Articles by Gregory Adams

Gregory Adams is a Vancouver-based arts reporter. From metal legends to emerging pop icons to the best of the basement circuit, he’s interviewed musicians across countless genres for nearly two decades, most recently with Guitar World, Bass Player, Revolver, and more – as well as through his independent newsletter, Gut Feeling. This all still blows his mind. He’s a guitar player, generally bouncing hardcore riffs off his ’52 Tele reissue and a dinged-up SG.

Articles by: Gregory Adams

“Morgan has the actives, and I use Grandpa’s guitar. That defines Kittie’s tone”: The nine lives of Morgan Lander and Tara McLeod – and how swapping ’00s-era Hamers for a Solar V helped supercharge their revival

By Gregory Adams published 16 August 24

Returning with their first album in 13 years, Lander and McLeod discuss their tone chemistry and explain why you can shove them through the meat grinder but you'll never kill them

“My mom would still be bugging me, like, ‘You need to go to college and get a real job.’ I’m in the van, getting baloney sandwiches on 100 bucks a night. And I’m 30!” Bill Kelliher and Mark Morton on how Leviathan and Ashes of the Wake changed everything

By Gregory Adams published 12 August 24

With two classic albums, both released on the same day, Lamb of God and Mastodon's fates have long been connected and now they're touring together, Kelliher and Morton reflect on a turning point for both bands

Jake Dreyer of Witherfall brandishing a purple Jackson King V against a green-lit backdrop

“I don’t play flamenco at all – I just fake it on an acoustic with a guitar pick. But I’ve always loved that tonality”: Jake Dreyer might not be referencing Paco de Lucía on Witherfall’s new album – but he is thinking what Brian May might do

By Gregory Adams published 2 August 24

Sounds of the Forgotten is Witherfall at their best: musically ambitious, virtuosity swinging for the fences, and it came together by Dreyer chasing vibes and taking melodic metal bigger

Ken Andrews of Failure plays live in 2014 with an aluminum guitar

“I was watching my best friend get eaten alive by heroin. It was amazing how far gone he was, physically, but he was still able to play the shows”: Failure’s Ken Andrews looks back on the fraught creation of 1996 cosmic epic, Fantastic Planet

By Gregory Adams published 9 July 24

Fantastic Planet was recorded at a time when substance abuse was tearing them apart and their record label folded. Now Andrews can look back with a bit of perspective on an artistic triumph that's given them a second life

Bruce Soord of the Pineapple Thief onstage in Italy, playing a single-cut electric guitar

“I’ve learned to completely let go and say, ‘That’s different… but let’s go with it!’” The Pineapple Thief are one of UK prog’s leading lights – Bruce Soord explains how they crossed the Rubicon with Porcupine Tree’s drummer

By Gregory Adams published 14 June 24

It Leads to This finds Soord and company working in weird time signatures and towards the point of mental exhaustion in search of new sounds

Ben Weinman of Suicidal Tendencies performs onstage at Showbox SoDo on November 30, 2023 in Seattle, Washington.

“I wasn’t playing accurately in the beginning – I was just going crazy. It became a balance of visceral expression and actually trying to play”: Ben Weinman on the Dillinger Escape Plan’s chaotic birth – and unexpected return

By Gregory Adams published 21 May 24

Ben Weinman on the Dillinger Escape Plan’s chaotic birth – and unexpected return

“There’s an early No Doubt song which might as well be full-on heavy metal, if you want to hear Gwen singing for Black Sabbath. And there’s an absolutely shredding solo!” No Doubt’s Tom Dumont names 10 guitarists (and one genre) that shaped his sound

By Gregory Adams published 7 May 24

The No Doubt and Dreamcar guitarist attempted two Rush songs at a seventh-grade talent show, chunked up on Black Sabbath and later named his son after Ace Frehley – but reggae got deepest into his heart

“I remember feeling happy in my heart when I first heard a pedal steel”: Meet Pedal Steel Noah, the teenager going viral with country-fied covers of everything from Judas Priest to Nirvana and My Bloody Valentine

