With the release of his third solo album “Triangle” on his own Franklin Castle Recordings, Linus of Hollywood cements his position as a cornerstone of the so-called “LA pop scene”, releasing a mature work featuring wide-reaching melodic ideas and intelligent-yet-heartfelt songwriting. When not in his studio producing artists such as Kim Fox and Willy Wisely, Linus of Hollywood can be found on the road playing in Paul Gilbert’s hard-rocking metal-pop-fusion ensemble, or tweaking mixes for artists as diverse as Lil’ Kim and P. Diddy. We recently caught up with this jack-of-all-musical-trades and asked him a few questions...

1. What's your favorite instrument to play? To compose on?
My favorite instrument to play is guitar because that's the thing I'm best at! But I like to compose on piano, because I end up writing cooler stuff.

2. Most challenging song you’ve ever written, and why?
Wow, I would say about half of my new album...the songs kept morphing into other ones. The chorus of "Farewell To The King" used to be the bridge of another song called " Holiday ". Then I wrote a whole new song called " Holiday " and that didn't even make it on the record...eventually I just had to stop myself and put the damn record out.

3. Tacos or taquitos?
Tacos!

4. Why Paul Gilbert? Aren’t you a pop guy?
I'm a pop guy, but I grew up on heavy metal, and Paul was one of my favorite guitar players as a kid (and still is!). He is also a pop guy at heart. When I met him at my show in Japan we spent half the night playing Del Amitri and Beach Boys songs backstage.

5. First recording device used to demo a song, and year?
Oh man. Probably one of those Tascam 4-track cassette thingies, and it was probably the late 80s.

6. Roland VS880 – smash or trash?
Trash! I did the best I could with that thing (including my first 2 albums and the Kim Fox record) but it's so much better to be recording with Pro Tools!

7. What’s your take on the current “LA pop scene”?
Is there one?

8. Favorite Emerson, Lake and Palmer song?
Wow, I don't really know many, but I enjoyed playing "Karn Evil 9" on the road with Paul Gilbert.

9. All-time favorite song and songwriter?
It's so cliche to say, but "God Only Knows" and Brian Wilson. It's the perfect song and when Brian was on top of his game he was untouchable -- even by the Beatles.

10. How much alcohol do you drink on an average day?
A lot less than I used to, but probably not enough! haha.