After having a conversation with “Guitarist of the Year” winner Ricky Armellino from Ice Nine Kills, there is one word that comes to mind to describe this musician: modest. Ricky seemed to think that he was a far cry from being the best guitarist, especially in comparison to other musicians nominated in the category, including Tim Hanson of Polyphia, as well as in comparison to his own band members. He even went as far to say, “The guy from Polyphia was on it (the list of nominees). He is a MUCH better guitar player than I am. In every sense of the word.”

Even if he thinks he isn’t the best guitarist in the world, Ricky is extremely talented and showcases many different talents instead of just being able to shred on the guitar. 

Ricky’s story of joining Ice Nine Kills is quite interesting and different than many other musicians. The guitar wasn’t even the first instrument the musician started playing, or one that he chose to play. One of the guys that he used to skate with told him that he should play bass, which led Ricky to ask, “What is bass?” After being told it was an easier version of the guitar, Armellino had the mindset of “I want to be in a band.” At the time, Ricky listened to bands, such as Rage Against the Machine, Sublime, Deftones, Korn, Green Day, and he was obsessed with Radiohead.

His bass guitar quickly became his personality. He described himself as, “I was that kid who played bass.” Turns out that his bass career was short-lived however, after the friend who told him to play bass wanted to play bass himself, forcing Ricky to play guitar. 

“I rented a guitar from a guitar store and it was covered in cracks and it was a piece of junk, but I loved it. So I went back to the store and I asked them how much they would sell it to me for and they told me 200 bucks. So I bought it and it’s hanging on the wall in my studio... I never wanted to be the guy that was ‘the guitarist.’ I wanted to just be the vocalist. I would just make noise on the guitar when I wanted to write something and then teach it to my friends and then I would do the vocals.”

When it came to joining Ice Nine Kills, it was completely unexpected for Ricky and Spencer [Charnas, vocalist of Ice Nine Kills] alike. Ricky was in a band, recording vocals for 9 years, had a recording studio, and re-recorded small chunks while using his guitar more as a tool than a lifestyle. Spencer would work with Ricky over FaceTime for The Silver Scream, while showing him ideas on his acoustic guitar for Ricky to record on his computer. Spencer thought his skills were great, including his guitar playing, vocals, and harmonizing. 

Even though he was getting praise, Ricky said, “I never see myself as a real musician. I’ve always been very blue collar about it. Well I know how to take notes and put them on a computer and that’s it.” After hearing about the amount of sheer talent that Ricky has, it was clear that he was wrong and that he is, in fact, a real musician. 

After not talking to Spencer for a while, Spencer had called Ricky while he was in the hospital, with no cool story but instead food poisoning. At the time, Ricky didn’t think the record was going to be a smash hit, but he remembers liking the songs. Spencer asked that night, “Can you do a tour with us?” Turns out that JD [Justin DeBlieck] couldn’t go, and after asking when the tour would be, Ricky didn’t know what to think. It was Thursday and Spencer asked him to leave to tour on Monday; Ricky was in shock. 

After initially saying no, Ricky spoke with JD and learned how badly the band needed help. He told them how he couldn’t play the material, but was promised any resources available to help him be able to do it. 

Fate was looking out for Armellino when learning the guitar parts, because without having known months prior that he was going to be asked to tour with Ice Nine Kills, he got an endorsement from Ernie Ball and ordered a white JP7 guitar that had arrived the day before Spencer talked to him. Sure enough, all of the videos JD sent of himself playing the guitar happened to be on the same exact Ernie Ball JP7 guitar in all of the videos. As a producer, he is good at replicating music and sounds, eventually he said, “F**k it. Sure.”

Who knew that one unexpected phone call could go from playing a tour with a band to winning best guitarist years later? Ricky has grown into this role in the band and he tells us, “When I got this award, I chalked it up to the fanbase being funny. I think Ice Nine fans heavily weighed that scale. I do like receiving it. I like being praised. I need it constantly. Otherwise I start shaking like a war veteran.” 

