‘ Most Messed Up album.

 

If you were not a guitar player, what instrument would you choose to play?

Bass.

I’ll trade you.

Done.

What was the first song you learned to play?

First song I learned to play was a song called “It Ain’t Going to Rain No More” and it’s just the E and A chords back and forth. My guitar teacher Jay taught that to me in my first or second lesson with him.

What was the moment you thought, “I want to do this”?

It was my parents that picked the guitar for me as the musical instrument of choice that I would learn. When I knew that I really wanted to play, it might have been the first time I heard Metallica in like ’99. It’s like three years after playing and being classically trained on acoustic guitar…

You wanted to break free.

Exactly.

What is your favourite Madame Psychosis song?

That’s a hard one. That’s like picking a favourite baby. One of my favourite ones to play live and that I always catch myself a little bit more in it, and having an out of body experience when we are on stage playing it, is “Psychotic Break”.

Photo credit: Claudio Paola