By Gregory Adams published 30 April 24

With help from his dad, brother and the family pet, Instagram hit musician Noah Faulkner is reshaping classic grunge, metal, synth pop and more with his 10-string pedal steel

“The Bigsby Standard actually made by Paul Bigsby is one of the most special – there’s only 25 or so known to still exist”: Meet Amy Rose Mills, the accidental luthier who sets up some of the rarest guitars on the planet

By Gregory Adams published 19 April 24

The noise improv specialist for Brooklyn’s Couch Slut is also a luthier at NYC institution Retrofret. She details some of the most treasured instruments she’s encountered, the magic of running a Gretsch at high gain, and grabbing one of her hero’s pedals before anyone else got the chance

“John Paul Jones is one of the only musicians I’ve been around where I was starstruck. I asked him some stupid questions about Achilles Last Stand… but he was very kind!” Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament names 11 bassists who shaped his sound

By Gregory Adams published 18 April 24

From Dee Dee Ramone to Eric Avery, fretless to 12-string bassists, Jeff Ament believes all his influences can all be heard on the latest Pearl Jam album Dark Matter

“I’ve always loved Fenders. I’m almost working against a design that has been around since the ‘50s – I don’t know if it’s going to cooperate with me”: Pissed Jeans’ Bradley Fry on why he loves awkward offsets and solid-state Peavey amps

By Gregory Adams published 11 April 24

The Pennsylvania punks play so loud, Fry gets his sound engineer to mic a tiny Peavey combo instead, so he can keep his onstage amps raging

“A collector turned up with a Cherry Red Flying V and I was like, ‘Are you sure you want to customize that?’ It was such a beautiful thing already!” Meet the English entrepreneur who covers guitars with crystals for a living

By Gregory Adams published 8 March 24

Crystal Skins boss Zoe Brodie-James’ work has been seen in movies and on TV, and she’s completed commissions for some very, very rich people

“It didn’t sound right with just one guitar lead, so why not have two?” Mary Timony on her multiversal lead lines and why the Depression-era Gibson acoustic is the ultimate six-string survivor

By Gregory Adams published 8 March 24

The former Helium and Wild Flag D.C. rocker can still unleash some decidedly untame sounds and work an EBow like no-one else

“I became this musician because of jazz. I mean, I still wake up every day and work on Charlie Parker’s Hot House!” Even with a broken finger, Helmet’s Page Hamilton is one of the all-time great heavy riffsmiths – but he owes it all to jazz

By Gregory Adams published 4 March 24

Nothing can stop Hamilton's flow as Helmet return with a politically charged masterclass in punishing rhythms, off-kilter melodies and open-tuned acoustics

Cannibal Corpse's Erik Rutan and Rob Barrett

“This is fking 4K st”: Erik Rutan and Rob Barrett on why Chaos Horrific is one of the grimmest releases from the Cannibal Corpse death metal meat grinder

By Gregory Adams published 29 February 24

How disgustingly low tunings and custom-built metal machines gave new rager Chaos Horrific a hellish weight and physicality as the death metal institution found joy in new extremes

“I loved the sound of doubled guitars, but it just becomes a slog. I couldn’t hate the process more… it goes right against the immediacy I wanted for this record”: Why Jawbox hero J. Robbins changed his attitude to recording… and smashing guitars

By Gregory Adams published 16 February 24

The Jawbox leader, who regrets breaking his “dearest companion” Jazzmaster, shares his love of hand-built Hiwatt clones, how Stone Temple Pilots hooked him up with his live guitar arsenal, and what it was like to snag Naked Raygun’s “secret shredder” John Haggerty for his latest album, Basilisk

“We joke about people that aren’t into this kind of music, and how it all sounds the same to them – it’s all ‘devil, devil, devil!’ – but heavy music brings a lot of people joy”: End Reign’s Domenic Romeo on the extreme-metal supergroup’s ripping debut

By Gregory Adams published 19 January 24

The Way of All Flesh Is Decay finds Romeo trading city-leveling riffs and searing leads with Exhumed/Noisem shredder Sebastian Phillips, and is a tour de force of 21st-century extremity

