Hi Gary. Welcome to the FraKctured Zone.

How was the recent Royal Festival Hall gig for you?

really sublime, I love the fact that the last 3 London gigs I've done have had loudly cheering audiences present, something I don't get that often quite honestly in the other countries I work in regularly

 

How does the presence of an audience affect your playing?

if the audience is with me I can play for literally hours at a stretch without a break...I crave feedback from crowds as it becomes a loop of energy and inspiration...I love a receptive audience, something that I have found in abundance in London

 

How do you prepare for performance? Any little rituals?

not really, just making sure I'm plugged in!

 

You were playing a 1946 Gibson J-45 - is this correct? Could you tell me something about this instrument, its sound and setup? I'd say it had brightest sound of any guitar I've heard this side of a National Steel.

correct--a classic antique Gibson, on the headstock is the legend "Only a Gibson is good enough" (not necessarily always true, still...)--it has an incredibly wide oak fingerboard which is perfect for my long fingers --I use a DiMarzio pickup bolted in the soundhole under the strings, and I use light guage regular slinky ernie ball electric guitar strings, with the whole shebang going through all of my effects (about 16 boxes and pedals in all)

 

What strings and tunings do you most regularly use?

ernie ball regular slinky (010's), open E, open Eminor, open A, drop D, DadGad, Cmodal

 

You manage to produce an enormous sound with great attack - do you have long, very hard fingernails or are you a "pad-snapper"?

I have as close cropped nails on both hands as you can get without lopping off your fingertips, and incredibly calloused fingertip pads on both hands--prefer flesh to picks, definitely

 

How about your hands - I would suppose you have strong hands (well developed musculature) but are they large or small and what effect, if any, does their size have on your playing?

large hands and long fingers, enabling me to wrap easily around the j-45 neck

 

Would you credit your ability as a guitarist more to talent or hard work? Similarly, would you credit your ability as a songwriter more to talent or hard work?

combination of both I suppose, as I think I am innately musical (took a musical aptitude test at my school when I was 9 and scored a perfect score--with a result that my school band leader disastrously prescribed the french horn for me, without noticing I barely have an upper lip for an appropriate embouchure) and am also a workaholic, forcing myself to at least play for a half hour or so every day to stay in fighting shape--I notice that if I slack off for a day or so the muscles in my hands definitely start to weaken...for songwriting I only do this when the spirit moves me, am stubbornly incapable of forcing the effort unlike my guitar playing

 

Do you have perfect pitch?

pretty good, not perfect in the sense of calling out the pitch of an external sound, but pretty discerning when I set my mind to it--still, it wavers depending on time of day, state of mind, amount of sleep etc.

 

About your left hand - where's the thumb? Middle of the guitar neck or round-and-over?

round and over

 

Do you employ much vibrato?

yes, which is why I favor these light guage flat wound strings, easier to make the guitar "talk"

 

You've been quoted as saying "I think the voice of God is heard through the bent note". Could you expand a little on that please and do you think that there are exact, recognisable pitches (srutis?) within the semi-tone that you regularly aim to hit to give a certain effect?

I really think that the root of all devotional music is sliding and falling pitches, or the spaces between the black and white notes of a piano, interstices containing the "lost chord"--I love to bend into these pitches by ear for that extra fillip of soulfulness, that pin prick of the rapier, tattooing the brain (Syd like) with the thrust and parry of that type of playing serves to wake up an audience lulled by the commonplace tonalities of our just intonation practices in the west

 

 

Do you practice regularly and, if so, can you tell us a little about how you practice?

not really I just play whatever the spirit dictates at the time, although I often play through my more difficult repertoire of arranged pieces to warm up

 

Are you a strict self-disciplinarian?

I am driven...but I'm not an emotional fascist, and try and take it one day at a time

 

Have you consciously studied flamenco at some point - or are those rasgueados coming from somewhere else? I mean, you use the pinky (little finger) on your right hand - that's unusual. Do you pick /pluck with it as well as strum/rasgueados?

no conscious study of flamenco technique ever (was a big hit with the famous exponents of this style whern I played in Sevilla--they seemed enthralled by my technique) yes I pick with the pinky

 

How about "golpe", you know, drumming/banging the soundboard etc?

nolpe

 

Have you ever played a touch guitar?

tried once, wasn't my thang

 

When you pick, do you always cross-pick?

yes

 

When you pick, is your right wrist flat or arched?

changes according to the requirements of the music I guess

 

What sort of picks do you prefer?

Jim Dulop 3, that's it, only on electric, though mainly use flesh

 

Which came first - picking or fingerstyle?

picking

 

Was there an influential teacher?

a mate where I grew up named Peter Heitzman

 

Do you teach?

only if browbeaten/bribed

 

You employ technology to produce what I can only descbribe as Soundscapes. Can you tell us about the electronics involved please?

some very low tech primitive digital delays basically

 

You have a very un-precious attitude to this technology, very visceral and rough-edged - how much improv and how much preparation here?

50/50

 

Do you own a digital guitar? If so, which and what system/software? If not, do you see this as a possible future path?

not really as I like to hear a human struggling through barbed wire (an extension of my nervous system) not triggered simulacra

 

Do you approach recording and the recording studio more as a painter (compositional tool) or a photographer (historical document)? [this is an arbitrary distinction, sorry!]

a bit of both, depending on intent, budget, time constraints etc.

 

In the studio, do you go for "good takes" or "till it's perfect"? [eg overdubs etc]

there's no such thing as perfect...preferably the dylan method of old (first or second takes, then move on)

 

After "The Edge of Heaven" and the recent tour, what's next for you now?

recording my new Beefheart project Fast 'n Bulbous, a 7 piece horn driven instrumental tribute band I just unleashed/debuted in Italy Germany and Belgium to rapturous response (trumpet trombone 2 saxes guitar bass and drums with much soloing); recording new solo and collaborative tracks in France soon for the next Label Bleu album; tweaking my forthcoming Gods and Monsters album which is nearly finished for release sometime next year

 

Thank you Gary - good luck!

31/10/01

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