“I never had the inclination to completely go up against my dad – writing blues never came naturally up until this point”: How Jack Moore is expressing his own sonic identity with Marshall amps, wah pedal extremity – and his father's signature Les Paul

Growing up the son of a blues and rock legend, Jack Moore knew he’d eventually be compared to his father, Irish blues master Gary Moore. But it’s never been a struggle for the 37-year-old guitarist.

“You can go with what your dad did and take that route, but I never had the inclination to completely go up against him in terms of going into the blues,” he says. “I've always had a huge passion for guitar, so whatever I was gonna do would always be supplemented by that, but writing blues never came naturally up until this point.”

Moore is referring to the music he’s recording in Poland with vocalist Quentin Kovalsky, a partnership that has already yielded the bluesy pop-rock tunes Autumn and Peace of Mind, which showcase Moore’s fascination with wah pedals, to say nothing of his blistering six-string chops.

“I’m pretty obsessed with the wah at the moment,” he says. “I love cranking the treble until you get that real screech. I think that's from listening to a lot of Hendrix – but I love playing through a Marshall and then just cranking the treble down on the wah and leaving it there.”

While Moore – who has been known to pepper his sets with tunes like Still Got the Blues, his father’s signature hit – wields his blues-rock lineage with Kovalsky, he also recently released his first song as a solo artist. The Other Side reveals Moore’s folkier side, as influences like Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver and Jeff Buckley inform his otherworldly melodic sensibilities.

Jack Moore & Quentin Kovalsky | WARSAW FINGERSTYLE FESTIVAL XI - YouTube

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“It took a while to really form an identity, because I write all kinds of different things,” he says, “but it just clicked into place finally. Ultimately, I would love to have the leeway to be able to just dip in and out of different genres.”

Although he’s pursuing his own journey in music, he adds, “that's not to say that I won't keep honoring [my father’s] music, because I really do enjoy it.” And when he does slide into that mode, he does it while playing one of his father’s signature-model Les Pauls, engraved with his own name for his 18th birthday, through a Marshall combo. The elder Moore would certainly approve.

“It just plays so beautifully – that's my favorite guitar, for sure,” he says. “The coolest thing you could ever get as a guitar player is a Les Paul with your name on it.”

• Electric Neverland is out now via Moore & Kovalsky.