Feature archive
May 2026
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23 articles
- May 9
- May 8
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- “When the house burned down, I started watching people's hands on YouTube and learned how to play songs to kill time – I didn't have much else to do”: Jackson Dean on playing in Nashville alongside some of the best
- “I start with the melody, and then I start sketching what the chord structure would be underneath. That’s where the interesting things in Tortoise happen”: The long-awaited return of the post-rock trailblazers
- “Quite how many Lucilles there were is unclear”: Everybody knows B.B. King played a Gibson guitar named Lucille – but what model was it really?
- May 7
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- “We lost Rob in a car crash there in 1996, when he was driving back to the studio. After that, we didn’t go back. Not for a long time”: Mark Collins on triumph, tragedy, and the long-awaited return of the Charlatans
- “A lot of Oasis-related gear has come up for sale... but there can’t be that many pre-CBS Strats that were owned by Noel”: Up close and personal with a '63 Strat and '70s Höfner Violin Bass with Oasis and Ocean Colour Scene connections
- “I was a teenager, so it was just fun. Pretty soon I was getting millions of views – it was crazy”: Laura Cox was a teen guitar sensation. Now she’s throwing the blues-rock rulebook out the window – and finding herself in the process
- May 6
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- “We were high with it, and after just a few takes, we had one of our best ever songs – something that felt like pop music and beyond”: The making of the Smiths’ 1986 classic The Queen Is Dead
- “I like classical, gospel, Bruno Mars, the Killers and the Weeknd. And I always go back to David Gilmour! If it doesn’t suck, I probably listen to it”: Why P-Funk legend Michael Hampton is keeping an open mind in search of his solo sound
- May 5
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- “The guitar players barely holding onto control as they go into the corners at top speed are my favorite players”: How the Dirty Nil’s sound runs on vintage Marshall power and a healthy serving of the Rat pedal
- “I was a kid with very little experience and a huge amount to prove. Critics had written us off before it came out – no-one took me seriously”: The making of Suede’s 1996 Britpop classic Coming Up
- “The idea of singing freaks me out. I hate speaking on the microphone. For my whole life the guitar has been how I express myself”: How fast-rising blues ace Laura Chavez found her voice on guitar
- May 4
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- “The songs are different every night because he never sings them the same way. I don’t know anyone who knows as many songs as Bob Dylan”: 38 bassists appeared on Bob Dylan albums before Tony Garnier came onboard. In the 37 years since, no others have
- “I always wanted to have hit singles. I thought the hit single was the highest manifestation of rock as an art form”: Marshall Crenshaw on his Karen Carpenter tribute, why collecting is “infantile” and how he was made in Detroit
- “As soon as I saw the Blade Runner, I said, ‘That’s mine. I gotta have that.’ It’s the ultimate pointy guitar”: Joe Perry tells all about that “too cool” electric you saw on MTV when Walk This Way came on
- “Yngwie was replaced for becoming difficult. We auditioned Steve Vai in secret”: Gary Shea’s never-say-never approach to Alcatrazz, New England… and maybe even Vinnie Vincent
- May 3
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- “My boss said, ‘Paul Simon’s in town, and they’re looking for you in the studio. Here’s the money. Take the bus’”: When Bakithi Kumalo got the call to audition for Paul Simon’s 1986 multi-platinum album
- “Those parts aren’t as easy as you’d think. With his downstrokes, they’re mechanical, right, fast and have one Fender sound”: Josh Hager on the deceptive genius of the late Devo guitarist Bob Casale
- May 2
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- “I do the old metal trick where there’s some semblance of a Tube Screamer on all the time”: What’s cookin’ on the Skillet pedalboards? Korey Cooper and Seth Morrison reveal all
- “They were trying to figure out who to get to sing the high harmony stuff for Gene Simmons’ band. They said, ‘What about the guy who opened for us?’” Jason Walker on touring with the Kiss star – who’s a fellow Beatles freak
- May 1
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- “It’s never really about the gear itself. It’s just a tool for unlocking an idea”: American Football’s slow-burning debut album was originally dismissed. Four records in, they’re glad that’s how it went
- “We were falling about the studio floor laughing when I was playing. People started coming into the control room, like, ‘What is going on with these three guys? It’s an absolute racket!’” Meet High Fade, the Scottish funk-punk heroes we need right now
- “He would put a lot of treble on his amp to get the sound he wanted out of Lucille. Working and being in his presence was magical”: Jerry Jemmott on playing bass with B.B. King
