Still Bitten by That Guitar Bug

Gary Hoey was one of those guitar nerds you remember sniggering about back in high school.

Instead of hanging out with friends or sneaking a cigarette during lunch hour, Hoey would skulk off alone to a remote corner of the campus, proudly intoning to the curbstones and ice plant. Rather than dating or having any sort of social life after school, Hoey would tenderly pet his Stratocaster behind closed doors, marveling at a new chord or scale.

“I was an eight-to-10-hour-a-day kind of guy as far as practicing,” Hoey said in a recent phone interview from his home in Venice Beach. “I missed a lot of parties. I’ve got to say I worked really, really hard. But I’m glad to have put the time in back then because it’s all so much easier now.”

Today, Hoey--who performs tonight at the Coach House--is gaining a growing reputation as a musician’s musician.

With five albums and number of singles since 1990, Hoey stuns fans by dint of his sheer technical wizardry and speed.

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But unlike some guitar slingers whose notoriety is gleaned mostly from astonishing their peers with technique alone--Yngwie Malmsteen, for example--Hoey also flashes keen instincts for melody, timing and soul.

“Growing up in Boston, I listened to a lot of Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and B.B. King,” said Hoey, 36. “Then when Stevie Ray Vaughan hit in the ‘80s, I was really influenced by him. Albert Lee and some of those country guys are big influences too.

“I started out mostly playing blues. That was my whole thing, and someday I want to record a whole blues album. I have such respect for the music that it’s taken me twentysomething years of playing it to be able to go, ‘Yeah, I might almost be there now.’ You have to realize how difficult it is to play something so simple. It keeps a balance between the technical and ‘are you really saying anything?’ ”

Using the power-trio format, Hoey’s brand of mostly instrumental metallic blues-rock has been taken on the road as opening act for the likes of the Doobie Brothers, Foreigner, Brian May (of Queen), Ted Nugent and Joe Satriani. With the release of his latest, “Bug Alley,” Hoey is poised to go out as a national headliner this spring.

“Bug Alley” is a more elaborately produced album than earlier efforts. With studio guru Roy Thomas Baker (Queen, Frank Zappa, Foreigner, the Cars, Devo) at the helm, the songs are built layer upon layer, guitar lines harmonizing and intertwining, working up into chilling crescendos of sound.

“I’ve been a fan of Roy and a lot of bands he worked with for a long time, so it was a big thrill for me to work with him,” Hoey said. “He’s a scientist--a great mixer/engineer/producer, and he has great thoughts about the music, doing songs like [Queen’s] ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ that have a ton of layering and multitracking. He helped me get a cohesive sound and focus on this album. Like on ‘Desire,’ we kind of built an orchestra out of guitars. My other albums were a lot more stripped down.”

Hoey is starting to get into the production end of the music too, working with label mates Lodestone and Sunchild on upcoming releases for Surfdog Records, which is owned by Hoey’s manager, Dave Kaplan. He also produced, rearranged and performed a duet on a new rerecording of Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” with the master surf guitarist.

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“It’s funny,” Hoey said. “I grew up on the East Coast, and I wasn’t a surf guy, but I liked surf music even though I didn’t know it was surf music. I liked the sound. You could sit down with just a guitar and play a whole song without a band. It carries itself. To look at what Dick Dale was doing in the ‘60s, I think the guy was incredibly innovative, and I definitely was influenced by him.”

Hoey’s career seems to be growing at a healthy pace, especially for one who proffers a specialized, technical brand of music never particularly popular with the mainstream. He’s enjoying the ride.

“I made a decision a long time ago that if I never made it, I still was never going to stop what I was doing. That took a lot of pressure off me early on. I just want to be able to play. That’s all I need to be happy. It’s a long road, and if you don’t enjoy yourself, it’s a hard road too. You gotta get to the end.”

* Who: Gary Hoey.

* When: 8 p.m. today. The Cram Brothers open.

* Where: The Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano.

* Whereabouts: Take Interstate 5 to Camino Capistrano and go south. The Coach House is in the Esplanade Plaza, on the right.

* Wherewithal: $10-$12.

* Where to call: (714) 496-8930.