“I never really loved just playing chords. They eat up so much space, sonically and rhythmically. Doing things that were sparse was more effective to me”: Dante DeCaro on firing up his Jazzmasters for his Hot Hot Heat return

By Gregory Adams published 5 January 24

The reissue of the Canadian pop-rock quartet’s Make Up the Breakdown led to surprise new single Shock Me, and there’s more to come, says the Wolf Parade guitarist

“We had no idea it was going to perform the way it did – or if it was even going to be shown to anyone”: How Cardboard Sessions’ Dave Lee convinced Billy Gibbons, J Mascis and Keanu Reeves to slam on his Fender-approved cardboard guitars

By Gregory Adams published 18 December 23

Built by a Master Builder at Fender HQ, you can work the cardboard Strat hard and even whammy it – but you can also see right through it. Could this fun experiment be the future of guitar manufacturing?

“We’re always going to keep the proggy elements alive – it’s part of the essence of Soen”: Lars Åhlund and Cody Lee Ford may have scaled down the “eight-minute songs with a million riffs”, but their adventurous guitar playing remains intact

By Gregory Adams published 14 December 23

The Swedish prog-metal stalwarts are full of surprises on new album Memorial, but just because there are hooks aplenty doesn't mean they have lost their taste for musical expansiveness

Mike Stringer of Spiritbox with his new Jackson Surfcaster electric guitar

“My goal was to make a modern, metal take on a vintage Jazzmaster shape… I never thought the first track I would use it on would be with Megan Thee Stallion”: Spiritbox’s Mike Stringer on 2023’s most talked-about offsets – and the collab no-one saw coming

By Gregory Adams published 13 December 23

Recently nominated for a Grammy, Spiritbox are now one of modern metal’s biggest success stories. Their production-savvy guitarist details how he tackled their viral hip-hop crossover, why bridges are key to his unique tracking approach, and the fervor surrounding his custom Jackson Surfcasters

“I had to stop buying records. I stopped being a fan of music – I felt that was affecting my individuality and my style”: SSD were hardcore legends, then Al Barile sold his guitar gear to buy a jet ski. Here’s how he found his way back to his Gibson SG

By Gregory Adams published 6 December 23

He may have been schooled on AC/DC, Van Halen and classical guitar, but Al Barile attacked his instrument with a vicious physicality inspired by his love of hockey. He looks back on his love-hate relationship with music – and the ‘80s SG he snapped after performing a jump-kick at CBGB’s

“We had to perform 700 songs in the space of five weeks, but we had to learn 1,200. I didn’t sleep for seven weeks”: Being a guitarist on TV is no walk in the park. Just ask The Voice and The Masked Singer six-stringer Dan Maher

By Gregory Adams published 6 December 23

The seasoned session guitarist has played with Rita Ora and Adam Lambert, and tackled an impossible number of songs for Australia’s premier primetime TV shows. Maher explains what it’s like to accompany an avocado, why playing AC/DC made him more nervous than anything else, and that time he got a FaceTime call in the middle of a live show… and couldn‘t read his charts

“I do this thing where I literally black out, and then the song’s over. I’m not even registering what I’m doing – it’s beyond muscle memory”: Kyle Seely has been playing the same Telecaster since he was a teen – but Sheer Mag keep evolving

By Gregory Adams published 4 December 23

The acclaimed Philly outfit enter their 10th year with a sound that’s more defined than ever, via their lead guitarist’s accidental journey into a side-project he could barely control

“Selective picking, to me, is drumming on guitar. Tosin Abasi brought this technique to the world and it made me excited”: Prog-metal visionary Pomegranate Tiger was ahead of his time. Now he’s tackling cutting-edge technique and AI head-on

By Gregory Adams published 27 September 23

Eight years since the release of his last album, Martin Andres reveals what he learned from playing with Oni, Mark Morton and Gojira, how he discovered selective picking before it went mainstream, and why he’s creating an AI version of his musical self

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