It seems as though Ricky wasn’t sure of his potential, but his career with Ice Nine Kills - as well as his own projects - have given him confidence that he is a talented musician. He says, “I play guitar on stage all the time, but it’s been recent, really recent, that I actually love playing the instrument.” He works with Jack in HAWK and a lot of his own writing is in those songs. He also writes a lot of riffs for other bands, it’s just normally secret. It’s not as though he doesn’t want to be recognized for his talents, but Ricky doesn’t mind being more behind the scenes when it comes to “that kind of stuff.” Again, this man is modest with all of the talent he is hiding. 

Ricky has learned a lot from every member of Ice Nine Kills. When it comes to Dan [Sugarman, guitarist of Ice Nine Kills], he learned guitar techniques and Armellino believes that Dan should have won this award. Joe [Occhiuti, bassist of Ice Nine Kills] is an unbelievable musician, amazing pianist, and is incredible at making harmonies and vocal arrangements. Spencer is an incredible songwriter and has a crazy ear for chord choices and is an expert with hooks. JD is great with string arrangement and has a good work flow. 

Ricky also credits Spencer with knowing how to choose talented people. Armellino thinks that Spencer may have overestimated his talents and should have gone with someone who was more on the same page, but the guitarist even surprised himself and was earnest on catching up with the rest of the band. “Being in that band has immensely set me up for so many career skills in music.”

Catching up and learning all of the music was one of the biggest struggles that Ricky faced. He had to struggle with learning guitar parts from JD and then also having to learn backup vocals from Spencer. Spencer started seeing Ricky’s talents as himself having more possibilities to perform. Learning the vocals along with the guitar parts, Ricky thought, “There is no f**king way on earth people could do this.” But JD did. There were rhythms that his hand was doing and his mouth was doing that had nothing to do with each other. He had to make his whole body an instrument and that was the hardest part. 

Sometimes the guitarist would have to stop playing his guitar to execute vocals, but instead of settling for this, Ricky stopped drinking and would continue rehearsing after he got off stage. Not wanting to be distracted, Ricky would go and sit in the van repeatedly to learn the songs, and he also wanted to challenge himself to learn a solo that was a little outside of his abilities. The amount of potential that this musician has is incredible. He also explained that “Communion of the Cursed” was the main song for him to master.

When he began touring with the band, he felt, “people didn’t appreciate the sheer level of attention and care that band put in their music because it’s actually very complicated and layered. JD was creating whole orchestras behind their pieces.” In turn, Ricky felt as though he had to step his game up because he would never think of a piece of music as in depth as these guys would.

He had no intentions of going on tour to join that band, but he really wanted to reach the level of care and detail that they had; he was very inspired by it. Trying to push his brain into a new place was the main challenge there. 

Ricky has not taken a day off during quarantine. Not only has he done the first round mixes for the new HAWK CD, but he is also working with an array of different artists. He let us know that there is going to be some new Ice Nine Kills music. He explains, “I’ve heard some of the music that Spencer is working on and I think it’s fantastic. I think there is going to be a lot of cool stuff coming up.”

When congratulating Armellino on winning the award, he wanted to say, “I definitely want to thank the fans for this hilarious victory. Listen to the other bands with a critical ear and maybe vote for talent next time. I think voting for me was a fun thing to do and I can get behind that.” 

It is clear that Ricky Armellino is a strong and talented musician. Even by the end of our chat, it seemed as though he is continuing to grow, becoming stronger in his abilities, and is more confident in himself. “Doing music is my life now. It’s a lifestyle for me. I wake up, listen to whatever I was working on the day before, take notes, at noon I go down to the basement and I’m usually down there until 2 am, maybe take a break to throw a ball for the dog.” We can’t wait to hear all of the projects that Armellino is working on and see what he has to bring to the table with Ice Nine Kills, HAWK, and his producing skills.