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FUSE Gets Ready To Close The Gap Between Classical & Rock Audiences

Linzi Stoppard will be described by many as edgy. Edgy? She plays electric violin!

Each live set sees musical influences from The Rolling Stones through to Cafe del Mar. Stoppard who is now part of the band FUSE, has been playing the classical violin since she was four years old when she attended the Suzuki Violin School. She followed the traditional classical music route and also mastered the clarinet and piano. In her mid teenage years, however, she rebelled against her classical training and the hours of practice it demanded, forming a band at school and her first move into popular music. “I picked up my first electric violin when I was 17 and I never put it down. It was unbelievable the amount of different sounds…you can control the electric violin so much more than a classical violin,” she said.

The angles and the spacing between the strings are different on an electric violin versus a classical guitar. “The fingering is more sensitive and the electric violin feels different under the bow. There is more resistance and the electric violin doesn’t resonate as well as the acoustic violin does. The bridge of the electric violin is hollow. However, while the electric violin feels different, the technique when playing it is essentially the same as playing a classical violin,” Stoppard said.

In 2006, Stoppard teamed up with another electrical violinist, Ben Lee, to form the band FUSE. They both believe it is possible to narrow the gap between classical and pop audiences. Stoppard told In Tune that learning the classical violin was very important and it helped put down the foundation for what she is doing today. However, she wants kids to know that classical and rock can come together to form something new. “When kids see the traditional looking violin, they switch off. They look at it as boring. It’s good for them to know they can make the transition to something morefunky later on. It gives them inspiration to get that classical training. It’s almost like dangling a bit of a carrot.”

FUSE is putting the finishing touches to their 14-track debut album Glorious, no exact debut date has been given. While the band writes their own music, this first outing will be of “recognizable” tunes. “We wrote our own top line melodies which have been inspired by the original tracks. The second album will hopefully have more original music mixed in. For the first album we are breaking through so many boundaries. We don’t want people to be too shocked…too much info at once,” Stoppard laughed.

If you check out FUSE Stoppard’s website at linzistoppard.com you will hear “Glorious” as well as “I Love Rock n’ Roll”.

A Classroom Magazine for Music Students - In Tune Monthly: The Musician's Textbook

FUSE Gets Ready To Close The Gap Between Classical & Rock Audiences